Review of "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 2: The Star-Spangled man"

Disclaimer: Even though there are lots of dialogues and character reveals, this is a completely "spoiler-free" review. I can only give you the points on the canvas. You have to connect them yourself to form the big picture! Still, this review gives pretty much everything that will catch viewers' attention when they stream the episode. I ll only give the highlights of each top moment and character reveals here.

Introduction of Captain America(John Walker aka US Agent):

It starts off with a dive into the new Captain America's mind and his way of handling things. He does seem to be very friendly and patient with others and also confesses that he is not trying to be Captain America nor does he have any super power except his guts.

In the comics, he is known to be very violent but he is shown to be wise and generous in this episode. This is how Marvel Studios is trying to mislead the audience. At the end, we could see him show his slightly angry moment and it looks like this series will definitely have a face off between him and those who come in his way. At one stage, he gives an advice: "Stay the hell out of my way". You could try to find out why he said these words to whom!

John Walker said these words to _____!

Falcon and Bucky meet and sparks fly: 

The main leads of this series: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier finally meet in this episode. They have many conversations that have that fun factor which viewers will enjoy even more with references to previous movies like "Black Panther" and "Captain America: Civil War", like "Little time in Wakanda and you come out White Panther", "No. White Wolf".

The staring contest feels funny but it helps in breaking the ice between the two. We cannot say that these two did finally bury their differences by the end of this episode, but we do see that they are getting closer with every assignment that Falcon is taking up. Bucky definitely wants Falcon to take up the shield but Falcon disagrees every time.

"One World, One People"

You hear the line: "One world. One People" many times during this episode from the flag smashers who are being tracked by the power brokers!

We are really clueless as to what their motto means and how they have people who could sacrifice their lives for their goal. It would be a challenge to not just the duo here, but to many other superheroes out there when they are dealing with people brain-washed with some kind of belief about changing the world order. They do have some super strength and it needs to be seen how they got this strength from.

"androids, aliens and wizards"

There is also the talk about this line: "androids, aliens and wizards". Watch carefully you will also get references to others like Doctor Strange, which raises questions about how did they forget about Wanda Maximoff who is an equally strong magician, if not more than Doctor Strange. May be there were so many things happening around them and their lives that they couldnt keep a track of each and every super hero that they fought with against Thanos in the battle of earth. We could understand that. Wanda could also be living her own life far away and in secrecy, which means other Avengers(maybe except Doctor Strange) might not be knowing where she is and what is she upto after the local events of "Wanda Vision".

The aliens refer to Thanos' army in the first Avengers movie, androids definitely mean the ultrons in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

But what are the wizards being talked about? Is it the Ebony Maw whom Falcon did not encounter? Falcon did fight against the Black Order but it is not clear if he knew about Ebony Maw in that. He could have witnessed magic being done by Ebony Maw though and thus might be referring to that wizard.

Isaiah:

"Isaiah" is the black super soldier that no one knew about, except Bucky Barnes. Not even the original Captain America knew about him and the things he faced while in prison despite being a "hero". What happened to him and what is his relation to the Falcon and the Winter Soldier?

There wasnt much of a chemistry or dynamics between him and the others in this episode, but he could make a return as a surprise cameo sometime later on as the story evolves.

It ends with Zemo:

Just like the first episode, this one too doesnt have any post-credit scene, but the ending itself is worth it. Helmut Zemo makes an appearance in the most unexpected way. The last minute appearance of Zemo does create many questions: Will he try to do his mind-control thing again on Bucky in the next episode? I guess Bucky will resist with his inner strength this time. Else, how does he grow up as an independent character and be known for good? How and why he comes into the scene at all? Watch the show to find out!

Overview and feel:

Just like how Falcon feels like the shield is someone else's, we too feel that this show feels like it isnt a web series to be seen in a living room, it needs to be watched as a movie in theaters! This belongs to not the TV or small screens, but to the theaters! It has all that big-screen experience that people have missed during these pandemic times. I would rate this episode better than the first due to:

1. The chemistry between Falcon and the Winter Soldier

2. The way the new Captain America's path crosses with these two free-spirited avengers.

3. The pace at which the story is narrated and balances everything so beautifully in true MCU movie style.

ps: check out the new Marvel Studio anthem BGM which is peppy as well!

