How To Waste A Villain - Black Widow 

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The fact that they forgave the mom, despite her being complicit in the kidnapping and torture of girls for decades, simply because now she “feels bad about it”, is like if we forgave Ghislaine Maxwell.

“If killing others is what you feel so guilty for, why do you still carry a gun?” Such a raw ass line

"can you wipe out that much red?" Actually it'll be super easy, barely an inconvenience.

I was honestly hoping that in the end, when Black Widow sprayed Taskmaster, that instead of immediately turning to Black Widows side Taskmaster would instead continue to try to kill Black Widow, showing that no matter what Natasha does, she can’t outrun her past, forcing her to either kill Taskmaster or come up with another way to change Taskmasters mind

You know what would have been nice to see in a Black Widow movie? Black Widow’s origin story. Her upbringing and training; her first kill; the first time she regretted killing; her turning over to SHIELD and coming up with her exit plan; some interaction with Hawkeye, not just some drawings on a wall

I wish Taskmaster was more like they were in Spider-Man PS4, where he’s obsessed with self improvement. That personality really works with his ability set.

I love when characters are meant to be horrifically disfigured and they have like....a facial scar. Maybe some blemishes or a burn. But they're still pretty and typically not disabled by their wounds. It happens so consistently. Every time.

I still can't get over how Widows character motivation is cleaning the red in her ledger, while she entombs hundreds to thousands of people in an icy avalanche grave that we're literally just doing their job.

The writers of this film should have paid attention to this quote; "The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.” -Alfred Hitchcock

Should've had a dark, gritty, and mature movie about her first becoming an assassin and escaping, dealing with her personal trauma, and learning to stay human and kind despite being trained not to be. Every time they mentioned Budapest I was like "why are we not watching that movie right now?" Also, Dreykov and the Red Room was supposed to be such a disturbing and mysterious organization, yet they turned it into yet another forgettable villain. Natasha has one of the darkest pasts of any hero (there's a reason she has always acted so distant with the Avengers), and the Red Room literally human trafficked little girls, and they just screwed it up. The opening credits were exactly what the movie should've been like, it nailed the dark and mature tone. I thought we would finally get something even more gritty than Winter Soldier. And then it turns into a below-average Marvel movie.

I've brainwashed myself into accepting your storyline as what actually happened in the movie. 🤣

No but the reveal of Natasha not even being brainwashed in your version genuinely shocked me lmao. Please write more stories like this!!!

They did a good job with Yelena and red guardian. The scene where he shows her that he remembers her favorite song and did care about her and Natasha is pretty impactful but it is only between those two characters and not the family as a whole

This perfectly encapsulates why the movie was as bad as it was, Taskmaster literally could’ve been replaced with background soldier #3 and the movie wouldn’t have been any different

That was genius. Endgame would have made so much more sense after this and it would add so much weight on her decision to [spoiler] for the gem. Beautiful.

Wow. That’s an awesome alternate plot. Especially her never being controlled. She was acting willfully. And mind manipulation was a coping mechanism, a way for her to retain what little humanity she had left, while doing evil deeds. That’s just awesome

Loki: "Can you wipe out that much red?" Feige: "There never was any red. Next movie!" I would pay steep money to see your version of Black Widow. Superior.

You see the movie is THAT BAD when Yelena's vest has a better story ark than red guardian does. It's so frustrating to see someone that could be so carismatic or really try his best to become a real father figure or at least prove he's still a hero being waisted with idiotic jokes or/and having his power nerfed for sake of the plot. The final scene of him against Taskmaster could "prove" that he's capable of defeating captain america and could be a really good scene for the character, but they made him a idiot that haves to be saved by melina all the time

Your entire re-imagining of the movie was so good and it even provides further weight to her part in endgame.

I can’t get over how methodical and creative you are, crafting a story that would have been 1,000,000 times more satisfying and relevant to Natasha’s character growth. Loved the video!

TaskMaster was so underwhelming, and that's not even compareing to her comic Male counterpart. On her own, TaskMaster is a waste of a perfectly good antagonist that is the physical embodiment of Natasha's crimes and mistakes, but the character can't even speak so the dynamic is ruined. Black Widow's 3rd act is a joke of a spy movie that relies on explosion and 'evil bad guy exposition' where they explain everything and than conveniently get killed/captured.

the fact that none of these women who have been trained since early childhood have no actual loyalty beyond mind control was what struck me as being absolutely infantile. that... that just doesn't happen. I was waiting for the twist where Taskmaster's mind control cure works... and then she just keeps fighting, because she hates Natasha to her core instead of just following orders.

