Readers, be warned! This article contains MAJOR Avengers: Infinity War SPOILERS!
Avengers: Infinity War’s heartbreaking conclusion, but co-director Joe Russo feels that Thor had just as much to do with it.
In a pivotal scene, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy have subdued Thanos and are about to seize the Infinity Gauntlet. But Star-Lord loses it when he learns that Thanos has killed Gamora, and the battle’s lost. Fans are finding it difficult to empathize, and they feel that Star-Lord is responsible for the destruction of half of the universe.
Russo pointed out in a recent interview with ComicBook that Star-Lord isn’t the only one who should be held accountable for the tragedy. He added that if Thor had slammed the Mad Titan in the head with the Stormbreaker, he could have eliminated the villain and retrieved the Infinity Stones.
But Thor aims his freshly forged battle axe at Thanos' chest. Thanos survives the blow and completes his mission. Russo told Comic Book that Thor deliberately aims at the chest rather than the head because he wants to ensure that the supervillain realizes that he’s avenging the deaths of Loki, Heimdall, and other Asgardians:
I would argue that the fan base could be equally upset with Thor, who chose to throw that axe into Thanos’ chest and not his head. Because he wanted to tell Thanos that he got his revenge. Had he gone for a kill shot, that snap would not have happened. These are choices that characters who are feeling immense pain make and hopefully, the audience can learn to empathize with those characters, because they can grow through stories. Stories can teach us things, and we should try to see every choice from the perspective of the character who made the choice.
