Why Thanos Took So Long To Attack

If you have not seen Infinity War then first, how have you not seen it? Are you a caveman? It is now also available to buy on DVD so there really is no excuse. I pre-ordered it and it arrived yesterday (the 3rd) and I've seen it twice already. This blog is an elaboration and extension of an article I read which theorises why Thanos waited the length of 18 films to attack (see article here). Here's where I'd normally do a spoiler warning for the following content but seriously if you haven't seen the film you need to sort out your priorities .....

The article basically said that the main threats to Thanos are Odin, Ego the Living Planet and The Ancient One and that Thanos had to wait until all three were no longer in the way. 

His first real threat to retrieving the Time Stone was The Ancient One. She died in Dr Strange. Her age was not revealed but we can only assume, as is the case for Odin and Ego the, that she was alive long before Thanos was born. This means that Thanos had the chance to know his enemies his whole life, hence knowing how hard they would be to defeat. The Ancient One drew power from the dark dimension. Although Thanos probably couldn't have been able to observe a different dimension like I believe Thanos does with Earth (which will be explained throughout this blog), his hatred toward The Ancient One may not have only been because she had the Time Stone (The Eye of Agamotto) but because he somehow knew she was using the dark dimension. Thanos could have considered this a huge threat if used against him. By not trying to retrieve the Time stone from her, Kaecilius killed her leaving the Time Stone more vulnerable in the hands of Dr Strange.

The second threat was Ego the Living Planet. He died in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2. Ego was not an allie of  Thanos. As we are informed in Guardians 2, Ego was a celestial who was in the universe before it was possible to remember. Ego searched for the perfect mate to have a celestial child with so together they could take over the universe. Peter Quill, child of Meredith Quill and leader of the Guardians happened to be that baby. Ego searched the universe for Peter and mysteriously found him escaping from the Sovereign fleet. Was that luck, or a little interference from Thanos to set up the meeting? Now you may be thinking, if Thanos talked  to Ego he might as well've tried to kill him. First he would've taken that risk, if him interfering is true than he would've done it in a non face to face way, maybe he used the Black Order to do his bidding. But why would he want Ego to find the Guardians? There are two explanations to that. One is that he foresaw that Quill, with him being a half celestial, would see what evil thing Ego was planning to do and he would face him and defeat him, but the reason I believe was so that the Guardians would be led to the other side of the galaxy leaving Xandar and the Power Stone unguarded. Arranging their meeting was still a risky strategy as if Ego's plan had worked it would have stopped Thanos in his tracks. Maybe it was just luck for Thanos that Ego was defeated  but either way it meant one more threat was out of the way making his barbaric attack on the universe more likely but there was still one big threat that stood in his way.... Odin.




Odin died in Thor Ragnarok. In the run-up to his death he was under Loki's spell and Loki had previously worked with Thanos. In Avengers he sent Loki to invade New York with the Chitauri. He was only mentioned in this film. The Avengers didn't get to see him face-to-face. Loki failed, but after that Thanos could've easily killed him or invaded NY himself. I believe the reason he didn't kill him was because he noticed his mischievous manor and most of all, his connection and ability to get close to Odin. I believe he predicted that Loki would do something barbaric for the throne that would cost Odin his life.  With Thanos keeping Loki alive he was able to take Odin off his kill list which left the Space Stone (tesseract) easier to steal.

This still doesn't completely answer why he waited so long. Other than waiting for his biggest  enemies to be eliminated another factor was the element of surprise. I briefly mentioned this earlier, but all the stones get put into a more vulnerable state due to other villains during the 10 years of the MCU.  As mentioned already the Space Stone was no longer guarded by Odin, similarly the Time Stone by the Ancient One, the Power Stone was no longer guarded by the Guardians but also the Reality Stone went from the Aether to the untrustable collector in the Dark World. The Mind Stone arguably became less vulnerable because it went from the to being embedded in Vision's head. With the five of the Time Stones within reach all Thanos needed was the location of the last one - The Soul Stone. Once Thanos discovered that Gamora knew where it was, Thanos was in the perfect position to try to execute his attack. He knew Gamora better than anyone and if anyone was going to get the location from her it was going to be him. He had his window of opportunity and he had to take it. The Avengers were always going to be a threat but not interfering with them previously and not really making his presence known to them until Infinity War meant Thanos's entrance was unexpected, leaving the Avengers completely unprepared.

