If Thanos and the Black Order invaded earth in the first avengers instead of Loki could they have succeeded in taking the Time and Space stone?

Say Thanos still has the scepter in this scenario and he and the Black Order invaded earth with their army looking for the Time and Space stone can they take the stones successful and who on earth would step in besides the Avengers?

Commentaires

TDolbbbs2025-10-30 22:36

Nobody?

Killericon2025-10-30 22:41

The Ancient One would've had some things to say.

TDolbbbs2025-10-30 22:43

If they were interested in getting involved maybe, as seen in Endgame they were more concerned about protecting the sanctum than anything else

Edit: Okay , so I didn't fully read the post , my bad 😅 obviously if they came for the time stone they would lol

pwnertko2025-10-30 22:45

But in this scenario he’s after the time stone so they would get way more involved.

Killericon2025-10-30 22:45

Right, but she had the Time Stone with her, and OP is asking if Thanos + The Black Order could've taken the Time Stone, so I think she'd have wound up getting involved.

RainbowDashley2025-10-30 22:46

Because the Time Stone wasn't at risk. If it was, she 100% would have stepped in.

CuteLingonberry97042025-10-30 22:57

And Fury would definitely use the pager in this scenario.

_Levitated_Shield_2025-10-31 01:19

[Sounds like a plan.](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NVmO7F09Rco/maxresdefault.jpg)

Stupid_Ned_Stark2025-10-30 22:37

The MCU would have been over because they would have just rolled over the planet.

justafanboy10102025-10-30 22:44

RIP MCU. Only made it through 1 Phase

Dismal-Apricot98892025-10-30 22:39

Sure, but Thanos already succeeded the way he did it in the films. So the end result would be the same.

justafanboy10102025-10-30 22:40

The Avengers would’ve been curb stomp to the max.

alexjf562025-10-30 22:57

The ancient one and Captain Marvel would have shown up

Aspect-Unusual2025-10-31 10:38

Odin too, the Asgardians were protecting the stones they knew about, I'm sure Thanos was on his radar

Altruistic_Ad91842025-10-30 22:40

The woman who trained Dr Strange, The Ancient One. She would've stepped in. And Odin was alive as well. I don't think captain marvel is still officially considered an avenger so nick fury could've called her as well.

BlueHero452025-10-30 23:13

Might have had a lot more civilian deaths though.

BGTheHoff2025-10-30 23:49

Maybe. But Thanos also wouldn't be as prepared as he was. The Reality stone was still the aether, quill couldn't find the stone and we don't know if the whereabouts of the stone were know at that point.

That leaves Thanos with one stone (The mind stone from the scepter) invading earth who has the tesseract and the ancient one (who is incredible powerful, sucking out the energy from the dark dimension) with the time stone.

Sounds tough, even for the mad Titan.

BlueHero452025-10-31 00:04

It is tough but I bring up more civilian deaths because I see the Ancient One being more of a defender than proactive. She wouldn't fight till thanos starts to attack one of her homes. Odin is also around but also seems like the type that would hold back till things got bad. Fury would keep the tesseract hidden so Thanos would have to rip through a lot of people before he gets to it.

BubblesZap2025-10-31 00:09

I don't think the Ancient One is so callous as to not care if innocents die, only seeing the big picture of protecting the whole world as priority over individuals the same way Strange did. Considering her general ability to have a knowledge of the future it's less about waiting for when the danger is at her doorstep and more so whenever the opportune moment is.

TheDeadlyCat2025-10-31 00:15

We see her play defense during the attack on the New York sanctum in Endgame.

I don’t think she would have been more as long as the Sanctum stayed operable or she knew Thanos was coming for the stone.

She might have even been aware of the Tesseract being a stone when the portal opened, it’s possible.

Detective-Crashmore-2025-10-31 17:49

>She might have even been aware of the Tesseract being a stone when the portal opened

She was aware of all major events leading up to her death, I believe, so she would have known.

