This scene really struck me, and ever since I saw the movie I’ve been trying to figure out why.
And now that I’ve had a while to think on it, I believe I know.
Here we have Wanda:
Wanda, who has just shown herself to be incredibly, dangerously powerful, to the point that she not only destroyed an infinity stone single-handed (a feat that was supposed to be impossible) but also managed to hold off Thanos and his entire array of infinity stones at the same time.
Wanda, who has just been forced to watch yet another person she deeply loves get slaughtered in front of her - this time by her own hand, for the sake of the universe - and who has at this point simply given up on her will to live.
And then we have Thanos:
Thanos, who has just seen firsthand the power of someone who could potentially take him out (and, if it weren’t for the time stone, would have succeeded) whether he holds five infinity stones or not.
Thanos, who has just watched her make the ultimate sacrifice to keep him from succeeding, and in doing so has proven to him that she will do anything to stop him.
Thanos, who has just had what was supposed to be an easy victory suddenly snatched from his hands by the exhausted girl on the ground in front of him - a girl who is a fraction of his size and laughably weaker than him physically. (He was throwing Cap and Thor and Hulk around like they were nothing.)
And right now, they’re the only two left standing.
Wanda just waits there, lying in the dirt, for him to kill her.
She doesn’t fight, or shield herself, or try to run when Thanos starts walking toward her. She has nobody to step in and save her, because everyone else is trapped or unconscious.
Wanda doesn’t even try to get up.
She doesn’t want to live anymore. She has nothing to live for.
She wants to die, and at this point is more than willing to let Thanos be the one to strike that blow.
Even when he physically puts his hand on her head, all she does is flinch.
Thanos, on the other hand, is unscathed.
He’s standing - towering - over the one person who poses an actual, legitimate threat to him. She’s down for the count, hurt and exhausted and with no will to live, waiting for him to finish the fight.
He’s got her at her absolute most vulnerable, and probably the most vulnerable he will EVER have her - this chance isn’t going to come again.
But he doesn’t kill her.
He reaches down, gently strokes her hair, and walks past her to finish what he came here to do.
Even when he brings Vision back and she stands to fight him once more, he still doesn’t kill her.
He strikes her away, and does so gently enough that she manages to recover and crawl over to Vision’s side before she’s taken by the stone.
Given every opportunity and every reason to end her, he doesn’t do it.
Why?
Now it could be argued that Thanos figured there was no point in wasting the effort because he was going to wipe half of all life from the universe as soon as he got the last stone anyway, but as it was mentioned earlier in the film - the selection of who died would be random.
The stone would not pick and choose - it would take rich and poor, passionate and dispassionate, strong and weak, etc. - completely at random.
There was no guarantee that Wanda would be among those that were taken.
So knowing that she is a legitimate threat to him, and that there’s a 50/50 shot of her surviving that final finger snap…
Why would he let her live?
The second thing that strikes me is how gentle he is.
We’ve seen him order half of a world’s population slaughtered for the sake of his goal.
We’ve seen him torture multiple characters without batting an eye.
We’ve seen him crush skulls and snap necks with his bare hands.
But we’ve also seen this.
And this.
And again, the clip with Wanda.
Thanos has instances where he is incredibly gentle.
And it’s honestly a bit unsettling to watch.
He’s so convinced of the true morality of his own objective - so blinded by the end goal - that the means to reach it no longer matter.
Thanos believes himself to be good and kind, and that he is simply making the tough call that nobody else was strong enough to make for the good of the universe in centuries to come.
He’s culling the herd so the rest don’t starve.
Now I’ve seen the comparison made a few times to seeing pictures of Hitler playing with children (and I’ll admit that’s what came to mind for me as well) - it’s disturbing because we don’t want to humanize someone who has committed genocide, and sympathizing is exactly what our brain tries to do when we see someone being gentle and kind to another creature.
We see Thanos not only being kind to a young Gamora, but being surprisingly good at it, and our brains sort of short circuit for a second because we think that he’s not supposed to be CAPABLE of that.
And yet somehow, to an extent, he is.
Hell, even when he’s about to kill half the universe, he doesn’t cause death wantonly.
He traps Bruce in the cliff, but lets him live.
He catches T’Challa by his throat and punches him into the ground but doesn’t break his neck.
