The First Order vs the Avengers

[Anteros]

If Doctor Strange was able to just redirect those sorts of attacks and use his portals offensively to kill his opponents and entire starships....

Why is Endgame the only successful possible outcome? Why couldn't Dr. Strange just kill or separate Thanos from the infinity stones at one of those moments he wasn't actively using the stones?

For all the absurd levels of power Doctor Strange shows in the last two movies (well beyond what he does in his own movie), it is implied he has some sort of limit to how well his offensive magic works.

Because it's poorly written. They have teleportation, time travel, and allies who could single-handedly demolish Thanos' entire army. The only thing holding them back is that it's more "dramatic" if they can only win one way. We could probably put our heads together and come up with thousands of ways the Avengers could win.

[Reddish Mage]

It takes less to have a bestseller than you think. You only need to place in the top ten or so for a week and you have a bestseller. Most of the "bestselling" authors who did Star Wars EU were pure airport grade pulp.

But even when they got authors with actual track records it didn't go well. Vonda McIntyre had a Hugo award and Crystal Star was still rubbish.

First off Ramza has a point:

You just describe Star Wars Aesthetic right there. At its core it is airport grade pulp.

It was pulp, but without the synergy of a dozen other things it would not have been a Star Wars.

Only Star Wars, as a movie, was a bit more than “airport grade” as it was very well written, edited, and accompanied by the best special effects of its era by the guy who then went and created the best special effects of the next era or two.

At its heart, its an adventure serial set in space. It takes inspiration from predecessors like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Westerns.

It was meant to be set out in 9 episodes in a far more condensed period of time. Only we only got three movies that were so good they became rarefied into as these perfect stories (although maybe you have something against one or two of the elements like the “teddy bears”). So its pretty hard to replicate that expected perfection when you are putting out dozen upon dozens of novels, comics, and assorted other story telling devices.

Distinction without difference really. The Vong were, as a whole, pretty much evil.

Really, the only legitimate argument that it wasn't part of the "eternal struggle between good and evil" was that the Vong weren't being secretly directed by the Sith the whole time--they were being directed by a non-Sith evil untrained midichlorian wizard. It was a departure from the Sith v. Jedi conflict for sure, but if you're going to argue that the Vong were anything less than evil... well, that just boggles the mind.

Ok, Star Wars revolves Sith vs. Jedi conflict or the Rebellion vs. The Evil Empire and the predecessors and successors of interest of these groups. It has a history to it, a feeling that one conflict evolves from the prior ones and that everything is connected and has meaning to some grand narrative.

The Vong don’t fit in that grand narrative, or at least, they don’t play by normal rules. They don’t come from prior established canon, and they don’t have ties to any established faction. Add to that, their bio-tech isn’t consistent with other Star Wars technology, and there religion is funny too.

In a way, its akin to doing a crossover between Star Wars and Avengers. It makes no sense to the internal narrative ongoing to either franchise.

Incidentally, that’s the point of all the examples. I was actually suggesting several series that took a turn into left field

Spoiler: Naruto...well all of it

Show

Like how Naruto ends with the reveal that an alien was controlling everything all along

. Its not that these random, bold new directions don’t happen in other series, its that, when they do happen, it often doesn’t fit organically with the rest of the franchise.

The Vong don’t fit in very well either.

[Lvl45DM!]

Because it's poorly written. They have teleportation, time travel, and allies who could single-handedly demolish Thanos' entire army. The only thing holding them back is that it's more "dramatic" if they can only win one way. We could probably put our heads together and come up with thousands of ways the Avengers could win.

But the corollary to that is, I'm sure I could come up with thousands of counters to those, either in how they dont work within the movies as presented, or how Thanos could get around it.

[Reddish Mage]

Because it's poorly written. They have teleportation, time travel, and allies who could single-handedly demolish Thanos' entire army. The only thing holding them back is that it's more "dramatic" if they can only win one way. We could probably put our heads together and come up with thousands of ways the Avengers could win.

But the corollary to that is, I'm sure I could come up with thousands of counters to those, either in how they dont work within the movies as presented, or how Thanos could get around it.

