Avengers: Infinity War was a massive crossover event that portrayed a dark ending that no one was really ready for! Thanos came in, snapped his fingers having collected all the Infinity Stones, he fulfilled his life’s ultimate goal which was bringing balance to the Universe by taking out half of the entire population. But that did beg the question that how did the creatives decide whom they should kill. Perhaps the other Guardians may be more important than Nebula & Rocket, so why did the Russos chose them specifically? What could be their purpose in Avengers 4?
Well, as we know for a fact that nothing really happens by accident, and there is a reason for everything. So there would exactly be a reason for everyone who survived in Infinity War. The original 6 members were just alive because it was their last movie, but because they have a bigger purpose to fulfil in Avengers 4. Same goes for the others.
But what could that bigger purpose be? A Redditor has come up with a theory that ties in with the theory of Time Travel for Avengers 4 that said that the film will revisit every movie that had an Infinity Stone. This theory specifically applies the important use of Rocket and Nebula into the plot of Avengers 4. Have a look:
“We have the original Avengers all well and alive but why are Rocket Raccoon and Nebula alive?
I think the answer is clear if the Time Travel Theory is real that might be the reason why these 2 are alive.
– Rocket Raccoon is probably the only Avenger who is alive and knew where the Power Stone was.
(Avengers can get the stone from Xandar right after GotG ends and the GotG story continues like we know.)
– Nebula is probably the only Avenger who is alive and knew where the Soul Stone was.
(Maybe someone from the Avengers sacrifices themselves to get the stone before Thanos. This would explain the many deaths that will “happen” if the spoilers are legit.)
– Thor is probably the only Avenger who is alive and knew where the Reality Stone was.
(The Avengers can steal it from the collector or Thor can find a way in the timeline not to give it to the collector during the events of Thor 2.)
– Iron Man, Thor and probably Hulk are the only alive avengers knowing where the Time Stone was.
(So right after the events of the Doctor Strange Movie the Avengers can either steal it or somehow convince Strange about the events that are going to happen)
– The Space Stone ain’t a tricky one. The events of the Avengers happen like we know and then the Avengers team can get it. Everybody knows where it is or was. They probably go back to the moment where Thor & Loki are about to leave earth. The Space Stone was only significant in the Avengers movie. Doing anything with the stone after the A1 events won’t harm the Timeline.
Then this theory talks about how the Mind Stone could be retrieved without actually messing up the Timeline because it sure is tricky to get that due to the most significant use of the Mind Stone in the timeline of MCU. It continues:
– “The Mind Stone is a real tricky one.
If they get it back in the Avengers 1 Events Vision never happens and the Avengers 2 events probably ain’t happening.
So my Theory is they get it back before the events of Avengers 3. Extracting the stone out of Visions head.
With Time Travel all the stories we have seen can happen like we know. No Timeline errors or something like that.”
But extracting the stones out of Vision’s head would certainly alter the story told in Avengers: Infinity War, so perhaps it has to be done right at the moment when Shuri is trying to extract the stone from Vision’s head during the Wakandan War. For this, Shuri would have to travel to the past after figuring out how Vision can be separated from the stone. Infinity War did tease that there will be a lot of Vision left even without the stone, so that could exactly come to the picture.
Extracting these stones in these exact ways could prevent the big snap from ever happening and save the movies that happened in the past, and that is what the ultimate goal is. But if the Avengers do use these to get the stones, then they will be messing up with the story portrayed in Infinity War, so that is a sacrifice, we as fans have to make. For that particular reason, the theory of getting the mind stone entirely before the events of Avengers 4 would also work, but all this would negate everything that happened in the highest grossing Superhero movie (Perhaps that is what Marvel may be trying to do anyway).
Going through the Comments section of this Reddit post, we found another plausible reason for Nebula and Rocket to be alive and here’s what it is:
“Nebula and Rocket are both space pilots. Tony would have a hard time figuring out how to get anywhere from Titan without someone with experience piloting an alien ship as well as the necessary navigational skills. Same with earth bound avengers needing Rocket to find stones off the planet. This also allows for multiple space missions like in IW so that’s probably their primary purpose for surviving the snap with the original avengers.”
While this theory explains the use of every Avenger in the plot of Avengers 4, there is one who we could say was kept alive only to establish that the big Snap did not take out all the sidekicks and that Avenger was none other than Rhodey/War Machine!
Avengers 4 comes out on May 3, 2019.
