Marvel peddling their sugar daddy Tony Stark: Tony has a feeling that something bad is coming and is doing everything in his power to keep the Earth safe.
Me, an intellectual:
Now you know damn well… There was no indication at the end of Civil War that Tony had any feeling/inkling of something bigger coming. It was Thor in Age of Ultron that sensed something was off in the force or whatever. Even in that little mini short of what he was doing during Civil War he had a drawing of the Infinity Gauntlet so I really don’t know how y’all jumped to Tony being the one to tell something is off but okay, sure Jan, whatever.
tony stark in IM3: *builds army of suits to protect his loved ones because he’s convinced that “threat is imminent”* *has been convinced of that since the alien attack in new york*
tony stark in IM3: *has anxiety attack when harley asks him if the aliens will come back*
tony stark in AoU: *acknowledged to have been thinking about ways to protect the earth from intergalactic threats. wants a “suit of armor around the world”*
tony stark in AoU: *worst nightmare scenario is the avengers/earth succumbing to a hostile alien take over he didn’t do enough to stop*
tony stark in AoU: *to steve, regarding extraterrestrial threats* “we can bust arm dealers all live-long day, but that up there? that’s the end game. how are you guys planning on beating that?”
tony stark in AoU: *met with derision when he tries to explain the importance of ultron based on a previous extraterrestrial attack*
tony stark in AoU: *to nick fury, about his nightmare scenario, which is the earth perishing due to extraterrestrial threat* “i saw them all dead, nick, felt it. the whole world too”
tony stark in AoU: *adamantly tells steve that “everything that’s happened” is “nothing compared to what’s coming”*
thor in AoU: *after explaining his vision about the infinity stones to the team* “STARK IS RIGHT.”
me, more of an intellectual: tony stark has been worrying about and sensing future extraterrestrial threats and trying to think of ways to protect the earth from that exact greater threat since the avengers battle in new york, so there’s absolutely nothing new to the idea that tony’s been the one who’s still trying to address that whole issue but sure, jan, whatever
To add on to this, I know people want to just say “Even a broken clock is right twice a day” and yeah, maybe Tony’s PTSD had a role in this, but people seem to forget that he’s also a genius???
Like Tony is always looking two steps ahead, its just who he is. And when he feels (and sees) that destfuction is coming, what does he try to do? He tries to get two steps ahead AKA Ultron.
And when he does try to explain himself to the team, they just roll their eyes like ‘yes we get it you went into a worm hole; not this story again’ and we even get the whole line about how when people try to stop a war before it starts people die (but like its war ppl are gonna die anyway so why sit on your butt and do nothing????)
You can say it was Tony’s paranoia, but you can’t tell me that he didn’t feel like a threat was coming.
just 2 add,,, road to infinity war novel dialogue: tony: “(…)stuff is gonna start coming at us fast. and if we’re not up to full strength, we’re gonna get crushed” happy: how do you know for sure? you saw what you saw when you went through that portal but-” tony: thats right. i saw what i saw. and i know that loki wasn’t the only one pulling the chitauri’s strings. there’s something… ~someone else~ out there” tony stark in infinity war: whispers “this is it” when bruce tells him about thanos. tony has been predicting another inevitable alien attack ever since the battle of nyc. “this is it” = this is what he’s been predicting for years and now its finally here. tony stark in infinity war: “thanos has been inside my head for 6 years since he sent his army to new york and now he’s back” thanos to tony in infinity war: “you’re not the only one cursed with knowledge”
To add to this, everything that Tony has done since The Avengers (2012) has been because of the seed of Thanos growing insidiously in the back of his mind – like he explicitly states in infinity war, like he almost says those exact words holy shit – creeping into his thoughts as the rest of the team eventually starts to shake off the invasion of New York (orchestrated by Thanos if you recall) and moves on. It manifests itself as his PTSD and panic attacks in Iron Man 3: where the others have been able to get past it, the alien attack and the wormhole in space lingers uniquely in Tony’s mind, festering and spreading. Tony feverishly builds suits upon suits upon suits of Iron Man armour, some part of his subconscious trying to abate a threat he himself doesn’t know is coming. At the time, to everyone else and perhaps to Tony (and the audience) as well, it seemed like irrational paranoia of a threat that had been taken care of, a natural response to trauma from the only non-superpowered civilian on the original Avengers lineup. Now, in light of Infinity War five years after the fact, it, in retrospect, seems more like prescience. (”Thanos has been inside my head for 6 years”, starting from here, like Tony says in IW.)
