Darth Vader Will Be a Better Villain Than Thanos:
Anakin Skywalker was only a young warrior when fate dealt him such a heavy hand that he turned to the Dark Side and became the most feared Sith the Galaxy far, far away had ever seen. Thanos is a villain that has been around for decades in the Marvel Universe and only became infamous after he was the big bad wolf in Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers movies. Many of the new age movie fans claims that Thanos was, is and shall always remain the best villain that Hollywood has to offer. Well we are here to prove those rookies wrong. Believe it or not, Thanos does not even hold a candle to Darth Vader, the one true supervillain and the greatest of them all.
1. Powers
Thanos, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is capable of incredible strength. He is a great fighter and has access to superior tech and weaponry. But Thanos is far from being in the race to get ahead of Darth Vader. Vader can manipulate the Force to such a level that he can control molecular vibrations. He can even bend the laser emanating from a light sabre using the Force. That’s right. Darth Vader has shown himself of bending light with Force manipulation. Apart from the obvious telekinetic powers and the telepathic abilities granted by the force, Darth Vader has access to some abilities so powerful Thanos could only dream of. The comic book version of the Mad Titan has access to energy manipulation but he too does not match up to Darth Vader.
2. His Tryst with Pain
Darth Vader is in constant pain. And we are not just talking about the external pain inflicted on him by the wounds he got from taking a dive into a pool of lava. Sure he has had plenty of poisonous fumes inside his lungs that literally devastated his respiratory system and forced him to use a cumbersome but portable life support system for the rest of his life but that are not real pain. The real pain Darth Vader has is agony – the constant sense of loss. He lost his mother in front of his eyes. He lost his wife as well as contact with his children. To top it off, he lost him-self after succumbing to the vices of the Dark Side and slowly transitioned into becoming a puppet of Emperor Palpatine. Thanos may have lost as much but the intensity and girth of losses of Vader outweigh Thanos’.
3. Constant Struggle with Destiny
Ever since he was a kid, Vader has been termed the Chosen One. The Prophecy claims that Anakin Skywalker will be the one that brings back order to the Force and ushers in an age of peace and harmony. Anakin has only tried to stand true to the huge expectations that rested on his shoulders. After he became Vader, he only wished to out-run his destiny. Killing millions while he was in power, Darth Vader became the Dark Messiah. But his destiny would always catch up to him somehow. In the end, he decided to concede and destroyed the Death Star, putting an end to the hands of fate pulling his strings and completing the prophecy. Thanos has no such deep connection to Fate. All he craves for is his quest to bring eternal balance to the universe.
4. Is upgradeable
Now we move on to the technical aspects. Thanos, for all his wit and intellect, is still flesh and bones. He may be strong but he has a limit. Darth Vader is basically just a torso attached to cybernetic limbs. He can easily upgrade him-self if he wants to. Some Dark Horse Comics even mention that Darth Vader prefers Jedi Designed Prosthetic body parts. Those prosthetics are specially designed by the order to augment a Force sensitive warrior’s fighting abilities in the battle-field. Vader is basically a cyborg who can replace his severed and damaged limbs with new ones. Thanos can never do that.
5. He knows magic
Many do not know this but the Sith have a sect of users that specialise in a specific form of discipline that is kept a secret from most. It is called Sith Alchemy. Many parts of the armour that Darth Vader wears is actually made out of Dark Force magic. The metals are products of Sith Alchemy and they are designed and forged by none other than Darth Vader itself. This revelation was brought into the limelight by Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force. The Mad Titan is a man of science. So is Darth Vader. But the fact that Vader is open to learning magic as part of his skill-sets says a lot about how creative and open-minded he is to learn new tricks to store up his sleeve.
6. Better Character Development
Darth Vader has had a much better crest and trough when it comes to Character Development than Thanos. Vader’s villainy is only a part of his entire character. He is a father, a rival, a mentor, a student, as well as a messiah and prophet. He has had many roles and every time he has come out with either flying colours or as the polar opposite of what was intended. Thanos has only been a villain most of his life. He has only known the joy of giving pain to others and has had very little character development even in the comic books up until a few years ago.
7. Origin Story
Darth Vader’s Origin Story will literally bring tears to your eyes. The guy has endured so much and in so little time. Born on a desolate planet where he lived a life fending from hand to mouth, Anakin grew to become a Jedi Padawan and soon was brought into the epicentre of the Jedi-Sith rivalry. His origin story is a typical rags-to-riches story but told from a grander and cosmically defying perspective. Thanos’ origin story is very bland. A hateful outcast born in an alien planet does not make so much of an impact as Darth Vader’s story does.
8. Has more Stamina and Endurance
Now, this is a fact many may not have known. Darth Vader literally cannot sleep. His body chemistry has completely changed after he underwent the surgical procedures that turned him into a walking ventilator shaft. Not only that but also the fact that Darth Vader feels no pain. His cybernetic enhancements include a neurotoxin injector that regularly doses his body with vials of highly toxic poisons that renders his pain trigger system dysfunctional. The side-effect of that is that Vader feels almost no pain when he is inflicted with injury or wounds.
9. Is literally a God
In the comic books, after Anakin Skywalker died protecting the Galaxy from Darth Sidious and the Death Star, Skywalker appears again in another issue. This time, Anakin Skywalker is a God. The Force has finally taken Darth Vader into its wings and his consciousness is now one with the very energy that binds all life in the Galaxy. As a being born out of the Force and now made up of it, Anakin can travel great distances in a matter of milliseconds and perform godlike feats like crushing a planet into a pulp by just willing things to happen. Unlike Thanos who needs an Infinity Gauntlet to achieve that feat, Darth Vader has already achieved that level by himself.
10. Never likes working from the shadows
Thanos has always preferred working from the dark underbelly of the universe. He does not like showing his face to everyone and reveals his master plan until all the cards of his opponents are on the table. But that is not how Darth Vader rolls. Darth Vader never prefers the backdoor. He would always choose the front door to burst in and go up guns blazing. And that is what makes Vader an even cooler Villain than Thanos. Because unlike Thanos, Vader shows that he is ready to take on anyone and everyone if need be to do his bidding.
