Ultimate Cell said:
Your opinion on Social Darwinism?
Definitely a very flawed system, as is any form of eugenics. Not only does the idea of a select few elite deciding on the criteria show the corrupt nature of an oligarchy, but they usually end up only considering very basic traits as acceptable without the realisation that a lot of unique abilities beyond strength and general knowledge are required for society to properly function. Overall, even leaving aside the moral problems of it, this is a system that just doesn't work.
Keedounan said:
While I did like Thanos, I didn't expect you to rate him so high compared to the rest. How would you review his character?
Thanos is a stand out for many reasons. One core one that comes to mind immediately as both an interesting thing about him and an overlooked tip for character writing in general is both the consistency and inconsistency about him that help show he deserves the nickname "The Mad Titan" whilst also truly being "cursed with knowledge." Judged from an outside perspective, his overall plan had a lot of flaws that made it impossible to work in the long run such as the erasure of 50% of all natural resources of meat/crops. Despite that, the writing remains consistent as when judging things from his perspective in the linear pattern of events in his plan being rejected and his people dying as he anticipated leading to an internally consistent trail of thought, especially when coupled by the fact that he's shown to have some level of narcissism in how he praised Gamora for the traits she inherited from him. The parallels between him and a monotheistic God are also quite interesting, with his belief that those affected will be grateful to him and that he need only rest after accomplishing his task. This is probably the most interesting take on a god complex villain, which in most works tend to just boil down to "hurr durr I'm invincible, fear me!" (the only exception coming to mind being to some extent Ozymandias from Watchmen).
Along with this, we're given one basic yet easily ruined key points in writing a good villain be executed wonderfully through Thanos - seeing him in a light where he is the hero of his own story. We see that he feels obligated to achieve his goal rather than doing it purely for his sake, or how much he hated the idea of sacrificing Gamora.
Whilst Endgame did take some elements of his character away, I wouldn't say it tarnished what came before in that regard. Thanos' change of motivation to more typical megalomaniac villains makes sense when considering not just his ambitious nature, but how he's seen all he accomplished could be undone and in his mind, this was due to his foes not seeing the intentions of his action. It was here he had two choices; admit he was wrong or make his plan more extreme, and the former would be inconsistent with all we'd been lead to know of him.
Overall, a villain that accomplishes all the key notes of crafting a great, understandable villain, not to mention having a great performance to go along with it.
8/10