Still reeling from unpacking all those remarkable morsels that were delivered with the cinematic adventure  known as Infinity War has me ALL sorts of warm and fuzzy! Especially since Marvel made me, well ALL of us wait a decade to finally show us their strongest hero and believe it or not, YOU MISSED IT!

How did you miss it you may wonder or perhaps you are more so of the thought, who is this guy thinking it is, well let’s get to it then, shall we?

As we have seen from the past 10 years of MCU, we know there is a cavernous variety of options to even go with; Iron Man, Cap, Hulk, Black Panther, Drax, Vision and many more. As I observed the progression of this film a clear hero began to emerge as the strongest hero that I had ever seen in the entire MCU. Against all odds through constant battles, full of villains relentlessly attacking him and hindering a path to true peace, it became perfectly clear who has been the strongest, most diligent and merciful hero to date and though I said you missed it, chances are you just didn’t realize it until….

Wait……what??? THIS guy is the HERO??

YES. I said it and now keep reading and I will show you how as well.

Let’s start with some dialogue, one of the more definitive moments between Thanos (The Hero) and Gamora. She is emotionally debating with Thanos complaining about how she was happy before he took her and he interjects with: “Going to bed hungry, scrounging for scraps? Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I was the one who stopped that. You know what’s happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It’s a paradise.” This shows that he viewed the issues of her planet and saw them as a clear issue that needed his brand of heroism. She counters with “You’re insane.” and then he schools her with this jewel: “Little one, it’s a simple calculus. This universe has finite its resources, finite… if life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting…….At least, I’m the only who the will to act on it.” There you have it. MCU shows us that this alleged ‘Mad’ Titan is all about balance. This theme continues all the same in every aspect of his beliefs. 

Let’s remind ourselves how the chat with Sorcerer Supreme went prior to dissecting this further. Dr Strange shortsightedly comments as to how Thanos wants to murder trillions and Thanos reminds him that he could simply erase the entire universe with a snap and yet we know that he would choose not to follow through with that course of action. He goes on to say “I call that….mercy……” and you know what? That is mercy and he sums it up with a powerful line: “The hardest choices require the strongest will.” In this movie, his will was stronger. I request you to tell me where the lie is within his logic. I’ll wait. 

What do we have so far, we have a Titan that recognizes the obviousness of a universe with finite resources, which is what he ‘saved’ Gamora from. He goes on to clearly state his ‘merciful’ tendencies with Dr. Strange and the request I had from you was to show me the flaw in his logic. Thanos is seeking balance and not just seeking power, or revenge as he already established his logic of resources and mercy. Things, money, fame are not on his to do list but he does allow a further glimpse into his psyche because after that, all he simply desires to “finally rest, [and] watch the sunrise on an ungrateful universe.” Call it harsh, inhuman(duh), crazy, genocide or whatever you want to say, this Titan showed up with two stones in glove, persevered, sacrificed and obtained universal power and after dealing with a slew of interrupting insolent self-righteous heroes, he snapped his fingers and brought balance to the universe. Which brings me to the other half of this equation…

The villainous Avengers are under the guise that we need to beat the bad guy, and this guys who is kicking our ass IS the bad guy….right? Well if you consider this, We know that the Avengers are all about protecting what they love. Right? Noble cause, I can relate, even on my worst days, I am human too and I understand their cause. So do you and so does everyone but as The Avengers will die for what they love which is everything, conversely Thanos sacrifices everything and he does this for he bigger picture. Look I get it, it may sound skewed but the real hero here is unequivocally Thanos. I can’t help but see him here, solemn with a Pyrrhic victory after giving up everything he had and he did it through the opposition of Earths mightiest heroes. Side note: Earths mightiest heroes can’t even stop armed robbery, burglary, carjacking, arson and a cadre of other crimes happening right under their noses. Back on track here, and my point is that if they don’t even have Earth calmed down, how dare they step up to a Titan who is bringing balance, indiscriminately to the entire universe. They are contributing to overpopulation, resource disrespect and in their arrogance they decide to just start fighting against the idea of restoring a calmness to the universe and attack this Titan with no plan other than ‘we need to stop him’. They are so used to the idea of policing who they view as villains and confining them, that it becomes their undoing before a true visionary who establishes peace in mere moments on a universal scale. 

Whew!! That was a lot and it really reminds me of a common phrase that you will hear me (@CorruptingTheSystem) spout from time to time on The Player Way Podcast: “The only difference between Heroes and Villains, are their agendas.”

Well I have shared with you some of my meanderings that you can of course locate on my IG that I shamelessly plugged above! Thank you and remember….Stay Weird Out There.

CTS