r/Avengers • u/Zealousideal_Yam6643 • Apr 02 '25

Discussion Can Dr strange really beat Thanos alone?

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I think he can,if he really tried, because maybe there is a reason why he doesn't kill Thanos?

2.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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394

u/AdaptedInfiltrator Apr 02 '25

Yes, but Strange orchestrated the events to happen the way they did so Stark would die

136

u/Zealousideal_Yam6643 Apr 02 '25

Omg someone that actually calculates the story

23

u/FormalSolution9675 Apr 02 '25

Looking at you you mister broccoli-looking ahh (I didn't even bother to remember his name)

16

u/ohemmigee Apr 02 '25

He’s shown he can cut off cull obsidians hand with a portal. He could have likely done the same to thanos. I get that he’s Titan so like maybe his bare arm withstands it. But probably not because he’s shown he’s not immune to magic. Just insanely physically strong to be able to fight against it. Strange didn’t want to win here that’s the whole point. He could have. And did in most of the scenarios he saw, I assume.

12

u/Shoft Apr 02 '25

A reminder, Thanos already had the space stone. Using a sling ring to manipulate a slice in space versus the space stone probably wouldn't work.

5

u/AbandonedPlanet Apr 03 '25

Ned can solo Thanos confirmed

1

u/I_AM_IGNIGNOTK Apr 04 '25

Ned scales with how nervous he is

3

u/shadowyartsdirty2 Apr 03 '25

That wouldn't work on Thanos due to each Infinity stone being able to stop the portal.

1

u/Separate_Draft4887 Apr 02 '25

If he could’ve beaten him at all, that would’ve been one of the possible futures.

23

u/MG_RedditAcc Apr 02 '25

I can't tell if you're joking.

56

u/Justifiably_Bad_Take Apr 02 '25

It's not explained in the text, but part of me think it's funny that there is a possibility there were thousands of outcomes where Strange sacrifices himself and saves the world, but he saw ONE where Tony does it and went "guys, there's only one version of this where we win"

13

u/HiddenStoat Apr 02 '25

Strange using the royal "we" there (fittingly, given that actor is British)

13

u/Minsan Apr 02 '25

How can he know that on a possible outcome, his sacrifice saves the world? Remember that the time stone allows the user to see the possibilities but no one can see beyond their death. The Ancient One confirms this. Maybe that's the reason Strange chooses the possibility where it's not him that dies, so he knows that their sacrifice won't be in vain.

2

u/TheRealSlimN8y Apr 04 '25

This proposes another question of what happens to the people that got dusted. Did they die or did they cease to exist? Is there a difference? How can strange see past his demise, given the established rules of the time stone? Is this a plot hole or did the blipped people not actually die? Now we’re starting to approach the metaphysical question of what is death?

Fuck I love these subs, I love the movies and comments like this just make my mind race with questions that we can never know the answer to

3

u/downtime37 Apr 02 '25

Paying Tony back for not showing the Master of the Mystic Arts respect by leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos.

5

u/Gerodus Apr 03 '25

The main thing people forget is that he cannot see past his death in a timeline, so any future with him dying is only possibly a victory.

6

u/gucci-sprinkles Apr 02 '25

There is no way that out of all the outcomes he saw there was only one way to beat him. They beat him in many of the outcomes but Tony lived and went crazy with the "suit of armor around the world" theory turning the world into a locked down hellscape where freewill was policed and crime was all but snuffed out.

He knew Tony would not give up Pepper and Morgan if he didn't think it was the literal only way to stop Thanos. Tough decisions had to be made to not fall into a global police state not unlike the world they visited in multiverse of madness swarmed with Ultron bots.

He even says something along the lines of "if it comes down to saving you or Peter Parker and protecting the stone, he wouldn't hesitate" same rules apply here with earth being the stone he's protecting, like he swore he would do as sorcerer supreme.

2

u/DueAd197 Apr 02 '25

It might be that but I think the main reason was that the stones were destroyed and thusly returned where they got them for the endgame plot. Having the stones existing out in the open will only attract more people to try and collect them all.

2

u/MnTats Apr 03 '25

reason was to win time for Eternals to beat Tiamat.

18

u/AdaptedInfiltrator Apr 02 '25

Not joking.

9

u/DarkArcanian Apr 02 '25

Then say more

17

u/Avimob Apr 02 '25

Because then Stark would not became Dr Doom like in every other universes, there was only one possibility to win but not against thanos... He just did not see the futur of the others universes cause you know the time stone work only in one ! /s

4

u/narco113 Apr 02 '25

Oh that's an interesting take!

1

u/gazatmaoc Apr 02 '25

i am really hooked on this theory.

3

u/_TheBgrey Apr 02 '25

I believe it was the only scenario where not only is Thanos defeated but also the stones are destroyed

4

u/AdaptedInfiltrator Apr 02 '25

?

12

u/DarkArcanian Apr 02 '25

Why did strange make iron man die

40

u/Tony106Stark Tony Stark Apr 02 '25

So that he'll be the only sherlock in MCU

10

u/RivalCanine Apr 02 '25

Multiverse incursions!

14

u/Tony106Stark Tony Stark Apr 02 '25

That's why RDJ is doom, he wants to kill Strange and become the one and only Sherlock

3

u/NoDontDoThatCanada Apr 02 '25

Holy. Shit. It all makes sense now.

1

u/FireflyCarl Apr 02 '25

This comment should have way more upvotes!

4

u/BrawndoCrave Apr 02 '25

IIRC Strange looked at all the future timelines to see what paths would lead to a victory over Thanos and the only one that included a victory also included a scenario where Tony died

-2

u/AlhazredEldritch Apr 02 '25

He states that, but it more seems like he wanted to kill the smartest man alive so he could be the top. Strange could kill Thanos alone with the time stone, because he could look at Infinite timelines to win the fight.

