Avengers: Age of Ultron left a plot hole involving Thor and the Infinity Stones that Thor: Ragnarok made worse, and the MCU keeps ignoring it.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally moved away from the Infinity Saga, but that doesn’t mean there are no plot holes left from the first three phases of the MCU, and this universe continues to ignore a big plot hole about Thor that Avengers: Age of Ultron left. The success of the first Avengers movie in Phase 1 set the bar high for the sequel in Phase 2, but unfortunately, Avengers: Age of Ultron didn’t live up to expectations and did more harm than good, and though some plot holes and loose ends have been addressed as the MCU has expanded, not all questions left by the second Avengers movie have been solved yet.
Avengers: Age of Ultron saw the title team dealing with Ultron, an AI created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner who unexpectedly became sentient and decided that the only way to save Earth was by eradicating humanity. Ultron recruited the Maximoff twins, Pietro and Wanda, with the latter inducing traumatic visions on the Avengers in order to weaken them, and while most of these came true in one way or another, the one who had visions that went beyond his own story was Thor, so much so that his vision led him on a very important quest – but this part of Thor’s story ended up creating a plot hole that the MCU has failed to answer since Age of Ultron came out and continues to ignore it.
Thor Was The Only One Who Saw The Infinity Stones In Age of Ultron
Wanda Maximoff took advantage of the Avengers’ biggest fears and trauma to induce shocking visions, showing Tony Stark the dead bodies of his teammates, taking Black Widow back to her days in the Red Room, and showing Captain America what it would have been like had he returned for his promised dance with Peggy Carter. Thor believed himself to be mighty and strong enough to not succumb to Wanda’s magic, but he was shown a catastrophic vision of his home realm and also got quick glimpses at the Infinity Stones and the creation of Vision. This led Thor to leave the team to learn more about the Infinity Stones and the other strange visions he witnessed, and with the help of Erik Selvig, he found the Water of Sight, a body of water where, if accepted by the water gods, Thor would be able to revisit his vision in more detail.
Luckily, Thor was accepted by the gods and got a closer look at what Wanda had previously shown to him, and he saw the Infinity Stones that, up to that point, had been introduced in the MCU and their locations, as well as the birth of Vision and how he would be key to defeat Ultron. Thor was the only Avenger who was shown the Infinity Stones and where they were, but neither Avengers: Age of Ultron nor the rest of the MCU explained why it was, of all the heroes, Thor the one who had this vision, when it would have made a bit more sense that this vision was given to Iron Man or Captain America, as they were the leaders of the original Avengers team.
Thor: Ragnarok Claimed He Couldn’t Find Any of The Stones
After having all these visions, Thor decided at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron to leave Earth to research and understand the Infinity Stones, sensing that someone was manipulating events since four of the six Stones had been recently involved in major events. Said stones were the Mind Stone (kept inside Loki’s scepter), the Space Stone (found inside the Tesseract), the Power Stone (kept in the Orb in Guardians of the Galaxy), and the Aether, which was the Reality Stone. The latter was introduced in Thor: The Dark World, and Thor had to deal closely with it as Malekith wanted to unleash it at the center of the Convergence in Greenwich. At the end of Thor: The Dark World, Volstagg and Lady Sif took the Aether to The Collector as having two Infinity Stones close together would be unwise, as Asgard was already keeping the Tesseract. Thor, then, was aware of where the Aether and the Tesseract were, yet Thor: Ragnarok claimed he couldn’t find any of the Stones.
Will The MCU Solve Thor’s Age of Ultron Plot Holes?
As mentioned above, some of the mysteries, plot holes, and loose ends left by Avengers: Age of Ultron have been addressed as the MCU continues to expand, but Thor’s Age of Ultron plot holes might never be solved. The MCU has already moved on from the Infinity Saga and everything related to the Infinity Stones, and with Thor now in a new role as the guardian of Love after the events of Thor: Love and Thunder, there might not be an opportunity for the MCU to explain why Thor was the only Avenger who saw the Infinity Stones in his visions in Avengers: Age of Ultron and why he didn’t find any of them after leaving Earth even though he knew where the Reality and Space Stones were.
