Cycles have played a fairly big role in the plots of certain Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies without us realising. As we get further into the MCU, we see these cycles have been factoring into the events of these movies without everyone noticing they were even there. So far, the two cyclical events we’ve actually seen play out relate to Infinity Stones in some way or another. There’s also the over-arching cycle of Ragnarok, which also relates to an Infinity Stone. We’re yet to see Ragnarok’s culmination but it’s been established and built upon in Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron without us really realising it. This abundance of cycles driving plots has led this fan to believe that the MCU’s grand plot that we’ll see pay off in Avengers: Infinity War has something to do with, you guessed it, a cycle. The Infinity Cycle, to put a specific label on it. In the next few minutes, hopefully it’ll all become pretty clear that this is indeed what we’re seeing happen in the MCU. A grand web of different cycles all working toward a common endgame.
First, let’s address Ragnarok, because there’s a lot more information about it in the MCU than one might think. Recently enough, the full cast was announced for Thor: Ragnarok, the third film in the Thor franchise. We’ve known for a while now that this movie was going to focus on Ragnarok; the end of days for the Asgardians. Despite this, one might think that there hasn’t really been all that much setup for such an event. Well, there has, it’s just that nobody’s really been looking for it.
Each of the cycles relate to an Infinity Stone. In the case of Ragnarok, it’s the Space Stone, contained within the Tesseract. We’ve seen the Tesseract a few times in the MCU. First in Thor, then in Captain America: The First Avenger and again in The Avengers. Each film provides a small piece of a much larger puzzle. Let’s start with Captain America: The First Avenger, as it is technically the first chronological film in the MCU. Now, there’s one important aspect of this movie in regards to Ragnarok. In the film’s opening scene, we see Red Skull retrieving the Tesseract. He finds it concealed within a box which is hidden inside a mural of Yggdrasil, the World Tree that links up all the Nine Realms. No big deal. Until you look at what’s carved onto the box. A snake. No ordinary snake though; the Midgard Serpent. In Norse mythology, the Midgard Serpent essentially lies in wait of Ragnarok, and once Ragnarok comes around it will consume Yggdrasil. In the meantime, it hangs around Earth, moving round in a circle and eating its own tail due to its massive size and eternal hunger.
That symbol of a snake eating its own tail is called Ouroboros, and it means Infinity. Iron Man 3 actually references it. Tony Stark says in the post-credits scene that he’s “come full circle, like a snake eating its own tail”. That’s not really important, it just kind of acts as an acknowledgement that this symbol is a thing in the MCU. The Midgard Serpent can actually be seen as an attempt to explain the Milky Way galaxy. The Serpent is described as being a presence that encircles Midgard, slowly spinning around and consuming itself. All its doing is waiting for Ragnarok. What do the Midgard Serpent and the Tesseract have to do with each other though? Well, that can be explained in its entirety later but for now all that need be said is that the Tesseract is something we know to have links to the Asgardians. It’s said by Red Skull to have been “the jewel of Odin’s treasure room”. So why put it on Midgard, seal it in a box with a carving of the Midgard Serpent on the front and then lock the box up in a mural of Yggdrasil? Putting it simply, it’s a warning.
By the end of Thor, Loki has fallen into the abyss created by the destruction of the Bifrost, and at some stage, he meets Thanos. It’s fair enough to assume that Loki meets Thanos before the post-credit scene of Thor because why would Loki go hunting down the Tesseract? It’s likely that Thanos sent him on a bit of a scouting venture. After all, we do hear the Other speaking to Thanos about Loki and the Tesseract at the start of The Avengers.
“The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its working as they never will. He is ready to lead and our force, our Chitauri, will follow. The world will be his. The universe yours. And the humans? What can they do, but burn?” – The Other, The Avengers
So Loki turns evil and meets Thanos. He’s given the task of retrieving the Tesseract for him, because Thanos wants to destroy the universe, something the Space Stone would definitely help with. Loki wants to rule mankind and so their interests align with one another. Thanos gave Loki the the Mind Stone, although Loki likely didn’t know that it was the Mind Stone that was inside of his scepter. Anyway, Loki failed to obtain the Tesseract and he ended up going back to Asgard with Thor and the Tesseract in tow, while the Mind Stone remained on Earth to be toyed with again at a later date. The Tesseract now waits on Asgard, back in Odin’s weapons vault.
We’re going to look at another cycle relating to an Infinity Stone as well as Yggdrasil: The Convergence. The Convergence is what happens when all nine realms align as they orbit Midgard. As a result of this event, the fabric of reality becomes somewhat distorted across the nine realms. Reasonably enough then, the Reality Stone comes into play. As far as can be assumed, the reason that the Reality Stone is a liquid and not a solid is that Malekith the Accursed made it that way. Odin says that Malekith created the Aether and Malekith meddling with the Reality Stone is the only logical way for that to be the case. The Convergence occurs every five thousand years, and we’ve seen two Convergences in the MCU. Both were featured in Thor: The Dark World. During each Convergence, Malekith tried to use the Aether to turn all matter in the nine realms into dark matter. As far as physics goes, dark matter is defined as being hypothetical and only makes up twenty-seven per cent of the matter of the observable universe. It’s also what’s causing the death of the universe. While we’re on the topic of dark definitions, something else which is referenced a good bit in the MCU is dark energy. Dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. As far as the MCU is concerned, dark energy is used to teleport people from one place in space to another. This dark energy is what is being studies at the NASA facility in The Avengers. Given the duality of dark matter and dark energy, and their prevalence in the MCU, it seems as though they’re presence is somewhat important. It is, and it all comes down to balance, something that you’ll see crop up a lot more in this theory.
