killing someone you love is such a theme in infinity war and i feel like it’s a more important and subtle addition than we realize
gamora asks peter to kill her if thanos gets her. she asks him, because she trusts him, because she loves him. and he actually does it. he pulls the trigger, as much as it fucking hurts him, because he promised, because he loves her.
vision asks wanda to destroy the mind stone, something that could effectively kill him, and he asks her because she’s the only one who can but also for the same reasons that gamora asked peter to be the one to kill her. wanda, like peter, is so reluctant to kill him, because she loves him so much, but she does it because by the end there is no other way. he can be killed by someone he loves, or he can be brutally murdered by a psychopathic alien overlord. when wanda destroys the mind stone, nothing is left of vision. for her, it’s better that way. he didnt suffer. his last words to her were “i love you”, and then he was just gone without a trace, and it’s almost peaceful. thanos, though, when thanos takes the mind stone from his head, the life drains from his body and he turns grey; his eyes are completely blank with nothing left.
in both these scenarios, they killed (or attempted to kill) the person they love because they love them. now let’s compare this to the other situation in which a person kills someone they love: thanos and gamora
gamora is thanos’s favourite daughter. he does really love her, or else of course the soul stone wouldn’t have taken his sacrifice. but thanos did not kill her because he loved her. he killed her because he needed to in order to fulfill his mission with the infinity stones.
i feel like gamora’s final words are important here: “no, this isn’t love” – because although he may have loved her, he didn’t love her the way peter loved her. he didn’t love her the way wanda loved vision.
thanos didn’t kill gamora because he loved her. he killed gamora because she happened to be the one person he loved.
there’s an important distinction and parallel here that i felt was needed to be said thanks for coming to my ted talk
wanda literally destroyed an entire infinity stone while holding off a five stoned thanos…. she really is the most powerful avenger and you can @ me on that
Thanos “sacrificing” Gamora to “save” the universe, and her last words being, “This isn’t love,” vs. Wanda destroying Vision to save the universe, and his last words being “I love you.”
Vision asked Wanda to do it. He kept encouraging and comforting her. She wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t begged her to. But Thanos, with all his extremism, even though he must have loved Gamora in order for the Soul Stone to recognize that sacrifice, didn’t show real love, not the way Wanda did for Vision.
Because Gamora was begging him not to do it while Vision was begging for it to be done.
I know, right? I am pretty curious how different the marketing and fandom leading up to IW might have been if not for this leak. Right before we got that video we knew they were on set together, and everyone was just excited they were sharing a scene–I was guessing at this point Vision had just found Wanda, IIRC. Then BAM full on makeout!
I’m hoping it makes it’s way into an extended scene in the home release extras–what really stuck out to me was that Vision responds to Wanda after she says “I just feel you”.
There was also some extra stuff between Corvus and Proxima that was cut, which makes me wonder if they battle scene had more going on.
(This is the video paparazzi caught of Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen filming the scene that’s being talked about)
Just like people willfully misinterpreted Cap’s
edict that “Every time someone tries to WIN a war before it starts,
innocent people die” as being the same as ‘people trying to STOP a war
before it starts’ now everyone is doing the same thing with “We don’t trade lives.”
That doesn’t mean
people never die fighting evil. It doesn’t mean we don’t sacrifice
ourselves for the greater good. It means we don’t let one of our
teammates give up their life until we’ve exhausted all other options.
Bruce even spelled it out when Vision tried to make a parallel with Steve’s sacrifice. He points out that Steve didn’t have a CHOICE at that point in time.
Cap wanted to make sure before they killed the person Wanda loved that they exhausted all other options. What a monster and hypocrite that makes him!
I’m sure if Steve had let Vision die there in Scotland, now everyone would be pointing out that he didn’t even try, that Shuri or Bruce could have helped.
SIGH.
I sit here dumbfounded. I honestly do not understand people who vilify Steve. He’s not a perfect man but he’s a good one and he tries so hard to do what’s right. Maybe those who are so damn critical of him should step back and think about all he’s been through and how little time he’s had to process everything. I love him so much and I just…I cannot stand the leaps and bounds people make to try and put marks against his character. ffs
I’m straight up shocked by how people apparently really thought no one would bat an eye at the idea of sacrificing someone. Like… Were you all really sitting in the theaters thinking a group of heroes in a Disney movie would just go “oh yeah kill yourself vision, and please do it fast so it doesn’t inconvenience us further, thanks”? Like, what the actual fuck. Steve isn’t even the only one who objects to killing Vision – if you’re gonna blame him for that you need to blame Bruce, Natasha, and even T’Challa and Shuri. Or you can just accept that good people don’t jump at the opportunity of letting an innocent person die.
Also, Vision is making a false comparison, not just because of the
third option Steve didn’t have, but because Vision isn’t sacrificing
HIMSELF, he’s asking Wanda to sacrifice him. It’s more like if Steve
found out there’s a way to deactivate all those bombs, but he had to
blow up the building Peggy was in.
Those Celestial Bodies 