Feb
2022
Thanos: Was He Right?
We all know who Thanos is. He is the mega villain in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. He first appears in Guardians of the Galaxy. He wants all the infinity stones to whip out half the population. Thanos thinks this will save the universe, so the other planets do not end up like his destroyed planet: Titan. In the comics, he is an Eternal-Deviant Warlord like his brother, Starfox. Additionally, he is the adoptive father of Ronan, Gamora, and Nebula.
We need to have a debate – was Thanos right? Could his actions of killing half the population be justified? Did the Avengers make a huge mistake bringing back everyone who was snapped away?
Thanos justified his actions by claiming that limited resources and overpopulation would lead to extinction. He did this to erase suffering. However, there could be a hidden agenda at play. Maybe Thanos wanted to unite everyone under his rule. Thanos could have been lying to himself to justify his grab for power. In my psychology class, we learned that everyone desired to see themselves in a favorable light. Thanos is no exception.
Is Thanos right about population growth and running out of resources? It is definitely possible. However, eliminating half the population would not solve this. After all, Thanos only postponed the inevitable. Yet, I think Thanos was wrong. With the technology and intelligence in the MCU, they could find solutions for limited resources and expand their populations to other planets. By the way, couldn’t Thanos snap infinite resources? Like, he could have solved the problem himself instead of killing half of all life and retiring.
Can you ever justify mass genocide? Probably not. Those killed did not do anything to deserve that. Also, it would be better to have the superior people survive, like survival of the fittest. He could have killed people over a certain age or people who were not contributing to society. It seems like he wanted chaos over ruling the universe.
The Falcon being denied a loan due to post-snap problems
While Thanos is on trial, we need to address reversing the snap. As we are watching in Phase Four of the MCU, there are huge problems caused by bringing everyone back. It would have been fine if they went to the past and snapped everyone back seconds after they disappeared. However, just as the survivors adjusted to their new lives, chaos erupted.
Although we always support saving people, should the focus be on rebuilding the planet? Instead of the best minds trapped in an endless loop of undoing the snap, they could have focused on helping people adjust to a new era. Moreover, why is Earth the only one doing anything? There are so many other planets and civilizations that have amazing technology and can help. Earth should have been working with aliens to enter a better era post-snap.
Overall, Thanos is the villain. But if he were on trial for his crimes, could his actions be defended? Let me know in the comments if you defend Thanos. Additionally, do you think the Avengers made a mistake undoing the snap?
David Gross
February 18, 2022 at 12:56 pm (3 years ago)Unfortunately I have not seen many post Endgame Marvel movies, so I’m not entirely sure about what’s going on in the post-snap world. I can say in regards to Thanos, though, that while I won’t think that what he did was right (I really don’t know how you can say genocide is right) his intentions were good. I think he really did just want to help the universe and not rule it. This is evident when after performing the snap, he went to live a peaceful farming life instead of trying to become dictator of the universe
Mustapha Salau
February 18, 2022 at 1:09 pm (3 years ago)Great post! I think you did a really good job presenting the aspects of a perspective Thanos trial. Killing half the population, as you mentioned, was probably not warranted, but I can understand where his mind was at.
Sebastian Ruiz
February 22, 2022 at 11:36 pm (3 years ago)No, I don’t think Thanos’ actions can be defended simply because of one great point which you mentioned: if he has the ability to create all the resources necessary for survival, why not just do that instead? In the universe he is living in with the technology available, no, his actions cannot be justified.
Fragata
December 20, 2022 at 10:11 am (2 years ago)First, as one of the comments said: the Thanos of the movies was not intended to be a dictator, but a savior. Second, it’s good to add that the reality that Thanos feared, he himself saw happen, with his own planet. According to him, he acted like a prophet warning of a great evil and offering a random genocide solution. The people called him demented and in the end that planet ended up “bankrupt”.
The thing is, when talking about Thanos’ attitudes, obviously everyone is going to talk about the planet itself, Earth. But the right thing would be to talk about Titan (I don’t remember which planet it was in the movies, but in the comics it was Titan, one of the moons of Jupiter).
So… he, living on a planet with a high population rate and with supposedly very advanced technology compared to Earth, acted as a kind of prophet all the time warning people about the evil to come, but… Those people simply didn’t want to hear the solution or the reasons. Incidentally, nor the motives they should be seeing for themselves, according to their likely advanced technology.
Clarifying: Thanos proposed an absurd proposal for a people with absurd attitudes towards themselves. Which led them not to consider that they would be destroyed in the future.
And here is an excellent point to debate. I’ve seen experts vehemently denying the “Thanos proposal”, moving the conversation to global warming, etc. stating that it would be ridiculous a situation where overpopulation needed such a solution and that future technologies would solve everything… but nobody considers that people make technology, and people are stupid, people who make technology for everyone are super influential people, and super influential people can be stupid AND corrupt to the point of not caring about their own destruction.
So… would Thanos just create infinite resources on each planet? I would wonder more about the economic havoc this would cause or how to get rid of these infinite resources, because that would also imply infinite garbage. In any case, I wouldn’t be surprised if these infinite resources are soon monopolized and sold at sky-high prices in the distant future.
How about simply giving every sentient being in the universe the will to do something to survive? Great idea… but that would involve messing with the essence of each being. In fact, it would be the same as killing each of these people or who they chose to be.
In short: If I were a superhero, I would probably fight alongside the Avengers to stop Thanos’ plans… but all the while I would feel that regardless of the ending, it would be a losing battle. After all, humanity is its greatest villain.