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r/TwoBestFriendsPlay•
kobitz

It seems a lot of people where playing "broken telephone" in regards to the character Phastos in The Eternals

Spoiler(The Eternals) Spoilers

I dont know if some of you might remember, but some time before/right after The Eternals came out, there had a been a lot controversy in certain spaces of social media (twitter) in regards to the character of Phastos played by Brian T Henry. I dont know how it came about but as many of you might now, Phastos appears >!in a scene related to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima!<. But for some reason there where a lot of "rumors" or "misinformation" for lack of a better word that had people believing and beign outraged at the fact that Phastos >!had activaly something to do with the atomic bombing and/or worked on the Manhattan Project!<. There was a lot of half serious half joking offense because Phastos is the only MCU gay character as well.

Well, I saw the film, and as those who saw it will know. Its not true. The scene in question last about 30 seconds and has the character >!standing in the aftermath of the bombing in dispair because he believed his techological advancements he had given to humans (his superpower) had led to this moment. No indication that he had been involved in said event!< - which, IMO its absolute nonsense but its a far far different framing of what people where "discourse-ing" about.

And I know, theres actual genocide-causing-level misinformation going around in social media so I so I shouldnt get to hang up about it but still...

Posted Nov 28, 2021, 9:25 PM UTC

9537
StonedVolusSlightly Whiter Woolie•

While I do think the scene feels like tonal whiplash (which is a constant issue with the film), I do think it was really overblown, especially with all the misinformation.

91
parazoaNever Back Down 3: Always Back Down•

I never really had any interest in the movie, but it really seemed like everyone on Twitter was just looking for any excuse to shit on it for any reason.

61
CyborgNinja762What a BIG surprise.•

I was honestly confused after I watched it because its not any worse than an average, middle of the pack Marvel movie. You know what you're getting. But people gave me the impression it was some kind of train wreck for some reason.

43
Bagz402•

I actually really liked it because it was a breath of fresh air from the typical Marvel movie. The ensemble cast was mostly great too.

15
CyborgNinja762What a BIG surprise.•

Not gonna lie I was outright pretty positive on it too. I didnt mind the pacing at all and maybe I'm very stupid but everything regarding the twist and the ending was surprising to me

14
codemen95•

I kept seeing people nitpicking the clip where Jolie's character slides and cuts a deviant and then she stands. People just pointing out that when she slides she's cgi and that it looked bad. Like of course it'll look bad if u go frame by frame that shot that goes by so quickly

3
CyborgNinja762What a BIG surprise.•

Only vaguely related but I do find it funny he and Salma Hayek got to the ruins of Hiroshima without being able to fly presumably within days of it happening.

I wouldn't be so hung up on it if it weren't for the fact that them not being able to fly is explicitly shown as a disadvantage and a problem versus the one guy that can fly.

56
5benfive5Welcome to a graveyard of you•

Maybe they just happened to be there at the time, and they weren't affected by the radiation since Salma Hayek could just heal them.

27
Chemical_CrisDumb Space Wizard•

They way I read it they were trying to warn people about the bomb, but my attention was still on the enslaved Mexicans just kinda being hand waved so that might be total headcanon.

12
Spiral-ForceSmaller than you'd hope•

It’s more that it hard cuts from Hiroshima making him lose faith in humanity to him living a happy family life with his husband and son, showing that he presumably forgave humanity.

It’s just a awkwardly rapid development for a character who’s ultimately only in the movie for about ten minutes. I think it’s dumb to dislike Eternals for “Phastos causing Hiroshima” but it does speak to my issue with the movie’s character writing in general.

48
dfdedsdcd•

The movie needed another hour to give all the characters the time they needed to tell what they wanted. The movie is simultaneously bloated and too short.

15
Spiral-ForceSmaller than you'd hope•

I think Eternals suffers from the "putting the band back together" type plot. It takes too long to get all of the Eternals together in the present, which wastes time that could have been spent characterizing them more

17
Ginger_Anarchy•

It really needed a Disney+ show dealing with a lot of the flashback exposition and setup. The flashbacks in the movie were necessary to help characterize them because they didn't have time in the plot, but they also severely hampered the pacing and a few of the flashbacks feel sloppy.

5
Prestigious-Mud•

It would have worked better as a TV series in some aspects. And I understand the weirdness of it being one scene to the other. The one thing about it though is while the audience sees it as one scene to another, in the span of the movie time it is like well over 70 years that's gone by between the two events right?

Like it would be nice if we get a show that deep dives into their experiences more on earth, but at the same time I see the scene change as more of an "even with all of that there's still hope" kinda vibe.

11
TheChucklingOakResident "Old Star Wars EU" Nerd / Big Halo Man•

Wait, so people acted like they were upset about the treatment of a gay character, and yet they made up a false portrayal of that character to make him look worse?

Was it all just some kind of childish "false-flag" thing to make people bash a "woke" movie?

27
[deleted]•

Something like that.

