Why Skrulls Might Still Be The Bad Guys In Avengers: Endgame
Haven’t seen Captain Marvel yet? May wanna get on that taken care of soon then because now the Endgame train is in full motion. Captain Marvel had a few twists in it that may actually relate to Endgame or some future MCU movies. One of the twists just so happened to deal with the Skrulls. If you’ve seen the movie, you know what it is, and if you haven’t seen the movie, well you can probably figure out just from hearing “Skrulls” and “twist” in the same sentence or by looking at the title. That’s right, the Skrulls actually turn out to be the good guys in the movie. Even more than that, they actually turn out to be pretty sympathetic characters. They have families with kids and everything. They aren’t participating in the war with the Kree out of malice. They’re just trying to defend themselves.
But what if this is all just a ruse?
The Skrulls Are Still Evil
What if this is a twist within a twist? What if the Skrulls are actually just playing the long con? The idea is that the Skrulls are still very much evil and just ended up tricking Captain Marvel by the end of the movie to work for them. They are Skrulls after all, gaining people’s trust and keeping it is their overall specialty. They have a way of worming their way into places and situations that they’re not supposed to be in. Would it really be a stretch to think that they could just be playing the same game with Captain Marvel? That they’re hiding their real agendas and using her to achieve their overall goal: the destruction of the Kree?
To determine if this is the case, the first thing we would have to figure out is how exactly they could pull something like this off. Well, the Skrulls kidnapped Captain Marvel from what was her first real mission with the Kree. As far as we know, she didn’t have any real battle bonds with the group other than with Yon-Rogg. The Skrulls had Carol for an undisclosed amount of time, enough to make Yon-Rogg worry about her whereabouts. While they had Captain Marvel, they hung her upside down from a machine designed to interact with her memories. They could not only force her to remember things that she had long since forgotten (or more accurately had been taken from her), but they could also make her focus in on more obscure details that she definitely wouldn’t have recognized without this kind of outside interference.
It’s possible that while the Skrulls were probing Captain Marvel’s memory for information on the light speed engine that they were after, they saw something else in her. The Skrull witnessed most if not all of Captain Marvel’s failures. They saw her from childhood to adulthood failing at most everything that the tried, but considering they were all over the place with Captain Marvel’s memory it’s possible that they also saw how she always stood back up. They saw that this was a person who never gave up on herself and always got back up. They also saw that she had human attachments and connections. They saw her as an airforce pilot, and now only a few years later, she was once again a willing soldier. Basically, the Skrulls saw that this woman had the making of a hero. It was clear that she was willing to put her life on the line for what she believed and for other people. The dove into hero memory and discovered that this woman suffers the follies of a hero.
What if they could be the new cause she puts all her energy behind?
Of course, just because Captain Marvel has the qualities of a potential puppet doesn’t mean that she would be a useful one. What exactly can she offer the Skrull empire? What can she do for them that gives them an edge in their goal to destroy the Kree and integrate planets under their rule? They, of course, could look through her memories of her time and training on Hala to get their answer, or they can see her in action for themselves. It’s hard to believe the Skrulls had absolutely no idea that Captain Marvel had woken up while she was under the influence of their machine. It seems like she would need to be asleep for them to properly control and manipulate her subconscious well enough for them to look at the smaller details in her memory. Yet she somehow catches them all off guard when she bursts free from her holds. Talos even seems like he has things under control when she has him pinned up against the console of his memory machine.
Now, it’s likely here that he was just really confident his guys could beat the crap out of Captain Marvel since she was still somewhat restrained. Let’s go with that. He’s confident Carol’s not going anywhere in her current condition, but then she just completely tears through his best men, with little to no effort. On top of that, not only is then subsequently sucked into space and hurtled through the atmosphere into the ground, but she survives. This Kree warrior who has no idea she’s being played just survived a fall from orbit with no protection after beating all of Talos best man. The girl is a weapon and he already knows how to make she shoot for their side.
In this scenario it would take more than just shapeshifting, it would take some rather ingenious planning, but the deed isn’t impossible, and this is the case because the Kree themselves are still very much grade A tyrants. Talos knows his plan can work because the personality of the Kree have made it too easy for him. Heck, they’ve already hurt her in an unforgivable way. He just has to reveal it to her and play on her weakness of being a heroic type of person. Once he’s done that, she’ll destroy the Kree for him.
This is pretty much how the movie plays out. Talos helps Carol obtain her lost memory, even saying that he’s doing it because he caught of glimpse of what she was while he perusing her memory. Both enraged at the Kree, and now inspired to help the Skrulls, whom Talos has convinced her are the victims, Captain Marvel makes it her mission to tear down the Kree empire. Even better, she has more power than he initially realized as she capable of cleaving through whole Kree warships without any problem. Effectively, with Captain Marvel, Talos has one the Kree-Skrull War, and all he has to do to keep her on the path that he’s set for her is continue to play the victim. It’s all far too easy. He’s a Skrull acting is practically his birthright. He wears the skin of others with little to no effort.
So maybe, just maybe, the Skrulls really are still bad guys in the MCU. They’re just one of two bad parties playing checkers. Talos just managed to put the Supreme Intelligence in a state of checkmate by using her own pieces against her.
