Are They Really Dead?

Full of spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.

So, it has been a little over a month since the world saw the deaths of Heimdall, Loki, Gamora, Vision, Bucky Barnes, Groot, Wanda Maxioff, T'Challa, Sam Wilson, Drax, Mantis, Peter Quill, Dr. Stephen Strange, Peter Parker, Maria Hill, and Nick Fury.

In that month many fans have called bullshit.

Through making conspiracy theories to writing fanfiction, many fans have come up with ways that the events of Infinity War were corrected, reversed, or never happened.

Among these is the popular belief that in Avengers 4, everyone left alive will team up with Captain Marvel and somehow create their own time stone and/or infinity gauntlet and reverse minor events from way back to when the Avengers first began.

Well, I have a bit of a different theory. Let's dive in.

First with those who I am sure are toast: Heimdall, Loki (except with him I'm still maybe he isn't since that tweet about characters becoming different versions of themselves so maybe female Loki?) and Gamora.

I believe they are actually gone because of one thing, we saw their bodies.

One of the biggest rules with Marvel is: if there isn't a body, doubt the death. In all of their cases, there was a body.

Now you may be asking, what about Vision? His body was left behind.

Vision isn't human. He has a synthetic body and is an incredibly advanced AI. And we all previously thought that what made him possible was the mind stone.

Bruce questioned that maybe wasn't the case and our new queen, Shuri, confirmed Vision doesn't need the mind stone to live. If you remember, they were in the process of removing it when everything went to hell.

So really, all they have to do is repair him.

However, I'm not saying there wouldn't be consequences to his death. I believe that when he comes back, he'll come back as White Vision, something that happened when he was torn apart and put back together in the comics. Beyond that, there weren't any repercussions in the comics to his character. Except Vision's fate is in the hands of the Russo Brothers. So I think Vision wouldn't have any memories from before.

Why? Because it would just make things really sad and after Infinity War, it's clear the writers are okay with making the people sad.

Now, the things with everyone turning into dust, they aren't dead for two reasons.

The first being, everyone who is dead are expected to take the place of the original Avengers to carry on the franchise (Black Panther 2, Spiderman 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, etc.).

Second, Gamora and the Soul Stone.

After watching Gamora's death, I knew there had to be more to her death than proving Thanos to be the shittest father ever.

The rule for the Soul Stone is a soul for a soul. So while Gamora is dead, theoretically she might have some control of the Soul Stone beyond giving it some sort of consciousness.

Now, if the Soul Stone works like that, what is stopping the other stones from having some sort of consciousness too?

In the 10 years worth of films, the stones have come into contact with either an Avenger or a Guardian and in every case, they were trying to protect the stone from being misused.

Space Stone: Steve Rodgers tried to keep it out of the hands of Hydra in Captain America: The First Avenger. Then in Avengers Assemble, the entire plot was to get it back from Loki.

Reality Stone: In Thor: The Dark World, Jane Foster was the one who technically found the Aether, which was later condensed into the Reality Stone. but even then, Thor had tried to keep it out of the hands of the Dark Elves who only wanted to destroy the universe.

Mind Stone: It was in Vision's head for three years. Vision is considered to be one of the most honorable beings alive after lifting Mjolnir (Thor's hammer).

Time Stone: Doctor Strange has been the stone's protector since he became a master of the mystic arts.

Power Stone: Remember the famous dance-off in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film which ends with Quill taking the stone? The entire goal of the Guardians was to take the stone away from Ronan.

Now, with this history with the Avengers and Guardians, I don't think the Stone wants to kill them but they have to follow Thanos' demands. So the stones simply moved our favorites to a different dimension or plane of existence.

After all, Dr. Strange's 'final' words to Tony were "It was the only way" and there was no way that Dr. Strange would think the only way was with himself dead and half of the world's population. He's a selfish doctor who really wants to save people at the end of the day.

The leaves us with two questions. What kind of state are our favorite heroes in after switch dimensions? And can Dr. Strange still use his magic and just open a portal back?