Most sympathetic MCU villian?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Couldn't feel the least bit sorry for Loki who CHOSE to be a scheming, treacherous dick because he couldn't handle living in Thor's shadow.

Killmonger had a reason for wanting revenge after his father was murdered by T'Chaka, but his killing spree soured any compassion I had for him.

Despite wanting revenge on Steve and Tony for the deaths of his family, Zemo had a LOT of blood on his hands, so he doesn't get a pass.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Not really. We don't even hear who's on the other side until the very end.

Also, any claims of him not being needlessly evil go out the window when he bombs the summit. And he didn't ask the Hydra guy. He tortured him.

We heard his wife's voice, IIRC. We just didn't know why he was listening to those messages.

And yeah, no one's saying that Zemo didn't cross a line. But unlike other villains, he wasn't needlessly cruel (he apologized to T'Challa), he had a legit reason for being angry and was willing to accept responsibility for his actions (but T'Challa saved him).

I'd feel more sympathy for Zemo if his revenge had been focused on Tony and Bruce for creating Ultron. Instead it just seems focused on the Avengers for not being able to save everyone.

In all fairness, the Avengers did enable Stark to create Ultron, and none of them seem to have suffered much punishment, all things considered.

[Cyke]

Killmonger? Lol, the guy who killed hundreds of his brothers and sisters just to get revenge on T'Challa who didn't do anything to him in the first place?

Ghost for sure

There's still some sympathy for Killmonger, to the point where ultimately T'Challa eventually did what Killmonger wanted -- spread Wakanda's resources to the rest of the world to make up for the failures of past kings (including his own father).

Though, agreed about Ghost. Special shout out to Zemo and Vulture. Not ironically, those three are still alive.

[DrNewGod]

For me it's the opposite. Black Panther balances Killmonger's sympathetic traits with his evil actions. It does allow to feel sorry for him without excusing his actions. Killmonger's motivations are a lot more sympathetic and aimed towards other people's benefits even if he goes about it horribly. And he kills less people in pursuit of those goals. On screen anyway.

The usual term applied to such people is "terrorist." Making a scoreboard of his body doesn't do anything to endear him to me either, even if he's passing it off as some kind of penance. Yeah, Killmonger got a raw deal as a boy; he had the talent to make all kinds of contributions to his people that didn't involve killing a veritable urban zipcode's worth of folks just to prepare himself to inflict a general revenge on Euro-colonial civilization, and a specific revenge on Wakanda's King (who wasn't actually the guy that did anything to him, but happened to be in the way of Killmonger's plans) under the excuse of paying back a dead man.

[David Walton]

There's still some sympathy for Killmonger, to the point where ultimately T'Challa eventually did what Killmonger wanted -- spread Wakanda's resources to the rest of the world to make up for the failures of past kings (including his own father).

Though, agreed about Ghost. Special shout out to Zemo and Vulture. Not ironically, those three are still alive.

Interesting thing about Killmonger, he's the only MCU villain to actually impact the hero's thinking.

But this says more about T'Challa than it does about Eric. T'Challa is wise enough to separate the validity of Eric's concerns from his extremist reaction to the problem.

[jump]

Interesting thing about Killmonger, he's the only MCU villain to actually impact the hero's thinking.

But this says more about T'Challa than it does about Eric. T'Challa is wise enough to separate the validity of Eric's concerns from his extremist reaction to the problem.

Also the nagging from the girlfriend/love interest about the same issue had no affect on him.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Interesting thing about Killmonger, he's the only MCU villain to actually impact the hero's thinking.

But this says more about T'Challa than it does about Eric. T'Challa is wise enough to separate the validity of Eric's concerns from his extremist reaction to the problem.

Depends. Loki's actions forced Thor to mature in his first film

[Robotech Master]

Graviton.

He was an upstanding military man with a strong sense of justice, brought low and broken by Hydra torture and brainwashing, then tried to recover and got his super powers. But even though he was no longer brainwashed, the damage to his psyche left him too confused and paranoid to know right from wrong when it came to how to use his powers. The guy was a threat to the entire Earth, but in his damaged mind, the only thing he wanted to do was be an Avenger, to be a good Dad to his Son and have his Son look up to him as a superhero, and save the Earth from Thanos. But he couldn't see that he was doing more damage, and he couldn't see that those who were trying to stop him were just trying to help, rather than siding with the enemy.

[Midvillian1322]

Depends. Loki's actions forced Thor to mature in his first film

Stains actions led to Tony's moral shift. But Killmonger is the only one whose ideas were adopted in some way by The hero.

[Cyke]

Interesting thing about Killmonger, he's the only MCU villain to actually impact the hero's thinking.

But this says more about T'Challa than it does about Eric. T'Challa is wise enough to separate the validity of Eric's concerns from his extremist reaction to the problem.

Yeah, I think that's a valid reading of it.

Also the nagging from the girlfriend/love interest about the same issue had no affect on him.

But this is, too. LOL.

[Robotech Master]

Quote Originally Posted by jump View Post

Also the nagging from the girlfriend/love interest about the same issue had no affect on him.

But this is, too. LOL.

I tend to think that Nakia's idea is what he actually adopted, and Killmonger's history and actions were just the example evidence that made him realize she was right. At the beginning of the film he is given an opposing viewpoint to Nakia's intentions from the border tribe leader, so it isn't that she had no effect on him but that he had not come to a conclusion who had the better view point to take inspiration from in terms of what was best for Wakanda.

[DrNewGod]

Interesting thing about Killmonger, he's the only MCU villain to actually impact the hero's thinking.

But this says more about T'Challa than it does about Eric. T'Challa is wise enough to separate the validity of Eric's concerns from his extremist reaction to the problem.

Depends. Loki's actions forced Thor to mature in his first film

These are both great points, and I hadn't really thought them thru that way.

Interesting: both BP and Thor are more heroic, and grow as people as a consequence of their struggles with the villain, but they are also characters that some feel are less interesting than their respective villains in Black Panther and Thor.

[The Cool Thatguy]

These are both great points, and I hadn't really thought them thru that way.

Interesting: both BP and Thor are more heroic, and grow as people as a consequence of their struggles with the villain, but they are also characters that some feel are less interesting than their respective villains in Black Panther and Thor.

That's simply because the snarky, loose cannon characters who buck the system and usually get better lines/seem more fun than the guys who are about duty, honor and such/are the system. I'm still shocked that Cap's character wasn't overwhelmed by Stark in Civil War

[Midvillian1322]

That's simply because the snarky, loose cannon characters who buck the system and usually get better lines/seem more fun than the guys who are about duty, honor and such/are the system. I'm still shocked that Cap's character wasn't overwhelmed by Stark in Civil War

Imo Evan's owns the role of cap just as much as RDJ as Tony or Jackman as Wolverine.

But I think it has more to do with writing. Red skull and Stane were well done but they barely got any real time to shine. Loki and Killmonger were given so much more. Both had plenty of time to shine and had some of the best lines from the movie.

[The Cool Thatguy]

To get back to the main point, I'd say that Ghost wins by miles and miles.

She never asked for her powers, and when she went/was taken to law enforcement, they exploited her without regard to her health. By the time the movie's come around, she's been living with incredible pain her entire life and one assumes, it didn't get better as she came closer dying.

She might have discussed threatening Cassie, but in her defense, we don't know the manner that would have taken (say, take a photo and send it to Scott) and she was dissuaded pretty easily.