Thank you for reading my blog. It is not an original idea of mine but has been added onto by me. Hope you enjoyed it and was interested by it. If you have any comments then please leave them below. I hope to write more blogs on Infinity War now I have it on DVD. Anyway thanks again for reading and enjoy Marvel whilst it lasts!

Also why is there still not a Captain Marvel trailer????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MCU phase two recap

Recently I recapped phase one of Marvel for those not up to date or who just needed a reminder. But now I shall recap the larger but not as good, in my opinion, phase two (although Guardians and Ant-Man were phenomenal). 

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! 

Iron Man 3

Like phase one the first film is an Iron Man one. We see Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) being emotionally scarred since he and the Avengers saved NY from destruction. Relying on his suit to protect him, he gets distracted with  his worries and allows the sinister Mandarin to blow up his mansion; sending Tony lost in the middle of nowhere. He meets a boy who lets him stay at his and Tony finds out about an organisation that are able to mutate people to use heat as an ability. Tony hunts the Mandarin but he discovers he is not the real villain but was paid by the organisation. They are now hunting for Tony, using the girl Tony loves (Pepper Potts) as prey., So he sends all his Iron Man suits to the organisation, blows up the location, along with all his suits as Tony and Pepper live.

Thor: The Dark World

The Aether (Reality Stone) has been hidden on the dimension holding the dark elves known as the dark world. But after a battle with Asgard, the Aether was hidden then discovered by some kid in London who noticed strange things happening in that building. Jane (Thor's love interest), Darcy and Darcy's intern, check it out but as Jane touches it, she passes out. Thor then comes to Jane and takes her to Asgard, they find she has weird reactions to anyone who touches her, besides Thor. She is kept in Asgard as the dark elves attack and kill Thor's mother. Thor then swears revenge and plans an attack on the elves, recruiting imprisoned Loki and Jane. Loki  turns against Thor by chopping of his hammer wielding hand and handing Jane to the Elves, releasing the Aether. As it turns out, Thor and Loki had planned this as Loki gives back Thor's hand holographic-ally, stopping the Aether reaching the elves. But, Loki dies and Thor returns to Asgard rejecting the throne as we (the audience) see Loki in disguise as Odin and now Loki has the throne! Also in an after credit scene we see the Aether handed to a man named the collector.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

So the first Cap film left Steve in the present day, confused of, well basically everything. But whilst he's ticking off the list of things to catch-up on, S.H.I.E.L.D has been compromised and Nick Fury has been shot by the illusive Winter Soldier. We see Cap and Black Widow hunt down this masked fiend by contacting Caps good friend Falcon. They battle until he takes of his mask to reveal is, in fact,  Caps old friend Bucky - Yes I did tell you in the previous blog he died, it surprised us all! He flees and a shocked Cap finds out about Hydras plans to kill every non-Hydra supporting human in the world, using  S.H.I.E.L.D.S helicarriers. They invade the ship and stop this attack from happening but Cap refuses to kill his friend Bucky, even though he's trying to kill him. Cap falls but Bucky pulls him out with his one metal arm - perhaps there is good in him? S.H.I.E.L.D is now recovered and Nick is recovering as we see another happy ending.

