MCU Needs to Stop Shoving Those Redemption Arcs Down Our Throats

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was founded on Tony Stark changing his ways, giving up the life of a warmonger to bring peace in our time.

Since then, we've had the egotistical Stephen Strange become the protector of our reality; the Winter Soldier going from terrorist to Avenger; Black Widow fighting to remove the red from her ledger; and about a dozen more heroic redemption arcs in the past 15 years.

For the most part, fans have loved it. Something about a flawed individual finding the goodness inside them and becoming a hero is incredibly inspiring in our culture.

But what about the bad guys?

Once upon a time, a bad guy was a bad guy. There was no moral dilemma in their actions; they wanted power, revenge, world domination, or some other driving force that turned them into unsympathetic murderers and thieves.

Take Malekith from Thor: The Dark World. There was no moment where the audience is on his side for a second; the Dark Elf wanted the universe in darkness, Thor had to stop him, and that was that.

The MCU quickly realized that those types of villains get old quickly, and began to create more nuanced villains. Villains had legitimate reasons for their crimes. Eventually, those villains had mini redemption arcs of their own.

Loki is the easiest example of this phenomenon. In the comics, he was the God of Evil who lived up to that title. That was his characterization in Avengers, but he slowly progressed to a reluctant ally and then to a sacrificial anti-hero.

That version of Loki was far more interesting and quickly became a fan favorite.

Sympathetic villains are interesting. They are given far more depth of character, provoking conversation between viewers. They – like the heroes – are flawed individuals with decent goals who fix their mistakes in the end.

But when it happens in every single movie – that gets old.

Nebula, Melina Vostokoff, M'Baku, Yondu, Wenwu, Ghost, Echo, Doc Ock, both Maximoff twins, John Walker, Ikaris, Skurge – that's just a handful of the villains who, by the end of the movie, had in some way atoned for their sins.

Gorr the God Butcher from Thor: Love and Thunder might be the most excruciating example. Gorr was hyped up to be one of the MCU's most horrifying villains, but the final "fight" ended up being between Gorr and his lost sense of morality.

Too much of anything is a bad thing. When every villain gets a redemption arc, the heart is lost and the interest becomes saturated. Marvel has announced that they'll be having a renewed focus on quality after their so-so Phase 4.

Here's hoping that means more bad guys who are actually bad guys.