Thanos has become one of the biggest and most well known villains in fiction thanks to his inclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was a massive threat in the original comic books, and his movie counterpart was able to take on just about every hero on the Avengers and their allies.

With Thanos being as popular as he is, there are, of course, a lot of folks saying that he was right. They agree with his philosophy that there needs to be fewer living beings in the universe. It’s an interesting idea, and trying to see things from his perspective makes him a compelling antagonist, but his motivation isn’t what these Thanos-fans think it is.

In the Marvel movies, Thanos wanted to wipe out half the universe so that the remaining half can thrive. He claimed concern for the universe and that there wouldn’t be enough resources to sustain every life. By eliminating half of everyone, there would be enough resources for everyone.

Whenever there’s an overcrowded area or something sells out at a store, people in real life have been touting that Thanos was right to wipe out half of all life with the Infinity Stones and that there are too many people. However, I don’t think he was. At least, his motives aren’t.

Thanos claims he wants to ensure the survival of life in the universe, but I don’t think he does. It seems more that he just wants to slaughter as many people as possible. He’s called the “Mad Titan” for a reason.

I’m not pulling that out of thin air. Let’s look at the evidence. For starters, the original comic book version’s motivation was that he wanted to court Lady Death by killing billions of people at once. While that wasn’t the case with the movie version, it does show that he’s a character written to enjoy death and being the cause of it.

Solely looking at the version in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s clearly a mad man with no heroic bone in his body. He literally tortured his daughters, especially Nebula. Him saying that he cares doesn’t mean that he does, especially when he puts both Nebula and Gamora through emotional and physical abuse. He made their lives hell so that they could be killing machines for him.

In the Marvel’s What If…? animated series, the version of Thanos who joined the Guardians of the Galaxy and was meant to be a good guy states that “T’Challa here showed me there was more than one way to reallocate the universe’s resources.” Meaning that he, even as a good guy, still wanted to wipe out half of all life. 

This quote also brings attention to another issue with Thanos’s MCU motivation. He could have used the Infinity Stones to make infinite resources or try some other way. Throughout both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, we see him manipulate reality with ease. He’s able to rewrite the fabric of existence itself, but he doesn’t even try. Instead, he immediately decides on mass murder as his solution. It’s almost as if that’s what he wanted from the get-go, and this lazy reason was his excuse for it.

It’s also worth thinking about all the death and harm caused by half of everyone vanishing. If a pilot got “blipped,” then all their passengers would perish. What about the patients who were on the operating table when all their doctors and nurses got “Snapped” away? In Endgame, we see that there are murderous gangs left behind after the Snap, who Hawkeye is dealing with. After wiping out half of all life, Thanos left behind people who would be willing to take even more lives.

The fact that Thanos intentionally spares Tony Stark’s life for the sake of the deal with Doctor Strange proves that he can pick and choose who he Snaps away. Intentionally leaving behind murderous gangs and dusting people while they were driving and causing crashes (seen in the Infinity War post credits scene) shows that he wanted there to be death and chaos because of his actions. Even when Bruce Banner brought everyone back, that wouldn’t include those who died because of all this.

Thanos was not right. He did not want what was right. He’s a villain and “The Mad Titan” for a reason.

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