The version of MCU is one of very few superhero movie villains to earn a truly infamous and iconic reputation for their on-screen performance. While Marvel's prior roster of antagonists had some strong showings, none were so frightening yet so complex as Thanos the Mad Titan, a world-conquering cosmic being defined by his own moral com and rules of conduct. Indeed, one of the biggest issues the MCU faces in the wake of Thanos' defeat is just who can replace him, and match both the franchise-defining moments and quotes the intimidating Avengers opponent provided.

Throughout Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the MCU timeline.

25 "I Could Snap My Fingers And You'd All Cease To Exist."

Avengers: Infinity War

A powerful harbinger of the pain that would come in Avengers: Endgame, this quote from Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War shows that the Mad Titan is not one to mince words. In one phrase, he both acknowledges the might of the Avengers and that their combined power is nothing in comparison to the power of the Infinity Gauntlet in Thanos’s hand. Infinity War ends with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and all their allies, from Doctor Strange to T’Challa and all his Wakandan forces, facing down the mighty Thanos and finding themselves falling victim to his use of the Infinity Gauntlet. He snapped his fingers, and half the Earth’s population vanished almost instantly.

24 "Fun Isn't Something One Considers When Balancing The Universe. But This... Does Put A Smile On My Face."

Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

As Avengers: Infinity War explored, Thanos was hellbent on his mission. Though he could have been written off as a two-dimensional superhero antagonist, he was a villain that was driven by a complex purpose. While most saw him as a destroyer of worlds, he saw himself as their creator and redeemer. He leveled entire planets believing that they could rise anew out of the ashes, societies with a chance at more with far fewer inhabitants competing for resources.

This line is only spoken in the Infinity War trailer, but still serves as a notable precursor to other similar lines that Thanos would utter in his final showdown with the Avengers in Endgame, added a sense of pathos to his overall villain arc.

23 "Perfectly Balanced, As All Things Should Be."

Avengers: Infinity War

While striving for balance can be considered a noble objective, when it comes out of the voice of Thanos it just sounds chilling and disturbing. Seeing Thanos discuss how his mindset and ideas will bring balance to the world was thus a very memorable moment, especially given the symbolism of the scene and what it meant for both Thanos and Gamora, and their warped familial relationship.

The biggest impact of the scene and quote is how it conveys that all of Thanos' ideas come from a place of twisted morality. He doesn't truly believe any of his actions are evil, and showing Gamora all about balance as a child was his creepy way of trying to convince others that his way was correct as well.

22 "You Have My Respect, Stark. When I'm Done, Half Of Humanity Will Still Be Alive. I Hope They You."

Avengers: Infinity War

No matter if viewers loved or hated Thanos, most can agree he wasn’t a typical villain. He was driven by his own sense of morality and his own code of conduct. As such, when Iron Man engages him in hand-to-hand combat for what will be the last time, he’s no match for the Mad Titan, who stabs him in the chest.

Thanos's line, which could just as easily have included, “...when I’m done, half of humanity will die,” instead saw him choose to give Tony hope that the people of Earth would move on. The respectful but ominous phrase about them ing Tony provides an eerie foreshadowing of Iron Man’s sacrifice in Endgame. At this point in his story, Thanos isn't killing for fun - he's doing it for what he sees as a noble cause with unfortunately necessary sacrifices.

21 "You're Not The Only One Cursed With Knowledge."

Avengers: Infinity War

Continuing Thanos' interaction with Iron-Man in Avengers: Infinity War, another great piece of Thanos' dialogue is, "You're not the only one cursed with knowledge." This Thanos quote comes when Iron Man and Thanos first cross paths and it becomes clear that they already know each other's names. It's an interesting take that Thanos immediately tries to gain sympathy from Tony Stark and his issues, as he demonstrates an unusual respect for the hero from the offset.

It's also unusual because it sees Thanos almost refer to his own self-ascribed calling as a bad thing, suggesting his motivation wasn't as simple as it may have outwardly looked. He feels that his understanding of what must be done is a realization he wishes he didn't come to. It's less clear what exactly Stark's burden of knowledge is, though it certainly informed some of his earlier problems in movies like Avengers: Age of Ultron.

