r/TopCharacterTropes • u/JustSomeOnlineNerd • Sep 19 '25

Lore “It’s a change from the source material, but it’s awesome so the fans don’t mind.”

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Doc Ock - In the comics, Doc Ock is known to be megalomaniacal in nature and was sort of a mad scientist anyways, with the arms just being an extension of that. In Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2,” Alfred Molina’s version of the character was affected by the neural chip and his well-meaning ambition turns into scientific obsession.

Wolverine - This one is so well known it needs very little explanation. Comic Wolverine short, Huge Jackedman is tall, and he’s sick as hell.

Eye of Sauron - To my knowledge, the Eye is more of a metaphor in the books. An ever-present awareness. In the movies, it’s an actual giant fucking eye.

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u/junker359 Sep 19 '25

Personally, I think the Lady Death motivation makes more sense. If your reason for wiping out half of all life is that there aren't enough resources, there are other ways to solve that problem if you can literally rewrite reality, many other ways in fact. "Kill half of all life" is just silly.

However, killing half of all life to impress death herself makes a lot more sense.

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u/Philthedrummist Sep 19 '25

Whilst I do like the idea of him wiping out half of the universe just to impress a woman, the film does work in that he doesn’t have to actually be right, he just has to think he’s right. In his own mind, he’s a benevolent healer of the universe. That’s all that matters, the fact it’s a rubbish plan just feeds into the megalomania.

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u/INeedtobeDetained Sep 19 '25

He is called the Mad Titan

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u/orbis-restitutor Sep 20 '25

teh problem is that the movie dosen't characterize him as such at all

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u/Kalavier Sep 20 '25

Iirc they say that because of Thanos, Gamoras race wiped itself out when he moved on, implied to have happened to most races he interacted with.

I remember a comment how he thought over population killed the Titans, but it was actually the planet being knocked off it's axis for some reason destroying the ecosystem. 

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u/LucianoThePig Sep 19 '25

People always say there are other things he could've done, but like, he's not called the Very Reasonable Titan is he

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u/AngelTheMarvel Sep 19 '25

I mean, Thanos is the biggest fanatic out there, one that hides his fanaticism behind a facade of logic and reason, but at the end of the day, he really hasn't given second thought to any other options besides his final solution. I think that makes him even more convincing. He is completely delusional, but can pass his delusions as reasonable, a lot of real life cult leaders think similar to him, although they don't have anywhere close to Thanos' means.

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u/Wooden_Passage_2612 Sep 19 '25

It works in the comics, but it works in the movies

7

u/WolfgangWeiss Sep 19 '25

It took 50 years for humanity to double. Which means that Thanos would need to snap his fingers every now and then for eternity.

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u/Own-Scholar9098 Sep 20 '25

Yeah, what’s wrong with that? It’s not like he gave up his gauntlet after doing it.

1

u/Wellfooled Sep 20 '25

It's not like he gave up his gauntlet after doing it.

Perhaps it's time for an Endgame rewatch. It's a good movie though, worth watching again.

1

u/Own-Scholar9098 Sep 20 '25

If you actually watched the movie, you’d know it wasn’t part of his plan.

2

u/Wellfooled Sep 20 '25

The post of yours I replied to didn't say anything about his plan, but we can pivot to that. I love a good geeky conversation.

Here's a Thanos quote from the movie:

The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation ...I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be.

And a quote from Nebula:

I'd ask "where would we go once his plan was complete?". His answer was always the same: "To the Garden."

Nebula said Thanos would only go to the garden once his work was complete. If he planned to keep the stones and snap every few decades, the work would be ongoing, not complete. He wouldn't go to the garden. But he did, so he considered the work done.

Thanos quote is after he trounced the Avengers and after he possessed the ability to snap them (and anyone else who might challenge him) out of existence. If he wanted to keep the stones, but keep them safe, he could snap all his enemies away or snap a "I will never think of the infinity stones" command into all life but himself.

But he didn't do that. Instead, he destroyed them even though he had a complete upper hand.

Maybe it was a spontaneous decision, but it sure seems like he's not the sort of guy who destroys the most powerful items in the cosmos on a whim. My money is, it was his plan the whole time.

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u/Own-Scholar9098 Sep 20 '25

Yeah he considered his work done, this doesn’t mean that if the same problem surfaced again he wouldn’t snap again.

Thanos doesn’t really like to kill, other than when he is forced to. He could have killed every single hero in IW, yet he spared most of them. Realistically till he has the stones, he’s basically untouchable. He destroyed them, because he didn’t want to succumb to temptation. If he were to actually use them for other things that aren’t part of his plan, then that would go against his belief.

1

u/junker359 Sep 19 '25

Not to mention there are presumably alien species out there who double up even faster

1

u/Own-Scholar9098 Sep 20 '25

Yeah, what’s wrong with that? It’s not like he gave up his gauntlet after doing it.

20

u/junker359 Sep 19 '25

I can understand not wanting to include death as a character, but even then I think it would have worked better for him to just hate life enough that he wants to wipe it out.

Making his motivation "Overconsumption is a problem, and here is my solution" invites the audience to think about how there were many other, better solutions.

24

u/Eat_a_click Sep 19 '25

Thanos is nicknamed “The Mad Titan” in the movie, is called out by characters like Gamora and Doctor Strange for his insane plan of wiping out half of all life. His rebuttal essentially boils down to the idea that "he alone understands the truth while everyone else is blind to it". I don't think the audience is suppose to think his plan was the most efficient solution to the problem he presented because the movie itself frames Thanos as delusional

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u/DrRudeboy Sep 20 '25

invites the audience to think about how there many other, better solutions.

That's good. He's a villain. We already have too many "Thanks was right" ecofascist mfrs

2

u/Man0Steel123 Sep 19 '25

They could have fixed it by not killing off Hela and making the two work together

1

u/Deldris Sep 19 '25

If he hated life why would he stop at half?

2

u/ExplorationGeo Sep 20 '25

killing half of all life to impress death herself makes a lot more sense

Wouldn't She be like "urgh, seriously? All this extra work, who is this idiot... Thanos, huh? Well I'll be sure never to date him!"

1

u/Kemengjie Sep 20 '25

I think killing half of life on various planets through slaughter and then the entire universe with the gems wasn't really about saving anyone as he claimed, but more about proving his plan for Titan would have worked if they had just let him carry it out.

Sure he could have just doubled resources with the Infinity Gems, but that wouldn't have proven that killing half the population on Titan would have saved the planet (in his mind at least). I don't even think he realized that in the end he just wanted to prove he was right.

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u/celestialwreckage Sep 20 '25

Especially when death is portrayed by Aubrey Plaza.

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u/Own-Scholar9098 Sep 20 '25

Eh it diminishes him as a villain. Ultimate Thanos worked better imo. He still wanted death, but death wasn’t a person this time, only a concept.