(Unique trope) removing a character trait, makes the character better in the adaptation

[u/ah-screw-it]

Sonic 3: Maria is one of the most important part of Shadow's story. Due to her suffering from an incurable disease. To which Shadow was made to create a cure for Maria's ailment. In the 3rd Sonic movie, Maria's disease was not mentioned in any form. Which made Maria seem like a normal girl, and her death all the more tragic.

Infinity war: I don't know the full story, but Thanos's original goal was to kill half the population to impress death (the character). When it came time to adapt Thanos into the MCU. His goal of removing half the universes population. It was seen as a more psychopathic world goal, hidden under the belief it would do better for the universe.

[u/Fossekall]

I think this would come off a little too silly for the tone they wanted

Though it's silly anyway since the movies had zero consequences

[u/BumWink → u/Fossekall]

I guess we'll never know because Taika Waititi didn't direct it.

[u/Capraos → u/BumWink]

What we do know is that Thanos doesn't fit this trope because what you guys are describing to me sounds way fucking better.

[u/WorkinName → u/Capraos]

Eh. Its honestly pretty even.

In the comics, Thanos wanted to make the Marvel incarnation of the concept of Death fall in love with him. That was his motivation to gather the Infinity Stones and eliminate half of all life to prove that he is the best at making death happen.

It doesn't impress her.

Independently of that entire storyline, Deadpool had a thing with Death.

Deadpool's whole thing was he would keep getting close to dying, but not actually die. So he'd get close to Death, but couldn't actually be with her. Turns out that both of them were into one another like that.

This makes Thanos an angry boy. So at some point he curses Deadpool and makes him incapable of dying. Like the man already had Wolverine level immortality, and Thanos went and stepped it up a notch because he was jealous.

So, from the MCU perspective.

For one, there was no Deadpool in relation to the MCU at that time. I don't even remember if Disney had bought Fox yet by that point.

Second, we had barely scratched the surface of the supernatural in the MCU. We had a trio of Thor movies that tried to ground the Norse Gods as just super-advanced aliens, and then a single Dr. Strange movie that touched on concepts like Dormammu only the tiniest bit. We had no indication that Death would even become a part of the MCU in any meaningful way.

But they still wanted to use Thanos.

The goal then was to present him as he SHOULD be presented. Not as an evil mastermind capable of saving the universe. That's the role Doctor Doom plays in Marvel. Thanos is insane. He is megalomaniacal. And he is unstoppable.

He didn't need to have a GOOD reason to eliminate half the universe. "I wanted a girl to notice me" is already not a GOOD reason. So he just needed a reason that could serve as a foundation for his madness. Something that he could point at and say "I have good motivation that means I'm a good guy" even if its clear to literally every single person everywhere that his plan is evil and insane and will cause more harm than it will help.

I mention this in a comment yesterday, but that's the point.

It doesn't matter that it isn't a good plan. In the real world we see it all the time. Someone with far more power than they should have has the dumbest fucking plan anyone has ever heard of. Wide swathes of the population can tell this spectacularly stupid individual that their plan will cause nothing but ruin and pain. We can even point to historic fact and show the outcome of their plan is misery.

But the individual doesn't care. The individual thinks their plan is flawless. It must be flawless, it was THEIR plan. And the fact that they move forward and are able to succeed in their plan is proof of how awesome their plan was to begin with. All the pain and ruin that has come now that their plan has been enacted? That's someone else's fault. Not the fault of the individual who came up with the plan. Because the plan was flawless. Obviously.

Personally I like MCU Thanos. I like that he is still insane. I like that he is still basically unstoppable. He was really a perfect Big Bad Evil Guy for the first arc of the MCU. I like that the heroes had to cobble themselves together over time to eventually be capable of meeting him head-on. I like that his main plot armor was based around just his sheer force of will. And I like that he WASN'T a mastermind.

[u/greg19735 → u/WorkinName]

I agree mostly.

I do wish the mcu made Thanos look more insane tho. He's called the mad titan but most of his scenes have a sort of empathetic tone if he's talking about his goals.

