"INFINITY WAR" and Blame For Thanos' Snap
"INFINITY WAR" AND BLAME FOR THANOS' SNAP
Recently, I found myself watching 2014’s “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY” for the umpteenth time. When I saw the presence of Thanos and later, the Power Stone, I found myself thinking about the events that led to Thanos’ snap at the end of 2018’s “THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR”.
Ever since “INFINITY WAR” was released at the end of April 2018, many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans and the media have been blaming Peter Quill aka Star-Lord’s expression of grief over Gamora’s death for allowing Thanos the opportunity to make that deadly snap. Yes, Peter’s reaction to the news of Gamora’s death may have prevented the other Avengers and some of the Guardians from taking the Infinity Gauntlet from the Titan. But I do not solely blame him. If I must be frank, I do not blame Peter . . . period.
As I had stated earlier, all Peter Quill did was react badly to the death of his fellow Guardian and one of Thanos’ adopted children, Gamora. In fact, Peter’s reaction reminded me of Tony Stark aka Iron Man’s reaction to the discovery in 2016′s “CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR” that James “Bucky” Buchanan aka the Winter Soldier had murdered his parents years earlier. Only Tony’s excuse for trying to kill Bucky was not as good. Because he knew, beforehand, that Bucky had been brainwashed by HYDRA. Thanos had never brainwashed by anyone into killing Gamora. He had set this whole thing in motion in his misguided belief that he had to “save” the universe by killing off half of its population with the Infinity Stones. And Gamora was one of his adoptive daughters, who had recently become the love of Star-Lord’s life.
And if Star-Lord had made a mistake, why have the majority of fans failed to condemn Thor of the same thing? The new king of Asgardians had not bother to strike the fatal blow to Thanos on Wakanda; because he wanted revenge for the deaths of his adoptive brother Loki, one of his closest friends Heimdall, and some of the Asgardian refugees. So, he did not quite kill Thanos when he slammed his Stormbreaker axe into the latter’s chest. Thor wanted Thanos to suffer in pain for a bit before he could deliver the fatal blow. Only, Thor’s desire for revenge gave Thanos the opportunity to make the snap . . . and kill half of the universe.
This has led me to ask one question. Why have so few have been willing to blame Thanos? He had set this entire situation in motion in the first place. Because he had failed to convince the leaders of his homeworld of Titan from the danger of overpopulation, Thanos had decided that the rest of the universe suffered from the same problem without any real investigation. He decided that he would have to do what Titans’ leaders had failed to do . . . decimate half of the universe’s population in order to save the other half and the resources of many homeworlds. All out of some stupid belief that he was doing some good. Did Thanos ever bothered to find another way to deal with the balance between population growth and resources. Did he ever bothered to find out which planets were in danger of depleted resources for its populations? Did he? I have my doubts, if I must be frank. If Thanos had not engage in any research on which planet was in danger of depleting resources, that would mean that he simply made this decision to collect the Infinity stones in order to commit genocide.
I find it disturbing that a lot of people are willing to condemn Peter Quill for what happened at the end of “THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR”. And they are willing to do this, while ignoring Thor’s attempt to get revenge. Worse, the fact only a small percentage of moviegoers and critics seemed capable of criticizing or questioning Thanos’ genocidal plans strikes me as truly disturbing. Then again . . . when it comes to the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the fans and critics' reactions have acquired a high level of disbelief. At least for me.