ZEMO Was Right! (and Would HaveStopped Thanos Too!)

the very concept of a super soldier will always trouble people it's that warped aspiration that led to nazis to ultron to the avengers welcome back to screen crush i'm ryan airy in the world of the mcu the avengers have ultimate power they're stronger than any individual establishment or government their choices can change the world affect every living being on the planet and at times the whole universe and with such absolute power what becomes of us the normal people what's the value of governments and laws in the face of gods perhaps at all remembering that old saying power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely most people are fine with the avengers holding absolute power because they're the heroes they save the world they can fight the battles that we never could we need them so it's easy to turn a blind eye to some of the disadvantages that arise from this arrangement but there is one man who feels completely different and is willing to oppose this power structure and that's zemo arguably the most important villain in the mcu he's out of line but he's right not only the man who brought the avengers down from the inside but the man who reminds us that the avengers can fail that they have too much power and at some point someone must ask the question who protects the world from the people who protect the world the danger with america's super soldiers is that we put them on pedestals they become symbols icons and then we start to forget about their flaws from there cities fly innocent people die movements are formed wars are fought strict code creates a fascinating opposition to the avengers he's leading a crusade against superhumans with the idea that superheroes are inherently superior and so naturally he targets the avengers but at his core zemo isn't evil he doesn't seek power nor does he want to rule or destroy the world in captain america's civil war zemo was motivated by vengeance i'm here because i made a promise you lost someone i lost everyone his family perished in sokovia while the avengers were busy fighting ultron so while these gods were battling buildings and cities were raining down on the powerless mortals yes the avengers did save the world when they stopped ultron and they did try to rescue and protect as many people as they could during the chaos but all of this madness was created by the avengers themselves ultron was their creation their mistake tony stark played god and zemo's family paid the price so you're going for artificial intelligence and you didn't want to tell the team i don't want to hear the man was not meant to meddle medley his negligent arrogance almost destroyed the world and all of the avengers are complicit zemo believes they must be held accountable for their sense while the sokovia accords were meant to be the consequences for the avengers mistakes zemo actually represents their biggest failure when the dust cleared and the screaming stopped it took me two days until i found their bodies and the avengers they went home the avengers save the world and then go home leaving the survivors to pick up the pieces then they hold parties celebrating their great victories while people like zemo are left with only ashes yes there's more to it than that and i'm not trying to paint the avengers like they're the seven or something but these optics are disturbing from a certain point of view it's not too hard to compare the avengers to the ridiculously rich and powerful in real life people who become out of touch with the hardships of regular people because they exist on a different plane filled with all their money and influence those people pete those people up there the rich and the powerful they do whatever they want guys like us don't care about us zemo believes that any individual who seeks or has godly power is bound to become a supremacist the desire to become a superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideals while today we associate supremacism with racism the term refers to any individual or group who see themselves as superior to others now the avengers are heroes who saved half the universe but their very existence raises some troubling dilemmas our very strength invites challenge challenge incites conflict and conflict breeds catastrophe just because their actions result in a safer world should the avengers be allowed to operate without any supervision without limitation and without following the basic rule of law that was the question the civil war tried to answer as the collateral damage piled up the avengers faced the consequences of their actions in the form of the sokovia courts the past four years you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision that's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate but some heroes disagreed with the un's decision so this is essentially what steve rogers side believes the avengers should be independent unrestrained by bureaucracy answering to the un means the avengers would just become another militarized organization that follows orders from their superiors which goes against the essence of what it means to be a vigilante and a superhero but if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go what if there's somewhere we need to go and they don't let us we may not be perfect but the safest hands are still our own cap understood that governments have their own agendas and the nations of the world never really agree on anything so it's easier for superheroes to bypass all the red tape it's the only way they can protect the world more efficiently there are times when superheroes have no choice but to ignore laws to get things done now there is merit to steve's argument and after all he is captain america he won't abuse his authority even if he goes against the government's laws but there is some out of touch arrogance and hypocrisy here even if it's unintentional see once powerful people start to choose which laws they want to obey then they're declaring that they are the ultimate authority this is dangerous thinking the avengers influence reaches every corner of the world and this creates global concerns how many tyrants throughout history use the same logic to justify their atrocious crimes oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand this is exactly the type of superiority that zemo warned about the idea that the avengers think that they know better than any government in the world and therefore they need to operate without restrictions this allows them to create exceptions that will always justify their actions even if those actions don't always end up being what's best for the world a pivotal scene that proves this is the confrontation between john walker and the dora milaje the door milaje don't have jurisdiction here the dora milaj have jurisdiction wherever the dora milari find themselves to be yes this line proves what a badass ao is but think about the legality of the matter because none of them have any jurisdiction in latvia except for walker and lamar who represent the grc and can operate on foreign soil sam and bucky are operating without