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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
I mean, I have a passing familiarity with Thanos and all that storyline but personally (and I imagine this is a minority opinion) I don't really care that much about Infinity War. For the most part the big crossover events have always been the least interesting films in the MCU for me, much like how even when I was more into comics I didn't care much about events either.
Mhm, yeah, I can see the appeal a bit better now :)
I can also confirm, that as a guy who nows marvel through the movies (and a bit of netflix), he doesn't seem to be that grave a threat to be honest. Mostly this intelligence/Hands-on factor you write about is just not there for me.
All he ever does is sit on his throne (and one time, take a glove from a drawer) and look menacing. Add to that, that he basically get's doublecrossed by everyone who works for him (Loki, Ronan, Gamora, her sister) and doesn't do anything about it.
Well, for me his threat-level (before the trailer and your answers) was more something of an Informed ability. Like I was supposed to be afraid of him, but had no real reason to be. Because it just looks, as if the Hulk-Buster (or Hulk) could go toe-to-toe with him, more or less and his henchman weren't even the most dangerous guys around (adding to the illoyality).
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Here's hoping Wade drops that reference to Cable in Deadpool 2.
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I thought Civil War worked best because it made it personal, because it paid off on everything that came before. Avengers 2012 had that advantage, too, of being able to simply get down to business and connect the characters as characters (other than Thor), while the relatively simple invasion story mostly got out of the way. Age of Ultron didn't really do that, trying to stand alone and start up a lot of new arcs for its characters *and* its villain, and suffered for it, I'd say.
Basically it took Loki and Ultron whole armies to fight the Avengers on even terms. The point of a character like Thanos is that he really can fend them all off singlehanded. Even moreso as he adds more stones to that gauntlet.
edited 30th Nov '17 2:34:20 PM by Unsung
I suspect it's part of the reason he'll get a whole duology dedicated to himself. Infinity War will probably be 2 hours of showing why you shouldn't fuck with the Mad Titan as he thoroughly wrecks everything that halfway glances at him.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."The other big thing to know about Thanos is that while he's no joke on his own, with all six Infinity Gems adorning his gauntlet he's basically omnipotent; more powerful than any god in the Marvel universe, even Eternity.
Much like Disney's Jafar, he was only defeated due to his own hubris and thirst for even more power (Specifically, he decided to fully ascend to physical-embodiment-of-the-universe-tier godhood, leaving his physical body behind; not realizing that anyone could just walk up and yank the gauntlet off his abandoned body), not due to the heroes surpassing his power or anything like that.
edited 30th Nov '17 2:38:46 PM by Anomalocaris20
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!When Thanos goes to war, that means the galaxy goes to war. The main reason not to go after the Infinity Stones himself is that it's a lot easier to track them down if no one else knows to look for them, and almost anyone else doing anything else would draw less attention than Thanos going in personally. Thanos can do a lot of things, but keeping a low profile isn't one of them.
edited 30th Nov '17 2:36:52 PM by Unsung
Oh yeah, good illustration of Thanos' power level:
So Loki was utterly terrified and dominated by Thanos' Mouth of Sauron, IIRC called The Other.
Ronan towers over The Other and effortlessly kills him.
Thanos is (at the very least) could kill Ronan as effortlessly as Ronan could kill the Other and the Other could kill Loki.
From the dialogue in GOTG, Thanos implies even Ronan juiced up on the Power Stone wouldn't be a match for him, which just shows how freakishly strong the man must be
"All you Fascists bound to lose."My main issue with the first Avengers was that, outside of IM 1 and to a lesser extent TFA, I wasn't really given a reason to be invested in the teamup. TIH and Thor 1 were mediocre and failed to sell me why I should care about those characters (or that's how I felt at the time), and nothing IM 2 did made me care about Black Widow either. Apparently Hawekeye made a cameo in Thor 1 but honestly he made no impression on me either way to the point I thought he was initially introduced in Avengers 2012. It was this feeling of disappointment that made it so I felt no need to watch Avengers when it initially came out; I only saw it like a year or two later and I found it about as underwhelming as I was expecting (my brother was watching it with me and felt so bored he walked out like 40 minutes into it). It and Iron Man 3 basically killed my interest in the MCU until around 2015 or so when I gave Winter Soldier and the Netflix shows a chance.
I have to admit I find it a bit puzzling that my opinion seems to be so uncommon, because while I can get being excited for Avengers if you liked the films I didn't or had a pre-established investment from being a fan of the comics, the impression I get from most people is that IM 1 was the only film that most people cared about or saw, but they thought that Avengers was a sufficiently good standalone film that it sold them on all those characters they didn't really know well all at once, which I can't really relate to.
edited 30th Nov '17 3:17:00 PM by Draghinazzo
@Slaveto Tropes: It seems people forgot to tell you the most important fact of Thanos, that he's the proud owner of the Thanoscopter
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I think a lot of people are fans of the comics or the genre, and their attachment to the characters is more of a top-down, gut reaction thing, rather than ground-up like you're probably thinking. I mean, I get where you're coming from, and in general I'm the same way, but I also think that might be overthinking it when it comes to the broader appeal of the movies, in terms of how a lot of people consume media, ie. watch first, understand later.
edited 30th Nov '17 3:20:48 PM by Unsung
I should also probably note that I'm mostly talking about how I felt at the time; I'm not in any hurry to rewatch the movie but I imagine I might have a slightly more positive opinion of it now that I'm a little more invested in Steve and Thor (Danny being such a terrible main character has honestly made me appreciate the latter more than I did previously).
To give my perspective - the Avengers was actually the first MCU movie I saw.
I loved it to bits, and still do today.
Nor was I all that big of a fan of the Avengers themselves before I saw the movie - I had some knowledge of the characters, but not too much.
edited 30th Nov '17 3:32:04 PM by KarkatTheDalek
Oh God! Natural light!Avengers was the first MCU movie I ever saw, and I liked it enough to get me to start watching Iron Man and the rest of the MCU from then on. I think part of it is definitely the novelty and that people were familiar with the characters from other continuities. But it was also just a lot of fun, even if it might've been kind of shallow, and it managed to have some self-restraint compared to Age of Ultron. The plot and characterization are not particularly good but it operates on enough Rule of Cool that viewers don't need to care. It's mostly a celebration of the fun side of comics and it spent most of its effort towards getting that part right because it's all it really needed to be to work.
edited 30th Nov '17 3:43:38 PM by AlleyOop
Nothing would make me happier than Thanos boomeranging Karma right back in Loki's genocidal ass.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."

He's not really a *crazy* death worshipper. In the comics, I mean. Death is real, she's anthropomorphized, he's in love with her. He's the Mad Titan, but it's a measured madness.
edited 30th Nov '17 2:20:55 PM by Unsung