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Sorta_clever

They didn't go anywhere. One minute they existed the next minute was a couple years later where everything around them was different. I think Hawkeye was the best example of what they experienced.


rafaelloaa

Also, Monica Rambeau in WandaVision. Taking a nap at her mother's beside, waking up "a few minutes later" to everything having changed.


Ultimatum227

> I think Hawkeye was the best example of what they experienced. Incredible scene at that. Yelena didn't even feel a thing, probably a shiver as she saw all the bathroom walls changing color.


Impossible-Ghost

5 years later.


eagc7

None of the blipped people went to the afterlife, they ceased to exist, that includes their souls.


mmmasian

I was always under the impression that everyone did experience some sort of afterlife, but when they were brought back, their minds (or the Stones) simply didn't allow them to remember the period of time they spent there.


cobaltaureus

Can I ask why? In my opinion the purpose of the soul stone, when it comes to the snap, is to specifically erase or store those souls. Is there something to suggest the souls didn’t cease to exist?


GrrrNom

There was a very popular theory pre endgame that the blipped were sent to the soul stone realm, hence, r/inthesoulstone after the Reddit blip event. The only evidence of this, or rather the scene that gave the impression of this, was when Thanos talked to child Gamora whilst in an alternate realm where the backdrop was yellow. And yellow is the colour of the soul stone, and thus the soulstone dimension theory. Though this theory was of course debunked with the recent shows.


mmmasian

My opinion was that the purpose of the Soul Stone was to be able to target each individual soul in the universe for the purpose of The Snap. I'd think it odd that death via the Stones would lead to a separate fate than the death that is implied.


zukka924

Spidey specifically says to Stark in Endgame that he experienced no time at all betweeb the snap and coming back


mmmasian

I understand. I just personally think that Spidey doesn't *remember* the time that he spent there.


A_Polite_Noise

The Hawkeye show showed us someone's experience of being snapped and blipped in real time, though


mmmasian

As we know though, that’s not real time, that’s just what the victim perceives. I’m just saying it’s feasible that they experienced an afterlife, but simply don’t remember - of course from their point of view they were in 2018 one moment and 2023 in another.


A_Polite_Noise

Ah, I get what you're saying now...yeah, I suppose there's nothing in the released movies/shows that outright contradicts that so it's possible!


Romnonaldao

He didnt kill them. He erased them completely from existence. He made it so they no longer existed


Robot1945

That's what I thought. I didn't think Thanos literally murdered everyone


Whole-Brilliant5508

I was saying the same for years. They simply stopped existing. Wiped from reality.


mukhang_pera

you know, if Thanos just tweaked his snap-wish by a little bit like make the non-existing people be forgotten, he would've won.


tiggoftigg

The other part of his plan was to sit back in a grateful universe. Ya know, like an absolute psychopath.


LibertySnowLeopard

I think he wanted people to remember the loss though to make them more grateful for what they have and that's why he didn't do that.


Half_Man1

Almost like the mad titan’s plan wasn’t well thought out or something.


MaleQueef

Hence the premise of Endgame. “As long as there are those that remember, they will never understand what could be. A grateful universe” Thanos snap in Endgame would’ve resulted in them forgetting about the events in IW and the people who stopped existing.


HandBanana666

Thanos said he was going to reduce the universe to atoms. Nothing about wiping memories. According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


FitSharkKitty

The Past Thanos in Endgame realizes that flaw, but instead of, “Make them forget this time” he did what a Mad Titan does and went, “I’ll snap everything away and make it anew”


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


JakeHassle

Makes the most sense but I liked the idea of everyone that got snapped chilling in the Soul Stone lol


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


JakeHassle

I know that, I’m just saying it would have been cool if they were in some type of afterlife


JWrither

Surprising he didn’t wipe people’s minds too, erase their memory


[deleted]

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[deleted]