BlueHero452025-10-31 00:40

I wouldn't say the ancient one is callous just more practical. Going out to fight Thanos puts the time stone at more risk than staying defensive. While people may die she likely considers the amount of people that would die if the stone got taken far greater.

A_Moldy_Stump2025-10-31 02:19

Am I misremembering? The Ancient One didn't use the time stone it was guarded in vault or something until Strange messed with it

BlueHero452025-10-31 02:20

And she's going to defend it instead of risk leaving it alone even if innocent people may die.

She also had it on her during Loki's attack during the past scene in Endgame. She gives it to hulk after Banner tells her about strange.

angelking142025-10-31 03:54

She was wearing it when banner travelled back to New York to retrieve it if I recall correctly.

idiot-prodigy2025-10-31 00:29

> Maybe. But Thanos also wouldn't be as prepared as he was. The Reality stone was still the aether, quill couldn't find the stone and we don't know if the whereabouts of the stone were know at that point.

The power stone was specifically under an ocean.

>"Morag became entirely covered in oceans. However, every three hundred years, the sea lowers and the Temple is made accessible."

[Morag](https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Morag)

Fighting Hulk, Thor, Odin, and the Ancient One, with no Power Stone would be a tall order.

ZPudd2025-10-31 01:18

Don't forget Hawkeye. He always wins, for some reason.

zzyul2025-10-31 01:22

Bet you didn’t see that one coming.

ejcortes2025-10-31 02:55

So, this should be Thanos and a snow plow?

Hardmeat_McLargehuge2025-10-31 04:23

Helicopter snow plow

goodtimesrollon2025-10-31 07:43

Man…not cool

ejcortes2025-11-01 00:11

👀

Kenny0702872025-10-31 15:35

Too soon m8

ny15912025-10-31 05:08

Only when he has his hearing aid in.

criminalsunrise2025-10-31 12:40

>Fighting ~~Hulk, Thor,~~ Odin, ~~and~~ **or** the Ancient One, with no Power Stone would be a tall order.

Fixed that for you.

tiggoftigg2025-10-31 17:39

I think you can include Thor there, but I get what you’re saying!

Defiant-Channel23242025-10-31 02:29

A Thanos from only 2 years after this whooped Cap, Thor with two weapons, and Tony with a nanotech suit. And that was by himself, without the Black Order. So I think he'd slaughter the 2012 Avengers pretty easily. Now when it comes the Ancient One, that'd probably go similarly to when he ran into Wanda on the battlefield. Or he'd just lose immediately since he had the stones to help him when he fought Strange on Titan.

BGTheHoff2025-10-31 04:09

But he whooped them with multiple stones. Stone he did not have at this point. Stones, that also made him look unbeatable to the hulk. And that also did not happen of he attacks 2 years early. So a significant part of the raw strength isn't scared to fight him.

_just-josh2025-10-31 05:58

I think they’re talking about EndGame when Cap, Tony, and Thor fought Thanos alone before the big battle. That Thanos had no stones and was from the time of GoG 1 which I guess is 2 years after Avengers 1. That Thanos was giving the big 3 work, and it was all but over before the portals opened.

Sere12025-10-31 09:43

This. All six stones were still on the Nano Gauntlet during the 3v1 fight. He fought the three of them to a standstill, KOed Thor and Tony and had Steve down and injured, even with two enchanted weapons on the field. Even without Thanos' army backing him up before the portals opened, Steve was dead if the fight continued any further.

DragonEmperor2025-10-31 08:13

This would make a great what if episode.

MysteriousSalt57432025-10-31 03:31

[removed]

BlueHero452025-10-31 03:38

I'm sure she could but I think she would take the defence of the mind stone over taking big risks to save everyone. She didn't join the fight against Loki either, she stayed with the Sanctum to defend that.

iamChickeNugget2025-10-31 06:24

Without the space stone, Thanos wouldn't be able to punch the mirror dimension, so The Ancient One could definitely put them there.

ThisIs_americunt2025-10-31 00:05

He had the pager, he could've just called her back to earth with that

avahz2025-10-31 00:29

But would they have been able to stop thanos and the black order?