Hypothetical physical properties of the universe aside, Malekith fails in his first attempt to convert all matter in the nine realms into dark matter because he’s defeated by Thor’s grandfather Bor. The Aether is then buried deep in a place where no one will ever find it. Surprise, just in time for the next Convergence, it’s found by Jane Foster seemingly through chance. The Aether bonds with Jane, as it actually requires a host in order to thrive off of a life force. Why it needs to do this is something to be explained a little bit later on. Jane’s bonding with the Aether causes Malekith and Algrim to wake up from their five-thousand-year slumber. They remark that the Aether has awakened. This the second Infinity Stone that is referred to as having an awakening. Eventually, Malekith draws the Aether out of Jane and proceeds to try and use it to convert all matter into dark matter as he tried before. Thor stops him and the day is won but Loki, who was presumed dead by Thor after being impaled by Kurse, is seen to be impersonating Odin at the end of the film. Loki ruling Asgard due to Odin’s death is a sign of Ragnarok. We then see the Aether being given to the Collector by Lady Sif and Volstagg who states that “it is unwise to keep two Infinity Stones so close together”. With all that said and done we’re left with a pretty big question though: why did Malekith want to convert all the matter in the nine realms into dark matter?
There’s a scene in Thor: The Dark World that offers a good bit of exposition about the Dark Elves and Malekith. In particular, Thor recounts a rhyme from his childhood that offers an answer to the question of Malekith’s motivations.
“Born out of eternal night, the Dark Elves come to steal away the light” – Thor, Thor: The Dark World
This rhyme is indicative of two things. One: It tells us that the Dark Elves were born out of darkness rather than light. And two: It tells us that Malekith’s main goal is to vanquish light from the nine realms. It is also in this scene that Odin says that “the nine realms are not eternal. They had a dawn, just as they will have a dusk”. This line presents only one possible scenario in regards to the Dark Elves. If Yggdrasil, which is basically the collective nine realms, is not eternal, that means that there was a time when it wasn’t there. If we go back along Thor’s family tree, he’s only got as far as a great grandfather whose name is Buri. This is canon to the MCU, not just Norse mythology or the comic books.
We’re gonna have to do a bit of mathematics here, but nothing too difficult, just adding and subtracting. Loki was born around 965 A.D. which makes him about 2980 years old. For the sake of ease, let’s say Thor was born around that time as well, seeing as how he and Loki are essentially the same age. In 965 A.D., Odin looks to be a few thousand years older than Thor currently does in the modern day, so we can say that Odin is in his late 3,000s or early 4,000s at that time. Let’s put him at 3,980, just to make this easier on everything. So, if Odin is about 3,980 in 965 A.D. then he was about 3,015 years old in year 0. This makes Odin’s birth out at around 3015 B.C. Let’s assume Bor was about the same age Odin was at Thor’s birth when Odin was born. So, if Bor was about 3,980 in 3015 B.C. then he was born in around 6113 B.C. Finally, let’s assume that Buri was about 3,980 when Bor was born in 6113 B.C. That suggests that Buri was born around 10093 B.C. That means we’re working with a bracket of about 12,108 years when it comes to Asgard alone. This is all quite important, so tough it out. We can work out how many Convergences there have been and also the age of Yggdrasil. A Convergence occurs every 5,000 years. There was one in 2013, and one in 2988 B.C. Working backwards we can work out that there must also have been a Convergence in 7988 B.C. and also in 13988 B.C.
Let’s say then that Yggdrasil was created in 13988 B.C., that would mean that Yggdrasil had been around for about 3,895 years by the time Buri was born/created. You can say “created” there because Asgardians have Gods, and they exist in the MCU. They’re known as Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, a tablet in Odin’s vault with Those Who Sit Above etched onto it in Norse lettering is seen in Thor. Regardless of how he came to be, Buri would have been around 2,105 years old when the first Convergence occurred. Furthermore, Bor would have been around 3,125 years old at the time of the second Convergence, which is the Convergence involving Malekith. Finally, we can work out how old Odin was at the time of the most recent Convergence. Odin was around 5,028 in 2013. Given the fact that Asgardians have a base lifespan of about 5,000 years, Odin’s pretty close to death. Odin’s death is one of the signs of Ragnarok, as mentioned before. Now, either Odin was killed by Loki in Thor: The Dark World, which is possible, or he would’ve died soon anyway because he’s certainly old enough to die of natural causes. In other words, Ragnarok was close at hand when the MCU started in 2008, and on a cosmic scale, even in 1944 when Captain America went into the ice.
What of Yggdrasil though? It has to serve a purpose. Given the time of its creation, it’s somewhat synonymous with the emergence of human intelligence as well as the arrival of the Asgardians. However, it seems likely that the Dark Elves predate Yggdrasil, and possibly are the only race that do. We hear Algrim the Strong (Kurse) say in Thor: The Dark World, “I can barely remember a time before the light”. This suggests that the Dark Elves we see in Thor: The Dark World have been around since before Yggdrasil’s creation as they were born out of darkness and not light. In fact, if you look at the nine realms there’s actually something of a pattern to them that lends credence to the whole dark versus light idea.
It’s fairly acceptable to say that Earth is a fairly morally ambiguous planet. The human race is, as stated by the Other, “unruly”. That leaves eight other realms to consider. You can split them into two groups of four. The inherently good realms such as Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim and Nidavellir. Then there are the inherently evil realms such as Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Muspelheim and Hel. We know these are the nine realms as they appear on Erik Selvig’s chalkboard in Thor: The Dark World. Why is it relevant that there are four of each inherent trait and one ambiguous one? Well, it all comes back to Ragnarok again, as well as that concept of balance. Those Who Sit Above in Shadow and the Midgard Serpent both gain power from Ragnarok. However, one group is benevolent and allows life to prosper before the cycle feeds them, while the Midgard Serpent consumes Yggdrasil during Ragnarok and gains strength from that. Both benefit from Ragnarok but only one partakes in a destructive role. Thus, it’s a matter of balance. Those Who Sit Above in Shadow can assure themselves they’re consuming just as much bad energy as good energy while the Midgard Serpent is consuming just as much good energy as it is bad energy. Perhaps this is why Earth is so central. The dominant force of good or evil on Earth may dictate Ragnarok’s arrival. The MCU has certainly seen a surge in good over evil, especially on Earth.
