IW spoilers: Did Dr. Strange use the time stone...

At all during his fight with Thanos on Titan? Besides checking the possible futures, I don't recall him doing so in battle. Everyone has been giving Quill a hard time (including myself) but it appears he shouldn't shoulder all the blame. Why didn't Strange freeze Thanos in time? He could have done so and had several options to take care of the IG like: reverse time on the gauntlet to before any of the other stones were collected or even made the gauntlet itself disappear, effectively un-creating it.

I bet they would use "messing with time would cause a disruption in space-time continuum" excuse, they basically said that in Doctor Strange's movie that messing with time could potentially fu** up the space-time and lead to catastrophic results, even though in the same movie there were no consequences after abusing Time Gem by Strange.

@the_wotan: true they could but as you stated the consequences ae inconsistent. I feel like in character, Strange would have risked it like with Dormammu. Just because strange looked through 14 million or so possibilities doesn't mean he looked through them all.

Because he saw all possibilities of the future and knows how to win the ‘war.’

Strange has no blame on anything what so ever for the simple fact that he saw most eventual outcomes so he knew the route to take.

@socajunkie: iirc he never said he saw all the outcomes, just a crap load of outcomes and in one instance they win.

@heatforce: Exactly and that’s good enough. Of those 14 million you think he didn’t see one where he uses the time stone to try and win?

I’ve only seen it once, but I thought Stranges whole plan was to hide the Time Gem from Thanos. I guess it’s also possible he saw in one of the alternate futures it would’ve been moot...or I guess the most simple conclusion, bad writing ?‍♂️

They have to follow the script that was not in it.

Plus Thanos even said it you did not use the power you have. Oh well.

@tensor: wait even Thanos called them out for it?

@heatforce: Yes when he break the amulet off his neck an then realize it was a fake.

@tensor: ahhh I remember that. Good for the writers being self aware. Reminds of when Lex Luthor is on the roof in BvS and acknowledges how easy it was to trick batman. So not a plothole but still it means Strange may not have made the best decision. This will still have battle forum implications though, if you care.

@heatforce: I guess that was his best choice. That is why he did it. That is why he ask for Tony to get saved. Tony an Hulk will be a bigger part in the next movie. I feel Hulk will come out when the gauntlet is off an then he might go WB mode for the movies to challenge Thanos if Bruce stop holding him back.

Agreed, while the excuse does hold a candle, but the problem here is that the consequences showcasing the said "candle" are inconsistent, we barely see them. I agree that Strange, in character, would have abused Time Gem against Thanos w/IG like he did against Dormammu and yet he didn't. But as pointed out by other users it was simply not in the script.....

On the possibilities though, i think i can agree on that one as well, possibilities or probabilities at least in comics are shown to be virtually unlimited, so i can agree that 14 million are not the only possibilities there.

@tensor: iirc Bruce was not holding him back. Everytime Bruce tried to hulk-out, the hulk inside him would scream NOOOOOOO. Sadly Hulk was written pretty cowardly here. He didn't even help out on the battlefield in wakanda even though the outriders were just fodder.

@heatforce: Yeah because he is either scared after the beating or angry at banner an did not want to come out. I have to say that was a disappointment. I thought he would have change out in the end since in the trailer you saw him running with all of them in wakanda but that was a fluke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZfuNTqbHE8

Go to 2mins in that avengers trailer an you will see that he was in Hulk form which I thought would happen but nope.

@tensor: lol I was hopping Banner was going to Hulk out in the Hulkbuster 2.0 myself but nope.

Cause he already tried to do it in the battle, it didn't end well for him.

When? I honestly don't remember. Also, couldn't he have frozen time when mantis had Thanos under here mind control?

He tried in new York battle.

It needs certain amount of time to which makes it useless in battle.

IIRC, he was restraining Thanos when she did that, who knows reality gem could affect time gem.

@plotweapon16255: thanks for th Gif but unless strange was incapacitated I don't see how he couldn't combo wot mantis and freeze Thanos or at least Quil.

Yeah, it was pretty dumb and something that eventually would become a glaring plot inconvenience making the Eye of Agamotto the time stone, they did have to somehow tie Dr Strange into the larger Infinity stone plot though. There is several times when he could have used it throughout the film and I feel like saying "he knew the outcomes and didn't use it" is just sort of a cop out answer.

IIRC he was restraining Thanos & he had hidden the time gem via magic.

Although he could have used it like you maybe coz of plot he didn't use it.

I kinda get their reasoning, but I just don't see how why they didn't at least use it when Peter started pistol whipping Thanos.

@plotweapon16255: do you frequent the battle forum? If so, would you say the time stone by itself is too inconsistent in battle?