ShasneKnasty2025-10-31 00:52

odin isn’t doing shit unless asgard is attacked

zzyul2025-10-31 01:26

I don’t know, if Heimdall told Odin that someone had acquired 2 stones it probably would have gotten his attention.

WeirdIndividualGuy2025-10-31 01:55

Wasn’t Odin king of Asgard *and the seven realms*, one of those “realms” being Midgard?

I wouldn’t fully count out Odin ignoring an attack on one of his realms

ShasneKnasty2025-10-31 10:38

he did, his own son attacked and he did nothing, other than send thor.

Twooshort2025-10-31 10:56

Sending Thor is very much doing something. That situation didn't call for all of Valhalla to step up, but a Mad Titan with potentially two Stones? That's worth showing up personally.

ShasneKnasty2025-10-31 12:35

loki was doing it FOR thanos, and odin didn’t intervene.

Twooshort2025-10-31 14:57

But it was still Loki. Who better to handle that than his brother?

BleekerTheBard2025-10-31 02:29

Captain Marvel is literally “Avenger” though

TechnologyDeep99812025-10-31 02:51

Why do you think Thanos waited until Odin was dead?

knight_in_white2025-10-31 03:48

Ya know it would have been really cool if they gave us a little bit of Odin kicking ass while the character was alive in the MCU. I understand in the lore he is OP but we only ever hear about how strong he is we never see it and that’s a huge missed opportunity.

WestOrangeFinest2025-10-31 13:34

Agreed, though the mystery surrounding him does increase the cool factor a bit. Like, Heimdall was never more awesome than he was in Thor 1. After he started getting more screen time, he became a lot less cool.

Just knowing that Odin was powerful enough to completely strip Thor of his power and keep Hela locked away tells us he’s a heavy hitter.

knight_in_white2025-10-31 15:32

It does tell us and usually I’m cool with a story just telling me something. In the case of Odin I really would have liked being shown his combat capabilities. It’s a nitpick though

WestOrangeFinest2025-10-31 15:36

Yep, I feel you. Would have been awesome to see him in action.

GreenGoblinNX2025-10-31 06:25

> I don't think captain marvel is still officially considered an avenger

It's weird to me that people think that becoming an Avenger in the MCU is some sort of official membership type of a thing. Wanda and (briefly) Pietro become Avengers on the spot, because they decided to help against Ultron, and then Vision did the same. You can say the same for just about all of the later additions.

You don't get an official ID card and an "I'm an Avenger, ask me how!" button.

CTeam192025-10-31 16:08

Again, this is what would be great in the What If? TV show. *angery Slams cup onto the table*

k76322025-10-30 22:42

So just after Thor 1, I thought Earth was under the Thor (and Odins protection).

So the question is if Thanos showed up in the 9 realms toncollect infinity stones would Thor and Odin move to protect Earth?

SteveFrench122025-10-30 22:45

And the answer is yes

cobaltaqua2025-10-31 08:26

We would've gotten Odin vs. Thanos, which could've been so sick.

There's this fight in the comics where both Thanos and the Silver Surfer try to take on Odin 2v1, and Odin tanks their attacks like nothing. It was epic. I wish the MCU Odin was as OP as comic Odin.

I've always had this idea of a prequel story where Thanos tried to gather the stones before, but he's stopped by the likes of Odin, The Ancient One, and other characters that existed before the Avengers were formed.

Tummerd2025-10-31 17:43

Would have been amazing in What If.

But lets get another agent carter story!

o-055-o2025-10-30 22:48

Odin wouldn't have been able to do much besides send in Thor and get taken out of the picture by the need to do his Odin sleep. Remember that the Bifrost is destroyed so he had to use dark matter and magic to send Thor when Avengers happens and apparently that either exhausted him greatly or nearly killed him, from what I remember. It was in a comic explaining the happenings directly before the movie.