If Loki killed Odin, what event led to that being possible? Loki was imprisoned because of what he did on Earth. Why was he on Earth? Thanos sent him to retrieve the Tesseract, which had awakened because Loki had just turned evil and the potential for Ragnarok had arrived. Just look at what Loki says in The Avengers when he and Thor are talking about the Tesseract. “I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it – “, at which point Thor cuts him off. Loki was about to start monologuing, and given the nature of the conversation pertaining to Loki becoming king and the safe keeping of the Tesseract, it seems somewhat ominous that Loki would then go on to overthrow Odin and have the Tesseract readily accessible to him. Thus, it’s fairly safe to conclude that Ragnarok was fast approaching and Thanos is facilitating the events necessary to bring it about while also furthering his own agenda.
Moving away from those Yggdrasil based cycles let’s just recap the main points:
- Yggdrasil was created by Those Who Sit Above in Shadow and the Midgard Serpent to eventually provide them with sustenance.
- The Tesseract was employed to do this. That is a safe assumption as the Tesseract is what was used to rebuild the Bifrost, which acts as a bridge between only the Nine Realms and of course there’s the wall carving from Captain America: The First Avenger to take into account.
- Ragnarok is brought about by Odin’s death. Odin was close to death anyway but Thanos sending Loki to Earth to retrieve the Tesseract actually sped up the process of Ragnarok.
- Loki left the Scepter on Earth and in all likelihood he didn’t know it contained the Mind Stone. If he did, that was something that he could have given away during interrogation on Asgard, or even never retrieved to Thanos. We know he didn’t tell Ronan the Orb was an Infinity Stone, so why should Loki be any different?
Covering the last and really least consequential of all the cycles relating to Infinity Stones we come to the Power Stone and its vault on Morag. In Guardians of the Galaxy Morag appears as a wasteland covered in geysers. There is actually a cycle of flooding on Morag and the fact that it’s cyclical means that it can be predicted when the floods will recede. Peter Quill, AKA Star Lord, is hired to retrieve the Orb for the Broker, who plans on selling the Orb to the Collector. As Quill retrieves the Orb, he’s met by Korath the Pursuer, who is there to retrieve the Orb for Ronan, who is retrieving the Orb, which contains the Power Stone, for Thanos. Given the cyclical nature of these events, it is odd that Thanos would only now go after the Orb. Unless this is the first time that the flooding cycle matched up with other cycles within the universe. In other words, given that the Convergence happened only a year prior to the events of Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s safe to say that Thanos knew that there would be two Infinity Stones readily available to him around the same time period. So even though this flooding cycle may have occurred a good few times before, this may be the first time it’s lined up with the Convergence. On another talking point, there’s a very important mural seen all over the walls of the temple vault on Morag. This mural depicts the creation of the Infinity Stones and it’ll get a more thorough dissection later. On the topic of the power Stone’s abilities. Its primary trait is that it provides immense power to its possessor. That’s all there really is to it when it’s on its own. However, if the Power Stone in the movies is anything like the Power Gem in the comics, then its main function is to act as a fuel cell for the other five Infinity Stones. If used with the Tesseract, there’d be no need for a portal or a key, just a whim would teleport the wielder anywhere in the universe. With the Aether, there’d be no need to wait for a Convergence, the Aether could spread wildly and have even more disastrous effects. With the Mind Stone, it could grant the ability to alter the perceptions of everyone on a planet, possibly even the universe if wielded by a strong enough entity. So the Power Stone may be quite powerful on its own, able to destroy planets, but with another Infinity Stone it could have far more drastic capabilities.
Onto another, somewhat smaller scaled cycle. “There were over a dozen extinction level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs. Whenever the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it. And believe me he’s winding up”. These are the words spoken by Ultron to Scarlet Witch when she discovers his diabolical scheme in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Ultron is an AI born out of a combination of the Mind Stone and Tony Stark’s Ultron programme. Ultron’s remark quoted above can actually be seen as his way of saying that the Earth has a cycle of destruction that comes about any time the Earth becomes too peaceful. This fits in with the earlier part of the theory of Earth being fairly morally ambiguous. There’s both good and evil on Earth, and just when good has prevailed, a catastrophic event arises born out of evil. In particular, Ultron is referring to extinction level events. Death on a planet-wide scale. The Infinity War, given Thanos’s endgame, can be considered to be an extinction level event. However, that will be more of a universal-wide event. Ultron tries to create his own extinction event when he turns Sokovia into a meteor.
Ultron doesn’t understand the Avengers mission and believes the only path to peace is their extinction. Ultron realises that the Avengers present a challenge to the evil people of the world. Their strength invites these people to rise up and face the challenge the Avengers present. This act of acceptance results in a major conflict and that conflict has always led to a catastrophe. If you’ve seen Captain America: Civil War, that ideology may sound familiar to you. That’s because Vision says something along these lines:
“In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of enhanced individuals loose in the world has increased exponentially. As well as that, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen drastically. I’m saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict and conflict… leads to catastrophe.” – Vision, Captain America: Civil War
Vision has the Mind Stone in his forehead. In fact, it’s what gives him life, and he makes it seem as though it actually has control over him when he says that one day maybe he’ll be able to control it. Vision recognises Ultron’s view in Avengers: Age of Ultron and were it up to him, Ultron would live. In Captain America: Civil War, Vision’s reasoning for siding with Iron Man is exactly the quote above, which is basically Ultron’s worldview. At the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Vision seemingly destroyed Ultron. It is possible though, given his sentiments about Ultron, as well as his motivations in Captain America: Civil War, that Vision absorbed Ultron’s consciousness into the Mind Stone. It would explain why Vision now sees and supports Ultron’s perspective, and although the circumstances are different, he employs that perspective to give weight to his own ideology. At the end of Captain America: Civil War, Vision is seen spinning a rook chess piece around in his hand.