He shorts out Sam’s wings to drop him out of the sky but doesn’t finish him off.
He destroys the suit around Rhody, but doesn’t crush him.
He throws Bucky aside but doesn’t kill him.
He tosses Okoye aside but doesn’t kill her.
He pins Natasha with a bunch of rocks, but doesn’t crush her.
He rips Groot’s vines away but doesn’t go after him.
He punches Steve out, but doesn’t continue once he’s down.
Hell, when Thanos goes after Wanda his gauntlet lights up blue with the teleportation power of the tesseract. He’s planning to move her - not fight her.
And even when that fails, he doesn’t grant Wanda’s silent wish for death.
He lets her live.
Thanos is not crazed, or high off his own power, or running on blood lust - he’s doing what he thinks is truly the right thing, and going about accomplishing it in a cold and calculated manner. When he’s not trying to accomplish his goal, he acts in a way that might even be described as good.
I believe that Thanos is truly Lawful Evil.
And that’s what makes him so scary.
The whole self love thing is good and all but some people can’t fathom being loved. They can’t imagine there being anything good about them. So they can’t simply just stop doing unhealthy things, there’s a process.
Thoughts on Edmund Kemper?
also one of my fav cases! this is one of my all time fav true crime quotes:
horribly insecure and would probably be an incel if he were at his age when he went on his killing spree today; extremely arrogant and narcissistic, intelligent and manipulative at the same time (i cant believe he was engaged once)
conducted some of the best true crime interviews of all time, and was extremely insightful even if he gives himself too much credit and loves to hear himself talk, they’re still prolific interviews and he managed to get profilers to like him and i think he really wanted to be liked
awful childhood with an abusive mother who had serious mental illness; rejection from his father in adolescence severely affected his emotional state, and he carried his admiration for his father into his adulthood but never received the love he should’ve gotten from either parent
it’s crazy that clarnell predicted that he would kill his grandparents
plagued with homicidal and sexually sadistic thoughts as a kid from an extremely young age
his crimes seem pretty easy to understand to me, a lot of it had to do with his mother as well as everything mentioned above but they’re still fascinating imo
i think him turning himself in wasn’t for nobility like he claims, but moreso because he knew hed eventually get cornered
the mutilation and his obsession with having trophies of his victims is sickening and really disturbing
he reminds me of my ex and his mother actually, she has bpd and was abusive to both me and my ex,,,, and he was abusive to me (and sometimes her) and it was awful staying there. i wont be surprised if he finally snaps one day and kills her tbh forreal
he talked like an old man too and called his homicidal tendencies his “little zapples”
too tall for his own good!!
Into the Spider-Verse is, undoubtedly, a Miles Morales movie, yet I can’t help but feel sympathy for Peter B. Parker and relate to him more than to Miles as the twenty something kid that I am. The moral of the story the movie presents is there, and it’s Miles’ moral, but Peter’s character story and arc is also there and it’s maybe sadder than you think in that funny, light movie, but so important to me.
Gen Z and Millennials can definitely relate to the older Peter, even if he’s 38 years old. He’s tired, he’s done, he just wants some rest, he resents his responsibilities, he’s screwed up more times than he remembers, he’s not much of a fan of kids, he doesn’t even care about proper spelling (”There’s always a bypass key, a virus key, a who-cares key, I can never remember so I just call it a goober.”). Honestly, mood. And I’m only in college, people.
See, there is this moment in the movie that is supposed to serve as a comedic moment: Miles tries to say “with great power comes great responsibility” but Peter abruptly cuts him off, almost screaming “don’t you dare finish that sentence, don’t do it!”. Then he follows with “I’m sick of it.” And then he says “My advice? Go back to being a regular kid.”
Peter still tries to live by the words of his uncle, but where at the beginning they were his motivation and something that gave his life meaning, now they’re a resented responsibility drawing a circle he can’t break out from. He’s been slowly losing his passion for being Spider-Man, just putting the suit on because he feels like he has to. He even says that Mary Jane scared him by her wanting kids. He’s scared to move on and to be something else, something more than just Spider-Man. There’s also the reason of him not wanting to see his kid go what he’s gone through, and that being a parentless family, but that’s half of the problem.