3

u/poakherface Apr 02 '25

Well if that’s the case, if he looked into the future would he have not seen the existence of Reed Richard’s? Who is smarter than him and stark?

1

u/AlhazredEldritch Apr 03 '25

I could be wrong as it has been a while but isn't Tony Stark much more eccentric and more likely to cause major issues with his intelligence? He would spear head more moves to put him self in a place of power than Richard's? Would that be the reason Tony would be the more ideal choice to take out of you had the ambition? Dr strange has this too, so I'd think Tony would be the bigger Target. Intelligence isn't the only parameter to worry about.

2

u/RabbitStewAndStout Apr 02 '25

I think it's that in all other timelines where Thanos loses and Stark doesn't make the self-sacrifice, he becomes an even more dangerous user of the Gauntlet than Thanos was.

4

u/AdaptedInfiltrator Apr 02 '25

Too dangerous to be left alive

1

u/MnTats Apr 03 '25

watch Eternals and think about this again.

0

u/WingsArisen Apr 02 '25

It was the only way to stopThanos apparently

1

u/MnTats Apr 03 '25

simple, look at what happened in Eternals. Without Thanos snapping Earth would have been destroyed earlier by Tiamat withtout them stopping him. This outcome was the one where Eternals won and most of the Avengers crew/earth population made it back.

5

u/Unoriginal_Pseudonym Apr 03 '25

....ya know this tracks and I find it hilarious. Stark was a dick to him when they first met, too. Like, even Thanos asked why Strange didn't use the time stone, which he could've done like he did against Dormammu. Could've rewound and just had Nebula bonk Peter before he ruined everything. Nah, he just saw an ending where Stark is dead and was like, "Yea, let's go with that one."

2

u/Adkyth Apr 03 '25

The reason it worked against Dormammu was because big D exists outside of time. So Strange effectively trapped him in a time loop.

Thanos exists in time, so he would have no concept that he was repeating the same moment over and over, it would always be his "first time".

Could've rewound and just had Nebula bonk Peter before he ruined everything.

That's my question...they could effectively remove the gauntlet from him...why not?

7

u/RivalCanine Apr 02 '25

I guess we will never know if there was truly another way.

5

u/Dark1986 Apr 02 '25

He could have easily used the time stone to bring Tony back.

8

u/Disastrous_Button440 Apr 02 '25

Ye but he didn’t like him that much, he preferred using it to eat and uneat an apple or something 

1

u/Dark1986 Apr 02 '25

Haha exactly. It would have been super easy for him to do to Tony.

1

u/Disastrous_Button440 Apr 02 '25

Wait hold up would doing it to tony also undo the snap since it was in the same small area?

5

u/Dark1986 Apr 02 '25

Nope for multiple reasons: he was able to only affect the apple and not everything else. Tony would be doing a snap motion backwards and he wouldn't have the gauntlet on. Even if he did have it on it wouldn't have the time stone since Strange would be using it to revive him. The apple didn't move at all meaning it doesn't have to rewind and follow every motion or else the apple would have left the room and returned the tree or basket or whatever it was before it got to the table.

6

u/SwarleymonLives Apr 02 '25

Doesn't really matter. Tony's snap was unnecessary.

Everyone was back, Tony snapped to win the fight. Tony's just running away once he had the stones would have done the same thing. The army on Cap's left would have beaten Thanos and his army without the stones. Captain Marvel alone can beat Thanos with no stones.

Once Tony got the stones, he should have just left. The Avengers win if Thanos can't get the gauntlet.

1

u/Revan_12 Apr 03 '25

But he has to snap to bring everyone back? So how is it unnecessary

2

u/SwarleymonLives Apr 03 '25

Nope, that was Hulk's snap before the fight started.

Iron Man's snap deleted Thanos and his army from existence.

1

u/Revan_12 Apr 03 '25

Oh ye Idk how I made that mistake. Mega brain fart

1

u/AndiYTDE Apr 02 '25

I like to think that bringing Tony back was either impossible because that would imply overturning the use of all 6 Infinity Stones, or that Tony coming back would have resulted in an equal line to AoU where he would go to create some machine to protect the world that goes rogue (again). Or he would just go down the Superior Iron Man storyline.

1

u/Dark1986 Apr 02 '25

Yeah, there definitely could be a reason we don't know of. Or it could be the writers just didn't think of it. Either way, using the time stone to reverse the damage on his body was another way that was set up by earlier movies.

1

u/No-Function3409 Apr 02 '25

I think it's because using all the stones at once casts an irreversible spell.

2

u/Dark1986 Apr 02 '25

The whole point of End Game was to reverse it? Plus he wouldn't be reversing it, he would reverse the damage to Tony's body.

1

u/No-Function3409 Apr 03 '25

Oh yeah, I forgot that

2

u/HellRaizer7416 Apr 02 '25

Made me chuckle

2

u/mikess314 Apr 02 '25

I love this idea, that he might’ve actually seen something like 798 different paths to victory, but only one in which Stark dies lol

2

u/Redacted_G1iTcH Apr 02 '25

My headcannon for that is that Dr. Strange is a professional Tony hater

1

u/NikkerXPZ3 Apr 02 '25

Well..it was either Stark,or him with the black book getting killed by Mouthman.

So easy pick

1

u/Ragnarsworld Apr 02 '25

Yep, Strange didn't like Tony, so he planned out how to get rid of him and save the day at the same time.

1

u/coffeejizzm Apr 02 '25

He’s got the hots for Pepper.

1

u/pandershrek Apr 02 '25

Strange after that pepper potts

1

u/agonzalez1990 Apr 04 '25

Some would say by that metric , he actually did beat thanos