Rooks are straightforward chess pieces. It’s either, forward, backward, left or right. Vision’s choices are dictated by pure logic, the clear perspective. The last noteworthy thing he did in Captain America: Civil War was losing his focus, accidentally paralysing Rhodey in the process. Wanda, or more specifically his feelings for her, are what made him lose focus. This is why we see Vision toying with the rook. He is questioning his own logic and has realised that he is susceptible to human emotion, to diverging from the obvious path. This confuses him because he is so clear cut in his ideology. The Mind Stone may well be the cause of their connection. It gave Wanda her powers and is embedded in Vision’s forehead. Ultron displayed incredible degrees of humanity and it’s possible that the presence of Ultron’s consciousness within the Mind Stone has contributed to Vision’s development of human emotions. The Mind Stone seems overly powerful for something that is supposed to have governance over the mind.
In a deleted scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Norns communicate with Erik Selvig through Thor while he’s in the water of sight. They say that the Mind Stone is “master of perception”. That’s a very broad term but think about it. Perception is what essentially governs reality. Thor himself even states that the Mind Stone is unparalleled in its destructive capabilities. The Mind Stone can seemingly alter a person’s perception of reality. All the people who were mind controlled in The Avengers, the ones who talk at least, talk about the Tesseract showing them something. The Mind Stone was encased in a blue gem not dissimilar to the casing the Tesseract provides for the Space Stone. The Tesseract and the Sceptre’s gem were connected. The Mind Stone relayed information from the Tesseract into the minds of those who were under its control. Now that its free of that casing, the Mind Stone is also free to influence perception any way it pleases. As well as that, Scarlet Witch induces nightmares in people that make them believe they are actually living that nightmare. On a sidenote, this scene also features a line regarding the Infinity Stones as whole with the Norns stating that the Mind Stone is “one of the six. The Infinite Six. Cannot be together nor kept apart”. That lends a bit more credence to the Infinity Cycle idea as it adds a sense of inevitability to the union of the Infinity Stones.
Vision’s abilities are simple. He can control his density and his physical presence in the universe. That’s physically impossible. Unless of course your perception of reality knows no limits. Vision’s naivety is what allows his powers to be so effective. After all, he was born yesterday and Ultron even tells him that he is “unbearably naïve”. His mind is like that of a hyper-intelligent new-born. He has all this knowledge yet little experience. His mind has no way of comprehending limitations to his physical form and the Mind Stone allows him to warp reality within himself to his will. Wanda is the opposite of Vision. While Vision defies reality inwardly, Wanda can defy reality outwardly and with enough training, she could likely do it on a much grander scale than just giving people nightmares. The Mind Stone is also what gave Quicksilver his abilities. His super speed may actually involve causing reality around him to slow down, so to him, everything is slow, but to everyone else, he’s moving really quickly. So the Mind Stone’s real trait is the ability to alter perceptions of reality to such an extent that its manifestations can become what everyone would assume to be reality. With Quicksilver dead, again, it’s a matter of balance as there are now only two people with abilities like this.
Although it seems rather stupid of Thanos to just give away an Infinity Stone like he did in The Avengers, we know that he didn’t consider Earth a threat. Thanos didn’t know the Avengers existed and he had faith enough in Loki to actually conquer the Earth. Loki can’t build a portal though, and so rather than having to track down people to do it for him, Loki could just use the Mind Stone to control someone who could make the portal. That’s why he appears in Thor’s post credits scene with Erik Selvig. He’s scouted out the Tesseract and is monitoring what SHIELD are doing with it. Thanos gave Loki the Mind Stone to ensure that he could gain control over Erik Selvig, thus ensuring the construction of the portal that would bring the Chitauri to Earth. It was just bad luck on Thanos’s part that Loki was defeated by the Avengers. Now though, Thanos is rising to the challenge of the Avengers. “To challenge them is to court Death” – cue cheesy ridged-chin grin.
Both the Space and Mind Stones are kept within blue casings in The Avengers. Captain America even comments that Loki’s sceptre “works a lot like a Hydra weapon”, and Hydra weapons were powered by the Tesseract. Thus, it can be seen that the casings for these two Infinity Stones are linked somehow, allowing Loki to control the Space Stone from the other end of Space. The Sceptre is a key. They couldn’t have alluded to that fact much more in The Avengers than when Black Widow uses the Sceptre to close the portal. Hawkeye says, “the Cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides”. If the Tesseract is the door, then the Sceptre must be the key.
An easy way to rebuke this argument would be to say that Selvig built in that failsafe. How did he know to even put the failsafe in there unless it was totally necessary? What made him think of that? The connection between the two Infinity Stones of course. If the Tesseract was able to show the Sceptre’s thralls certain things, then it’s quite plausible that it would have shown Selvig how to operate the portal system. Another possible rebuttal, how come Red Skull didn’t need the Sceptre to open a portal? If you recall, the Tesseract suffered a bit of a blow in that particular scene. It seems to experience a surge of energy upon its being ejected from its mechanism. We can put it down to shock and a surge of energy but on a slightly more far-fetched note, what if someone opened the door from the other side? Just a thought, there’s nothing to even remotely suggest this is true, but in case the power surge argument isn’t valid enough, that may be something to speculate on. The Sceptre was the key to the Tesseract, but now that the Mind Stone’s casing has been destroyed and the Mind Stone now rests on Vision’s forehead, it’s unlikely we’ll see that connection exploited again.
We’ve covered the Mind Stone, the Space Stone and the Power Stone. Let’s take a look at the other Infinity Stone we’ve encountered: The Reality Stone. We were introduced to the Reality Stone in Thor: The Dark World. We know a good bit about its abilities and its history. At some point it ended up in the hands of the Dark Elves, at which point Malekith turned it into the Aether, a liquid rather than solid form. The Aether’s abilities involved converting matter into dark matter and for some reason, it requires a living host from which to draw energy in order to carry out its feats. Furthermore, the Aether seems to be somewhat sentient. Why is this the case? Well, if its function is to convert matter to dark matter then surely it must actually consist of dark matter, otherwise it would just destroy itself. Unless of course it had a host to drain instead. Without a host, the Aether is useless as its abilities are self-destructive. However, once coupled with a host body consisting of regular matter, it no longer has that self-destructive aspect to it. It was killing Jane Foster in Thor: The Dark World. She’s a mere mortal and thus, likely too weak to harbour the Aether properly, also, she’s a human and was born out of light. Malekith, as a Dark Elf, was born of darkness. He actually turns black when using the Aether, which suggests it does something to his physical makeup, possibly restoring him to his usual pigmentation. Isn’t it odd that Dark Elves are pale? Perhaps the light is what caused this change in their skin colour. Another thing to note about Dark Elves is that they may not have souls. Heimdall claims to be able to see trillions of souls, yet Dark Elves are impervious to his sight. Also, the colour orange is synonymous with souls in the MCU. The soul forge or quantum field generator’s projections are orange. Heimdall’s irises are orange. The Soul Stone is orange. Just an observation, but it may also suggest that only beings born of the light have souls. Perhaps it is the souls upon which the Midgard Serpent feeds, and the lack of souls that Those Who Sit Above in Shadow lavish in.
