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Captain Marvel doesn’t owe you a smile, her attention, an explanation, or a debate. She has nothing to prove to you. That is what makes Carol Danvers powerful. Not her photon blasts, her space flight, or her super strength, but her agency and tenacity. Thank you, Brie Larson and everyone who worked on this film.

WARNING: AMPLE CAPTAIN MARVEL SPOILERS AHEAD.

Captain Marvel Doesn’t Smile Unless She Wants To

Going into it, I was so glad Carol wasn’t smiling on her movie posters. I was relieved at how little she smiled in the movie, only cracking one when it was genuine.



One of the highlights of the film for me is when a biker pulls up to the gas station where Carol is reading a newspaper. He tries to pressure her into smiling at him. In response, she flicks the corner of the newspaper down, gives him the side-eye, and promptly ignores him. He shakes his head, calls her a bitch or something, and walks into the store. Then she steals his wheels. My heart fucking SOARED.



When she does smile, it means something. She means it. She wants to. No fake smiles to appease men, no disarming smiles to get her way in a gentle, feminine manner. Just real ones.

Captain Marvel Shows Emotion and Remains Powerful

Captain Marvel tears up twice in her own movie and remains a badass. She is only just beginning to recover her memories of her life on Earth, and she learns someone she cared for dearly died. She begins to cry at the flood of formerly suppressed and forgotten emotion. Fury expresses concern and support, rather than shaming her for her feelings, as her abuser, Yon-Rogg did.



Later, she cries as she realizes she left her best friend behind, alone, and guilt washes over her. The movie still contains all the ass-kicking, super-charged fight scenes, and the main character cries. Die mad about it. You can have emotions and wreck face.

Photo by Sam Operchuck on Unsplash

She Grows Beyond Her Abuser

I have to give props to Jude Law for being so damn punch-able in this movie. Holy fuck did I hate Yon-Rogg. When Carol has finally realized her potential as fully-powered Captain Marvel, and we approach the resolution of the film, Yon-Rogg is still alive. He blusters a string of insults at her, demanding that she fight him without her powers and see who wins. Her answer to this is a short photon blast that sends him flying about 60 feet (18 meters) backwards into a desert rock formation.



Carol approaches Yon-Rogg and looks down at him, saying only “I have nothing to prove to you”. This single moment was the most important of the film to me. I know so many people who live with the pain of their past abuse and struggle to grow past it. That one line sends a message to victims everywhere: They do not owe their abuser anything. Not consideration, not reconciliation, not a conversation, nothing.



The best part about Yon-Rogg? He’s a secondary antagonist. The Supreme Intelligence in charge of Kree civilization is the one pulling the strings in the film. Guess who portrays it? Annette Bening, A WOMAN. The Supreme Intelligence takes the form of the person you most respect when you speak to it. Carol Danvers most respects another woman, and that is thus the face of the movie’s primary bad gal.

Carol and Fury DO NOT Have a Romantic Subplot

THANK THE FUCKING GODS OF THE MULTIVERSE. I was so worried they would force this. While on the one hand, fuck yeah interracial couples, on the other, I am so tired of this shit. The relationship between Carol and Fury feels more like one in a new-partners buddy cop film than anything else. I absolutely adored it. No romance to distract us, but a solid friendship that means just as much and doesn’t play into tropes? Hell to the yes!!!

Photo by Sam Operchuck on Unsplash

Carol Gets Back up Because ‘Fuck You’

I remember seeing on my social media where someone (a man) was actually butthurt at the Susana Polo tweet making a comparison between Captain Marvel and Captain America. She compares the reasons both Caps always get back up to fight. The person with the burning anus believed the distinction meant Carol was somehow morally inferior to Steve, that she wasn’t a good person somehow, because her motivation was sourced differently. Except it isn’t.



Carol Danvers and Steve Rogers share something in common: a hatred of bullies. While for Steve it is because he was a short, thin asthmatic, growing up during the World War II Era (Nazis = ultimate bullies), for Carol it is simply because she is a woman. Note that I use past tense for Steve and present tense for Carol.



The point the comparison was trying to make was that Steve was picked on because he was an easy target, and Carol was put down because of her gender. There is a BIG difference. Neither reason is okay, but the distinction was the point of the original post. They both stand back up for the same purpose, just from different perspectives.

What Captain Marvel Means to Me

Brie Larson’s portrayal and the script combined to make the most satisfying film I have ever watched as a non-male, non-masculine person. This movie was medicine for my soul. Captain Marvel is an explicitly feminist film without being cheesy, campy, or shitty about it. Carol Danvers just does what she needs to do.



She only smiles when it is genuine, and she doesn’t back down. She cries and kicks ass. Every time she hits the ground, she gets back up. She gets back up because everyone who tells her she can’t is wrong, and they are about to find this out. THIS IS WHY REPRESENTATION ROCKS.

TL;DR: Take me, my glowing badass goddess