You are both right, except nobody should say that infinity war and endgame was written any other way than awesomely. We are talking about an accomplishment unlike any other movie franchise in history with the accompanying financial success and accolades.

We know what the heroes are capable of and yet Thanos is always able to threaten them. We may have never seen his true power since, after all Stark snaps away his forces.

We’re told this is the only way they win. They could have made Thanos even more invincible seemingly...at the very least they could have had Thanos overpower Captain America immediately (at a panel they said Thanos was just surprised...like really....you really think you can keep my fist open)

They could have shown us a more lopsided set of battles. But they went with what we saw, probably because they wanted to show all the heroes going up against this guy and looking like they could win for a hot second before Thanos just goes “nah” and ends up fighting the next guy.

[Anteros]

You are both right, except nobody should say that infinity war and endgame was written any other way than awesomely. We are talking about an accomplishment unlike any other movie franchise in history with the accompanying financial success and accolades.

We know what the heroes are capable of and yet Thanos is always able to threaten them. We may have never seen his true power since, after all Stark snaps away his forces.

We’re told this is the only way they win. They could have made Thanos even more invincible seemingly...at the very least they could have had Thanos overpower Captain America immediately (at a panel they said Thanos was just surprised...like really....you really think you can keep my fist open)

They could have shown us a more lopsided set of battles. But they went with what we saw, probably because they wanted to show all the heroes going up against this guy and looking like they could win for a hot second before Thanos just goes “nah” and ends up fighting the next guy.

I'm not saying Endgame was poorly written. Just that the "one possible future" plot point was stupid and clearly nonsense. You can't have characters that can take on Dormammu by themselves and then tell me it's literally impossible to win against Thanos. You can't have characters with time travel and teleportation and still try to make claims like that. Especially when Thanos isn't even a major threat in the grand scheme of Marvel comics. His powerset is basically "crazy and punches good". Instead of trying to pull the glove off his hand when he's asleep just sling ring him into the sun and it's a much shorter movie.

[Lvl45DM!]

I'm not saying Endgame was poorly written. Just that the "one possible future" plot point was stupid and clearly nonsense. You can't have characters that can take on Dormammu by themselves and then tell me it's literally impossible to win against Thanos. You can't have characters with time travel and teleportation and still try to make claims like that. Especially when Thanos isn't even a major threat in the grand scheme of Marvel comics. His powerset is basically "crazy and punches good". Instead of trying to pull the glove off his hand when he's asleep just sling ring him into the sun and it's a much shorter movie.

Snow comes through the Everest portal.
I wonder what would come through a sun portal.

[Reddish Mage]

I'm not saying Endgame was poorly written. Just that the "one possible future" plot point was stupid and clearly nonsense. You can't have characters that can take on Dormammu by themselves and then tell me it's literally impossible to win against Thanos. You can't have characters with time travel and teleportation and still try to make claims like that. Especially when Thanos isn't even a major threat in the grand scheme of Marvel comics. His powerset is basically "crazy and punches good". Instead of trying to pull the glove off his hand when he's asleep just sling ring him into the sun and it's a much shorter movie.

You literally said above that it was poorly written and now you’ve explained it.

I might agree that the idea that they could only win in a single future is far-fetched. However, your argument for Doctor Strange soloing Thanos both overstates Strange’s powers on a scale of deity and doesn’t account for the fact that Thanos already had most of the infinity stones.

Doctor Strange “defeated” Dormammu by his infinite loop strategy. He didn’t defeat the dark god so much as trap both of them in a time loop, which was the worst torture for the entity. It’s obvious why such a strategy wouldn’t work on Thanos because, assuming Thanos didn’t simply figure out a way to just cancel it and yank the time stone, Thanos is crazy fanatic and incredibly patient. He’s been planning his strategy for, what millions of years a few thousand more won’t bother him.

Thanos is has already been stated had most of the infinity stones and we see in the battle between him and Strange that Thanos was actively using the stones. He used the soul stone to destroy the copies, the power stone to knock Strange around, Thanos also had the space stone.

And just assume that’s Strange it’s faster stronger smarter And attack first I think it’s pretty clear by the time they got to Titan, Strange couldn’t just win.

[HolyDraconus]

You literally said above that it was poorly written and now you’ve explained it.

