“You are not the only one cursed with knowledge,” Thanos told Tony Stark in Avengers: Infinity War.A new theory regarding Avengers: Endgame has surfaced online. According to it, the seemingly throwaway line by Thanos to Tony Stark (“You are not the only one cursed with knowledge”) actually hints towards a deeper connection between the two characters. The Mad Titan uttered that dialogue during the battle on his dead planet, Titan, in Avengers: Infinity War.
In that scene, Stark was surprised that Thanos knew his name, even though they had never met. Stark had had visions of death and destruction in Avengers: Age of Ultron and presumably before and after too, but the threat he sensed coming to the earth did not materialise in his mind in the form of Thanos, though he did know it came from the outer space. Thanos, though, knew who exactly Stark was.
The theory, proposed by a user called burghguy3, says that Thanos also must have had visions of his planet’s destruction before it actually happened. The user says, “In IW when Thanos tells Stark he’s “not the only one cursed with knowledge” most people agree that he’s speaking to Stark’s having seen visions of the future. But that sentence also means that Thanos is having similar visions. Which makes sense. Thanos is singularly focused on his goal of decimation and will stop at nothing to make it a reality. This mirrors Stark’s similar megalomania which led to Ultron. Remember, before leading a planet-hopping genocidal army, Thanos attempted to save his own planet due to the visions he saw of it being in ruins, but was unable to ultimately save his planet. This role of ignored prophet is one that Stark is all too familiar with.”
Who sends these visions to Tony and Thanos? Somebody through the Quantum Realm like Janet sent to Scott Lang in Ant Man and the Wasp? Is some higher being involved? The user further adds that Thor also got similar visions of the Infinity Stones in Age of Ultron.
“People also forget that Stark and Thanos aren’t the only two people “cursed with knowledge” Thor has similar visions of the infinity stones in A2. There is also the prophecy of Ragnarok itself, which was likely a vision as well. Maybe it was Odin’s vision, and it compelled him to conquer the Nine Realms, and he realized that Hela was actually the harbinger of Ragnarok, not the savior of it,” the user says.
The user posits that two opposing cosmic forces might be involved. Eternity-Death or Master Order-Lord Chaos might be manipulating Tony and Thanos for their own purposes. Note that they are actual characters in Marvel Comics and may crop up one day in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Will any of these characters appear in Endgame? Only time will tell.
We know for certain that MCU is going more “universal” with the involvement of Captain Marvel and with her, two belligerent extraterrestrial forces — Kree and Skrulls — are entering in the MCU story. The Eternals are also going to enter this cinematic universe with a movie soon. The action is not going to be limited to just earth anymore. Next big villain, if indeed there will be, will likely be a cosmic entity like Galactus and the stakes will probably be universal.
Avengers: Endgame releases on April 26.