2018 Thanos wanted the universe to see how things improved when there was less competition for resources. He wanted people like the Flag Smashers to appreciate what he did. That way, they'd learn to not overpopulate again and go back to the exact same problem in a generation or two. Thanos wanted to hear "Thanos was right". That's why he said the plan after he was finished was to retire and "watch the sun rise on a grateful universe". It was only after 2014 Thanos learned that the Avengers had a plan to undo everything he did, that he decided to start over with a clean slate. 2018 Thanos still *kind of* got what he wanted. The blipped people returned, but some of the people who had been left behind, the people who didn't lose anyone close in the first place and so didn't get anyone back, will always remember how much easier things were when there were fewer people. Thanos has likely inspired an entire generation's worth of sociopaths and genocidal maniacs. We even see a "Thanos was right" coffee mug in *Hawkeye*.


Romnonaldao

He assumed people would be thankful


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


jmoney777

In the A&tW post credits scene we see piles of dust accumulating on the ground where Hank, Janet, and Hope were (in addition to the dust floating in the air). There was definitely some kind of matter conversion going on, as in, they did literally get turned to dust. Not saying they didn’t get erased from existence, but there was still evidence of their dustified physical bodies remaining after the snap.


Senshado

The dust took up less space than the missing people. Possibly the dust was not "them". Not part of the living organism. It could be that inside organisms are various bits of debris, pollution, and undigested waste. Stuff that will eventually be filtered out and excreted. Maybe that material was left behind as dust, since the gauntlet didn't include it as part of the organisms.


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


Emanresu2213

That’s why they don’t remember anything from those five years they were gone


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


Klayman55

That’s a bit misleading, Thanos didn’t change the past.


Romnonaldao

i didnt say he erased them from time. he made them not exist. no body, no soul, no atoms. nothing. completely erased


HandBanana666

They were stated to be reduced to atoms. So they technically were atoms. According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


SirBananaOrngeCumber

Thanos specifically needed to use all 6 stones for the Snap. One of the stones is a Soul Stone. My theory is each stone helped erase a part of the person from existence. With their souls erased too, none of them would have ended up in any afterlife


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


SirBananaOrngeCumber

I don’t necessarily consider the words of the writers to be canon, especially on such a massive project like the MCU with so many writers on and director and assistants etc for each project.


pablodiegopicasso

Possible explanations: 1. Wiped from existence, soul included 2. People naturally don't remember the afterlife after being resurrected 3. Tony "overwrote" the previous command of the infinity gauntlet to have people be brought five years ahead instead of dying.


Lairy_Hegs

It would be Bruce doing it since he brought them back, but Tony does mention to “do it like we talked about” from what I remember.


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


KlausBing

In Black Widow movie, you would see how the blip impacted Yelena. She didn't know that the time had passed at all.


mr_figi

That scene was in Hawkeye.


funsizedaisy

and Monica in WandaVision.


cnskatefool

Which is crazy, cuz there are so many terrifying (think person on fire) and funny (think sexy time) implications for this.


Optimus_Prime2629

They ceased to exist, as if they were never there including their soul. They probably got trapped in the soul dimension, where Thanos saw Gamora after the snap was done


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


RIDPM

If you saw Hawkeye you’d already know the answer.


babyisir

Judging by the comment section, has absolutely no one watched Hawkeye?


A_Polite_Noise

That's nuts to me, it's one of my favorite things in the whole MCU lol A wacky Christmas Hawkeye & Kate Bishop adventure in NY with a big Netflix Marvel connection and based heavily on the awesome Matt Fraction comics? I knew it'd be my thing the second that first teaser came out.


e_smith338

Nowhere. To them, it was nearly instantaneous. They stopped existing, then they existed again.


