Decade in film...let's go...

It is coming up to that time of year where I blog my films of the year just gone but this year is also the end of a decade so as with the rest of film nerd internet, it is time for my films of the decade. So as not to cloud my judgment, I currently have the new Michael Bay Netflix film on in the background- mainly just to guarantee that the film I think was the worst of 2019 actually was and this is giving it some strong competition and only just started it (this was likely a very bad viewing decision).

First warning, I am going to spoil my 2019 countdown here as I do think that my 2019 number 1 will stand as a film of the decade and so I opted not to leave it out just to keep my 2019 countdown unspoiled.

Second warning, it is impacted by Me Too. You will not see Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, Joss Whedon, or Casey Affleck in here. Allen (Midnight in Paris), Whedon (Cabin in the Woods), and Spacey (Baby Driver) all did have films in the last decade that I would have otherwise considered including. Unfortunately I could not completely remove Weinstein though I wanted to but I feel it would be a disservice to the creative elements of a film he financed because of his involvement and the director in question has distanced himself from Weinstein (though not as well as Kevin Smith did...if you don't own Smith films from his Weinstein associated era, buy them! Not just because they are mostly great films but also because all the money now goes to charities supporting victims of sexual assault). I also awkwardly realise there is a Jeremy Renner film in this countdown and I should have worked harder to also exclude it.

Final statement this countdown is an attempt to be measured unlike my yearly countdowns which are more about my favourites, this is about what films were the best with one or two inclusions that I added for sentimental value. I have included where I ranked them originally if I did a ranking that year- only two of my number ones since starting my yearly countdown in 2014 are included (one of them is my film of decade).

20-11 in no particular order

The Tree of Life (2011)

I'm going to keep the descriptions brief which is good as I have no earthly clue how I would best summarise this film. It is in part the story of a suburban family in the lead up to and aftermath of trauma, and in other part it is about the creation of the world and life itself. I haven't rewatched it in a while but it is an amazingly visually stunning film. In the scale of its cinematography it sits alongside only the first ten minutes of Melancholia (a film that is just outside by top 20 of the 2010s) and of course 2001: A Space Odyssey as the highest points that craft has achieved.

Hugo (2011)

In 1931, the orphaned Hugo is forced to live with his uncle and help him maintain the clocks at a Paris train station. When his uncle disappears, Hugo hides in the station and continues to work on the clocks. When Hugo attempts to steal from a toy store, he meets Isabelle, the granddaughter of the owner and the two become friends.

This film is a delight and it is truly a film for film nerds with its repeated nods to the early days of cinema. It is still the only 3D film where I have legitimately felt that the 3D was used well and was not used merely to distract from poor writing. As it is reflecting on an era that invented cinema, it is remains quite the achievement that it is the only film that has used what was to be the big new thing in cinema so well.

The Favourite (2018) (ranked 3 in my 2018 countdown- beaten by Widows and RBG (I've not included docos in this top 20))

Abigail goes to visit her cousin, Lady Sarah, in hopes of begging for a job now that her section for the family has fallen on bad times. Abigail quickly discovers that Lady Sarah is having an affair with the widowed Queen Anne who suffers from gout. Abigail uses that knowledge to manipulate her way into the household.

Stunningly hilarious writing and three of the best performances by actresses ever. I was so happy when Olivia Colman came out of nowhere to claim the best actress Oscar for this film.

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) (ranked 3 in my 2014 countdown- beaten by Guardians of the Galaxy and God Help the Girl)

Adam and Eve are vampires who have been lovers for centuries. Adam is lonely in America and summons Eve from Morocco where she has been living. The two met and mourn the passing of time. Eve's troubled sister, Ava, arrives and causes difficulty for their reunion.

Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston have been frequent inclusions in my yearly countdowns so where would my top of the decade be without them? I think my original assessment stands so I'll quote it, "This film is like a slow dance in a beautiful but fading world with its stunning visuals and gorgeous performances, especially by Swinton and Hiddleston in the lead roles. Many will find the slow pacing a bit much but if you lose yourself into the world and embrace the pacing as it seeks to invoke in you the experience of being a creature whose life span is potentially endless, it is a journey well worth taking."

Django Unchained (2012)

In the pre Civil War Southern states of the US, Django has been separated from his wife and is being held by slave owners. He is brought by a bounty hunter who needs Django's knowledge of his previous owners (cringe as I type the word "owners"). Django ultimately also becomes a bounty hunter and they search from the new owner of his wife, Calvin Candie.

Yes this is the Weinstein film that snuck in but between the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz in particular, and the screenplay (which Tarantino deservingly won an Oscar for) I couldn't leave it off my countdown. Whilst I don't think Django is the best of Tarantino, it definitely ranks at least in the middle of any ranking I would do of his films, and I'm a big fan so even that is great praise. This is the one the many films that should have won DiCaprio an Oscar and somehow he wasn't even nominated (I'm happy Waltz won the supporting actor category but still where was Leo's nomination?). The end scene where Django enacts revenge on the Candyland mansion is the kind of pure ultra violence you come to a Tarantino film for.

Boyhood (2014) (ranked 7 on my 2014 countdown, beaten by The One I Love, Calvary, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Only Lovers Left Alive, Guardians of the Galaxy, and God Help the Girl)

Over 12 years, a boy grows up with his single mother and sister. His father visits from time to time and bonds with his children though he still conflicts at times with his ex wife. The boy's mother moves the boy and his sister into households with a few of her subsequent partners who turn out to frequently be violent towards her. 

I said when this first came out that it was a masterclass in film making and that it would be a film we would still be talking about in 20-50 years, and I still believe that. Linklater actually took twelve years to film it so there is no ageing or de-ageing technology needed, it is just the same actors ageing normally. It is a film that is epic in its portrayal of the mundane. The performances particularly that of Patricia Arquette as the mother of the family, but also of those of Ellar Coltrane, who literally grows up on screen, and Ethan Hawke are outstanding.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) (ranked 2 in my countdown of that year, beaten by Get Out)

Not going to summarise this as unless you lived in a cave for the last decade you should have seen it...

Firstly come at me, angry white men of the internet! I care nothing for your rage!

In terms of my favourite Star Wars films, I actually rank Last Jedi equal with TFA but this countdown is not about my favourites. I had to include it for four reasons- visuals, sound editing, Mark Hamill, and the impact it had on culture. And also because I love porgs...only kidding though I do love them. I spoke at length about the performances and the visuals in my 2017 countdown and also the sound editing but again that scene where Holdo runs the ship into Snoke's flagship is to my mind the finest moment of sound editing this decade. Whatever you think of the film (again looking at the white men of the internet), if you come at it objectively from a film quality POV and not from your rapid fan cave, it is the finest made Star Wars film alongside Empire. Also I have to support a film that championed women and people of colour as much as this did, and that in part lead to a complete change in how Rotten Tomatoes worked which helped stop nerd rage having as much power over how films are rated. 

Calvary (2014) (ranked 5 in my 2014 countdown- behind The Grand Budapest Hotel, Only Lovers Left Alive, Guardians of the Galaxy, and God Help the Girl)

A priest is told in the confessional by one of his parishioners that he will be killed within the week, not because he has done anything wrong but because the parishioner wants vengeance by killing a good priest in response to the abuse he once suffered at the hand of another priest. The priest then spends the final week of his life not knowing which of his parishioners is his potential murderer. He also has to support with his daughter (he became a priest after the death of his wife) who has come back to Ireland from London to visit him as she recovers from a recent suicide attempt.

Nice to have one completely not American film on this list as truth be told it is a little America heavy- I know Last Jedi was filmed in the UK but you don't get more American than Disney for production, and yes The Favourite was a partly US production before you ask. According to some parts of the internet this is a black comedy but I don't think I'd go that far. True there are funny moments and there are several actors better known for comedic roles in the cast but it is mainly pretty dark stuff. The stoic performance of Brendan Gleeson as Father James, and the way this cuts to the core of the big issues in defining Irish identity as the country moves away from its Catholic roots are both outstanding.

Arrival (2016) (ranked 5 in my 2016 countdown beaten by Hunt for the Wilderpeople, La La Land, Spotlight, and Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name))

Louise Banks cares for her dying daughter. Then cut to the day mysterious alien transport pods arrive at various locations around the planet and Dr/Professor Banks is called upon as a linguistic to help make first contact. Working with a physicist, she seeks to understand the alien's language and mode of communication so that humans can find avenues to communicate with them. Meanwhile around the world, other countries are trying different methods with limited success.

Once again, apologies for the inclusion of a Jeremy Renner film. I think this film completely belongs to Amy Adams but that it is no excuse of letting someone should be removed from lists like this in. In reflecting on the themes of the film, I decided to leave it in my ranking despite his involvement as the film is more than him and as I said Adams's performance is really its core. 

I love a slow burn sci fi film with brains and this is definitely one of the best of those in the last decade (I have another one coming in numbers 10-2 so I cannot say it is the best but it is better in my opinion than Interstellar (which I'm not remotely a fan of) and The Martian which I know others might rank in their tops of the decade). As I did when I ranked it in 2016, I'm not going to spoil one of the plot lines as I know there are still quite few people who need to see it. The themes of communication and seeking to proper understand those who are "other" resonates just as importantly today as it was in 2016 and I don't think that will change anytime soon. 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) (ranked 4 in my 2016 countdown beaten by La La Land, Spotlight, and Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=43D7XRHE1ac&feature=emb_logo

Oddly cannot easily search to embed the trailer so it is at that link. Ricky, a troubled city kid, is send to be fostered by Bella and Hector in the remote rural New Zealand. Hector and Ricky don't initially get along but ultimately they find themselves hiding out in the bush from an over zealous child welfare agency worker, the police, and most everyone else, and they bond.

