They took care to humanize him to a degree with the back story with his step daughter and with testing her to see how she really feels when she shed tears thinking she killed him. He isn't just a mindless, killing monster with no depth. He has a lot of depth and often talks with those he's battling and respects them.
He is an interesting guy and although I oppose the characters goals he is entertaining.
He represents dork culture's impotent rage... As was captured earlier by Heath Ledger's Joker, this is a more fleshed out rage-against-society...
He represents the nihilism that is popular today, from envorinmentalism, veganism and the over-identification with victim culture (victimhood as heroism as opposed to worth of empathy) and the popularity of self pity as virtue... But taken to the next level, to it's anti-human conslusion...
The same kind of contemporary rage that fills losers who lash out at society, from high school shooters, to people who fantasize openly about catestrophic events that would reduce the world's population, a malthusian idea that is common among the un-popular and dorks, i.e, that human beings (in particular 'winners' 😉) are the source of all evil...
I think it is intentional that people would identify with Thanos, as not only does it capture the dork culture zeitgiest that is mainstream now, it had proven very successfull commercially with all of the wannabe Jokers and such from the Nolan movie...
Renovatio your posts are so pretentious they should come with a free subscription to the New Yorker.
Pretentious and not to mention - total bollocks.
Thanos doesn't represent Nihilism, more like a Nietzschian will to power if anything which is pretty much the exact opposite - he is driven/obsessed to fulfil his purpose, not lashing out in a rage because he finds no meaning in life.
So when you gaze down your nose (presumably through your pince-nez glasses) at the 'dork zeitgiest' please do try to use the correct terminology (and also, the correct spelling of 'Zeitgeist').
Arghhhh!
Good to hear from you. (Quality forum name by the way, I can't remember if I had mentioned that 👍)
Interesting interpretation of Thanos, about his will to power, but to what end and to what purpose?
That is what I was getting at. He seems obssessed with nihilism and death... The meaninglessness of life. For it's own sake...
In the movie, unfinished as it is, does he do these things because he wants to be a ruler? Does he aspire to perfection or utopia? Is he in it in order to have status and receive patronage? Does he do it out of love of some other character (aparently in the comics there was a female character called 'Death' 😂 that he was trying to impress, which ties in neatly to the 'impotent rage' side of my interpretation)... I don't know if they'll go there in the movie.
Please don't mind the many typos in my previous post. I was in a rush and hope they weren't too distracting.
P.S. As much as I like the New Yorker, I prefer The Paris Review 😉 Thanks in any case 👍
Thank you Renovatio, the name was a result of seeing what has become of Star Wars under Kathleen Kennedy's benevolent leadership (now there is some impotent rage for you...).
But to address your points: his end and purpose are clearly stated - he wants to avoid the destruction and suffering caused by overpopulation. The logic might be flawed but it's there and it's clear he believes in order and balance and that life for him holds a great deal of meaning; nihilists don't dream of watching the sunset after their magnum opus is complete.
Now it so happens his magnum opus involves a huge amount of death but only as a way to achieve his 'vision' i.e. consequentialism not nihilism. The Joker? Yes. Thanos? No.
Thanos represents the logical extreme of the environmentalists. Scratch a progressive, find someone who hates humanity.
shareLikeable? Fuck that! "Articulate" is the kindest word I have for him, what with his hobby of galactic-scale genocide.
And his poor critical thinking skills. If he's so concerned about overpopulation and the overconsumption of resources, why doesn't he work on ways to make 50% of the population infertile, instead of DEAD?
Infertility is usually reversible, also they are genetic engineering and test tube babies.
Death is irreversible.
True. He made decisions based on knowing the outcome. If killing 40 million prevents 80 million people from dying in WW2 would you? Something to think about.
shareHard to like someone who wants to kill half your friends.
And it's a dumb plan anyway. Life will quickly reproduce to fill the void created.
It takes time, quickly usually means several generations.
Also there is the fear that if they are overpopulated again, Thanos will come back and "save" them again.