Star-Lord Did Nothing Wrong

Many centuries ago, in 2018, Marvel released Avengers: Infinity War. Before I saw this movie I expressed to a friend who wasn’t a Marvel Fan that I was worried one or more of my favorite Marvel characters might die in the series.

“Pfft, like they’d kill off a main character.”

I saw a midnight showing and texted them at 3 a.m.

“We have things to discuss.”

Out of all the things that I expected from that movie, I didn’t expect them to just f*&% everyone in the theater without lube.

Rude, first of all.

Secondly, the only villain in that movie is Thanos. He may have had good inspiration behind the whole “preserving life for the future by eliminating the source of the slow-killing of a planet” aka global warming is real by the way. But the murder of trillions of people is taking things too far.

The thing from that movie that people are wrong about is blaming Dr. Strange or Star-Lord for what they did.

I got into an argument with a co-worker who said the biggest villain in the movie was Dr. Strange because he gave up the time stone. I said that’s a stupid way of looking at it since he’s the only one who saw how they could win, it’s the long con. If letting Thanos win a battle and that then lets the Avengers win the War; then Dr. Strange is a hero not a villain.

This dumba** decided to continue this ludacris thought by saying that Star-Lord is a villain because they almost had the gauntlet of death until he punched Thanos.

That is an idiotic way to look at that scene for a few reasons:

Dr. Strange knew that certain things had to happen in order for the Avengers to win in Endgame. Star-Lord punching Thanos is one indicator that they were heading toward the right ending.

Iron Man could have blasted Star-Lord away without stopping to pull off the glove of doom. I’m not blaming Tony either, I’m just saying there were ways to get rid of Star-Lord before the punch happened.

He just realized that the love of his life is gone and the man responsible is in front of him. “I had to.” You can’t sit there and tell me that if you lost the one person in your life that you loved, romantically or otherwise, and the person who murdered them for personal gain was in front of you that you would not hit them directly in the face.

Losing someone is hard enough, and in that moment I thought back to that little boy in a hospital room who was too scared to look at his mother as she reached out to him while she lay dying. That little boy who was shoved into a hallway alone and sad and scared. That little boy who ran outside and was immediately taken away from everyone and everything he knew with just a backpack and raised by Ravagers in deep space.

The first time he lost someone, he ran.

He wasn’t going to run away again.

This man defeated Ronan. Let’s all just take a moment to remember the Dance Off that saved a planet, because I still laugh so hard I snort at that scene.

But he didn’t just defeat Ronan, he did what Ronan couldn’t; he could hold an Infinity Stone, the motherloving POWER STONE, in his bare hand. Yeah, he was obviously in some otherworldly pain, but he did. Yes, the other Guardians of the Galaxy joined him, but none of them could have held it for as long as he did. Maybe Rocket, just out of sheer spite.

Then in Volume 2, he finally meets his father. I’d be excited too if my father turned out to be Kurt Russell who had phenomenal cosmic power. Thus making Star-Lord basically a Demi-God; #livinthedream.

He finally plays catch with a man who he thinks will fill the void in his soul that all people experience who grew up with only one parent. All those questions he can finally have answered, all that lost love from a parent he could finally have; who could blame him for ignoring all the signs that he’s a sexist egotistical homicidal maniac.

Who admits to killing his mother.

That moment is filmed in a brilliant way. How Star-Lord is starting to accept absolute power as a God and then hears that his father murdered his mother? The way the scene warps around him and he processes what he just heard.

That scene still gives me goosebumps and what does he do?

He doesn’t run, he tries to beat the everloving sh*t out of his father.

And he wins.

By just being himself.

He gives up God-like powers because he decided to get justice for his mother instead.

I don’t know about you, but I’d do that in a heartbeat.

So, now we have this girl, Gamora. Who challenges him, teases him, and loves him for the big weird goofball that he is.

Who asked him to kill her so Thanos couldn’t use her for what she knew about the Soul Stone.

And he shot at her. It didn’t work because Thanos is the king of douchebags but that doesn’t erase the fact that Star-Lord was willing to kill the only woman he’s loved to save the universe.

He knew Gamora was the favorite child of Thanos. He couldn’t have fathomed what would happen next.

In some dark recess of his mind, he might have thought that Thanos might kill her and she might already be dead when he caught up to Thanos on Titan. But he pushed that possibility aside and decided to fight, to chase Thanos to the edge of the universe to get her back.

He wasn’t running away.

So, face to face with her murderer, I’m surprised the only thing he did was punch Thanos in the face.

I will die on this hill.

Star-Lord is not a villain and he did not deserve all the hate he received for what he did.

I think him and Thor actually have a lot in common. The only difference being that Star-Lord died in Infinity War and Thor didn’t. That might’ve been a blessing in disguise for Star-Lord.

If he had survived, he would have isolated himself, he would have believed that he’s the reason that everyone was gone. He would have blamed himself and sunk into a deep depressive state like Thor did. Thor blamed himself because he went for skill that would’ve satisfied his own vengeance instead of what would’ve ended things quicker.

I honestly can only think of one main difference between the scene where Star-Lord punches Thanos and where Thor pushes Stormbreaker into Thanos’ chest: Thor aimed to kill, albeit slowly but still he wanted to kill Thanos. Star-Lord just reacted and instead of shooting Thanos point blank with his blasters, he punched him in the face.

So, if you’re going to sit there and blame Star-Lord for Endgame, you’re going to have to blame Thor too.