It might have all worked itself out in Endgame, but many fans coming out of Avengers: Infinity War were holding Star-Lord directly responsible for Thanos eliminating half of all life in the universe with a click of his fingers after Peter Quill had let his emotions get the best of him on Titan when Iron Man and company were agonizingly close to separating the Mad Titan from the Infinity Gauntlet.
The Russo brothers said we shouldn’t be pointing fingers despite admitting he’d messed up in a big way, while the writers also attempted to justify his actions and Chris Pratt defended his character before ultimately conceding that Quill had made a huge mistake. Sure, you can trace Thanos gathering the last of the Infinity Stones and carrying out intergalactic genocide directly to Star-Lord’s anger, but a new theory now claims that there was no other way to ensure that the Avengers would win in the end.
You see, Doctor Strange had predicted that there was only one outcome in 14 million that would have seen Earth’s Mightiest Heroes emerge on top, and based on the events of Endgame, that wouldn’t have happened had they succeeded in Infinity War. If Star-Lord punching Thanos in his big purple face would have had any impact in the grand scheme of things, then the Sorcerer Supreme would have surely stopped him.
Thanos was very keen on reminding people that he was inevitable, and if they’d have removed the Gauntlet and fled, then he would have no doubt found another way to guarantee success, one that could have resulted in heavy casualties that wouldn’t have been brought back by Hulk’s second Snap in Endgame. After all, he did wipe out entire planets like Xandar for the sake of one Infinity Stone.
As the theory explains:
Doctor Strange saw all 14 000 605 outcomes of the battle and only foresaw one where the Avengers won. The fact that he didn’t stop Star-Lord from hitting Thanos already tells us this was part of the plan. But in what universe would stopping Spider-Man and Iron Man from getting the gauntlet be considered helpful? Let’s think about what would happen if Star-Lord didn’t do the thing.
The Avengers would have gauntlet off… and then what? They would have probably put it in some Avengers storage facility or separated the stones and stored the stones in different parts of the universe. This is all good until another cosmic conqueror (or Thanos if he survived) comes looking for the stones again, leading to another Infinity War. This would probably cause more casualties in an endless cycle of villains attacking the locations of the stones and the Avengers having to stop them, resulting in the deaths of countless innocents on the sidelines.
I mean, Thanos literally destroyed Xandar just to get the Power Stone. Imagine that but it happens over and over again. But because Star-Lord let Thanos have the stones, Thanos enacted his plan, which involved destroying all the Infinity Stones. Destroying them would be the only way to end the aforementioned cycle of villains fighting the Avengers over the stones since there aren’t any left. Hence, this would greatly decrease the number of casualties caused by the stones. In addition, while some might argue that the Avengers could have destroyed the stones themselves, this would have been impossible. Only Thanos had the raw power to handle the stones and command them to destroy themselves.
Looking at what happened with weaker characters like Iron Man and Hulk, the Avengers probably would not be able to handle the power required to destroy the stones. Anyway, that drastic course of action probably would not have crossed their minds if they did get their hands on the stones. Hence, it was imperative that Thanos got the stones and destroyed them afterwards. To ensure there would never be any fights or resulting casualties over the stones ever again.
In the long run, Thanos destroying the Stones after he’d already used them meant nobody could get hold of them ever again, so in retrospect, maybe Star-Lord doesn’t deserve all of the flack he’s been getting since Avengers: Infinity War for his selfishness.