This Is Actually A Wonderful Explanation I Have Been Blessed To Come Across.

This is actually a wonderful explanation I have been blessed to come across.

Why isn’t Thanos a Sympathetic Villain?

Asked no one who follows me, ever, but I’m here to answer it.

Why is Loki a Sympathetic Villain?

Loki’s primary motivations in the MCU are all linked to interpersonal relationships and the personality, instincts, beliefs, etc. those interpersonal relationships have fostered. When Loki kills Laufey it isn’t because Loki is evil or Laufey is evil, it’s because Loki believes Laufey abandoned him to die. When he turns the Bifrost on Jotunheim it is not because his ideology demands he obliterate an evil, monstrous race, it’s because Loki wants to prove his worth to Odin. It’s because Thor used to say the same thing, and Odin pushed back because war would hurt Asgard, too. But Loki’s method won’t get any Asgardians killed. Odin should find value in Loki’s genius.

We do not sympathize with Loki’s evil actions, but we can recognize that he wasn’t born evil. He does evil because he is a victim of parental abuse desperate to feel accepted and valued, but constantly signaled (and then flat out told due to the discovery of his heritage) that he is unworthy and will never measure up. We see the path that led him to evil and the path that led him to no longer trust his family and, in particular, Thor’s love. That’s why, to many, he’s sympathetic. That’s why he’s an excellent villain. Even people who don’t sympathize should be able to recognize that there’s more going on than Loki just being a villain or evil.

Why is Killmonger a Sympathetic Villain?

Killmonger’s primary motivations are linked to his ideology. He believes that grave injustices have been and continue to be committed against Black people across the global, and he desires to free these oppressed people from that injustice and oppression. 

The reason he’s sympathetic is that he’s right (to a point). Historically and currently, Black people across the globe face systemic oppression and exploitation that perpetuates poverty and violence in communities and countries. So, we sympathize with Killmonger wanting liberation for his people (or we should), and we can even see how growing up surrounded by violence got him to a point where violence seems like the only solution, even if (I hope this isn’t too controversial) we know that a global race war isn’t the first, best solution (though, to be clear, the movie presenting nonviolence vs. violence and determining violence isn’t a solution is simplifying the issues).

Does Not Thanos Earn Sympathy Through Interpersonal Relationships?

Uh, no. Duh it’s a no. He’s the abuser.

I’m starting with this one because it’s far more simple to discuss. Even though Thanos isn’t motivated by interpersonal relationships (his ideology is more important than Gamora) the movie, arguably, asks the audience to sympathize with him over having to sacrifice his daughter. So sympathetic, right, that he loses the child he loves most to his cause? 

Again, no. Thanos has manipulated and mutilated his children, including Gamora. They have been tools for Thanos from the start. Thanos is the one with all the power in their relationship. Him sacrificing her is just that, again. It’s the action of an abuser who has always used his children to further his ideology. Feeling sympathy for that makes no sense. Black Panther knew this. That’s why that film never asks us to feel bad for the characters that sacrifice their loved ones for their ideologies, even when those ideologies are somewhat sympathetic. We are not expected to feel sympathy for T’Chaka killing his brother because, even though we can understand what drives T’Chaka to keep Wakanda from the outside world, we know that he has the power to help oppressed people across the world. His brother is making that point. We are definitely not expected to feel sympathy for Killmonger when he kills his girlfriend, even though we know he’s sacrificing her so he can achieve the goal of liberating people from oppression/oppressive circumstances. Expecting us to feel sympathy for the villain sacrificing their interpersonal relationships for ideology is a hard sell because, even if we can sympathize with the ideology, we’re not supposed to sympathize with their methods. Otherwise they’d be the hero.

Does Not Thanos Earn Sympathy Through Ideology?

Thanos believes that the universe possesses a finite amount of resources and that to prevent the extinction of the diverse species across that universe he must kill half of every population.

Titan… *sigh* Titan suffered from a shortage of resources. Thanos loved his people and wanted to save them, but instead he witnessed their demise. That’s why he believes it’s his destiny to never let that happen to another species. In theory, we should be able to feel some level of sympathy for a person who lived through the extinction of their people.

Except, the first and only solution Thanos offered to “save” his people was mass murder. 

Thanos: Titan was like most planets; too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution. Dr. Strange: Genocide. Thanos: But random. Dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass.

(Let’s ignore that Thanos explicitly mentions there were rich and poor people, so resources also weren’t being distributed evenly among his people.)

This torpedoes any small amount of sympathy we might feel for him. I simply cannot sympathize with a person whose first, best solution is mass murder. Plus, this plan would not work long term. It would have to be repeated every time the population hit an unsustainable level. And if any of the finite resources needed for survival were truly finite (not just annually finite or whatever we might consider crop yields), then that would occur often, because consumption of those resources continues even at a slower pace.

Garnering sympathy for Thanos’ ideology has, therefore, stumbled at the first hurdle. We can’t even be on board with the ideology based on Thanos’ experiences on Titan, because Thanos was an idiot advocating mass murder rather than offering legitimate solutions to a terrifying problem.

The idiocy continues when he casts his net wider. Let’s examine, “Titan was like most planets; too many mouths, not enough to go around,” in more detail. That’s an incorrect statement. None of the planets we’ve seen in the MCU appear to have this problem. None of them. Earth does not have this problem. It’s ridiculously easy to debunk the overpopulation myth. The problem we have now is with distribution. Rich people and countries have more than poor people and countries. There is enough food for all our mouths and massive amounts of it go to waste because it’s more profitable to discard it than to give it away.

How are we supposed to feel sympathy for someone whose ideology is based on nothing but, seemingly, resentfulness that his own people didn’t get on board with his mass murder idea? His ideology wouldn’t have saved his people, and it won’t save any one else in the universe because it’s utterly irrelevant to the troubles other species are contending with.

And, of course, HE KILLS HALF OF THE PLANTS AND THE ANIMALS, THUS MAKING THE RATIO OF PEOPLE TO FOOD RESOURCES THE FUCKING SAME!!!

There’s no point where you can feel sympathy for Thanos due to ideology. He makes no good points, except for the ones constructed by the movie. Oh, Gamora’s planet’s doing great? I guess that means Thanos has a point! Oh, his people didn’t run with his plan and then they all died? I guess that means Thanos has a point! None of this sits right if you know anything about the subject matter being addressed.

TL;DR

We can neither sympathize with Thanos through his interpersonal relationships because he is the abuser with all the power, nor through his ideology because he has not identified a legitimate problem and his only solution is randomized mass murder, which does not solve the “problem” he’s identified.