With love.. Anil

iPhones without adapters: A genuine concern for environment?

Ever since the iphone 12 came without a charger in the box, there has been a massive level of discussion among the users and critics alike as to the logic behind this and how effective is this in controlling e-waste, which is obviously one of the concerns going forward.

Lets analyze and think more about this:

The launch of iPhone 12 and Apple's claims:

The iPhone 12 was launched on 13th of October 2020 and as usual it brought with it a bunch of enhancements and hype and some flak as usual. Nothing new in that. But the biggest topic of discussion has been the lack of charging adapter. Apple says it has done away with the charger in the box to decrease the carbon footprint by a few million tonnes every year(they say it is equal to reducing over 2 million metric tonnes of carbon every year, according to their own studies). Fine, lets agree with the numbers for time being. Statistics might tell the same more or less. But is it enough to measure just how much cardboard apple packs its products with? Is iPhone all about the phone inside it and the cable it comes with? The answer is "No". Now for any new iphone


user, instead of using the charger with the latest technology if they have to contend with their several years old chargers, will they not order a charger seperately?

The impact of this is that people will end up buying a new charger which comes in a bigger packaging. So if you add up the packaging of iphone and that of the charger, it results in a bigger carbon footprint than the existing one. Let me explain it in further detail:

Will customers get stuck with their old inefficient chargers?

Lets assume that Apple believes that users will continue with their existing chargers. Even if they do stick around with the older chargers, their inefficiency(a significant percentage of the electric power ends up being wasted as heat) will mean more wastage of power and therefore more carbon footprint.

So either way, there is going to be higher impact on the environment if chargers werent given as part of the package.

Why other manufacturers followed suit?

Samsung, initially making fun of Apple's move has followed suit, which wasnt a big surprise since there is a business reason behind that.

What Apple and other smartphone makers who have followed it, have done is that they were offloading their packaging size to third party companies which make accessories. And it feels like a good business deal between them, since it will be a win-win situation, a symbiotic relationship if you could say that. The OEMs make more profits by lesser packaging costs, while the third party accessory-makers will jump up and lap up this new opportunity of higher demand for them.

Another reason could very well be the cost of including the 5G Radio components in their smartphones: It is clear that Apple(and even others by the way) has to reduce its costs by removing certain items from the packaging, and power adapter is the one that faced the axe in this case.

Initially most people thought xiaomi will also go the same way with no charger in the box, but it chose to be different by giving the users the option to include a superior charger in the box. More on this in the next section.

What could be the ideal solution?

Provide the customers with the latest chargers with higher efficiency: Gallium Nitride chargers, in the box.

Even if the phone companies sell the chargers separately, let those be efficient ones like Gallium Nitride ones instead of the same old type of chargers wheather they are normal slow chargers or superfast turbo chargers.

For example, xiaomi is giving a 55W GaN charger in most markets with its top of the line smartphone mi 11 which was launched this year(2021). This isnt to promote any particular company but to bring out the actual truth: Any claim from a profit-making company which claims to save environment by removing some of the items from the retail box is actually a smart tactic meant to mislead the public into believing that they are saving environment, but in fact they are contributing more and more towards environmental pollution or exploitation.

The Analogy:

What Apple did was something like the below:

There used to be a restaurant called "Apple: An Apple a day keeps hunger away" which is heavily popular in its area. One fine day, the restaurant claims to cut its carbon footprint by removing 10 menu items out of its 50. People praise it of being truly a green restaurant. But what this does is create an opportunity for other small restaurants and road side vendors and this lead to even higher pollution with more plastic waste for packaging and serving the removed menu items.

If the smart phone companies really care about environment, let there be no phone launches at all for a certain period! That would cut billions of tonnes of co2 or pollutants worldwide!

Conclusion:

Irrespective of which company started off this trend of eliminating the charger from the box, the announcement should always be taken with deeper thought. Think before following any company's announcements. They are "smart" enough to decide where to make money, where to reduce costs and how to justify that with silly reasons.

With love.. Anil