The Blip: A Unknown World

 

Thanos snapped his fingers and caused half of Earth's population to cease to exist. This event in MCU history is called "The Blip" What is often not talked about enough is not only the trauma that the families of those who were dusted out of existence felt but also what the heroes and civilians who were dusted felt when they came back to life in the events of Avengers Endgame. Let's talk about it. From the moment of Thanos' snap to when certain characters are brought back to life there is a nearly 9-year gap. What that means is that close to 9 years have passed in time and characters have moved on, whether that means they grew older or got married, or anything else. In Thor: Love and Thunder, this point is highlighted even more. When Thor and Jane Foster(who was one of the victims of Thanos' snap) reunite, she asks him how long it has been since they have seen each other. His response is "8 years, 7 months, 3 days." Thor while being nearly 1200+ years of age, has had to deal with not seeing the love of his life Jane for almost 9 years, and on top of that she comes back to life and all of sudden has cancer.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+ deals with this as well. Both Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson were victims of the snap and both have to deal with not only returning trauma from when they were alive but also the trauma of coming back to a world that has changed in nearly 9 years. For example, Sam comes home to his sister Sarah and nephews AJ and Cass and finds out from his sister that their family boat and their house are being foreclosed and Sarah has had to deal with this on top of being a single mom and trying to keep her family afloat. Over 8 years is a lot of time to re-adjust to and everyone deals with it differently. The villain Karli Morgenthau(played in the show by Erin Kellyman) is the antithesis of Sam in the sense that she actually prefers what life was like during The Blip. For reference, many resources like food and plants were diminished when the Avengers but mainly Bruce Banner restored everyone that Thanos dusted. What that means is that when those people came back to life, resources were being diminished at a high rate, and Karli and her fellow Flag Smashers hate that. Before the Snap, it was hard for the poor and sick to get resources, and after the Snap that became even worse. 

Changing the events before and after the Blip/Snap is like time travel in the sense that you change one thing, that snowballs into being a bigger problem. The Flag Smashers were only deemed pseudo-terrorists because they felt the government failed to protect them when their homes were taken away. Sure, they did not have to take such drastic actions after that, but at the end of the day, their real mission was bringing to the forefront the refugee/ migrant crisis. What the Blip shows us is that many events can change once you bring someone back to life who has no idea what has happened in the 8 years and 7 months they have been gone and those people then try to go on with their lives as if everything is peachy. What Marvel does well in the MCU is incorporate real events like Falcon and the Winter Soldier does and put a Marvel spin while also making it easier for more eyes and ears to be on the issue and many times many issues that need to be addressed.