Avengers: Red Skull, Soul Stone and Black Widow Psychology and Philosophy

Avengers: Red Skull, Soul Stone and Black Widow Psychology and Philosophy

"Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots... Infinity Stones."

―The Collector

Watching Captain America: the First Avenger, when Red Skull touched the tesseract and seemed to burn up as we was abducted in a iridescent beam of light, I thought, “That looks fatal, but I feel like he will come back in a big way.”

When Red Skull and Dr. Zola first utilized the tesseract, they used a contraption they had built to harness the energy, even though they didn’t know what the energy was. The tesseract didn’t need any special equipment, being the space stone, it created that aspect of us, and so we are all intrinsically tied to it. This means that you can operate it without instructions or anything else. When Red Skull touched it, it took him exactly where he wanted to be most—it bypassed all of the intermediate steps and skipped to the final destination, which was the soul stone. That was what he wanted so badly, because it was what he lacked most. The other five aspects of life from the other five infinity stones he didn’t feel as much of a need.

We all know people who seem to have no concept of time, someone who shows up an hour and half late to almost everything, but although incredibly annoying, we don’t consider it evil. We all know people who have no concept of space, either personal space, or boxes stacked to the roof hoarder kind of space, and although odd, we don’t consider them evil. We all know someone who has no concept of vision, they seem to have no goals in life and seem unable to plan beyond the next weekend, and though pitiful, we don’t consider then evil. We all know someone who seems to have no concept of reality, someone who can’t seem to get much momentum in life, because they are always tripping on one obvious fact and then stumbling and tripping on the next one, and though painful to watch, we don’t consider them evil. We all know someone who seems powerless to do pretty much anything, perpetual victims, and though a burden at times, we don’t consider them evil either…

What is it about having no concept of souls that seems so evil?

I’m not saying it’s not, but I think there is something to be gained with looking into the difference between trying to tamper with a soul, and trying to tamper with reality, time, space or anything else. If we can no concept of one aspect of life, that means that we would have to use another concept of life in its place. If we don’t have a concept of souls, we likely have see souls as something else—maybe that souls are space or time to fill, power to use, reality to experience, or vision to expand our mind. This would make people a means to an end.

Much of frustration is life comes from wanting people to do things. Whenever we feel frustrated or overwhelmed, we can ask ourselves if changing someone else would fix our problem. If what is opposing us is The Hydra, like Red Skull says, you cut one head off and two will take its place. If what is opposing you is not The Hydra, the they are not the problem and don’t deserve being treated like the problem. We can ask ourselves when we are offended, “Is this person intentionally trying to offend me?” and if we come to the conclusion that they are, the next question is “Why?”

If someone is intentionally trying to offend you, either they have some misconception about you that you could possibly clear up, or they are completely out of control. If someone is completely out of control, you should ask yourself what action you could do that would possible bring them more into control. If they are flailing like they are drowning and hit you, if you drunk their head under the water to get them back, you will just ensure that they will keep flailing, and hurt you or someone else. When we fight fire with fire everyone gets burnt. You live by the sword and you will likely die by the sword.

The way to find what a soul is, is to figure out what our soul is. In Captain America: Winter Soldier, Black Widow said that she started working for shield so that they would cover her old identity as a double agent for the KGB. When talking with Steve Rogers she asked him who he wanted her to be. How sad is it to feel that we cannot be loved for who we are, that we have to act a certain way to become worthy of love?

This isn’t to say that love shouldn’t change us, anyone that tells us, “I love you the way you are, I hope you never change,” that’s not what love is. Jordan Peterson describes love as, “Wanting the best, for what wants the best in someone else.” We want to change, and whether we like it or not we are. We are always learning, the only difference is sometimes we are learning the hard way, and sometimes we are learning the easier way. Even if we try not to change, the effort we put into not changing will change us, so much that we won’t recognize ourselves at some point.

Black Widow asked Rogers whether or not he trusted her, and he said, “I do now.” I think that was the first time she ever felt trusted, and it was the first step towards being able to trust herself. She had worked so hard to hide her past, and then to do what she genuinely felt was right, she was willing to expose her past mistakes to shed light on present mistakes. When we have something bad about ourselves we are hiding, it prevents us from doing anything about that bad in anyone else. We may all have our own skeletons in our closet, but that doesn’t make them okay. The Black Widow was pivotal to saving the world from Loki in the first Avengers, but somehow that was still not enough for her to see value in herself. When she looked in the mirror, all she saw was all the things she wanted to hide… which makes her more want to hide, instead of go out and do things to be proud of. Until time travel is invented, there is nothing we can do, and if it ever is invented, there will be plenty of time for us all to go back and fix ours mistakes. Until then, we shouldn’t be so fixated on our rearview mirror that we keep crashing into things in front of us. What we see our of our rearview mirror will look a lot less horrific if we pay more attention to where we are going then our perception of where we have been.

What would happen if we lived only half the time in the present and spent the other half of the time thinking about the past or future?”

If we are only present half of the time, we will only see or be able to take half of the opportunities offered us in the present, which means the best our future could hold, is half our potential experience and happiness. This would also mean our past would be made up of a half the memories, learning and growth we could have had… which will likely dishearten us, and likely lead to more distraction and discouragement… making it much harder to be present… allowing the cycle to continue.

