Just in-case you haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame, SPOLERS AHEAD!
Most of us love Tony Stark; most of us almost had our jaws dropped when he held all the Infinity Stones; and probably all of us are sad on his final farewell to the MCU when he died after snapping Thanos and his army away. But did you know though all of this is somewhat a result of a simple blunder on his part?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Iron Man – in fact he is my favorite Avenger out of all of them. But this simple plot-hole on his part still drives me crazy today, thinking everything could have been avoided and Tony would still be part of the MCU.
So, what is this fatal mistake he made on his part? Let’s talk about it.
Just a quick recap of what happened before Tony’s snap:
- After Thanos snapped in Infinity War, he destroyed the Infinity Stones alongside with the Infinity Gauntlet.
- The Avengers travelled back in different parts of the multiverse to gather variants of the Infinity Stones.
- Tony, alongside Rocket and Bruce Banner made the Iron Gauntlet – their own version of the Infinity Gauntlet.
That last part where they made their own version of the gauntlet is where lies Tony’s mistake. Fast forward on their final battle, you can see how the Iron Gauntlet is the major problem for the Avengers (aside from Thanos of course). The gauntlet is constantly being fought over by Thanos and the Avengers; since it acts like a “nuclear bomb” that once used, the opposing team might as well say “bye-bye”, sit in defeat, and wait for their demise.
The Avengers took turns in delivering the Iron Gauntlet away from Thanos as far as possible. From Hawkeye to Black Panther, to Spiderman, to Captain Marvel – almost everyone was involved in moving the gauntlet from one place to another, hoping they could return the Infinity Stones before Thanos gets a hold of them again. This distracted the Avengers a lot since they are not only focusing on fighting Thanos and his army, but they also had to keep an eye on the gauntlet and take turns on protecting it.
I personally think that if there was no gauntlet on this final fight, Thanos and his army wouldn’t stand a chance. Of course, if you watched the movie - Thanos still had his hands on the gauntlet in the end and almost snapped everyone away again. This forced Tony to execute his “emergency nuclear bomb plan” by quickly transferring all the Infinity Stones from the gauntlet to his armor. With his armor and body acting as the new Infinity Gauntlet, Tony snapped Thanos and his troops away thus in result killed him from all the energy of “the snap”.
But what’s wrong with this logic?
We all know Tony loved Pepper (his wife) and Morgan (his daughter) and he’d do anything to protect them. Because of his fear that his loved ones will be in danger of “extraterrestrial threats”, Tony planned the whole “Ultron robots protecting the Earth” thing that didn’t go so well. Still, we can see how far Tony could extend his efforts just to protect people. Tony dying in Endgame after battling their first ever extraterrestrial enemy seems a bit off to me. If I were Tony, I’d probably do my best to still “be around” after Thanos - just in case a far worst enemy appears. People will still “need my brains and technology to fight” – would probably be the main motivation I have in my head while fighting Thanos.
Tony also knew that when an ordinary human does “the snap”, it would eventually kill said person. So, this is where it doesn’t make sense: why would Tony purposely have himself killed, where he now has a daughter to protect to, and that the world needs him more than ever (post-Thanos threats).
Probably because he had no choice, right? Snapping Thanos and his army away seems like a very reasonable move to win the battle. But then again, almost all the MCU characters are on that fight! Without the gauntlet constantly distracting them, they could have easily defeated Thanos and his army! Even with just Wanda, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and Thor focusing on Thanos; and then the rest are fighting the army – that would still be a sure-win on their part! Thanos had no Infinity Stones to use so he could be easily defeated.
Have you guessed it already? The problem is on the Infinity Gauntlet being “involved” on the final battle. And this is where Tony had his fatal mistake too – he could have easily created a functionality/feature on the gauntlet on which he could just easily “turn it off” whenever he wants to! I know it sounds silly, but it is true!
Imagine having this feature on when Thanos arrived, Tony could have just said “Okay Friday, turn it off” - and as easy as that, no more worrying of the gauntlet! Even it landed on Thanos’ hands, it would still not be a problem since it simply wouldn’t work for him! If Tony wants, he could go the extra mile and have this gauntlet “disassemble” itself; and those separate parts would fuse on to the clothes/armors of each Avenger like it’s their duty to protect it. Even with the Iron Gauntlet having a “turn off” function seems a big help already.
This was Tony’s fatal mistake. After getting all the Infinity Stones, he was quite comfortable already and did not foresaw the future - “what if there’s an upcoming threat again, and the stones would be used again to destroy everyone”. He did not have any emergency plan to hide or protect the Infinity Stones.
Lesson learned: always have a backup plan for EVERYTHING. Do not underestimate the little things in life. It may not be a big of a deal for now, but in the future it can be.
That being said - I still love Tony Stark, and he will always be my favorite Avenger. His snap still protected everyone, and he will always be considered as the greatest Avenger for me. It’s sad to see him go, and we only hope to see just even a cameo of him in the future MCU movies.
Thank you for reading and have a great day!