I know the popular theory on how Thanos knew Tony’s name is ~the soul stone~
… but I love the idea that Tony has been inside Thanos’s head for six years just like Thanos has been inside Tony’s head for six years. Given how much they’ve been pushing parallels, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me.
Imagine Thanos waking up from a nightmare. He’s covered in a cold sweat, pulling the bed sheets tight around his shoulders. He starts rocking back and forth–
“Stark is out there…” he whispers under his breath. His purple ass is shook. ‘Cause he knows there’s this guy out there who is gonna fuck his shit up one day.
Like the idea of this big, bad Titan fretting over this goober:
Saaaaame! I really don’t think it’s all the Soul Stone – he was warned about humans not being as weak as they presumed after the Battle of New York. I’m pretty sure he’d wanna know more about the guy that took down his army.
I wanna know if Thanos sent some scouts to get some information about the meddling fucker who blew up his Chitauri warship.
What if Thanos’s scout pulled up videos of Tony from the Internet? The ones where Tony doesn’t have his clothes on?
Thanos sits there, pouring over Tony’s sex tapes and other drunken exploits, and he’s like, “………….. this is it? this is the guy??”
What if like Tony also, he doesn’t know of his name? Only remembering this silhouette of gleaming gold and red armor that delivered tremendous destruction to his army. Much like Tony who was traumatized by space after that, Thanos is shook at the sight of full bodied armors like Tony’s. His fear build up, constructing this image of a fearsome opponent that await him on some supposedly backwater planet.
He knew of Tony’s presence but not his name. He knew somewhere on Earth, there would be this person who would be powerful enough to destroy his armada again but he can’t chicken out now.
While I like the concept of Thanos sending the scout and finding those hilarious tapes, I want to build up the parallel of him and Tony who are aware of each other’s presence but not their name until the very battle itself.
Thanos only know of Tony’s name using the Soul stone. They each finally know the name to put on the fear that had been gripping them for the past six years.
Yes exactly. I wonder if Thanos had these haunting images, maybe even nightmares, of this armored angel from Earth who ripped his entire fleet to shreds.
If Thanos worried that, one day, the red and gold man would come to stand in his way again.
Maybe that’s why Thanos reassured Tony with the line “When I’m done, half of humanity will still be alive.” Thanos knew Tony was Earth’s Best Defender. That Tony was protecting Earth to the best of his ability. And Thanos gave Tony that reassurance as a gift because Tony – this human, this small, little mortal – rattled him. Even drew blood from his near indestructible hide.
That’s why Thanos was going to use all four stones. To 100% make sure the threat Tony posed was gone for good. Heck, Thanos even seemed to hesitate sparing Tony’s life for the Time Stone. Maybe because it was hard to let the possibility stand this red and gold armored angel would come back with avengence.
… and letting Tony live is gonna bite Thanos in the ass.
You know what? Between The Avengers and Avengers: Infinity War, I’d love it if Thanos actually sent an Outrider to Earth to find out all it could about the man who had sent the missile that destroyed the Chitauri mothership.
In the Infinity comic event, Thanos had done something similar. He sent an Outrider to invade Black Bolt’s mind to find out where the Illuminati were hiding the infinity gems.
It’d make sense if Tony was having his mind repeatedly violated by an invisible, sentient creature every night: that could explain why the nightmares in Iron Man 3 were so vivid, so realistic, to the point Tony said he couldn’t sleep. It’d also feed into the idea above that Tony was inside Thanos’ head just as much as the other way round.
Thanos is an intergalactic despot. His army had razed worlds far more advanced than Earth. At the beginning of the Avengers, the Other says:
The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri, will follow. A world will be his. The universe, yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?
From the outset, Thanos and Co assumed the fight would be over in a snap (excuse the pun). Then, the next time we see the Other, who was Thanos’ de facto mouthpiece in that film, he says this:
Other: The Chitauri grow restless.
Loki: Let them gird themselves. I will lead them in the glorious battle.
Other: Battle? Against the meagre might of Earth?
Even at this point, Thanos is confident that Earth will fall with little resistance and the Space stone would be his.
Finally, after the Chitauri are defeated, the Other says:
Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled. To challenge them is to court death.
And we know Thanos leers at the camera in the end shot. But the Avengers film ended in a massive blow to Thanos because it took out his entire army. The same army that destroyed Gamora’s planet with little to no resistance. Since the Chitauri all died Phantom Menace style, I’d think they have a central hive mind, which was on the ship that the nuke destroyed.
Which is why we don’t hear from Thanos for six years. If he had a backup army, wouldn’t they have found a way to Earth before Infinity War? That makes me think Thanos and the Black Order had to regroup and rebuild the army – this time with the Outriders. They don’t have a hive mind and they’re created explicitly for one purpose alone – destruction. Proxima even says in Wakanda that they have blood to spare.
It’s also interesting to me that Thanos saves Earth for last in his gems quest. He goes to Xandar, which you’d think would be technologically more advanced, to retrieve the power stone, then tracks the Asgardians for the space stone, then he heads to Knowhere for the reality stone and Vormir for the soul stone. It just so happens that when he arrives on Titan, he finds the time stone waiting for him. At any point after acquiring the power and space stone, Thanos could’ve gone to Earth. But he didn’t. He sent the Black Order instead – even though he calls them his children, Thanos only ever cares for Gamora. So the Black Order is actually dispensible to him, hence are sent to retrieve the time and mind stone.