It is a hard realization to admit that we have likely been at least half distracted by the future and past in everything we do, including our relationships. How can we really give ourselves to someone else if half of us is rarely ever present? We probably don’t even know who we are or will be once we can be fully present with ourselves or with anyone or anything.

It feels odd to compare Natasha Romanova and the Red Skull, but both lacked the soul stone. Natasha kisses Steve Rogers in the mall, and it is mostly just business. She can’t even imagine herself being with someone, that’s why she is always trying to set Rogers up with other girls. She wants him to be happy, but doesn’t think she could be the one to do it. She even claims, because her bullet wound she got saving her comrade’s lives ruined her “bikini body,” a claim that Rogers and everyone with eyes knows is not true. She goes for the hulk, because that’s the kind of person she thinks she deserves, because that’s who she sees when she looks in the mirror. She couldn’t imagine herself as someone like Captain America or worthy of someone like that until in Age of Ultron she saw that even the Hulk could change, and if he could, so could she. But the reality it, she had already changed… a lot. And from the experiences she had, she have the ability to help other people that no one else could help—she was the only one that could calm down the Hulk.

It is illogical to feel stupid, because as soon as you find something you were oblivious to that is a valid reason to feel stupid, you are no longer oblivious, and no longer stupid. Likewise, it is illogical to feel like we are bad, because as soon as we can identity some moral consideration we were oblivious or numb to, now we are not oblivious or numb to it, and therefore not bad.

The dialog between Thanos and Red Skull when Thanos comes for the soul stone is interesting, and I can’t tell whether the Red Skull learned his lesson.

Red Skull: Welcome, Thanos, son of Eros. Gamora, daughter of Thanos.

Thanos: You know us?

Red Skull: It is my curse to know all who journey here.

Thanos: Where is the Soul Stone?

Red Skull: You should know, it extracts a terrible price.

Thanos: I am prepared.

Red Skull: We all think that at first. We are all wrong.

Thanos: How is it you know this place so well?

Red Skull: A lifetime ago, I too sought the stones. I even held one in my hand. But it cast me out, banished me here, guiding others to a treasure I cannot possess.

Red Skull: What you seek lies in front of you. As does what you fear.

Gamora: What’s this?

Red Skull: The price. Soul holds a special place among the Infinity Stones. You might say it is a certain wisdom.

Thanos: Tell me what it needs.

Red Skull: To ensure whoever possesses it, understands its power, the Stone demands a sacrifice.

Thanos: Of what?

Red Skull: In order to take the Stone you must lose that which you love. A soul, for a soul.

Gamora: All my life, I dreamed of a day, a moment, when you got what you deserved. And I was always so disappointed. But, now… You kill, and torture, and you call it mercy. The Universe has judged you. You asked it for a prize and it told you, no. You failed. And do you want to know why? Because you love nothing. No one.

[Thanos turns and Gamora sees tears in his eyes]

Gamora: Really? Tears?

Red Skull: They’re not for him.

Gamora: No. This isn’t love.

Thanos: I ignored my destiny once. I cannot do that again. Even for you.

[Gamora tries to kill herself with the double-edged knife Thanos had given her, but it turns into bubbles]

Thanos: I’m sorry, little one.

Gamora: No!

[Thanos drags her to the edge of the cliff and throws her off, killing her]

What is the soul we have to trade for a soul?

To own the soul stone, or feel that we own a soul, we end up killing them, because controlling someone changes who they are—it changes them to be merely a reflection of us, and if we can only love an obedient reflection of ourselves, what does that say about our love? We should probably try to understand people and life before we try to control them. We might find trying to control life or people changes us more than them, and not in a good way. Resisting the urge to change people gives us the chance to find out that people can be loveable without even changing them. 
The soul we must give up is the one we are trying to capture. Love is like a walk through a forest, seeing a beautiful flower, and enjoying the beauty with out having to pluck it up and stuff it in a vase. Love doesn't force change, it enables it. Love is walking by that flower in the forest and sprinkling some water, pulling some weeds around it, or moving anything blocking it's light. People are souls, not objects for a menagerie.

There’s really no point in trying to drive someone else’s life when we have our own life to drive. In all situations in life, especially the difficult ones, the formula should be the same:

1) Identifying all the possible things that could be added to the situation to make it better.

2) Identifying all the things that could be taken away from the situation to make it better

3) Crossing out all the things you want others to do, and then from the things you want to do, take the top five or ten percent of the things to possibly add and subtract, and then figure out a way to work them together into a plan.

If the only way that Thanos’s destiny can happen is that Gamora must die, it would have to be both of their destinies or desires… but it wasn’t. Why does he have to drag her into what he wants? And why does he think that’s love?

He says “I’m sorry, little one,” as if he was really sorry, and as if he were the bigger person for doing what he was doing. I don’t think this is evil though… I think he was terribly ignorant. I think when he said he was sorry, that he really thought he meant it. I don’t think he said it patronizingly. I think that the immaturity of his mind allows for very value, misled, and contradictive ideas.

To really love, we have to be fully present, and when we are fully present, we will be able to see all the pieces to the puzzle, and will be able to find where each piece belongs. It is only possible to hold very contradictory ideas when we have no idea what the big picture of life looks like. This is not to say that we should allow evil to exist, but that finding and fighting the evil or ignorance in ourselves first, helps us better know how to help others with theirs.

To read more, check out my website, conflictandconnection.com or buy my book on Amazon, Conflict and Connection: Anatomy of Mind and Emotion http://a.co/iQaQ0VE