The Aether is seen as a liquid for almost the entire movie, but for a brief moment it becomes several solid shards which quickly return to a liquid state. Thor uses Mjolnir to strike the Aether with lightning, hoping to destroy it. The Aether explodes and it is then that we see it solidify. That sudden surge of energy caused the Aether to return to its proper state. We know it’s supposed to be a solid because we’ve seen the Reality Stone twice, and the second time the Aether actually reverts to its solid form. So energy is what caused the Aether to revert to a solid state, if even in shards rather than one Infinity Stone. This lends a bit more support to the Tesseract spontaneously activating when Red Skull was holding it. If such a surge of energy can change the physical properties of an Infinity Stone, it’s not too far a leap to say that a surge of energy could activate the Stone’s abilities.
Briefly, let’s look at the Infinity Stones we’re yet to encounter: The Soul and Time Stones. Let’s address the latter first. The Time Stone is more than likely contained within Doctor Strange’s Eye of Agamotto. Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, has said that Doctor Strange’s amulet has the ability to mess with time, and its green hue has led many to believe it to be an Infinity Stone. Plus, with no Infinity Stones appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Thor: Ragnarok more than likely introducing the Soul Stone, it seems the most likely candidate for the Time Stone to be within the Eye of Agamotto. Onto the Soul Stone then, likely appearing in Thor: Ragnarok. Recently a report has come to light stating that Thor: Ragnarok would feature Thor and Hulk searching for “the ultimate weapon” to prevent Ragnarok, while also adapting the Planet Hulk storyline. Apparently, in order to find this weapon, Thor goes to a planet where the Grandmaster is running gladiatorial death matches. It’s there he finds Hulk. In the comics, Grandmaster is the keeper of the Mind Gem, but seeing as how that’s already been dealt with, it’s more likely that the Soul Stone will be what he has in his possession and also more likely to be this “ultimate weapon”. Perhaps the Soul Stone could defend the souls of Yggdrasil’s denizens. This creates a problem but that can be addressed at a more relevant time.
So, we’ve looked at Thanos’s plans, we’ve looked at the Infinity Stone and discussed what they can do, and we’ve assessed some of the cyclical events that pertain to the Infinity Stones and Yggdrasil. We’ve calculated Asgardian ages and we’ve looked at the elements of balance that seem so important in the MCU. Well, now I’m going to explain why all of the above is vital to the Infinity Cycle. Essentially, everything that’s happening in the MCU now, similar events have occurred before. At least once in the past, the Infinity Stones have been at the centre of a conflict that led to massive catastrophe. And we’re talking way in the past. Before even Yggdrasil came into existence over fifteen thousand years ago. We’re going to look at the creation of the Infinity Stones, which marks the beginning of the Infinity Cycle.
The Infinity Stones were created by the four cosmic entities of Death, Entropy, Eternity and Infinity. These beings are manifestations of abstract physical concepts. These concepts are space, time, decay and of course death. I listed those in reverse order to the entities they pertain to. These beings represent every aspect of the universe. If these beings fall into disarray, the universe suffers. In the comics, balance is a key factor in the maintenance of this cosmic order. Entropy for example works to cause the depreciation of things over time, maintaining a balance between himself and Eternity. Those two just so happen to be son and father respectively. Infinity is Eternity’s sister, due to the fact that together they represent space/time. As a result, Entropy effects them both, causing the depreciation of space over the course of time. Ultimately though, all of them are essentially subservient to Death. Though they maintain control over their own domains, Death encompasses all of them. Entropy causing the depreciation of space/time ultimately leads to the heat death of the universe. All life and light and matter; just gone. So Death is the most prominent and domineering of these entities. Which might suggest why Thanos is so obsessed with her.
These entities have been around since the universe began. However, to truly understand where the Infinity Stones come from and what exactly they are, we have to look at the pre-universe. We’re told by the Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy that “before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots: Infinity Stones”. The Infinity Stones were created by concentrating the energies that existed before the universe. These energies then permeated the MCU. Basically, the energies of Space, Time, Reality, Power, Mind and Soul were universal constants, but they were ever-present throughout the MCU. As a result, it can be seen that much like the Infinity Stones themselves, these energies were harnsessable. A being could tap into the energies of Power and use it to destroy planets at will. Or use the energies of Reality to tear the fabric of space/time apart. This posed a terrible threat, but given the fact that balance is what is required of the cosmic entities, it’s unlikely they just decided to create the Infinity Stones as a safety measure without first being driven to. Something had to happen to give the entities incentive to focus these cosmic energies.
In Thor: The Dark World, the gift that keeps on giving with this theory, Erik Selvig’s mad doodlings on the chalkboard refer to certain things from the comic books that can be seen as minor Easter eggs, but might also explain some things about the MCU as a whole. For example, the words “Nexus of all reality!” are seen on the chalkboard. In the comics, this is located in a Florida swamp and is guarded by the Man-Thing. If that name sounds familiar it’s because Man-Thing has been confirmed to exist in the MCU. In Agents of SHIELD, Maria Hill refers to a question she was asked after the fall of SHIELD, recounting an interrogation to Pepper Potts over the phone. That question was simply, “Who, or what, is a Man-Thing”. The MCU’s tagline is “It’s All Connected”. It’s hard not to take that catchphrase seriously. So, given the fact that there have been references to both Man-Thing and the nexus of all reality, it’s safe to assume this is a piece of lore that has successfully made it into MCU canon. So, who’s to say another piece of lore from the comics couldn’t have sneaked its way into MCU canon. Specifically, the Fault.
