Spoilers Avengers: Infinity War grade and discussion thread

[Spot261]

Cut it out. It's against board policy to claim trolling, especially when no trolling is occurring.

You are looking at things with a human-centric perspective. It's "wrong" to kill humans seems to be self-evident to you, but is it? It isn't any more wrong for a higher being to kill humans than it is for humans to kill deer.

Which remains a painfully awful argument.

And I've not accused you of trolling.

 

[Awesome Possum]

That overly complicates something that is straight-forward: Groot died in front of Rocket, so it's only natural he would say "I am Groot" ("Dad") because of their adoptive relationship.

It makes sense. Rocket more than any of the others takes on a parental role with him. He's the first to respond when Groot swears and would get him to spit out bugs when he was younger. Peter began to later to some degree and the others seem more nurturing with him, but Rocket spends the most time with him. It's possible that this has happened to Groot before and Rocket just knows what to expect since he had a similar relationship with the original Groot.

 

[crookeddy]

Which remains a painfully awful argument.

And I've not accused you of trolling.

I think that once religion is out of the picture, it has to be realized that human life has no intrinsic value to anyone but humans. If someone of an immensely greater intelligence has a goal to preserve humans a race, it is perfectly logical that they will do so my keeping population growth in check. (A less painful way to do this is to increase sterility, but that doesn't make for a fun action movie)

 

[Spot261]

I think that once religion is out of the picture, it has to be realized that human life has no intrinsic value to anyone but humans. If someone of an immensely greater intelligence has a goal to preserve humans a race, it is perfectly logical that they will do so my keeping population growth in check. (A less painful way to do this is to decrease sterility, but that doesn't make for a fun action movie)

Yup, these words have been used before in human history, by people who actually had the means and the stomach to act on it.

Copying them here doesn't seem to be impressing anyone.

 

[crookeddy]

Yup, these words have been used before in human history, by people who actually had the means and the stomach to act on it.

Copying them here doesn't seem to be impressing anyone.

Why do people keep talking about impressing? Who gives a poop what people who are just random letters on the internet are impressed by? I have no interest in acting on this. Thanos did, and that's what the movie is about.

 

[Spot261]

Why do people keep talking about impressing? Who gives a poop what people who are just random letters on the internet are impressed by? I have no interest in acting on this. Thanos did, and that's what the movie is about.

Dude, I have no interest in talking to you specifically about anything, it's a public forum. You keep addressing me.

 

[crookeddy]

Dude, I have no interest in talking to you specifically about anything, it's a public forum. You keep addressing me.

Um.. you're quoting ME. You don't get to quote someone, respond to their points and then say, oh I wasn't talking to you directly. Yes you were.

 

[Spot261]

Um.. you're quoting ME. You don't get to quote someone, respond to their points and then say, oh I wasn't talking to you directly. Yes you were.

Yeah, actually I get to do exactly that.

 

[Nyotarules]

Is the latest Avenger's IW movie the bill coming due spoken about in Dr Strange?

 

[Jinn]

I think that once religion is out of the picture, it has to be realized that human life has no intrinsic value to anyone but humans.

Good thing that most of us humans are humans

If someone of an immensely greater intelligence has a goal to preserve humans a race, it is perfectly logical that they will do so my keeping population growth in check. (A less painful way to do this is to decrease sterility, but that doesn't make for a fun action movie)

I don't think that Thanos would really fall under that "immensely greater intelligence" category. I mean, he's not dumb, but not an inhumanly smart person.

 

[crookeddy]

Good thing that most of us humans are humans


I don't think that Thanos would really fall under that "immensely greater intelligence" category. I mean, he's not dumb, but not an inhumanly smart person.

Not him individually, but it does seem like his race is millennia more advanced and it would be fair to say that he believes himself to be a higher being.

 

[Jinn]

Not him individually, but it does seem like his race is millennia more advanced and it would be fair to say that he believes himself to be a higher being.

