Question about Endgame

When the Ancient One explains to Hulk that removing one of the Infinity Stones will break reality, did she mean that literally? There were no Infinity Stones in the main universe for around a month and nothing bad happened to reality. I assume what she was explaining was a fancy way of saying "Without the Time Stone Doctor Strange can't defeat Dormammu"

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Smooth-Mix-43572026-01-23 22:41

Infinity stones were there in the universe, just in a state they couldn't have been used by anyone. If they were truly destroyed (erased away) then the reality would crumble the next second.

dbkenny4262026-01-23 22:42

What do you mean by "there were no Infinity Stones in the main universe for around a month?"

Turbulent-Spirit-5682026-01-23 22:42

The stones basically hold the universe together. Thanos didn't fully destroy the stones in Endgame only atomised them

urgasmic2026-01-23 22:44

idk im watching a clip and she literally says that. when they take the stone, her timeline branches into one where they won't have the time stone to stop their enemies.

seliselio2026-01-23 23:17

It's kind of moot. Either way, the bigger reveal is that when Banner proposes bring the time stone BACK, the altered branch disappears.

Divi12212026-01-23 22:57

The infinity stones are still in the main universe. Just shrunk down to the size of atoms

MRIAGE_HBI2026-01-23 22:58

“Where are the stones?”

“Gone. Reduced to atoms…”

“I used the stones to destroy the stones…”

Let’s take this and also use our real world science with it.

So we know the Infinity Stones were physical manifestations of universal matter. Or at least that’s abridged from what has been explained so far before Endgame. This would obviously mean and imply that they are, well, matter.

So now we go onto the next thing. Law of Conservation of Matter. If you not remember, it states that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, but can only transform.

Back to the film and what actually happened.

Thanos “used the stones to destroy the stones”. He didn’t actually “destroy” the stones. As he stated, he reduced them to atoms. Meaning he basically changed their physical form and essentially returned them to the universe. While it may be possible to harness the stones another way in the future, the current stones have no physical solid form that isn’t atomized.

Long story short, the stones “still exist”, just as matter that isn’t the normal Six Singularities. This doesn’t affect the universe, as they were only given a new form, not taken from the universe.

StellarNeonJellyfish2026-01-23 23:27

If that were true then Thanos wouldnt have cared or needed to rewind time when Wanda killed Vision in infinity war.

DrManhattan_DDM2026-01-23 23:31

Of course he would need to. Just because the matter of the soul stone still existed after Wanda blasted it doesn’t mean it was in a form that was useful to him.

StellarNeonJellyfish2026-01-23 23:44

Sounds like saying Wanda cant read the darkhold because the cover is closed. Thanos has 5 infinity stones, how is shattering/atomization supposed to stop him? Cant he use the reality stone to make it again? Or the space stone to bring them back into a singularity? But he didn’t, because it seems like he had to undo their destruction to get it back. I dont think destroyed stones still exist as inter-dimensional barriers or otherwise. If they did, then Thanos wouldnt have allowed that possibility, they would be in the dark dimension or a TVA desk. He very explicitly wants the completion of his work to be inevitable and irreversible.

DrManhattan_DDM2026-01-24 00:15

How are those “why didn’t he” suggestions different from using the time stone to get it back?

StellarNeonJellyfish2026-01-24 00:23

Because the time stone is the only one where the method is to undo the act of destruction instead of whole cloth recreation from the supposedly persistent particles of the infinity stone. All the other “why didnt he” suggestions rely on the continuous existence of the substance of the stones, which is never demonstrated. Hence why he needed to reverse time to a point where they did exit.

LegitimateToe132026-01-24 02:56

I think one thing you're not understanding is that this is a movie. In this movie, Thanos wielded a giant gauntlet to harness the power of the stones. Every time he took a stone, he used it to take the next. That's what the plot was setting up. He used the time stone to A. Show the audience how it worked, and 2. Because that was the most recent stone he took.

StellarNeonJellyfish2026-01-24 03:33

I mean, I can understand it as a narrative device, but i originally replied to a comment that wanted to use real world physics and just extrapolated

StellarNeonJellyfish2026-01-23 23:45

MRIAGE_HBI2026-01-23 23:34

The same can be applied to when Wanda “destroyed” the Mind Stone.

We saw it shatter, which makes it just a bunch of smaller pieces. It still is another form and by definition of Law, the matter still exists.

Thanos couldn’t use it in the “shattered form” and used the resource he had to fix the problem. If it were anyone else pursuing the stone, that would have ended the battle right then and there. But again, Time Stone. Thanos. Resource.

The energy would still exist. In whatever form, usable or not.

At the end of the day, it all matters about the form of the stones and the Law of Conservation of Matter and how it applies in-universe.

And it’s just an idea that works. It’s not absolute and most definitely cookie change down the line in the MCU by whatever writer decides to add or change the in-universe rules.

StellarNeonJellyfish2026-01-23 23:56

Yeah but he didnt take the still-there small pieces and remake it, he undid its destruction. There is no reason to think the destroyed stones persist in any way beyond single line about how the stones protect the reality. It’s like saying without a city wall your city is undefended. Maybe it was true but now we have new methods of defense. So we actually dont need city walls, just like the rise in superheroes might become the new defenders of their reality. The Ancient one could just be stuck in the past so to speak, although she did immediately pivot to “my successor must be correct, I guess you probably should take my infinity stone.”

imin20992026-01-23 23:00

Yes she was talking about Dormammu, because obviously if Strange didn't have the time stone Dormammu would've won

Sharikacat2026-01-24 06:16

She could have only suspected that, at best. The Ancient One was incapable of seeing the future beyond her own death.

servetheale2026-01-23 23:06

There were no infinity stones in the universe for around a month?

Explain why you think this.

Federal_Bicycle_78002026-01-23 23:09

thanos destroyed the stones

servetheale2026-01-23 23:30

Damn youre right.

Maybe because he used the stones to destroy the stones, their essence or aura still remains.

You raised a good point.

Lord_Matisaro2026-01-23 23:33

She both was not being literal and there is no reason to even think she could know for sure.

Morgoth18142026-01-23 23:46

Think she meant that the specific timeline could go into chaos without the Stone there.

the_old_coday1822026-01-24 02:15

It would turn her own reality into a branched timeline. From there, she skipped She even doesn’t visual aid. It’s not clear how creating the branch = end of reality. She might be enlightened enough to know her branch would be culled. Or that it could start a cascade of multiverse destabilization. She doesn’t really explain, but being the master of time I bet she knows what she’s talking about.

Grayx_28872026-01-24 07:20

If I may, I like to steal a line from *"Rock and Morty..."*

**"The answer is... Don't think too much about it!!"**