DC, MARVEL, Dark Horse Comics / Graphic Novels, TV Shows, Movies etc

They've basically won in every MCU movie (sure there were a few more erogenous ones like Civil War, but ultimately every movie had the good guys beat the bad guys and some sense of peace reign).  We needed a movie where they lost, and with how long they've gone without a loss it needed to be a big one.  And you don't get much bigger than this loss, some of the most powerful heroes are gone as are most of them in general.  The last time I saw a bunch of heroes take an L this big was the anime Fate Zero (and that was a prequel to an already existing story)

The pre-snap deaths seem to be the ones that'll stick, and damn were they brutal.  Loki's especially with how inglorious it was.  One barely audible noise and he was gone.  It set the tone of the movie perfectly from the start, with a fan favourite getting such a brutal sendoff it drilled home anyone could die.  

Visions death was probably the most brutal, not necessarily because of the caved in skull, but more because of how utterly hopeless it proved the resistance was at that point.  As soon as Thanos got the Time Stone it was GG, even if they had destroyed Vision's stone earlier it wouldn't have made a difference.

And so in that line of thought I'm going to say what needs to be said.

FUCK STARLORD

I'm not saying I hate him now or something, but seriously fuck him, he is literally the one who lost them the war.  He's not 50% idiot, he's 99% idiot.  Normally I love him for it, but when you're literally doing the one thing that loses the war to a universal supervillain then, well, fuck you man.  There would have been plenty of time to punch him in the face for Gamora a minute later once the gauntlet was off.  Plus if you really wanted to piss Thanos off getting the gauntlet off, well, you get the idea.

On the other end of the spectrum Thor was great, probably the MVP.

Having said all that if there's one tiny complaint I have it's that I kind of expected the movie, if you know what I mean.  I think it was one plot twist away from being god tier, like Thanos accidentally being in the 50% that died or something (or perhaps his minions could have been erased by it, something).  Not that the ending wasn't brilliant and bone chilling (Peter's death was just a gut puncher, a young kid gone before his time given just enough time to realise the oncoming oblivion that awaits him.  chilling.), but at the same time it was so profoundly game over for the heroes that it telegraphs from a lightyear away that none of those deaths will stick.  

Of course we're undoubtedly not done with the deaths Thanos is going to inflict.  I can see him killing Rogers and/or Hulk by the end of Avengers 4.  

On Pete's death; I've seen lots of speculation that he took so much longer than anyone else because his spider sense told him it was coming.

Not sure how that'd stop it from working honestly.  But it was cool seeing the Spidey sense in action after Homecoming's apparent lack of it (and bonus points for not doing the "world slows down for everything but Spidey" demonstration).  

Namely Strange handing over the Time Stone.  Now that made complete sense to me at the time, I assumed he'd realised they'd veered off the one timeline where they won sometime after the failed attempt at the gauntlet and that he'd seen the next best thing was to hand over the stone.  

Yet I've seen some think that we're still on the timeline where they win (I mean being meta about it we are, but where's the fun in talking about things from the meta perspective all the time?)  I was under the impression that Strange's peek into the future was about their looming fight with the Mad Titan, and I'm still convinced of that since there's a few logic fails that start cropping up otherwise.  

No, I'm certain Strange saw that letting Quill ruin the plan and giving up the Time Stone was the only way for them to win. He explicitly telegraphs it as such when he says to Stark that they're "in the end game now" and that "it was the only way." He knows that it's caused so much strife and turmoil for them but it was the only way for them to win.

My assumption would be that Strange saw that they can't beat Thanos until after the finger click, when he lets his guard down, and that keeping Tony alive meant the right combination of people were alive by the end to seal the deal.
Or maybe he realised Thanos' plan really is the only solution to the universe' overpopulation.

Not so much that it slowed it down as that he knew it was coming for longer beforehand than anyone else.
Agreed that it was cool seeing the spider sense in action. I'd just guess that in the year or so of time Spidey's been active in the MCU, he's learned to better respond to his SS.

Savitar being Barry's future Time Remnant was awesome, loved that twist.  While I'm not sure going for a third season-speedster villain in a row was the best idea it was a fitting form for Barry's screwups with the Speed Force and abusing time travel to take.  And while I did criticise them about having Barry brood too much in season 3 I will give them credit for the episode following Savitar's identity reveal being a light and old-school tone instead of doubling down on the gloom.

the X-Force bait and switch and the baby legs bit were absolutely amazing, as were all the little jabs at the MCU and DCCU.