# Easy Answers for Fictional Dilemmas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080 "2025-04-15T20:26:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/341 "2025-04-30T10:31:08Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > There’s a real life example of this but in the bad way. > > During WW2 American tanks and vehicles had a big bright American star on the direct middle of the sides to help friendly recognition. > > They had to stop doing this because they found enemy anti-tank gunners would aim at that star as an aiming guide, and only realized this when they found destroyed American vehicles with a bullseye right in the middle of that star. You think _that’s_ bad – during WWII the British joked about being such good pilots that they painted bullseyes on their planes. Turns out that they’re not the only ones using target-like “roundels” as insignia > **[Royal Air Force roundels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force_roundels)** > > The air forces of the United Kingdom – the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, the Army's Army Air Corps and the Royal Air Force use a roundel, a circular identification mark, painted on aircraft to identify them to other aircraft and ground forces. In one form or another, it has been used on British military aircraft from 1915 to the present. > When the First World War started in 1914 it was the habit of ground troops to fire on all aircraft, friend or foe, so that the need for some form of identifica... > **[Reddit - The heart of the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/vmin00/military_aircraft_roundels_by_country/?rdt=61127)** ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/342 "2025-04-30T14:42:07Z")
“Wait Thanos, you only wanted to use The Infinity Gauntlet to double the food in the Universe? Yeah, we’re all cool with that. Need any help distributing it? The Hulk would make an ideal Door Dash delivery dude and he’s amped for it already. Thor is already launching meals like he’s a walking talking T-shirt Cannon.” Or even, “And just like that, half of the universe was infertile.” ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/343 "2025-04-30T15:02:10Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > “Wait Thanos, you only wanted to use The Infinity Gauntlet to double the food in the Universe? Yeah, we’re all cool with that. There’s a reason he’s called the Mad Titan, and not the Rational Solutions Titan. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/344 "2025-04-30T15:07:42Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Mad Titan, and not the Rational Solutions Titan And getting rid of half the population, or even just doubling the resources, isn’t a “solution”, it won’t fix the problem, it just moves the day of reckoning to a later date. Population growth will inevitably produce the same conditions eventually. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/345 "2025-04-30T15:11:26Z")
As you would expect, they changed many things when adaapting comic books into films. Mostly, Thanos stayed the same. However, rather than being an evil person doing evil things for evil reasons, they made him into somebody whose end goal is good but whose methods are evil. In the comics, Thanos is literaally in love with Death. Death often appears to him. Sometimes as a human skeleton in a purple, hooded robe and sometimes as a woman of “Icy beauty” in the same robe. Thanos doesn’t care about starvation or people suffering from lack of resources. He wants to kill half of all living beings in the universe to win the love of Death. Thanos also has, IMO, by far the best reason to keep turning up after he is killed. Death sends him back to the to world of the living so he can keep trying to fulfill his promise. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/346 "2025-04-30T16:09:03Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > they made him into somebody whose end goal is good but whose methods are evil. Well, his end goal was evil but dressed in a veneer of “good” Thanos (in the movies) was just worried about being right. He identified what he thought was an issue, proposed a solution of killing 50% of everyone, was told “That’s fucked up, dude, what the hell?” and then rather than revise his solution doubled down on making sure everyone knew how smart and awesome he was by forcing it on them. It wasn’t about saving the galaxy, it was about being able to say “Haha, you all said I was stupid and fucked up but now who’s right??” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/347 "2025-04-30T16:12:05Z")
“But I put it to you: could a madman have created a revolutionary Living-Brain Extractor?” “But I will show the world that I can be its master! I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/348 "2025-04-30T16:17:00Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > "But I will show the world that I can be its master! I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!” Sit down, Elon, you’re high again. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/349 "2025-04-30T16:18:54Z")