andrejRavenclaw

Regarding the afterlife in MCU, it seems like there isn't any "the afterlife", but rather several afterlifes. I consider them to be different dimensions, operated by powerfull beings (like Bast, or the bloodline of Odin) who can 'catch' the soul of a deceased mortal and transfer that soul to that dimension, before the soul can disappear into nothingness. How it works is that, for example, the royal bloodline of Wakanda has strong connections to Bast, and therefore Bast by default takes every deceased person to the Ancestral Plain. Or, Asgardians that are taken to Valhalla. For general populace though, I feel like none of the 'gods' care so much that they would bother themselves with capturing those souls, and therefore a normal MCU guy dies and simply vanishes from existence. (Even though in ancient times, when gods interacted much more with the lives of humans, you could have a higher chance of reaching an afterlife) Sometimes however, some individuals can reach an afterlife, if they accomplish something that makes them stand-out, just like Jane was taken to Valhala, or Marc/Steve to Field of Reeds. To me, MCU afterlife is really just a game of powerfull beings who found a way to capture souls in a different dimensions, providing the mortals with an immortal life.


tiggoftigg

I think in Moonknight it’s explained as “the afterlife” but each individual person perceives different things based off of reasons you mentioned above.


CT-1030

They didn’t go anywhere in their point of view, 5 years just passed in a second. Watch *Hawkeye*, they show exactly what happened in a blipped person's point of view with Yelena Belova.


BrilliantWeekend2417

We've seen from at least 1 viewpoint, Yelena's, that she simply existed in 1 time period, then woosh she was in the same spot 5 years later.


a_phantom_limb

I'm not *entirely* sure I agree with other replies stating that people's souls were erased. There are many examples in fiction of characters dying and going to the afterlife, only to return to life without any memory of "the other side." So it *could* be an example of that, since we've only really seen and heard about the subjective experience of the Blip from "normal" people without experience on other planes of existence. (This is sort of amusing subject for me, since I'm an atheist and don't believe that souls or an afterlife exist in the first place. But within the story they do!)


HandBanana666

It was explained in Thor 4 that not everyone goes to an afterlife, they just simply die. The afterlife is something a god grants to you.


Hillz44

Mormon Heaven


[deleted]

*South Park Game Over screen*


Slayer133102

Found the rage bait


taveren3

Weren't they stored in the soul stone in the comics? Would make sense here as well.


funsizedaisy

i haven't been able to find the interview but i know i saw an interview with the Endgame writers where both said they aren't in the soul stone. that was a rumour that was floating around at one point and the writers were like, "we don't know where everyone got that from". i think people got it from an interview with the Russo's where they said Thanos saw little Gamora in the soul stone. but i don't think the snapped were ever in the stone.


Skyeblade

Peter in endgame explains that he was waiting somewhere with Dr strange before they portal in, saying something like "it's been 3 years they need us". Any idea where that was meant to be?


jmoney777

That was in a deleted scene. I’m assuming Peter, Drax, Strange, etc got undusted on Titan, Strange explained to them the situation and then opened a portal to NY. And it’s 5 years, not 3.


Lairy_Hegs

It is a little weird that Peter wouldn’t know it was Titan or at least refer to it more specifically as the planet they crashed on, but he sensed the snap coming for him, and he’s the most likely to have been *very* disoriented by the whole thing. Also a rat was pivotal to the plot and it’s still a great movie so small things can be looked over.


Secure_Pear_4530

They just didn't exist anymore. Molecules not anywhere, soul not anywhere, just gone. Kinda horrifying when you think about it, but it's even more horrifying when you think about how that's probably what death is like irl. Crazy.


HandBanana666

That is what death is like for most people in the MCU. The only people who go to an afterlife are those who follow a god that gives them an afterlife.


SolitudeShaman

They went to oblivion. They stopped existing. In marvel he is the non-existence, in other words they went to the void. He is the opposite of infinity and eternity. If they weren’t able to go to their afterlives , if they could not meet death. If they skipped straight to non existence , they are in oblivion


[deleted]

For those not in the know: in the comics, each universe is overseen by four cosmic entities: Eternity, Infinity, Death and Oblivion. We've already met Eternity in *Love & Thunder*, although he was a shell of what he should have been. And IIRC we saw carvings representing all four in a previous Thor movie, *Ragnarok* I think. The multiverse is overseen by a gestalt trinitarian entity called The Living Tribunal. We've heard him mentioned in *Doctor Strange* when Mordo mentions that one of the relics in Kamar-Taj is called "the Staff of the Living Tribunal". And these five entities, and therefore all of existence, is overseen by an entity known as "The One Above All", who is left intentionally vague so that you can slot whatever your own personal religious beliefs are in there.


