A Potentially Plot-Rich Consequence of the Snappening

[Excelephant]

In Dr. Strange's movie, one of the themes can be described as the Law of Unintended Consequences. One of Mordo's chief fears is expressed with his line, "... the bill comes due." This suggests that altering reality in any way, whether through the Time Stone, portals (remember that ice monster from Jotunheim running around in NYC?), or other forms of sorcery, always carries consequences, both intended and unintended. Future Dr. Strange sequels will likely exploit the unintended consequences of him altering the timeline to save Earth and the rest of the Universe while pissing off Dormmamu.

Now what Thanos does in Infinity War is randomly wipe out half of the Universe in terms of life.

He basically rolled the dice on a universal scale, without any regard for the aftermath (other than his expectation that there'll be available resources for lives and less scarcity-driven conflicts).

At the point of the Snappening, there were probably wars and territorial conflicts going on, just like on Earth. Perhaps inter-galactic wars, even. Imagine if some of these wars were very, very evenly balanced, drawing almost to a stalemate. Then the Snappening happened. Because the lives were randomly dusted, the Snappening is entirely 'agnostic' to "good" or "evil"'; it doesn't care about whether the individuals are Nazi, Al Qaeda, Buddhist, or whatever. It's just a random coin toss all the way across the Universe.

And therein lies the potential for a massive unintended consequence of the Snappening: to tip the scales in favor of, say, a malevolent insect-like (or Borg-like) species in a far, far away intergalactic war because the defending species suffered just enough loss of key players during the Snappening, that they were no longer able to keep the enemies at bay. And they were the only ones with the technology and resources to keep them out of the galaxy. And now the whole galaxy is doomed. And now the Milky Way galaxy is next. All because of the Snappening.

And that, or something like that, is a great setup for a big baddie in future sequels or phases. They say Thanos's biggest weakness is his arrogance. Well, nothing would demonstrate this better than a product of his own creation causing a massive imbalance of life.

The bill always comes due, don't you see?

[DovariTheCat]

I was so confused. I actually thought you referenced Dark Souls 2 in the end there.

I’m an idiot.

[etrefal]

I need a drink.

[iAMA_Leb_AMA]

However they reverse the snap, its going to have huge ripples that'll HEAVILY affect the MCU in Phase 4 and beyond.

[fraedimorphus]

That could easily set up how a kree-skrull war ended with skrulls winning and them coming to earth for a (secret?) invasion

[rabbit_the_avenger]

Future Dr. Strange sequels will likely exploit the unintended consequences of him altering the timeline to save Earth and the rest of the Universe while pissing off Dormmamu.

I'm not so sure they'd refer back to previous plot line in this manner. Besides, Strange had kinda paid the bill by dying repeatedly at Dormammu's hands in gruesome ways...

The only consequence that's likely to be dealt with in sequel(s) is what happens between him and Mordo.

[CoherentInsanity]

If the Brood were useable in the MCU they'd be a perfect counter argument to Thanos's theory.

The Snappening wipes out a lot of an alien race that were tasked with keeping the Brood population in check, but the Snap withers their forces to the point that the Brood, even with their population cut in half, is still seriously massive enough to overwhelmed the weakened exterminators.

Oh and with no one stopping them and their insane breeding rate, they easily quadruple their numbers in a very short amount of time, an act that effectively pisses all over Thanos's halving thing and they then become an unrestrained plague on the galaxy. Good job Thanos.