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Thinking about Zemo, as you do
I rewatched some of his scenes in Civil War yesterday ...
It actually ended up influencing a couple bits of Soldat, because he's so incredibly subdued and emotionally buttoned down, much more so than in the show. He made absolutely no impression on me whatsoever when I watched the movie before, I didn't even remember him (much), and while that's a pretty common experience for me to have with characters before I started paying attention to them - there are a lot of examples where I went back and rewatched later and they were entirely themselves from the beginning - I think Zemo in CW actually is much less vivid and vibrant than he is in TFATWS.
But! I mean!! The metatextual explanation could easily be down to directing or writing or whatever, but it makes complete sense in-universe that he'd be emotionally shut down and largely affectless, because his family just died - about a year or so earlier if the MCU timeline at that point was still roughly synced to the actual years, I think. He's severely depressed, suicidal, and grieving. Which, I mean, is obviously "Cool motive, still murder," but it does explain why he's so entirely goal-oriented and emotionally flat throughout the movie.
He's still a little bit that way when Bucky comes to see him in the German prison, at least at first - I love how visibly and completely he turns on when Bucky mentions the serum and Zemo realizes that he has another goal. But he's also had several years to recover, as much as one can, and gets out of prison with a hedonistic interest in feeling things again.
It's just interesting to me that, whatever the behind-the-scenes reasons for it, you can connect those emotional beats so easily in what shows up onscreen.
Also, I need to go watch everything Daniel Brühl has ever been in.
It actually ended up influencing a couple bits of Soldat, because he's so incredibly subdued and emotionally buttoned down, much more so than in the show. He made absolutely no impression on me whatsoever when I watched the movie before, I didn't even remember him (much), and while that's a pretty common experience for me to have with characters before I started paying attention to them - there are a lot of examples where I went back and rewatched later and they were entirely themselves from the beginning - I think Zemo in CW actually is much less vivid and vibrant than he is in TFATWS.
But! I mean!! The metatextual explanation could easily be down to directing or writing or whatever, but it makes complete sense in-universe that he'd be emotionally shut down and largely affectless, because his family just died - about a year or so earlier if the MCU timeline at that point was still roughly synced to the actual years, I think. He's severely depressed, suicidal, and grieving. Which, I mean, is obviously "Cool motive, still murder," but it does explain why he's so entirely goal-oriented and emotionally flat throughout the movie.
He's still a little bit that way when Bucky comes to see him in the German prison, at least at first - I love how visibly and completely he turns on when Bucky mentions the serum and Zemo realizes that he has another goal. But he's also had several years to recover, as much as one can, and gets out of prison with a hedonistic interest in feeling things again.
It's just interesting to me that, whatever the behind-the-scenes reasons for it, you can connect those emotional beats so easily in what shows up onscreen.
Also, I need to go watch everything Daniel Brühl has ever been in.
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I actually remembered Zemo from Civil War long after most of the rest of that film had failed to stick in any meaningful way with me, even though it wasn't until his next-to-last scene that he interested me as a character rather than a performance (he had an interesting face, it was impossible not to notice that): the thwarted suicide and the fact that for the first time we are seeing the real person rather than any of his momentary, necessary masks; he puts on that barbed triumph for Ross afterward, but to T'Challa he doesn't even sound like he's won. That riveted me. I am retrospectively glad that that shape-changing, that ambiguity—especially how far the audience can learn to tell what's true with him—was an element that TFATWS chose to lean into in a major way.
But I agree that he's less colorful: grief and vengeance, not bathrobes or Turkish delight. It's just impressive to me how much in emotional continuity he feels with himself when half the time these movies can't be bothered to carry over minimal character beats, or plot sense.
Also, I need to go watch everything Daniel Brühl has ever been in.
He is as wonderful as advertised in Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), which if encountered after his work in the MCU gives further resonance to the importance of countries which no longer exist.
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Of course, I enjoyed his scenes with Sam&Bucky in the Falcon show in a different way!
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The AbyssZemo-and-BuckySam-land this summer. In fact I'm having some amount of trouble thinking of other times when that's happened to me, having one characterization (or role for a character) get firmly established and then having it abruptly change. I mean, I love villain redemption arcs, so it probably HAS happened, but usually not over installments of canon happening across a series of years, generally more like in whatever time period it takes me to watch the canon in the first place.But as far as writing a character as a villain and then having them migrate to ally or antihero or whatever in future installments of canon ... I'm drawing a blank on times it's happened in my active fandoms with characters I was currently writing! Maybe Jack, a little bit, since he went much harder Team Carter in season 2, but I was already writing him that way anyway. XD
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It wasn't something that impacted me at the time, but now, rewatching with his future canon in mind, he's just so raw and real in that scene. I remember some complaints at the time the movie came out because he's not the kind of dynamic, punch-em-up antagonist that most of the Marvel (movie) antagonists are, but that makes him fascinating to me in hindsight: he does have an action-hero type of skillset due to his military background, but he can't go toe-to-toe with anyone who has superpowers or superstrength; he'll never win in a head-on fight. I have often tended to gravitate toward the "badass normal" characters in magical or superpower canons anyway - for variable definitions of badass, but the ordinary feet-on-the-ground people who have no magic or powers have often been the ones I wanted to know about the most, and that's certainly the case here. Especially since his most prominent characteristics as an antagonist or a sort of antihero/ally are not to go immediately and only to violence - he obviously can, but he has a much broader skill set to work with.
It's just impressive to me how much in emotional continuity he feels with himself when half the time these movies can't be bothered to carry over minimal character beats, or plot sense.
I know! That's a surprise to me too, for the same reasons, and I don't know how much of it is Daniel Brühl's acting and how much is the writers of F&WS actually thinking about the emotional underpinnings of the character to a surprising degree. This is another show that's kind of plot-stupid but actually very solid on its emotional core.
He is as wonderful as advertised in Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), which if encountered after his work in the MCU gives further resonance to the importance of countries which no longer exist.
This is definitely going to be one of my first things to check out! That and The Alienist, which looks like something I would enjoy. The fact that I haven't done either so far is a testament to how rarely I watch TV, but I tend to watch more of it heading into the fall/winter.
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