Avengers: Endgame

Did Avengers: Endgame Really Need To Kill Off [SPOILERS]?

Avengers: Endgame is finally out and, in my humble opinion, it's absolutely brilliant. I had some skepticism going in that they could tie up so many loose ends, but the movie essentially ended a decade of storytelling and did it in style. Plus, despite having written extensively about the film for the best part of a year, it was still full of surprising moments I absolutely didn't see coming. But was one of these moments really necessary?

Avengers: Endgame is finally out and, in my humble opinion, it’s absolutely brilliant. I had some skepticism going in that they could tie up so many loose ends, but the movie essentially ended a decade of storytelling and did it in style. Plus, despite having written extensively about the film for the best part of a year, it was still full of surprising moments I absolutely didn’t see coming. But was one of these moments really necessary?

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I’m talking about Black Widow’s decision to sacrifice herself in order for Hawkeye to get the Soul Stone. This was a strange scene to watch, with both Nat and Clint trying their best to incapacitate the other so they could be the one to make the jump. In the end, despite Hawkeye’s best efforts, Black Widow plunges to her death and dies. And, as the characters soon point out, this is the kind of dead that there’s no coming back from.

The reaction to this has been mixed so far and some fans have convincingly argued that it was a waste of Nat’s character development. As Nobelle Borines says over at EpicStream, the scene “cut her arc short” and “gave Nat the short end of the story by becoming the one character that was dispensable.”

She also says that:

“Nat’s absence was also sorely felt in the awesome all-woman team up in the final battle. Here were all the powerful women in the MCU but the woman who started it all was nowhere to be found.”

I can see her point and, to be honest, I was secretly hoping it’d be Hawkeye going over the edge because he’s simply less interesting (and Scarlett Johansson’s performance in the film was better than ever). But, I do disagree that it’s an unworthy ending for the character. After all, we see her struggling to find meaning in life throughout the movie. She obviously cares a lot for Hawkeye and, knowing that he has a family, she knows that it has to be her who goes over.

That said, it’s a tiny bit galling to see such an interesting female character sacrificing herself for a somewhat dull male one. But while Nat won’t be back after Avengers: Endgame, she’ll still be appearing in the solo Black Widow movie at some point in the near future. That’s going to have to be a prequel now, but at least there’s more of the character in the pipeline.


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Author
David James
London-based writer of anything and everything. Willing to crawl over rusty nails to write about 'Metal Gear Solid' or 'Resident Evil.'