History Fridge / AvengersInfinityWar

*** Vision is not even looking up at Rhody for most of the scene despite the fact that there is a conversation going on, and who is refusing to meet his eye. After all, Vision was responsible for Rhodey’s paralysis, and probably hasn’t spoken more than a sentence to the man since it happened almost two years ago, despite living in the same building. Rhodey still clearly doesn't trust and hasn't forgiven Vision, and Vision knows damn well why. Rhodey doesn’t even acknowledge that Vision is there. He just talks directly to Wanda and Sam. Vision starts a tentative smile, but as soon as he realizes that he’s being excluded from the conversation, his expression falls and he hangs his head. He’s not truly welcome here, and he knows it.
*** On the other end of the spectrum, you have Wanda. Wanda also has not seen Rhody in two years, but whose last interaction with him was him stunning her in thet back while she was just barely holding fifteen tons of rubble over Steve and Bucky’s heads. Fifteen tons of very carefully balanced concrete and rebar that Rhodey intentionally made her drop, almost spilling Steve and Bucky’s blood on her hands. She doesn’t quite know how to feel about the man who nearly made her responsible for the deaths of two of her teammates in a near-repeat of what happened to her at Lagos, so she avoids interacting with Rhodey. She specifically looks away when Rhodey begins talking with Steve and Natasha. She doesn’t respond when he talks to her and Sam. Her expression is troubled, and she redirects her focus back to Vision the second she has an excuse to. Rhodey doesn’t even get a smile out of her.

** The only thing stopping Wanda from doing so is if her current power isn't strong enough to do so, since her power level is determined by her emotional state, especially because the current height of her powers seend in ''WandaVision'' was brought by her being at her emotional low point, or if the two choose to target Vision to distract her.

*** More to the point, the ''way'' Tony tries to stop Quill. Tony is calm, but speaks quickly and clearly, and focuses on the mission at hand. Later, just before Peter Quill disintegrates and is feeling odd, Tony gently says, "Steady, Quill," even after Quill has screwed everything up. Back in Siberia, Steve Rogers didn't exactly handle Tony's breakdown in the best way (but [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement may have had perfectly understandable reasons]]). Tony is trying to do everything for Quill that Steve failed to do for him in Siberia (acting quickly, empathetically, and avoiding phrases that might make Quill feel even worse). It's not just his own mistakes Tony learns from, but other peoples' as well.

* While the Infinity Gauntlet being an AdaptionalWimp is likely a narrative necessity to make it seem as though the Avengers have a fighting chance against Thanos, there is also a potential in-universe reason too - when Eitri was creating the Gauntlet for Thanos, it's not out of the question that he secretly built intentional flaws in its design (like how its wielder needs to close their fist to use it) so that anyone fighting Thanos with a completed Gauntlet wouldn't be automatically doomed to fail like in the comics.

** On Knowhere, Quill warns Drax not to act recklessly when fighting Thanos and stick to the plan -- yet later on Titan he does exactly the same thing himself. Now, why does Drax want to kill Thanos? To avenge his loved ones, who died due to his actions. What made Peter attack the Mad Titan? [[NotSoDifferent Thanos killing his beloved!]]

* Thanos genuinely sympathizes with Tony as they are NotSoDifferent. Thanos' visions saw that Tony desperately wanted to protect those he cares about which isn't as big a stretch to Thanos was doing with the Infinity Stones (both trying to save their home planet from ruin). And he also understands loss with Thanos losing his people and his adopted daughter and Tony losing his parents and the Avengers.

* How about any empathetic/telepathic beings in the universe (assuming that Mutants don't exist in the MCU yet)? They most likely sensed half of the universe dying. It would be exactly like how [[Film/ANewHope Obi-Wan felt when Alderan was blown up]]. Except way, way, WAY, worse.

** When Thanos impaled Heimdall in the chest with Corvus’ spear, Thor said he’ll die for that. Guess where Thor impaled Thanos with the Stormbreaker?

** Who's to say Thanos hadn't learned of the events of Guardians Vol 2 from Nebula's memory files, and therefore knew just how to manipulate Gamora and Star Lord's relationship?