Well, they seem to be more advanced technology-wise, but I don't think they are far enough to count as a whole new category of inteligent. I would probably consider Galactus to fall under that category. While he doesn't really kill us for our sake per se his being alive keeps Abraxas from destroying everything (as retconned in the early 2000s) and he expresses multiple times that he doesn't really take joy in killing people, but that he must for his continued survival.

 

[Gryffindorian]

By the way, I do have friends that are very seriously arguing that Thanos was the environmentalist hero in this movie, and that he did nothing wrong.

.

I'm sure you do, without a doubt.

 

[Anwar]

This is what Days of Futures Past really should've been like, since the BTS stuff from the next Avengers film shows they'll be doing time travel stuff.

THIS is real hopelessness, instead of the Sentinels killing off people we barely knew.

 

[Awesome Possum]

It would be interesting if the next Avenger skips some time, maybe showing how devasted Earth is after losing half the population.

 

[crookeddy]

This is what Days of Futures Past really should've been like, since the BTS stuff from the next Avengers film shows they'll be doing time travel stuff.

THIS is real hopelessness, instead of the Sentinels killing off people we barely knew.

People we barely knew such as Xavier and Storm. Yup, totally right.

 

[Anwar]

People we barely knew such as Xavier and Storm. Yup, totally right.

2 people, fighting extremely crappily against forces they barely put up a fight against as opposed to IW's real fight and plenty more characters we'd grown to care about.

Hell, Storm in those movies wasn't much of a character either.

Of course, that the mutants could have lost so badly in the first place given all the powers the Mutants had that could've ended the war before the Sentinels could adapt to them was just another one of that films' plot holes.

 

[crookeddy]

Of course, that the mutants could have lost so badly in the first place given all the powers the Mutants had that could've ended the war before the Sentinels could adapt to them was just another one of that films' plot holes.

Don't you mean the comics' plot holes?

 

[Anwar]

Don't you mean the comics' plot holes?

The movies' shouldn't repeat the plot flaws from the comics.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

On another note, I do believe that empathy is a leftover of a time when such a thing was needed for the survival of the species. It isn't any longer. The only reason we still value empathetic people is because of holdovers from religion - self sacrifice is good and all that. It will be gone soon.

By the way, I do have friends that are very seriously arguing that Thanos was the environmentalist hero in this movie, and that he did nothing wrong.

Now, human beings perform Thanos' actions every hunting season - we know that a deer population would starve with overpopulation, so we allow hunting season to stable off the population. If you talk to some big name hunters, they will always say that they are in it for conservation. Why are we able to rationalize this with deer and not our own population? The only reason is that we consider ourselves to be the custodians of this planet, and a higher form of life than deer. Thanos considers himself the custodian of the universe and a higher being to any other life form. That makes his ethics morally equivalent to our own. He did nothing wrong by our own definitions of morality.

You don't know me too well, nor do I seek a deep philosophical discussion.

So, just to recap...

- You don't think there's any point to empathy.
- You compare humans to non-sapient animals.
- Justify the killing of those animals en masse (and I don't recall present day hunters being permitted to cull half of all deer in existence).
- Justify mass genocide.
- Think those actions don't fall outside our own definitions of morality.
- Don't really want to spend too much time thinking about it.



Thanos is a fanatic with a singular unyielding obsession driven by personal trauma over the loss of his homeworld and people. He's no environmentalist or conservationist. He culls without regard for the resource and population status of the planet or civilization in question. He culls despite the fact that with possession of the infinity stones he could just as easily prevent as many new births to regulate population (still traumatic for many, but less so than the genocide of trillions who already exist) or go back in time and disappear people from existence without their friends and family ever knowing them or having to experience them being executed by firing squad/attack/dissolving right in front of them, or create unlimited resources, or gently transport willing participants into a newly created parallel universe paradise, or countless other possibilities which he doesn't spare a moment to think about because he's a zealot who's unilaterally decided that his way is the only way.