“Can you wipe out THAT much red?” Super easy! Barely an inconvenience!

One thing that frustrates me so much about this movie, is the fact that Yelena finds out that her mother was the reason for her suffering and mind control, but was simply cool with it? No conflict, no debate. Just like oh well! I had no free will for almost my entire life and my mother’s invention was the reason for it but she’s family so it’s not bad! Also your version is amazing! Gave me chills.

Natasha: "I hate you" Mom & dad: "I love you" Natasha: "I love you"

I love that Loki scene, because he clearly doesn't know what that incredibly specific saying means, and just uses the context to bullshit a response, repeating that same phrase over and over hoping that it will convey the proper message and not reveal the fact that he has no idea what he's talking about And it fucking worked, it genuinely psyched her out

I love how the tweaked ending really connects and hits hard with Natasha’s actions in Endgame. Like she was still hanging on the edge of a cliff, waiting for a moment to really end her guilt and ‘let go’ for good (sad wink) Her sacrifice honestly had more impact for me when her standalone film wasn’t created yet lol.

I feel like most One-Time Villains could be improved by just making them evil for the sake of it. No tragic backstory, no deeper reason, just evil for the sake of it.

"If killing others is what your feeling so guilty for, why do you still carry a gun?" That is such a badass line. Taskmaster is one of my favorite Marvel villans. And having him presented as a hollow shell is really disappointed. That said, I would love to see your adaptation of the movie instead.

*"Go ahead. Shoot me. What better way for a murderer to redeem themselves than to murder some more?"* Damn TCL. That quote slaps hard.

I came here to see how Black Widow could've been a better movie. Saying that i'm thoroughly impressed with your ideas would be an understatement. Someone should hire you to write these movies.

I love your take on how Black Widow should've gone. One little extra thing I thought you could add would be to the scene where Taskmaster raids their mum's farm. While the Red Guardian is getting beaten down, and Natasha is running away, they both look at each other and he smiles. Then the Red Guardian would slowly get up, exhausted, but then say to Taskmaster "I can do this all night". (Ofc, under the premise that the attack is done at night) This would help to solidify the connection between the Red Guardian and Captain America that was stated throughout the film as well as be a great character moment for him in showing his selflessness to protect his family. Natasha could even overhear this and have this be the moment to turn her back around to help.

I hate when people do for free what people paid millions of dollars can't: your version of this would have been amazing.

Your story take is much more sincere and haunting than what we got. The problem with the movie that we got, tries to excuse Black Widow of all her wrong doings with the contrive "programmed against their freedom" plot and pheromones.

Personally I think it would have been cool if they didn’t reveal who taskmaster is, instead having them being a faceless embodiment of her past, that way they could return later and show some more of taskmaster’s copying.

That alternate movie made me depressed af, its brilliant 👏🏽 I loved the twist of her having free will all along. Such a chilling revelation. I wish we had your version!

ironic that, loki said can you wipe that much red, but she literally just puts more red on someone

My biggest problem with the movie is how tone killer it is, like, we start the movie with a serious, dark tone with little girls been kidnapped in containers from their families and homes, and then we have a final battle in a big, sci-fi, hidden, "secret" station floating in the sky

I feel smart but dumb, I was able to tell the villain learned fighting styles from enemies after the first 2 appearances, but I expected it to be a robot, not some husk of a person

Thank you for getting rid of the hormones that was so stupid and played into weak women trope. Your version was SOOOO much better. Shame you didn’t write it!

I seriously don’t understand how no one has hired you yet. These rewrites never cease to impress me