Guardians of the Galaxy

It's 1988 and young fanboy Peter Quill is at his mothers death bed when he runs out and get's abducted by a space ship. He is raised by Yondu, who has been a father-ish figure since he left Earth (and by father-ish I mean, he didn't eat him). One day Quill goes scavenging on the planet of Morag and finds an Orb (Power Gem). He decides not to give it to Yondu, who subsequently puts a bounty on his head. Quill (Star Lord, as he wants to be called) is followed by the Kree and their leader Ronan. Ronan is working for Thanos and uses his favourite Daughter Gamora to retrieve the Orb (although it turns out she is actually double-crossing him). During the mission Rocket the Racoon and Groot (a living tree man) catch Quill for Yondu's bounty. They all (Quill, Gamora, Rocket and Groot) get arrested by Nova on Xandar and taken to the Kyln (prison). They escape with the help of muscly Drax and head to the Collector to sell it for a heafty sum. The Collectors slave touches the gem and blows up the place as Drax calls Ronan to kill him, to avenge his wife (Ronan, killed her). Ronan arrives and Gamora's sister (Nebula) sends Gamora floating through space as Quill saves her but they get sucked in by Yondu's ship as Rocket. Groot, Drax, Gamora and Quill have a plan for them and Yondu's crew to kill Ronan. This battle results with Ronan and the Guardians (as Quill, Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Drax with soon be known) on Xandar. Quill touches the Orb but instead of the power killing him (as it did the slave) he harnesses it's power and is able to hold hands with the other guardians and share the power to kill Ronan, but it also kills Groot. We are left wondering how Quill was able to touch the gem, but left with a Baby Groot growing in a plant pot.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

The Avengers start the movies by invading a Hydra base acquiring the sceptre (mind gem). On their way they see two mutant siblings, Wanda (Scarlet Witch) and Pietro (Quick Silver) Maximoff, who attempt to attack the avengers but then run away. The avengers continue their investigation and fascination with the sceptre, later to see that an experiment with a new Jarvis like program (artificial intelligence) made by Tony has done what they human race fear: became self-aware. It attacks them taking an Iron Man suit then raising an army. Wanda and Pietro go to Ultron (the self-aware robot that attacked the avengers) for help as they hate Tony. They then got to battle with the Avengers, resulting in Bruce becoming angry and The Hulk killing a load of people in Sokovia. Ultron makes human tissue to form a human which he's going to put the Mind Gem in and make living artificial intelligence. Wanda sees with her powers that Ultron plans on destroying the world and flees delivering the human body to Tony. He likes the idea and thinks they should carry it on but put Jarvis in him. Thor charges it with his hammer and it rises with extrordinary power, even being able to lift Thor's hammer! They prepare for the robot invasion conducted by Ultron on Sokovia. They battle and Sokovia falls from the sky after it was lifted by Ultron's army. Sokovia's inhabitants are evacuated but the land falls in bits to the sea. Vision kills the last of Ultron and Pietro dies. Iron Man and Hawkeye retire as the Hulk goes missing on the jet and we are left with: Cap, Black Widow, War Machine, Wanda, Falcon and Vision as the Avengers.

Ant man

The last of the phase two films begins with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) as he gets out of jail for stealing. He wants to see his daughter but can't so he steals again to get money but only finds a red and grey suit. He later put's it on and shrinks Ant size. When he returns to normal size he freaks out and returns the suit. Thinking he is breaking in, the police arrest him. The size-shrinking suits is delivered to him in his cell allowing him to shrink and escape. He rides a fly, passes out and wakes up in genius, Hank Pym, house (where he stole the suit from). It turns out Pym was testing Scott to see how good is was at breaking in and he trains him to use the suit properly. Pym is head of Pym Tech which is now taken over by Darren Cross who wants to develop his own Ant Man suit called the yellow jacket. Darren was Pym's apprentice but Darren never liked Pym. Ant Man and his friends (who helped him steal the suit in the first place) invade Pym Tech making Darren wear the yellow jacket and head for Scott's daughters room. Yellow Jacket and Ant Man fight on a Thomas the tank engine set and Scott wins the fight. Scott can now be with his  young daughter and is going out with Pym's daughter (Hope) who helped in the invasion. The ending shows Pym give his daughter a Wasp suit.

Where's the Soul Gem?

What Gems have we found?

