Spoilers Avengers: Endgame grade and discussion thread

"Five years have passed since half the population vanished...or as introverts call it, winning the lottery!"

That was my favorite part, along with the Spaceballs gag.

Is it bad that I really want to watch Rat-Man and Time Van?

 

Believe me it's not just you. I would watch the hell out of that

 

That rat is the savior to half the universes beings, show a little respect!
"Mr. Rat-man and the Time van" would be binge-worthy.

 

Imagine Doctor Strange looking through 6 million possible futures and realising that the final victory is entirely dependent on one rat.

 

Yeah, that was good - but the narrator should have called it "the riff on the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale that borrows the title of the Star Trek: Voyager finale."

 

Kind of takes away the emotional impact of that final look between Dr. Strange and Tony before Tony confronts Thanos.

This is THE pivotal moment of the movie, the crux of this timeline to save half of the universe! All because a random rat wandered over some buttons in an abandoned van five years later.

All hail Mr. Rat! The greatest Avenger!

 

Dr. Strange did - the 'rat' in question though, was Tony Stark.

 

oh snap!

 

I watched Infinity War and Endgame back-to-back this evening (whew!) and a few things caught my attention that I didn't notice before:

• In Infinity War, Thanos threatens two different sets of adoptive siblings with the Power Stone in order to coerce information/object. Both siblings that gave away said information/object later died by Thanos' hand while the other siblings got their revenge later on.
  
  
• In Endgame, after the five-year jump, when Tony goes outside to search for his daughter, he calls out "Morgan H. Stark." I hadn't noticed the "H" part before, presumably for Howard. Also, back in Infinity War, the dream he recounted to Pepper referred to a daughter named Morgan.
  
  
• During the Time Heist brainstorming session, Smart Hulk is seen eating a big tub of Ben & Jerry's green ice cream, presumably the aforementioned Hulk-A-Hulk-A-Burning Fudge.
  
  
• Speaking of the brainstorming session, Nebula kind of screwed over the group twice over. She should've mentioned that going to Vormir would require a terrible sacrifice as evidenced by Gamora's death. Even if she didn't know for certain, she clearly suspected that was the case. Secondly, she should've mentioned that going to Morag in 2014 was a significant risk considering Thanos, Gamora, and herself were looking for the Power Stone at that time. Is there any reason why they had to go to that year? They could've easily gone further back in time and hit up both planets.
  
  
• During the climatic battle, I paused every other second to see if I could spot anymore cameos that I had missed (I caught Howard the Duck on my second viewing in the theater). At the same moment of Howard's cameo, we also see a large group of Asgardians alongside Valkyrie (as evidenced by their armor), but what really surprised me was seeing a bunch of rough-looking unrecognizable aliens that must've been Ravagers. I didn't notice them anywhere else in the battle but there were at least two particular aliens that I had never seen before (one of them was blue, no it wasn't Yondu).

 

I think they were trying to minimize the "moving parts" angle because of the limits on the Pym particule supply. And there may have been other issues.

 

Ah, good point there. But Nebula still could've said something about the sacrifice on Vormir.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but why would it be? They brought back people who were lost in the Snap, Yondu was dead before that.

 

Of course. I was just being preemptive in case someone thought maybe time travel shenanigans allowed him to appear.

 

Actually, in IW, he referred to the dream kid named Morgan as “him.”

Tony Stark: Right! That's the point I'm trying to make. Apropos of that, last night, I dreamt, we had a kid. So real. We named him after your eccentric uncle. Uh, what was his name?

Pepper Potts: [Nodding in understanding] Right.

Tony Stark: Morgan! Morgan.​

 

In fairness, she may have just assumed Thanos murdered her *after* he got the stone not in the process. I mean she did betray him and he's not exactly the forgiving sort.

All of the dates were picked because they were when they knew for an absolute certainty where the stones were. This was a narrow window since I'm guessing Gamora found out about the soul stone right around this time and of course, Quill was about to grab the power stone.
Sure in theory both of those stones were probably there, undisturbed for centuries or more...but they couldn't be absolutely sure about that. Someone could have returned the soul stone to Vormir mere days before (that could even be how Gamora found out.) And for all they know, the power stone could have only been placed in the temple weeks before. Unlikely, but possible.
With half the universe hanging in the balance and only so many Pym particles left, it's not worth the risk to roll the dice. Plus from a meta narrative perspective: getting to relive a little bit of a previous movie is half the point!

I think the Ravagers were also the guys flying around of the rocket bike looking things alongside the Wakandan Airforce. You don't really get a close look at them though.

 

Heh, you'd think I would've noticed that when I watched it last night, but nope! Still, it's a neat connection anyways.

Maybe but I got the feeling, particularly on Titan, that she sensed that Gamora's death was directly tied with Thanos' acquisition of the Soul Stone. Either way, she could've at least mentioned it during the brainstorming session.

Yeah...that all makes sense. It just stood out to me while watching the film last night. Obviously it's not a big deal, much like the question of why Rhodey and Nebula took the pod with them when they didn't use it and intended to leave without it (seems like it was there purely for the visual of Nebula being abducted in it).

To be clear, I'm not trying to rag on Nebula. She's my favorite MCU character not named Spider-Man, especially after Endgame. I only brought it up because the thoughts nagged at the back of my head while watching the film last night.

Ah, I missed that bit. There was sooo much going on that it's not a surprise. Hell, I saw the film on the big screen three times an I didn't notice them at until last night when I paused the film for the sole purpose of picking up Easter eggs.

 

Natasha mentioned to Clint, “Thanos left here with the stone without his daughter. It's not a coincidence.” That’s all the information that Nebula had, and she evidently did share it with them.

 

I'm not sure how she could have even had an inkling of the "soul exchange" thing. IIRC in IW Gamora didn't seem to know and all nebula could have know is what she told her.

She may very well have mentioned that Thanos went to Vormir with Gamora and came back alone, but nobody made the connection. I mean it's Thanos; murdering people and twisted cruelty towards his adopted children is his MO.
Plus it's not just any planet, it's the Domain of Death. Hearing that a person went to "The Domain of Death" and never came back probably wouldn't raise any red flags beyond "this place is very very very dangerous...so let's send the two Avengers with no powers!".

 

Yeah, that's true. I knew there was another mention somewhere but I couldn't remember where and with whom. You'd think they would've thought about the implications of that situation further. Oh, well.

Yup, makes perfect sense! They were in a hurry, too! It's not like they had time on their side or anything!