Abusive Parents in the MCU (trigger warning)

[lynnenne]

Hello friends! I apologize for my recent absence... I've been travelling and then there was a hurricane and my power was out for 3 days, so I've been preoccupied. Thank you to snickfic for last week's discussion topic about Thor at university learning to speak Groot.

I'm still travelling, and I watched Infinity War on the plane yesterday, so this week's topic is about that big purple dude we all hate.



The scene where Thanos kills Gamora, whom he claims is his favorite child, is one of the most gut-wrenching and infuriating moments in the MCU. I've read criticism from some fans that the directors tried to make us feel sorry for Thanos by showing his tears and his grief.

I took something different from the scene. Thanos' grief might make him more human than your average child abuser, but he's still an abuser. The fact that he hurts and kills those he loves doesn't make me, as a viewer, sympathize with him more. It only makes him more of a monster.

Others might have a different view. Hollywood does have a history of prioritizing manpain over the real suffering of women and children. And some of those cinematic tricks (e.g. close-up on Thanos' face after he throws Gamora off the cliff) are used in this movie.

What's your opinion? Were the directors trying to make the audience feel sorry for Thanos? Or were they merely emphasizing that he's a killer who feels more sorry for himself than for the children he abused?

Comments

[kore]

LOL I ranted about this endlessly when Infinity War came out, second only to my ranting about Nat after I saw Endgame. I'm probably way too close and way too angry re this topic to contribute anything good, but yeah, I felt like the film was demanding we feel sorry for Thanos, or feel sympathetic, and since he was A MURDEROUS ABUSIVE KIDNAPPING BRAINWASHER, ahem, it just did not work for me. I wonder if we're going to have a parallel to that with Nat and Ivan in the Black Widow movie (they hinted at it). So many people made the point that abusive parents often say, "I'm doing this because I love you, I get to hurt you because you're mine and you have no autonomy," and the movie just doubled down on that with "he really loved her, because he gets the soul stone." His sacrifice is what's valued, his feelings, not hers, or what he actually did.

[lynnenne]

I wonder if we're going to have a parallel to that with Nat and Ivan in the Black Widow movie (they hinted at it).

Interesting! I never thought of that, but it does beg the question of why the Red Skull named her father at all.

[kore]

Yeah, and IIRC Ivan is the one who gives her to the Red Room in the comics, right? So that would go along with "Gamora, daughter of Thanos" (ARGH). There kind of seemed like no reason for it to be in the movie other than as a build-up for the solo movie.