Another not American film! Following on the footsteps of Boy (which oddly I still haven't got around to seeing) and What we do in the Shadows (just outside this top 20), this is the film that introduced the world outside of New Zealand to Taika Waititi and considering that ultimately resulted in Thor: Ragnarok I couldn't be happier. To me this remains one of the funniest films of the 2010s and as we don't recognise comedy often enough it will sadly be left off a lot of best of the decade lists, which is a really disappointment. The balance of Sam Neill's stoic straight man to Julian Dennison's breakout comedy performance is perfectly pitched, and I still cannot think of the line "Aw no I've got poop on my kicks" without smiling.


10-2 (again in no particular order- seriously I thought them randomly as they came to me)

Infinitely Polar Bear (2014) (ranked 11 (lowest original ranking of anything in this countdown and would be much higher  if I reranked that year now) in my countdown in 2015 (it was only at film festivals 2014 really) beaten by The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road,  The Dressmaker, Inside Out, Still Alice, Birdman, Ex Machina, The Hunting Ground, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, and The Force Awakens)

Told from the perspective of Cam and Maggie's eldest daughter who watches as Cam and Maggie seperate after he has a manic episode around her and her younger sister. Whilst Cam seeks to get his bipolar I in order, Maggie goes back to college and when she is offered a place in a graduate business program in New York, she decides despite her reservations to leave the children with Cam whilst she travels interstate for study. Cam tries and at times struggles to keep his condition under control as he cares for his daughters

And much to my own shame, this is one of only two female written and directed films in my list (Frances Ha and Ladybird are just outside my top 20, as is The Beguiled). I wish there were more films by women to include but Hollywood sucks at letting us see female written and directed films, and that is in part the case with this film that very few people have seen. Despite my ranking of it in 2015, I would now count as up there with my favourite films of all time. I include it partly because I couldn't not as I think it is brilliant but also because I just want more people to see it. The script and direction from a first time writer/director who is writing from personal experience- she was raised by a father with bipolar whilst her mother studied- are deeply moving. Mark Ruffalo, a regular of my yearly countdowns, gives what I think might be the best performance of his career as Cam and it is deeply disappointing that this film was released across two years and had such a limited theatrical release and he therefore missed all the awards he should have received. Also it is refreshing non demonising or shaming performance about someone with a mental health condition in particular with bipolar, and to my mind, it is the most accurate and non judgmental portrayal of the manic side of bipolar to ever be shown on screen.

Gone Girl (2014) (another film that ranked much lower than it should have originally- ranked 10 on my 2014 countdown tied with Veronica Mars- the movie- beaten by Captain America: Winter Soldier, Snowpiercer, Boyhood, The One I Love, Calvary, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Only Lovers Left Alive, Guardians of the Galaxy, and God Help the Girl)

Amy disappears and suspicion falls on her husband, Nick. Nick is adamant that he is innocent but his actions are a little suspicious and as Amy was the basis for a series of popular children's books written by her parents, the press swarms. Meanwhile, in flashbacks, Amy and Nick's first meeting and the development of their relationship is shown. 

Another film scripted by a woman even if the direction is by a man. Many people will declare The Social Network the best David Fincher film of the last decade but I couldn't not disagree strongly enough. Fincher has perfected the art of directing the crime film and I would argue the style of the The Social Network is heavily influenced by Se7en and Zodiac in the best way but this is Fincher on home turf and it shows. The direction is perfect in a film that could have suffered pacing problems in its translation from the book. Also Gillian Flynn's screenwriting is so well done as she doesn't seek to reverently include all of her novel but loses what should be lost in translation to film. Ben Affleck was beyond perfect casting for the character of Nick because he can portray that questionable entitled side of Nick wordlessly which helps with the fact that some of it was lost with the loss of internal monologue from the book. Rosamund Pike is a revelation as Amy. I was among many who questioned her casting and she came in and owned the role. Finally the Trent Reznor score is outstanding and long may he and Fincher work together. 

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (again ranked too low originally- 9 in my 2015 countdown, beaten by The Dressmaker, Inside Out, Still Alice, Birdman, Ex Machina, The Hunting Ground, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, and The Force Awakens)

In a post apocalyptic landscape, Max is captured by the War Boys so they can use his blood to enhance their limited lifespan. When one of the clan's drivers, Imperator Furiosa goes off course and it turns outs she has taken the clan leader's "wives" (read sex slaves) with her, the War Boys are sent to chase her down. When they catch her, Max ends up assisting her as she fights both the War Boys and several other clans. 

Claiming this as the Australian film in my list as I don't otherwise have one and it was in part filmed here and the director, many of the supporting actors, extras, and crew are Australian. This is one of three films that has appeared on every films of the decade list I've seen and pretty much if it isn't on one you can assume that person doesn't know what they are talking about. I have not seen any of the other Mad Max film and in part due to Mel Gibson's involvement nor do I want to, but this film doesn't require you to. It is one of the two films of the 2010s that showed what an action film is meant to look like (the other being actually the whole John Wick series which did not make this list). You buckle yourself in for all the chaos and enjoy the adrenaline pumped thrill ride. Also Furiosa is a hero for the ages and I would be 1000% keen for a spin off sequel that is just her. 

Frozen (2013)

I assume I have to describe the plot of this to no-one as it is probably the most viewed film of the 2010s... and hey I managed to find a trailer that doesn't have even a echo of Let It Go in it which is some kind of miracle.

You might question this choice but I think any best of the 2010s list that doesn't include Frozen is missing the mark. There is no film that has stood larger on the cultural landscape in the last decade than Frozen and we are talking a window with a tonne of MCU and Star Wars films in it.  If you don't believe me, just ask almost anyone with a child under the age of twelve (they would have been five when it first came out). I didn't do a ranking list in 2013 but when I finally got around to seeing Frozen in February of 2014 (it wasn't on that year's list as it was a 2013 release) I did write a post on why I thought it was a really important film. It has set the scene for more films both from Disney and beyond where women had more to do then marry the prince, were more powerful than everyone around them, could have functional relationships beyond romantic ones, and pretty much could be whomever they wanted. Also despite listening to many children sing the songs over the last just over six years, I do think the songs are up there with The Little Mermaid as some of Disney's best. Finally the voice cast, Idina Menzel and Kirsten Bell are outstanding, Jonathan Groff (who is underused and better used in the sequel even though it is no way near as good a film) is solid in main just voice acting even if I wished he was singing more, Santino Fontana (who I went on to love as the original Greg in Crazy Ex Girlfriend) is delightfully villainous as is Alan Tudyk, and even Josh Gad who I often find grating works as Olaf.

Finally finally scripted and co-directed by a woman!!

Also without Frozen I would not have this which is one of my favourite all time YouTube clips...

 

Parasite (2019) (no list as yet but it will be number 1)

Here is the spoiler of my 2019 countdown that I warned about. I'm not going write anything about it here so I can write about why it is my number one when I write that countdown. I still have a few 2019 films to catch but I doubt anything else will crack my top three as they stand and it would be a straight up miracle if anything knocks this out of the number one spot.

Suffice to say it is outstanding! If you live in Sydney and haven't seen, it is has been running continually for the months since its release at the Dendy in Newtown so you should look into that. Also it shout out to it being the only non English film in my top 20 (Your Name was sadly 21st as I pulled it out last minute and Roma also was in that just outside top 20 land).

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Sam is attending a scout camp on a small island and one day he meets Suzy whose family lives on a different part of that island. The two become pen pals and ultimately plot to run away together. They successfully run away from the scout camp and their house respectively and meet up and hope to travel across the island to a secluded cove. The scouts become aware of Sam's departure and seek to find him, and when they do, in the altercation that occurs, Sam accidentally cuts off one of the other scout's ear and another scout accidentally kills the scout camp's dog. The scouts run off, and Sam and Suzy continue on their journey ultimately reaching the cove. The adults of the island then also start to search for Sam and Suzy and ultimate find them.

If you thought you were getting through this list without a Wes Anderson film you'd be wrong. In fact I was tempted to include two as Grand Budapest is just outside my top 20. This is my favourite Wes Anderson film which is saying a lot because there is not one of his films that I don't love. It is to my mind Anderson at peak quirk and peak whimsy which if you are looking for anything else in an Anderson film, you are looking in the wrong place. The two young leads are outstanding as these tweens who are simultaneously wise beyond their years and deeply naive. The adult cast is also outstanding from Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman who were already Anderson regulars to Tilda Swinton and Edward Norton who became Anderson regulars after this to Bruce Willis and Frances McDormand who I'd love to see in more Anderson films. 

Ex Machina (2014) (ranked 4 in my 2015 countdown (this was a 2015 release really as it was only at festivals in 2014), beaten by The Hunting Ground, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, and The Force Awakens)

Caleb, a programmer at Bluebook (a cross between Facebook and google), wins a trip to spend time with the Bluebook founder, Nathan. Caleb travels to Nathan's remote home unsure of what he has won and why. It turns out Nathan has selected Caleb to conduct the Turing test on Ava, a female AI he has created. As Caleb spends his days with Ava and his nights with Nathan and his odd maid/sex slave Kyoko, he begins to get increasingly suspicious of why he is there and what Nathan might be planning.

The other piece of slow burning smart sci fi I mentioned when speaking about Arrival and I think that it is also largely a non US production in my rare collection of those. This was a really strong directorial debut from Alex Garland from a brilliant script that he also wrote. The three lead performance from Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Alicia Vikander are amazing especially Vikander as Ava. The deep questions it asks about the nature of humanity in the modern age especially when one compares the naive yet knowing Ava with the frankly repentant Nathan. Also best dance sequence in any film of the last decade.

