Alita: Battle Angel vs. The Mary Sue

For a bit of context, on the opening weekend of Captain Marvel, there was the #Alitachallenge, the objective of which was obvious; to boycott Captain Marvel and support Alita: Battle Angel instead. Unfortunately but somewhat inevitably, while Alita: Battle Angel did see a slight uptick, the Marvel movie dominated the box office, what a surprise, and the #Alitachallenge failed. But as I said in my previous post, while Alita: Battle Angel fell far behind Captain Boring at the box office, it has attracted a passionate fanbase consisting of people who feel that it deserves more love than it gets, as well as people who feel that it deserves more love than Captain Boring, needless to say, as a fan of Alita: Battle Angel and an enemy of Social Justice, I count myself among this passionate group. Alita: Battle Angel does however present a thorn in the side of Captain Marvel, it being a film with a female lead that came out a month ahead of Captain Marvel and didn't receive any sexist backlash, while Captain Marvel apparently did. This is quite the conundrum for defenders of Captain Marvel as a female led film was in cinemas at the same time as Captain Marvel, yet didn't steal any of the sexist manbabys' ire, blowing a hole in the notion that female led movies are unpopular because of sexism long before Captain Marvel hit the billion mark.

Now, to any normal person, the answer to this conundrum is quite obvious; Captain Marvel just wasn't very good, but had feminists and social justice advocates scrambling to defend it because they'd chosen it as a bastion of their ideology, and had gone on the offensive against anyone who challenged that, dismissing them as misogynists because it's easier and more convenient than arguing back and getting their zealotry crushed. But not only do they have to mentally navigate around the existence of the Alien series, the Underworld series, the Resident Evil series, the Hunger Games series, the Tomb Raider series, Terminator one and two, and DC's female led heavy hitter; Wonder Woman, they now have to navigate around the existence of a female led action film that came in the current year, one that was still in theatres while Captain Marvel fought off the so-called misogynists, the mental gymnastics on that must be very taxing. Elsewhere on the web, we find ourselves on the Mary Sue, which, behind Rotten Tomatoes and maybe The Guardian, is one of my favourite punching bags because it's a feminist rag, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, staffed almost entirely by the very mental gymnasts that we're looking for. Somewhat recently, the Mary Sue published an article by one Chelsea Steiner titled; "How Alita: Battle Angel Found an Unlikely Fanbase in MRA Trolls," and when my favourite rag goes after my current favourite film of 2019 or anything else that I love, you know that I'm going to get involved, heaven help them if they start talking shit about Godzilla.
https://www.themarysue.com/alita-battle-angel-fanbase-mra-trolls/

Our article starts off with some serious fire, talking about 'internet trolls' as though they were demons or something; they hate women running for office, not sure how that's relevant, but ok. They hate non-white people in Star Wars, because apparently there was a widespread racist backlash against Mace Windu and Lando Calrissian, oh wait, no there wasn't. I'm assuming that our author is referring to John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran here, and in typical fashion, they are boiling the issue down to racism, because Rose Tico was awesome, totally, everyone loved her and she made a valuable contribution to the film, and she totally didn't make everything awkward by stopping Finn from Martyring himself because she fancies him. I'm not going to say that Tran and even Boyega haven't had some shit sent their way, that's the internet for you, but as usual, you're oversimplifying and generalising the problem and in doing so, ignoring the real issue. Tico wasn't a good character, her contribution to the story wasn't productive, in fact, it was one of the things that held the film back, and I'm saying that as someone who liked it. Like progressives like yourself usually do though, you're deliberately ignoring the real issue that people have because it's easier and more convenient to just call them racists. No longwinded explanation is needed for the next bit however, "and oh boy do they hate female superheroes." *cough* Wonder Woman *cough*.

Our author is right about The Mary Sue being experts however, you are very versed in spinning, misrepresenting and lying to spread your narrative, case in point, your articles are "inundated with angry comments, tweets and hate mail for angry anonymous dudes who are furious because WOMEN." I think you misspelled Wamen there, luv, it has an A in it, but do you see my point; spin, misrepresentation and lies, the Mary Sue isn't constantly under attack from angry dudes, but saying that it is is a great way to belittle and undermine the people calling you out on your shit, but that's just feminism for you, something something misogyny harassment something. But then we see something that, in this article, is unusually strong, we get some fire from our author, we get insults; likening the backlash against Captain Boring to a herpes outbreak and calling it "impotent male rage" from "men in basements", and that's all in one sentence. Remind me again author, who has the problem with who, is it men who have a problem with women, or do you have a problem with men, or, more likely, people who disagree with you, people who you will then liken to herpes and insult them as basement dwelling, impotent ragers. But returning to the story, a lot of people had a problem with Captain Boring, and unfortunately, a large part of that problem was her outspoken feminism, because feminism is cancer. And as for her "impassioned call for diversity in film journalism," you mean her belittling of white male critics because their opinions don't matter, as I said, spin and misrepresentation, Brie Larson is a bigot, and the likes of the Mary Sue will talk around that truth until the end of their days because they're all bigots too, they're just the right kind of bigot.

