The real villain of Avengers: Infinity War isn’t Thanos or Proxima Midnight or any of the Children of Thanos…
…it’s Star-Lord
Peter Quill? C’mon, you know who I’m talking about.
Editor’s note: this post and video contain spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War
It is undeniable that Thanos has blood–and superhero dust–on his hands in Avengers: Infinity War. Even if you’re egalitarian about it, genocide is still genocide. With a single snap of his fingers, Thanos wipes out half of all existence, including beloved characters like Black Panther, Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch, and Bucky Barnes. Despite their multi-movie contracts and already announced sequels, many of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are dead as a doornail. However, all of those needless deaths could have been avoided were it not for Star-Lord going full a-hole and punching Thanos in the face while Mantis, Drax, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and Spider-Man nearly wrested control of the Infinity Gauntlet from him.
Peter Quill has a rough time in Avengers: Infinity War. He has Thor-induced body dysmorphia; he inadvertently hand-delivers the love of his life, Gamora, to her evil stepfather; he finds out that she was thrown off a cliff to her death by said stepfather; he is obliterated by cosmic powers beyond his reckoning; and he learns that Footloose never was the greatest movie of all time.
But just because you had a terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad day doesn’t wipe the blood–or dust, in this case–off your hands, Star-Lord. In spite of claiming that Tony Stark’s plan sucked and taking credit for the plan that ultimately incapacitated Thanos long enough for Iron Man and Spider-Man to nearly remove the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos’ hand, Quill was unable to control his emotions and the results were catastrophic.
When Quill learned that Thanos had killed Gamora, he was understandably devastated. As we’ve seen time and time again, Quill has never been particularly adept at dealing with his emotions in a healthy manner. It’s part of a pattern of ego-driven toxic masculinity that the Marvel Cinematic Universe puts on display in many of its prominent heroes. And in that moment, Peter Quill made a choice. He made a choice not to be a hero, but to be selfish. To make himself feel better by unleashing his unbridled rage. And in doing so, he didn’t bring Gamora back. But he did kill Drax. And Mantis. And Groot. And countless others. Peter Quill didn’t pull the trigger, but he may as well have. And he’s going to have to come to terms with that if and when he shuffles back on to this mortal coil.
But what do you think? Do you agree that Star-Lord is the true villain here? Was Star-Lord’s hot-headed response part of Doctor Strange’s plan all along? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: Marvel
Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Buy his new book here! Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).
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