Marvel movies are sort of fixated on complicated relationships with fathers aren't they? Tony Stark has a distant relationship with
his father. Thor and Black Panther respect their fathers but then learned that they're not perfect
and must atone for their sins. Peter Parker is motivated by
his need to impress Tony, who serves as his only father figure in this franchise. Ant-Man
story is about struggling to be a dad while trying to impress his surrogate father figure, Hank
Pym. Peter Quill learns that the man he thought
was his father is really a monster and the man he thought was a monster is really his daddy.
"He may have been your father boy but he wasn't your daddy."
God that one line makes that movie like 10 times better! And of course, Gamora and Nebula hate their tyrannical
domineering father, the villain of this movie, Thanos. If there is anything like an overarching theme to the Marvel cinematic
universe it'd be: You need to grow the hell up! The protagonists start out, as selfish man babies and need to learn, how
to become
responsible and self-sacrificing adults. That transformation is often pushed forward by father figures, both good and bad.
Especially recently with the last four movies being primarily about fathers and their children.
After overcoming their own issues with their fathers, the most terrifying villain these characters could face is a father who
wants to make them a child again. A father who thinks he knows what's best for them because
Thanos
wants to be a father figure not just to his already adopted
children
but to literally everyone he encounters. His minions are called Children of Thanos; he refers to Scarlet Witch,
someone he's never met before, as my
child. Unlike most of the egomaniacal men who appear in these movies, Thanos is not just a
wannabe dictator. He's not motivated
by
a selfish desire for power but in his own mind a selfless one. He wants to take responsibility for other people not just
control them. And taking responsibility
is what it means to be a parent. He is Uncle Ben's famous maxim taken to its ultimate extreme.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
That's just how he sees himself though and it's all a fiction
because really he's as egotistical as they come.
He wants to subjugate you and have you love him in return. Be grateful that a benevolent dictator
is the one subjugating you. At the same time, Thanos doesn't just want to be a father, he wants to be the all-father,
he wants to be a god.
That's what Loki explicitly tells him he will not become at the beginning of this movie and it's
what he does become at the end of the movie when he collects all of the infinity stones. But what's interesting
is that godhood is framed as
fatherhood in this film. His servant, Ebony Maw, says to the dying Asgardians that even in death you are children of Thanos.
Father, god, king, Thanos is the negative
embodiment and combination of all of these figures. In him they are one in the same and it all hinges on how Thanos views love.
Early in the film, there is a seemingly throwaway line
from Wong that is actually the most important line in the film. He says "Attachment to the material is
detachment from the spiritual." Throughout the movie our heroes, as well as Thanos, are tested along
these lines.
Thanos must sacrifice the only person he loves, the only person keeping him attached to the material world in order to gain
what is fittingly called
The Soul Stone on his spiritual journey toward
godhood. Throughout the film, the Avengers face similar trolley problem-type
dilemmas. Needing to sacrifice someone they love in order to save half the universe. None of them are up to the task.
Hesitating for too long to make the decision they fail time and time again
because their version of love is selfish. It is
passionate and irrational, and in terms of this film, it is childish, it is irresponsible.
Attachment to the material world, even the people they love, leads them toward oblivion
at every turn. But Thanos claims that he is
dispassionate. That his level of concern is totally outside himself. Before
sacrificing Gamora, she tells him that this is not love. Is she right about that? Thanos has tortured and abused Gamora her
entire life. All the while thinking he
was doing so out of love, out of a hope to make her stronger. So is love just a feeling you can
have despite the horrible way you've treated
someone? Apparently, it is. That's what the universe thinks since it grants Thanos the Soul Stone and that might be the most uncomfortable
idea in the film. All of this is in contrast to Tony, the only person Thanos treats as an equal.
He doesn't call him my
child or belittle him or try to teach him a lesson. He says Tony has his respect. It's
no coincidence that Tony starts this film saying that he'd like to be a father and spends most of it keeping his
surrogate son, Spider-Man, safe. On the other side of the coin is Dr. Strange
who is willing to sacrifice people to keep the Time Stone away
from Thanos, which Tony thinks is morally backwards at the time. The battle at the end of this movie then
is between two dueling notions of fatherhood. One that is emotional and one that is
dispassionate. One who is
protective of his children, wrapping them up in a suit of armor and trying to keep them out of harm's way and another who forces
them into dangerous situations in order to make them stronger, feelings
be damned. With the story only half told, I'm excited to see how these ideas are paid off in the next film. How
through the conflict with Thanos, these characters overcome their lingering issues with their parents and become responsible father figures themselves.
Avengers Infinity
War might be the most expensive, biggest, loudest, most star-studded
action-packed film Hollywood has ever made but I'm glad to say that it's also got something on its mind.
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He sort of dresses like a dad too. His shirt is tucked in in the front but it's got like
butt flaps in the back! What is that?