So We all Know the Trolley Problem Right? A bifurcation in a train track, on one side there is a single person tied and on the other side many people, a train is headed towards trampling the many people, do you pull the leaver diverting the train, killing the one person and saving the many?
It's not a simple math problem, if the train hits the many people you are free of guilt in a sense because you just didn't interfere, but you also let multiple people die, if you choose to save them, you are now a murderer even if your cause was just.
Many people find this problem uncomfortable, and the reason behind that is two fold, first is of course the obvious reason of there being no clear right choice, and yourself brain doesn't like that. More importantly however, the Trolley Problem is almost always, a false dichotomy.
At the risk of going against the spirit of the problem, what's stopping you from say, derailing/stopping the trolley/train? Or diverting it and cutting the one person free? I mean, it may not be possible, but these aren't even options that are presented in the problem. Hey it may be impossible but its the the intentions that matter right?
But here is the thing right, the problem is really a metaphor, the trolley is to represent a vast variety of problems, and in real life, we always face the choice between the one and the many, and the equivalent of derailing/stopping the train/trolley is difficult to see in such cases, and so is the equivalent of cutting the person free.
But hey, Tony stark seems to know the answer always, he is not the guy to lay on the wire and let the other guy crawl over him, he will cut the wire, then he will snap and save the universe, still not over that *sniff*.
But I didn't bring this clip up just for the memes, I mean that's one of the reasons, sure. but the Tony stark situation is closer to the situation presented in the trailer, the wire thing, is once again a metaphor, would you sacrifice yourself to save many, well I mean that is really simple, now the other person on the track is you, so, kill yourself!(I would like to take a moment to point out that this is a joke and I in now way promote suicide, cool?)
But the problem goes a little beyond that, in the beginning of Iron Man one, all the military men died? Presumably? So did Yinsen, telling stark to not waste his life. Now... let's say that, these events haven't happened yet, you have prior knowledge of the events of the entire MCU, will you then go and stop the events of Iron Man one to save the soldiers and Yinsen? If you had the chance to? What if one of them was close to you?
Well what will happen is Killmonger looses his character development, um what no. Sorry, it will lead to what if season 1 episode 7, it's not great(you decide whether its the episode I am talking about or the events of the episode.)
So Now that I have covered the necessary length of the article, I mean set up the problem, let's talk about what the trailer is implying.
Someone is going to die, and that is necessary at least in the eyes of Miguel O' Hara, or Spider Man 2099, for one of the spider people to become who they are.
When I watched the trailer, I thought it was uncle ben and the movie was about saving him, but in hindsight it seems much more likely that this is going to be about saving Aron Davis, or Miles's Dad, who we know, dies in the Spider Man Miles Morales Game, to make him into who he is, but right now, in the movie, he is still alive.
It would seem that Miguel is making the trolley argument, in that Aron Davis has to die, for spiderman(Miles) to grow and for the betterment of the multiverse, obviously Miles has a problem with that, and what is interesting is that the movie is taking the approach that I suggested above, the trolley problem is a false dichotomy, not always, but most of the time.
Like hey, in the case of Iron Man, what if, he gets captured but an invisible force stops the soldiers from taking any mortal damage, what if Yinsen says what he says, and then the invisible force goes and saves him or something, it's contrived as all hell, but we ain't talking story structure, we are talking about morality here, this is serious business! (Yeah definitely stating that this is serious is doing wonders for how seriously the readers will take this, great job me! And hey, it all goes in a multiverse am I right?)
But in all seriousness, I don't think they will kill off Aron Davis, in strange reversal of roles, like into the spider verse was used as a test for doing the live action spider verse in No Way Home, it seems No Way Home is being used as a litmus test for a spider man saves everyone story, and after seeing Spidey loose everything, I think it's time to freshen things up and actually have a spiderman with a full and functional family for once, and hey, its not like the uncle didn't die here as well.
And it was ten times as emotional.
Mostly because this time around the uncle almost killed the nephew and didn't know what he was about to do, and it was directly his love that killed him in a way, and also we kind of got to spend more time developing the two this time around, as opposed to the whopping TWO MINUTES that uncle ben appeared in in spider man one before he dies(see I went back and checked and its closer to 2 minute 30, see I can g back and fix this but I chose to be a piece of shit and leave this in anyway for clicks) but also because Tobey Maguire wasn't making a cum fa... I mean crying passionately.
Hey! I am giving terrible hot takes, I am a games journalist.
And you know, while we are on the topic of someone's sacrifice meaning more than their life, lets talk about the Grand Calculus of the Multiverse, also known as Spanish doctor strange.
See I know he is called defender strange, but according to the trailer miles isn't paying attention to Spanish, so I thought I'll pay his part of the attention as well, but this same theme, of one sacrifice over the life of many was posited in both no way home and multiverse of madness, by doctor strange, and both concluded, it is possible to save both.
Now again, maybe I am just talking about a tangentially related topic just to increase the length of the article.
But in seriousness, I do think marvel is doing this on purpose, see with the multiverse and secret wars coming forth, dead characters can die for character development and still be alive for more stories, and it seems, they are slowly seeding that idea in, and they are taking an interesting approach, I always say, any consequence can be undermined, as long as a bigger one takes its place.
If Iron man comes back, he is now evil in being superior iron man, if Aron Davis is saved, that will directly lead into the biggest battle ever, that could have been prevented if he had died, and because America Chavez wasn't killed by defender strange in the beginning, scarlet witch went on a murder spree and killed many more sorcerers, no saying she wouldn't have done that anyways, but like, you see what I am saying right.
Anyways, I do think they are missing out on the best part of bringing back dead characters, that is, making people meet their long dead close ones, after they have moved on, and the long dead close ones are different in a fundamental way, or because the character has moved on, things aren't the same anymore, cue drama, well I guess they will do that with Superior Iron man, fingers crossed.
Also, I think this would be the perfect time to do such a thing, what with AI voice and face models coming infinitely close to resurrecting once dead people for the sake of corporate greed, didn't expect me to end with an existential crisis? Okay. Sorry not Sorry.
Yes, I made that, No this is not a shameless self insert, bye.
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