I did a summary of Taskmaster's comic book version if you're interested: Imagine a child. A child that was considered a prodigy by many, someone who would go on to become a legend, revolutionizing the world with his aptitudes. The child was neither a super-hero nor a mutant, but he had a talent, something he could call his own despite only allowing him to borrow others' strength. The gift that Mother Nature granted him was a photographic memory. He could perfectly remember everything, every book he ever read was ingrained in his mind, and even to some degree mimic some professionals' skills in sports. Being a good person, a hopeful and optimist one, while also growing up in a loving environment, he decided to become someone that would help others, the ones that couldn't defend themselves, being really confident in his own skills as well as having a good leadership. But one day... Everything fell apart. A simple mission in theory, something that he and his team have done multiple times flawlessly... During a raid on a neo-nazi's hideout, the opponents unexpectedly skillfully defended themselves, and the mission was about to fail, getting everyone killed. But the man couldn't just stand by, he had to save his comrades, and the woman he loved with all of his heart. So, in an instant, he grabbed the serum created by the deranged researcher they were supposed to arrest, and drank it. It was supposed to create super-soldiers capable of competing against Steve Roger. But on the man, that was already too skilled for a simple human, the serum turned him from a hero into a monster. His skills got completely out of hand, giving him the ability to even imitate super-heroes movements and techniques flawlessly, but as the newfound power plagued his mind, what was deemed useless got discarded. His greatest strength became a curse, every time he copies someone, he loses more of his identity, becoming the greatest copycat, his individuality being the price. As he went on the rampage in the hideout, his mind slowly erased the very reason he started it in the first place, as the woman he married could only watch him lose himself in horror. His photographic ability, ended up giving him short-term memory and amnesia. Nowadays the one we call "Taskmaster" trains upcoming super-villains, as skillfully as he did his comrades, ironically not being able to remember them as soon as they leave the academy. He also decided to become a gun-for-hire, probably because you don't need to remember anyone, when you're tasked with bringing death upon humans. He now wanders as a lone soul, simply executing what others tell him to do. A serum of strength took away his life... So that others could keep theirs.

The ending... made me cry just hearing it. Imagine what could have happened if it actually happpened.

Amazing change to the story, but there needs to be a mention of Dreykovs daughter since she was mentioned in Avengers. I'm not saying she has to be Taskmaster, but she just needs to be mentioned somewhere in this movie.

“If killing others is what you feels so guilty for… why do you carry a gun” got me I wish that is what happen in the film

I really hope that since the armor of Taskmaster still exists in the MCU, the real Taskmaster in the comics, Anthony Masters, will find the armor in a future movie or show (possibly Armor Wars) and redeem the character. Please Marvel, please, Taskmaster had absolutely no lines don’t end it there 🙏🥺

Beautiful rewrite! I for one would've added more family time in the beginning (at least 15 minutes) with one scene of a completely improvised dance choreography performed by Alexi, Yelena and Natasha standing out and setting up a way of the three of them ultimately taking down Taskmaster since none of their movement patterns can be predicted due to their "jazz-esque" nature.

I was so shocked by that mindcontrol plot twist with Dreykov. I need to see that on screen, that was some amazing writing my friend

Filmento also made a good point on how the movie loses its spy thriller vibe as it progresses. Which is what disappointed me the most because the character of Black Widow lives on a completely different world and genre than the rest of the other characters. That intro sequence was legit the best.

I honestly don’t care about the gender swap, the problem was how underused and robotic the character was

My goodness your version is SO much better

If you want to see such dynamic between hero and villain, read the Vinland Saga Manga, it starts showing how much "red" thorfinn accumulated, and later on, it will start to have said dynamic, i truly recommend it

Maybe less important but boy does Natasha age well. We’re shown the scene when she spares the child and then shown the subsequent scene where her TREMENDOUS memory, despite recovering from brain washing immediately recalls a child’s face years later, and she herself looks not a day older

They could've added more depth to Taskmaster, she's just someone being controlled, barely a character. They could've had a flashback where Ana is out of ICU and she finds out Natasha is the one who tried to kill her so she spends the rest of her life training to take out Natasha, watches her and the other avengers from previous events, learns their moves and adopts the codename Taskmaster. Civil War happens, the team is disfigured and Ana then makes her move.

I really loved the way you changed the character arcs. Now it feels earned what happens with Black Widow in End Game. Bravo!

To me this movie wasn't ok.....it was awful because i thought "Hell yea , we're finally getting a marvel movie that isnt overrun by jokes and has emotion" but this movie disappointed. There are some scenes that are filled with emotion but most of the scenes (especially scenes with red guardian) are ruined for a dumb joke or a bad action scene. The final twist also has no emotion because this whole movie we don't see natasha have even little regret , instead when yelena tells her how she killed darkov's daughter, she calls her "collateral damage" (i think) there a re many more problems also

As a writer and storyteller, Taskmaster was one of the most ignored characters to date. I was so excited for her dialogue and emotion, how she fit into this world of heroes and villains. I just... ack. It didn't seem like they cared about how they wrote Tasky.

I'm starting to notice a pattern with their high concept projects (Black Panther, WandaVision, Falcon & Winter Soldier, Black Widow). They always set up big moral/societal questions that could be great, but they undercut it with a lazy ending.

The brainwashing of Taskmaster was interesting, and when broken from that her first question is "is he gone?" (or something of that sort) Which you know what? Probably having a good idea of how much a monster her father is, and becoming a lab rat for his work is interesting. But they never explore that. Taskmaster was sidelined so hard the whole time was disappointing.

