Avengers: Age of Ultron
Thor : Ragnarokis technically stick with on fromAvengers : Age of Ultron , but Taika Waititi discount Joss Whedon ’s team - up to the extent that we ’re left with another perplexing Marvel plot hollow . Just what ’s going on with those Infinity Stones ?
Phase 3 has seen Marvel up its game in terms of universe expansion , although regrettably that ’s come with increased persistence problem . To wit , every undivided pic in the run has some fundamental plot of ground maw : Vision said it had been eight class sinceIron ManinCaptain America : Civil War;Doctor Strangedoesn’t go alongside any of the other films;Guardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2clashed with The Avengers ; andSpider - Man : Homecomingcracked the timeline right open .
We were almost were live on to crownThor : Ragnarokas the first film in Phase 3 thatdidn’tcomplicate things;previously reported timeline errorshave been disproven . Indeed , despite reuniting two of Earth ’s Mightiest Heroes , against the grand scope of the Marvel Cinematic Universe it tries to be rather standalone , with much of itssetup for next year ’s mega team - upAvengers : eternity Warsaved for the mid - credits scene . However , when you look at the God of Thunder ’s full arc across all six appearances ( and counting ) , it does n’t make much sense at all .
Thor: Ragnarok Completely Bypasses Avengers: Age of Ultron’s Setup
The last time we saw Thor was inAvengers : Age of Ultron . While Tony Stark and Steve Rogers laid their pettifoggery base forCivil War , Odinson run on his own side - commission ; haunted by visions of Asgard ’s wipeout , he visited a cave that bridged realms and discovered the truth behind the Infinity Stones , the franchise ’s MacGuffins that Thanos will try and institute together inInfinity War . He terminate the film returning to space to dog down the remaining Stones and snap the mystery .
In the very first scene ofRagnarok , we discover that did n’t go too well . Thor start out by narrate his skeleton prisoner buddy that he did initially seek to witness the block of metal but only observe " death and destruction " and finally present up , or else bend his attention to the prophecy of Ragnarok ( the Revelation of Saint John the Divine that first sparked his seeking ) . For the rest of the film , the Infinity Stones and the sore Titan hunting them are n’t really factored in at all . The only point they factor in in isLoki seemingly swiping the Tesseractin Asgard ’s last moments .
Of naturally , through all this we still knowwhere ( most of ) the Infinity Stones are : the Tesseract ( Space Stone ) is in Odin ’s Vault ( now Loki ’s air hole ) ; the Aether ( Reality Stone ) was last seen been given to the Collector by Sif and Volstagg ( and presumably remain in the wreckage of his museum ) ; the orb ( Power Stone ) is locked away on Xander ; the Mind Stone is in Vision ’s os frontale ; and the Orb of Agomotto ( Time Stone ) is in the willpower of Doctor Strange . There ’s only one missing - the Soul Stone - which will in all likelihood be revealed to be power Wakanda ’s advanced tech in next year’sBlack Panther .
The problem is , Thor ca n’t have looked into any of these . At the end ofAge of Ultron , he stated the Mind Stone was " the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few twelvemonth " , incriminate that he have sex about the four reveal up to that degree - the three he ’d encountered straight off and the Power Stone fromGuardians of the Galaxy(which make some sense consider Ego said Logos of Star - Lord holding it had journey far ) . Yet he does n’t come out to have chased up these leads .
He emphatically did n’t render to Asgard to check on the Tesseract or ask the well - inform Odin ( now Loki in disguise , but Thor does n’t know that ) about any of this - he ’s not been there sinceThe Dark Worldat the kickoff ofRagnarok . Nor does he seem to chase after up theThor 2 ’s Aether , which he may also think is still in Asgard as Sif moved it after he leave ; it ’s arduous to tell becausethe Warriors Three are killedas soon as they flex up in the threequel , but there ’s no indication he mentioned the military mission to his friends . Presumably , he does n’t go to Xandar either because in theory that should have led him to stories of Ronan and perhaps even an allusion of Thanos . And , to flesh out it up , the fact he just get out the fresh - formed Vision on Earth without a check - up was already weird inAvengers 2(we’ll forgive the Time Stone attend as he was unaware of sorcerers on Earth untilRagnarok ) .
There is a very obvious paper trail through the MCU for the Infinity Stones that Thor fundamentally ignored for two years and adjudicate was dead . Of course , it is potential he did check in with the warrior Three and Nova Prime , but if he did why were there no advancements in the sheath ? It ’s not like Thanos is one step ahead of Thor either ; the big bad yet to get his golden glove on any Stones yet ( in theSDCCInfinity Wartrailerhe ’s seen with just the Space Stone in the Infinity Gauntlet , imply the Tesseract is his first acquisition ) , so that " dying and demolition " account does n’t switch off it .
And that may be because there is n’t a narration explanation : it ’s all to do with studio political relation .
The Plan For Thor 3 Changed After Age of Ultron
All this is evidently a answer of a braggart directional change . years of Ultronwas quite obliquely setting upThor 3 in 2015 , but between then and now the story approach shifted ; the Stone teases are ignored and the Ragnarok visual modality that drives our Italian sandwich is n’t ascribe toAvengers 2at all . Obviously , with the hiring of Waititi , Ragnarokbecame a much more comedic film than its original pitch suggested ( tell by the logotype changeand general presentation of the cinema by Feige ) , although the actual reason is big than that .
By all accounts , the Thor subplot inAge of Ultronwas pressure on Joss Whedon by Marvel ’s Creative Committee ; a think tank that provide sales and branding notes on all MCU project , often at the expense of the picture show ’s quality , this over - the - top continuation setup is their assay-mark . The Creative Committee was eventually disbandedshortly afterAvengers 2 , much to the delight of the enfranchisement ’s filmmakers , and it seems the MCU ’s obsessive focus on overtInfinity Warsetup went with it ; Phase 3 has been marked out by a much calmer , standalone stress than was originally expected . Whether this meansRagnarokwas initially going to becenteredon the Stones or not is n’t known , but they were likely to have least has a throughline . Well , until behind - the - conniption change intend all that setup was unworthy , hence it being tossed aside with a single line .
Sadly , while that all explain it , the given solution does n’t apply in terms of the storey . It confuses Thor ’s character and , while Waititi takes some vainglorious indecorum with the God of Thunder ’s established personality , nothing is quite as contradictory as this ; he now appears light-minded and ungentle . The problem is n’t that the Stones were n’t in the film , it ’s that they were so airily toss aside at the expense of the independent character . This burns especially as the Waititi - directedCivil WarshortTeam Thordidpresent a drollery riff on the investigating .
While most of the Phase 3 plot of ground maw come from stray lines of dialogue misrepresent the past , this one undermines an full arc from a previous cinema , something that will stand out when viewing the full MCU story . And yet , here ’s something funny : while it is really unsatisfying , this has n’t been jumped on by buff anywhere almost as much asHomecoming ’s " Eight Years Later " card , which suggest that Marvel ’s got away with it . Big as it may be , Thor blank out the Infinity Stones elapse the " fridge examination " ( Alfred Hitchcock order if a trouble with a motion picture did n’t hit a viewer until they were let a drink at plate afterward , it was n’t in reality a problem at all ) .
Now it ’s been discover , though , let ’s hope the Russos make the time inInfinity Warfor Tony Stark to chastise his lazy Asgardian friend ; he could have cease Thanos year ago .
Next:Is It Possible For Marvel To Fix Their Broken Timeline?
