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I watched Avengers: Infinity War today, and there's one thing I don't get.

Dr. Strange saw a bunch of alternative futures, using the Time Stone, of which there's only ONE which the Avengers win. And Dr. Strange hinted that he is following this potential future.

Can't Thanos do the exact same thing, now? Especially since he has ALL the infinity stones, which enhances the Time Stone's power even more. He should be able to see that he will (inevitably?) fail.

I put "inevitably" there since, he too can see in the future and potentially avoid failing or being beaten.

My point is that is can Thanos override Dr. Strange's "Future"?

Napoleon Wilson
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Max Power
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    Maybe I am wrong, but does the person, who possesses the Time stone, need to learn some spells to use it? I mean, in Dr. Strange movie, he went to Kathmandu, Nepal where he learned and then later possessed the Time Stone, so that he could be able to use the ability of the Stone? Or once a person possesses the Stone, he can know by default all the spells to go with it? – Ragnarsson May 03 '18 at 08:06
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    @Ragnarsson Thanos used the stone in the movie, didn't he? So guess he knows the spell. Or maybe, there aren't any spells. – ironman May 03 '18 at 10:14
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    @Ragnarsson I agree with your line of thought. My impression is that he is that he is not aware of the future sight capabilities, hasn't considered it useful or hasn't "mastered" all the time stone's capabilities yet. – josh May 03 '18 at 10:59
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    That could be part of what Dr. Strange saw - that there is only one future where Thanos didn't bother with looking into the future and Thanos doesn't do this because of X, Y, and Z that Dr. Strange sets into motion. – Phlegon_of_Tralles May 03 '18 at 11:50
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    "He should be able to see that he will (inevitably?) fail." - Will he really? Technically, he already won. No matter what happends for him next, he can't "fail", so he has no reason to check the future. – Liora Haydont May 03 '18 at 18:27
  • @LioraHaydont I highly doubt half of the universe, especially the important superheroes, will remain dead for good. SOMETHING IS going to happen to change that. (I've heard movie announcements for one of the dead heroes). In other words, events are going to occur which will go against Thanos. But with the Time Stone, he should(?) be able to foresee this. But I agree with the anwer below, that situations like these involve paradoxical arguments, which are difficult to explain. I'll leave it at that. – Max Power May 03 '18 at 22:59
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    Dr Strange looked into the future because they were on the verge of defeat. Thanos doesn't have a reason to so at all, because in his mind, he's already won. Somehow I got this feeling that the first stone that will get snatched from Thanos is the time stone, way before he is close to defeat, so he won't do what Dr Strange did. – ibrahim mahrir May 07 '18 at 15:06
  • But didn't Thanos already win? Why would he worry about being defeated? He is retired and happy at this point. – JPhi1618 Nov 26 '18 at 15:20

5 Answers5

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Can't Thanos do the exact same thing, now?

Sure, but there's no guarantee that Thanos would discover an outcome that would lead to his demise.

For all we know, if Dr. Strange would have continued his search through the future, then, he could have discovered another couple, or even couple hundred, different paths that lead to beating Thanos. Conversely, it's also possible that he'd never discover another single one..

Similarly, if Thanos were to look into the future, then, it's easily possible that he might not discover a future that leads to his doom until his 4 billionth trace of the future; maybe even 4 trillionth!

Given that there are literally an infinite number of "branches" that occur when searching through the future, really, Dr. Strange was extremely lucky to find a winning future in just 14 million searches.

At the same time, perhaps Thanos just doesn't have a motivation to do such a thing -- he's just obtained the six most powerful objects in the universe, is now the most powerful being himself, and, has just accomplished his ultimate goal.

My point is that is can Thanos override Dr. Strange's "Future"?

If he's able to find the exact same future that Dr. Strange saw, then, maybe it's possible, but maybe it's not.

This kind of topic usually invokes paradoxical arguments, etc., so I won't get into all that, but, in general, perhaps some futures can't be changed, regardless of a character's efforts to avoid it?

A classic example of this kind of story (where the character is aware of their future, makes an active attempt to avoid it, but by doing so actually fulfills their destiny) is the Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex.