“It wasn’t awful, it was just okay” Um. I think Mauler would beg to differ on this particular film… he makes his position pretty clear in his four hour video where he absolutely tears apart every single aspect of this movie. Dude was extremely thorough in his dissection

In my opinion of Drakov's death, is the most funniest villain death in whole MCU. He like "ahhh~" burn off just like that and his glasses survive wtf. 9:04

When you said "most forgettable villain since Malekith" I unironically thought to myself "Who?".... so spot on assessment there! :)

21:35 as a writer, that part gave me goosebumps, you shouldve wrote the movie

I absolutely love what you did if you could kind of make a fanfic out of it I would watch it. You absolutely saved the character of taskmaster and give us a compelling story for black widow. I think having taskmaster not be under his own control heavily takes away from the character I mean she doesn’t even speak any words no lines at all where is the depth for the personal vendetta when it’s revealed.

"If you want to kill me, do it. Because you deserve it and I deserve it too." Actual tears in my eyes. Imagine we got this movie and not the... action figure advertisement that it is. Amazingly done changes to the script, the whole rewrite was much more compelling 👏

Having just seen Black Widow today myself, I completely agree with all your points. It's a film that had a lot of brilliant points and lot of potential but ironically when it came to payoff and action in general it fell flat

bro this video made me experience a wider range of emotion than black widow. you explaining up made me tear up

I love this storyline so much more than the original. This was the storyline we deserved .

I think that the twist about drakov's daughter being taskamster ruins the entire single arc of taskmaster, a charecter capable of so much more...this is pure dissatisfaction Also, not giving her her own mind really ruins the charecter

This film couldn’t redeem Black Widow, because she already did that in End Game. She sacrificed her life to not only save Hawkeye, but half of all life in the universe. Her self-sacrifice was crucial. And this movie spits on that sacrifice, by cutting off the scene where her sister mourns her death, with a comedic nose-blowing, followed up with a joke about being allergic to the Midwest. If you didn’t think Marvel was incapable of writing real humans, or meaningful drama, this should be all the proof you need. The mourning of a character’s death, a character we’ve known for close to 10 years, was cut short by a joke, and bait for future movies/TV shows. This is what Marvel does. It takes the moments you want to see, and either goes “We’ve put half the moment you want to see in this movie, watch the next one to see the whole thing”, or “Watch the next thing to see this moment”, and so the entire series is just “Oh man, I can’t wait for that moment that they baited!”, with no one taking the time to realize a lot of the “moments” in the thing they just watched, were kind of lackluster, or downright awful. We all wanted a Black Widow movie after Iron Man 2, and honestly, I think if it had come out back then, it would have been better.

Dude, your version of this movie sounds absolutely god tier. I want to see that Taskmaster SO BAD now

I actually gasped when you said natasha was never brainwashed and i was actually invested in your "fanfic". Like i felt that it was so good. Love your analysis too

Imagine if taskmaster WASN'T under mind control... That she was motivated by pure revenge and BW tried the red dust and it didn't initially work. Being faced with no escape but to finally face the death she's been escaping for years

Okay but wasn't the most frustrating thing about Taskmaster the one scene in the third act where she confronted Red Guardian. Like he spent the whole film comparing himself to Captain America and talking about the battle they likely never had. Then at the end of the film you have a character who can copy anyones fighting style and she has a shield. Wouldn't it have been amazing to have Taskmaster say something Captain America like and start fighting like Captain America. Then Red Guardian could have that cathartic moment of actually fighting what is essentially Captain America, if he wins, great, if he gets beat also cool. So many great lines could hvae come out of that. Instead we just cut away and miss the whole fight. Literally the moment before it cut I was so hyped it was upsetting.

That took a really dark turn. I can see why Disney would never accept your version, which is pretty damn amazing.

This is what I love most about this channel. Even during major criticism, you don't resort to uncontrolled ranting or taking shots at fans of the movie, like some other channels I've seen. You're a lot more calm and careful to explain why you think a certain way about a movie, so even if I disagree with something you say, I can still understand and accept your point of view. Maybe not 100% calm, but still a lot more mellow (although I do totally agree with everything in this video)

The little changes you made get even better when you realize she uses batons instead of guns after the time this movie is set on

The mistake of Marvel was sacrificing character dynamics on the altar of allegory, they wanted to focus on the evil old guy using mind control to subjugate women and even his daughter rather than Natasha’s sins, they even go so far as basically one-upping Natasha’s willingness to kill an innocent child for revenge by making the guy turn the kid into a puppet

You're story actually gave me chills! It would be so much better then what we got! I'd just change the ending, instead of Taskmaster saying "if killing others is what you're feeling so guilty for, why do you still carry a gun?" He would say "if you feel so guilty about killing others, I will let you live with your guilt, that is your worst punishment".