The_True_Y2025-10-31 00:33

Pretty sure that it was Heimdall that used the dark magic to send Thor to earth, even in Infinity War he did it again to send Hulk to earth, so he could've 100% sent both Thor and Odin to earth.

o-055-o2025-10-31 00:39

[No, the instance of Avengers had Odin do it](https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/uploads/scale_super/11141/111416172/9031672-3154083459-nM31eHr-QP9ANt4Nx0WaUBkXDcx6nYK5hFrXgFojnKYQ7sOzhzz1HTtOcGZKb7i5aCScJeO1Wi4YJw2mF75yMDhWWjYXgoWmcxCn8O4yz2pH6QAOFyegEya4PXkLQdkFvWfvJw%3Ds0.jpg), even Loki references it when he sees Thor and asks how much dark energy Odin had to muster to send him there. [In this case, Odin is definitely out of the picture since doing this draws from his own energy to do that.](https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/uploads/original/11140/111403694/9033818-7697241214-image.png)

Hence why Thor wanted the tesseract back, to restore the bifrost.

Rampagingflames2025-10-31 02:51

While this is true, in Infinity War it was shown that Heimdall could use the bifrost with the sword. So either A) The sword wasn't upgraded with the tesseract until after Avengers. Or B and more likely) that concept wasn't created until Infinity War.

whitebandit2025-10-31 03:52

in infinity war when he sends hulk to earth? and says "let the dark magic flow through me one last time"

BubblesZap2025-10-30 22:43

Space yeah no problem, but Time?? Not so sure about. Strange on his own gave Thanos quite a bit fight and that was when he had Reality and Soul both which were heavily used to counter Strange, and on top of that the Power stone too. While the Mind stone would help I don't think it'd be enough to give the victory he'd need against the Ancient One.

You also have to remember, Thanos doesn't even have the gauntlet yet either, which is reliant on the Dwarves not being protected by Asgard.

M4DDIE_8822025-10-30 23:59

When did thanos use the soul stone in the wizard duel?

conspirasteve2025-10-31 00:05

I think there's a bit when there are tons of copies of Strange holding him with an energy whip, and the stone pulses, highlighting which one is the real one?

BubblesZap2025-10-31 00:06

correct, it condensed and highlights the real one, its the only notable use of the Soul Stone outside of the snaps.

Sere12025-10-31 09:47

Seriously, going through the entire Titan fight and just paying attention to what combination of Stones Thanos uses is awesome, especially the wizard battle against Strange.

BubblesZap2025-10-31 09:56

it's really fun, I really love the details of him using the power stone to break the mirror dimension followed by space to make a black hole and then later using space + reality to roll the ground closer to him.

blankeyteddy2025-10-31 00:10

Thanos used it to identify which Dr. Strange was the real one when he made illusions of himself. You can see Thanos gauntlet glow orange and slight orange glow around the fake illusions when Thanos activated the soul stone.

KilledByCox2025-10-31 00:04

The ancient one was also about and channeling power from the dark dimension so she could in theory put up even more of a fight than strange fighting clean.

demonoddy2025-10-30 22:44

Yeah they would have. There was only a few heroes there. They would have to have fought the ancient one but still

Smooth-Mix-43572025-10-30 22:47

Maybe, they were definitely more competent than Loki. But Ancient One might have actively stepped in. So Thanos and Black Order might have had to actively use the infinity stone they had.

Fortunately Black Order were yet to debut in Marvel Comics when Avengers 2012 movie released

TomorrowFinancial4682025-10-30 22:56

Thats crazy i didn't know that. So when thanos was introduced he had no main henchmen ?

Smooth-Mix-43572025-10-30 22:59

Black Order debuted in 2013 and consisted of Maw, Glaive, Proxima, Obsidian and Supergiant (who wasn't shown in MCU)

Thanos was not the one to keep henchmen, he preferred doing his own dirty work. He was the ultimate nihilist obsessed with Lady Death. So to win her love he'd do everything himself right from cosmic cube to the Infinity Gauntlet.

M4DDIE_8822025-10-30 23:57

Isn’t thanks also affiliated with black swan in the comics?

blankeyteddy2025-10-31 00:07

But not directly as a black order member I think for the main 616 universe? I think it was another dimension black swan that was a member of black order.