Thanos leaves Earth last because he knows (“cursed with knowledge”) that the planet is a formidable adversary, that there’s a man out there named Stark who single-handedly destroyed his entire army. (Because Thanos obviously wouldn’t know that Tony flew the nuke through the portal to first save Manhattan. The destruction of the Chitauri was an added bonus. He’d think it was Stark’s idea to come through the portal and take out the Chitauri.)
Thanos is a strategist. Thor even alludes to this in AoU when he says someone is playing an intricate game. So I’d assume he’d respect another good, albeit accidental, strategist and that’s why he says he respects Tony. Because in his eyes, Tony didn’t hesitate to indiscrimately kill the Chitauri to save his home. He spilled blood to save Earth, something Thanos couldn’t do for Titan.
I absolutely love the idea of Tony being Thanos’ boogeyman just like Thanos had been Tony’s.
Edit: As @starkravinghazelnuts pointed out, the Other tells Thanos at the end of Avengers that to challenge the humans is to court death. And what’s one of Tony’s nickname again? Yep, the Merchant of Death. Ajsksllsdkkdnsas.
that part when he’s testing possible replacements for the palladium core
why did they delete this scene
somebody please explain this to me
it was replaced with that bit where JARVIS says he’s delighted to see a video of tony with his clothes on
but i
just
this scene is 459% more effective in expressing the seriousness of the situation
that whole thing that happens before pepper gets there EXPLAINS why he acted like a big child when pepper got there
oh my fucking god
why did they delete this scene. why did they do this
oh god why
I MEAN THE SENSE OF URGENCY GOING ON HERE IS UNBELIEVABLE
WHEN THE LITTLE IRON MAN HOLOGRAM DIES I JUST??? DIED ALONG WITH IT. TONY’S FACE KILLED ME. THIS KILLED ME
WHY WASNT IT IN THE MOVIE I DONT UNDERSTAND
And when Pepper admits to being sick, Tony is probably scared for real. His immune system must have been blown to hell what with the reactor itself and now with polladium
Thing is… Tony knew about the poisoning since Iron Man1, the green juice we see DUM-E making? The green juice we see him drinking constantly?
There’s a scene with that same stuff in the first movie.
This just proves that Tony’s been actively searching for replacements since then. Maybe at first as a side project because he was finishing the exoskeleton/armour prototype, because hey he had the time, right? The poisoning wasn’t that urgent!
6-months later (MCU time-wise if I’m not mistaken) we seen this scene.
And I find it interesting that he acts like a child here to distract Pepper from his research, while he keeps her focus on him, he methodically erases all traces of what he was doing. Because he knows that Pepper’s FAR from stupid.
While she might not have the technical knowledge he has, they have spent enough time together that she would have picked up that something wasn’t right. So what does he do? He jokes about the money, he gives away something /she/ cares about to divert her attention from the real issue.
And it works. It fucking works.
I’ve seen a lot of people going ‘oh she should have realised that something was going on’ but Tony didn’t want her to find out. He knew her well enough to push her buttons and push her away from him. He knew how to act so she would focus on SI instead of him.
Tony might have been actively preparing her to take over when he died. Because that rendering? Tony has tested all known elements 3-times over and found nothing. He’s about ready to accept that he will die. He’s arrogant enough to go ‘if I can’t find it no one can, so I might as well keep it under wraps,’ he has given up hope in Iron Man 2.
That movie is Tony going through his list of ‘things to do before I die,’ while being obnoxious with the people he loves so they won’t miss him that much when he dies.
Have I mentioned that Tony’s socially stunted when it comes to relationships? Because he is, and it shows.
actually, adding to what was said: palladium is used in car parts, which explains why he used it in the first place
now, if you remember, Tony is seen working on his father’s car in his workshop prior to flying out to Afghanistan, so i find it hard to believe, knowing what he knows about cars, mechanics, etc. that he wouldn’t have known it was a toxic metal, meaning he was aware that it wouldn’t be a long term solution
remember, when Rhodey sees it, he says to him, “You had this, inside your body?” Rhodey knows his shit too, I wouldn’t put it past him to have recognized palladium for what it was – he’s the SI liaison, he would know different compounds & their various uses, also, he’s an engineer himself
One thing is certain. The druids, Kilgarrah and the followers of the Old Religion drove Arthur to his death, using Merlin as the domino to set things in motion.
They claimed to be seeking the time of Arthur, the time of the Once and Future King, when magic would be free and restored. But the actions they took, the ‘wisdom’ they imparted, were directly involved in sealing his doom.
Merlin and Arthur would have been fine on their own, would probably have lived happily ever after, had kilgarah not poisoned his mind against Mordred and Morgana, when they were both still innocent and inclined towards good.
Morgana would not have learned of her true heritage had it not been for the seer pressuring a reluctant Merlin into gazing into the crystals at the Crystal Cave, and therefore ensuring that he would cause the future they had shown him.