In the comics, the Fault is a rip in space/time that leads to the Cancerverse, a universe where death doesn’t exist and thus constant growth and endless life has led to the universe literally developing tumours. That seems a bit far-fetched for the MCU though. There is however an extra-dimensional force that has been referenced and seen a few times in the MCU now, if even always in the TV shows. The Darkforce. In Agent Carter, we saw people like Whitney Frost and Jason Wilkes manipulate the Darkforce. We also saw an opening into the Darkforce dimension, a place that Wilkes claimed to be calling out to him. We’ve seen the Darkforce pop up in Agents of SHIELD too. Blackout in season one had the ability to manipulate Darkforce energy, and in season three we saw an Inhuman who could use the Darkforce to take control of his shadow and make it a three-dimensional sentient being. In other words, the Darkforce is readily available to any and all, regardless of pre-existing power. It’s possible that this is due to the Fault. The Fault may be a gateway into the Darkforce dimension, and perhaps the Darkforce is capable of leaking over into the MCU. Hence why we’ve seen so many people manipulate it. How did the Fault get there though? A being manipulated one of the energies that eventually became the Infinity Stones and caused the extra-dimensional rip in space/time. We saw such a rip in Agent Carter, so it’s definitely something that can happen. So a being, some fifteen thousand or so years ago, caused a rip in the fabric of space/time and allowed Darkforce energy to enter the MCU. They did this using one of the energies which eventually became the Infinity Stones. It was most likely Power; given that the rip we saw occur in Agent Carter came about due to the explosion of an atomic bomb at a particular place as well as a generator Whitney Frost designed specifically to open up a rift in space/time. After this event, the cosmic entities saw the potential imbalance allowing these energies to remain freely available would have.
The cosmic entities came together and created the Infinity Stones. On top of this, they also created the Midgard Serpent, whose trope of eating its own tail is a symbol of infinity and you can actually see its scaled form coiling around the mural depicting the Infinity Stones’ creation. As well as that, the entities created the Celestials. In the comics, Death and Eternity use Galactus the world devourer as a means of ensuring balance between them. With his character rights being at Fox it makes sense that the Celestials, specifically Eson the Searcher, would take his place as the maintenance men of cosmic balance. There’s actually a somewhat humanoid looking torso, shoulders and head in the top middle of the mural. Each of these entities took an Infinity Stone so as to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. It was important also that none of the entities take an Infinity Stone that might grant them more power than they needed, otherwise the cosmic balance would be disturbed.
As a result, the Infinity Stones were divided thus: The Celestials took the Power Stone. If it were to be combined with any of the other Stones it would surely cause the most destruction, and thus was given to the party tasked solely with maintaining balance. The Midgard Serpent was given the Space Stone. The Serpent then used the Space Stone to create Yggdrasil, linking the nine worlds together and having them orbit Earth. This was to act as a permanent method of restoring balance. If at such a time an imbalance so great should occur then the Midgard Serpent would devour Yggdrasil, sacrificing some few trillion lives to restore balance. Until then, Yggdrasil would remain as nine connected worlds where life of varying morality would flourish, maintaining a balance between good and evil while also ensuring the preservation of intelligent life. After all, we hear Red Skull refer to Yggdrasil as the “guardian of wisdom and fate” in The First Avenger. Death took the Reality Stone. Given her ultimate nature, Death could have taken any Infinity Stone and it would not have mattered. In the end, she is the fate of the universe. So she took the one with the most destructive capabilities outside of the Power Stone. Entropy took the Mind Stone. Given the nature of Entropy and his relation to time and space it would make sense that he takes the Stone least associated with his governance. For him to take the Time Stone would have been disastrous. Thus Eternity and Infinity are left with the Soul and Time Stones respectively. Much like Entropy, if Eternity were to take the Time Stone he would greatly exceed the other entities in power and thus it makes sense for him to take the Soul Stone. This leaves Infinity with the Time Stone. So, the Infinity Stones have been created and they are all in safe hands.
This doesn’t last. The Celestials end up having a war. Eson is seen destroying a planet in Guardians of the Galaxy, which is his duty. He destroys planets to ensure the prolonging of balance. Ethically speaking it isn’t the best way of going about ensuring balance. The decapitated Celestial head that is Knowhere makes it seem like a fair possibility that the Celestials ended up going to war with one another. Celestials aren’t easily killed, much less decapitated, by lesser beings. So eventually this war ended with the Celestials’ extinction. It’s the only explanation as to how a massive imbalance didn’t come of Eson no longer destroying planets using the Power Stone. The Celestials caused their own extinction. As a result, the remaining entities realised that as long as these Infinity Stones were in their possession, they each posed too much of a threat to one another. Challenge inciting conflict leading to catastrophe and all that. So, the Infinity Stones are given to lesser races. The Asgardians receive the Space Stone and they construct the Bifrost. The Dark Elves are given the Reality Stone and eventually, they try to use it to return their universe to darkness. The Power Stone was given to those cosmic beings we saw in Guardians of the Galaxy. They’re the only ones we can be sure of thus far, but rest assured there is likely an explanation as to where each of them went in the forthcoming movies. Keep your eyes and ears open during Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok. Anyway, all the Infinity Stones ended up being kept relatively safe. For ages, there was balance again. Then of course came the Convergence, when nearly all the Dark Elves were wiped out. Then came the Asgardian-Jotun wars that caused massive loss of life for Asgardians, Jotuns and humans. The Tesseract was put on Earth not long after this war as Odin likely saw it as being safer there. All this while there have been wars among the Kree and Xandarians, as well as the Kree engaging in war with another race yet to be named. In other words, there was a lot of death. Imbalance was on the rise. However, essentially all of these wars are now over, and the only wars we’ve heard of have taken place on Earth. Massive loss of life on a planetary scale, but a mere fraction on a cosmic scale. Uninterrupted peace began to settle in. A few decades down the line and superheroes are preventing extinction level events every other year. Life was being allowed to prosper within Yggdrasil. The time was drawing nearer when the Midgard Serpent would have to enact its terrible duty. Ragnarok was only on the horizon and these attempts at restoring peace are what has set Ragnarok in motion. Given that Thor: Ragnarok takes place before Avengers: Infinity War, it’s safe to assume Yggdrasil isn’t devoured. That causes the Infinity event. Thanos’s endgame is killing all life in the universe in order to court Death. How does he plan on doing this? By assembling the Infinity Stones into an Infinity gauntlet and using all of them to carry out his dastardly scheme. We can only hope the outcome of those movies involves a restoration of balance, or the MCU’s pretty much up the creek without a paddle.
