| “ | We don't cause the destruction of a world, Captain Carter. We simply manage it, feed off it, if you like. On every host planet, it always plays out exactly the same way. Populations rise, societies divide, wars spread and all the while, a neglected planet slowly fades. | „ |
| ~ Matai Shang explaining the Therns' MO to John Carter. |
Matai Shang is the main antagonist of a Disney’s 2012 live action film John Carter.
He is the cold and calculating leader of the enigmatic extraterrestrial species, the Therns, who has for a long period of time led them to travel from planet to planet and orchestrating wars and division and supervising the planets' destruction as a way of throwing their immortal weight around while keeping themselves a secret. Eventually, they make Barsoom their next target, using Sab Than as their pawn to cause its destruction, convincing him that they're on his side and giving him the Ninth Ray energy weapon to enable him to wipe out Helium's forces while offering him terms to the king to stop the slaughter on behalf of an arranged marriage between him and princess Dejah to ensure control over Barsoom before running it to the ground.
He was portrayed by Mark Strong, who also portrayed Carmine Falcone in The Penguin mini-series, and Lord Henry Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- For countless years, he and the other Therns have gone from planet to planet, causing the annihilation of civilizations through causing populations to rise, societies to divide, and wars to spread while the planets get neglected and slowly fade away.
- With the help of the Therns as they arrive together on Sab Than's ship, he kills off the soldiers Than was facing off against by destroying their ships with lasers from his weapon, including a majority of the soldiers Sab Than was fighting on his ship.
- Making an alliance with Sab Than, he gives him the 9th Ray, telling him that he will help him rule all of Barsoom with none to defy him and nothing to stand in his way and enables him to turn the Eastern Border into a wasteland by using the weapon to burn its defenses, massacre its population, destroy the best fleets and ships and kill everyone within them, and cause the last remaining squadron to be lost. Matai Shang was fully aware of what he would do with the weapon, as it was the reason he gave it to him in the first place.
- He makes plans for Sab Than to marry Dejah Thoris so that he could officially rule Barsoom so he could massacre Helium afterwards and cause the planet to become neglected and slowly fade just like countless other planets he and the Therns have traveled to before.
- Though he advises Sab Than to spare Dejah as they pursue her flying away on her airship and to instead cripple it, it is for pragmatic reasons as marrying her is vital for Sab Than to have official rule over Barsoom.
- He explains to John Carter that he and the Therns intend to continue their habit of causing wars on planets and their destructions long after John's death.
- While disguised as a Thark, he kills Sab Than with the Ninth Ray once he's outlived his usefulness to prevent him from giving away information about the Therns, giving him a gruesome death he deserves before trying to kill John Carter with it too only to be stopped by Dejah Thoris.
- He holds Dejah hostage and tosses her off the balcony, endangering her life in order to distract Carter, before disguising himself as him and going to a Thark to trick him into giving him the medallion and teleporting away with it once his ruse is exposed.
- Disguised as a soldier and tricking John Carter, he teleports him back to Earth out of spite and sets a Thern on him to kill him, only for this plot to be thwarted by Carter faking his death, having his nephew unlock his tomb, and killing the Thern before he could kill his nephew.
- Unlike Sab Than, whom gets comeuppance of his crimes, Matai Shang gets away with his actions at the end of the movie.
External Links[]
- Matai Shang on the Villains Wiki
- Matai Shang on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
