The Deleted Scenes From Captain Marvel Are Giving Us New Insight Into The Kree Empire And I’m Loving

The deleted scenes from Captain Marvel are giving us new insight into the Kree Empire and I’m loving how fundamentally messed up it is, to the point of the Kree themselves being victims of it.

First we got the Supreme Intelligence. Apparently it always gives the people it imitates white/grey hair and green eyes.

It’s interesting how differently it approaches Carol and Yon-Rogg.

It treats Carol like a friend and acts like a kind mentor because it knows she has always rebelled against people who tries to oppress her, while it’s incredibly abusive to Yon-Rogg

I don’t think it actually takes the form of those whom people admire the most either (though I’m sure that’s what it tells people), but rather those it can use most effectively to manipulate people with. Sure, often times that will be a respected person but if you pay attention both Carol and Yon-Rogg are uncomfortable with who they see.

By taking the form of Mar-Vell, someone Carol only sees in half forgotten dreams, it’s constantly reminding her “See how broken and confused you are. You need guidance”.

It takes the form of Yon-Rogg when talking to him, then mocks him for it “You are so full of yourself. Think you’re real important, huh?” which makes Yon-Rogg think he deserves to be humiliated and abused so he can become more humble.

I can definitely see why they left the Yon-Rogg scene out of the final film (though it’s apparently still canon). First off it’s incredibly unsettling. The SI very much acts like a mix between an abusive parent AND an abusive boyfriend. The way it touches Yon-Rogg gives off some strong sexual predator vibes that leaves you with a slimy feeling that it has used every trick in the book to humiliate him and destroy his self esteem.

And Yon-Rogg actually leans into the touch, maybe because he’s terrified and wants to please the SI, or maybe because he crave it’s acceptance and cherish every little act of kindness. Probably a mix of both.

The scene also puts his and Carol’s last encounter in a different light. Instead of it being a purely triumphant moment for Carol it makes us realize how cruel it is of her to send him back. She of course doesn’t know how the SI treats him and I have no doubt that she’d rather keep him captive somewhere else if she knew, but we’d know and it would sour the moment a bit.

Then there is of course the whole “control your emotions” thing. The SI tells Yon-Rogg that he’s too emotional and he then tells Carol the same thing. A lot of people saw it as him being sexist but it’s pretty clear that all Kree are expected to be as emotionless as possible, probably because the SI see emotions as a liability. Unfortunately they aren’t naturally less emotional. Kree are just as emotional as humans, maybe even more so.

Just look at Ronan. He starts out as an upper-class, well respected member of society who has seemingly mastered his emotions. He doesn’t let Yon-Rogg rile him up when they argue over the “phone” and he hardly even flinches when Carol destroys his ships. But it’s all facade. The people behind the movies have hinted that Ronan has a form of PTSD and that’s why he is the way he is in Guardians of The Galaxy. Kree warriors aren’t supposed to be affected by the horrors they commit, so when the war was over there was no system in place to help people like Ronan who had killed millions of people. Instead he turns to the old religion that existed before the SI where he can freely express his emotions.

Also, Yon-Rogg teaches a primary school class of some sort (the children aren’t called “students” but “recruits” which tells you everything you need to know about the Kree Empire) where he teach them to fight (they’re wearing the same style of clothes that he and Carol wore during their sparring scene) and Kree propaganda (“Skrulls are terrorists and it’s our duty to defend not just Kree but all other races who can’t fight for themselves”) and it’s implied that he and Ronan used to sit through the same classes as children. This tells us that the Kree aren’t naturally cruel. The SI has to tell them the lie that Skrulls are terrorist and speak to Kree compassion by telling them that Kree warriors have to protect others from the merciless Skrulls.

The Kree are a race of scarred and abused people who then inflict that abuse on everyone else because they think they’re doing good. It’s fantastically messed up.