Infinity Stones: Method of the Mad Titan (Infinity War Spoilers!!!)

At the time I am writing this article, I’ve already seen Thanos’s quest for the Infinity Stones twice now. The movie is amazing, the story is an emotional roller coaster and the stakes were raised higher than ever in the MCU. What I noticed on my second time seeing the film is that the story had more than meets the eye. Now this article will dip into spoiler territory, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet you do not want to go past the first paragraph and come back when you’ve seen the movie and see if this all makes sense to you. With that said, spoilers ahead.

***SPOILERS***

Power

Let’s start where Thanos began which is with the Power Stone. Power is what Thanos craves, so it makes sense that this is the first Infinity Stone he gets his hands on in his end quest for ultimate universal power. As said by Thor, a week before the events in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos invaded Xandar, killed half of their population and took the Power Stone for himself. This stone would have been the easiest for Thanos to get for a few reasons. It is the only Infinity Stone whose precise location is known to Thanos before the story begins and we already know that Thanos’s army can match the Nova Corps on Xandar after watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1.

Also, when you think about the Power Stone itself, its powers to greatly enhance the strength and, well power of the being who can hold and harness its power will give Thanos the early edge he needs in the battles to come with those who would stand in his way. This can be best seen in the first few minutes of the film where Thanos knocks the Hulk out so hard that he basically knocked the Hulk out of the Hulk. Another aspect of the Power Stones power is that when paired with another Infinity Stone, the Power increases those other stones’ powers as well. With the Power Stone in his possession, Thanos has become closer to becoming the most powerful being in the known universe, if he wasn’t already.

Space

As I said previously, the movie begins with the Power Stone already in the possession of Thanos and after the events of Thor: Ragnarok, we know that Loki is finally in possession of the Tesseract which houses the Space Stone. The powers of the Space Infinity Stone gives the one who would wield it and use its powers to be a master of all the areas and space in the universe. With the blink of an eye you can be anywhere in the universe that you want and it also grants the user unlimited energy.

In the first few minutes of the movie, Thanos has already killed half of the people aboard the Asgardian refugee starship and is looking for the Tesseract. At this point we learn that the events of Avengers: Infinity War begin immediately after Ragnarok as seen when a giant ship is shown behind the Asgardian vessel in the mid credit scene. Thor, not knowing that the Tesseract wan’t destroyed along with Asgard tells this to Thanos and immediately, Loki presents the Infinity Stone to the Mad TItan. This is shown to be a ruse and shortly we get the Thanos vs Hulk fight I mentioned early and we know how that ended. Loki again tries to bargain with Thanos after he dispatches his Black Order to find and retrieve the two Infinity Stones on Earth, once again with the double cross which costs him his life against Thanos to the horror of Thor. Now, in possession of two Infinity Stones, Thanos has become that much more powerful and is now on the road to Knowhere.

Reality

The Reality Stone, introduced in the most forgettable movie in the MCU gives the user the power of all reality. You can bend reality to your will, you can create your own reality and you can be the plot point in a very boring Thor movie. However, Thanos isn’t bedazzling his Gauntlet without it, so we have t be reminded once again that Thor The Dark World existed. After Thor was defeated and left for dead in space, he happens upon the Guardians of the Galaxy who were on their way to answer his distress call. They obviously arrive too late and Thor is the only survivor of the massacre. Thor gets the Guardians caught up on whats going on says that he needs to go to Nidavellir in order to obtain a weapon capable of killing Thanos and also that Thanos is heading to Knowhere to get the Reality Stone which is in the possession of the Collector.

After much argument, the group splits and Thor, Rocket and Groot speed off to Nidavellir and Drax, Starlord, Gamora and Mantis go to Knowhere hoping to get there before Thanos and to destroy the Reality Stone. They failed.

At Knowhere, Thanos is already there ~~questioning~~ torturing the Collector on where the Reality Stone is hidden. Gamora gets close enough to Thanos and strikes a fatal blow which is then revealed as a ruse as Thanos had already gotten the Infinity Stone and knew that Gamora would come for him. Now with the power of the Reality Stone in the palm of his hands, Thanos makes short work of the Guardians, distorting their reality and kidnaps Gamora.

Soul

The Infinity Stone that has yet to be seen in the MCU, which has also caused a lot of really long and horrendously incorrect Internet theory videos regarding its location and almost all of them were on Earth, well if you’ve seen the movie (which you should’ve if you’re already this far in the article) you know that those videos should’ve been taken with the smallest grain of salt you could find.

The Soul Stone gives the being who would hold it control and access to all of the souls in the universe, in the comics though not yet revealed in the films it is also the only Infinity Stone that is sentient and cannot be easily acquired through means such as just finding it and taking it. There is a price to pay to gain access to the Soul Stone.

