Thread by @koreanforeigner

Okay, it's past 3am, and I have trouble falling asleep. So why not talk about Avengers Endgame?

Okay, so in Infinity War, Thanos does the snap and wipes out half of all life in the universe. Since the universe is huge and there is no way I can really imagine extraterrestrial life, I'll just focus on Earth.

So does that mean that only half of humans got dusted, or does this also include plants and animals? I ask because Thanos said that the universe's resources are finite. Whether or not that is true, it'd be weird if only humans were killed.

That's because if only humans were killed, that would be an oddly human-centric position to take. Humans are the dominant species on Earth now, but we weren't always and there's no guarantee we will be forever. Why would Thanos, an alien, place so much importance on humans?

So I'm presuming that half of plants and animals were wiped out, too. Because everything is a resource for everything else. No species would be getting any type of favors.

So I imagine that after Thanos snapped half of all life out of existence, on Earth alone, that would have had major consequences. Even if half of all humans died, half of all our food would have disappeared, too. So it wouldn't simply have been more food for those left behind.

And with presumably much fewer people who can grow, produce, distribute, sell, transport, etc. all that food, I imagine that the post-snap world would have seen catastrophic food shortages.

And the shortages wouldn't have only applied to food, but practically everything.

Economies would have collapsed overnight. And that would have led to massive protests, riots, and looting. That's happening right now in Venezuela.

And when that many people riot, governments around the world resort to doing what they've always done best - killing people.

Forget economic recessions. The snap would have destroyed human civilization as we know it. So when we see Ant Man walking around after he returns from the Quantum Realm, that dilapidated neighborhood with overflowing trash is not realistic because it's overly sanitized.

To have been realistic, there should have been a lot more burned down buildings and corpses strewn on the streets.

But, hey, it's a Disney movie franchise, not HBO. So I'm willing to cut it some slack. We don't want to traumatize a bunch of kids.

Anyway, the snap would have created a hell on Earth. But the Avengers collected all the Infinity Stones, made their own gauntlet, and snapped all those who were snuffed out to be brought back. Okay. But that's not a good thing. In fact, it's going to be terrible.

It would have been great if they had been brought back moments after they had been wiped out. But five years have passed since the snap (if you've read this far and started complaining about spoilers, slap yourself). That's a really long time.

And during those five years, people would have adjusted. In the short term, it would have led to violence, looting, burning, killing, etc. But after the dust had settled, and to quote Jeff Goldblum, life finds a way.

People would have gotten remarried. Or if they hadn't, they wouldn't be the same people they were five years ago. Orphaned children would have grown up by then. People would have left their homes to go elsewhere. New politicians would have been elected. Or crowned themselves.

Businesses would have gone bankrupt, and new ones would have replaced them. The remaining population would have adjusted themselves to the halved food resources. Entire new industries and economies would have been spawned. Wars would have been fought.

But then Hulk snaps them all back five years later. And when they get snapped back, they're the same age as when they had been snuffed out. That's not going to make things better. What would those people be coming back to?

If a man gets snapped back to life 5 years later, and discovers that his now wife had remarried, then whose marriage is legitimate? Will there have to be a divorce or annulments? Will the original spouse be willing to accept things and just move on?

Or if a married couple gets snapped back to life and discover that their kid who got left behind is now 10 years old, and had been in foster care or in orphanages, will the couple even recognize their kid? Will the kid recognize their parents? Will it be a happy reunion?

Or if a house had been abandoned by its previous owner because he couldn't bare to live in a house that had too many memories of his lost loved ones, and thus the house stood empty before it got settled in by new homeowners or squatters, and the original family was brought back,

who would legally have the right to that home?

If an older sibling got snapped out, but then came back five years later only to discover that he's now younger than who was a younger sibling before, what would that do to family dynamics?

And what about the people who got killed in the rioting and looting post-snap? Those people aren't coming back. Only those who got snapped by Thanos are coming back. What kind of world would those people be coming back to? Not a happy one, that's for sure.

Or what about politics? If half of Congress got snapped out, but they're brought back five years later only to discover that new members of Congress had been elected in their place, would they willingly accept that they are no longer in charge? What about presidents?

Also, what is that going to do food resources? Again! Billions of people suddenly got snapped back into existence. They're going to need to eat. Food production takes time, and the logistics and infrastructure needed to distribute food might not be there anymore. More riots!

Yes, I know, I'm overthinking things. It's a summer blockbuster movie where we get to see superheroes beat the crap out of a maniacal alien. The movies aren't going to focus on the horrific Hobbesian State of Nature that would have befallen the survivors.

But that world is now fundamentally broken. Superheroes are going to keep doing their superhero thing, but for the average person, things are going to be horrific. If I were an average person in that universe, I'd absolutely hate the Avengers.