Why was Ronan/Thanos not interested in the other Infinity Stone in possession of The Collector?

Why was Ronan/Thanos not interested in the other Infinity Stone in possession of The Collector? - Body of Water

Both the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy seem to spin around the 6 Infinity Stones.

In Thor: The Dark World, the Aether is given to the Collector. He explicitly says "One down, five to go.".

In Guardians of the Galaxy he obtains another Infinity Stone "The Orb". However, later his place is blown up because the Orb was touched by a mortal, then Ronan shows up and is only interested in the Orb, but the "One down, five to go" seems to suggest that The Collector had the Aether in his possession before he got the Orb.

Why is Thanos only interested in the Orb. If he is able to obtain all six Infinity Stones and the Infinitely Gauntlet and become the most powerful being in the Universe (which he already is according to his daughter in Guardians of the Galaxy).

Didn't Thanos know the Aether was in the possession of The Collector? Or is the Orb more powerful/destructive? Where are the other 4 Infinity Stones, will they pop up in the next movies?

An interesting analysis can be found here.



Best Answer

I'll try to answer these as best I can.

1. Why is Thanos only interested in the Orb?

As far as we can tell, this is the only Infinity Stone that Thanos is truly aware of. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy don't become aware of what's in the orb until The Collector opens it and reveals it to them. Thanos is using Ronan and his adopted daughters to retrieve the orb for him, with the promise of using it to destroy Xandar for Ronan, but Ronan takes the Orb for himself and threatens to kill Thanos with it after he uses it to destroy Xandar and the Nova Corps. Given his singular focus on the Orb itself, we can only assume he's aware of the location (however firm or loose that location may be) of this particular Infinity Stone, and is simply after that one for the time being.

2. Doesn't Thanos know The Collector has the Aether?

Probably not. Remember that at the end of Thor: The Dark World, Volstagg and Sif deliver it to The Collector. They entrust it to him likely with the intent of only him and various royal members of Asgard knowing he has it; it's even possible to assume that Thor and Loki still think it's safely within Asgard. Remember: the Aether was hidden for eons before Jane happened upon it, so it had been well hidden for a very long time before they handed it to The Collector. Unless Thanos became aware of its influence in Asgard's struggle against a newly risen Malekith, we can only assume that he doesn't actually know it's been brought back into the galaxy. Which leads us to item 3...

3. Where are the other four Infinity Stones?

Ah, you seem to have forgotten a key bit of info in mentioning the Asgardians delivering the Aether to The Collector at the end of "Thor: The Dark World": they note that since the the Tesseract is also in Asgard, keeping two Infinity Stones so close together is dangerous. As such we know the location of three Infinity stones as of the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy". The Aether is with The Collector (I doubt it was destroyed with the rest of his collection), the Tesseract is in Asgard, and the Orb is now safely locked up on Xandar with the Nova Corps.

4. Will the remaining stones pop up in future movies?

I'd say they certainly will, as Marvel has had a prop for the Infinity Gauntlet for some time now, but until those movies and their story lines are released, anything said would merely be conjecture.

UPDATE FOR #3 AND #4 (SPOILERS AHEAD):

As we now know, the Mind Stone was revealed to be in Loki's scepter and used to create Ultron and ultimately Vision. Considering Thanos gives this scepter to Loki, this indicates he actually gave up possession of an Infinity Stone to someone else in his efforts to uncover the others and achieve his primary goal. When it was briefly in the hands of Hydra it was used to create Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, the latter being capable of actually destroying stones with her powers.

The Soul Stone ended up being discovered by Gamora who destroyed the details of its location and tried to keep them a secret from Thanos, even going as far as asking Star-Lord to kill her if Thanos manages to capture her. The stone is located on Vormir, guarded by Red Skull, who informs Thanos he must sacrifice someone he loves to obtain it. Thanos reluctantly throws Gamora to her death and obtains the stone.




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More answers regarding why was Ronan/Thanos not interested in the other Infinity Stone in possession of The Collector?

Answer 2

Aside from


there might be another possible explanation:

  • The Aether wasn't in that museum.

    • To quote director/writer James Gunn:

      "I will say that is probably not the Collector’s only museum. I think he probably has other spaces in which he keeps his incredibly vast selection. That’s just his 'Knowhere' wing [in the movie]."


    If the Aether wasn't there, and Thanos (somehow) knew it was at a different location, then it would explain why he didn't order Ronan to get it as well.

Answer 3

The collect didnt make them wait because he was away, clearly he is at nowhere before hand as he tells his assistant to work harder on cleaning as they have guests coming (not the exact quote).

The collect had them waiting simply because thats part of who he is In my opinion. It wasn't a negotiation tactic like starlord suggests. I suspect anyone who tries to deal with the collector ends up waiting more often then not.

As for why hasn't thanos gone after the others? Well, he may simple be following a plan. He isn't taking those stones yet because its not the right time yet.

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Images: James Wheeler, Mike van Schoonderwalt, Allan Mas, Pixabay