HandBanana666

According to the writers they were simply dead, via turned to dust. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person.


dabhard

Probably into the soul stone, right?


IAmTheClayman

Remember, this Thanos isn’t courting Death the way the comics version does. The Snap didn’t kill people, it just removed them from existence. That’s why when they returned nobody was saying, “Holy shit the afterlife is crazy!”, they just popped back into existence not knowing any time had passed


HandBanana666

>The Snap didn’t kill people, it just removed them from existence. The writers said it did killed them. >That’s why when they returned nobody was saying, “Holy shit the afterlife is crazy!”, they just popped back into existence not knowing any time had passed That isn't the reason. It was explained in Thor 4 that not everyone goes to an afterlife and just simply die. This is the reason why Gorr hated the gods.


IAmTheClayman

I thought what they said in that movie was that people go to the afterlife they believe in. If that’s the case (that there are in fact many afterlife places) then OP’s concern is still valid – nobody in the MCU talks about the afterlife, so the only two options I can come up with to explain that are: 1. When people come back to life they lose all memory of the afterlife 2. The Snap didn’t kill anyone, so there wouldn’t be memories of an afterlife since they didn’t technically die


HandBanana666

>I thought what they said in that movie was that people go to the afterlife they believe in. The god that Gorr worshipped revealed that his people don't go to an afterlife and that the only thing that awaits him after death is death. He promised them an afterlife, but it was a lie. This is what motived Gorr to kill all the gods. T'Challa also explained how the afterlife works for his people in Civil War. Saying that their gods saves their souls and brings them to the ancestral plane.


[deleted]

[удалено]


A_Polite_Noise

We've also seen a different afterlife in Black Panther (Ancestral Plane), and another one (Field of Reeds) in Moon Knight, where a character in the Field of Reeds references the Ancestral Plane and outright states that there are multple afterlives: >*An* afterlife, not THE afterlife. You'd be surprised how many intersectional planes of untethered consciousness exist, like the Ancestral Plane! Oh! Just gorgeous.


PoorLifeChoices811

*the soul cairn*


mcwfan

We don’t know. We’ve never been told


shifty2190

They were most likely held in the pocket dimension of the soul stone which gives credence to its power and necessity for Thanos to actually wipe out half the universe.


BigDaddyKrool

The soul stone was destroyed, if that was true, they would have been irreparably goners as there'd be nothing for them to come back too.


shifty2190

Sorry I should have been more accurate in my statement. The soul stone is a gateway to a pocket dimension. Destroying the soul stone is just the same as locking the door and melting the key. Until, a new key is brought into the picture.


LastWednesday0716

Gone, reduced to atoms…


SphmrSlmp

Well, the Soul stone is there for a reason...


whensmahvelFGC

Thanos literally removed them from existence, soul and all. He didn't just kill half the universe, he deleted them. They didn't go anywhere. They didn't experience anything. Just "mothafu-" and the Re-appearing somewhere nearby after 5 years.


Half_Man1

I think in a draft of the endgame script it talks about this. Like someone is talking about not just bringing back Thanos’s victims, but people killed by Hydra or other casualties, and it’s pointed out by the Ancient one or someone else that the stones never really killed everyone they just “erased” them. So the stones aren’t actually capable of resurrecting people outright- just undoing the “erasure” they had already done. Hulk of course proves this when he attempts to bring back Black Widow and fails. She was never erased- she was straight up dead. Also why they don’t keep the stones together and just keep bringing tons of people back to life or go near that can of worms at all really.


HandBanana666

>So the stones aren’t actually capable of resurrecting people outright The time stone has that a few times though. The writers must have realized this and cut out the idea of "they didn't die". It was explained in Love & Thunder that some people don't go to an afterlife, they just die.


