We SOLVED Why Thanos Waited So Long to Pursue The INFINITY STONES | Marvel Theory

Thanos ducked Odin, The Allfather is too powerful.

Odin's death is at the beginning of Ragnarok, which we could consider lasting about a week. Thanos ambushes the Asgardians' ship at the end of it. When rescuing Thor, Quill remarks that Thanos "decimated Xandar last week". Thanos probably put his MFn helmet on and drove that big ass ship to the heart of the Nova Corp the very MOMENT he sensed // found out about Odin's death.

By this point, I think it should be confirmed that Thanos feared Odin for real.

Don’t forget Hela. If Thanos was aware of her existence then he may have been waiting for that too.

Odin and Hela are OP and he knew it from his parents.

In comics Thanos doesn't fear Odin, he's wary of him and extremely cautious. In the novel Titan Consumed, Thanos wasn't aware of the gems for a very long time. The first gem he found was the Mind Gem while it still rested in the scepter. It has also been stated in the Marvel Universe 616 that once one gem is found the others will be drawn to it, as their entire purpose is to be together. Odin could take Thanos when at full power. The young Thanos was still full of rage and so was more dangerous. Still, I think you're right that Odin was the issue. In the book, Titan Consumed this is confirmed more or less, and Thanos discovers how powerful even weaker Asgardians are. Plus probably better to attack before the Odinforce becomes the Thorforce. The power of 4 Gods, and an Elder God is scary.

Pretty important thing that you forgot to mention: Prior to the events of Thor: The Dark World, the Reality Stone was locked away in another dimension and there was no way to get to it. So even if Thanos could get the other 5, he would then just have to sit around waiting for the alignment to happen and his enemies would have time to try and take the other stones back.

It does come down to Odin in the end. This is exactly why he attacks after Ragnarok. Not only was he the Allfather, but he also posessed the Bifrost, which basically negates Thanos' ability to run with the Space Stone, since Asgard could follow.

I agree and believe Thanos felt if he has 2 infinity stones he would be the most powerful being in the universe and since he seemed focused on collecting the Space stone (Avengers) & Power stone (GOTG) it starts with these two opening the door to Unlimited Power + Space Travel to the other stones

That or Hela.. If you remember, Hela was able to come back once Odin was dead. It's possible that Thanos was aware of that fact, as well, and needed to ensure Hela was properly taken care of first.

I think ego might be the most overlooked too because he is a celestial with a whole planet he could kinda thrash Thanos.

The space stone being his second choice makes perfect sense also as he can shift around to collect the remaining. Word of him collecting the stones would have travelled quickly and he would be able to get to places before defenses could be set up. His first two picks were' spot on as was his timing with everything you've explained.

I think when Strange says he's been watching the possible futures, it's like he's living each one. The same as when the alternate Strange goes back to try and save Christine in What If. If that's true, he got to practice fighting Thanos on Titan 14 million times. I also think that when he's testing different outcomes like this and he chooses one he prefers, all the bad ones he experiences still happen in alternate timelines. This would explain why he couldn't simply bring Stark back to life, we're watching the "bad" timeline where Stark died. Interestingly, this would mean that there's a timeline where Wanda destroys the Mind stone in Vision's head, Thanos walks up, strokes her hair and then disappears into the past, never to be seen again. We, as the viewer just happened to follow Thanos' perspective back in time seeing as how Infinity War is Thanos' movie, this makes sense in a cinematic way.

i felt he didnt fear the avengers just saw them more as a problem that could drag on longer then needed as any long fight would run the risk of unifying the planet.

I want to know why Captain Marvel didn't know what Thanos was doing during Infinity War? She shouldn't have to rely on Nick Fury paging her to know about Thanos's attacks because she would've heard about the assault on Xandar (like Thor did), heard the distress call from Thor's ship (like the Guardians have), and learned about the destruction of the Collector's shop in Knowhere. It makes no sense that Captain Marvel didn't investigate any of these events but found time to look for Tony and Nebula in space. Then again, she was never around for the other 2 Avengers films, the 2 Guardians of the Galaxy films, nor Thor: Ragnarok.

The stinger from AoU shows Thanos deciding to just do it himself.

The Tesseract is the best first stone to acquire because it allows you to travel to the location of the other stones instantly.

Since everyone is complaining about rehashing old theories, here's a fresh one: Would the infinity stone stop working in the dark dimension, and how could Dr. Strange use dimension hopping to his advantage when fighting Thanos?!!?

I was under the impression, that it was a race. As soon as someone begins collecting them; they become a galactic threat. So they need to collect them all in one sweep before anyone can react. So with the death of Odin and the vulnerability of arguably the most powerful "speed-runner" stone, the space stone, he was able to get the ball rolling. More importantly, he needed to know where all the stones were and he'd found out Gamorra knew where it the last one he had no clue, was.

He knew where 5 of the stones were. The Power stone was on Zandar, Space Stone was on Asgard, Reality stone was in nowhere, time and mind stones were on Earth and it was once he got the information from Nebula about Gamora knowing the location of the Soul stone that he began collecting them. He was so confident in his ability to get the information from Gamora about the soul stone that he didn't find it necessary to go for Gamora first. I agree that Thanos collected the stones in a certain order, specifically the power and space stones first and second. Without the power stone he would have had a more difficult time getting the space stone. Thanos may have gone for the power stone first believing it necessary to get the space stone from Asgard, but fortunately enough for him Asgard falling made that task much easier. All things considered everything fell perfectly in place for Thanos making me wonder how much more difficult of a time he may have had in other timelines where Asgard may not have fallen. Oh the multiverse haha