Avengers: Endgame - Thanos Was Killed By His Own Arrogance

Avengers: Endgame saw all the heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe coming together to defeat Thanos and his armies, but what ultimately led the Mad Titan to his demise was his own arrogance. The MCU’s first arc officially came to an end with Spider-Man: Far From Home after reaching its peak with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which brought together all the films and heroes from the first three phases of this connected universe.

Thanos finally gathered all the Infinity Stones and mounted them on the gauntlet in Avengers: Infinity War, fulfilling his plan of wiping out half the universe with the snap of his fingers. The surviving heroes joined forces in Avengers: Endgame to go back in time and get the stones before Thanos, thus bringing back those who vanished – but they weren’t counting with Thanos from the past catching up with them.

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Iron Man ended up sacrificing himself to save humanity and made Thanos and his armies disappear with one final snap. Iron Man took the stones from the nano-tech gauntlet in Thanos’ hand thanks to the same technology in his armor, and Thanos’ arrogance only made the process easier.

Thanos didn’t notice Iron Man took the stones and proceeded to say “I am inevitable” before snapping his fingers. It was only then that he realized the gauntlet was empty, and Iron Man stroke back with his famous line “I am Iron Man” and the final snap. Thanos suspected nothing because he thought he had already won, and felt he was invincible now that he had the gauntlet with the stones. A Marvel fan pointed out on Reddit a parallel between an earlier moment in the film with Thanos and 2014 Nebula in the present that shows that Thanos’ arrogance was the little push the Avengers needed to win the battle.

After attacking the Avengers HQ, 2014 Nebula told Thanos they “suspected nothing”, with Thanos replying that “the arrogant never do”. Cut to: Thanos snapping his fingers only to find that the stones were gone. Thanos felt it was his destiny to bring balance to the universe through the Infinity Stones, but his arrogance ended up blinding him. Some fans find his arrogance in Avengers: Endgame to be justified because he had already seen the future where he won (and was killed by Thor after the decimation), so he was walking into battle as the winner. Others pointed out that Strange’s line “if I tell you what happens, it won’t happen” also applies to Thanos, as he knew what happened to his future self. Justified or not, his arrogance was what ultimately led to his defeat, and ended up coming in handy for the Avengers.

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