I started grappling with this question as Wanda’s Vision unraveled, and the fact that I actually understood Thanos’ point of view. I felt ashamed and worried that I understood Thanos’ point of view. I don’t agree with his methods, but I started to wonder if agreeing with his view made me a bad person, seeing as he is a supervillain and we have been conditioned for the longest time to draw the line at good vs bad. No grey areas.
I’ve had these discussions with a friend and I am surprised that I have always met quite a strong opposition to what I have termed a “bias in favor of the writers’ and producers’ intention”.
The Status Quo
A lot of movie watchers tend to always side with the writers
and producers, instead of assessing the situation and deciding on what they
think is right and wrong in the real world. This is a discussion I will discuss
in my follow-up article on if Wanda is a villain and whether Thanos’ rationale
is right or wrong.
The writers of the movies always tells us what to think and I’m tired of it. This became especially clear to me with the new rave of "telling the stories from the point of view of the villains". It felt like my first year in law when I realized there are no absolutes in law. I would read a whole section of law prohibiting something and then get to the subsections that would then list exceptions that seemed to just negate everything I previously read. My legal training changed my attitude to become quite a fence sitter, I would always see things from everyone’s perspective – except in movies, where it was the heroes’ way or no way.
The Goal Post is Shifting
For the longest time, movie writers told us villains are
bad, they want to take over the world, they are power hungry, and we just went
along with it and cheered as the heroes killed the villains.
Now the writers are saying, boo hoo!, look at what the
villain went through; Cruella watched her mother get killed, The Joker had a
sad life and had to battle mental illness, Maleficent was betrayed by her
lover, that is why they became bad, they are actually good deep down. Now we are
cheering and saying, oh that’s true.
Well, I’m really tired of someone else deciding how I should
feel about things. Now I want to objectively assess every movie situation and
decide on my own what is right, and wrong and what I would do.
Gaston while a conceited nuisance was just in love and wondering why the woman he loves loved a beast instead
Although Cinderella's stepmom is still a wicked person and the Joker and Voldermort are still psychopathic criminals with no redeeming qualities, you do see the point I'm trying to make here!
I want you to also consider
the question, Is Wanda a Villain? Why? Why Not?
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What do you think? I would be glad to hear your opinion.