When Thanos gave up The Gauntlet he changed everything
As the old saying goes, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely”.
You could be absolutely certain that no villain, worthy of the title, would turn their back on unlimited power.
Until Thanos.
The Avengers failed. In devastating fashion.
The couldn’t stop Thanos. They couldn’t keep the Infinity Stones from him.
They couldn’t stop him from using them.
They couldn’t get them back when he was finished.
They couldn’t undo what he had done.
Thor was too late.
At least, that’s where the focus is.
The audience, the writers’ focus, is on The Avengers.
After this scene ^ we get a 5 year time jump no one asked for.
We get fat Thor playing Fortnite. A Hulk at peace. Cap running therapy sessions, and Tony in a log cabin with his family.
The rest of the story is devoted to The Avengers slow crawl back from that moment above. It’s what takes precedent.
It’s a superhero movie afterall. A Disney movie.
And I’m like, “Excuse me, but what the fuck just happened?”.
Why did Thanos give up The Gauntlet? Why did he destroy the Infinity Stones?
What made him give up…
?
This is unthinkable. It’s unheard of.
Don’t we realize that no one has ever done this before?
Am I the only one who cares?
In the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline, Thanos has a crush on Death.
That’s why he murders half of all life in existence: To impress bae.
It’s pretty clear that The Avengers, and almost every other Marvel character, have to intervene. It’s also clear that Thanos isn’t just going to roll over and give up The Gauntlet when he’s done.
After The Snap, he’s drunk on power and proceeds to tear through the cosmos on a wild bender.
You know, standard super-villain bullshit.
At the end of the story, after Thanos is defeated, The Gauntlet falls into the hands of one Adam Warlock. Upon taking possession, he’s forced to undergo a trial to determine if he can be a responsible wielder of …
Thanos, alone, head still attached to his shoulders, lives in a secluded farm on another world, happy to have lost the burden of The Gauntlet.
The Gauntlet would proceed to run a gauntlet (c’mon that’s a layup) of owners. The list includes Namor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain America, Professor-X, and Doctor Strange just to name a few.
In each case, emphasis was placed on the burden of wielding undisputed power.
You know:
More money more problems.
Anybody can get it, it’s keeping it that’s the hard part.
So that’s how it plays out in the comics. That’s how I expected it to play out in the movies.
And when it didn’t I was shocked.
Then I was confused.
Then I was angry.
Then I was sad.
Then I was hungry.
So I ate a sandwich.
And then I was confused again.
Because how could you break the mold of the villain, and not examine those consequences?
How could you ignore the precedent set out by every film in millennia, totally re-write the rules, and just pretend like it never happened?
The truth: I still don’t know.
Maybe the Russo brothers fucked up?
Maybe they were too scared to tangle with the implications of what they’d created?
Maybe they had enough on their plate, wrapping up the defining cinematic creation of our generation?
Maybe they got lazy and thought no one would notice?
Regardless, they were wrong to leave it unattended.
But don’t worry, I’m here.
So let’s get into it.
Thanos destroying the Infinity Stones, giving up The Gauntlet and relinquishing …
… Makes things morally complicated.
And it puts this writer in a sticky situation, morally, because I have to be an asshole and point out that Thanos has a point (MCU Thanos that is. Murdering trillions to impress a crush is a definitive no go).
And I’m not the only one who thinks so,
“The fact that he made you, kind of, go like ‘He’s got a point, right? He’s got a point. ‘ And part of me is like ‘I’m glad he’s sitting there on his chair, with the sun coming down. ‘ I mean, I hate that half of the world’s dead, but there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘He succeeded!”
— Bradley Cooper (Voice of Rocket Racoon)
It isn’t just Brad and I thinking it either. Don’t forget, it was an icon of pop culture who once said,
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few — or the one”
— Spock
These dying words from televisions favourite Vulcan cut to the core of what it means to sacrifice for the greater good.
Greater, as in number.
And while the numbers in the obituary columns may not look kindly on Thanos’ work, there can be no denying what he sacrificed.
Thanos gave it all up to get The Gauntlet. He sacrifices his life on his home world.
His daughter.
His humanity (I guess, he’s not technically human. His Titanity?)
More important than all of that is, after 21 movies, 3 MCU phases, and an entire cinematic universe worth of buildup, he gives up The Gauntlet too.
Why?
Thanos is no fool. He would have known The Avengers were coming for him.
He’d know they’d want to avenge their fallen.
And with…
… He’d stand more than a fair chance in a rematch.
But he destroys the Infinity Stones.
Crippling himself in the process.
He hangs up his armour and lives his remaining hours wearing rags, farming weird ass fruit and cooking stew.
That’s not a bad guy move.
Destroying The Gauntlet, Thanos proved that he wasn’t just inevitable, he was incorruptible.
He wasn’t a villain.
He was something else.
The Grey Character
Simply put, grey characters tread the line between right and wrong.
They do good things for bad reasons, or bad things for good reasons.
A grey character leaves you unsure about how you feel about them.
Often they make the good guys look like squares, and bad guys look depraved. Or, at least, they highlight the specific instances where these traits come to light.
For that is the true purpose of the grey character.
Grey characters don’t just lend depth and complexity to a story.
While they are often used to sow seeds of doubt, and test the limits of ethics and codes, a well written grey character doesn’t simply cause confusion.
Ultimately, the primary function of the grey character is to provide moral clarity.
When we lose track of the line between good and evil, the grey appears. The uncertainty provided by the grey moral code permits a redrawing and reassesment of moral boundaries.
It’s a refresher course in right and wrong.
At least, it’s supposed to be.
If Thanos doesn’t qualify as a stereotypical villain, then I am more comfortable lumping him in with the Grey Characters.
Because, while I’m opposed to declaring him a hero, or even an anti-hero, I fell equally uncomfortable calling him pure evil.
I believe that someone who would:
- Seek to use power for the betterment of others, however misguided in the attempt
- Once achieving his goal, relinquish power and face judgement
- Accept the consequences of his actions
… Cannot be considered pure evil.
Judging by his deeds, the label of villain is not one he deserves.
So he must be Grey.
If that is true, then what we have here, is no longer a black and white story.
This is no longer a discussion of good an evil, right and wrong.
It is a story with shades of grey.
And the grey character has been cast as the bad guy.
In which case, killing him, and casting him as the villain, is a mistake. Because without establishing a proper discourse on good vs evil, and where the grey is, we just have a light show.
Not a story.
The finality of Thor chopping off his head ends the conflict, but leaves us without a moral resolution.
It leaves us without any moral at all.
There is no moment of clarity. No purpose to the narrative.
Without ever detailing, in no uncertain terms, why Thanos’ cause is wrong, why The Avengers were in the right to oppose him, where the grey and good overlap, or don’t, the story has been left open ended.
It’s incomplete.
The resolution remains unclear.
There is no point to this story. It’s a great watch. Fun to see Thor dual wielding hammers and Cap turning into Thunder Cap, and all the rest of it.
There was just so much story telling potential here that got wasted.
It’s to bad.