What our author doesn't seem to realise in her next point however is when she says it's "egg-profiled babymen with 11 followers" attacking people who liked Captain Marvel, she has successfully identified the trolls; tiny anonymous accounts that exist solely to insult and argue with people, but I actually think she does realise that and is lumping genuine criticism of Captain Marvel's feminism and Brie Larson's bigotry in with them because it's easier to dismiss it then, like a couple of morons with egg accounts on twitter represent the entirely of people critical of Captain Boring, who, as we all know, is basically Jesus. She also lumps MRA's into this camp, now, MRA, for the uninitiated, stands for Men's Rights Activist, and depending on who you ask, they're either a counter-movement to the rising influence of modern feminism, or terrorists, feminists are reasonable like that. Them being a counter-movement to feminism, is it any wonder that feminists loath them, because they stand against everything that feminism is, and as such, have become a sort of bogeyman within feminism, a strawman of the neck breaded, fedora tipping misogynist who stalks in the dark corners of message boards and comments sections, a creature whose only source of joy in the world is tearing down women. At this point, you may be wondering how such a group is relevant to Alita: Battle Angel, I'm rather curious myself, actually, but like another movement you've probably heard of; Gamergate, Feminists and Progressives have a hard time letting go of their demons, especially when they are demons of their own making.

Our author then turns her attention to Alita: Battle Angel, because apparently one Jack Posobiec is the mind behind the #Alitachallenge, and he's an alt-right troll. Now, I've never heard of this guy, so I'm going to be taking a believe it when I see it attitude as to whether or not he's an alt-right troll, but he's not all that important here. What's important is the #Alitachallenge, and it's almost like our author takes joy in rubbing it in that it failed, seemingly ignorant of the myriad of factors involved in said failure. Chief among them being that Alita: Battle Angel is a new, unproven franchise based on a manga, one that was also in its fourth week, whereas Captain Boring is the latest in the very well established MCU and came out only a few weeks ahead of Avengers: Endgame, one of the most anticipated films in history. I find our author's theories as to why Alita became the anti-Captain Marvel interesting though, mainly the one about James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez, who produced and directed the film, respectively, being fanboy patron saints, which I assume is our author trying to subtly dismiss one of the holes in her worldview, that annoying little film from the 80's; Aliens. And as for her other theory that it's because Fox isn't owned by Disney, what utter nonsense. Keep in mind, A; that Fox has made plenty of films over the years that pissed off fanboys, just look at their Marvel films, and B; Star Wars was going great until The Last Jedi, and Marvel was going great until Captain Marvel, these supposed misogynistic and racist backlashes are very recent occurrences, and they have happened because of, as you said earlier, things like Captain Marvel's outspoken feminism, as well as the host of things that were wrong with The Last Jedi.

But of course, our author has an issue with Alita: Battle Angel, throwing in everyone's favourite non-point, that the character features "several problematic tropes," like the so-called 'born sexy yesterday trope,' which sounds like nonsense, but is in fact the feminist notion of an "innocent childlike [woman] who also [possesses] massive power but can't find their way without a man." Like most feminist film tropes, that probably went over your head, and to be honest, it went over mine, I took media studies in High School too. I think what our author is trying to say though is that Alita's character is partially defined by the actions of Ido and Hugo, and that this is problematic because she needs a man to help her, and women don't need no men. Yeah, because characters who don't ever need help or guidance are gripping to watch *couch* Captain Boring *cough*. My understanding of this trope is that female heroes who can't do everything themselves are problematic, which sounds about right, because all women are without fault and certainly don't need a man's help, as any feminist will claim with demented zeal. Like all feminist tropes however, I doubt any normie would give a damn, they would probably think that the relationship between Alita and Ido is cute, because it is, and they'd probably find Alita's pining for Hugo cute too, because it is, Alita seeing a pretty boy and falling in love is cute, who cares if it upsets the fragile sensibilities of feminism.

