Thanos got snapped! SYFY WIRE's In Memoriam 2019

It's never easy to say goodbye to a beloved character in fiction. But death is a normal part of life, and it also makes for some compelling stories. If everyone could cheat the reaper then things would have gotten pretty boring on Game of Thrones!

But as we look back on 2019, one of the biggest deaths was clearly Thanos’ demise in Avengers: Endgame. It's a rare character who gets to die twice in the same movie! But because of Endgame's time-travel shenanigans, the Thanos of 2018 gets to meet his end by Thor's ax, while Tony Stark used the Infinity Gauntlet to snap Thanos and his army out of existence in 2023. Note that this act also killed Tony and deprived the MCU of its Iron Man.

Ironically, Thanos' comic book counterpart would have welcomed his demise, as he worships and loves the female embodiment of Death. However, the MCU's Thanos was much more complex. Both versions of Thanos are capable of monstrous cruelty, but the MCU Thanos' key argument was that the universe had finite resources and couldn't support the living. Of course, genocide isn't the answer, but it's a lot easier to understand where this Thanos was coming from. Thanos was shaped by the destruction of his home, Titan, and in his own twisted way, he was trying to save the universe from itself. But only the Avengers could save the universe from Thanos.

Thanos has been such a strong presence in the MCU that his death will leave a pretty big void. Which Marvel bad guy will step up to fill the void? Perhaps we'll find out in 2020.

For more of SYFY WIRE's In Memoriam picks, check out the entire video!