nevermind ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/350 "2025-04-30T16:23:20Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > As you would expect, they changed many things when adaapting comic books into films. Mostly, Thanos stayed the same. However, rather than being an evil person doing evil things for evil reasons, they made him into somebody whose end goal is good but whose methods are evil. > > In the comics, Thanos is literaally in love with Death. Death often appears to him. Sometimes as a human skeleton in a purple, hooded robe and sometimes as a woman of “Icy beauty” in the same robe. Thanos doesn’t care about starvation or people suffering from lack of resources. He wants to kill half of all living beings in the universe to win the love of Death. Thanos also has, IMO, by far the best reason to keep turning up after he is killed. Death sends him back to the to world of the living so he can keep trying to fulfill his promise. I get that Death wants…well death, but do they mention why Death wants less souls in total in the future? That’s what Thanos’ plan will result in. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/351 "2025-04-30T16:30:08Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@Lumpy](#): > > > > "But I will show the world that I can be its master! I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!” > > Sit down, Elon, you’re high again. That was Elon’s late night message to a woman on Bumble he thought would make a good candidate for his latest baby mama. > [@Sitnam](#): > > I get that Death wants…well death, but do they mention why Death wants less souls in total in the future? That’s what Thanos’ plan will result in. Death was never the type to hold out for two marshmallows. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/352 "2025-04-30T16:44:04Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > I get that Death wants…well death, but do they mention why Death wants less souls in total in the future? That’s what Thanos’ plan will result in. IIRC it was based on the ‘fact’ that more people alive today than have ever died. She wanted Thanos to ‘fix’ that. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/353 "2025-04-30T16:45:13Z")
Right, seems like someone in the Marvel Universe could teach her about compound interest. You don’t eat your seed souls. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/354 "2025-04-30T19:18:50Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Recently it’s been a meme that Superman really, really doesn’t like the Joker, The Joker is way WAY overused as a villain, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/355 "2025-04-30T19:48:44Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Recently it’s been a meme that Superman really, really doesn’t like the Joker, and in fact Superman is much closer than Batman to losing it where the Joker is concerned. Probably because “The Joker kill Lois,” has been used in a lot of alternate universe stories as the precipitating event in Superman breaking bad. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/356 "2025-04-30T22:26:03Z")
Has it ever been established that Thanos killing half of all life would actually impress Death, or is that just Thanos’s bad incel rationalization? I’ve seen it proposed that Batman and Superman should swap arch-nemeses. Batman is the world’s greatest detective, and he wastes all of his time on a dude who goes around in clown makeup and readily admits to every crime he’s committed. The problem with the Joker is that his peculiar form of insanity is contagious, and inevitably infects the wardens of any prison he finds himself in, which results in him breaking out (plus a few more minor supervillains). Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is clever and insidious enough to always hide his misdoings in the murk of finance and high society. Superman could always beat him in a fight, but that won’t get him put behind bars by the properly-established government. If they swap, though, Supes could carry the Joker to a cell on the Moon, with no wardens needed, and toss him a supplies package every month or so, and Batman could put his detective skills and high-society experience to use in penetrating all of the layers of Luthor’s shell companies, and expose him for the warrants. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/357 "2025-04-30T22:30:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Has it ever been established that Thanos killing half of all life would actually impress Death, or is that just Thanos’s bad incel rationalization? Whether it would actually impress her depends on the writer. However, that is the task she has set for Thanos. Minor Spoiler- In the miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos does kill half of all living beings. Death remains silent and distant. However, a few decades later, Thanos and Death were depicted as a happy, and loving couple. So, it depends on the writer. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/358 "2025-05-01T02:32:20Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > At least he would not have been > > > liquidated, I’m afraid, sir. Our Finland, stabbed to death in a ladies sauna bath, sir. Our Madrid, burned in a blazing bordello, sir. And, Tokyo, sir, garroted in a geisha house. It’s depressing that the words “secret agent” have become synonymous with “sex maniac.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/359 "2025-05-01T13:08:44Z")
Well, if you’ve got a licence to kill I suppose that includes a licence for all lesser offenses as well. Including the sex ones. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/360 "2025-05-01T14:17:22Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > It’s depressing that the words “secret agent” have become synonymous with “sex maniac." - Higgins: He was an excellent field operative, until the scandal. - Magnum: Sex scandal? - Higgins: Unfortunately, in British Intelligence, that seems to be the only kind we have. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Well, if you’ve got a licence to kill I suppose that includes a licence for all lesser offenses as well. You just hand the officer your license, and he punches out a couple holes equal to the crime. When the card has no more empty punch spaces, MI-6 can issue you a new one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080.md?page=19)