Oh but we're just getting started, think criticising Alita for being a "problematic trope" is peak feminism? think again. Because apparently Alita also "taps into the male fantasy of a submissive girl robot devoted to her man." What? Is that a male fantasy, having a girl robot? "Slavish devotion to Hugo" too, she's a slave now as well as a fantasy fulfilling robot. Our author goes on to give a bunch of examples of this "sexbot character" like the replicants from Blade Runner, which is a can of worms I can't be arsed to open again, and Austin Powers, a comedy that takes the piss out of James Bond, because apparently feminists are too busy finding things problematic to find "machine gun jubblies, how did I miss those, baby" funny. She also mentions the existence of such bots in films also being men sometimes, a point that kind of ruins her own point that this is entirely a male fantasy, but what can you do. I'll tell you what I can do, argue against this notion. Let's just address the word robot first, because yes, sexbots exist now, in a world where about one third of men between twenty and thirty aren't having sex, modern problems require modern solutions, I guess. But as for the notion that men like submissive women, I'm not going to deny that, I can imagine that plenty of them do, but what makes you think that this is entirely a male fantasy. Need I remind you, dear author, that Fifty Shades of Grey is a best-selling book series, and that the film trilogy based on it grossed over a billion dollars at the box office, and I don't think that was the work of men; boyfriends and husbands under duress, maybe, but not men in general. Maybe being submissive is a popular fantasy for women too, did you ever think of that. And none of that matters anyway because Alita isn't a sexbot, what a belittling thing to say, the female hero of this action film that people love is just a toy for male pleasure, sounds to me like someone's a little insecure, and possibly projecting their insecurities just a little, what's the matter, jealous?

But Alita isn't a sexbot, and I would be glad that our author can see that, but not because of how absurd and belittling it sounds, but because apparently, she's something worse; "She is a lovebot." I say again, What? For starters, she scene where she offers Hugo her heart is not early on in the film, but that's not important, what is is that you think that her love for Hugo is unearned, and that this somehow belittles Alita as a character, reduces her to a "lovebot" which is somehow worse than a sexbot. I'm very curious as to why you think this is worse, never mind that it's nonsense anyway. I mean, I can at least see why a feminist such as yourself would have an issue with sexbots, because of the whole sexual objectification thing and men not seeing women as anything more than objects for their pleasure, not that it's true, but I can understand that, but a lovebot? what's wrong with a man wanting to be loved, and what's wrong with a woman being unshakably in love with a man, or do you think that a woman who gives herself to a man in this way is objectifying herself against her own wishes and best interests, because, again, Fifty Shades. But how is Alita loving Hugo problematic, does it tap into some male fantasy about being loved by women, because that would be evil, how dare men for wanting to be loved, those pigs.

We are nearing the end of this article, you may be happy to know, but we're not out of the woods yet. Our author then deploys another feminist trope I've never heard of, the "girls with guns" trope, which is when a female character being violent is confused with her having agency. Ok then, let's go for the home run on this one; because do you know who's a character that suffers from this "girls with guns" trope? Captain Marvel. Oh yes, we're going there, Carol Danvers is a character who never makes a choice of her own, she gets told what to do by the Kree before going rogue, after being told to do so by a Skrull, she has to be told that she is powerful, and in the film's finale, she uses violence as an out because she's too scared to stand up to her former mentor and friend. Carol Danvers doesn't have agency, she's just a violent character that's always getting told what to do, which doesn't sound very feminist to me, in fact, it sounds rather problematic, good luck unpacking that one. And how cute that you could use this issue of tropes to just hand Alita off to the trolls, after all, by your own words, entitled fanboys love female empowerment, but you have to spin that into being a negative because so-called MRA trolls are literally evil and they infect everything they touch with their misogyny. So much for female empowerment being good, no, it's only good when you approve of it. Alita: Battle Angel has gathered a following of devoted fans, fans that hate women, but also love female empowerment and desire for women to love them, yeah, makes perfect sense.


The Wrong Kind of Woman
I think the problem isn't that these fans hate women, it's that they hate feminism, which, to a feminist, might as well mean the same thing because they're all idiots. And like a disease, these evil, vile, repulsive MRA trolls infect everything they touch, like Herpes, am I right, author? So it doesn't matter how much of a badass Alita is, or how empowered she is, feminists and progressives will jump through as many hoops as it takes to justify ignoring the relevance of Alita: Battle Angel in this culture war, a war that Alita: Battle Angel has no part in outside of what it's come to represent in the shadow of Captain Marvel. And this also proves, again, that feminists don't really care about women in film or female empowerment; if they did, they'd be celebrating Alita as a hero for women, but they don't want that, they want a film that'll pat them on the back, that'll tell them they're right, and Captain Marvel is that film, so here we are. Because people like you, author, may think that you know what female empowerment is, but you don't; female empowerment isn't a hero who can't fail, who never feels pain and is absolutely morally righteous, it's a hero doing the right thing, no matter how much it costs, no matter how much it hurts. It doesn't matter how hard she can punch or if she can fly, what matters is what beats inside her chest, and Alita's heart is literally powerful enough to power a city. But by all means, surrender more ground to your mortal enemy, give them more ammunition to fight you with, I'm sure it's worth it to not taint yourself with their misogynistic adoration of a female action hero.