- "What is happening?"
"Just as you gave Kaecilius powers from your dimension, I brought a little power from mine. This is time. Endless, looped time." - ―Dormammu and Doctor Strange[src]
The Eye of Agamotto was a powerful relic created by Agamotto, the first Sorcerer Supreme, to contain the power of the Time Stone inside it. It has been passed down the long line of Sorcerers Supreme that followed him. The Eye has the ability to manipulate the flow of time and was used by Doctor Strange to fight Kaecilius and Dormammu and restore the Hong Kong Sanctum. It was placed back in Kamar-Taj until Strange could learn how to control it. The Eye was destroyed by Thanos during the Battle of Titan, although the Time Stone was removed and hidden by Strange prior to the battle.
History
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Creation
The Eye was created by Agamotto, using the Time Stone as a component to allow the user to safely wield it without directly touching it and suffering the adverse effects of touching an infinity stone. The container was created in the shape of an eye, hence its name. The mystical properties of the relic, as well as the spells and gestures necessary to use it, were studied by the writer Cagliostro, who wrote them down on his personal grimoire. The Eye remained in Kamar-Taj where it was discovered by Doctor Stephen Strange.[1]
Strange's Training
- "You weren't manipulating the space-time continuum, you were breaking it!"
- ―Wong to Doctor Strange[src]
Doctor Strange using the Eye of Agamotto for the first time
Having read one of the passages in the Book of Cagliostro about the Eye, Doctor Strange put on the pendent and tested its power on an apple, forwarding and reversing time on the object. He then used the Eye's power on the book, discovering and reading the stolen passages about the Dark Dimension and Dormammu. However, he stopped using its power as it began creating different alternate timelines, which Wong and Mordo warned against, because it could destroy the natural order.[1]
Battle at the Hong Kong Sanctum
Doctor Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto's power
Strange later used the Eye to rewind time in Hong Kong, restoring its Sanctum, and bringing Wong back to life, until he was stopped by Kaecilius, causing all of time to stop before the Sanctum could be restored, thus allowing the Dark Dimension through. Strange flew into the Dark Dimension and activated the Eye.
Doctor Strange creating a time loop to face Dormammu
When he confronted Dormammu to parley, Dormammu killed him, but the Eye's power trapped them both in a time loop that would restart every time Strange died. Dormammu finally relented and accepted Strange's terms, withdrawing his attack on Earth and taking away his Zealots.
Doctor Strange putting the Eye of Agamotto back on its place in Kamar-Taj
With Dormammu gone, Strange returned the Eye to its place in Kamar-Taj feeling he was not ready to wield it yet. Wong agreed, stating that walking around with an Infinity Stone in plain sight is a bad idea.[1] However, Strange wore the Eye during his meeting with Thor.[2]
Infinity War
Attack on Greenwich Village
- "It's a simple spell, but quite unbreakable."
"Fine. I'll just rip it off your corpse!"
"Removing a dead man's spell is quite troublesome."
"You'll only wish you were dead." - ―Doctor Strange and Ebony Maw[src]
Ebony Maw tries to take the Eye of Agamotto
During the Black Order's arrival in New York City for the Time Stone, Doctor Strange attempted to use the Eye against Ebony Maw but was restrained before he could activate it. As Maw attempted to grab the amulet, the Eye glowed with Eldritch Magic, burning his hand as Strange explained that he placed a protection spell over it that would hold even if he were killed. Maw decided to take Strange and the Eye to his Q-Ship, intending to torture him into giving up the Time Stone.[3]
Searching for a Solution
Thanos grabs the Eye of Agamotto from Doctor Strange
Strange used the Eye again on Titan to review over 14 million possible outcomes of the impending battle against Thanos, revealing that there was only a single outcome where they were successful. Before Thanos arrived, as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy prepared themselves, Strange removed the Time Stone from the Eye of Agamotto, leaving the relic empty during the battle. After Thanos defeated Strange, he took and crushed the relic with his hand, revealing Strange's deception before tossing the sorcerer aside.[3]
Capabilities
- "Temporal manipulations can create branches in time. Unstable dimensional openings, spacial paradoxes, time loops! You want to get stuck experiencing the same moment over and over again forever, or never having existed at all?"
- ―Karl Mordo to Stephen Strange[src]
The Time Stone inside the Eye of Agamotto
As the container of the Time Stone, the Eye of Agamotto allows its wielder to use the Infinity Stone's power without having to physically touch it. The eye itself is usually closed and must be opened via sorcery in order to access the stone. Eldritch Magic is shown to be one of the ways of tapping into the stone's power to harness it in the form of time manipulation spells.
Empowered by its Infinity Stone, the Eye has tremendous time-based powers, able to control the flow of time on a small or massive scale. In a smaller scale, the Time Stone allows the user to turn something back to its previous state or accelerate its time in order to apply changes that have not happened yet. At a large scale, the stone can rewind time to undo entire events, to the point that doing so can even bring a dead person back to life by rewinding time to a point prior to their death. If the user is interrupted while rewinding time, time freezes until the user resumes the spell. However, it appears that while able to create a copy of a torn object, to truly recreate said object are difficult, as while the prodigiously gifted Doctor Strange was able to create a reconstruction of the stolen pages of the Book of Cagliostro and read from it, he was unable to make it real and could only reveal what had been there before, although it is possible to accomplish this if the wielder has the sufficient skill, as Thanos, with the Time Stone, was capable of truly recreating the Mind Stone after it was destroyed by Wanda while simultaneously resurrecting Vision.
The Ancient One was able to use the Eye to peer through time to a limited extent and gain a degree of awareness of possible futures, suggesting that in addition to the Eye's control over the flow of time, it can also be used to grant a sorcerer a degree of clairvoyance should said sorcerer have the knowledge needed. Doctor Strange later gained the ability to do the same, using the Eye to peer into the future and see 14 million possibilities where he and his allies lost against Thanos and only one possibility of victory.
The Eye can also be used to set up a time loop, resetting its state and repeating an event infinitely until the wielder stops its effects. It appears skilled sorcerers, or perhaps users of powers from the Dark Dimension can, to an extent, subtract themselves to the effects of the stone, stopping the time reversal affecting oneself or noticing that one is stuck in a time loop.
It is noted by Wong and Karl Mordo that the use of the Eye is contrary to the natural order of things, and is extremely dangerous as it can break the natural flow of time and create alternate timelines and wielding the Eye without properly mastering its time-based powers can very well kill its wielder. With Wong's approval, it was placed back on its pedestal by Strange until he learns how to properly harness its powers.[1]
Trivia
- In the comics, the Eye of Agamotto is one of three eyes created by Agamotto, placed into the care of Eternity until given to Doctor Strange in order to battle Dormammu. It is used for order or "white" magic only. It does not respond to an evil user's commands, and can only be utilized by a magician of a pure heart and clean soul.
- Scott Derrickson, director of Doctor Strange, said the Eye of Agamotto from the comics was too powerful to be used in the film.[4]
- This is the second Infinity Stone not to be used to destroy the main antagonist during its first appearance, first being the Aether. However, it is nonetheless instrumental in defeating both Dormammu and Kaecilius.
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