Spotlight (2015) (originally tied 3 with La La Land on my 2016 countdown (it came out in 2016 in Australia), beaten by Your Name)

Based on a true story, the new editor of the Boston Globe calls in the lead investigative journalists at the paper and asks that they put together a spotlight team (i.e. a deep dive investigative team) to look at child abuse associated with the Catholic church in the 1970s. As Boston is such a Catholic city, most of the journalists in the spotlight team are from Catholic backgrounds and struggle with the truths they uncover and some of them have real crises of faith. As team goes further and further into their investigation, they discover that the crimes in Boston go well beyond what they thought and also they are hampered as the church and other powerful Boston institutions seek to stop them.

I rarely agree with the Best Picture at the Oscars but this and the next film were definitely well deserved winners (you can start guessing at what the next film might be now). I oddly realise I have two films that talk about child abuse by priests in this countdown (this and Calvary) and let me stress this was pure coincidence as they are two very different films. This is a true ensemble effort with outstanding performances all round- though I do think Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams do stand out a little from the group. I also think it is an important film not just because it addresses such an important topic but also because it shows the mechanism of proper investigative journalism which is increasingly lost to the modern world.

Moonlight (2016) (originally 3 on my 2017 countdown (again Australia got this a year late) beaten by   Last Jedi and Get Out)

Set across three points in his life, Moonlight is the story of Chiron, a black man growing up in the American South. As a boy, Chiron goes by the name "Little" and is merciless bullied by the other kids at his school who think Chiron might be gay. One day he is saved from their antics by Juan a local drug dealer. Little starts to treat Juan and his partner Teresa as surrogate parents and they comfort him from the bullying actions of the other kids and tell him that if he is gay that is no issue. This is until he discovers that Juan may once have sold drugs to his abusive, drug addicted mother, Paula. As a teen, Chiron goes by his actual name and is still bullied by his classmates. His only friends are a boy called Kevin and Teresa with whom he has repaired his relationship after Juan's death. Paula has now turned to prostitution to support her habit and pressures Chiron to borrow money from Teresa. Chiron and Kevin share what is Chiron's first sexual experience one night at the beach but then the next day the main class bully forces Kevin to participate in the bullying of Chiron, and ultimately Chiron violently attacks the bully and is gaoled for this. As an adult, Chiron goes by Black, a name given to him by Kevin. Black is a drug dealer in Atlanta and Paula who is now clean is in a drug treatment facility nearby. Kevin calls Black out of the blue and says that Black should look him up if he is ever in Florida, and Black jumps in his car to drive to Florida.

The problem with summarising Moonlight is that you give a lot away so sorry about that. Along with Fury Road and no surprises the film I'm getting to as my best for the decade, this has been on every top of the decade list I've seen and if it isn't there I would not trust the person writing the list. It is the most beautiful film. I said when I started this list that Tree of Life was peak cinematography, this is in that same basket as it is another one of the most beautiful looking films of the last decade. Its use of light (especially moonlight), water, and skin tones to create a palate is breathtaking. It doesn't just look beautiful as the use of visual metaphor especially in the water and moonlight to mirror Chiron's sexuality is amazing. The performances by the whole cast and the script have this appropriate degree of understatement as silence is a big part of the film. The film also packs a punch with its themes of sexuality, race, the intersection of these, and the intersection of race and the poverty cycle. As I said in 2017, "It is beautiful, it is restrained, and it is just a must see drama".

And drumroll please...

Number 1 film of the 2010s...

Get Out (2017) (originally ranked 1 in my 2017 countdown)

Chris is going to meet his girlfriend Rose's parents for the first time and he is worried what they might think about their daughter dating a black man and asks whether she has even told them that he is black. After an accident with a deer and an awkward encounter with a local police man, Chris and Rose arrive at her parents' house. Rose's parents, Dean a neurosurgeon and Missy a psychotherapist, seem uncomfortable nice, and then Chris meets their staff and something definitely seems off. Their maid, Georgina, and their gardener, Walter, are both black and are both very creepy and also oddly super compliant to Dean and Missy. Seemingly out of nowhere, Dean and Missy start talking about the big family gathering planned for the next day that Chris knows nothing about, and then Rose's overtly racist brother, Jeremy, shows up to help prepare for the gathering. Late that night, Chris sneaks out for a cigarette and encounters even more strange behaviour from Georgina and Walter, and as he sneaks back into the house, he encounters Missy who offers to hypnotise him to help him quit smoking. After a session with Missy, he wakes up with no clear memory of the session but also no desire to smoke and the feeling something is off. Chris also discovers someone has been unplugging his phone and as Rose's family gathering begins he feels more and more out of place.

Once again if this isn't on a top of the decade list you see, that person is just wrong. In its critique of both overt racism and white middle class liberal good intentions, it is the perfect film for this decade. Basically if you are white and middle or upper classed and this doesn't make you a little uncomfortable, you need to examine your world view. It is also the perfect comic horror which can be a hard line to walk as you can see from the trailers for the film that go too strong on the horror front- it isn't a horror as the trailers make it look, trust me. The acting from all involved is amazing especially Daniel Kaluuya as Chris, Betty Gabriel as Georgina, and the nice combo of references to liberal politics and mind control that it made respectively by casting West Wing alum Bradley Whitford as Dean and Being John Malkovich star Catherine Kenner as Missy (not sure that was intended but I still love it). And just brilliant work from Jordan Peele in his first time as director for a feature film.

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So that is my top twenty fictional films of the last decade. I don't appear to have a director of the decade as there are no two films from any one director and there is a mix of new comers and old hands in here. I do have an actor of the decade and surprisingly it is not Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult (all of them in two films above), or Tom Hiddleston (oddly only in one above), it seems out of nowhere Domhnall Gleeson takes the crown with three entries in Last Jedi, Calvary, and Ex Machina- that said in my heart of hearts I still want to give it to Mark Ruffalo or Tilda Swinton.

Also it seems I didn't like any films from 2010. Trust me I did but none of them made the list.

Top doco for the decade in my opinion will come as no surprise though I should caveat I've yet to be able to bring myself to watch Black Fish and I understand it should be up there.

Also docos is where I'm all about the female directors as many I've found compelling this decade were directed by women.

My doco of 2010s

RBG (2018) (ranked 1 on my 2018 countdown)

Because Ruth Bider Ginsberg...we need to all support her in this dark age especially as she is often one of the only voices of reason.

What about my worst film of the 2010s...

I won't torture you with a trailer. It was Suicide Squad. Correction... Academy Award winning Suicide Squad (and people wonder why I don't trust the Academy). Special mention in the category of worsts goes to Suckerpunch which would have sailed away with this prize if the DCU didn't exist.

So that is my decade of films list. I will be back soon with a 2019 list which you already know the number one film on, and my flashback to years ending in 9 list.

Oh and if you are wondering that Michael Bay film did truly suck as I expected it would but it somehow won't be my worst film of 2019...

Don't forget to have a baby...

Black Widow- "I don't judge people on their mistakes"

Hawkeye- "Maybe you should"

About a month ago I promised to write some words on my thoughts on Avengers: End Game and to combine this with some thoughts I thought on the final season of Game of Thrones. I didn't get around it then so a little late, here are those thoughts...

Firstly spoilers. There will be spoilers and many of them. I assume most people who want to see these things have long since seen them but if, for some reason you haven't and might still want to, look away now. Also go and see End Game, it is about to overtake one of my least favourite pieces of cinema as the highest grossing film of all time and it is about bloody time something did that.

Secondly before I get to the substance of what I'm going to say, a few words on representations of women in cinema/TV and my thoughts on it as that is going to be important. A bit of story for you all. The Sydney Film Festival happened over of the last weeks and as always I went to see quite a few films. I was at what was not a bad Australian film with some friends. My friends both loved the film and I said it was good but not great and mentioned that it both failed Bechdel and also both of its male protagonists were coupled with women young enough to be their daughters (also I found the story predictable but that is not the point here). One of my friend asked me, is the failure of Bechdel enough to knock down the quality of a film that much? His question was answered immediately by the film we saw straight after the Australian one which will certainly be top ten if not top five in my end of the year movie countdown- Parasite, it is at cinemas now, go see it! It also did not pass Bechdel but it was amazing. That week I also saw John Wick 3 (which a friend tells me I have been ranting about (partly true because this former 90s teen still loves some Keanu)) and it is insanely enjoyable but it also insanely fails Bechdel. Poor gender representation can break a film but only if it was on its way south already. Would Crimes of Grindelwald have been my least favourite film of last year if it had done better on a gender, sexuality, and race representation count? Almost certainly it would have but its extreme failure in these areas along with casting a domestic abuser in a lead role didn't do it any favours. Many of my favourite films fail Bechdel (actually sadly most of them- for example Empire Strikes Back, Dogma, Clerks, Loves of a Blonde, Hero.. some of my faves... all Bechdel failures...thank goodness for God Help the Girl which may be the only one of my favourite films that passes all of Bechdel (though some do argue His Girl Friday and Philadelphia Story pass it...I say not really but I'll let them say that even if it seems a cop out to reward films that have strong female characters but fail Bechdel)) and some of my least favourite films don't track badly on it (Avatar passes two of three measures of Bechdel- its race representation is an issue to be discussed otherwhere though because yikes!).  It is important to say up front good gender representation is important, not relying on tropes about gender is also important, and a lot of the below stems from that HOWEVER it doesn't make a film good or bad on its own even if like me, you are highly likely to find a film that all white men all the time deeply uncomfortable to watch.

OK time to talk End Game...

