1) Third Act Sympathy Blonde
When things are popping off in the finales of both The Avengers and Age of Ultron, it can be hard enough keeping track of our heroes, let alone the countless civilians doing their level best not to get blown-up, lasered, or vaporized by an errant Hulk sneeze. For whatever reason, though, both films go out of their way to highlight a particular, random blonde woman amid the fracas. “Waitress,” as IMDB credits her, appears when the wormhole is opening over Manhattan in Avengers, again when Captain America almost eats a Chitauri grenade, and then again during a round of post-battle news footage.
“Sokovian Woman,” the Ultron equivalent, shows up before Sokovia joins the mile high club, pops up in a couple “everything’s going to hell” shots, and it’s her kid that Hawkeye and Quicksilver save near the climax. The purpose of both characters is to give the audience a surrogate and a throughline from the civilian side of things –it just so happens they’re both attractive blonde women. Is such an archetype the easiest means of generating audience identification with the least effort possible? Better ask Marvel’s resident shrinks: Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.