To be fair, Strange did at least try and use the time stone against Ebony Maw, but Maw restrained him with cables

@space_coyote: true. When I started this thread I was looking at it as a plot hole, but since the writers (through Thanos) acknowledged that he didn't even try to use the time stone I wonder if we write it off as an inconsistency? Strange with the time stone is very powerful on the battle forums but it looks like the time stone isn't safe to use in direct combat.

Nope. Didn’t use it. It’s safe to assume his precognition made it clear that using the Stone was not the way foreword.

Throughout the fight he was wearing a fake Eye on his chest. The Time Gem was kept in the mirror dimension.

No. Thanos even comments on it about how he didn’t use his best weapon or something along those lines.

Because he saw 14 million possible outcomes and in the one where they won he probably didn't have to use the time stone. Plus, Thanos had the reality stone so it could be somehow used to counter the time stone.

If Strange had went past 14 million possibilities, there could potentially be one where the gem was used effectively. But 14 million are enough i think.

+1

I've heard a lot of that "Hulk was afraid to come out". I don't think that's what it happened. It's ridiculous to think Hulk would be afraid, as his mere existance is anger. I think there is an issue between Banner and Hulk (following up from Thor Ragnarok) that still needs to be settled.

@buckwheat: exactly, it’s not that Hulk was afraid, so much as his pride was probably shattered. The big guy practically felt what he gave Loki in terms of getting manhandled. That’s gonna break someone’s pride, especially someone like hulk who’s been growing mentally as his own separate being for the 2 years on Sakaar

He probably knew that to win in the end he couldn't use it, Thanos even said he didn't use his greatest weapon. There must've been a reason for it.

Though I don't think it would've even worked on Thanos the reality stone could probably counter it

Because any kind of time powers are OP and would end the movie right there

I acually think more on the direction of Hulk not wanting to serve Banner anymore. You could see him not wanting to turn back to human form in Thor. So perhaps the direction Marvel is going is Banner and Hulk geting separated in Avengers 5, and potentially opening a door to a Hulk solo movie on the next fase, where they both work out their differences and join back.

That to me was a plot hole in my opinion. As soon as Peter was about to attack Thanos, Strange or Ironman should have stopped him by any means possible. Ironman and Spider-Man pull off the glove successfully and Thanos no longer have the Infinity gauntlet. Strange then holds Thanos in a mirror dimension for some time until they figure out what to do with the Infinity Stones.

After they got the stones from Thanos, they could have threw them in a sun, blackhole or , or have Scarlet Witch destroy them.

@buckwheat: Well it will be him or Captain Marvel that shows up in the next Avengers. I feel like something is going to happen to Black Widow then he loses it.

@heatforce: The reason Strange didn't use the Time Gem is the same reason Thanos didn't use the Reality Gem during his fight on Titan. Lazy writing.

Thanos literally had Drax in pieces and Mantis was melted to a rubbery flesh with a mere thought. Don't you think he could've done the same to Ironman, Spiderman, Starlord and the rest? (Perhaps with the exception of Strange)

No, because he did not have it with him but hid it, before the fight. Thanos himself points out that Strange never used his most powerful weapon and then broke the eye of Agamotto to reveal it was empty.

Sincerely, at that point Thanos had the Reality Gem so, with nothing but a thought, he could literally break them in peaces like he did to Drax or turn them to jellow like he did to Mantis,

Throwing the moon on Ironman, sendind bolts of fire or trading punches with them was a bigger plot hole than Strange not using the Time Gem. The good doctor had a "reason" not to use the Gem, but Thanos was a murdeder. He didn't care about anything other than getting the Infinity Stones, so he should have used the Reality Gem to instantly turn to the team to mush super-easily.

Cap Marvel will show up for sure. I hope we get both, I would be disapointed to get another Avengers movie without Hulk.

I got a feeling that Dr. Strange is playing a very, very long con.

He straight up told Stark that he'd sacrifice them to protect the time gem. He didn't even like Tony. There's no IC reason for him to sacrifice half of the universe (Spiderman and himself included) just to save Tony's life. It's also consistent with his final words. "It was the only way."

Before the Avengers can beat Thanos, Thanos has to first win.

I can't argue with that logic and it makes the most sense. Weird as this may sound, I partially though Thanos could have done that to everyone but he didn't due to plot and/or he wanted to show off his powers with the Infinity Stones. With Drax and Mantis, maybe he felt they were too unworthy to waste his time fighting them.

That makes sense also. As in Thanos was so sure of his victory, his ego was so big, that he didn't think he needed to restore to turning them to jell-o, since he could defeat them with his hands.

That also works with the comic version of Thanos that seldom uses his matter manipulation powers, even though he has shown to be able to turn people to stone.

True, but when Strange entered Dormammu's realm, he automatically brought a concept of Time into that realm as well due to him possessing Time Stone and using it there created short limited time continuum there (till the effects of Time Stone weared off), thus there was Time there to break, so the narrative still remains the same, they gave an excuse yet showed no consequences of abusing it, be it either Earth realm or some other one.