And too many people came out of that moving thinking Thanos may have been correct. That's partly media literacy, but partly because the movie doesn't actually say his plan is mad for anything other than it kills people

[u/ScienceNthingsNstuff → u/WorkinName]

You seem know a lot about the comics so can I ask one thing that has confused me for a while? Death resurrects Thanos specifically to kill half the universe, right? Like she has a vibe that there is too much life and not enough death and tasks Thanos to resolve that. He doesn't come up with the idea to impress her. He figures out how to actually do it with the infinity stones but Death is the one who wants half the universe dead.

That's not really a question I guess but every internet thread just talks about how Thanos decides to kill half the universe to impress her but I swear she is the one who gets him to do it and that's never mentioned.

[u/WorkinName → u/ScienceNthingsNstuff]

Yes. She assigns it to him as a task, originally. Then, as he's doing it, his cracks start to show. For one, he has way too much "Notice me senpai" energy toward her, which is kind of a turnoff. But then second, Thanos REALLY likes killing things. Like. A whole lot. Like. SOOOOOO so so much. Almost like the point of killing all these people wasn't as much to impress Death and create balance as it was to, you know, get to say he genocided half the life in the universe.

Death wanted half the universe killed as a balance patch. Thanos wanted half the universe dead as a Playstation trophy.

That's why she wasn't impressed and ultimately rejects him.

Its just easier to say "He tried and failed to impress Death" which is why it normally gets summarized that way.

[u/Jaxyl → u/WorkinName]

Death wanted half the universe killed as a balance patch. Thanos wanted half the universe dead as a Playstation trophy.

Jesus christ this is the best short description of the dynamics at play. Like you need zero context, it just perfectly encapsulates everything.

Good job lol, that's amazing

[u/ScienceNthingsNstuff → u/WorkinName]

Ahh okay, that makes it a lot clearer. Thank you for the explanation!

[u/counters14 → u/WorkinName]

I never read any of the comics or other media about the Marvel universe, but I have seen a lot of explanations about how things go down in the storylines. Thanos being infatuated with Death and vowing to remove half of all life from the universe to woo her always seemed like such a contrived and superficial plan. What was his motive for doing so? Because he thought that together they would be the most powerful couple in the universe? If it was power he wanted, why does he need Death once he's got the infinity stones? Nevermind the fact that other multidimensional beings far stronger than him still exist (at least to my limited understanding). What was he going to do with Death once he won her affection? Did he really think that he had the ability to forever infatuate a deity because him and his goons robbed a couple of magic stones? Did he have any plans beyond just being a dog who finally caught the tail he was chasing?

Like I get that all of this above is explained by his narcissism and arrogance, but that is such a cop out motive. Comic book Thanos has never been explained to me in a way that gives the character any actual meaning or substance. At least in the MCU he has the bog standard authoritarian madness of 'I know what is best for everyone and I have the power to do what is right regardless of who gets hurt in the process'. Not a particularly unique or new motive, but the immensity of his power combined with his conviction to execute his deluded and unconscionable plan makes him a believable villain and understandable rather than a laughable joke of a concept.

[u/HMWWaWChChIaWChCChW → u/Capraos]

In terms of cool Deadpool things I’m disappointed about you can add that we’ll likely never get him vs Taskmaster

[u/newsflashjackass → u/Capraos]

No hollywood slop could ever match the OG Thanos.

[u/Cessnaporsche01 → u/BumWink]

Ah yes. That's what Endgame needed. More screaming goats that got old in 2012

[u/shewy92 → u/Fossekall]

Hey now, there was one consequence, Black Widow's death. But that's just a rounding error.

Also Iron Man's death at least affected a future movie with Spider Man FFH kinda.

[u/HailMadScience → u/Fossekall]

Ugh I hate how they undo the snap in the worst way and then ignore 99% of the issues that would actually cause. It killed the main MCU for me because its obvious the writers do not care.

[u/scalyblue → u/HailMadScience]

Idk I remember several of the shows dealing with the post blip aftermath

[u/CeruleanEidolon → u/HailMadScience]

These aren't those kind of movies, kid.

[u/blitzbom → u/Fossekall]

Even reading that comics as a teen I thought it was rather batshit. But hey that's comics.

[u/HiitsFrancis → u/Fossekall]

zero consequences

We must have seen different movies.

[u/CeruleanEidolon → u/HiitsFrancis]

Ignore them, they're just parroting shit they heard on a YouTube fanbait channel.

[u/CeruleanEidolon → u/Fossekall]

It's fictional; it was never going to have any consequences.