Weird_Angry_Kid2025-10-31 04:27

Yabbat Umon Tarru, the main Black Swan, wasn't from earth 616, she came from an earth that was destroyed by the Black Priests. Yabbat escaped into the library of worlds where she was found by the Black Swans and made a member of their order, when the library was destroyed the Swans scattered all over the multiverse. Yabbat ended up on earth 616 during the incursions and after some stuff she ended up joining the Black Order after Secret Wars.

Weird_Angry_Kid2025-10-31 04:24

Black Swan wasn't a member of the Black Order initially, at first she was just acting alone before being captured by the Illuminati and helping them deal with the incursions until Namor betrayed the Illuminati because he felt that what they were doing wasn't enough to stop the incursions. Namor formed the Cabal with Thanos, Black Swan, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, Maximus and an alternate reality Terrax to try and save the universe.

During Secret Wars the Cabal was disolved and Swan joined God Emperor Doom and when the multiverse was restored she ended up joining the Black Order.

WretchedBlowhard2025-10-31 01:09

>Thanos was not the one to keep henchmen, he preferred doing his own dirty work

Plus, Comics Thanos is multiple orders of magnitude more powerful than MCU roidy grimace. He doesn't *need* a CGI army unless he sees a sexy corpse he wants to bang but doesn't want to stop genociding an entire planet. Fuck, teen Thanos wiped out the vast majority of his super-powered species *during his origin story*.

SolomonOf477042025-10-31 06:27

Cull obsidian in the movies is way more like Supergiant in the comics

Paperchampion232025-10-30 22:59

They wouldnt have even had an infinity stone at the time lol, the Power Stone wasnt found until 2014 when Quill finds it before Ronan

Smooth-Mix-43572025-10-30 23:02

Scepter he gave to Loki was literally housing the mind stone (a later retcon I know)

Odd-Road-48942025-10-30 23:31

What was the retcon?

Smooth-Mix-43572025-10-30 23:37

Originally whatever was in the scepter was not the mind stone. They just retconned it later to be the mind stone.

Odd-Road-48942025-10-31 00:17

Ahhh I see, that makes sense. But honestly it works pretty well, and doesn’t create any weird holes in the story.

outride20002025-10-31 00:24

It's a bad retcon because why would Thanos give away an infinity stone

Lookatmestring2025-10-31 00:32

Meh makes sense if thanks though it would be impossible for loki to lose with a chitari army and an infinity stone. Slight reach but aye

raknor882025-10-31 00:45

Because the greater galactic powers were still alive at the time and may have hunted him to prevent him from completing the search. So he gave it to a minion that he knew he could track and control.

007meow2025-10-31 02:50

Would TAO have fared any better against even just Ebony Maw than Dr Strange?

ad_maru2025-10-30 22:49

The big thing here is that Lang wasn't shrinking around at the time so he would not be saved by the quantum realm and the rat, not giving Stark the idea of how to solve time travel. Maybe Janet van Dyne after ages. But then Stark would not have Peter Park's motivation to do so.

AdditionalBanana95852025-10-30 22:50

No. The reason he never made a move until Infinity War was because Odin was still around to protect it. Not to mention that the Ancient One was also there. She would've stepped in, too.

ParkingConfection4492025-10-30 22:57

That was never confirmed. Thanos only made a move once he found out the location of every infinity stone. Sure, maybe he heard odin a bit, but at that point, odin was old and FAR past his prime

Levitican_Demise2025-10-31 00:03

Fun fact 🤓 Asgardians get stronger with age. Rune King Thor is him Old AF

BackgroundEngineer112025-10-30 22:52

At least one of them would have arrived through the space stone and murdered Fury and everyone else at the base where they were experimenting on the tesseract.

Thanos probably would have found the aether as well, so he would have had 4 out of 6 stones in 2012.

HavixComix2025-10-30 22:57

Without the knowledge of the stones, how would they know to protect them? Plus, time-traveling Avengers from the universe next door would come in and snatch the stones to use on their Thanos! Crisis averted 😜

Kamala_Husband2025-10-30 22:57

![gif](giphy|orUCGvPUz5XbrkSqOR|downsized)

She'd be called

Gedy42025-10-31 03:06

But would she come in time?