There’s another fairly massively important point to address regarding balance before we get to the part where we can start to wrap this up. In the MCU, there are two Infinity Gauntlets. One fits onto a right hand and the other a left. The right hand Infinity Gauntlet can be seen very briefly in Odin’s treasure room in Thor. Thanos was seen putting on the left hand Infinity Gauntlet in the mid-credits scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron. There hasn’t been much talk addressing the gauntlets bar Kevin Feige confirming that there are indeed two, the first one was not just an out of continuity Easter egg, and an interview in which Jeremy Latcham and Kevin Feige took part where Latcham poses the question, “Which one do you think is the real one?”. His question was met with a look of mild anger on Feige’s face. That implies one of these Infinity Gauntlets isn’t the Infinity Gauntlet, but also that one of them has none of the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet. Assumedly, the left one is the real one, because that’s the one Thanos has, and it’s empty. The one in Odin’s vault has gems in it. The gems correspond to the same colours of the actual Infinity Stones too. If the Avengers: Infinity War teaser is anything to go by, the arrangement of the Infinity Stones is somewhat different between the two gauntlets. However, the teaser isn’t MCU canon, so it can’t be all that trustworthy. Fortunately, there is another representation of Thanos’s gauntlet in the MCU. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, we see a nebula forming the shape of the gauntlet, with the four thus far encountered Infinity Stones on it, and two differently coloured regions where the remaining two Infinity Stones would be. With the gauntlet Thanos has, going from pinkie to thumb to palm as we’re facing it, the arrangement is:
- Pinkie finger: Mind (yellow)
- Ring finger: Power (purple)
- Middle finger: Reality (red)
- Index finger: Space (blue)
- Thumb: Time (green)
- Palm: Soul (orange)
The arrangement in Odin’s vault is slightly harder to determine due to the lighting in the scene being quite dark, but the arrangement, from pinkie to thumb to palm once again, seems to be:
- Pinkie finger: Time (green)
- Ring finger: Soul (orange)
- Middle finger: Reality (red)
- Index finger: Mind (yellow)
- Thumb: Power (purple)
- Palm: Space (blue)
Neither arrangement matches the arrangement of the Infinity Gems as they were on the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics. At some point in history Odin put the Tesseract on Earth. We don’t know why he did this, but we do know that there is a piece of logic that even Loki understood: “it is not wise to keep two Infinity Stones so close together”. Given that the Space Stone had been in the vault for thousands of years at least, and the prophecy of Ragnarok had always been known to the Asgardians, what if it has something to do with the Gauntlet in Odin’s vault? Specifically, the centre gem of the Gauntlet: The Space gem. What entity threatens to devour Yggdrasil and bring about Ragnarok? The Midgard Serpent. What Infinity Stone did the Midgard Serpent take possession of and use to make Yggdrasil? The Space Stone. What if the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin’s vault is meant to destroy the Midgard Serpent? Why would it be used to do that, you may ask. Well, what’s the center Infinity Stone of Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet? The Soul Stone. Which cosmic entity took the Soul Stone upon its creation? Eternity. Which cosmic entity is responsible for the expansion of the universe and by consequence, the creator of life? Eternity. What is Thanos’s goal? To destroy all life in the universe. What’s the best way of going about that? Preventing the possibility of life from even continuing, or better yet, throw in all the other Infinity Stones and destroy all life in one fell swoop without having to wait for heat death. The Infinity Gauntlets are meant to defeat particular entities depending on the Infinity Stone on the palm. Specifically, entities responsible for creating life. It’s just that one gauntlet destroys an evil entity while the other destroys a good entity. If I’m being fully honest, even I’m not totally behind this part of the theory because we’ve seen so little of each Infinity Gauntlet. In total, they’ve probably had a maximum of six or seven seconds of screen time between the two of them, so there’s still a lot to think about and not nearly enough evidence to lend proper credulity to this part of the theory.
Earlier there was a problem mentioned in regards to the Soul Stone and Ragnarok. If Thor has the Gauntlet in the vault that could defeat the Midgard Serpent, why doesn’t he use that rather than seek the Soul Stone? Given that Loki is currently in charge of Asgard, impersonating Odin to do so, it’s doubtful he’d let Thanos down again by preventing the destruction of the Asgardians. The entire race poses a threat to Thanos’s plans, and thus removing them from the picture is a smart move. On top of that, Thanos could go to Asgard during Thor’s absence and destroy the other Gauntlet. That would ensure Ragnarok could go ahead, to a degree, and also prevent the other Gauntlet from being used against him.
The reason that all of this is happening comes down that one event where someone harnessed the power of one of the Infinity Stones and used it to rip space and time asunder. That’s why the Infinity Stones were created. That was the first causality. That was the challenge that brought about the conflicts that pretty much all ended in catastrophe. Why have I harped on that quote so much? That quote was spoken by a character with an Infinity Stone in his forehead. It was written by the same two people who are writing Avengers: Infinity War, the same two people who wrote all the Captain America movies and Thor: The Dark World. It was in a movie that was directed by the same two guys who are going to be directing Avengers: Infinity War, in a scene where the MCU’s main protagonists are discussing the future of the MCU, and the character who says that line is focused on with such intent in that scene that I refuse to believe we’re not meant to read into that line. That. Quote. Means something. On another note, there’s something else that needs addressing. Who was the being who caused the Fault?
