THANOS: A VILLAIN LIKE NEVER BEFORE

And as the last alpha male wolf head was piked, the people sang songs of joy across the valley of Rocky Mountain West knowing their cattle is safe from the pack and their sleep unruffled by the howling on cold full-moon nights. 

It's a common plot the good vs the bad, and the good powering its way to a grand slam finish with it's protagonist taking all the glory. Tried tested formula and a cliché we have grown to accept. And rightly so, it's the good, the right and the just that deserves the acclaims, the applause and the confetti. But I guess the world deserved a better class of villains.

In almost all the fantasy worlds, it's the dark antagonist who rebels against the established order and seek to overthrow the light from the world. Be it Sauron in LOTR, Voldemort in Harry Potter or the countless villains in the superhero movies like Hydra, Steppenwolf, Zod, or other alien entities. They have the common agenda, topple the system and establish their throne over the interests of others. Or make earth their foothold of the empire. It's not a proposition that have any virtue to cherish, so the story makes it easier for the audience. Until, Thanos arrived.

I wasn't Marvel comic reader nor a avid Marvel movie franchise viewer, my relation with it hasn't reached puberty yet. As the world awaited the biggest movie of the year, I just went behind the bandwagon watching those movies I missed in a week making a late effort to be ready by the time movie hits theater. And I made it. Like the countless audience, I was also marveled by how the plot fell into place. It was beautiful in all regard. And yet the thirst remains to know the end. 

Even with all the superheroes and demi-gods taking the majority of screen presence, it's the Purple Titan that steals the show. With a click of his fingers, he took down half of the universe and with it number of superheroes. Does the Titan vindicate himself in the process? For me, he does.

Thanos is first of his kind, neither was he interested in taking over earth nor world domination. His agenda was different, and purely aligned with the pulse of the universe. There is a sense of virtue in his actions, something which was alien to his class of antagonist. 

In a dying world, where the population has reached beyond tolerance level somebody had to pull the trigger before it exploded. With a click of his fingers he brought parity and stability to the universe without bias. Young or old, rich or poor, noble or lowly, black or white. Everyone had equal chance to survive or die and even Thanos wasn't involved the process. Something a man in similar power wouldn't do. In Captain America-Winter Soldier when S.H.I.E.L.D (HYDRA) wanted to launch Project Insight, we had a glimpse into a similar situation. Hydra wanted to keep a check on the population and those would go against HYDRA would be terminated from skies above. The people were selected according to their life style and different choices which would help HYDRA to find an algorithm to track who would go against them. A genuine case of selection to keep their interest. Something the all powerful Thanos didn't attempt.

What Thanos did just doesn't end in the fantasy world, it's implications have real life meaning. In some years ahead, when the world population reaches past danger level, what would the world organization would do? Will they wait long enough to make peaceful accords. When the last water body is dried up and last ounce of wheat is used, the civilized of the world would put knife to each other's throats like cannibals. Suppose if the governments of the world indeed find a better planet in the universe, will they take all these billions of people there? Even if we could do that, it wouldn't be a situation of peaceful co-existence with the life forms there. Either way it's detrimental in the interests of all virtues.

So what does Avengers have it in mind considering everything Thanos did in first part will be revoked by the events that's going to unfold in second part. This takes me to one statement Tony Stark says in Age of Ultron, "PEACE IN OUR TIME". Even if he doesn't mean this way, I feel there's more to it. Maybe keeping the streets clean as long as Avengers are alive and kicking, and after that succumb to the common destiny of universe. They will win the Infinity war and undo everything Thanos did. But after the dust settles and the days run away into another century, the threat will reincarnate not like an alien invasion but as a civil war. And then the price would be even more.

I have not come to canonize Thanos but to look at this villain with a bit of respect. He didn't fulfill his destiny without pain or loss, he went through it before everyone. The excruciating pain of losing the loved one and to do it with your own hand doubles it. He knew it all, and yet in the grand scheme plan of the universe he endured it like a true superhero. But the world isn't ready for such benevolence, so it will undo everything and cheer the victory. We like to form our rules and amend it, we don't like it to be forced upon by some dark alien. 

You can delay it from coming but can never deny it.

"Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives."

Without the wolves the elk population grew so large it ate up all the young willow trees until there were none. This affected the habitat of many other animals and the ecosystem became unbalanced. By removing an apex predator, the wolf, from the food web the system collapsed. Upon the return of wolves in the Yellowstone National Park, the ecosystem thrived as overpopulation of elks was in check and stability restored.