20 "I Know What It's Like To Lose."

Avengers: Infinity War

Thanos utters the full extent of this line - "I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless... Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am." - when addressing the Asgardians at the start of Infinity War. While it may be hard to imagine Thanos feeling desperate, the statement is profoundly poignant in how Thanos tries to relate to the heroes before destroying them, and echoes sides of his character revealed in comics like The Death of Captain Marvel or Thanos Rising.

After Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to make half of Earth’s population disappear, the Avengers seem to do exactly as he describes against the Asgardians; run from their failure to have stopped him. But whereas he proclaims himself the “destiny” that their future is made of, they decide to use their desperation as strength, a symbol of never giving up, and forge a new destiny in Avengers: Endgame.

19 "Your Planet Was On The Brink Of Collapse. I'm The One Who Stopped That."

Avengers: Infinity War

During a particularly heartfelt moment between Gamora and Thanos, he carefully describes how he perceives her home planet, Zen-Whoberi, stating, "Going to bed hungry, scrounging for scraps. Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I'm the one who stopped that. You know what's happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It's a paradise." From this, it's clear that, in Thanos' eyes, he plucked Gamora from obscurity and poverty by taking her from her home planet, a planet he then stripped of its population to create a "paradise" from.

Where she saw a vibrant world full of happy inhabitants, he saw a planet in denial of the socioeconomic and political problems that brought about its inevitable ruination through scarcity of resources. By removing a chunk of the population, Thanos states there was enough food to go around and access to resources previously fought over, encouraging him to amp up to worse atrocities later down the line.

18 "Everything."

Avengers: Infinity War

The storyline between Thanos and Gamora is one of the most interesting and emotional throughout the entire MCU. In Avengers: Infinity War, that moment comes to a boiling point when he sacrifices her in order to retrieve the soul stone. He then sees a baby version of his daughter, and she asks him what it cost him to get what he wanted. Thanos gives a simple, one-word answer: "Everything." It might not be a long line or a thought-provoking quote, but that one word shows the vulnerable side to him and just how much he truly did care for Gamora.

It ties into his other quote about knowledge being a burden, as well. Though audiences (and the Avengers) see the massive flaws in Thanos' plan, he doesn't and is fully dedicated to his idea of the greater good. Moreover, the scene is more affecting knowing that Thanos can't be lying, or he wouldn't have acquired the stone. He truly did love Gamora despite the tragic origin of their relationship.

17 "The Hardest Choices Require The Strongest Wills."

Avengers: Infinity War

Thanos never came across as a wholly impulsive being. Every decision he made was carefully thought out, its repercussions measured, and its outcomes weighed. He knew for every action, there was a consequence, and on cosmic scales that the Avengers and people of Earth at this point in the MCU timeline seemingly didn't even know about. Therefore, when he set out to destroy planets, he knew he would need the resolve to do it, or the guilt that came with empathizing with their populations could be too much to bear.

Thanos had strong willpower, but the Avengers’ resolve was stronger. Though he destroyed the Infinity Stones, they pooled their resources and came up with a way to get them back. At every turn, their resolve was equal to his, which he ultimately respected.

16 "I Thought That By Eliminating Half Of Life, The Other Half Would Thrive. But You Have Shown Me... That's Impossible."

Avengers: Endgame

After Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to snap his fingers and erase half of the Earth's population, he fled to a paradise he had created for himself to live in peace. His peace didn't last long, and the Avengers tracked him to the refuge with Nebula’s help. He waxed poetic about what he'd done and why what had worked on other planets failed to work on Earth.

Where he had destroyed entire worlds before and rebuilt them as what he perceived to be thriving civilizations, eliminating half of Earth didn't work because the remaining half was so devastated with grief and loss. This encapsulates not only why Thanos' plan was doomed to begin with, but also why he's ultimately defeated - because he underestimated how powerful the bond between those lost and those who survived would continue to be,