"We don't trade lives".

I'm going to say something controversial, I hope no one has to die to undo the Snap in Avengers 4.  I hope they truly follow through on Cap's declaration of "We don't trade lives".

I watched a Video Essay Criticizing Antman and The Wasp for how they didn't follow thorough on their "tough choice".  This is like the Bathos issue in how my disagreement with common MCU criticisms are directly related to how much I love Anime.  Both the Magical Girl genre and what Digibro calls the "Otaku Hero's Journey" are predicated on saying "screw that crap, we will save everyone and make sure no one has to die no matter how much you insist that's impossible".  From Steins;Gate to Prisma Illya to No Game No Life.  I'm divided on how much Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As fits this.

Now Antman and The Wasp still isn't as good as those Anime, it does feel a little like the resolution just sorta happened.  Thing is I also feel this "tough choice" was unearned to begin with, Laurence Fisbourne had no real reason to believe his plan would work anyway, yet this Video Essayist acts like it was such a real tense dilemma ruined because no one actually had to die. In-spite of that nit pick however I did enjoy the movie, it was fun, my Mom watched it 4 times in 3 days.

This Video Essay also talked about how "Sacrifice" is a long standing tradition of the Superhero Genre.  Well I'm like Linkara in that I'm tired of every Event (which there are 5 of every year now) needing to kill a few people off to have real "stakes".  I'm a Christian who Believes in Universal Salvation, Jesus Sacrificed Himself to save all Human Beings, even the ones who killed Him, and He Will Succeed.  And yes His Sacrifice was real because he still has the Wounds, that's the difference between His Resurrection and ours.

My Love of Anime has to do with how often the fiction of these modern Japanese Secular Shintoists comes closer to the True Gospel then what the Western Church has been saying for over a Thousand Years.

Another YouTube video I watched said Tony has to die because his story arc is over.  And that really annoys me, why does having no more story to tell have to equal death?  Why can't he just finally retire and start a family with Pepper?

I think there should be a Sacrifice but not one that's a truly permanent death.  I suspect our heroes will have to regather the Infinity Stones, and thus someone will have to be Sacrificed for the Soul Stone.  I think that should be Cap leaving the mantle of Captain America to Bucky for awhile.  But like Gamora he'll still be alive in the Soul Stone, maybe his going in will also let Gamora out.  Either way the potential to get him out in the future will be in place.

I'm not super optimistic about this however.  You see I reject the notion that Killing a popular character is the brave route, maybe it was in Comics in the 70s.  But Western media criticism is so obsessed with the notion of "consequences" and "equivalent exchange" that I know the Critics would never forgive Avengers 4 for actually having the Guts to do what I'm suggesting.

Infinity War's dark route was a bold move in the context of the general MCU tone leading up to it, but responding to it with a complete reversal would in fact be ten times bolder.

Meanwhile there is nothing brave about killing off Tony Stark when no more solo films staring him are likely to be made anyway.