Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Three and BEYOOOOONND

[Bazza]

‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME' THEORY REVEALS HOW ONE INFINITY STONE DOOMED THANOS
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/avengers-endgame-theory-thanos-soul-stone
 

[Bazza]

AVENGERS: ENDGAME THEORY REVEALS THE REAL VILLAIN WASN'T THANOS
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/avengers-endgame-theory-doctor-strange-time-stone

[Starlord]

I try not to look too deeply and try break down the ramifications of using the Infinity Gauntlet.  Things tend to fall apart quickly.  For example, Earth's human population has risen approximately 1 billion every 12 years for last 50 years ago.  So, using Earth as an example, humanity will be back to its original population in 50 years with exponentially far less life to help sustain it.  Pretty stupid.  Also, if you REALLY wanted to help and you can basically do anything, why not just double or triple all available resources on inhabited planets or turn all moons into massive resource-laden Gardens of Eden and double all planets that can sustain life, etc.

 

I just focus on Thanos = INSANE!!!  This is the choice a psychopathic mass murderer with a brilliant, yet incredibly disturbed mind would make and the heroes must stop him at all costs.

[Greywind]

2 hours ago, Bazza said:

‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME' THEORY REVEALS HOW ONE INFINITY STONE DOOMED THANOS
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/avengers-endgame-theory-thanos-soul-stone
 

 

Assumes that a new/different soul stone is created by the sacrifice. Due to the time heist, the stone Tony used did not have Gamora's soul in it. Because Cap took them all back to when they came from, the stone Thanos go already contained Natasha's soul.

[zslane]

If the Infinity Gauntlet allowed Thanos to do anything with/to the universe, then he could have installed a cosmic process that performed the same culling action whenever any planet's population outstripped its resources by some metric, combined with a process that restored the planet's resources a bit. This cosmic cron job would keep everything balanced, forever, especially for those intelligent species that caught on to what was happening and managed to curate their resources and manage their populations themselves. I get that Thanos was insane, but why couldn't he have thought like an insane engineer rather than just an insane bureaucrat?

[Lord Liaden]

5 hours ago, Starlord said:

I just focus on Thanos = INSANE!!!  This is the choice a psychopathic mass murderer with a brilliant, yet incredibly disturbed mind would make and the heroes must stop him at all costs.

 

THANK YOU! This is what I keep saying. Thanos is a delusional messianic megalomaniac. Expecting him to have thought through all the practical implications and consequences of his delusion is unreasonable.

 

It's also not the point. All these fan theories of what Thanos would do, or could do, if circumstance X existed, is just people trying to show off how clever they are. The point was to create a worthy opponent for heroes to display their heroism in an entertaining and compelling story. Every other positive in the movie is gravy.

[archer]

9 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

THANK YOU! This is what I keep saying. Thanos is a delusional messianic megalomaniac. Expecting him to have thought through all the practical implications and consequences of his delusion is unreasonable.

 

It's also not the point. All these fan theories of what Thanos would do, or could do, if circumstance X existed, is just people trying to show off how clever they are. The point was to create a worthy opponent for heroes to display their heroism in an entertaining and compelling story. Every other positive in the movie is gravy.

 

I like to think of Thanos as being a highly-functioning delusional megalomaniac.

[Old Man]

2 minutes ago, archer said:

 

I like to think of Thanos as being a highly-functioning delusional megalomaniac.

 

Takes one to know one.  ;)

 

[Greywind]

Like Tony being a highly-functioning alcoholic.

[archer]

2 minutes ago, Old Man said:

 

Takes one to know one. 

 

 

Thank you! That's so sweet!

[Bazza]

 

 

[Jhamin]

On 3/12/2021 at 8:53 AM, Starlord said:

Also, if you REALLY wanted to help and you can basically do anything, why not just double or triple all available resources on inhabited planets or turn all moons into massive resource-laden Gardens of Eden and double all planets that can sustain life, etc.

 

I was always wondering why he didn't just adjust the caloric needs and reproductive frequency of every living thing in the universe?

[Christopher R Taylor]

And here we get back to how the plot in the films was nonsense and "loves death" made more sense, creating a far more unique and interesting bad guy.

[Jhamin]

dormammu

1 minute ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

And here we get back to how the plot in the films was nonsense and "loves death" made more sense, creating a far more unique and interesting bad guy.

