The advent of the Infinity War changed the landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. The movie acted as a paradigm shift in the realm of moviemaking. It dared to go where no comic book movie had gone before. Infinity War was the movie that did it differently, changed everything that we knew about the moviescape, it challenged the cliched formula and made it into something new and different. The most memorable part of the movie is not Thanos’ victory but the consequences of that victory, half of all existence wiped out in a single instant, it has to be one of the greatest disasters in the history of the universe and it occurred right before our eyes.
Not only did the universe loose half of all of its population but the evil forces prevailed against the good guys. We lost and they won. Despite all of our efforts and status quo propaganda by the superheroes, we were powerless in the face of real war.
The weight of this loss was made worse by the fact that we lost young characters like Groot and Spider-Man. It was all rather surreal when we witnessed the ‘dusting’ of these young souls. Although Groot was a resurrection and Spider-Man has existed in the movie world for quite some time, it was readily apparent how hurt the fans were when these characters made it to the wrong side of the split of the universe.
The snap happened and it was completely random just like it was in the original Infinity Gauntlet comic. Something was different from the comics though, it was the fact that where the comic started from the snap, the movie ended with it.
Moreover, it is pertinent to note that the main antagonist (that the comic and the movie share vis-à-vis) had very different motivations. In the original Infinity Gauntlet saga, Thanos was enticed by death and he was on a crusade to end life to please mistress death. But in the movie, his motivations got a more righteous makeover.
The Infinity War Disney powered Thanos wanted to end half of all life in the universe not because he was a sadistic monster who wanted to win the favor of the personification of death but because he wished to correct the rampancy of life itself. Sounds a little overzealous, doesn’t it? Believe me, it is; and quite on the nose too. But it is what Disney sought fit to put in the final draft of the script so who are we to question it.
Reddit user u/WamsyTheOneAndOnly takes this character of benevolent Thanos to another level with his post on r/Fantheories. The same has been reproduced below for your scrutiny:-
[Infinity war] Thanos allowed the victims of the snap to tell the closest person one final message before they died. This explains why Peter died so slowly compared to Wanda. from FanTheories
It seems that the entirety of the theory is based on Thanos’ character motivations in Infinity War and the logical extreme of the same. Wamsy suggests that it was no coincidence that Spider-Man and Groot die slowly than other characters.
It seems that Wamsy is suggesting that Thanos (in his bout to end half of all life in creation ) was a little more merciful than originally anticipated. The mad titan not only allowed some of the ‘dusted’ characters to spend a little more time with their loved ones but also ensured that they were able to say some final words to these loved ones.
Wamsy suggests that this was the reason why while most of the characters were dusted instantly but heroes like Spider-Man and Groot lingered on just a little longer. This was because (in Wamsy’s opinion) Thanos gave them time to relay a final message to their comrade in arms (iron man in the case of Spider-Man and Rocket Raccoon in the case of Groot).
Do you think that Wamsy’s theory has any merit to it? Or was it just a touch of drama added by the Russo brothers without any true meaning to it. We don’t know, in fact, we can’t know, not until Avengers Annihilation comes around.
Let’s hope that we get what we expect by then, or maybe we will get something better, I can’t wait to find out, can you? Avengers Annihilation will hit theatres on April 26, 2019. Up until then keep watching this space for everything Marvel and please tell us your theories in the comments below.