* Why is Bruce Banner unable to summon the Hulk after the first fight with Thanos? Easy, the Hulk finally met someone he couldn't take in a fight, and who had him dead to rights after just a few seconds of fighting him. The Hulk is probably terrified of what could happen if he tries to come out and face Thanos's forces again.
** The reason why Thanos took down Hulk is because, on Earth, the only one who could match Hulk strength-wise was the Abomination, but Blonsky was unable to utilize his military combat training due to being so unfamiliar with his bulked up body when he fought Hulk. As such, when facing Thanos, the Hulk, for the first time in his life, finds himself up against an opponent that has the strength, the training, and the fighting prowess to take on his untamed flailing style of fighting in a fair fight, and gets beat like anyone else who goes against a better trained fighter without ever facing a real challenge.
*** Additionally Hulk's strength increases with his rage, but Thanos outfought him so cleanly and quickly that Hulk never got to take advantage of this, the rage he felt being quickly replaced by confusion and then outright fear.
*** Which mostly happens because of his time on Sakaar. In the first ''Avengers'' movie, Hulk isn't afraid of going against Thor or an army because he is only let out when Banner loses his temper. But in ''Ragnarok'', he spent so much time outside that he developed a child-like personality instead of an enraged beast, which means he can be traumatized instead of getting angrier. His fight with Thor could have ended with him losing if Thor hadn't held back while he tried to reason with him, which gave Hulk time to get fully angered. Thanos, however, leaves him no time and has clear KillingIntent, so for the first time he gets weaker as he fights someone because he knows he can lose.
*** Mark Ruffalo claims Hulk has the mentality of a five-year-old in the movie series; this is the point where he's scared and just wanted to hide and be sulky.
** There's also an interesting and most likely unintended angle here: Hulk's "being unbeatable in the long run because he just gets back angrier" thing isn't FULLY disproven. He got clobbered, not the first time. And while he's down, for awhile, so we can legit expect him to get, well, angrier and come back... -- Heimdall Bridges him to Earth. Notice how badly Thanos reacts to that; on the surface he's just unhappy with Earth getting an early warning, but... it's not like Thanos is all too subtle, anyways. Maybe he had a guess the fight isn't really over, and he was just denied his chance to try finishing Hulk while he's down. And Hulk's emotional trauma might not solely come from just being beaten, it also mirrors the (begging tone) "Big monster!" -- "No!" scene we last seen him in ''Ragnarok''. And it's not like he was facing an easy battle there either: Surtur WAS destined to destroy Asgard, also, like 10 times bigger, with a flaming sword. So it's the second time Asgardians managed to deny him "his thing", a long uphill fight where he ought to go through several grades of getting angrier. At such point many psychologists would agree you can't just "go and confront your frustration and win, just like that".
** It is also worth noting that Banner is much less reserved and more openly emotional and talkative, especially noticeable with him enjoying Hulkbuster and joking around in Wakanda. Why is that? Since Hulk flat-out refuses to come out, Banner finally can let go of his self-control and borderline anger, and finally be himself for once without fear of Hulk emerging (even though that would be a good thing).
** WordOfGod states that the Hulk refuses to come out due to (at least in part) being fed up with Bruce using him to solve his problems. And as mentioned, the Hulk has the mindset of a five-year-old, which is around the time most children begin their stubborn streaks.
** And all these little character bits and interactions between Banner and Hulk seem to be potentially foreshadowing the MCU version of [[GeniusBruiser Professor Hulk.]]

* In the film, we never get to see Hulk reemerge or Iron Man returning to Earth to fight alongside the Avengers as shown in the trailer. However, it might be there but just not yet. It's actually a vision of the future from Doctor Strange.

* There may be something about Drax's culture gap that made him believe standing still would make him invisible. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, there's a point when, during Groot dancing around the fight, Drax lands right behind Groot. Groot stands perfectly still, while Drax just stares, then joins the battle again. Maybe Drax can't see anything that's standing completely still.

* The planet Xandar is attacked by Thanos a week before the movie begins, and in addition to taking the Power Stone he kills half the population. We have no idea just who on Xandar from the first ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' movie survived.

* The setup for this film with the last few MCU films is chilling: each film saw the heroes suffer tragedy and losses and wind up weaker than they had been before. The Avengers broke apart in ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar Civil War]]''; [[Film/BlackPanther2018 Wakanda]] was weakened from the infighting that Erik Killmonger made happen and lost a lot of people, especially members of the Border Tribe; [[Film/ThorRagnarok Asgard was destroyed]], first by Hela and then by Surtur, and even prior to that it lost Odin Allfather; [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 the Inner Sanctum]] lost its Sorcerer Supreme as well as several other wizards (even though Strange is good, he doesn't have the centuries of experience that the Ancient One had)... The heroes were in a more precarious position than they had ever been, and in that state they stood almost no chance against Thanos. One has to wonder if Thanos timed it that way; did he wait until everyone was weak, and then exploit their weakness and vulnerability by choosing right then to attack?

