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In the movie Avengers: Endgame, we learn that to get the Soul Stone, one doesn't have to make the sacrifice but simply lose the one they love. A soul for a soul.

Natasha kills herself, yet Clint receives the Soul Stone. There is another question here that deals with just that: Why was this sacrifice sufficient?

In the movie Avengers: Infinity War, we see Thanos with Gamora on Vormir. As soon as Gamora realizes that Thanos truly loves her and is going to sacrifice her, she tries to kill herself. But Thanos makes her knife disappear.

Had Gamora killed herself, would Thanos have still received the Soul Stone? Why does he bother making the knife disappear?

EDIT: I am looking for in rules in the Cinematic Universe that allows one to get the stone.

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    maybe it has something to do with jumping off the cliff.
    – J M
    Commented Jun 11, 2019 at 11:35
  • @JM .. hmm, perhaps, but is there anything that Red Skull happens to mention?
    – MovieMe
    Commented Jun 11, 2019 at 12:06
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    Can't die anywhere, has to be in that spot. that spot below. Thanos look down at it first ..
    – Gomes
    Commented Jun 11, 2019 at 12:10
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    Not everyone in the universe receives the stone whenever a loved one is lost. So position must have something to do with it. The red skull brings them to the top of the ledge for that reason. If losing one you love didn't involve the cliff and you could just lose them at the top, then the sheer drop of the cliff would not really have much point at all. So you have to assume the cliff plays a role.
    – Sam
    Commented Jun 11, 2019 at 14:55
  • I have asked a similar question, the problem is, Red Skull isn't really clear about the rules. How does the Soul Stone quantify "love"? Could Thanos have used Ebony Maw, instead of Gamora?
    – Oliver_C
    Commented Jun 12, 2019 at 20:06

1 Answer 1

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This is Gamora dead: Gamora

This is Natasha dead: Natasha

Let's ignore that similar dead posture for a moment :)

There seems to be a circle at the base of that cliff. And as Sam mentions in the comments, Red Skull brings them to the top of the cliff and then explains the Soul for a Soul concept. So it appears that the offering of the Soul has to be at the circle. And one way to get there is by falling off the cliff.

In both movies, there is a lot of emphasis on "falling off" but I think that is merely because it causes death. But the death happens at the circle and that is the offering for the Soul Stone.

So to your question - had Gamora killed herself on the top of the cliff, Thanos would not have gotten the Stone. He had to throw her off.

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  • If the circle is the place where the sacrifice has to be made, why does Red Skull lead people to the top of the cliff? Why not just go directly to the circle and say "Someone needs to die here"?
    – Oliver_C
    Commented Jun 12, 2019 at 20:14
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    @Oliver_C Maybe just like soul stone... there is no other way to go thr :P
    – Himanshu Bansal
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 8:23
  • @Oliver_C, I'd recon the way to get down there is only by jumping down. I'd also speculate that if someone with the ability to fly could get down and then kill themselves as an offering.
    – John
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 13:37
  • @John - That circle appears to be man-made, so at least during construction it must have been accessible by non-cliff means. But if that access was deliberately destroyed afterwards, then falling/jumping off the cliff as only way to reach the circle, must have been by design, thus "falling off" seems to be an essential part of the ritual and not just incidental, as your answer seems to suggest.
    – Oliver_C
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 14:22
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    Yes, but enough beings in the Marvel universe are shown to have the power of flight. Only death is key. Because it's a soul for a soul. How the death happens can't be restricted to falling alone. It's one of the ways. A very power being might not die from that height, no? But the annoying this is.. the rules were never defined properly.
    – MovieMe
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 15:05

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