Infinity War - In Defense of Star-Lord

Infinity War - In Defense of Star-Lord

**WARNING** MAJOR SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR AHEAD. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 

Among all the shocking decisions, situations, and peril that the Russo brothers put the various characters from Avengers: Infinity War in, the character that took the hardest beating emotionally was Peter Quill/Star-Lord, both in the film, and now, among the fans on the Internet. 

Fans around the world have made their displeasure of Star-Lord's decisions in the film known. As the Avengers have Thanos on the ropes, on the verge of removing the Infinity gauntlet from his hands, Star-Lord begins to question where the love of his life, Gamora, is being held. As the realization begins to dawn on Nebula's face, we, as the audience, begin to realize what's about to happen as the stunning conclusion hits Star-Lord like a ton of bricks. And, as we all watch, half-covering our eyes, knowing what's about to happen, Star-Lord raises his hand and begins to give it to Thanos, smacking him. What this does is cause Mantis, who is holding Thanos in a trance, to lose her grip on him, and he regains his grip on the Infinity gauntlet. 

From there, the rest is history; the Avengers are thoroughly defeated on Titan, Doctor Strange gives up the Time Stone, and Thanos heads to Wakanda and brutally murders Vision before wiping out half the universe.

So, was Star-Lord to blame for the mass genocide that wiped out half of all life in the universe, including Peter Quill himself? 

No, not in the least. Here's why.

There are two different ways of looking at the situation, and both back up Star-Lord's actions, one directly, and one indirectly. 

To understand one of them, we have to shift our attention to another character altogether: Doctor Stephen Strange.

One of the most fascinating elements/scenes in the film comes later in the second act, where Dr. Strange is seen phasing in and out. When asked what had happened, he responds that he had seen over 14 million different possibilities of the future, and there was only ONE where the Avengers come out on top. What many people have assumed is that even though the Avengers lost the battle on Titan, Doctor Strange saw farther and realized that something would happen after their defeat on Titan that would give the Avengers a victory.

Now, if Dr. Strange were to see into the future, I am going to assume that he saw a pretty detailed picture of what was going to happen in the one possibility in which Earth's Mightiest Heroes were victorious. And I believe that in his vision, Doctor Strange saw Star-Lord taking his anger out on Thanos, causing Thanos to regain the Infinity gauntlet, wreck the remaining Avengers, and end threatening Tony's life. At that point, Doctor Strange saw that he would have to give up the time stone in order to spare Tony's life. But the point here is that in order to get to that point in the scenario, Star-Lord would have had to anger Thanos to the point that he could beat the Avengers. It seems that Doctor Strange's main play was to keep Tony alive, and this was one way to do it, which is why even though perhaps Star-Lord caused the defeat on Titan and contributed to his own temporary death, he played an integral role in the eventual defeat of Thanos.

But here's the other side of the equation, and that's Peter's past. 

For those that don't remember, Peter Quill has been through hell and back. It's used as a gag towards the beginning when Peter meets Thor, but the line is not to be overlooked; Peter Quill has lost his mother to a brain tumor that his own father had put in her head, he had to kill his own biological father, and had to see his true "father" die in his arms (and yes, he made it out with both his eyes). The only person in his life that meant something meaningful to him was none other than Gamora. And at that very moment, Peter Quill realized that he had lost the last thing that he truly loved.

And I challenge that if ANYONE was put in that same situation, they would have snapped. I GUARANTEE that if Tony was put in that same position and realized Thanos had killed Pepper, you bet that he would have gone after Thanos without hesitation. Same for nearly every other Avenger.

So in the end, while perhaps Star-Lord had lost the battle on Titan for the Avengers, come Avengers 4, don't be surprised if Star-Lord's actions helped lead the Avengers to one final stand against Thanos.