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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
In reference to why Thanos is attacking Wakanda, the EW article from last week (or was it this week?) had the Russos explain: The Avengers bring Vision there after he gets his ass kicked by the Black Order, and Thanos' army shows up there to finish him off and get the Mind Stone.
edited 18th Mar '18 12:49:28 PM by comicwriter
I'm surprised that Thanos is making a move before he knows where all the stones are. I know Earth has three at once that that kind of forces his hand to take them before they're scattered or assembled, but he'd previously been crafty and used proxy agents like Loki.
Maybe he does know where the Soul stone is, but the funniest thing is it looks like he was wrong about where the reality stone is. So this could all be for nothing if he only gets four or five out of six. And if he doesn't get all of them, he's probably just inviting a celestial to drop from the sky and take his hands from him.
Has it been established how the Black Panther has his powers? Because I just though of something. Steve and Red Skull each turned out the way they did after being exposed to Erskine's serum because of who they each were (good becomes great, bad becomes worse). What was in their respective souls, if you will. What if that serum is based on/derived from the same thing they're using in Wakanda? If they go the heart-shaped herb route, maybe the reason it works that way -manifesting the strength (or weakness) of the soul by physically altering the person exposed to it- is because unbeknownst to the people of Wakanda, the Soul Stone is buried very deep in the soil, affecting the herbs.
It's the heart-shaped herb. This is explicitly stated in Black Panther.
Age of Ultron answered that. After Ultron's failure, Thanos lost patience and grabbed his Gauntlet. "Fine, I'll do it myself!"
He's fed up with the failures of proxy agents like Loki, Ronan, and Ultron.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.He also previously had the Mind Stone so I'm guessing he's pissed he has to go fetch it again.
I'm expecting Infinity War to end with Thanos in possession of all the stones but that one. Then Avengers 4 is Thanos and the Avengers/Guardians both flying off into space to track it down before the other side does.
edited 18th Mar '18 1:34:07 PM by Kostya
So Hammerspace, Dimensional Portal (s) and Master of Illusion.
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"This kind of gets into that continuing debate over whether Loki was brainwashed, but thinking about it, I'm wonder if the Mind Stone's actual power is that of a Reality Warper, allowing people to make their thoughts a reality. So like (brainwashing theory) Thanos's power influences Loki to think more like him and also impacts Ultron's thought process. And at the same time, just as Loki was able to use it to make people like him and want to do whatever he asked, Tony and Bruce were able to create Ultron because they wanted to.
Harder to explain Wanda and Pietro's powers, but I'll speculate now that what happened is that Strucker really wanted to empower people worked and for the same reason, because Wanda and Pietro really wanted powers, it gave it to them.
Edit- I think this makes some sense because the MCU's Reality Stone doesn't primarily allow people to manipulate reality based on their desires. It's more in the way of changing mass into energy and back again.
edited 18th Mar '18 2:06:14 PM by Hodor2
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All of which fit with his general status as "trickster". Straight up mind control is a different and much more powerful ability though. He's never demonstrated anything close that.
He wasn't brainwashed in the same way Selvig and Hawkeye were but I think it's pretty clear he was being influenced by the stone.
edited 18th Mar '18 2:13:35 PM by Kostya
The portrals, it's worth noting, aren't his doing. They're apparently naturally occurring - hes just good at finding them.
For a magic user, MCU Loki is rather low on actual magical abilities - he's basically a one-trick unicorn. Blame the fact that the MCU largely failed to develop the concept of Asgardian magic in favor of emphasizing their "medieval warrior" tropes instead. As such, Loki is their only wizard and when they meet Dr. Strange completely outclasses him within seconds.
edited 18th Mar '18 2:55:24 PM by KnownUnknown
I don't think that particularly makes him less impressive. After all, Loki's not the god of magic, he's the god of trickery. He uses charisma and parlour tricks to win his fights.
edited 18th Mar '18 2:57:06 PM by Sigilbreaker26
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"The question wasn't whether he's impressive. The question was whether he's a sorcerer powerful enough that he wouldn't need to be given an Infinity Stone to do the job Thanos needed him to do.
And... well... he isn't. If Thanos had someone as powerful as, say, The Ancient One was his magical agent, then I could see him not needing to throw an Infinity Stone into the mix to assure his victory. But few of his minions are strong enough that they could handle an invasion without risk, so I can believe him thinking the Infinity Stones were a viable instant win accessory.
Like an RTS player spending resources they probably don't need to spend on a weapon they probably don't need to have just to be absolutely sure the overkill nets them a win. And then losing anyway.
edited 18th Mar '18 3:12:16 PM by KnownUnknown

My impression is that we'll likely have a Establishing Character Moment Villain Prologue of Thanos attacking Xandar en masse and completely wiping out the Nova Corps (and maybe even Xandar as of itself) before taking the Power Stone before stopping by and grabbing a hold of the Space Stone with Loki and the Asgardians (thus why we see him with only two stones in promotional material). Or possibly backwards, but the point is he'll lay waste to Asgardians and Xandarians before doing anything and the rest of the film will be the Avengers holding the line on earth to keep Thanos from getting Mind (which is with Vision) and Time (with Doc Strange)
Reality is still, one presumes, with Collector in Knowhere, so I'm guessing the part of the film set in space involves them trying to keep Thanos and his ilk from getting the Reality Stone.
I can see the idea that the Soul Stone is in Wakanda and the heroes try to protect it, but as the film wears on and Thanos manages to get all the Stones except Soul and heavily batter their defenses, they realize they cannot keep Thanos away from the Soul Stone, and thus decide to flung the Stone (via Strange's magic I'm guessing) somewhere Thanos won't be able to reach and a place even they themselves cannot reach to make sure he doesn't get it before escaping Thanos's wrath by the skin of their teeth.
Thus, Thanos and the Avengers race to whatever confines of the universe they hurled the Stone to.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."