Then, everything about Tony’s arc in Age of Ultron is almost a perfect foretelling of the events of Infinity War. In Age of Ultron, Tony is plagued more than ever with visions of what Thanos represents in his mind. Tony creating Ultron is caused directly by his fear of what will happen if an all-powerful extraterrestrial force descends upon the Earth. The vision that Wanda puts in his head is this fear brought to the forefront: a vision of the Avengers shattered and aliens wreaking havoc on the Earth, all because Tony did not do everything in his power to stop it. His rationale, ever the mechanic and futurist, is to build “a suit of armour around the world” to pre-empt extraterrestrial calamity (aka Thanos, even though he doesn’t know it yet), essentially. He calls it “the endgame” (the EXACT WORDS that Doctor Strange used in Infinity War), he says that what they’ve seen is “nothing compared to what’s coming,” he says he’s seen colder worlds than this. He says “we’ll lose,” if they don’t get their act together. Again, it seems like Tony maybe, possibly, may have had some inkling of a powerful alien threat before the others. Even Steve acknowledges (though he opposes) that Tony is trying to stop a war before it starts.
Ultimately, Ultron was a mistake with grave consequences. But it wasn’t Tony’s hubris or his arrogance that caused it. It was his foresight, something that Infinity War finally acknowledges. Before Infinity War, Tony has had to atone for this prescience, because of the misguided way in which he implemented it. Now, finally, as Avengers 4 approaches, it is time that he be vindicated. The events of Infinity War recognize the burning need for Ultron (or, what Tony’s vision for Ultron was) and recognizes that Tony’s actions have been in response to this need that went unheeded by most of the other Avengers. In Infinity War, their outright dismissal of Tony’s concerns in Age of Ultron leads to unprecedented catastrophe.
Throughout the films since Av1 – even maybe including Civil War as Tony tries to keep the Avengers together because he knows the Earth stands no chance with them divided and Ultron a failed mistake, and even maybe Homecoming, as Tony the futurist tries to groom and furnish a new generation of heroes to do what he no longer thinks he is capable of doing – Tony’s dire warnings of the inevitable threat of powerful extraterrestrial invasion have been largely disregarded. Thor is the notable exception as the OP so intelligently noted, but even he says after his vision, in AoU, and I quote:
Thor: I’ve had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at it’s center is that. [he points to the gem inside Vision’s head]
Bruce Banner: What, the gem?
Thor: It’s the Mind Stone. It’s one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities.
Steve Rogers: Then why would you bring it to…
Thor: Because Stark is right.
Sure, Thor connects the dots about the Infinity Stones emerging over the past few years and goes to look into them further at the end of AoU, and that’s definitely great and important I love thor literally look at my url – given that he’s a 1500-year-old alien god prince, he of all people would have the means to get specific information, more so than Tony Stark – but it doesn’t negate Tony’s very, very real and very pressing concerns of a Thanos-like threat over 6 years.
After Av1, the thread is ridiculously simple to follow through Tony’s arc in the MCU: Iron Man 3 diagnosed Tony’s prophetic sense of calamity; Age of Ultron explored it and punished it; and Civil War made him atone for it. Now, at last, Infinity War and, hopefully, Avengers 4 will vindicate it. And if you’ve been paying attention AT ALL, you’ll know it has been a long, long, long time coming.
