T8IS IS 13O1319+31N3518 – Might This Be the Mystery Easter Egg People Have Been Searching For?

 SPOILERS FOR GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.2 FOLLOW – YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

One of the most cryptic Easter eggs in Guardians of the Galaxy may finally make a bit of sense. After the film reached major popularity, James Gunn told fans that there was one Easter egg in Guardians of the Galaxy that people hadn’t found yet. With the sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, releasing in Europe just yesterday, it seems the issue of the mysterious Easter egg might finally be resolved.

Pictured above is Ronan’s Kree warship, the Dark Aster. At the head of this post is an image of some lilies, but to give them their proper name, some dark asters. I had discovered that Ronan’s ship was named after an Earth flower not long after seeing the film, because like anyone else out there, I promptly googled what the hell an aster was. It turns out that aster is derivative of the word star. Furthermore, Lilium, the scientific Latin name for the genus that lilies belong to, means “Stargazer”. These things seemed kinda trivial at the time, but were made essential research topics by the fact that when we fist see the Dark Aster, the co-ordinates of its location in space are not co-ordinates at all. Instead, the numbers and letters that appear actually spell out the phrase, “THIS IS MOMS CANCER”.

I’ll just clarify as well, I didn’t find this out. I have no idea who did, but props to them. And realistically, they’re probably a Reddit user. So, thanks to Reddit user, (Insert valid name here) for figuring this out.

This bore the need for further research. Since 2014, I’ve been trying on and off to figure out what the deal is with this Easter egg, spurred on by James Gunn’s own words about an Easter egg in the film that people hadn’t really found yet. I’ve combed through that film frame by frame and can’t for the life of me find anything that would constitute a seriously well hidden Easter egg. I realised after watching the sequel that the mystery Easter egg may have been hiding in plain sight all along.

Last chance to look away for spoilers, just in case you decided to keep going after that initial headline.

So, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we discover that not only is Ego the living Planet Star Lord’s father, but also his mother’s killer. Ego himself put the tumour that led to Meredith Quill’s death into her brain, unbeknownst to her. On a sidenote, that reveal was one of the most heart shattering yet satisfying moments of the whole film. Seeing Peter let loose on Ego with his blasters was a sight to behold. Anyway, that moment confirmed that “MOMS CANCER” originated from Ego. So, what’s the correlation between that fact and the Dark Aster?

Ego had a nickname for Meredith Quill when they were in a relationship together. He called her his “River Lily”. So, to put it in writing: Ego’s pet-name for Meredith Quill relates to the name of Ronan’s warship, the co-ordinate location of which had a message to the audience telling us that that particular warship’s name related to the aforementioned pet-name by telling us that that warship’s name had something to do with how she ended up with cancer.

Well, there you have it, probably the most impactful Easter egg in the MCU to date as far as emotions go. The name of an alien ship being linked to a message about how Peter’s mom got cancer later being revealed in the sequel to be a correlation between the name of that alien ship and the pet-name Ego gave Meredith. I don’t even know if the way I’m typing this all makes sense, but I hope to God anyone reading this is picking up what I’m putting down at least.

There were TONNES of Easter eggs in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but until the film has its US release I’m gonna refrain from touching on any of those. This one I thought would be best because it’s genuinely, I think, the least significant development brought about by Easter eggs in this movie. If you’ve seen the film though, let me know what your favourite Easter eggs were in the comments below, and if you’re yet to see the movie, either go see it right freaking now or wait with bated breath for its inevitable and impending release at a cinema near you! Oh, and avoid the comments section. Just in case.

Till next time, true believers!

P.S.

Things happen in this film that have led to me having to do some revisions to my overall MCU theory, but I hope to have a rounded version out before Spider-Man: Homecoming hits theaters in July. Seeya then, folks.

Is Heimdall Keeper of the Soul Stone?

With the Soul Stone being the last of the Infinity Stones remaining to be found, speculation runs rampant as to its possible whereabouts. Not only that, but the even greater question seems not to be, “where is it?” but rather, “who has it?”. In regards to the latter, the widely accepted speculation is that Heimdall is in possession of the Soul Stone. There are a few contributing factors to this speculation:

1. His ability to perceive souls.
2. His eyes being orange, like the Soul Stone.
3. The “H” of his name being the final letter in the THANOS code that seems to relate to each Infinity Stone and its receptacle.
4. His chest-plate in Thor: The Dark World having an orange gemstone in it.

