Analyzing Evil: Thanos From The MCU

Welcome everyone and welcome to the sixty-fifth episode of Analyzing Evil! Our feature villain for this video is Thanos from the MCU. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for watching. If you have any feedback or questions feel free to let me know below!

#Thanos #MCU #Marvel

[hankfortwel]

While a good analysis, I think you overlooked something that A LOT of people have overlooked with MCU Thanos: His ego. His ego, to me, is firmly why he's a villain. In listening to how he talks about his plan and what inspired it, there's this lingering sense of spite and pettiness to it. "They called me a madman and what I predicted came to pass." He has it in his head that if they just listened to him, everything would've worked out. If only they just recognized him instead of writing him off and realized he was right. If only they listened.

That's the thing about Thanos and his "logic" regarding his plans. Most of his arguments boil down to "I'm right." Endgame, while presenting a younger Thanos for most of the runtime, really shows what actually drives him. When the Avengers ambush Present Thanos at the beginning of the film, what does he say? "You should be grateful!" and when he expresses his plans to shred down the universe and rebuild it, he caps it off by proclaiming that it would be "a grateful universe." Even when discussing his plans to Strange in IW, he mentions that he would watch the sun rise on a "grateful universe." For all his logic and faux compassion, that's what matters to Thanos, that he be finally recognized as the one who knew how to save everyone.

This is evident in his first scene in IW, "I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're RIGHT, yet to fail, nonetheless." To me, this just shows that at the end of the day, Thanos is still burned by the fact that he was written off as a madman. This is why, for such a compassionate sounding and seemingly run-by-logic being, he has such flashes of sadism and spite when personally involved in battle and murder. This is why each time we see him shredding planets, we always hear Maw hyping him up about what an honor it is to be "saved" by him. Because it isn't run by logic or compassion anymore, but a desire to finally be seen as right all along. Whether or not Thanos realizes this is up for debate, but to me, this is who Thanos was by the end: a spiteful and petty being who wanted to BE right instead of DO right.

[samuellaakso]

Speaking of killing Loki, I love this small piece of dialogue at the beggining of IW, where Loki claims himself as Odins son. As he has forgiven Odin and accepts himself as his heir. And nobody is forcing him to do that. Thanos doens't give two sh*ts for how Loki sees himself. It's almost more like an apology to Thor for everything he has put them trough. Just a small piece of dialogue but I think it adds so much to the scene and to Loki.

[someone]

“…A man with a will that can’t be broken is destined to either succeed or die trying…”

Well said about the character and in general.

[jmsmith]

Thanos being somewhat soft spoken and measured was always more menacing than a loud barking screaming monster.

[mauriciovillegas]

One defining characteristic is that when the second Thanos knows he lost, he just sits down and waits for the inevitable. No cursing, no rage, just a last moment of personal peace.

[marvelman]

I would say he definitely enjoyed testing those he came into conflicts with. All the hostages situations, were for him to prove the avengers/guardians weren’t really willing to lose it all for the stones. Peter with Gamora, torturing Nebula for Gamora, Strange and Iron man. I think with Wanda, she may have been someone he tried taking up as a “Child of Thanos” seeing how he even comforts her after she destroys Vision, respecting her for actually going through with losing someone for their cause

[thmistrapillay]

Thanos's dedication to what he believes is his purpose is what makes him engaging as a villain

[cleanserofnoobs]

I feel Thanos in Endgame is very diffrent from the one we got in Infinite war. In Endgame, he seems less compassionate, more cruel and wicked. He even says he'll enjoy stopping earth.

[acrazysheepdog]

You should’ve mentioned Nebula, since she was literally tortured and made into a mechanical monstrosity due to Thanos’ cold and callous nature. That would’ve been a better way to let us know how evil Thanos really is.

[Zygothdarkknight]

Thanos, Darth Vader, Palpatine and Joker are my most favorite movie villains.

[LycanVisuals]

I came to be a Thanos apologist after working in customer service.

[PatrickWDunne]

It was inevitable that The Vile Eye would eventually cover Thanos

[LiberiArcano]

It's important to differentiate MCU Thanos from his comic book counterpart. While they are the same character, their ultimate goal and portrayal is completely different.

MCU Thanos is obsessed with balance, and he believes that the universe can only be saved through impartial, fair genocide so that the surviving half will have enough resources and living space to prosper. He acts like he's forced to disintegrate trillions to save trillions, and always try to justify his actions, even when he's dead wrong. Here's an example: someone with a tormented conscience and with all that blood on their hands for "the greater good" would have never smiled as they were ripping the Mind Stone from Vision's head, and then toss him away like it was nothing. Another difference is that, according to Marvel Studios, MCU Thanos was designed and portrayed as a character without significative weaknesses.

Comic book Thanos, on the other hand, has a more selfish reason. Thanos is obsessed by death, so much that he falls in love with Lady Death herself, and his ultimate goal is to achieve a source of absolute, god-like power so that he can be worthy of his love interest. The iconic snap, brought so many times in Infinity War and Endgame, is used just once in the comics, to express just how powerful Thanos is, and all he requires is a snap of his fingers to cancel half of the universe. After all, you don't need a special move to use the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet.
But there's the catch: the exact moment Thanos gain this kind of power, he unwittingly becomes more powerful than Death, and that's something that Lady Death can't abide. So no matter how many times he tries, he's destined to fail because he values himself so much.

And then there's one of the most absurd comic book weaknesses of all time: Thanos's "subconscious desire to lose". Whether he wants it or not, in the end Thanos is defeated by his opponents because, deep down, he doesn't see himself worthy of the power he seeks, and he wish to be stopped. Clearly you can't be able to properly adapt such an abstract and weird condition to a movie villain. After all, MCU Thanos did win.

[walterwhite]

Another thing that makes thanos pretty damn terrifying? Think about what he was doing before he gathered the stones. He was going from planet to planet and manually slaughtering and wiping out half the population. And he did this for years and years. Good lord.

[Waryfuls]

*_One thing that stayed with many is his way of speaking, his wisdom & quotes_*

[iainronald]

Wait, Thor is older than Thanos? Damn, we really needed a scene where Thor dresses Thanos down by screaming "I've eaten more salt than you have rice!"

[VNow]

The cool thing about the comic and movie versions is that they retain a warped concept of "love".

[chrisdrugs]

I'd like to see Ozymandias from Watchmen in a future video. Feel like him and Thanos have a lot in common as far as their end goals.

[callummacalister]

One small point about the Titan issue: We only have Thanos' word for Titan's issues. Absent any other information, it's as likely that Thanos *believed* that Titan would eventually fall to ruin, as Malthus did on Earth in his day, but, his claims falling on deaf ears, instead destroyed Titan himself. Personal headcanon to be sure, but it certainly fits with his motivations in other movies, such as his desire to rule Earth and so on.

[fuckfacemcgeethe]

I would suggest Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street he isnt the typical "evil villain" and he never kills (directly) but he still caused so much harm for so many