For many, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a family affair. Whether you’re watching the films with your family or you’re a superhero fighting alongside your dad, they’re movies that can bring families together. And sometimes, if you’re a hero, they can tear your family apart. But one of the aspects of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (and Thor: Love and Thunder before it) that I loved a lot is the dynamic between fathers and daughters that the MCU is diving into.
I’ll be very honest, both Quantumania and Love and Thunder were hard to watch for me because my dad loved these movies and he would have loved what the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to put out. But I think these two movies in particular were hard for me because of how much they played with a father/daughter dynamic. Sure, Love and Thunder was more about overcoming grief and Thor fighting alongside with his adoptive daughter in the end, but Quantumania was all about Cassie and Scott side by side.
Every step of the way, Scott tried to keep Cassie from being a hero but she just pushed back and did it anyway. Because it’s how Scott used to be and deep down, he knows that. Cassie wants to fight for those who need her help because Scott did it over and over again with the Avengers—and if that means going behind her dad’s back to do it, she will.
Seeing the MCU embrace these sorts of relationships between fathers and daughters is so sweet because it could have continued to be more of the same. Instead, it’s highlighting the importance of their family to these heroes and what they’re willing to do to protect them.
A father/daughter dynamic
In movies and television, the father/daughter relationship often becomes a lot of a man telling a teenage girl what to do. But that’s not what happened in most of the MCU but in particular in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Scott tries one time to tell Cassie to be careful with her tech and it backfires because both Cassie and Hope call him out.
He just wants what is best for her and why Scott and Cassie’s relationship works is because he listens to his daughter and follows her lead. In the movie, she knows how to keep them alive and Scott doesn’t really question it. He just does what his daughter tells him and it was refreshing to see these two trust each other completely on screen.
I do wish I could have watched this with my dad. He would have loved that Cassie basically does what she wants and ignores Scott because it was a lot of our dynamic. Their relationship is real in a way that many of the father/daughter relationships on screen haven’t been. I love that the MCU is leaning more into it, even if it does make me emotional to watch them.
(featured image: Marvel Entertainment)