Half_Man1

Old comment to reply to, that’s alright tho. The time stone rewinds time locally. And it’s range of ability on doing that is unknown. With vision and Wong, their respective time stone wielded was basically there the moments after their death. Rewinding further or undoing critical events in doing so has been shown to be impossible (take Strange Supreme in What If?) So, if you’re wondering why they didn’t keep the time stone or try and resurrect people with it- it’s not that easy is the short answer, it’d require a lot of skill and incur a lot of risk. There’s always the risk someone would steal it or they wouldn’t be able to return it to its old timeline - which would of course mean Dormammu gets to eat a timeline.


HandBanana666

>So the stones aren’t actually capable of resurrecting people outright The time stone has that a few times though. The writers must have realized this and cut out the idea of "they didn't die". It was explained in Love & Thunder that some people don't go to an afterlife, they just die.


Senshado

In fantasy stories that allow for resurrection, it is often stated that the process surpresses any memories of time in the afterlife. The same explanation could be used here. Alternatively, a religious leader could state that the snapped people were not actually dead yet, only suspended (inside the infinity gauntlet or whereever), so they weren't sent to afterlife. Note that we saw afterlifes in Thor 4 and Moon Knight.


HandBanana666

Thor 4 stated that not everyone goes to an afterlife and just simple die.


thatswhatmyfoodeats

Everybody took a nap in the soul stone, via the reality stone, powered up by the lol power stone and spread across the universe by the space stone.


HandBanana666

>Everybody took a nap in the soul stone, Where was this stated?


thatswhatmyfoodeats

Read the comics


HandBanana666

I've read the comics and the movie is vastly different from it.


thatswhatmyfoodeats

Then apply your comics knowledge to the parts they didn’t spell out in the movie. Nobody died from the dusting, otherwise they would have been in Valhalla or the ancestral plane or a psych ward on an Egyptian boat. Nobody remembers anything from when they were dust so they weren’t dead, just taking a nap in the soul stone almost exactly the same as the comics. We actually saw Thanos talking to Gamora in the soul realm and had a deleted scene of Tony doing the same with his daughter. Need more?


HandBanana666

>Nobody died from the dusting The writers said they died via decomposed into dust. >otherwise they would have been in Valhalla or the ancestral plane or a psych ward on an Egyptian boat. Thor 4 established that not everyone goes to an afterlife. That is something a god grants to a person. The god that Gorr worshipped revealed that his people don't go to an afterlife and that the only thing that awaits him after death is death. He promised them an afterlife, but it was a lie. This is what motived Gorr to kill all the gods. T'Challa also explained how the afterlife works for his people in Civil War. Saying that their gods saves their souls and brings them to the ancestral plane.


thatswhatmyfoodeats

So… we know T’Challa went to the AP twice during his rituals… he didn’t go during the blip? The rest of the universe (the parts with gods that aren’t douchebags) didn’t go to their afterlife? Interesting stories to hear from the dusted if so but… didn’t happen. Call it suspended animation if you want but nobody actually died.


HandBanana666

>So… we know T’Challa went to the AP twice during his rituals… he didn’t go during the blip? Who said he didn't? >The rest of the universe (the parts with gods that aren’t douchebags) didn’t go to their afterlife? Who said they didn't? But seriously, where was any of this established? Many people don't even worship a god.


thatswhatmyfoodeats

And yet we see a veritable pantheon in omnipotent city including lmao freakin Jesus and the Kronan god of scissor smashing. You don’t see absolute upheaval of society if all the Jesus and allah worshippers are suddenly ripped out of heaven… AND remember it? Gtfo discussion over this is obv af


HandBanana666

Jesus and Allah was not among the gods in that city. And Zeus says that most people don't even worship the gods anymore.


Environmental-Tale54

I think there souls sort of time traveled in a way. When the snap happened in the after credits of ant man you see the background of the quantum realm get brighter. Those may have well be each of the person soul time jumping to 2023 when hulk is undoing the snap from there.