Now pre End Game, the avid Marvel fan that I am, you might recall that I watched ALL the Marvel films that weren't still at the cinema in the lead up to this and made some predictions. Though this is true, I also was very committed to no getting too psyched for the film which I didn't. I went in on its opening night with no expectation to be awed or to be disappointed. The opening night crowd was deeply into the whole thing and once in the cinema I got into the hype. After the end of the film, I was like I have thoughts but I cannot share them until I've seen this again in a calmer theatre. Seeing it the second time, I still cried a lot (I am a big movie crier so that should not be a shock but that cold open both times it got me and that is before you get to the true gut punch of later in the film) but I was able to be more objective on the things I took issue with the first time and whilst I still think it is a great film for what it is trying to do, it has HUGE issues (yes this may be the second year in row with Mark Ruffalo missing from one of top fifteen films of the year, he had a good run).

I'm not going to break down the plot as there was a lot of it so google it if you haven't seen it, but then again why are you reading this if you haven't seen it, Firstly my predictions (which are scattered through this post- https://clarewoodley.blogspot.com/2019/04/marvel-filmsmy-rankings-and-end-game.html ):

- They will pull from the back catalogue except Incredible Hulk- TICK

- Seeing Captain Marvel will be important- not so much

- Seeing Civil War will be important- TICK

- There will not be much in the tone of Guardians or Ragnarok- surprisingly I was wrong on this as it was there occasionally 

- Captain America keeps the beard- I already knew that wasn't happening. RIP Cap's beard. Chris Evans still looks good without you but I missed you and you were shaved too early in the film

- Loki, Heimdall, and Gamora legit dead- thank you time travel for messing with this. The end of the film messes with WHOLE continuity because plot holes BUT Loki definitely not dead (YAY! to a degree but still too much with the retcon). Heimdall and Gamora likely still dead in the ultimate time line of the film but who knows?

- Loki is dead so TV series is prequel featuring Lady Sif and Heimdall- this is now predicting a TV series that doesn't exist yet but Loki isn't dead so it may not be a prequel now which means no Heimdall. We could still get Lady Sif though.

- Valkyrie and Korg survived attack on Asgardian ship and make a meaningful contribution- I got the survival part right but both of them were barely in the film and Korg didn't even come to the end fight that I saw

- Agent 13 and Shuri aren't dust- Did we forget Agent 13 existed??? She disappeared completely not that I hate them opting to sideline her as a love interest for Cap but still she had been flagged as significant and she wasn't even mentioned. Also Shuri being dusted offscreen...BAD MOVE.

- Not dusted women kick arse- my list included Shuri who turned out to have been dusted, and Agent 13 who didn't appear BUT in the cheesiest way possible and I will get to it and my issue with it, women both dusted and not briefly kicked some arse.

- Dust people return- this was a given and obvious

- Vision returns- sadly not. People (Shuri) need to got onto the rebuild of Vision

- Hulk appears and Banner's dual nature is resolved- I called this SO WELL! I wasn't fully expecting Smart Hulk but I wasn't shocked as it was one of the options I thought might happen as it does in comic land.

- An original Avenger (or multiple) dies and stays dead- likely Cap or Iron Man, not Hulk or Black Widow and likely not Hawkeye- well we lost two and one retired. Iron Man was a given and as we know I'm not a fan though I did cry for him both times. Cap's retirement I happy cried for a lot both times. The thing I got completely wrong...so much anger at Marvel and I will get to it but there is a piece of my geek soul that died with her and you will never be able to sufficiently justify why you killed her even if the film you are supposedly making about her is the best thing you ever produce! I cried for a solid over half hour at the death of Black Widow the first time and almost as long the second.

- Cap won't die without resolution with either Peggy or Agent 13- called this. He isn't dead yet but we got that Peggy resolution which as I said made me very happy.

-  Nick Fury might die- he was only in one scene and was very much not dead (I have to clarify I refused to watch the Spiderman trailer until after seeing End Game which, having seen it now,  I realise would have spoiled this)

- Dust people will return pre defeat of Thanos and those with Infinity Stones generated powers will be the biggest contributors to his defeat- well yes and no because he is defeated twice because time travel. That said of the three toughest opponents for Thanos in the final battle, two were Captain Marvel and Scarlett Witch who were the remaining people with Infinity Stone powers (the third tough opponent being Cap with Mjolnor, and the other Infinity Stone person, Vision, not returning). 

- Thor won't die but if he doesn't a female Thor film would be nice- I was right in that he didn't die, though a female Thor film would still be nice and him making Valkyrie King (yes King) of the Asgardians was a nice nod in that direction.

- If they kill Black Widow or Hulk, there will be first resolution of their relationship- throwing a bench in a lake isn't resolution. She had MUCH more resolution with her best mate in Hawkeye, then she did with Hulk and that was minimal. Again getting to this (mainly men in the MCU and their lack of emotions), but they seem to have gone the route of them being an awkward almost couple and just left it awkward and hoped people forgot they were set up as love interests in the last film they were in together.

- New Avengers headed by Captain Marvel or Black Widow, including Agent 13, Falcon, Vision, Scarlett Witch, Ant Man, Spiderman, and Black Panther- solidly wrong here unless you count the hodge podge Avengers that Black Widow was leading early in the film as her leading the team. Captain Marvel off saving the galaxy, Black Widow dead, Agent 13 AWOL, Vision dead, Ant Man back with family. We didn't get a clear view of the roster but with Cap setting up the inheritance of his role, I believe we are going to get a Falcon led Avengers. Of the other previous Avengers, Hulk, War Machine, and Hawkeye aren't ones to lead but will likely be in the team, Thor is off with the Guardians, and Scarlet Witch is too volatile but will likely be in the team. I welcome someone of colour leading the Avengers (I have thoughts on the shield passing to Falcon not Bucky which I will get to) but I would have preferred Black Panther. 

- New Guardians would be unchanged except with Nebula replacing Gamora- I didn't call the addition of Thor to the team (which I love) but was spot on about Nebula.

- Hints that they will do House of M- it is still my dream MCU plot but until we get Vision back it isn't going to happen or be hinted at

- Hints for X-Men or Fantastic Four plans- I still think they are a ways off figuring that out

Alright so though were the outcomes of my predictions. As I said I didn't think it was a bad wrap up film for the original Avengers (bar one), I thought it was quite good at that. However the issues come from what it promised beyond this and what phase 3 had lead us to expect. Then on top of this, it played into a really bad female archetype in the worst possible way (Game of Thrones did too which is why I'm grouping them).

I have weird notes from my second viewing of End Game which I'm trying to make sense of but interpreting them is proving "fun". I will start with what it got right in a brain dump:

• The comedic moments- I love Lebowski Thor and though it didn't work all the time tonally but still it was great to have it. I loved Cap checking out his own butt and the line "That is America's arse"- I'm massively going to miss Chris Evans's portrayal of Cap. 
• Wrap up for most of the male original Avengers- the wrap ups of the arcs for Iron Man, Cap, Hulk, and to a degree Hawkeye were well done. Thor clearly they plan to do more with. Part of the problem for the film was that the original team is SO many white dudes and the films wrap up for the original not white dude original Avenger was a massive fail (I'm getting to it)
• The epic feel of the film- It didn't feel like three hours to me (also did people make jokes about getting through films without peeing when LOTR was coming out as it was ALL I heard for weeks leading up to End Game and maybe it just because it was pre social media, I don't remember that with LOTR?). The scale of this film was huge and it harkens back to the epics of the mid 20th century or to LOTR. There aren't many films that feel like this and it pulled this off amazingly
• Hawkeye getting an interesting plot- I know some people have pointed out he mainly seems to be killing people of colour on his revenge mission but I'm sure he killed white people too. I for one would like to see the five year gap plot from Hawkeye's POV made by Tarantino. Also Renner played the grief well (briefly in one or two scenes, I'm getting a rant about male Avengers and their feelings) and I liked them actively pairing him with Black Widow even though in the Stone mission that was the only pairing that worked for the Soul Stone as it was predicated on loss of a loved one and they are the only people in the team who loved each other another enough (solid thumbs up for a portrayal of platonic close friendship between a man and woman as love despite everything else I hated about the Soul Stone quest).
• Nebula's arc- they could have used her more but I think the arc for Nebula and having Karen Gillan play two versions of the character was outstanding. Particularly the first Thanos Death scene when you realise that she watching her father figure (albeit her insanely abusive father figure) get beheaded and getting his blood spattered on her, not just that of a standard villain, so well played. I still don't get the plot hole wherein she is not dead after shooting herself but I'm cool with that and I like the Guardians having someone who is legitimately complicated in the mix. Also the moment between Nebula and Rocket early in the film after everyone has been dusted was a beautiful couple of seconds
• Ultimate end points for Thor, Cap, and Valkyrie- I love Thor joining the Guardians, I love Cap retiring with Peggy, and I love Valkyrie becoming King of the Asgardians (even if that means we are unlikely to see much more of her which is deeply disappointing).
• Thanos- everything about Thanos. I loved Brolin's performance as Thanos - both in super villain mode and in retired farmer mode
• The double defeat of Thanos- Time travel I have zero issue with and like everyone assumed was coming, but flipping the script on everyone and having Thanos be killed up top with little difficulty was a genius move.
• The use of the previous films- I think this would have been a very difficult film to navigate without MCU prior knowledge but with the prior knowledge I loved the call backs and straight re-plays of scenes. Particularly the Loki moments, Smart Hulk looking down on previous era Hulk, Hulk's stair rage, and Nebula and War Machine watching the opening scene of Guardians unfold. The scene between Thor and his mother was also very touching.
• Evolution of Black Widow and Cap's relationship- this came over several films from Winter Soldier onwards but her friendship with him is nearly as close as her friendship with Hawkeye in the end and I like this potential of a woman who can have close friendship with multiple men without anything being romantic. The stress of Banner when it was hinted that Cap had seen her flirt up close was hilarious. She is one of the only people to call Cap "Steve" often and I loved that.
• Black Widow leading the team and being a flippin' genius- this is the point where you might realise I'm setting you up for a coming rant but just hush and listen to how awesome my favourite Avenger is for now. She is the crux of the team after the first death of Thanos. She is the one who coordinates Rocket, War Machine, Captain Marvel, and Okoye whilst Cap is off leading support groups, Hawkeye is killing people, Hulk is getting his issues sorted, Thor is drinking and gaming, and Iron Man is having family time. She is the only one who sees that in a world as broken as the post Thanos one, people need heroes. She is doing the work and making much healthier life choices than either Hawkeye or Thor in particular. She is also the one who figures out one of the keys to the stone mission- that three stones are in New York at the same time.
• Black Widow being the one who is just straight up excited for time travel delighted me.
• It is a tiny thing but can I say after his colossal dumb ares-ery in the last film, I loved that past Gamora kneeled Quill in the balls when they met in the battle. You had that coming, Quill!
• It is offhanded but the hint that there are more benefits to a post Thanos world than the fact that Iron Man and Pepper get to have a daughter, in the conversation between Cap and Black Widow where he mentions seeing a pod of whales and it is hinted that losing half the population have meant good things for the environment. I would have liked more of this.
• The glory moment for the most powerful Avenger (right before the cheese token moment which I am getting to) where Scarlett Witch got close to holding her own against Thanos (Cap Marvel not really being an Avenger being the only one who did better) and the exchange that was: Thanos- "I don't even know who you are", Scarlett Witch- "You will". If that means more Scarlett Witch and possibly House of M, so on board.
• The line "Please use knives" from Mantis. That was well dark and I loved it.
• The Spiderman and Iron Man reunion- the actors played that brilliantly
• Cap getting Mjolnor- the cheer of delight in the first screening I saw was loud for this moment and considering I had been feeling dead inside for a solid half hour at this point after Black Widow's death, it was the perfect thing to revive me a little.
• Falcon getting Cap's shield over Bucky- I'm going to get to tokenism as a bad thing and this is the only scene that I felt could to be read that way and didn't feel tokenistic to me (I know others disagree on this  but the film was mad obvious with tokenism in other places so this was in any case subtler). In the comics, both Bucky and Falcon have been Captain America after the death of Steve Rogers (don't worry MCU viewers who aren't comic book readers you didn't misread that, MCU changed the plot of Civil War which is the comic arc that ends with Steve Rogers's death you didn't miss it somehow). One of this films biggest issues was the amount of screen time for white men over others and to have another white man take on the Captain America mantle at the end of it would have enraged me even though I love Bucky. Solid choice on that front MCU.
• Hawkeye and Scarlett Witch's moment at Iron Man's funeral. This is a half good as I have issues with this scene but I liked the continuity of the relationship these two characters have built since Age of Ultron with him taking on an older brother role since she lost her actually brother and there wasn't enough it in this film