Merlin is used as the instrument in ensuring Arthur’s downfall.
And I can’t think of a crueler fate than a man who was devoted to his king so completely, having eternity to come to the realization that it was those who were supposed to help him, his mentors in magic and his destiny, that made him an instrument in killing his dearest friend.
I have a theory that the valued quality of each of the four Houses isn’t really about the personality of its students.
The valued quality of each of the four Houses has to do with how they perceive magic.
Stick with me a second: Hogwarts is a school to study magic. Magic as Hogwarts teaches it can be seen as many things: a natural talent, a gift, a weapon, etc.
So how you believe magic should be used will both reflect your personality and change how you handle that power.
“Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart,” Gryffindors perceive magic as a weapon. Gryffindors tend to excel in aggressive forms of magic, like offensive and defensive spells, and they are good at dueling. But a true Gryffindor knows that the power is a responsibility, and so they must always use their powers to stand up for what’s right. They are the sword of the righteous, which makes them as good at Defense Against the Dark Arts as they are at combat magic.
Hufflepuffs believe that magic is a gift and that the best gifts are to be given away. Hufflepuffs, “loyal and just,” would naturally abhor the idea of jealously guarding magic or using it to hurt someone else. So Hufflepuffs share their magic to benefit of Muggles, like the Fat Friar, to protect the overlooked, like Newt Scamander with his creatures, or to oppose those who would use magic to torment and bully, like the Hufflepuffs who stood with the DA and the battle of Hogwarts.
Slytherins are the opposite: they believe their magic is a treasure that they have been entrusted to protect. The Slytherin fascination with purity, with advantage, with cunning and secrecy–all of which were perverted by the Death Eaters–comes from the idea that people with magic in their veins have been given something special that it is their duty to protect at all costs. And perhaps they aren’t entirely wrong: power in the wrong hands can be dangerous. And power interfering at will with Muggle affairs is a gross presumption that could turn the course of history. Though the series shows some of the worst that Slytherin can be, “evil,” is not a natural Slytherin tendency. “Cautious,” is.
Ravenclaws believe that magic is an art form, one that is beautiful and should be appreciated and studied for its own sake. If “wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure,” then asking what magic is for is useless. It’s more important to immerse oneself in magic for its own sake. Ravenclaws push the boundaries of magic to see if they can, hence Hermione’s spell experiment on the DA coins being dubbed a Ravenclaw quality, but like Luna Lovegood in the pursuit of extraordinary creatures: they can also be content to plumb the depths of what already exists.
So while you can see where personalities will overlap over Houses, perhaps in Sorting we should be asking ourselves less what we think we are and more what we think we believe.
that’s much more interesting and substantive than “brave, smart, evil, miscellaneous”
For someone who is self destructive and willing to sacrifice it all, Keith wasn’t really ready to die in the last episode of s4
Because Keith is ONE of those things and not the other – he IS willing to sacrifice it all but he ISNT self destructive, and they’re not mutually inclusive. He believes in the bigger picture – and that sometimes you have to sacrifice to further the cause (the fight for freedom) but he isn’t self destructive. He very much WANTS to live, to find meaning and find reason. He could’ve self destructed when he lost Shiro and ended up in the desert but even as lost and broken as he was he still searched for meaning. He could’ve thrown it all to the wind, rose his hiveebike into the sunset and looked to live day to day and hour to hour, not caring what came of it. Instead he fought to stay relevant to his own life, to find meaning even when things were bleakest for him, and to SURVIVE.
I think that people see Keith’s tendency to give it all and throw himself into dangerous situations and forget the reason behind why he did so, and forget that Keith is a survivor. Becauae he is a survivor and if there is an option to survive he will do so. The only times he throws himself head first into danger is when he sees a chance to further their cause – to fight Zarkon (it’s his chance to end it all) to chase down Lotor and stop him despite the circumstances, and even when he is ready to dive into that shield. It’s not because he doesn’t value himself, but because he values the Cause more. He leaves the team because of it too – because he wants what’s best not for himself but for Voltron and ultimately for the battle they’re fighting and the people they’re protecting.
Funnily, Keith explains himself very clearly very early in the series – Pidge wants to leave for her family and Keith blows up because EVERYONE has a family. It’s not so much an attack as frustration that she can’t seem to understand what he does – that there are so many families lives at stake and they’re the ones who’ve been chosen to protect them. (should he have blown up at her? Not really but it’s Keith).
Keith will always put the goal before himself, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t value himself or that he’s self destructive, it’s just that he sees worth in what they’re fighting for and believes he should do whatever it takes to help them reach that goal.
Damen early in Prince’s Gambit: Laurent doesn’t need to be protected, lmao.
Damen post TSP, probably: Lovingly possessive, overprotective, would kill 5 men if Laurent so much as frowned more than usual, would Fight ™ the wind and weather to protect Laurent’s fussy and sensitive skin, is constantly worrying about Laurent and wonders if he’s happy, probably freaks out and takes extra special care of Laurent when he gets sick.
I just got the really funny mental image of damen on a cliff just punching the air and flipping off the sun
clintbbarton 