4 ms·

Thanos’ ideas about everything were extremely silly. A halving of population would do nothing on any time scale. A small blip easily recovered by reproduction

Thanos’ ideas about everything were extremely silly. A halving of population would do nothing on any time scale. A small blip easily recovered by reproduction. People deserve better writing, even in comic book movies.

bitwize 4y ago
The original rationale for Thanos made a lot more sense: he simped for Death, like the concept of death was a woman in the Marvel universe. He thought half the universe's souls would make a perfect offering for her and would impress her enough to make her want to be with him. It's outrageously comic-book-y, but may as well lean into the illogic.
- JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
  That makes much more sense, I wish they had stuck with that.
  - CapricornNoble 4y ago
    I thought they would, considering they introduced the Goddess of Death in Thor: Ragnarok, but...NOPE. Cate Blanchett delightfully hamming it up as a supervillian only lasted one film.
    - bitwize 4y ago
      Death is a separate character from Hela. So the possibility is still there. They even teased it at the end of The Avengers: the Chitauri leader tells Thanos "to challenge [humans] is to court death", at which time Thanos grins eagerly. But with Earth-199999's Thanos dead, they're going to have to invoke some multiversal malarkey if they want to develop that storyline now.
api 4y ago
Real life despots and fanatics are usually quite a bit crazier and less coherent than Thanos. As usual you have to tone it down to make it believable in fiction. A realistic depiction of a genocidal fanatic would be too stupid or insane to be believable. See: Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, ISIS, Kim Jong Un, and numerous other examples. If they were rational they would not be despots and fanatics. Unfortunately charismatic lunatics command followings. Charisma bypasses the rational mind and shoots straight into the limbic system (as do fear, outrage, etc). Cult leaders are good cases too: L. Ron Hubbard, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Keith Raniere, etc. These people would be as bad as the worst despots if they actually had power over more than a few people. Thanos' line is more rational than this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu
- PTOB 4y ago
  Reading _Wizard's First Rule_ right now. "Charisma bypasses the rational mind and shoots straight into the limbic system (as do fear, outrage, etc)." That's pretty much the premise of the book.
  - empiricus 4y ago
    Like it best from the series. In a way, each whole volume of the series is to describe one sentence.
yunohn 4y ago
> A halving of population would do nothing on any time scale. A small blip easily recovered by reproduction. The population was half of 2020 in 1973 (1). Emissions were also half of now back then (2). That’s nearly 30 years of runway that Thano’s solution would provide. With today’s technology and rapid iteration, we could definitely do something better for climate change. I’m not endorsing the method, but merely disagreeing with your assertion. (1) https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-populat... (2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/276629/global-co2-emissions/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/276629/global-co2-emissi...
- adrianN 4y ago
  Halving the emissions today would buy us only a couple of years until 2° warming becomes completely unpreventable.
  - salmonfamine 4y ago
    This is simply not true.

bitwize 4y ago

The original rationale for Thanos made a lot more sense: he simped for Death, like the concept of death was a woman in the Marvel universe. He thought half the universe's souls would make a perfect offering for her and would impress her enough to make her want to be with him. It's outrageously comic-book-y, but may as well lean into the illogic.

JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
That makes much more sense, I wish they had stuck with that.
- CapricornNoble 4y ago
  I thought they would, considering they introduced the Goddess of Death in Thor: Ragnarok, but...NOPE. Cate Blanchett delightfully hamming it up as a supervillian only lasted one film.
  - bitwize 4y ago
    Death is a separate character from Hela. So the possibility is still there. They even teased it at the end of The Avengers: the Chitauri leader tells Thanos "to challenge [humans] is to court death", at which time Thanos grins eagerly. But with Earth-199999's Thanos dead, they're going to have to invoke some multiversal malarkey if they want to develop that storyline now.

api 4y ago

Real life despots and fanatics are usually quite a bit crazier and less coherent than Thanos. As usual you have to tone it down to make it believable in fiction. A realistic depiction of a genocidal fanatic would be too stupid or insane to be believable. See: Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, ISIS, Kim Jong Un, and numerous other examples. If they were rational they would not be despots and fanatics. Unfortunately charismatic lunatics command followings. Charisma bypasses the rational mind and shoots straight into the limbic system (as do fear, outrage, etc). Cult leaders are good cases too: L. Ron Hubbard, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Keith Raniere, etc. These people would be as bad as the worst despots if they actually had power over more than a few people. Thanos' line is more rational than this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu

PTOB 4y ago
Reading _Wizard's First Rule_ right now. "Charisma bypasses the rational mind and shoots straight into the limbic system (as do fear, outrage, etc)." That's pretty much the premise of the book.
- empiricus 4y ago
  Like it best from the series. In a way, each whole volume of the series is to describe one sentence.

yunohn 4y ago

> A halving of population would do nothing on any time scale. A small blip easily recovered by reproduction. The population was half of 2020 in 1973 (1). Emissions were also half of now back then (2). That’s nearly 30 years of runway that Thano’s solution would provide. With today’s technology and rapid iteration, we could definitely do something better for climate change. I’m not endorsing the method, but merely disagreeing with your assertion. (1) https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-populat... (2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/276629/global-co2-emissions/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/276629/global-co2-emissi...

adrianN 4y ago
Halving the emissions today would buy us only a couple of years until 2° warming becomes completely unpreventable.
- salmonfamine 4y ago
  This is simply not true.