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Charles
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    Thanos just doesn't have a motivation to do such a thing is the more right answer, in my opinion – Dane May 03 '18 at 04:04
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    Agree. it would seem that being the now most powerful entity can obviously create that "God complex", thinking you are untouchable, so why bother looking to see if you can be beaten. – Nicholas Aysen May 03 '18 at 06:23
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  • Aren't the stones depleted of power after he did what he did and 2. does Thanos posses the magical skills to use the timestone as the eye of agamotto ??
    • – Иво Недев May 03 '18 at 11:24
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    @ИвоНедев The Eye uses the Timestone's power, not the other way around. – Feathercrown May 03 '18 at 11:41
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    @Charles Because there are infinite futures, the chance he'd find Dr. Strange's is 0. Therefore, he cannot prepare for that exact future. Pretty lucky for the Avengers. – Feathercrown May 03 '18 at 11:44
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    Totally agree with the motivation aspect. From Thanos POV, he's done. He 'won the game', so to speak. He's accomplished his life's goal. – Phlegon_of_Tralles May 03 '18 at 11:52
  • @Feathercrown I know but also there's distinctiveness between them. I dont think Thanks can use the eye but only the timestone when part of the gauntlet, he just doesn't have the mystical powers to do so. Much in the same way we were not able to create portals with the tesaract but only harvest some of its energy. – Иво Недев May 03 '18 at 12:52
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    "Dr. Strange was extremely lucky to find a winning future in just 14 million searches." That depends on what the odds actually were (unknown). Maybe the odds of winning were hugely in the Avengers' favour, but Dr Strange was extremely unlucky to only find one winning future in the first 14 million he examined ;) – Lightness Races in Orbit May 03 '18 at 13:13
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit That's exactly correct, and I think my response sufficiently conveys this overall uncertainty. Really though, the comment about Dr. Strange being extremely lucky was more about how few of potential futures Strange traced w.r.t. how many actually exist. With Strange and company only having a few hours to come up with a plan, Dr. Strange was lucky to find even just one solution within the time allotted. From a mathematical perspective, 14 million is basically zero when compared to larger numbers. – Charles May 04 '18 at 02:05
  • We are in agreement, except with the wording in your answer, "Dr. Strange was extremely lucky to find a winning future in just 14 million searches" which we have agreed is not a fact (and as I've explored the completely opposite may be true)... s/was/may have been/ would work though. – Lightness Races in Orbit May 04 '18 at 08:57
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit But, it's not a "mathematical lie". It's like me going out into the world and marking a single blade of grass with a marker, and then asking you to choose the grass blade that has the mark (or even marking a few thousand blades). If you find a marked blade in your first 14 million selections, then that makes you extremely lucky, since the event of you choosing a correct blade in such a small number of attempts w.r.t. the total amount of blades out there, is extremely small. This is sound logic, both in general and mathematically/statistically speaking. – Charles May 04 '18 at 09:06
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit As the number of unsuccessful selections increases, the chance of selecting a marked blade increases (and "the less luck there is to gain", since eventually it's a 1/1 chance of selecting a marked blade; i.e., it's a guarantee). So, the converse is true too.. a lack of selection invokes higher uncertainty, and therefore, "higher luck earned" when a correct selection is made so early on. – Charles May 04 '18 at 09:09
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit In the end, luck only exists because Dr. Strange is searching for a specific future, and he actually discovers one. If, on the other hand, Dr. Strange was simply picking cards from a deck, and had no preference on what he chooses (like a participant in a magic trick), then, luck doesn't exist. – Charles May 04 '18 at 09:14
  • @Charles: Semantics. – Lightness Races in Orbit May 04 '18 at 09:29
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit All due respect, it's not semantics -- it's intro statistics and combinatorics, where luck can be thought of as a kind of variance. – Charles May 04 '18 at 09:35
  • @Charles: It is semantics, the decision to word the quoted text in the answer the way you have, due to the statistical and combinatoric facts upon which we have already agreed. But that's ok, we don't need to continue – Lightness Races in Orbit May 04 '18 at 09:48
  • "Similarly, if Thanos were to look into the future, then, it's easily possible that he might not discover a future that leads to his doom until his 4 billionth trace of the future; maybe even 4 trillionth!" Presumably, each future that Strange saw was from a different set of actions on his part. He then performed the actions that set into motion the future that leads to victory, eliminating all the possible timelines where he did something different, thus paring down the number of futures Thanos has to look through. – Acccumulation May 07 '18 at 17:45
  • I imagine the single future either involves Thanos seeing it or it involves him not seeing it. If the opposite happens, then they are not in that timeline. – David Starkey May 07 '18 at 17:54
  • Of note, there's some hinting that in the final scene after Thanos "snaps", he utilizes 4 of the stones, Soul,Mind,Reality,and Time, to remove himself from the situation of Thor's Stormbreaker implanted in his chest... he may have removed himself from the situation by going back in time himself, creating a situation where to find out the same as Strange, he'd have to review far more possibilities. – enorl76 Sep 25 '18 at 03:04
  • To extend your answer, Thanos already did the thing he wanted to do. To observe a timeline, Strange would be testing how his own actions lead to a different outcome (he can't control others); which means that Strange was looking for the best way to achieve what he wants (Thanos defeated). However, Thanos doesn't need to do this. He's already doing what he wants to do, and achieves it in the end. So why would he second guess himself if he is clearly already well prepared? – Flater Jan 07 '19 at 14:27