Gonna be honest, im a huge black widow fan and i loved the movie, but the story that you just explained is SO GOOD!!!!!

They took Taskmaster and took away everything that makes Taskmaster, Taskmaster, outside of the name and a mask that vaguely looks like a skeleton face.

I love when you do the alternate plots even if it makes me depressed because of what it could’ve been. However if Natasha were to throw her gun away it wouldn’t make much sense given the timeline as she then goes back to using it again in infinity war, end game and later installments. I do like the idea thi

I've got to say it, you are making yourself into a master storyteller by doing these videos. The way you can define flaws, explain how to make them better, and then take the time to rewrite them into something a thousand times better is going to make your own stories works of art. I can't wait to see what you write and publish. I'll definitely be buying and reading all your stuff as soon as it releases!

"Can you wipe out that much red?" That's a very loaded question, and one that shouldn't be answered lightly. And sometimes, there isn't a full, complete answer or resolution to that. If you want to see a good example of how to explore that question, take a look at Fullmetal Alchemist's Roy Mustang. Very similar situation where the government coerced him to participate in mass genocide, but it was still ultimately his choice, no matter how much pain and guilt he carries with him. And he spends the entire rest of his life trying to take down a corrupt government to right the wrongs of his country--all of which may end up with his own execution if his new government decides to try him as a war criminal. Can you really wipe out that much red? In Roy Mustang's view, no. Nothing will ever atone or make up for the loss of a life. What decides your legacy is how to choose to respond to your own circumstances. Will you do all you can to keep moving forward by trying to make this world a better place? Will you run from it and try to hide your guilt? Or will you give it all up completely? These are the types of questions that I would have loved to see explored in this movie, because who Natasha is as a character is not her past--but how she decides to react to it.

This man speaks like my English teacher. I find the resemblance amusing, especially how they both emphasise their points in a similar fashion, and how their voices change similarly depending on what they want to express (e.g. absurdity, amusement, annoyance)

The Winter Soldier already did everything that this movie attempted to do, and did it a thousand times better.

Dude. That ending made me CRY just be you describing it… so beautiful

Jeeeez those story revisions you did for this movie actually made me want to see THAT movie over the one we got. Like holy shit that would've been an amazing film. I will say tho I really like Yelena in the Black widow movie but your revised black widow movie not only gives Taskmaster life but also just feels more impact full. Fuck... I want to see that movie

Imagine Taskmaster being who she was in a movie, but she has free will and is a mercenary that works for her dad, but also for revenge on Natasha. No other changes in plot.

In my words "Black widow lacks the love usually given to the production of MCU movies" It looks like it was made by people who never wanted this movie to be made

I wish I lived in the alternate universe where your version of Black Widow is the one they produced.

I actually watch Black Widow today, and it was so bland. After hearing your version, I made your version canon in my mind. It is far better and didn't retcon anything between Civil War and Infinite War.

“They only needed a few changes to make this movie great” Rewrites the entire movie

Holy! That rewrite was so awesome and makes the villans so much more impactful and interesting. I got genuine goosebumps at the reveal there was no mind control , you are so talented 👏

I know I’m late to this video but I just have to say that I so deeply appreciate your channel. The amount of unforgiving effort you put into these videos is always a welcome and admirable relief. I love that you don’t simply judge writers for making objectively bad decisions with their material, but rather seek to explore upon and in many cases, improve upon what their work could have been. I’m not sure if you’ll see this but please keep doing what your doing. You have my full support and I look forward to what is soon to come from this channel. Subscribed!

Bro, how does this guy make a 10x better storyline than an entire team of people, and then also make a super interesting video about the original movies problems. That is talent

Taskmaster has one line: “is he gone?” after getting the “red gunk” in her face. Still a terrible decision

“To look at a great example of character growth and development, let’s look at Pixar’s UP” *UP intro music starts playing* That was a blindsiding attack Closer Look

Thank you. I have been watching your videos every day for the past three days or so. I like how you break everything down in your analyses. Make everything simple for me to see in my head. Going to keep watching your videos daily and when I find myself I need a break from writing and need some creative juices flowing again I know where I am going to come. Thanks again so much. May the force be with you.