any supervision they never sign the sokovia accords and they're harboring a fugitive who they helped escape from prison and i'm pretty sure the dora milage have no real legal jurisdiction outside of wakanda but because wakanda is so powerful who's going to try to stop them the dora melange aren't there to save the world from some great danger no they just want to arrest zemo because he killed t'chaka and they are willing to fight and kill anyone who stands in their way it's a disturbing idea that superheroes and elite warriors can ignore international laws with such ease just because they feel like it i'm not the only one around here gives a about the rules the irony here is that despite the attempt to enforce superheroes no one really follows the sokovia accords anymore not even the heroes who supported them in the first place the accords were tossed to the side as soon as a far bigger danger threatened the whole universe in the end it's the complex question of accountability if we can't accept limitations we're boundaries we're no better than the bad guys you see the avengers can still have their own agendas and priorities the avengers have multitudes of personalities each with their own beliefs and moral codes they're all humans and humans make mistakes heck thor and vision aren't even human and they still make mistakes but with so much power superheroes mistakes tend to become catastrophic but now there are more and more heroes with godly powers who can't be enforced by normal people how can any government enforce the laws on individuals like wanda thor hawk doctor strange captain marvel and all the others what cell could hold them what army could defeat them and i worry about how democracy survives when one man can move cities with his mind but the world tends to forgive and forget the avengers missteps did anyone put cuffs on tony when he created ultron no tony's role in creating ultron was shoved to the side people let these things slide because the world needs the avengers and to make matters worse the avengers are idolized so of course the world's going to turn a blind eye to most of their missteps because you need us yes the world is a vulnerable place and yes we help make it that way but we're also the ones best qualified to defend it in a perverse way it's like they're holding the world hostage so at what point does this arrangement turn into totalitarianism hey hey you shut your face if we want to hear you talk i will shove my arm up your ass and work your mouth like a puppet you hear me you hear me and then there's the events of wanda vision wanda is an avenger yet in her grief she took over an entire town changing reality and mind controlling people and that was all her no one manipulated her into doing that this will be your only warning stay out of my home you don't bother me i won't bother you which by itself proves zemo's worst fears about people becoming godly beings how can any government or army enforce the rule of law on the scarlet witch sword created white vision and response a deterrent that they believed could stop wanda and it turns out they were disobeying the laws by doing that normal human governments have no choice but to create their own super beans to balance the scales that's just how the global power struggle works that's how we get people like john walker who received ultimate power from the government when he became captain america because when the avengers become more powerful escalation is inevitable the government made walker into captain america because they wanted to bolster their own influence in a world filled with super beans that's also why carly morgenthau and the flag smashers turned themselves into super soldiers they were responding to the global escalation of superheroes and once you get superhumans with malicious intents running around the world zemo's grim prophecy is bound to come true do we want to live in a world full of people like the red skull steve rogers ethics have defined him as the ultimate hero but the power that comes with the shield carries serious responsibility that not everyone can handle do you know who i am the avengers are heroes but their arrangement with the world can easily be abused by less moral individuals and as zemo said people who seek ultimate power will eventually be corrupted by their supremacism the serum never corrupted steve touche but there has never been another steve rogers has there which is exactly what happened to walker and it resulted in him killing a flag smasher in cold blood he did this because he believed that his authority as captain america allowed him to do it and while he was put on trial his punishment was a slap on the wrist at best nobody in there is mad at you about that i mean you would have been doing him a favor if you've taken out the whole lot and yet the avengers refused to take on any positive role in global politics they don't seek to be the ones that call the shots captain america has no desire to become president yet they clearly see the current establishment as negligent and untrustworthy otherwise they would have accepted their supervision you've gotta do better senator you've gotta step up sam tells this senator to do better but he doesn't say how to do it he offers no solution to the grc's legislation it's a powerful speech but it's missing the core component that explains the words do better he presents the grc and the system as the problem and by doing so he creates more resentment toward the government from the people who are already angry and desperate while victimizing carly and the terrorists you have to stop calling them terrorists sorry sam but they are terrorists saying that they're not sends a very dangerous message for the world it wasn't sam's intention but there is the risk that extremists will take sam's words out of context suddenly carly becomes a martyr a revolutionary who fought the corrupt establishment to free the people they become symbols icons and then we start to forget about their flaws of course the grc and the government should do better there's no question about that the system is broken and at times it can be corrupt and self-serving political loopholes bureaucracy and lack of empathy created endless obstacles for the government to be better so yes sam is absolutely right to tear these senators a new one but the repercussions of the blip are entangled in so many challenges there are so many moving parts on the global scale it's the most monumental task any government has ever faced so in this case and i'm sorry to say this but this senator is right that you have no idea how complicated this situation is you know what you're right the question is where are the avengers in all of this why aren't they doing more to help the world post blip the avengers don't trust the system so why aren't they directly involved in helping the world rebuild after the blip if you believe in peace then let us keep it i think you're confusing peace with quiet isn't it their responsibility as earth's mightiest heroes they possess more power and influence than any other government in the world between all the cosmic powers magic and