Kamala_Husband2025-10-31 03:08

Let me introduce you to her second best friend besides Goose.[Hoopty](https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Hoopty)

It's basically a one bedroom apartment in space, equiped with jump point technology for easy traversal across the cosmos.

Ngl I'd love one of them tbh it's such a vibe.

Shaggy_Rogers02025-10-30 22:58

Nick Fury would've called Captain Marvel.

The Ancient One would've been a far more experienced opponent than Dr. Strange.

I have the impression that Ragnarok-Hulk that got traumatized was far less 'savage' than previous versions (probably because of the years he spent as Hulk on Sakaar) so imho the Black Order would've faced a stronger Hulk.

I don't think king T'Chaka would've helped since he didn't help against Loki, so no support from Wakanda.

BUT...there's a serious chance of an Odin intervention, since he was seriously concerned about infinity stones.

ParkingConfection4492025-10-30 23:00

Don't forget the bifrost was broken at this point and odin and heimdall had to use dark magic to bring thor to earth

Inevitable_Land29962025-10-31 00:19

At that point he would probably send himself instead

AdaptedInfiltrator2025-10-30 23:04

Thanos can arguably solo the 2012 avengers and his children could arguably beat the 2012 avengers in a team battle

cobaltaqua2025-10-31 08:28

Could definitely solo the 2012 Avengers.

The Ancient One would be the one he'd have trouble dealing with. Would be an epic fight.

Fakeidly2025-10-30 23:16

Thanos planned it well. The order in which he collected the stones was important in his victory. He collected the strongest ones that can be weaponised first ( Power and Space), other stones even though powerful aren’t weaponisable as these two. You can see that Thanos did most of his fighting with these two. Say he collected Soul and Time stone first, and space and Power are with the Avengers to protect, it won’t be easy for him to succeed.

Lovelyesque12025-10-30 23:16

The space stone would be fairly easy, wouldn’t it? From what I understand, Loki activated the stone remotely so it would teleport him to its location, then used the scepter he got from Thanos containing the Mind Stone to mind control SHIELD into handing it over. Thanos or any of his lackeys could have done any and all of this themselves.

The time stone is more interesting. Everyone keeps saying the Ancient One would have “stepped in” but like… didn’t she have the time stone on her person during this time period, as shown in Endgame? So Thanos and the BO (heh) would have had to go after her specifically to get it. Could she protect it? Strange ended up in Maw’s clutches even with a brief warning from Banner and the help of Wong, Iron Man, and Spider Man. So it’s reasonable they would give the Ancient One a pretty good run for her money if she’s alone. We don’t know how powerful Strange is compared to her at this point in his tenure, though. So maybe she’s worth 10 of him, power-wise. Even so, no single Avenger was able to take on the BO by themselves even before Thanos showed up, so I don’t know how good her chances would be if they caught her alone. It also seems likely she would have taken the stone to Kamar Taj, which is well-defended. I’m skeptical that Maw could have overcome all the shields at Kamar Taj alone, and I don’t think any of the rest of the BO have magical abilities.

But… if Thanos simply used to scepter to get the space stone a la Loki in the original film, couldn’t he use it on the AO to get her to hand over the time stone? Presumably even she couldn’t withstand the sway of an infinity stone indefinitely.

wapiro2025-10-31 04:17

But can thanks use the stones that much? A kit if people keep forgetting that Odin still watches over the dwarves who have the gauntlet.

maxfridsvault2025-10-30 23:17

Probably…not sure about the time stone though since the Ancient One was protecting it and it likely would have turned into a whole war between the Black Order and the sorcerers of Earth. I would assume they’d be able to handle them.

Plus there’s the whole Odin thing- Odin, Thor, and the Asgardians would have been there to back them up.

