This scene really struck me, and ever since I saw the movie I’ve been trying to figure out why.
And now that I’ve had a while to think on it, I believe I know.
Wanda, who has just shown herself to be incredibly, dangerously powerful, to the point that she not only destroyed an infinity stone single-handed (a feat that was supposed to be impossible) but also managed to hold off Thanos and his entire array of infinity stones at the same time.
Wanda, who has just been forced to watch yet another person she deeply loves get slaughtered in front of her - this time by her own hand, for the sake of the universe - and who has at this point simply given up on her will to live.
Thanos, who has just seen firsthand the power of someone who could potentially take him out (and, if it weren’t for the time stone, would have succeeded) whether he holds five infinity stones or not.
Thanos, who has just watched her make the ultimate sacrifice to keep him from succeeding, and in doing so has proven to him that she will do anything to stop him.
Thanos, who has just had what was supposed to be an easy victory suddenly snatched from his hands by the exhausted girl on the ground in front of him - a girl who is a fraction of his size and laughably weaker than him physically. (He was throwing Cap and Thor and Hulk around like they were nothing.)
And right now, they’re the only two left standing.
Wanda just waits there, lying in the dirt, for him to kill her.
She doesn’t fight, or shield herself, or try to run when Thanos starts walking toward her. She has nobody to step in and save her, because everyone else is trapped or unconscious.
Wanda doesn’t even try to get up.
She doesn’t want to live anymore. She has nothing to live for.
She wants to die, and at this point is more than willing to let Thanos be the one to strike that blow.
Even when he physically puts his hand on her head, all she does is flinch.
Thanos, on the other hand, is unscathed.
He’s standing - towering - over the one person who poses an actual, legitimate threat to him. She’s down for the count, hurt and exhausted and with no will to live, waiting for him to finish the fight.
He’s got her at her absolute most vulnerable, and probably the most vulnerable he will EVER have her - this chance isn’t going to come again.
He reaches down, gently strokes her hair, and walks past her to finish what he came here to do.
Even when he brings Vision back and she stands to fight him once more, he still doesn’t kill her.
He strikes her away, and does so gently enough that she manages to recover and crawl over to Vision’s side before she’s taken by the stone.
Given every opportunity and every reason to end her, he doesn’t do it.
Now it could be argued that Thanos figured there was no point in wasting the effort because he was going to wipe half of all life from the universe as soon as he got the last stone anyway, but as it was mentioned earlier in the film - the selection of who died would be random.
The stone would not pick and choose - it would take rich and poor, passionate and dispassionate, strong and weak, etc. - completely at random.
There was no guarantee that Wanda would be among those that were taken.
So knowing that she is a legitimate threat to him, and that there’s a 50/50 shot of her surviving that final finger snap…
Why would he let her live?
The second thing that strikes me is how gentle he is.
We’ve seen him order half of a world’s population slaughtered for the sake of his goal.
We’ve seen him torture multiple characters without batting an eye.
We’ve seen him crush skulls and snap necks with his bare hands.
But we’ve also seen this.
And again, the clip with Wanda.
Thanos has instances where he is incredibly gentle.
And it’s honestly a bit unsettling to watch.
He’s so convinced of the true morality of his own objective - so blinded by the end goal - that the means to reach it no longer matter.
Thanos believes himself to be good and kind, and that he is simply making the tough call that nobody else was strong enough to make for the good of the universe in centuries to come.
He’s culling the herd so the rest don’t starve.
Now I’ve seen the comparison made a few times to seeing pictures of Hitler playing with children (and I’ll admit that’s what came to mind for me as well) - it’s disturbing because we don’t want to humanize someone who has committed genocide, and sympathizing is exactly what our brain tries to do when we see someone being gentle and kind to another creature.
We see Thanos not only being kind to a young Gamora, but being surprisingly good at it, and our brains sort of short circuit for a second because we think that he’s not supposed to be CAPABLE of that.
And yet somehow, to an extent, he is.
Hell, even when he’s about to kill half the universe, he doesn’t cause death wantonly.
He traps Bruce in the cliff, but lets him live.
He catches T’Challa by his throat and punches him into the ground but doesn’t break his neck.
He shorts out Sam’s wings to drop him out of the sky but doesn’t finish him off.
He destroys the suit around Rhody, but doesn’t crush him.
He throws Bucky aside but doesn’t kill him.
He tosses Okoye aside but doesn’t kill her.
He pins Natasha with a bunch of rocks, but doesn’t crush her.
He rips Groot’s vines away but doesn’t go after him.
He punches Steve out, but doesn’t continue once he’s down.
Hell, when Thanos goes after Wanda his gauntlet lights up blue with the teleportation power of the tesseract. He’s planning to move her - not fight her.
And even when that fails, he doesn’t grant Wanda’s silent wish for death.
Thanos is not crazed, or high off his own power, or running on blood lust - he’s doing what he thinks is truly the right thing, and going about accomplishing it in a cold and calculated manner. When he’s not trying to accomplish his goal, he acts in a way that might even be described as good.
I believe that Thanos is truly Lawful Evil.
And that’s what makes him so scary.
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