I might agree that the idea that they could only win in a single future is far-fetched. However, your argument for Doctor Strange soloing Thanos both overstates Strange’s powers on a scale of deity and doesn’t account for the fact that Thanos already had most of the infinity stones.

Doctor Strange “defeated” Dormammu by his infinite loop strategy. He didn’t defeat the dark god so much as trap both of them in a time loop, which was the worst torture for the entity. It’s obvious why such a strategy wouldn’t work on Thanos because, assuming Thanos didn’t simply figure out a way to just cancel it and yank the time stone, Thanos is crazy fanatic and incredibly patient. He’s been planning his strategy for, what millions of years a few thousand more won’t bother him.

Thanos is has already been stated had most of the infinity stones and we see in the battle between him and Strange that Thanos was actively using the stones. He used the soul stone to destroy the copies, the power stone to knock Strange around, Thanos also had the space stone.

And just assume that’s Strange it’s faster stronger smarter And attack first I think it’s pretty clear by the time they got to Titan, Strange couldn’t just win.

It's pretty apparent that Strange was holding the idiot ball too. Hes supposed to be smart, and the smart thing to do against anybody is to instantly incapacitate them. He had multiple means of doing just that, even with the change to Thanos reason for being, I still doubt he would of came back from Death.

I think the only reason Strange sandbagged was because it's the only way to introduce certain other heroes for the real threat in the next phase.

[Leewei]

The stones themselves were both enormously potent and enormously troublesome. Dr. Strange's victory resulted in a world where the stones were either destroyed or at least forever out of the reach of Thanos and other would-be omincides.

[The Glyphstone]

The stones themselves were both enormously potent and enormously troublesome. Dr. Strange's victory resulted in a world where the stones were either destroyed or at least forever out of the reach of Thanos and other would-be omincides.

Like the First Order, for example?

[Peelee]

Also, did they ever explain why Thanos killed half of everyone instead of doubling all resources? Or was he just delusional? Assume I have seen zero of the movies but know the main bullet points.

[Tvtyrant]

Also, did they ever explain why Thanos killed half of everyone instead of doubling all resources? Or was he just delusional? Assume I have seen zero of the movies but know the main bullet points.

He's the "mad titan" for a reason. Also the comic books had him do it to get with the personification of death (who thought he was a bit of a dink) and that was a little silly even for the marvel movies.

Part of the issue in this matchup is we don't actually know how powerful the marvel spaceships are compared to Star Wars. Thanos destroys multiple advanced races with space whales and space jetskis/chariots, are those comparable to Star Wars ground assault? Is Quill's ship grossly outclassed by an X-Wing? Without knowing how strong those are, we can't really compare how strong super heroes against spaceships are.

Marvel rips Thanos' ship in half in seconds, and Infinity War Thor could probably have done so as well. Is that enough to fly around destroying star destroyers? Or would they bounce off the shielding?

[Leewei]

Like the First Order, for example?

I mean, if you're doing a Star Wars crossover, why do an Infinity Gauntlet when you can pop those bad boys into a lightsaber in place of khyber crystals?

Edit: It is now my headcanon that Mace Windu's saber glowed purple because it had the Power Stone.

[Traab]

Also, did they ever explain why Thanos killed half of everyone instead of doubling all resources? Or was he just delusional? Assume I have seen zero of the movies but know the main bullet points.

Because that would just make the problem worse. His entire issue was the universe was overcrowded and devouring all its resources, doubling the resources would have just allowed them to swell to even larger numbers.

[Xyril]

Because that would just make the problem worse. His entire issue was the universe was overcrowded and devouring all its resources, doubling the resources would have just allowed them to swell to even larger numbers.

So in the MCU the Infinity Stones don't actually have infinite power? The limitation makes sense to me--killing one person is easier for us than creating resources for one person out of nothing, so killing a bunch of people everywhere at once is probably far easier than creating a bunch of resources out of nothing. Still, you would figure that with specific dominion of Space and Time, you could come up with more creative solutions to solve overcrowding.

That, and anyone with even basic knowledge of how exponential growth works can see that Thanos' "solution" only delayed the problem--and given comprehensive historical population data for the universe, could calculate precisely how many years Thanos kicked that can down the road.

