IMO, what Thanos feels is irrelevant to the fact that he just gets to win by murdering his own abuse victim. And like, that's just sort of gone with.
Saying "abuse=love" is a convenient shorthand for that, because it's a common narrative convention that happens in film and other media which depicts abusive relationships, especially between parents and children. They do it for love, because they want you to be stronger or better or safer or tougher. And it's a common enough rationalization in real life, too, which is what makes it compelling in fiction. But the thing that is so rarely addressed in these fictions (the thing I loved seeing addressed in GOTG2), is that the motivation doesn't matter. The feeling is irrelevant. It's still super fucked up.
Except, of course, in IW, and throughout Endgame, Thanos is never really treated as fucked up. Misguided, miscalculating, but not actually wrong. He wins. Again and again. He wins the soul stone by killing his child. He wins the war at the end of infinity war. I don't want to give too many spoilers for Endgame, as you mention having not seen it, but suffice to say that he dies happy--he won.
Were there a line of dialogue that separated the abuse from the love, anywhere in Endgame or IW, as there are in GOTG2, then sure.
But in Endgame, as in IW, Thanos's abuse is just continually treated as a natural manifestation of love. Indeed, there are extensive themes of parenthood and parental love throughout the film, and Thanos's treatment of his children in Endgame, rather than being contrasted against these other figures, is simply placed among them in a way that serves to downplay the abusive behaviour of OTHER abusive parents too.
It's really kind of a step backwards for everyone involved.
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Date: 27/4/19 09:19 (UTC)Saying "abuse=love" is a convenient shorthand for that, because it's a common narrative convention that happens in film and other media which depicts abusive relationships, especially between parents and children. They do it for love, because they want you to be stronger or better or safer or tougher. And it's a common enough rationalization in real life, too, which is what makes it compelling in fiction. But the thing that is so rarely addressed in these fictions (the thing I loved seeing addressed in GOTG2), is that the motivation doesn't matter. The feeling is irrelevant. It's still super fucked up.
Except, of course, in IW, and throughout Endgame, Thanos is never really treated as fucked up. Misguided, miscalculating, but not actually wrong. He wins. Again and again. He wins the soul stone by killing his child. He wins the war at the end of infinity war. I don't want to give too many spoilers for Endgame, as you mention having not seen it, but suffice to say that he dies happy--he won.
Were there a line of dialogue that separated the abuse from the love, anywhere in Endgame or IW, as there are in GOTG2, then sure.
But in Endgame, as in IW, Thanos's abuse is just continually treated as a natural manifestation of love. Indeed, there are extensive themes of parenthood and parental love throughout the film, and Thanos's treatment of his children in Endgame, rather than being contrasted against these other figures, is simply placed among them in a way that serves to downplay the abusive behaviour of OTHER abusive parents too.
It's really kind of a step backwards for everyone involved.