That is the good stuff and as you can see there is lot of it. Now onto some weird quibbles again in no order:

• For the Spiderman universe to be a thing, I think they are suggesting all of Spiderman's class was dusted which is weird. How is it 50% of the world but 100% of Peter Parker's school year plus his aunt as well?
• Ageing issues- now we know from Captain Marvel that the MCU can de-age people insanely well but in the arc of both of their key men, Iron Man and Cap, they go very weird. I have always felt this about the ageing of Howard Stark but let me lay this out. The first Cap film shows Peggy Carter and Howard Stark in their mid to late 20s in the 1940s. This is carried through into Agent Carter which adds a 30s something Edwin Jarvis into the mix. Now Iron Man 2, after a different actor appeared briefly in stills in the first Iron Man film, we had John Slattery debut the character of Howard Stark (Captain America and Agent Carter both postdating this) in flashbacks and video recordings. Slattery's portrayal of Stark is established as being Stark in the 1970s and early 80s. However this is confusing due to Slattery's age and the portrayal of Stark by Dominic Cooper in Cap 1 and Agent Carter. Slattery was in his early-mid 40s when he started playing Howard Stark and if we take Howard Stark of Cap 1/Agent Carter to be at his youngest 25 (it is very hard to read him younger than this but easy to read him a few years older), that means by the 1970s we are looking at a man who should be likely in his mid 50s and by his death in the 80s would have been over 60. Now in this film when Cap and Iron Man goes back to 1970, Slattery plays Stark without any de-aging which makes sense as Slattery is now 56 but doesn't from the fact that Slattery clearly looks slightly older in this film then he does in Iron Man 2 and 3 when he is supposed to be a decade or more older. Further to this Hayley Atwell continues to play Peggy (as she always has and has done very well) and she is aged up but only very slightly even though Peggy would also have been in her mid 50s in 1970 at the youngest and Atwell is 37, Peggy is in her mid 40s at most in the 1970 of End Game. Finally Edwin Jarvis is played by James D'Arcy as he was in Agent Carter and he is also aged up but not enough to look in his sixties (D'Arcy is in his 40s) which is the youngest Jarvis could be at his point. In summary I find the ageing tech in this film strange after Captain Marvel.
• Also on ageing, Ant Man's daughter looks well too old in this film. She was ten at most in Ant Man and the Wasp (I'd go with eight actually) and the actress playing her in End Game looks 16 or 17 (she is 17 in fact I just looked it up), so Cassie has aged between seven and nine years instead of five.
• I'm not sure why it was important that the kid from Iron Man 3 was at Iron Man's funeral. I think one of the biggest google searches after the film would have been who is the random teen at the funeral in End Game. There were too many people in that scene already.
• I was annoyed that Hawkeye calls his son Nathanael "Nate" and not "Nat" considering he is named after Black Widow. Maybe script writers thought it would be confusing as she is Aunty Nat to those kids but it is established in Age of Ultron that they were going to call that kid, Natasha if he had been a girl which is her exact name so shortening it to the same nickname should not have been an issue.
• The amount of weight Robert Downey Jnr lost for a small number of scenes was worrying
• I found the lack of adjustment in the five years after the first death of Thanos strange. The support group, the empty stadium, and the creepy eyed kid Ant Man runs into all suggest super recent trauma. This suggests either that America was hit worse than the rest of the world (which would tie in nicely with the Spiderman's class quibble) or that America has particularly poor coping mechanisms. The latter is not borne out by history. I wanted to sit the Russo brothers in a history class about either World War. Both World Wars decimated the populations of all the countries involved in particular the young male populations of these countries and look at five years later. Five years after 1919, you are in the middle of roaring 20s and people are prosperous and spending money like fiends. Five years after 1944, you are about to roll into the 1950s and, sure a very particular type of prosperity, but again a massively prosperous era. People adjust better than this!
• Time travel quibble- this film is rife with plot holes. Actually not holes but canyons. The canyons messes with plots of all of the previous MCU with the exception of Cap 1, Iron Man 1 and 2, Thor 1, and The Incredible Hulk. Now it is a film about time travel so I'm semi OK with plot canyons especially if they involved bringing back Loki but there cannot be a bridge you cannot cross in suspension of disbelief on these and there is one for me. No, it isn't Loki. No it isn't getting Mjolnor from Thor 2 times. No, it isn't what killing 2014 Thanos does for a lot of MCU plot. No, it isn't even 2023 Nebula shooting 2014 Nebula and surviving. It is a very pragmatic and logistical concern. How in the hell did Thanos travel his whole army forward in time? It is established that you need a time machine and Pym particles to time travel. Now 2014 Thanos has the Pym particles thanks to capturing 2023 Nebula but only a very small sample of them (enough for just Nebula) and 2014 Nebula uses those to go to 2023. He doesn't have the schematic specifics of the time machine which Nebula doesn't know as they were Iron Man's build and no slight on Nebula's intelligence but no-one else seems to be up to figuring them out (except Shuri, I'm sure Shuri would have figured them out and faster if she wasn't dust). Sure he just need the particles to link him with the time machine Iron Man built but that seems to function on a bringing people to land exact on top of it kind of way. Somehow Thanos either figures out time travel in a way that hasn't been articulated to us yet (the two established way being with the time machine Iron Man designed or with the Time Stone which he also doesn't have) or he somehow figures out a way for his entire army to materialise forward in time nine years using Iron Man's machine completely differently to its established usage with Pym particles that he has figured out how to generate (something only Hank Pym has been established as knowing how to do...except again I'm sure Shuri could do this). I fought though my inability to suspend disbelief on this but it bugged me no end. 
• Holding Stones- Continuity issue from previous canon!!! I'm sure you remember that scene at the end of Guardians 1 which the Guardians take the Power Stones unshielded from things that had been holding it and it damn near kills them. Now the Guardians at this point are a half human half God/planet, two super strong aliens (it having been established by Ronan that aliens are better at holding Stones than humans), and, I guess we count him, a genetically modified racoon. Anyhow four people, two of them super strong and one with super powers (even though that is yet to be established) and it nearly kills them. It is stated that normally people can't hold the Stones without adverse effect. This is re-inforced in Thor 2 where Jane is put in a coma by the Aether aka the Reality Stone. End Game even re-iterates this by showing the impact of the Infinity Gauntlet on Thanos and Hulk and then ultimately in the death of Iron Man. The Aether is housed in a syringe type thing, the Power Stone in the container from Guardians 1 and the Mind Stone in Loki's scepter but all of others get handled in a way that previous films and the conclusion of this one suggest leads to death. The Tesseract aka Space Stone doesn't get touched by human hands but does by Iron Man's metal covered hand which doesn't fit with the end of the film. Time Stone goes straight into Hulk's bare hand which again doesn't fit with the end of the film. Then there is the big problem, the Soul Stone. Normal people can't hold the Stone, can they? Then why do you have Hawkeye who is just good with a bow and arrow, and has no super power, and isn't an alien, able to hold it I ask you?!?! HOW?!?
• How did Iron Man get the Stones? I still can't fully fathom that and nor can anyone I've spoken to
• This isn't a quibble but anyone else want to see a future film of featuring Morgan Stark-Potts, Lila Barton, and Cassie Lang taking up their father's roles and being better at them?? I would totally watch the crap out of that film.