As someone who participates in the fun-hating cabal of people who are disinterested in Marvel movies to the point of ravenous cynicism, I think it's equally viable that either 1) the scene was purposefully taken in bad faith and spread around without context by people wanting to dunk on the popular thing, or 2) the interpretation just sprung up by itself from someone who only saw the clip in passing without context and then it spread. And then it just never got corrected 'cuz everybody involved was like, "No I'm not gonna see fuckin' Eternals."

20
Nabs2099CUSTOM FLAIR•

Wait so you guys know you're being bad faith? Well at least you're self aware.

5
[deleted]•

There's absolutely folks who know they're being bad faith with that. Bad faith misinterpretations are a chance to either get clout, sew some seeds of discord, all that.

Me, I just say "Marvel stinky" and refuse to elaborate.

3
Nabs2099CUSTOM FLAIR•

I like your style so much more.

2
SlightlySychoticYOU DIDN'T WIN.•

To be fair, I did initially think the implication was going to be that he had worked on the Manhattan Project. But the scene makes it pretty clear that he was just remorseful at having accelerated humanity’s technological development toward this conclusion. However, if I had not been paying attention or, say, been overwhelmed by the information the movie is just constantly pumping at you I could understand someone missing that explanation.

2
[deleted]•

That's a fair way to look at how that confusion can occur. I guess it's just kinda easy to assume the worst in certain people's motivation.

You know how the old saying goes, you can't go yelling "Zebras" in a crowded movie theater when you hear hoofbeats.

2
Nabs2099CUSTOM FLAIR•

In general there's also a lot of anti marvel sentiment on twitter so part of it was absolutely bad faith attempts to make a marvel movie look much worse.

And this is coming from a marvel fan who thinks Eternals is ass.

4
ScrubsIntoDreams•

I'm just glad the haters are finally shutting the fuck up about it and moving on. It didn't seem like a movie to obsess over, and even the fans didn't really obsess over it. In fact, they've been SHOCKINGLY well behaved for the amount of hate the thing that they like gets.

​

Like the haters should save some of that vigor for the Marvel Zombies thing that's going to be coming out.

21
DavidsonJenkins•

Wait...didn't we already do zombies in What If?

3
ScrubsIntoDreams•

Well treat that as a pilot episode, because now we're getting a whole series of Marvel Zombies! Sounds like an honest waste of money to me.😂

​

...But if that means we can keep the Marvel Zombies out of future 'What-If?' episodes, I'm fine with that.

5
[deleted]•

I've seen people be extremely passionate, screaming at the top of their online lungs, on how certain aspects of media are indicative of moral degeneracy and villainy on the writer's part............but when actively pressed, admit that they did not see the media in question and just picked it up from what others were saying.

Absolutely insane. The most frantic and fanatic "OH MY GOD THIS IS THE WORST EVER" and then minutes later, "No, I didn't see it at all, so what?"

Jesus. I still think MCU shouldn't use the real life unfathomable atrocity of Hiroshima as a footnote of "made the fictional cool superhero man sad :( " in their big colorful hero funtime movie, but I'm not gonna pretend like I saw the movie and have a strong moral opinon of it.

16
Nabs2099CUSTOM FLAIR•

I agree. Its extremely stupid and terribly bad taste.

3
[deleted]•

Personally, >!I just think it's funny that there's a guy named Kingo. Kingo! What a name.!<

11
thanatos388Is This Not A Dream?•

Kingo? What was he?

Funnily enough, a butler!

!I have no idea who Kingo is!<

6
Jackamalio626•

um, excuse me, the first gay MCU character was that guy from Cap's survivor's guilt meeting.

11
BestGirlNononJust pull out a gun!•

i’m not gonna stand for this blatant justin hammer erasure

13
Nabs2099CUSTOM FLAIR•

Oh I like this headcanon

Also imo Sam/Bucky ship should be canon

2
Polar_Phantom•

Check out "All Hail the King" if you have time. >!It'll explain the Justin Hammer thing.!<

6
ArmsofSleep•

Dumb scene from a bad movie, but this seems like a pretty common occurance nowadays. Remember TLOU2’s dog murder thing that turned out to be untrue?

5
Waylander312•

The scene was pretty hamfisted in my opinion

4
Polar_Phantom•

I remember seeing that and being like "No, there's no way that's true that's too crass --- oh, he probably helped make the nuke rather than intentionally dropping it on Hiroshima"... and not even that. He just vaguely gave humanity science and thousands of years later they nuked Japan and he felt responsible. The only thing I'll say is that the film doesn't condemn the US specifically, but that would be nigh impossible in a big budget US film and, frankly, the film posits this as an atrocity so it implicitly says the US was in the wrong. Like how it also subtly condemns European Colonialism. Whether or not this is too little... maybe. But I'll take it.

2
KLReviews•

The only person I've ever seen common on this said 'I haven't seen the movie but I find it hilarious that you can say any Eternal did X insane thing and hundreds of people rush to deny it like it's even plausible'.

0