Despite the evidence, I do not believe Heimdall to have the Soul Stone in his possession. And of course, I have my reasons for this. First though, let’s focus on debunking before moving onto our own speculation.

I’ve established before that the colours of the Infinity Stones tend to bleed over into the colour schemes of characters whose powers can be linked to the field over which an Infinity Stone governs. Essentially, Scarlet Witch’s reality warping powers emerge as red energy because that is the colour of the Reality Stone. Or the reason for the soul forge’s projections being orange in Thor: The Dark World is because orange is the colour of the Soul Stone. We also know that it’s possible for someone to be linked to an Infinity Stone and subsequently derive power from it, such as Vision or Malekith. There is a precedent set in the MCU that Infinity Stones are capable of granting people power and extraordinary abilities. However, there is quite a large difference between the characters who derive their powers from an Infinity Stone, and those who are physically linked to an Infinity Stone. The former tend to have more passive abilities, whereas the latter have more active abilities. Scarlet Witch can move things with her mind and create illusions inside people’s heads, and Quicksilver can move at super speeds. These two characters derive their powers from the Mind Stone. Vision, who actually has the Mind Stone in his possession, can fire beams of energy from the Stone itself, increase or decrease his density at will, allowing him to become invincible as well as light enough to float on air. He can also phase through solid objects and even people. His power set is far more advanced than that of those who also have the Mind Stone to thank for their abilities. It can be drawn from that that those who are physically connected to an Infinity Stone have much greater access to the Stone’s powers.

Heimdall has shown that he has one ability not possessed by other Asgardians, the ability to see souls. Reflective of this ability are his orange irises. Outside of this, Heimdall has shown no other abilities that could be linked to the Soul Stone. So, I’d argue that he doesn’t have the Soul Stone in his possession, but his powers are derived from it; much like Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver’s case with the Mind Stone. This explains his abilities and the fact his eyes are orange. The remaining points, the correlation between Heimdall’s name and the THANOS acronym, as well as the chest-plate, require a bit more explaining.

We’ll start with the chest-plate, because it’s much easier to explain. It’s just a decorative chest-plate. The gemstone is nothing special at all, if it was, he’d have been wearing that chest-plate in the first Thor movie. Many tend to refer to Thor’s dream sequence from Avengers: Age of Ultron when trying to justify Heimdall’s ownership of the Soul Stone. His eyes being milky, as well as his blindness and lack of armour, as well as the suggestion that this dream is a post-Ragnarok Asgard, all point to Heimdall having lost his abilities and therefore the Soul Stone. Here he is, with orange eyes and perfectly capable of sight in Thor: Ragnarok:

If you’re still not convinced however, there is the fact that Volstagg told the Collector that the reason the Asgardians would not be keeping the Aether on Asgard is because they already have the Tesseract there, and keeping two Infinity Stones close together would not be wise. If Heimdall were physically connected to the Soul Stone, surely that would violate the principal. Of course, you might argue that Volstagg just doesn’t know that Heimdall has the Soul Stone. I doubt one of Asgard’s principal defenders would be ignorant of something that important.

Now we come to the acronym. At this point, the only possible rebuttal that can be offered is to suggest that the “H” has to refer to someone or something else besides Heimdall. I’d be tempted to simply say Hela, and probably be right, but what kind of theorist would I be if I did that? I’m gonna stick with my gut and say it’s Adam Warlock, or Him, if we’re gonna go by the fuel behind that particular bit of speculation. Furthermore, I reckon he’ll show up on Sakaar, which seems like a planet whose culture exists as a melting pot of junk left over from countless other worlds and time periods. There are callbacks to Celestials, with certain background characters wearing actual Celestial costumes, and characters that bear resemblances to the Marauders seen at the start of Thor: The Dark World also heavily feature. I reckon somehow, Adam is on Sakaar, possibly even having entered his Magus phase, and he is in possession of the Soul Stone.

…

But it’s probably just Hela, and that’s fine.