I'm not saying Endgame was poorly written. Just that the "one possible future" plot point was stupid and clearly nonsense. You can't have characters that can take on Dormammu by themselves and then tell me it's literally impossible to win against Thanos. You can't have characters with time travel and teleportation and still try to make claims like that. Especially when Thanos isn't even a major threat in the grand scheme of Marvel comics. His powerset is basically "crazy and punches good". Instead of trying to pull the glove off his hand when he's asleep just sling ring him into the sun and it's a much shorter movie.

I don't know if you were a hardcore comic fan before MCU, but that kind of thinking generally leads to madness. Even in terms of raw physical strength--a much simpler and readily comparable metric--the comics were pretty inconsistent. Eventually, you at least get some decent consistency in terms of broad classes--so, for example Cap is consistently stronger than "peak human" athletes like Punisher or Daredevil but still well below Hulk or Hercules or Thor, but as to whether Hulk or Hercules or Thor would win the arm-wrestling contest varied wildly depending on author and in-setting circumstances.

In terms of who would win in a fight, that becomes even more of a mess, because that depends on numerous "objective" attributes that each contribute differently based on the situation--even before considering meta-issues like plotting and editorial oversight. In particular, powerful magic-users like Dr. Strange really need a lot of implied constraints on how they use their power the material plane, otherwise they break the setting. It's hard to compare Thanos and Dormammu directly because the MCU seemed to imply limits to his ability to exert his powers on Earth.

Also, in the MCU at least, Strange never "beat" Dormammu, at least in the sense of overpowering or killing him. He basically deployed the Fantastic Four solution to Galactus: He made attacking Earth unappealing enough that the Big Bad moved on to other targets. The time loop trick was a tactic Strange was able to use in the Dark Dimension to keep Dormammu occupied indefinitely, but that doesn't mean that Strange is able to deploy the same trick on the material plane. Even if he could, it wouldn't necessarily work on Thanos. I would guess that if you moved Thanos and his forces to the Dark Dimension, Dormammu would win easily. However, maybe the nature of Thanos's forces or his mission give an advantage over Strange. If the Time Stone time loop is limited in range, for example, then maybe Strange could trap Thanos and his nearest forces in a never-ending fight, but then the rest of Thanos' forces would remain free to continue his mission. Remember, the good guys lose if Thanos wipes out half the universe--the Infinity Stones were just the quickest path to that goal. Forcing Dormammu into an endless stalemate was a win--even if Dormammu had other forces free of Strange's influence, he cared too much about personal power to sacrifice himself so that the Dark Dimension gets a win. Thanos, for all his faults, was a true believer--if Strange said "Call off your force or I'll trap us all here forever," I think Thanos would have been happy knowing that his lieutenants were free to complete his mission without him.

[Traab]

So in the MCU the Infinity Stones don't actually have infinite power? The limitation makes sense to me--killing one person is easier for us than creating resources for one person out of nothing, so killing a bunch of people everywhere at once is probably far easier than creating a bunch of resources out of nothing. Still, you would figure that with specific dominion of Space and Time, you could come up with more creative solutions to solve overcrowding.

That, and anyone with even basic knowledge of how exponential growth works can see that Thanos' "solution" only delayed the problem--and given comprehensive historical population data for the universe, could calculate precisely how many years Thanos kicked that can down the road.

Im not sure about relative power required for either, but to my mind wiping out half the galaxy gives the universe some breathing room on perhaps growing up in a way that DOESNT lead to the total drain of resources in reality. I think they did a futurama episode on this. To stop global warming they dropped a giant ice cube in the oceans, the people celebrated... then changed nothing because they didnt have to anymore, so eventually the cube melted and had to be replaced, and the problem i think kept getting worse faster and faster. Just producing more resources means the people have no reason to do anything differently. Erase half the population and maybe by the time it regrows to its old levels, they will be doing something less destructive to the universe.

[Peelee]

Because that would just make the problem worse. His entire issue was the universe was overcrowded and devouring all its resources, doubling the resources would have just allowed them to swell to even larger numbers.

Imean, unless he also ended reproduction, it's just going to grow again. He didn't solve the problem, he just punted it down the road. Exactly as if he doubled the resources, but without the mass-murder.