wakanda's technology and all the rest of it the avengers probably could have found a way to solve world hunger the arms race you name it yet they don't seem to bother with viable solutions they shift the blame and responsibility to the very establishment that they are undermining look you people have just as much power as an insane god or a misguided teenager question you have to ask yourself is how are you going to use it right back at you zemo at least has the courage to take matters into his own hands and stop threats before they can grow take for example the way sam wilson handled carly morgenthau sam's empathy prevented him from losing hope that carly would see the error of her ways he kept insisting that she's not beyond saving even after she crossed the line and became a terrorist who blew people up i mean it makes sense he's the hero so he's doing his heroic responsibility she's just a kid you're seeing something in her that isn't there you're clouded by it but zemo's perspective was the opposite he knew that carly was too far gone with her extreme ideals and the super soldier serum corrupting her zemo doesn't deal with the what ifs he believes in absolutes if we believe there's even a one percent chance that he is our enemy we have to take it as an absolute certainty carly escalated and her actions almost led to catastrophe while sam wasn't the one who killed her she died in his arms when she was beyond redemption but how many paid the price till things got to that point a conclusion that zemo predicted from the start she will not stop she will escalate until you kill her or she kills you by the end of the conflict the flag smashers were taken into custody however zemo eliminated them before they got the chance to become a threat at a later point if carly's acolytes would have went to any prison that would have opened the door for governments to experiment on them which would ultimately create more gods among men while zemo's way is far from moral you can't argue with its effectiveness he killed wilfred nagel to make sure he would never create more super soldiers and later he destroyed all the super serum vials well most of them at least this is also what zemo did in civil war eliminating the super soldiers in siberia before some other nefarious individual or organization got their hands on them sometimes eliminating a threat sooner might be the only option to prevent something far worse no more half measures walter now zemo's hands aren't clean either he broke countless laws committed terrible crimes and murdered innocent people all to achieve his goals as if the ends justify the means but his actions don't contradict his argument zemo isn't a supremacist he isn't seeking ultimate power and he seems to genuinely regret the atrocious things he had to do i'm sorry about your father you seemed a good man for what it's worth i'm sorry it was never personal you were simply a means to a necessary end he's the other side of the coin from the avengers he's willing to do what they want now this sort of makes zemo into a vigilante and most superheroes are vigilantes individuals who decide to take the law into their own hands after the establishment fails to achieve true justice so in a way you can make a case that zemo is the batman to the avengers a man who decided to take the law into his own hands after the establishment the avengers in this case failed to achieve justice due to their arrogance and negligence and the avengers actions proved zemo's argument time and time again when they created time travel technology they didn't consider asking the u.n for approval no they went back in time on their own accord without fully understanding the risks and consequences while things worked out pretty well this once again proves the arrogance of the heroes the opinions of governments and the scientific community didn't matter since the avengers know better and they don't have time for debating the morality of their actions not to mention that the avengers actions tend to create the catastrophes that they attempt to prevent tony stark deciding to create ultron without consulting anyone other than bruce banner who let's be honest isn't the type of guy to say no what we needed was a pseudo armor around the world remember that whether it impacted our precious freedoms and after ultron went rogue tony once again made a similar decision to create vision showing blatant disregard to the consequences of his actions i'm in a loop i'm caught in a time loop this is exactly where it all went i know which makes him a total hypocrite when it comes to the sokovia courts and the avengers might be a little out of touch with the little people as was proven by stark's way to handle the damage control in new york there was no empathy for working men like adrian toomes and his crew who lost their jobs because of his callous decision these guys have a family i have a family i'm all in on this i can lose my house i'm sorry sir there's nothing i can do granted there is a case to be made that a regular salvage crew shouldn't handle dangerous alien tech but when tombs became the vulture and started dealing in dangerous tech tony completely dismissed it as a threat worthy of the avengers there are people who handled this sort of thing the avengers no no no just little below their pay grade indicating that the avengers are too superior to waste their time on small-time criminals like the vulture and the biggest example of iron man being out of touch is the creation of edith an a.i who controls defense satellites capable of launching murder drones and what did tony do he gave a teenager control over this weapon proving that tony did not learn his lesson with ultron tony didn't even bother adding some fail-safe that would have prevented edith from falling into the wrong hands i'd like to transfer your control over to quentin beck waiting for confirmation confirm why because of the arrogance and superiority that zemo warned us about not to mention the countless questionable things the other avengers have done over the years the hawks rampage doctor strange messing with time hawkeye's round and run then in no way home peter asked doctor strange to white people's memories without their consent he wanted to roofie the whole planet you still think there will be no consequences strange no price to pay we broke our rules the bill comes due always and so zemo is right about a lot and his presence in the mcu will forever raise the same question that watchmen asked about heroes who protects the world from the people who protect the world all right so what do you think was zemo right or was i brainwashed by hydra without my knowledge let me know in the comments below or at me on twitter and if it's your first time here please subscribe for screen crush i'm ryan airy [Music] you

Channel: ScreenCrush

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Keywords: marvel, zemo, zemo was right screencrush, falcon winter soldider, mcu, marvel cinematic universe, YouTube's Algorith rules, batman, zemo dance

Id: lP6F1D4hRT0

Length: 20min 0sec (1200 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021