10 MCU Plot Holes That Aren't Actually Plot Holes

Thanos is the MCU's overarching villain, and will finally make his proper big-screen debut in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. His ultimate goal is to assemble the six Infinity Stones and place them on the Infinity Gauntlet, which will ensure he has enough power to rule over the universe.

But, in The Avengers, he gives Loki one of these stones - the Mind Stone, which is tucked away inside a scepter - so Loki can take over the Earth and obtain the Tesseract, another Infinity Stone.

But why would Thanos give away one of the stones when his goal is to snag all of them? This has bugged fans for years, but there are actually several points that together, do offer a solid explanation.

Firstly, Loki needs the assistance of the Chitauri army in order to dominate the Earth. In a deleted scene featuring Loki talking with The Other (Thanos' trusted follower) it's implied that the scepter gives Loki the ability to control the Chitauri, so it was necessary that he wielded it.

That covers the issue entirely, but also consider what Thanos has to gain. If Loki succeeds in obtaining the Tesseract, Thanos won't just have one Infinity Stone; he'll have two. You have to spend money to make money - this was a gamble on Thanos' part.

And then there are a series of smaller points. As stated in The Avengers' post-credits scene, Thanos expects the people of Earth to be "cowering wretches", so he would have expected Loki to win. In his mind, giving away the scepter may not have been a gamble.

And lastly, it is never stated that Thanos even knows that the scepter is an Infinity Stone. What if he thought it was just a powerful scepter? That would wholly justify his decision to just loan it out to someone, since he wouldn't know what he was (potentially) losing.