OK you ready for it? Time for the legit issues. This film does so many things well, and I did enjoy it, and it hit me right in the feels at times BUT even seeing it with an excited opening night audience the critical reader in me could not see past the myriad issues particular in representation of gender but also in representation of race and its appeal to tokenism. 

You may call out to me that it pass Bechdel. I will own it does but barely and in a manner that is that so borderline token and clunky that I cringed. I should not on my first watching be able to point at the scene in the film when you finally pass it and say "there, there is where they passed Bechdel", it should happen naturally. If you are someone who is at all mindful of these things, you, like me, will have got to the scene very late in the film where 2023 Nebula and 2014 Gamora talk about their relationship in future years and have gone "oh they finally felt Bechdel was important". The scene was a good scene but it wasn't a great one and it wasn't strictly needed so it felt a little forced. Even looking online, there are people who missed the scene and didn't even notice the speed passing of Bechdel as the scene was so short. 

Then again as I said up top, passing or failing of Bechdel isn't the only measure of a film's quality. It also isn't the only thing to think of in terms of its representation of women. Another problem the film had was the expectations game. Look at Phase 3 of the MCU, first Civil War which has tonnes of strong female characters and looking at representation more broadly introduces Black Panther, followed by Doctor Strange which has a strong female mentor figure, a female best friend figure, and a fairly diverse cast (white washing issue aside), followed by Guardians 2 which again has strong women and one of the more diverse MCU casts, Spider- Man: Homecoming kick arse young black woman in MJ and again diverse cast, Ragnarok two of the MCU's best female characters in Valkyrie and Hela and again lots of diversity, Black Panther which is mainly people of colour and has super strong roles for women, Infinity War which leaned on the success of Black Panther and expanded roles for women and people of colour because of it, Ant-Man and the Wasp again strong women including a female villain, and finally you have Captain Marvel which is about a woman. This was the lead up to End Game. The MCU has come a LONG way from white dude heavy films of its early days. Now I will give it some very small amount on leeway in meeting the expectation game before I slam it on this front. It is true that it was the wrap up film for the original Avengers who are mainly white dudes and yes that was its main point. Ok leeway done. You cannot claim that leeway and then kill the ONLY original Avenger who is not a white dude and think that you get a pass on the fact that you side stepped the expectations built by Phase 3!!! This had to be the wrap up for all of them and you tossed Black Widow aside in favour of the white dudes, MCU! Now people might counter with the fact Nebula has a good arc or that they were going for the hit of killing the Avenger who would have most emotional impact on the fan base but I call bollocks on that. Nebula's arc is great but this is the first time she has actually been off the bench in a major way and good portrayal of one woman in a universe with tonnes of them isn't good enough. Also the Whedon-isque kill the character who packs the most emotional punch doesn't cut it as Black Widow has an emotional punch for one major section of your audience...women. Based on conversations I've had with people about the MCU, I would suspect that she was the favourite Avenger of almost every woman who is a fan of these films whilst men tend to pick and choice between her and the men. So sure it has a gut punch for the biggest group of people but if those people are all one gender isn't that an issue? Finally the MCU has already shown that can play the expectation game on the diverse front better than this with Infinity War. We were all led to believe that we had to see Captain Marvel because it led into End Game but she was barely in the film even though her film was super popular and the post credit scene in Infinity War, the promo for her film, and the promos for this suggested she would be a major character here. A few years ago it is strongly suggested that the opposite happened, Black Panther came out and the folk at Marvel were unsure of how well it would do. There was no hint anywhere that it might be important for Infinity War and T'Challa was not on the initial posters for Infinity War. Then Black Panther was a global smash and they re-tweaked Infinity War to link more with it, and I hear (though I could be wrong) that sections of the film (including the final battle) were changed to add more of the folk from Wakanda and make it not just a film about white people. If this is true, it seems an even bigger failure on Marvel's part this time around.

A minor one as I transition to a MUCH bigger issue but it is also not OK that we get the random kid from Iron Man 3 at Iron Man's funeral but Agent 13 who is in multiple films and initially hinted to be a possible major love interest for Cap completely left out of the film- not even mentioned.

So next big issue, can we talk race and gender in this film? There is something deeply and profoundly wrong about the way we found out Shuri was dusted at the end of Infinity War. Of characters that are beloved by fans from a previous film, she is the only one in that camp who is not shown being dusted but instead it happened offscreen and we find out from a quick flash of her face on a screen in an exposition scene. When I say beloved, I mean deeply so. The internet went insane over her when Black Panther came out and black girls finally had a young female hero to look up to in this series and when she returned that the end of the film with T'Challa and Okoye, believe you me, my opening night cinema was cheering mainly for her.  Nakia might not be as beloved as Shuri but this is also how we found out she was dusted. This is beyond bonkers bad form from Marvel and it is one of the two things that makes me angriest about this film. You CANNOT make significant the supposed death of every character who was dusted except the women of colour in this way. Particularly when in reality, women of colour are subject to more violence than men or white women, and cases of murders of women of colour frequently go unsolved. This is a very small act in a film but it subtly codes into the fabric of this film that the lives of women of colour don't matter and that is beyond horrendous. Moving on from this bad start point, the treatment of Okoye and Valkyrie is also very poor form. They only just have more scenes than Korg who is comic relief (Okoye in particular as Valkyrie gets one extra scene at the end) and I think combined they have less screen time than Morgan Stark-Potts (I hope that is double barrelled, it probably isn't) who is a child who cannot contribute to the fight with Thanos unlike either of them who are boss arse warriors types. It benched two of its best women for no reason and the fact that it benched the women of colour and kept the white women (granted Karen Gillan is painted blue to be Nebula but underneath that she is white as) further problematised a film that needed more women and people of colour across the board. Whilst making Valkyrie king of the Asgardians in a non gendered way that end of the film is great, it doesn't make up for the failures that proceeded it and it cannot be ignored that with the future directions of the MCU, this means that she will almost certainly not be in any more films which is a massive loss for the franchise and a criminal underuse of Tessa Thompson.  Maybe they just knew if they kept Shuri and Valkyrie around, the whole situation would have been sorted in like five minutes...but you know, I know they didn't think that as it is just my thinking on how awesome these characters are. 

Also let's talk tokens! This film is rife with tokenism in a frequently painful way. Example 1, it seems to think that it is OK to sideline all the non dusted people of Wakanda and Valkyrie and Wong from Dr Strange (just realised I don't even know if Wong was dusted...seriously with your representation of people of colour, Marvel!) if it has War Machine take a major role as if to say "it's OK folks, we have one black man to speak for all colour of people". Example 2, it has to a two woman (both white) to six white men, one black men, and one male racoon in major roles...look women exist! Example 3, I cannot get past how ridiculous the song and dance made about the support group scene was. The Russo brothers thought it was important to have a gay character, OK sure. The Russo brothers thought it was so important that one of them played this character, OK sure still following. The Russo brothers thought it would be sufficient for this character to be a single scene, be completely forgettable, and the only marker of his being gay to be a single gender pronoun in a sentence which means tonnes of people missed the whole thing, NOT OK and blatant tokenism! Example 4, the scene that ever woman I have spoke to who saw this hated cheering for. You have a film with very little for women to do and your solution to that is to have them all team up in the final battle scene in an epic "I'm with her" moment. It is momentarily amazing but then as soon it is over and the fight focuses back on the white dudes, it pointedly reinforces just how little you have given women to do in the rest of the film and the fact you killed your main female character and makes you look all the worse. If you are going to have women, people of colour, and people from the LGBTQI+ community in your film, give them something meaningful to do in more than one scene and don't let the white straight men speak for them!

Next let's talk emotional legwork. If you watch all the Marvel films one after the one like I did the other week, you might notice a "quality" gender stereotype played out again and again. It rammed home here in a massive way in the aftermath of Black Widow's death. These men, these white men, they need a woman around to tell them how to do emotions. Seriously in MCU film after MCU film, Black Widow goes out, kicks arse and then she has to be emotionally present to help these men deal with feelings. She does the emotion lifting for the team in film after film, and then what happens when she dies...nothing! OK not nothing, one scene with next to no tears where a bench gets thrown in a pond. I WANTED SOME MAN TEARS, where were the man tears?!?! They might have been in the middle of a fight at the time but set some time up later and give her a proper memorial! Iron Man got some big funeral that everyone showed up at and where all the women cried (where were the man tears there too?), and my money would be on if there was a logistics scene for the funeral it was all Pepper because getting people to feel feelings is women's work in the MCU. Black Widow had no family and emotionally useless male friends so she gets no funeral. Seriously that convo between Hawkeye and Scarlett Witch which I liked is in part her taking up the mantle of getting of him to process his emotions properly that Black Widow used to be burdened with. Hawkeye is the only one who does even the most minor amount of processing and acknowledging her death and even that is barely anything, and just think about that, Cap is also one of her closest friends, she and Hulk had serious feelings for each other for a while there that were never resolved, and she has worked along side Thor and Iron Man for fifteen years or so (including the time jump). This annoys me as it is stereotype in both directions. I know men who are a billion times better with feelings than some women and I am one of many women I know who are rubbish at emotions. This isn't a gendered thing and I'd like to think there is no world anywhere where just because of their gender, two of your best friends, your almost partner, and two other long term friends would not be able to mourn your passing without someone more gender appropriate coming along to assist them.

