Why is every 'Big Bad' a bootleg Thanos?

Fixed that.

I completely agree with everything Mesui said. To add to this, my favorite villains are well thought out characters with depth, a solid story arc, able to get the audience to at least empathize with their intentions. Prince Nuada from Hellboy II is by far my favorite villain. I was rooting for him rather than Hellboy.

In some cases the villains can even end up becoming the heroes. Megamind … villain turned hero. Several Marvel characters started off as villains and become heroes. The Scarlet Witch is just one of many examples. Several of the replicants from Blade Runner that are bad guys but end up being more human than human. And does anyone remember Darth Vayder? That’s a character with depth, corrupted by the dark side but partially redeems himself in the end. It seems from the recent video there was some attempt to give Sylvannas some aspect of redemption, but her actions did not match her knowledge and experience but maybe there is more we have not seen yet, I hope.

Garrosh was a great villain. He wasn’t “morally grey,” but had serious convictions and legitimately believed in his cause. And his cause wasn’t even downright awful, because we got to see how everybody around him abandoned him. I love to hate Garrosh, and still respect and even sympathize with him.

Thanos did nothing wrong. The universe did need the attitude adjustment. The darn Avengers ruined it in the end game :laughing:

Movie Thanos’ motivations for the snap don’t show him in as harsh a light as comic book Thanos’ motivations for the snap. Comic book Thanos is a much better character than the movie version.

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To be fair, he only opted for “destroy everything” after he realized what the good guys were doing (the time heist), and that his half-measure (LOL) wasn’t as conclusive as he expected. And even then he was going to create a whole new universe and monitor it.

But I agree, Endgame Thanos was not nearly as cool as Infinity War Thanos. Then again, it technically wasn’t the same character. Endgame Thanos hadn’t had any of the character development that IW Thanos had - he never sacrificed something for the Soul Stone or had to debate any of the protagonists.

Superheroes are our modern mythology.

Blame comic books from the 70s for the choice of name, not the people you’re talking to. How are we supposed to address a character, other than the name they have? Call him, “Steve?” No, the name of the character is Thanos. The obvious inspiration for that name is the Greek God of Death, who, by the way, was a minor god who shows up in maybe two ancient myths. Don’t bend over backwards for that level of character.

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Genuinely curious - do you really see Thanos as some original “destroy the world/universe” character?

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To be fair, it’s not just Marvel. Lots of popular media borrows heavily from old mythologies.

As for the topic at large, it’s a common rpg trope to go on a world spanning adventure to umm…save the world. Yes, it’s not very original but if you set the stakes too low, no one will care. That’s why it’s only a couple of quests to save razor hill and not an entire expansion around it for example.

I blame Josh Brolin lol. He’s the diet coke of evil. Just one calorie, not evil enough :laughing:

To be fair Thanos didn’t get enough character development in the movies to make his comic book motivation work. Josh Brolin did a good job with the character he got.

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Yeah was just kiddin around. He is a good actor. 80’s teen here. Grew up watching movies like The Goonies which he starred in.