MCU: Why Thanos Wasn't The Bad Guy (And Why He Still Is)

gamerant.com:

It’s been quite some time sinceAvengers: Endgame was first released, but MCU fans are still buzzing about the Mad Titan, Thanos. He made appearances in post-credit scenes and was mentioned by other characters for roughly six years before he finally made his big-time debut in Avengers: Infinity War, and with such a huge buildup, it's no surprise that the character has lived up to the hype.

No matter where viewers stand on their opinion of Thanos, it's hard to deny that he’s easily one of the greatest MCU antagonists the franchise has ever seen. His ultimate goal in his search for power was rooted in the betterment of the universe, although Thanos’ execution of this goal was certainly questionable. Regardless, it's hard to chalk him up to either completely good or completely evil.

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Thanks to the release of Eternals, the conversation about Thanos has started up again with a vengeance. The movie revealed that when planets reach a certain population, Celestials are able to emerge from the planet, simultaneously destroying worlds and absorbing power from the people inhabiting them.

By wiping out half of Earth’s population, Thanos was technically saving mankind from being turned into nothingness by the ancient space-god unknowingly growing beneath their feet for centuries. Not to mention, Thanos’ brother, Eros, popped up during the post-credits scene. Eros had extensive knowledge about Celestials, Eternals and the Emergence, meaning Thanos most likely knew about these things too.

Despite the possibility of preventing the Emergence, Thanos did kill a ton of people. He didn't just take them out with a snap, either, and resorted to bloodier, more violent means