When you get a close up
you can see the determination on his face, but there are also a broken nose, bags under his eyes, the hair he doesn’t even care to pull back, the gray skin, the scruff, a few wrinkles even, and… sadness. He’s genuinely sad, he’s depressed, and so done with everything. But he’s not one to quit. He’s still living by Ben’s words.
Those words have become his curse because he lost his way somewhere along his life, because he overdid it with understanding the words. It’s like with Titanic where they were supposed to have women on the lifeboats first, and then men, but they just let the women step into the lifeboats because they didn’t understand the command. That being said, instead of being just a motivation and inspiration, Ben’s words became something he can’t let go of, almost like a drug, like a sick addiction, and maybe he does see it, maybe he doesn’t, but it’s there, and it’s determining his life. He can’t help but loathe them. He doesn’t allow himself to be something else but these words. He is those words, nothing else.
There’s a moment in the movie where Aunt May tells him, “you look tired.” And he genuinely replies, “I am tired.” I may or may not have shed a tear, because that was the perfect reflection of how he felt and how lost he was. He was tired of being who he was and still pursued that path. Sounds relatable? Because it is.
Things happen, movie ends, and while Miles’ moral of the story is that everyone can wear a mask and nobody’s ever ready to be a hero, that they just grow into it, and all you need is that little spark, Peter B. Parker learns that the words he’s lived by aren’t what should make his life sad, broken, and resentful. He learns that he’s just a person like any other, not just words. Thanks to the little journey with Miles he learns over again that being Spider-Man is supposed to be fun and a responsibility among other things, not only a responsibility determining his day-to-day life 24/7. Peter learns that being a hero does require a lot of sacrifice, but it’s just a part of who he is, and that he has the right to be happy.
I don’t know what you got out of the movie, but in my opinion, Peter B. Parker teaches you in this movie that you have the right to be happy. You have the right to live a good life despite one or more responsibilities that set up your daily basis, whether it’s a job or a problem you’ve had for a while. You can still be happy.
I stepped out of the movie theater thinking, “goddammit, why don’t people remember that you can still be happy nowadays? Why do people determine their lives by only the bad things? Why are we like this? Why am I like this?” And honestly? Despite all the bullsh*t, all the crap, and all the small or big problems, I deserve some happiness, man. And so do you.
i know you can’t stand me just tell me already
I’m empty like there’s nothing left in me I’m a fucking ghost but suffering
1. Cognitive Dissonance - the idea that when we hold two conflicting thoughts or beliefs, we unconsciously adjust to make one fit with the other. My social psychology professor gave an example of a student who values studying all the time, but slacks off when it comes to their favorite television show. So the student tells herself that watching the television helps her study later when it really doesn’t. However, telling herself that helped her eased the anxiety.
2. Hallucinations are common - one third of people report experiencing hallucination at some point in time. Similarly, normal people often have paranoid thoughts. So when was the last time you hallucinated?
3. The Placebo effect - this is when you think that something like a drug has an effect on you when really it doesn’t. It’s your thoughts that actually resulted in you getting better.
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I still catch myself thinking things like “but at least I wasn’t homeless” and “at least I wasn’t parentless” when I think about my abusive childhood. But then there’s voice inside of my head, reminding me.
“Hey, you lived terrified of being thrown out on the street and left to starve to death. You were reminded almost every day that you are going to be abandoned and left for dead unless you do everything you’re told, and be useful enough to keep alive. Remember when you were 14 and you spend entire day painting and re-painting a wooden garage, and you were crying entire time? Nobody even looked at you. You weren’t allowed to stop, and you weren’t allowed to cry out loud. It was just silent tears all day. You had to do it if you wanted to live. And it was like that every day, no matter if you were sick, wounded, upset, dying inside - you had to work if you wanted to deserve to eat. You watched this family be family without you, how many times were you crying silently just listening them all laugh in the living room, having a good time, and you couldn’t join because they would all start insulting you and glaring at you if you did? You watched your mom hug your siblings and she wouldn’t hug you. You were convinced day after day that you were lazy, worthless, vermin and a burden on everyone around you. You were beaten, slapped, threatened, screamed at, insulted, attacked and picked up by your hair when someone wanted to take their anger out on you. You were scared of getting killed by violence, because you knew if they killed you, they would all say you deserved it, and were asking for it. Like they always did after hurting you. You were denied privacy, resources, safety and freedom. You were sexually abused at the age of 7. Nobody cared. You started having panic attacks at the age of 16. Nobody cared. They all knew you were cutting yourself by the time you went to high school. They laughed at you. And the worst is, you cared. You cared about all of them. You would never do anything to hurt or damage any of them. You were there for anything they needed. You were betrayed and kept in this state by those you loved. Your heart was so heavy - and still is, you feel physical pain in it for the most of time. You have ptsd now. You can’t work. You can’t even look at yourself and examine the damage done to you because it’s too much of a shock and you can’t endure the pain of knowing it. I don’t think it actually gets that much worse than that. You don’t have to compare it to anything.”