The Mad Titan part makes sense, he's just delusional and thinks he can solve the problem with a single instance instead of snapping every time it gets too big (or, ideally, doubling resources every time, which again sidesteps the whole "half of everyone is dead" problem).

[Kitten Champion]

His new "solution" in Endgame's last act perfectly encapsulates his motivation. Thanos was a delusional narcissist, he believed others would inevitably come to see the wisdom of his worldview once they lived for themselves the results, something he just assumed would happen after spending thousands of years obsessing over the loss of his home-world where this strategy was rebuffed to - in his opinion - the ruination of all. However, after performing the snap and having years to embrace him he sees the creatures he "saved" would never accept what he did or his viewpoint of their own free-will, he revised his plan to recollect the Infinity Stones again and wish to restart the whole Universe but remaking sapient life into something that follows and reveres him instinctively.

His insistence that he was doing a hard thing for the universal greater good falls apart to what he clearly wanted, to be seen and lauded as right. He was too callous, obsessive, and delusional to make some kind of rational benevolent wish to actually improve the quality of life universally.

[Xyril]

Im not sure about relative power required for either, but to my mind wiping out half the galaxy gives the universe some breathing room on perhaps growing up in a way that DOESNT lead to the total drain of resources in reality. I think they did a futurama episode on this. To stop global warming they dropped a giant ice cube in the oceans, the people celebrated... then changed nothing because they didnt have to anymore, so eventually the cube melted and had to be replaced, and the problem i think kept getting worse faster and faster. Just producing more resources means the people have no reason to do anything differently. Erase half the population and maybe by the time it regrows to its old levels, they will be doing something less destructive to the universe.

So maybe the threat of Thanos coming back to wipe out half of everyone you love in a few decades is enough to get people to enact their own version of the One Child policy?

I think my main problem is that the idea of it being anything less than a "we simply can't get the numbers to work with such a high population" problem doesn't sit right with me. Let's assume it's true that the current population level is unsustainable for the universe, but if we trim only half the population, and let it grow back on its own, then people will naturally change their behavior enough to make the current population level sustainable. If so, why not use the stones to impose those changes in a less traumatic way? If Thanos trusts that without any special guidance, a bunch of disparate populations suffering from PTSD and the loss of substantial amounts of their knowledge and expertise can just stumble upon the right solution, then clearly that solution must not require substantial technological information or a particularly elusive intuitive leap. Given what we know about the power of the Stones even individually, it should be well within the power of the Infinity Gauntlet for Thanos to manipulate, mind control, or outright coerce (probably using substantially less murder than his actual solution) into following the ecologically sound pathway. I mean, we tacitly accept that the Gauntlet can't produce enough to sustain everyone indefinitely, perhaps because it can't produce limitless power or break conservation of mass, but it certainly can implement technological or institutional solutions far more easily than most technologies.

While I understand that the "hot for Death" angle might have been a bit too mustache-twirly for the MCU, I think Marvel could have done a better job adapting Thanos. While I like the whole eco-terrorism angle and fleshing Thanos out more as a character, I would have preferred if they were more explicit about Thanos being crazy. I make things work in my personal canon by assuming that Thanos is enough of a crazy extremist (and on some level, despite being outwardly ambivalent about what he "has to do," he really does want to punish the people who committed the atrocities he say in the past) that he's consciously ignoring viable, non-omnicidal solutions--but that assumes a lot of stuff that I don't think the movies implied at all.

[Leewei]

I had big reservations about Thanos's master plan. For a genius bruiser and charismatic leader of a cult of planet wreckers, he really made little sense. He seemed far too lucid to be a "mad titan" too, for that matter.

The fridge logic I have is that Thanos didn't simply kill off half the universe; he killed off half the universe in a way that would make the population stable for lifetimes to come. If Dr. Strange can use the Time Stone to examine 14 million outcomes of the fight with Thanos, the big purple guy can likewise use that stone to make his atrocity linger.

