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In Avengers: Endgame Tony Stark sacrifices himself by snapping fingers while wearing all Infinity Stones. He knew that this move would be fatal to him.

On the other hand, the Infinity Stones provide extraordinary power to the wielder. Notably, the Power stone

At full potential, the Power Gem grants the user omnipotence.

Couldn't Tony Stark protect himself from the consequences of the snap, by using the power of the Infinity Stones?

Wouldn't it have been enough to add to his snap-will "... and make it so that I am intact after the snap"

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  • The quote you bring is unclear in which powers exist in the MCU and which in the comic books - and there are significant differences. You can't assume that a power that manifests in the comic-books is relevant to the MCU too.
    – Avner Shahar-Kashtan
    Sep 2, 2019 at 13:33
  • @AvnerShahar-Kashtan/ I understand that. I am hoping for an in-MCU explanation (something I would have missed in the movies), falling back to a comics-based one (to have anything beyond assumptions)
    – WoJ
    Sep 2, 2019 at 13:44
  • This question sounds an awful lot similar to "can God make a rock too heavy for him to lift?" Does omnipotence assume defying logic as well in your book? If I hazard a guess, it would have been too unrealistic for MCU.
    – M.A.R.
    Sep 2, 2019 at 18:37
  • @M.A.R.: I do not find it to be a good analogy. First, God is an abstract concept whom everyone sees as they fit, with a vague understanding of his powers. We could all see Tony Stark in action and knew what he could do. Then omnipotence has nothing to do with logic, there is nothing to defy. You just can (TM)
    – WoJ
    Sep 2, 2019 at 19:24
  • You can ignore the vagueness and different definitions (and I personally don't even see how that actually doesn't strengthen my position, other than it's a sensitive topic). Correct me if I'm wrong, but the ultimate line of reasoning is you can ask Infinity Stones anything and they have the power to grant it and whether that power constitutes defying basic logic, no?
    – M.A.R.
    Sep 2, 2019 at 19:29

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In the MCU, it's established that you need to be a very powerful being to wield the Infinity Gems.

If you remember in Guardians of the Galaxy, all of them had to hold hands to try and harness the energy of the Power Stone. If it was just Quill, he'd have died. That applies to Jane in Thor too, the Aether was killing her.

In Endgame, for a short moment even Thanos, the mighty, holds the powerstone to fight Captain Marvel, but he too had to return it to the Gauntlet.

In fact the Gauntlet has been crafted specifically to host the stones without killing the person wearing it.

The Snap is all the stones being harnessed at once. When Thanos does the Snap in Infinity War it really destroys his one arm and leaves him terribly weak.

When Hulk, who is also pretty strong, Snaps, his arm needs to be put in a sling.

Tony, in spite of his suit, is nowhere as powerful as the other beings who have wielded the stones directly or through the gauntlet. Performing a Snap is far more than he can take. And hence dies from it.

In short, performing a Snap is not like wishing for something from a Genie, you need to be physically powerful enough to endure the action of the Snap.

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In theory, I suppose he could, in an ideal world.

Recall though that it's not just using the Stones that caused the damage but rather the first power surge from taking control.

SmartHulk is damaged just by wearing the Gauntlet (as is Tony) and that damage is, apparently, permanent....he's not primarily damaged by snapping...the damage has already happened by then.

Snapping would only have caused more damage...

So Tony is, effectively, using his last gasp at life to perform his snap, knowing he's already dead from just taking control of the stones. At that point, it's arguable whether he could have snapped himself back to health at that point.

Whether he could wish for multiple things at the same time is highly debatable.

We know that Natasha could not be brought back (SmartHulk said he tried) at the same time as the Unsnappening but whether that's a function of the Stones not being able to or it just not being possible is unknown.

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  • "he's not damaged by snapping" - I'm pretty confident this is incorrect - Thanos is only damaged once he Snaps - there appears to be "two levels" to it, one by taking on the power of the Stones and one by doing such a Snap.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Sep 3, 2019 at 14:00
  • Perhaps we watched a different film but his arm seemed pretty damaged - sure most of the damage we see is on the gauntlet but it is clear it damages his arm underneath it.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Sep 3, 2019 at 14:05
  • Fair...but Thanos was a lot more powerful than Tony and/or Banner....
    – Paulie_D
    Sep 3, 2019 at 14:34
  • Exactly, so if it damaged him when he snapped you sure can bet it damaged Tony too.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Sep 3, 2019 at 14:34
  • Sure but my point was that that just putting on the Gauntlet is what killed Tony, the snap is his dying act despite that. Once he'd taken that damage there was no going back. Whether he could include healing himself as part of the snap is questionable. No else can / could apparently...everything has it's price. I'll edit a little more.
    – Paulie_D
    Sep 3, 2019 at 14:37
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He did. But the suit wasn't built to save him.

AFAIK he built his last suit to wield the stones and to at least act as a bit of "shield" for him so he can snap it without dying. If you compare the Banner snap and Tony snap, you could see Banner struggling to snap the gauntlet, but with Tony, he basically just snapped it before the power of the stones killed him.

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