The Best Villain of All?

Villainous characters are portrayed in numerous ways over different story-telling mediums. They develop certain tastes and emotions for the audience. This villain is the one that challenges the audiences morale best.

Thanos. The Mad Titan. This supervillain may possibly be the best villain in any genre or story-telling medium because of his evil motivations and purpose to continue with his distinct message of "balancing the universe"...literally!

This villain derives from the MARVEL comics. He is an extraterrestrial from Titan, one of Saturn's moons. He is considered an outcast on his planet and an enemy to many famous MARVEL superheroes such as the Avengers, the X-Men, and virtually all the heroes in the MARVEL comic universe as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

His physical abilities are trumped by his purpose in life and desire to make the world right. Focusing on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) instead of the comics will save a lot of time and reading for many. His purpose in life is to "balance the universe". He believes that the resources in the entire universe are finite, therefore it is up to him to wipe off half of all life in the universe in order to "balance" the resources with the living creatures/organisms that take up space and use up material. Thanos believes in achieving this goal by any means necessary so that means if he has to kill the innocent and those he may possibly love, then so be it. The sacrifices he makes are for the greater good. In his eyes, his desire to do this is mercy and a must. It is a doing that is inevitable and necessary for the universe to continue.

With a universe that contains half of its previous population, more space and material is available for civilizations and populations across the stars to grow and mature in a more luxurious and intelligent way than they did prior to having 100% of the population.

This message of limited resources and having to limit, and even reduce, population size digs deep into one of the issues that humanity faces in modern times. With a growing population of 7.6 billion humans on Earth, and an expected 9 billion by early 2050, we all have to come together to find solutions to an inevitable worldwide famine and poverty that will strike us hard. This is why Thanos hits home and hits it hard. Earth is becoming too full and heavy to properly sustain all human life appropriately. Though some may view Thanos' purpose and message as chaotic, evil, and villainous, he holds truth and difficult choices that must be made that means saving life itself.

Thanos challenges human morale. He uses "wish fulfillment", "freedom", "exploring the unknown", and "facing our fears" throughout his journey in accomplishing his ultimate goal. Humans want pleasure and to get what they want, which is something Thanos does strongly. He wants to end half of life in the universe and does so fairly easily. Not only this, but humans want to NOT share resources and space on Earth. Humans want to have a life full of happiness and personal enjoyment and satisfaction, so to see an enemy do that and grant many that wish is something that peaks our interest. This allows the audience to face their fears without having to actually go through with wiping out half of all existing life through the cosmos. Thanos kills those closest to him and to think we should kill those we love is awful and hideous. Watching Thanos do so saves us from that awfulness and allows exploration into the unknown: what will the world be when half of life is suddenly gone?

Thanos' journey makes us think what can be if what he did came true. Villains tend to want to fix the issues in the world by any means necessary. That's what separates them from heroes; heroes want to fix and save the world but won't do what is considered morally wrong. They will find ways, whether it seems impossible or not, to save everyone with a clean conscious and morale. However, villains don't care about that. They just get the job done. That's what makes villains so great and empowering, seeing them challenge human morale and challenging the hero to see what the hero can do to preserve their humanity.

Villains complete the other half of the coin. They are 50% of any story. Thanos, in particular, is crucial and vital to the story; covering much more than 50% of the story. Everyone wants to kill and stop Thanos from completing his mission. He is seen as evil for doing what he seems is necessary. Obviously this must be true because it is white versus black, good versus evil. However, is this all true? Is Thanos REALLY the evil person? Is he really the protagonist and not the opposite? Is he actually right and not wrong? All these questions come up when you experience the journey he goes through to accomplish his ultimate task. The more you learn about him and the reasoning behind his mission, the more you sympathize and relate and realize he isn't necessarily the bad guy. Is it so bad to want to extend the life of the universe? Is it so bad to want to give mercy to half of life and end them in a painless way so that new and prosperous life may emerge from the ruins of the old world? This villain really makes you think long and hard and create inner conflict which is unbelievable and heavy!