* Somewhere between Brilliance and Horror; ''of course'' the Guardians (aside from Rocket and Nebula) were subject to a near TotalPartyKill by Thanos. The Avengers knocking back the invasion? Well, that's annoying, but it's business. The Guardians managed to [[ItsPersonal piss him off on a personal level]] by recruiting his favorite "daughters" and killing one of his better flunkies. Add the fact they topped it by nuking an entire sentient planet, Peter being half-Celestial, and Mantis's crazy level of power. They had too much potential to throw a SpannerInTheWorks. Thanos's thought process would probably consider killing Gamora's friends so they can all be TogetherInDeath to be a happy outcome. Why was Rocket "spared?" Well, Rocket said it himself; he hasn't got a long lifespan anyway. [[SpareAMessenger And what good is it if you can't leave someone alive, but broken, to tell the tale of your victory?]] Sparing Nebula? She was TheUnfavorite "daughter" to begin with. Leaving her alive to suffer and know the extent of her failure to either live up to Thanos's expectations and/or stop him is CruelMercy indeed.

** Gamora wants to die if Thanos ever captures her, and that's exactly what she ends up doing.

** Likely a coincidence, but Drax joking about making himself invisible (i.e. disappear).

* Tony and Peter are severely handicapped once they exit Earth's atmosphere, because they are both cut off from the AI's that control many of the workings of their suit. This is why Peter does not call on all the many different types of specialized webbing (or instant kill-mode), and Tony doesn't ask Friday to analyze Thanos' fighting pattern they way he did with Steve's in Civil War. They can't. Their suits are working on their most basic functions, and Tony is spending a lot of brain power to reshape the Bleeding Edge nanites to his needs.
** It doesn't explain how did the Iron Spider suit manage to instantly deploy those spider-legs, though. Peter even asked "What are those?" when the spider-legs shows up for the first time.

* In Myth/NorseMythology, Loki and Heimdall [[MutualKill kill each other]] during Ragnarok. Here, Heimdall is killed by Thanos, Loki's loanshark in pursuit of the Tesseract, while Loki himself gets strangled by Thanos. Indeed, the prologue of the film takes a disturbing shift if one looks at superheroes in general as the industrialized world's parallel to the Indo-European mythologies of old, ie Myth/NorseMythology, Myth/ClassicalMythology, Myth/EgyptianMythology, etc.

* In the first Avengers movie, the heroes were having trouble fighting the Chitauri until Hulk shows up and basically turns the whole fight around in favor of the heroes. He also took out previous main villains Loki and Ultron with no effort. It's only fitting that this movie starts out with Thanos defeating Hulk with a smile on his face, foreshadowing that this time around, the heroes will not win. In an example of TheWorfEffect, in Thanos's first appearance taking an active role, he [[CurbStomp curb stomps]] both Thor and Hulk just minutes apart. You cannot match power against power in a fight against Thanos.

** How many people who were nuclear power plant operators where killed?

* In Myth/NorseMythology, Loki and Heimdall kill each other during Ragnarok. The same effect is achieved here when Heimdall is killed by Thanos, Loki's loanshark in pursuit of the Tesseract, while Loki himself gets strangled by Thanos. Indeed, the prologue of the film takes a disturbing shift if one looks at superheroes in general as the industrialized world's parallel to the Indo-European mythologies of old, ie Myth/NorseMythology, Myth/ClassicalMythology, Myth/EgyptianMythology, etc.

* Thanos' victims were chosen at ''random''; certainly, among Strange's 14 million possible outcomes, one of factors that separate the timelines are the different sets of people that survive the snap. Therefore, because Strange's BatmanGambit plan relied on a certain set of heroes to survive, and due to the Snap's random nature, the current timeline could have a very different set of survivors than what Strange planned, making his preparations and sacrifices completely useless, and potentially sealing a doomed (or, at very least, disadvantageous) fate for the Avengers.

** The reason why Thanos took down Hulk is because, on Earth, the only one who could match Hulk strength-wise was the Abomination, but Blonsky was unable to utilize his military combat training due to being so unfamiliar with his bulked up body when he fought Hulk. As such, when facing Thanos, the Hulk, for the first time in his life, finds himself up against an opponent that has the strength, the training, and the fighting prowess to take on his untamed flailing style of fighting in a fair fight, and [[RealityEnsues gets beat like anyone else who goes against a better trained fighter]] without ever facing a real challenge.

* Why does Thanos turn Quill's gun and Gamora's dagger into bubbles besides sick dark humor. Because he's turning their actions into thought bubbles by erasing the tool they would perform the action with. With the Reality Stone, he's turning their desired actions into mere thought and impulse. Bubbles are also analogous to dreams. He's turning their desired actions into mere dreams. With the Reality Stone, he can make his imagination into reality and turn other people's reality into their imagination.