BigDaddyGreeds2025-10-30 23:18

Depends if they're coming raw (pause) then they'd probably be stopped by the Ancient One & maybe Carol if Nick flipped that switch. +Hulk & Thor (the rest of the Avengers would basically be non factors outside of Strategy and evacuation methods.)

But if Thanos is coming pre loaded with Power & Reality then I think he could have but he couldn't have reality because the Aether didn't become available yet and he presumably didn't know the location of the powerstone until 2014 so only space, mine & time were in play. Ironically the last stone he gets in Infinity War is the one he originally had. So presumably hed rock up with just the mind stone which isnt nothing but I think he'd still get turned away

yslquan2025-10-30 23:27

My god the aura, look at my demon ebony maw

Diortheking2025-10-30 23:28

Odin and Ancient one clap

Turbulent-Spirit-5682025-10-30 23:35

The Ancient One and Odin would've most likely stopped them

juances192025-10-30 23:38

The Ancient one would've foreseen it and prepare accordingly. Remember that she used to look at the future up to the moment of her death.

OblivionArts2025-10-30 23:45

Honestly, yeah
The avengers had barely become a team, thanos and the order were way stronger than the initial avengers at this time

CaledonianWarrior2025-10-31 00:06

So... What If Thanos Invaded New York City?

Fellums22025-10-31 00:15

The black Order would have had a tough time with the original Avengers; primarily Hulk, Thor, and Ironman. But once Thanos stepped in it’s over for them and they all die. Thanos would start steam rolling earth, eventually battling the Sorcerer Supreme and a bunch of sorcerers. But by that time Odin is out for blood and the full might of Asgard is showing up. It would wreck havoc on the earth, but Thanos isn’t surviving. Even if Thanos runs Odin and Asgard would never stop coming for him and he’d be too busy running and hiding to ever collect all the stones.

No_Assistance_15342025-10-31 00:26

Well wouldn’t Loki probably have came with them?

darksaber5222025-10-31 00:35

The Avengers would lose the initial battle, but The Ancient One would absolutely intervene to protect the Time Stone.

Plus Odin would inevitably enter the fray to stop him & avenge Thor.

Fury would also call Captain Marvel for help once the Avengers fell.

_NINESEVEN2025-10-31 19:10

> The Ancient One would absolutely intervene to protect the Time Stone

And I can't imagine that Ancient One with the time stone couldn't defeat Thanos 1-on-1 (even if he was using the Tesseract).

Strange was able to make Dormammu submit with the stone and only a short period of time as training. He also fights Thanos valiantly 1-on-1 and I'm not sure that he loses that battle (or doesn't make it significantly closer) if Thanos doesn't have stones. The Ancient One would be even more formidable.

jim91622025-10-31 01:07

Hey Marvel fans!

Ever wonder what if Thanos invaded earth first instead of Loki?

Would be a pretty cool story right?

Anyways here's what if Thor went to a Christmas party with Loki.

RoyalKingDravin2025-10-31 01:26

Reminder that the ancient one and Odin were still alive, them plus captain marvel and the og 6 avengers definitely beat stoneless Thanos and the black order

SmartOpinion692025-10-31 01:35

unlike doctor strange, the ancient one actually used the time stone to look into the future. had she knew that thanos and the black order was coming for the time stone, she could've portal thanos into the sun.

however, i suppose there is a possibility that the mind stone can tamper with the time stone. we saw in the first avengers movie that there was a connection between the tesseract and the scepter (mind stone). if the mind stone can hide thanos and the black order from being seen by the time stone, then glaive might be able to sneek into the sanctum and kill the ancient one and take the mind stone.

as for the tesseract, thanos and black order would've gotten that easy. shield would've had nothing on them.

Beautiful-Hair69252025-10-31 02:29

Thanos flaw is that big ship. It can be targetted

chewywheat2025-10-31 03:32

It will probably play the same way as what happened with Xandar. Xandar had a more technologically advanced military force than Earth at this point in time, including Wakanda imo. They have a military force that can keep up with the Kree Empire. They still lost to Thanos with no Infinity Stone.