As you know the biggest MCU film in the history of Marvel is coming out, and by that I mean Avengers Infinity War parts 1&2! We all can't wait to see loads of our favorite superheroes battling to save the universe but before all that happens, some of the characters need to go on a hunt for the Infinity Gems. There are only 6 in total and since the new release of  Doctor Strange there's only one more that is still undiscovered. All the gems spell out T.H.A.N.O.S (if you put them together) and that's the name of the mad and main villain who wants all the Gems to wipe out the universe with his Gauntlet. The Gems are: The 'Tesseract' (Space Gem), the 'Aether' (Reality Gem), soul gem, the 'Necklace' - Eye of Agamotto (Time Gem), the 'Orb' (Power Gem) and finally the 'Scepter' (Mind Gem). From that you get T.A.N.O.S so we only need to find the name of the Soul Gem which is not yet confirmed but all we know so far is that it begins with a H.

Where are the found Gems?

All 6 stones could be anywhere as some have appeared in different realms some different planets and others hidden in different countries. The first gem to appear is the Tesseract and its last appearance that isn't a picture or vision was in Avengers Assemble where Thor and Loki went back to Asguard holding the Tesseract. Now on to the most popular one of them all, Scepter which has appeared a lot and last seen in the second most recent Marvel film which is Civil War. The film had 12 superheroes, one, however had the Mind Gem (Scepter) in the center of his forehead. This person is called Vision so good luck getting that Gem out. Then we have Thor 2's Aether (Soul Gem) witch should be buried in another realm with The Dark Elves but after the credits it showed the Warriors 3 handing it to the Collector. There is also the Orb (Power Gem) witch first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy. From then nothing has happened and the Orb is safe and sound with the Nova court in Xandar. Finally The Eye of Agomotto (Time Gem) which is still on Doctor Stranges neck. I don't know if it's Thanos, Loki or even the superheroes who are going to gather the Gems but whoever does it is going to have a long journey.

Where might the Soul Gem be?

Many Marvel films are coming out in the next 4 years and I've noticed that most Gems have appeared in heroes first movies like Doctor Strange or Thor so they might carry on that small tradition. All the already found ones are scattered in different realms, planets and cities so it will be quite an adventure going to get them all but it will be even more challenging once we find the 6th stone. Some believe it's in the realm of Asguard where the Tesseract also is and I believe in that theory to. Why, because of Heimdall (the Rainbow bridge keeper) quoted in Thor 1 "I can see all the souls in the world" also because he's known for his orange eyes which is the same colour as the stone. Another bit of proof is that in Age of Ultron Thor has a vision, Hiemdalls' eyes are white and Thor makes a fuss. He could be worrying because that meant Thanos had have got the Soul Gem. Heimdall also says he sees Thor leading Asguard to hell, so he might of meant that there all dead because Thanos destroyed the world and Thor didn't save them; although, they might not put it in Thor Ragnarok because they have included three of the Gems in the two Thor films already. Then again it would be very appropriate to fit it in Captain Marvel as most stones have appeared in peoples first film so maybe that or Black Panther, but Captain Marvel is coming out after Infinity War so maybe not, although Black panther is still optional!

What films are they in?

The first film a stone appeared in was Thor, that was the Tesseract but by Marvel timeline it's Captain America who found it first. The Tesseract has gone through all of these: Avengers 1&2 ,part of Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America and Thor. Although, the even more popular one is Loki's Scepter which has gone from a weapon to a thing in Visions forehead. The Mind Gem has appeared throughout six films in total! All three of the Aether, Orb and Necklace has gone through two and all of the stones have been in at least one film as a result of Avengers 2, briefly showing them all in Thor's vision.

So what do you believe? Will the Soul Gem appear in Captain Marvel, Thor 3, Black Panther or any other of the upcoming Marvel movies. I reckon Thor 3 but we can just hope we're right. If you enjoyed this, agreed with this or maybe believe in something different comment below because I would love to read your theories but for now all I can say is enjoy Marvel whilst it lasts!