The narcissist is a child masquerading as an adult. At a young age, they stop developing and start maladapting. They adopt facets of society, culture, and loved ones as a basis for their identity. They take note of what attracts adoration, support, and positive attention. They add those traits into a better version of themselves. Eventually, their paper-thin facade is convincing enough. They seem to be charming, generous, friendly, loving, desirable but will manufacture opportunities that create an air of importance for themselves. No matter how well presented, these qualities are not genuine and merely projections that cover a bottomless need for validation and an endless search for security.
FMRI scans irrefutably show there is a lack of cognitive function in the cerebral cortex of the narcissist. There is an inability to model concepts competently. If you catch one copying ideas more complex than their understanding, it will show. They may deviate by trying to sound technical on a more familiar subject to compensate.
There is also a failure to deeply simulate other people’s experiences. They will always snag someone though and appear to be empathic. The other is usually below the narcissist’s experience level or is unwittingly having their own desires played like a tune so they do not see things as they are. Don’t be fooled by a well-practiced face. It is a surface act. “I’ve been there, so I know you.” Anyone who has overcome actual trauma beyond the human drama will see through this. It will leave an awkward taste in the mouth, like fake, sugary icing from a store-bought cake.
The narcissist also has an undeniable need to be right. Being “right” can appear as downright obstinance or it can look like, “I have grown, so now this is how I do things.” What they aren’t saying: My example is the right example. My thoughts are a better perspective. They will haphazardly insert statements that fly in the face of things previously said, trying to dissolve the perception they are presenting a better way, their way, even when the end goal is to sell something!
They will try to manipulate the victim by triggering fears and insecurities in a passive, casual, and even friendly manner. They distract with smoke and mirrors by pretending to bolster the weak self-esteem of their victims. Seeing this can be especially helpful when dealing with a more compelling classic narcissist or a hidden narcissist that is probably unaware of their behavior. Don’t buy the BS. It is not worth the money, time, or commitment. They make promises that claim little effort for a short-term gain, then turn around and tell you to put in the work.
Watch out for repetitive, circular thinking while quickly jumping from one idea to the next without coherency or clear transition. We all live in the age of distraction and many of us show to some extent circular thinking, but the flighty narcissist will seem like they have a peculiar kind of dementia. It is even more extreme. They are just sadly confused about what they should latch onto in their desperate attempt to appeal to others. They will run with anything that uplifts and reaffirms the shaky ground their identity stands on.
If the narcissist believes their idea of self is affronted or challenged (even if one has done nothing at all) they will obsessively fixate on that person. The fixation can be as strong as the obsession with perfecting their image. They will do this by stalking, mimicking, or finding ways to oppose the insubstantial pieces they can target. They may even incomprehensibly try to both copy and insult the assumed offender simultaneously.
One must resist the urge to engage with or react to the tactics of both the classic and covert narcissists. If one falls prey, then they have succeeded, for they can play the victim, the innocent, or the hypersensitive sweetheart who understandably had a bad moment. Don’t feed their ego. Be aware of the poor fools who are wrapped around their fingers, ready to fight their battles. The takeaway: Stay away.
The most dangerous truth a narcissist can never personally accept is that they are a fractured mirror. They will mirror whatever reflects best, no matter how distorted. Every story they spin to convince themselves that isn’t so only further pushes them away from integration. Everything they uphold about being authentic, they will tragically tell themselves over and over until the bitter end.
These lost souls will always be compelled to defend, will always be fine-tuning a flawless persona, one they think is beyond reproach. Yet they continue to yearn for an unattainable assurance they are someone, that they are real. As long as the narcissist personality exists the individual will never know the depths below.