And now it is time, the rant about the thing about Black Widow's death that made me as mad as the film's rubbish treatment of women of colour, isn't about time that society realises that childless women have worth?? There is a trope played out again and again in popular culture and End Game took one end of it and then a few weeks later Game of Thrones took the other.  Childless women can be two things in popular culture, they can be something to be thrown aside and sacrificed to help maintain the happy lives of people with children and/or childless men, or they can be made something else, something evil by their childlessness. Black Widow's childlessness has created a problem in the MCU before when it delivered one of its worst scenes, Age of Ultron's "I'm a monster because I can't have kids" scene. There is a brief nod to the fact Hulk may not be able to have them but it was considered nothing too tragic. And was there ever a big drama over the fact that Cap and Thor and, until End Game, Iron Man don't have kids or that until Age of Ultron they all didn't know Hawkeye did? There was not. Iron Man has got several years on Black Widow, Hawkeye would also have a few, and Cap and Thor are around her age (in appearance, both of them are significantly older than her actually). Surely if we are going to shame someone for forgetting to breed, it would be Iron Man, right? She is the youngest of the original Avengers and yet because she is female, she also has to bear some kind of stigma for failure to have children. This is what hit doubly with her death when watching it as a woman who doesn't have kids, it was once again telling me that my life was worth less than that of a man who does kids. It is one of the big take homes of the scene however you read it. She is the right person to die even though Hawkeye is willing to because he has a family and she doesn't. She sacrifices herself not of the greater good but ultimately for the specific good of his family. And in that act, the MCU wipes away the good work she did as a boss single woman in their franchise. She can be the most capable person to lead the team (you can't deny it, she would have done a much better job than Cap or Iron Man), she can be the awesome at her job, she can live a fulfilling live (which the films hint repeatedly that she does outside of work), and she can do all the emotional legwork of six adult humans, but whoops she forgot to have the babies so that makes her worthless as compared to the men. Do you think Laura Barton would not have been able to raise those kids as a single mum? She already did chunk of the time what with her husband off being an Avenger. Do you think that Black Widow and, possibly if they got their emotions into gear, the male Avengers, wouldn't have dropped in on the Bartons to help with the kid raising? You bet they would have especially Black Widow. I said earlier that Soul Stone scene had to be Hawkeye and Black Widow, and I stand by that statement as that is the closest relationship in the team, but Hawkeye should have been the one to die and Black Widow's death in a film marred by issues with gender representation didn't put the final nail in the coffin of its gender issues, it put the nail in, dug the grave, and kicked the coffin in sideways with no respect for the body within. You think I've gone too far, let me remind you, this trope about childless women, it is heinous when applied to anyone but you know why she doesn't have children, why the film ultimately deems her worthless, because she physically can't due to childhood trauma and physical abuse that ended with the removal of her uterus. Therefore not only by this trope is she worthless, there is no way that would ever be able regain that worth, she becomes for this film the ultimate useless cast off item, and I cannot cry "SHAME" at the film makers loud enough for this!

So there you have it, my lengthy rant on End Game and all of its issues. I also have a note about it that says "Man hugs- looks of them" which I don't understand from when I saw it the second time. I would hazard that I meant to write "lots" not "looks" as it followed from notes about processing emotions and I will say along with some male tears, this film could have done with some man hugs as a way of these emotionally useless white men to process things. 

Onto Game of Thrones...

Did I have high hopes for season 8? Honestly not really. As always I was excited for new episodes but the last few seasons have been patchy at best and I knew they were rushing to get things finished. Did I have predictions for season 8? Again not so much in the specific but lots in the vague. I did want a big show down between Cersei and Daenerys, I wanted Ghost to get some screen time, I wanted massive vindication for Sansa, I wanted Arya to defy any effort by society to make her be more conveniently feminine, I wanted dragons, (after losing Little Finger in season 7) I wanted the other four characters who were my favourites back in season 1 to make it out alive (I have to add my favourite from the books is not in the series and TV Sansa is one of my favourites but it was a gradually falling for that character as I was not a fan of very silly, very young first book/season Sansa), I wanted Brienne and Tormund to hook up (that one was specific), it will further worsen its frequent issues with race by killing both Grey Worm and Missandei, I didn't want a straight up convenient hero arc for Jon, and I wanted to them to fix the rubbish they had wrought by my favourite house in the book (I knew that wasn't likely). Did it deliver?

Big show down between Cersei and Dany? No and the underuse of Cersei was one of the biggest issues with this season along with what I will get to at length which is the treatment of Dany

More screen time for Ghost? Well it was up for the next to none previously and the Ghost screen time in two episodes did lead to me crying- in the last episode A LOT of me crying.

Massive vindication for Sansa? QUEEN IN THE MOTHER FLIPPIN' NORTH! I nearly added some cuss words for good measure (I sanitised it though). This was straight up my favourite prediction that came true and I will get to it but the power of her story almost (I stress almost) weighs up the mess wrought to Dany (it doesn't but it lessens it)

Arya gives the middle finger to society's expectations of women? Again LOVED that this came true. I liked that in a show with so much rape and sexual violence (read my rant about season 5 if you have forgotten just how bad it got) and where there was only one moment that meaningfully gave a woman power in a sexual situation previously (Dany and Daario), Arya got to choose the time, manner, and partner for her first sexual encounter (also I love Gendry generally as he is a beautifully sweet and vaguely naive human in a show mostly populated by the opposite of that- he, Pod, and Sam could start a club).  I loved that she completely was given space to say to Gendry in the next episode that she loved him but she in no way wanted to be the kind of lady that she would be if they got married and she became Arya Baratheon-Stark (even in Game of Thrones land you know she'd double barrel it). I loved that she got to fight in pretty much every battle. I LOVE (INSANELY LOVED) that she was the one to kill the Night King. I appreciated that they made her, as a character who seems for her young age most aware of death and its impact of all characters, the character through whose eyes we saw the desolation of King's Landing. I was delighted that she got to end the series by going off on her own and forging a new path by travelling to undiscovered lands.

Dragons? Yes I got plenty of them. I think Drogon gave the best performance of  CGI dragon ever and straight up broke my heart.

My favourite characters survive? I started back in season 1 with five- Jon, Dany, Jorah Mormont, the Hound, and Littlefinger. Of those original five, I ended season 8 with one...that's right, one...and also the one of these five I'm least a fan of nowadays (sorry Jon but you are a tad bland). Jorah's death caused many tears for me over two episodes but that was partly sadness at his being underused as after the great arc he had over the last few seasons, he just became one of Dany's chorus of advisers this season and you lost some of their closeness due to the combination of the fact she had two other competent-ish advisers in Tyrion and Varys, and a partner in Jon who was also a competent adviser as compared to when it was just Jorah with a side of Daario (component adviser yes but mainly just there to be insanely pretty and punch things- since he has come twice, spin off of Daario anyone?? I would watch it but that could just be my general wish for there to be more Michiel Huisman in all the things). The Hound's death I thought had to come if Cleganebowl occurred so it was a given as soon as that kicked off. Dany's death will be part of what I have to say at length about Dany but I will say the actual death scene was one of the most well shoot scenes not just of the season but of the show full stop, and partly because of the CGI dragon's reaction, I cried more than the show seemed to want me to considering what they did to Dany this season. I just have to find solace in the fact that the character who came from nowhere to be my ultimate favourite (though I will say it is close with Littlefinger- sorry guys, I know most people couldn't stand him but I still straight up love him) is once again QUEEN IN THE MOTHER FLIPPIN' NORTH!

Brienne and Tormund- so disappointed with the show on this one. Partly because I've never been a huge fan of Jaime. I know people love him but I never got past the whole pushing a child out a window vibe or the horrid addition to the TV version of the character that was having him rape Cersei. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the character at the end and warmed to him much more over the seasons but I just am not a huge fan. The main redeeming thing for him was his friendship with Brienne and I really wanted the show to leave it there and to allow these two people with clearly great chemistry to stay in the friend space. But no because this is Hollywood that isn't an option, and my dreams of Brienne and Tormund (unlike Jaime, I've been a huge fan of Tormund since his first appearance in the show) being a boss couple died and everyone else's dreams of Brienne and Jaime living happily ever after were killed by a deeply stupid decision by the show runners in terms of character direction for Jaime and Cersei both. 