We are told that Thanos had Gamora scout the universe to find the Stone, but she says that she failed, which Thanos knows to be a lie. He then shows that he has captured her sister Nebula and found out that she indeed did know the location of the Soul Stone. To save her sister’s life she told Thanos where to find it, on the Planet Funk, because that’s where Soul is found!!!! Nah I’m kidding, the planet was Vormir, as desolate and seemingly deserted planet until both Thanos and Gamora find the only living being on the planet, the Stonekeeper who is revealed to be the Red Skull. The Red Skull then reveals that when he held the Space Stone in his hands he was transported to Vormir and lived in servitude to the Soul Stone, telling those who came for its power the price to pay in order to have it, all had failed.

The price for the Soul Stone was for the one who would seek its power to sacrifice the soul of that they loved most. Finally seeing that there may be some hope for the universe, everyone in and out of the movie would believe that Thanos loved nothing. And then our hearts broke as the Mad Titan started to cry and the Red Skull revealed who he was crying for and Thanos gave the soul of his daughter, the one thing he loved, to gain the power of the Soul Stone. Four Infinity Stones down, two to go.

Time

Housed in the Eye of Agamotto, Dr Strange wields the Time Stone. The Time Stone gives the user complete mastery over all aspects of time. You can see possible futures, you can go backwards in time and you can even create time loops that repeat over and over again. The first attempt to gain the Time Stone resulted in Dr Strange being kidnapped into space by Ebony Maw on his way to rendezvous with Thanos on his home world of Titan. After finally defeating the Maw and commandearing his ship, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Strange land on Titan and meet the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy.

Dr Strange uses the Time Infinity Stone to see multiple future timelines to see all of the possible outcomes of this war, out of 146,000,604 possible futures, only one ended up with Thanos defeated. Shortly after retrieving the Soul Stone, Thanos came home to Titan and another battle began.

After almost removing the Infinity Gauntlet, the team is told exactly how Thanos obtained the Soul Stone, which throws the mission off for our heroes and Thanos makes short work of everyone on the battlefield and after nearly killing Iron Man, Dr Strange, in order to spare Tony Stark’s life, give Thanos the Time Stone to which Thanos replies, “one more to go.”

Mind

Located right in the middle of Vision’s forehead, the Mind Infinity Stone gives the user powers of mind control, telepathy and when mastered, you can read all of the minds of those in the Universe, apparently it can also get movie studios to create mutants without calling them that due to licensing rights. It is also the only Infinity Stone that has been literally part of the user’s body that isn’t used to its potential. This is seen when Vision is being attacked by Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive and he doesn’t just unleash the power of the Infinity Stone on them. This is the final stone needed for Thanos to achieve his goal and it is in the beautiful and majestic country of Wakanda where it all goes down.

With her powers directly inherited from the Mind Stone’s power, Scarlet Witch has the power to destroy Infinity Stones, however she is personally compromised due to her relationship with Vision and can’t bring herself to destroy the Infinity Stone herself. In Wakanda, Shuri figures out that the Stone can be detached from Vision without killing him, yet she doesn’t have enough time to do so, so now it’s completely up to Scarlet Witch as she has to destroy that stone because Thanos is walking right towards her and he’s not letting anything get in his way. After Vision telling her that he loves her, Scarlet Witch is finally able to destroy the Infinity Stone, seemingly saving the day.

Except Thanos is now the master of all time and reverses the destruction of the Mind Stone and straight up rips the stone from Vision’s forehead. Thanos now has all six Infinity Stones and since there’s no He-Man in the MCU, Thanos is now the Master of the Universe and all aspects of it.

Why was this order of gaining the Infinity Stones Significant?

Simply because each stone would’ve been easier to gain with the stone previously collected by Thanos. The Power Stone signifies what Thanos wants and the stone itself already makes the others that much stronger when paired with it. Space made it easier for Thanos to travel through the cosmos to retrieve his prize. Reality signifies the universe that Thanos wanted to make in his image. Soul represented what Thanos had to lose in order to see his perceived destiny come to fruition. Time to tie up any lose ends along the way and Mind to mentally prepare himself for what was about to come. Had he gone for the Mind Stone without the Time Stone, the heroes would have won the day, however he undid the destruction of the Stone and became master of all, and he proved to waste no time in getting what he had been working for his entire life, with the snap of a finger.

Aaron Powell

Comedian, Cosplayer, podcaster and Hug Dealer, Aaron has been a lifelong geek and loves to share his nerddom with the world. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Aaron now lives in Los Angeles sharing his talents with the world and just plain being a geek. You can check out Aaron’s podcasts: Aaron Explains the Universe and Stupid Movie Tuesday on iTunes.