Avengers Endgame: Could [spoiler’s] fate have been avoided?

Avengers: Endgame brought with it many surprises, though one character’s fate has us questioning whether or not they could have been salvaged?

Warning! Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame follow. You’ve been warned.

The end of an era is here, once again — spoilers ahead! While the movie has begun to premiere in several markets, it’s still not our globally. Watch the movie first before reading ahead…

By now, everyone knows that the central character who started it all perished in the climax of Avengers: Endgame. The character we’re referring to is Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Many fans expected the movie to end with at least one major casualty, but no moviegoer was prepared to lose Tony Stark in the final bout with Thanos.

During that fight, the Avengers do everything possible to keep their Infinity Gauntlet from falling into the Mad Titan’s hands but he gets a hold of it anyway. Several Avengers make an attempt to pull the gauntlet off but none are successful. When Tony Stark sees that Thanos is about to snap his fingers again—this time destroying the entire universe—he uses his armor to extract the Infinity Stones from the gauntlet he created.

The instant that Tony has the stones in his hand, the power begins to course through his body. He can barely manage to stand but he musters up enough strength to snap his fingers, wiping Thanos and his children out of existence. Tony Stark succeeds in ending the fight, but at a great cost.

Following the snap, it’s revealed that Tony is fatally wounded by the Infinity Gauntlet. The toll was too much for an average human to bear and it cost him his life. Tony then spends his final moments saying goodbye to his fellow Avengers—Pepper Potts is among them as she’s suited up in her Rescue Armor.

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What we’re still pondering over is why none of the Avengers tried to save Tony from dying. Doctor Strange or T’Challa could’ve done something to help resuscitate him—Tony was still conscious at the end—so why didn’t anyone try to help Iron Man?

Aside from the obvious and bringing the story to a close, there’s a good reason why the Avengers didn’t stop Tony Stark from dying—they couldn’t. Professor Hulk mentions that when he used the Infinity Gauntlet to reverse Thanos’ snap, he tried to resurrect Natasha Romanoff. She sacrificed herself to retrieve the Soul Stone, but couldn’t be brought back with the gauntlet. An explanation is never given, though the answer may lie in the stones.

Since Natasha was sacrificed to an Infinity Stone, it’s possible that factor prevented Hulk from resurrecting her. We know that the Infinity Gauntlet worked the way it should have because Banner’s snap resurrected the fallen, except for Natasha Romanoff. Her death is relevant to Tony Stark because it may explain why the Avengers couldn’t save him during those final moments.

There are plenty of avenues that the Avengers could’ve taken to help Tony, but they didn’t lift a finger. The Infinity Stones were also lying on the ground so Doctor Strange or someone stronger like Captain Marvel or Thor could’ve wielded them to heal Tony’s wounded body, yet they didn’t try. The reason is that the stones wouldn’t work on him.

If there was any chance that the stones could’ve revived Tony, Doctor Strange would have been the first to say something. He didn’t speak up because the toll was already known to him. And Tony, he understood exactly what Strange meant when he said there was only one way they could win. Of course, that ultimately led to Tony’s death.

As sad and frustrated as that may make us, this isn’t the end of Tony Stark’s legacy. He leaves behind a family of heroes who’ve united to protect the world—or rather—to avenge it when necessary. And of course, we also have to remain open to the possibility that the Avengers will travel through time to save Iron Man, someday.

Avengers: Endgame opens in theaters everywhere on April 26, 2019.