[Peelee]

If Dr. Strange can use the Time Stone to examine 14 million outcomes of the fight with Thanos

Ever since I heard that I kinda wondered about the writers. Imean, sure, it sounds like a big number, but the fate of the universe is on the line; looking at 14 million futures wouldn't even give him a 5% chance to find the future where he picked the correct Powerball numbers. In this universe they don't openly announce the numbers, you just get pinged magically when you win, so you can't just look in one future and read the numbers in the paper, you have to actually guess them.

I change the very fabric of how the universe works if it allows me to be pithy!

[Reddish Mage]

Also, did they ever explain why Thanos killed half of everyone instead of doubling all resources? Or was he just delusional? Assume I have seen zero of the movies but know the main bullet points.

Because that would just make the problem worse. His entire issue was the universe was overcrowded and devouring all its resources, doubling the resources would have just allowed them to swell to even larger numbers.

You do realize that halving the population is exactly identical to doubling the resources in terms of the effects on long term population studies.

I'm also going to restate and link to the fact that it takes only a couple generations to double a population. The "doubling time" for humans is 63 years, probably one of the longest of any species. Most insects would be right back to previous levels within months.

Thanos has been after this plan for...how long again? MILLIONS OF YEARS? He thought the universe had a population problem, in other words, at a time it would be a tiny tiny fraction of its current population, assuming life has this unhealthy disgusting tendency to expand he complained about.

His solution is not only short sighted, it probably deserves a reward for most nonsensical villain plot ever, and the competition in that area is fierce.

Lex Luthor and his landlocked beach front property doesn't even rate.

I had big reservations about Thanos's master plan. For a genius bruiser and charismatic leader of a cult of planet wreckers, he really made little sense. He seemed far too lucid to be a "mad titan" too, for that matter.

The fridge logic I have is that Thanos didn't simply kill off half the universe; he killed off half the universe in a way that would make the population stable for lifetimes to come. If Dr. Strange can use the Time Stone to examine 14 million outcomes of the fight with Thanos, the big purple guy can likewise use that stone to make his atrocity linger.

That would make a lot of sense, but you'd think universally lower fertility and perhaps forced sterilization would warrant comment. You know, the way it did when they actually, recently and repeatedly implemented that concept with the X-men?

[Uvexar]

I don't remember seeing a single scientist in the entirety of the franchise. There have been a few engineers, but no scientists. Does the Star Wars universe even have them?

There's a xenobiologist in the Clone Wars (assigned to study the Zillo Beast), and there's a disease-crafter in the same series. But other than that, nothing in canon as far as I am aware.

There's actually a fan theory that nobody actually understands Star Wars tech. That's why nothing is labeled and all the buttons look the same, why droids are given restraining bolts rather than being hard-coded as enslaved, and why there's so little technological improvement over decades in an enormous galaxy.

[Lvl45DM!]

Thanos has been after this plan for...how long again? MILLIONS OF YEARS? He thought the universe had a population problem, in other words, at a time it would be a tiny tiny fraction of its current population, assuming life has this unhealthy disgusting tendency to expand he complained about.

His solution is not only short sighted, it probably deserves a reward for most nonsensical villain plot ever, and the competition in that area is fierce.

Woah.
No.
Thereis nothing that suggests that Thanos is millions of years old. Even the Asgardians only live to be 5000, and in this universe the Grandmaster needs time shenanigans on Sakaar to be millions of years old.
Its quite likely Thanos is no older than 100 or so. You're also only talking about Earths population problem. If other alien races are longer lived (which for some reason they always are) then the universe may have only doubled in number.
AND he only had the issue with population because HIS planet was explicitly overpopulated. He didnt look at the universe objectively, he looked at it through the lens of his dead world.

[Peelee]

Woah.
No.
Thereis nothing that suggests that Thanos is millions of years old. Even the Asgardians only live to be 5000, and in this universe the Grandmaster needs time shenanigans on Sakaar to be millions of years old.
Its quite likely Thanos is no older than 100 or so. You're also only talking about Earths population problem. If other alien races are longer lived (which for some reason they always are) then the universe may have only doubled in number.
AND he only had the issue with population because HIS planet was explicitly overpopulated. He didnt look at the universe objectively, he looked at it through the lens of his dead world.

Imean, in that case you have to admit that "my planet was overpopulated, best kill half the universe" is the mother of all over-reactions.