Thanos. Thanos is an immortal but he wants to die because he is in love with Lady Death. He believes he can die by winning Death’s favour. He can’t do that without some grand display of affection to show Death he’s worthy of her. How does he decide to do this? He harnesses the fundamental energies of the universe and tries to destroy reality. He fails, only managing localised damage. Damage enough however, for the civilisations of the universe to recognise that Thanos is incredibly powerful and totally insane. In Guardians of the Galaxy Thanos is referred to as two things: 1) The Mad Titan and 2) the most powerful being in the universe. He needed to really gain those reputations, because they’re not just the kind of titles someone is given for a fight in a bar. Trying to destroy the universe and nearly succeeding in doing so are two ways of getting those reputations. After his failure, the Infinity Stones were created, and Thanos went into exile. Now, this part isn’t my theory, but it’s either a massive coincidence or a stroke of genius on Marvel’s part. So far, each of the Infinity Stones has surfaced as an object whose name corresponds to a letter of Thanos’s name. Just a common theory I’d really like to be true, because it gives a bit more depth to Thanos being the instigator of all of the MCU’s problems if the Infinity Stones actually serve as a warning about Thanos. If anyone on the planet knows who actually came up with that theory, I’d like very much to give them credit here.
Thanos then lives alone on Sanctuary, still determined to win Death’s favour. He watches as the universe carries on existing and after a few thousand years he notices something. Cycles. The Convergence, the prophecy of Ragnarok, the constant balance and imbalance and the restoration of temporary cosmic equilibrium. Thanos realises he can exploit all of those things and manipulate events to put all of the Infinity Stones into positions that in one way or another, are beneficial to him. He sends Loki to retrieve the Tesseract. If Loki succeeds, Thanos gets the Tesseract. If Loki fails, he can speed up the process of Ragnarok to the point where Thanos may as well be credited for bringing about the event. The Convergence was approaching by the time Thanos sent Loki to retrieve the Tesseract. He knew that Malekith would try once again to use the Aether to his own ends. If that was the case, why didn’t Thanos get involved? Once again it comes down to Loki and Ragnarok. If Malekith had succeeded, Asgard would have been weakened, and Odin would probably have died. That’s a sign of Ragnarok. Another option would have been that Loki could have escaped prison during the chaos of the Convergence and brought the Tesseract to Thanos. With the Tesseract in hand, Thanos could easily defeat Malekith and retrieve the Reality Stone for himself. The of course, there’s the outcome we have, which is Loki killing Odin and taking his place on the throne, a sure sign of Ragnarok’s impending arrival. Loki now has access to the Tesseract, but rather than keep the Aether on Asgard too, he sends it to the Collector. The Collector is also trying to gather all six of the Infinity Stones. Although his reasons for doing so are benign. Taking the Collector out of the equation while retrieving the Aether would work to Thanos’s favour as the Collector likely knows a lot about the Infinity Stones that Thanos doesn’t want other people knowing. Also, given what is supposedly going to happen in Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is going to basically bring Thanos the Soul Stone. He wouldn’t be doing that if it weren’t for Loki. Thanos sent Ronan to retrieve the Power Stone, promising he’d destroy Xandar with it if Ronan succeeded. The Nova Corps would have posed something of a threat to Thanos’s plans. Their sheer numbers and presence as a law-enforcement body is threat enough. When Ronan turned on him, Thanos was slightly miffed. This is because Thanos and the Other knew Gamora would betray them. They knew she would take the Orb to the Collector. What Thanos didn’t know is that Ronan would manage to get it back. Luckily for him, the Guardians and the Nova Corps managed to defeat Ronan and now the Orb is on Xandar. The Time Stone is on Earth, and we’ll have to wait till Doctor Strange to see how Thanos could factor it into his schemes in such a way that he can’t lose out. Now that all of the Infinity Stones are in places he knows he can infiltrate and destroy, Thanos has made the decision to carry out the rest of his plans of t himself.
Obviously there’s a bit more to it all, but there’s just baseless speculation surrounding aspects of the other films that I decided it best to leave out of this theory for fear of seeming too speculative and not well informed enough. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this, and I’ll update it as often as I can.
Also, jet fuel doesn’t melt steel beams.
Also, there were some photos from a set visit a while back that I think show another bit of this sequence. We see Doctor Strange and Spider-Man on the monitor on the bottom right, and Spidey’s in his Iron Spider suit. My guess is that this is just after we see him land on that ship like we saw in the first trailer, and we’ll see some sort of a break-in sequence involving the three heroes and the ship. As to what’s on the ship, I’d assume it’s a member of the Black Order. Perhaps Ebony Maw, as we’ve seen set photos that look like they’ll be rendered in post where Ebony Maw (played by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) is attempting to take the Time Stone from Doctor Strange.
Ant-Man & The Wasp is certain to provide the answer to that question. We know that at least some of the plot of this movie will be dedicated to rescuing Hope’s mother Janet, the original Wasp, from the Quantum Realm. In the words of Hank Pym, the Quantum Realm is a place where all concepts of space and time become irrelevant. I believe that the Quantum Realm, when you go as far into it as possible, goes to the point of interacting with the very fabric of reality. The weirdness of the last few shots of Scott Lang in the Quantum Realm toward the end of Ant-Man certainly give credence to this idea. The fractal folding of his physical form, that we saw again in Doctor Strange, and that bleak grey / black space that we see him floating through seem like a process of transition from one part of physical space into another. And I don’t mean in terms of actually travelling from point A to B, because we see Scott emerge from the exact same spot. I mean, the Quantum Realm may serve as a means of shrinking through the fabric of reality, and into a whole new reality. I believe this is knowledge that Janet Van Dyne will be privy to, having spent so much of her life trapped within the Quantum Realm. Heck, I’d bet money on Janet being the one to deliver the infamous line from the Galactus Saga in the classic F4 comics.
Marvel Cinematic Universe Theories 