Death of all the non white characters- I was half right and the fact that there are only two of them in the final season is a sharp highlight on why this show was often called out for having issues when it came to representation of race. Also add to that both of them used to slaves- the non slave people of colour, the Martells, being absent this season- and yikes. I think the whole internet was sure this prediction was a lock and was a bit surprised when it wasn't true- especially after Missandei and Grey Worm only interacted with each other and not heaps for other characters (urgh yes now that Dany is with the other white people, she really neglected both of them), and always had those kind of hopes for the future conversations that almost certainly signal death in a show like this. Then they both survived the Battle of Winterfell shockingly but only to have Missandei killed in a way that is potentially worse a few episodes later. Worse than anonymous battle death I hear you say...yes worse. The representation of race in this season got a lot of internet space devoted to it before her death mainly for the why are there only two people of colour who only speak to each other factor. Then it exploded. Why did Missandei's death because the internet to go insane? It is pretty simple, it was her final word ("Dracarys") and then Dany's actions in the subsequent episodes. I will get to the issues with Dany this season generally in a minute but just to say to have Misseadei speak the command for "fire" and then have Dany torch a city, was fairly widely labelled as a clear incident of racial fridging and I think it is hard not to read it as such. For those not aware of what fridging is, to get nerd academic on you, it is short hand for the theory of "Women in Refrigerators" which was coined by Gail Simone. Simone built from an example in a Green Lantern comic where the current Green Lantern came home to find his girlfriend had been killed by the current super villain and shoved into their refrigerator and then all of his actions were motivated by the death of said girlfriend. The girlfriend acted merely as a plot device to compel action by Green Lantern. Simone and others put together a list of women in comics who were maimed, abused, turned evil, raped, or killed to merely progress a plot (the list is here- http://lby3.com/wir/index.html). The term is now applied more broadly not just comics but also other popular culture to reference any time a woman suffers injury or death merely to progress/motivate the actions of a man. That said, as you'll remember from the above, some comic book related pop culture finds its way around fridging by having male characters be completely emotionally dead when a woman dies for their cause...yes End Game I'm looking at you, no bench throwing still does not count. You might think that is great but which man has action motivated only due to Missandei's death and the answer is no man. Fridging as a term is now not only used when a women is injured or killed for the success of men but also for times when a people of colour's injury or death is used to compel the actions of a white person. Missandei's death serves one major purpose in the show and that is to compel the actions of a white woman and it is used as shorthand to get to a point where things weren't going naturally. It is very lazy plotting and character development, and it is a spectacularly poor move by a show with a lack of race representation in the first place. Then at the end of the show sure Grey Worm survives but with not much of a plan for his life as compared to all the white people's plans. Also the final episode arc for Grey Worm just sat weirdly with everyone I spoke to about it as the show runners seemed to think they could clear up their race issues by having a bunch of rich white people actually listen to him when you know they would have just ignored him, got Jon out of gaol, and sent Grey Worm back East with zero ships or funds or likelihood of survival. So yes it could have killed them both and didn't but Game of Thrones's actual choices for its people of colour ranged from the bizarre (Grey Worm in the last episode) to the straight up problematic (Missandei's death).

Jon will not end a convenient hero- this is one of the reasons I think him bland in recent seasons and his sister/cousins much more interesting. For much of this season, he was bog standard hero and it was boring. Then in the last couple of episode, he had to enact a reactive character response to what the show did to Dany that put him slightly out for that space. Which might be good for him because if his actions in earlier episodes indicate anything, it is that heroes abandon their pets. I liked that the show ended with him over the wall with Ghost and Tormund. I don't know that speaks to him being not a hero for the wildlings but it does move him into a less boring place than either being the king on the throne he is technically heir to or being a knight off fighting somewhere.

Better treatment for my favourite house from the books- Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken. More like Sexualised, Villainised, Forgotten. The show's treatment of the Martells, with the exception of Oberyn, was always shockingly bad, and this treatment combined with fact that they are the show's only recurring wealthy characters of colour just makes further problems for the show when it comes to race and the fact that they are in the books a house full of strong women makes it worse from their representation of women. The Martells of the book are deeply awesome and the show deeply misrepresented them. I just think what the show could have been if it had made better use of a family of people of colour with super strong women in the mix. Considering how bad its interpretation of the Sand Snakes was (they are VERY different in the books), I'm at times happy it left Arianne Martell, my favourite character from the books, out of the TV series. We got one Martell this season and blink and you missed him...

So those were my Game of Thrones predictions which give a hint to some of what I thought of the season as a whole. There were a lot of plotting issues with the season and it felt very rushed. That said there were also some great character moments and some good resolutions for three of the original Stark kids. I think the season will win many awards for its cinematography which is some of the best I've ever seen on TV and in particular the Battle of Winterfell episode was some of the best dark cinematography I've seen anywhere full stop. I think the performances from many of the cast were good in particular Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and Peter Dinklage, whilst others did well with the little they were given, Emilia Clark tried hard with the issues with Dany and Lena Headey can convey more emotion in wine sipping than most actors out there. I think as a season it held together better than seasons 6 and 7 (even if season 6 gave us Battle of the Bastards which is my favourite Game of Thrones episode) as a coherent season even if it was rushed and had big issue with plotting and character development. I'm not happy with who is on the Iron Throne especially as Tyrion's pitch would be better applied to either of that character's sisters (who has the best story? Not Bran, the character they famously thought was so boring that they left him out of an entire season) but I was predicting Jon which wouldn't have made me happy either- only one of possible women (by which I mean Dany, Cersei, or Sansa) or maybe Tyrion himself would have been a good outcome in my book because they are richer characters, and I knew they would go with a man and likely not Tyrion. I think it had sufficient space in the quieter episodes to work on its plotting and it didn't. Pretty much in summary, I hope the books end this story in a tidier fashion but it wasn't a awful end to the show.

Now to my issues, this comes in part for the issues with plot and character development, but what in the hell did they think they were doing with Dany this season? The show had a compelling villain in Cersei and a secondary villain in the Night King, it didn't need a third for next to no reason. The final season criminally underused Cersei as all the action happened up north and therefore neglected one of the best and most complex TV villains to ever step in front of a camera. Then when it did return to her in the final episodes, she was acting in combination of denial and sentiment which was completely out of character. The most Cersei moments we got all season where the two seconds it took her to kill Missandei and random shots of wine drinking in the first half of the season. The show was barrelling towards having another strong woman on the Iron Throne and this one with dragons but then chaos struck and the show fell into a trope hole. One of the longest ongoing motifs of the show has been that Cersei's only redeeming feature, aside obviously from her ability to down wine, was her love of her children. This even copped up in her death scene (one of my least favourite scene all season) when she and Jaime were fine with dying as their children were already dead. Dany however...Dany has no children just an exceptional close relationship with her pets. A Westorosi crazy cat lady, she is a crazy dragon lady. See why I'm linking this with End Game now. As I said earlier, the childless woman can in this stupid trope go two ways, she can like Black Widow sacrifice herself for the lives of those with children as her life does not matter without them or her failure to have them can just send her straight up crazy to an inhuman degree and that is where Game of Thrones went. Without children, can a woman have the compassion required to be a just ruler? Without children, how can we know the measure of her worth as a person? Dany loses her pet and her friend/adviser and out of grief, she burns the ever living crap out of an entire city despite its surrender. She then proposes that this is the way to rule and that she is going to spread her new rule by mass burning of people strategy far and wide. People point to spots in the series that hinted she might end up on a burn the hell out of everything path but it is a pretty messy join the dots from the child bride raped on her wedding night to the breaker of chain and freer or slaves to the person who burns innocent women and children on a whim. Sure when she ruled in other cities, she did enact justice in violent ways but not in a fashion that was out of step with the male rulers around her. Sure there is a history of madness in her family, but there is no point in the shows until the last few episodes of season 8 where she showed any sign of it. Sure she burnt the Tarlys to death when they refused to bend the knee in season 7 but killing enemies who refuse to swear fealty was a super common Medieval battle tactic (Game of Thrones being based on that era of history and all). Sure people suggested to her burning King's Landing an earlier season (Ellaria, Olena, and Yara because for some reason city burning is something that women are particularly into in Game of Thrones), but she seemed to consider it and then move off that plan very quickly. For all the quieter episodes of the final season they did no work on proper character development to get Dany where she ended up and then rely on a bunch of scattered moments over seven seasons (the small number above are pretty much all of them) and the death of Missandei (I would say Missandei at this point is more important than Rhaegal as she didn't go mad when Viserion died a season earlier) to snap her into the straight up psychopathy of the last two episodes and expected fans to buy this. They then seems shocked when there was a massive backlash against this. The shows seems to be questioning women ability to rule without being villains and the childless woman's ability to rule at all. It was a horrid echo in fantasy land of when you hear female politicians who have no children asked about it in a way that seems to be requiring justification that men don't have to give.  Also once again like End Game, in casting the childless woman as either useless or villain, Game of Thrones also worsens the trope by hanging it on a woman who due to trauma physically is unable to have children. Just as Black Widow would be unable to make herself valuable to society as defined by End Game by having children, Dany is unable to make herself less a villain (as Cersei did) by having children. Once again the trope is atrocious but made even worse by the particular character it is applied to.

Game of Thrones started the season in an interesting spot in terms of representation of women by having the three of the biggest contenders for the Iron Throne be women who were also rape victims, the ascendancy in Dany or Sansa's case or the continued rule in Cersei, of any of these could have told an empowering story. Instead one died in sappy and sentimental way, and another went mad and then was killed by her lover. Thankfully for us all, the other makes up for it slightly by being a boss (despite being childless, that said, Sansa is still quite young and I'm sure suitors will come a knocking...even though she is technically still married) and being what? That's right, QUEEN IN THE MOTHER FLIPPIN' NORTH!

Who knew when Game of Thrones started that the North would be the most progressive place in Westeros come the end of the series?

After all that ranting, some recommendations of things that are much less problematic in terms of their representation of women:

- Killing Eve- the second season might be just as good as the first. I loved it.

- Always be my maybe- Netflix romcom which is super hilarious and has great representation of a relationship where a woman would have more power, and also has Keanu doing comedy like a king.

- The Power- I read this book months ago but will continue to recommend it forever

- Witch, Please- a feminist Harry Potter podcast which my friend got me addicted to recently and which lead to me reread and rewatching all things Harry Potter in recent weeks (HP has some issues with its gender representation but Hermione is still straight up the bomb as is Professor McGonagall and as I said before things don't have to get everything right in terms of representative to be enjoyable, I just wish they did both).

And just to end on a high note a shout up to my CGI animal fans who make me cry this season of GoT, all the awards to you, Ghost and Drogon (both also featuring Jon as I cannot get pics without him)...

And also to all the ladies out there, don't forget to have them babies...because pop culture trope say you must...