[The Glyphstone]

Imean, in that case you have to admit that "my planet was overpopulated, best kill half the universe" is the mother of all over-reactions.

I always understood it wasn't even really about saving the universe so much as it was proving himself 'right' in the end. The people of his planet didn't listen, so he'll 'save' the universe to show he was correct all along. The person up-thread who called him a delusional narcissist is spot on...his plan doesn't make sense because his stated goal and his actual goal aren't the same, even if he's probably not conscious of that fact due to said delusion.

[Peelee]

I always understood it wasn't even really about saving the universe so much as it was proving himself 'right' in the end. The people of his planet didn't listen, so he'll 'save' the universe to show he was correct all along. The person up-thread who called him a delusional narcissist is spot on...his plan doesn't make sense because his stated goal and his actual goal aren't the same, even if he's probably not conscious of that fact due to said delusion.

That's exactly the kind of context I was hoping for!

[Reddish Mage]

Woah.
No.
Thereis nothing that suggests that Thanos is millions of years old. Even the Asgardians only live to be 5000, and in this universe the Grandmaster needs time shenanigans on Sakaar to be millions of years old.
Its quite likely Thanos is no older than 100 or so. You're also only talking about Earths population problem. If other alien races are longer lived (which for some reason they always are) then the universe may have only doubled in number.
AND he only had the issue with population because HIS planet was explicitly overpopulated. He didnt look at the universe objectively, he looked at it through the lens of his dead world.

Joe Russo himself says Thanos is over 1000. Thanos talks of Titan as old, very old, and it looks ancient and decayed. All Marvel sources put Titan as being populated in the distant past.

Thanos has been at this for a long, long time. Recall, Gamora is from a planet that Thanos decided to cull as a simple example of what could be done, so he's had time to experiment and implement his plans on the smaller scale.

So this idea that Thanos saw one overpopulated planet and decided the whole universe needed to lose half its population without having time to look over other planets and history is false. Specifically, he has had plenty of time to look upon Earth.

Moreover, as I mentioned before, in the time he took to actually implement his plan, our planet (and presumably other places), have not just doubled in population, but exponentially multiplied. Our own human population, for example, went from about 300 million to the current 7.5 Billion. Bringing us back to...1970, isn't going to be a major hitch from his point of view.

[Reddish Mage]

Incidentally, the inhabitants of Titan in the comics are an offshoot of Earth's Eternals, which will be featured in the upcoming Marvel movie.

Spoiler: Eternals Movie background and movie speculation based on comics run

Show

If this holds up, Thanos would have a very close connection with Earth. Of course, the older Thanos is and his race, the more you realize that Thanos destroying half of all life to permanently fix the universe makes about as much sense as the musings of the most severe cases in mental hospitals.

[Lvl45DM!]

Joe Russo himself says Thanos is over 1000. Thanos talks of Titan as old, very old, and it looks ancient and decayed. All Marvel sources put Titan as being populated in the distant past.

Thanos has been at this for a long, long time. Recall, Gamora is from a planet that Thanos decided to cull as a simple example of what could be done, so he's had time to experiment and implement his plans on the smaller scale.

So this idea that Thanos saw one overpopulated planet and decided the whole universe needed to lose half its population without having time to look over other planets and history is false. Specifically, he has had plenty of time to look upon Earth.

Moreover, as I mentioned before, in the time he took to actually implement his plan, our planet (and presumably other places), have not just doubled in population, but exponentially multiplied. Our own human population, for example, went from about 300 million to the current 7.5 Billion. Bringing us back to...1970, isn't going to be a major hitch from his point of view.

Still 1000 is 3 orders of magnitude less than millions of years.
He didnt decide that the universe was overpopulated RATIONALLY is the thing. He had a staggering amount of cognitive bias that went into that decision.
And he reveals that he thought the universe would be grateful. That the logic of his plan would be self evident. That when humans and Kree and everyone else lost half their population, theyd look around and go "hey this is better, lets stick to this"
Hes relying on everyone in the universe agreeing with him, because of course they will, he's RIGHT.

Think of him like a conspiracy theorist. Even when exposed to hard proof that his plan failed, and wonderful new tech that could alter time itself to fix his history he doesnt give up his plan he doubles down on it.