 

I kind of agree.  One of my favorite bits from the original comic was when (I believe) Dr. Strange realizes that the Infinity Gauntlet had fallen into the hands of a Nihilist.  I don't recall if it was the original Infinity Gauntlet arc or a later sequal where Eternity basically Sues Thanos over messing with Reality.  The Living Tribunal hears the case & rules that as Thanos doesn't actually want to destroy reality, just replace it with his version, the Living Tribunal wasn't going to stop him.

Stuff like that was likely a bridge too far for the movies.  They would have needed to setup the various cosmic entities and they had just barely gotten to Dormammu and the Supreme Intelligence, let alone the *really* weird stuff.  Clearly the plot they went with worked fine.

(And I feel the need to step back and comment that the Supreme Intelligence actually showed up as a character in a hit movie.  I continue to be amazed these movies keep pulling it off....)

[Christopher R Taylor]

I mean, obviously it worked okay because these movies are praised so much, Thanos is a beloved meme, and they made ridiculous cash but... the more you look at the last two Avengers movies, the more they fall apart.

[Matt the Bruins]

I do think that Death wouldn't have been quite as difficult a buy-in for casual viewers as Eternity, the Living Tribunal, and other Marvel cosmic characters. People have been seeing it personified as the Grim Reaper and such in popular culture for centuries.

[Lord Liaden]

Guys, look at this objectively. This is a person who obsessively desires and believes he deserves a romantic relationship with the personification of DEATH! This is necrophilia and nihilism mixed with god complex and taken to the Nth degree. The only reason it makes sense to you is because you've grown accustomed to it over decades of the character's history. To any moviegoer without comic exposure (the majority of them), that idea would sound beyond insane. The movie Thanos's motivation at least has a relatable cause and logic, albeit flawed logic.

[Christopher R Taylor]

That's just it though.  Nobody had a problem with the Joker being crazy and destructive because he's crazy.  It isn't a tough sell, its just nobody was able to use it to push an environmental spin on the bad guy to try to make him sympathetic.

 

When I first read the comic where I found out Thanos literally loved death, it didn't confuse or upset me.  I thought instantly "wow that's crazy and cool, what a new take on a bad guy"

[slikmar]

And again, they could have used Hel as their Death, so she was already setup. Hell, could have been a revenge motive for all that or an attempt to sacrifice enough people to bring her back.

[Hugh Neilson]

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I mean, obviously it worked okay because these movies are praised so much, Thanos is a beloved meme, and they made ridiculous cash but... the more you look at the last two Avengers movies, the more they fall apart.

Unlike comic books, whose plotlines are unshakably solid under the closest of scrutiny?

 

How do those Infinity Rocks actually work, applying actual physics?  Seriously, Thor throws the hammer and grabs on to the handle and now he can fly?  That much TNT on an arrow and it still flies properly?  Why don't we store more sick people we need more time to work out a cure for in the arctic ocean?  He can power the armor with a tiny bit of that energy source, but we're still using carbon-based fuels and wire-transmitted electricity?  The IRS hasn't audited his use of corporate funds for a (few hundred) personal suit(s) of high-tech armor    Where does all that extra mass come from, and go to, when Banner and Hulk transform?

[zslane]

Thanos may technically be categorized as an alien, but for all intents and purposes he is human. And so long as he behaves like a human, audiences will "get" him. Falling in love with the personification of Death is not hard to make understandable if you make that personification appealing to your audience somehow.

[Pattern Ghost]

You could sell his obsession with Death with a single soliloquy extolling the virtues of Death (and this has been done in many genres of many media), then reveal that he's talking to the Marvel version of Death, who simply turns her back on him and walks away. Cut back to his facial features going through the emotions of rejection, settling on a look of grim resolve. Not that hard to sell.

[Lord Liaden]

We're comics fans talking to comics fans here. We know and accept this stuff. But I don't want to belabor the point.

[slikmar]

1 hour ago, Hugh Neilson said:

He can power the armor with a tiny bit of that energy source, but we're still using carbon-based fuels and wire-transmitted electricity?

well, old money power sources do have a lot of political power,. I mean, lets not get totally unrealistic and believe that they wouldn't block anything cutting into their revenues. I mean, the rest of that stuff, totally believable even if remotely, but the power companies giving up revenue, cmon.

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

That's just it though.  Nobody had a problem with the Joker being crazy and destructive because he's crazy.  It isn't a tough sell, its just nobody was able to use it to push an environmental spin on the bad guy to try to make him sympathetic.

 

 

But the thing is, the Joker doesn't have a goal. He doesn't have a purpose. He's just randomly destructive, like a tornado on legs. He doesn't need to be understandable -- his not being understandable is what makes him so terrifying.