Dissecting a GREAT Villain (Spoiler Warning)
DO NOT READ THIS ENTRY IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN INFINITY WAR
(and come back AS SOON as you have)
After watching Avengers Infinity War for a third time, I could not be more sure about how I feel about the protagonist of this 10 year pay-off story called Infinity War. As I mention in my Non-Spoiler Infinity War podcast Thanos is one of the best villains ever to be developed in a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie. But WHY? What makes him great or even better than other villains like Helmut Zemo (from Civil War) or Loki?
3 things:
First, you show he's capable of doing something NO ONE else has come close to.
In the first 5 minutes of Infinity War Thanos completely demolishes THE INCREDIBLE HULK. The fighting choreography and animation was completely top notch. The Hulk got beat up so bad, he became scared for the first time ever, not coming out again throughout the entire movie! We are talking about a Hulk that has spat out bullets when Banner tried to suicide, fought hundreds of Chitauri with his bare hands, held his own against Thor (with and without Mjolnir), became the champion of a universe-gladiator-tournament and for the first time he was rendered useless in seconds!
Second, you contrast great power with will.
Gamora and Quil confess their love to each other in a truly emotional scene when she asks him to kill her so that Thanos cannot take her with him. As tears come out of his eyes and bubbles out of the gun, Thanos smiles at "the boyfriend" and says "I like you". A man who is willing to sacrifice that which he loves is much stronger than one that can lift a building. After that dramatic and painful love scene, Thanos sits down with his daughter to clarify his intent to her not because he has to, but because he wants her by his side fighting for his goal AGAIN.
"You are strong. ME. You are generous. ME. You want to know why you are so bad at lying?
Because I did not teach you that!"
She had once become his greatest ally, for as he brought "balance" to each planet, they would thrive again into a prosperous one with balance of population and resources. Thanos opens his fatherly pride towards the audience to see that SHE is and has always been his favorite daughter. In contrast, when Nebula fights Thanos and yells that he should have killed her before he responds very directly "would have been a waste of parts!". In his eyes there is only ONE daughter... Thanos did not want to look for his daughter because he feared true loss, and that comes only via love. When the soul gem asks for the thing you love, his facial expression changes from serious to sorrowful as he realizes he had to give up his "little one". It is as he says it himself
"The hardest choices require the strongest wills"
Lastly, you explain why that is his mission. Clear as day I will close with one of the most significant of conversations in the movie. On Titan (Thanos' now extinct planet) he explains:
Thanos: When faced with extinction, I offered a solution.
Dr Strange: Genocide?
Thanos: random, dispassionate, fair for the rich and poor alike. They called me a mad man and what I predicted came to happen.
Dr Strange: congratulations, you are a prophet.
Thanos: I am a survivor.
Dr Strange: One who wants to murder millions...
Thanos: With all the stones I can simply snap my fingers and they will all cease to exist...
I call that Mercy.
Avengers Infinity War had flaws, as do all movies; but it had a pay off like no other: ten years of exploring superheroes, their complicated lives, their families, their motives, their love relationships... All that, to finally see a movie from the villain's point of view and see him win...
FOR NOW...