Now if Odin/Asgardians step-in when Thanos invades then that is another story.

ernie-jo2025-10-31 04:15

The Avengers themselves would be toast imo. They have the tesseract but no real way or knowledge to use it. The Ancient one would be pretty helpful, especially if she brought all the other sorcerers with her to help fight Thanos' army. If she tapped into the dark dimension and sent Thanos to Dormammu or something that would be sick.

I'm assuming Wakanda would get involved at SOME point, but probably would wait quite a while until they were sure the fate of the world (or really, just the fate of Wakanda) depended on it. If Fury called Carol quickly enough that would help, but he didn't call her in the actual Avengers movie (because in real life she didn't exist but ya know).

Direct-Gap-48282025-10-31 04:33

Space stone? Yeah, without much difficulty as the avengers were not that strong yet at this point (save for hulk who was probably stronger due to having greater rage in 2012).

But the Time stone? Probably not. The Ancient One is a very competent fighter and strategist, unlike the avengers in 2012. Aside from Odin and arguably hela, the ancient one is thanos's strongest adversary in his quest for universal genocide.

HeilfireAndBrimstone2025-10-31 05:06

Thanos stomps alone. Ancient One died to some two-bit sorcerers, she's not surviving Thanos. No one in the Avengers has any real way to harm or survive Thanos at this point either.

BaronCoop2025-10-31 05:48

My headcanon that has yet to be disproven and makes sense to me: Thanos didn’t connect the dots until Loki spelled it out for him.

* Loki get banished from Asgard and we know he ends up with Thanos.

* Loki would be incentivized to make Thanos think he was stronger or more powerful or important, and would be eager to spill Asgardian secrets.

* Including the proof of concept Gauntlet that Odin had the Dwarves make him that he then stored in the vault.

* Thanos knew about the Infinity Stones, he had one already. But so what? They’re powerful rocks, but also known to be valuable and not worth the effort to obtain them.

* There is little to no chance that Thanos loans one of the keys to his Ultimate Plan to anyone who might lose it.

* But hearing that Odin had figured out how to build a glove to harness all of the Stones simultaneously? Oh, now THAT would be a game changer.

* By the time of Guardians of the Galaxy Thanos was clearly on a Stones hunt.

I have evidence! First, Thanos just builds an Infinity Gauntlet exactly the same as Odin’s. He didn’t make an upgrade or a new design, just “Make me the same thing you made Odin”. Secondly, they clearly have a way to detect the Stones somehow; Glaive and Proxima found Vision with no problems, Mae and Obsidian went straight to Strange, they went straight to Knowhere, and they clearly tracked the Asgardian ship that held the Tesseract. How did they track those so easily but struggled to find the Soul Stone? Because they could detect a Stone when it was being used! Vision uses his all the time, The Ancient One was afraid to use the Time Stone but Strange used it a lot, the Tesseract was used a lot on earth and known to be taken to Asgard at least, as was the power stone on Nova and the reality in Knowhere. If they COULD have tracked these stones whenever they wanted to, why didn’t they do so sooner? Because they didn’t want to bother until someone showed them that together they could be used to finish the Plan!

Anyway, that’s my headcannon. Thanks, Loki.

BangingBaguette2025-10-31 11:57

It's an interesting question but you have to remember big players were still around. Ancient One would've been a real problem, plus Odin and the Armies of Asguard and any other realms they're aligned with were still at full strength, and that's just the name a few.

I think with the context of the movie you can headcanon a reasoning as to Thanos's strategy in the first Avengers movie. No one actually knew what the Tesseract was. They knew it was a potentially limitless energy source but that's it. With that context not only could Thanos do his best to keep the conflict low-stakes, but also avoid potential involvement of other galactic authorities such as the Nova Corps if word got out that an Infinity Stone was just laying basically out in the open on a backwater planet.

So idk, I do still think they would've made a better attempt at it, but I also think Thanos's direct involvement would've then snowballed into a spotlight being put on what the hell was going on on Earth to warrant such a massive invasion.

BirdoBean2025-10-31 20:48

These are the kind of concepts I expected when watching What If?