Okay, this question has bothered me since The Avengers came out in 2012, and it’s only gotten weirder as the MCU has expanded. Thanos, the Mad Titan, the guy who’s supposed to be a genius strategist playing 4D chess across the universe, hands one of the most powerful artifacts in existence to Loki. You know, the God of Mischief. The guy whose entire personality is built around betrayal and schemes.
TL;DR
Thanos gave Loki the Mind Stone because he needed Earth's Tesseract (Space Stone) and Loki was expendable. The scepter's mind control kept Loki compliant, Thanos had the Other monitoring him, and even if Loki failed (which he did), Thanos lost nothing while gathering intel on Earth's defenders. It wasn't trust, it was calculated risk with a disposable asset.
What was Thanos thinking? Let’s dig into this absolute head-scratcher of a decision.
The Surface Level Explanation (That Doesn’t Quite Work)
The basic answer is straightforward: Thanos needed someone to retrieve the Tesseract (the Space Stone) from Earth, and Loki needed an army to conquer it. So they made a deal. Thanos gives Loki the scepter (containing the Mind Stone) and the Chitauri army, Loki conquers Earth and brings back the Tesseract. Simple transaction, right?
Except it’s not simple at all. Because Thanos is essentially trading one Infinity Stone to maybe get another one. And he’s trusting this trade to a guy who literally just failed to conquer his home realm and has a documented history of betrayal. From a risk management perspective, this is insane.
Unless Thanos never actually trusted Loki at all.
It Wasn’t Trust, It Was Control
Here’s what I think really happened: Thanos didn’t trust Loki. He used Loki. And the scepter itself was part of the control mechanism.
We learn later that the Mind Stone can influence and control people. Loki uses it on Hawkeye, Selvig, and others throughout The Avengers. But here’s the thing I think people miss: what if the scepter was also influencing Loki? We see in Avengers: Endgame that even brief exposure to the scepter makes people aggressive and paranoid. Loki was carrying it around for months.
Think about Loki’s behavior in The Avengers. He’s more openly cruel and megalomaniacal than we’ve ever seen him. In Thor, he was complex, conflicted, with understandable motivations. In Avengers, he’s almost cartoonishly evil, talking about how humans “were made to be ruled.” That doesn’t feel like natural character progression. It feels like someone being influenced by an Infinity Stone.
Thanos might have been subtly controlling or at least influencing Loki through the scepter the entire time, ensuring he stayed focused on the mission and didn’t run off with it.
The Other: Thanos’s Insurance Policy
Let’s not forget about the Other, that creepy servant of Thanos who keeps appearing to threaten Loki. “If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you.” That’s not the language of a business partner. That’s a threat to a disposable asset.
The Other was clearly monitoring Loki the whole time, reporting back to Thanos. Loki wasn’t operating independently. He was on a leash. If he tried to betray Thanos or run off with the Mind Stone, the Other would know immediately, and Thanos would come for him.
This wasn’t trust. This was Thanos treating Loki like a tool he was willing to lose.
Loki Was Expendable
Here’s the key insight that makes this whole thing make sense: Thanos didn’t care if Loki succeeded or failed. Either outcome worked for him.
If Loki succeeded and brought back the Tesseract? Great. Thanos gets the Space Stone and has intel on Earth’s defenders.
If Loki failed? Also fine. Thanos learns what Earth is capable of, discovers they have multiple powerful defenders (the Avengers), and gets valuable reconnaissance for a future invasion. Meanwhile, Loki either dies or gets captured, which means one less potential threat to deal with later.
And if Loki somehow betrayed him and ran off with the Mind Stone? Thanos would hunt him down personally. Loki’s not stupid. He knows he can’t hide from Thanos forever.
From Thanos’s perspective, this was a low-risk, high-reward situation. He sent an expendable asset on a mission with a powerful tool, knowing that even failure would give him useful information.
Thanos’s Long Game
Remember, by this point in the timeline, Thanos has been searching for the Infinity Stones for years, possibly decades. He’s patient. He’s strategic. The attack on Earth in 2012 wasn’t his main plan, it was a probe. A test.
Thanos wanted to know: Is Earth worth conquering? Are the Infinity Stones there? How powerful are its defenders? Sending Loki was the perfect way to find out without committing his own forces or revealing his hand.
And it worked perfectly. Thanos learned that Earth has multiple Infinity Stones (Space and Time, as it turns out). He learned about the Avengers and their capabilities. He learned that Earth’s governments are fractured and could be exploited. All of this information proved invaluable when he finally made his move years later.
Why the Mind Stone Specifically?
You might ask: why give Loki the Mind Stone and not some other weapon? I think there are a few reasons.
First, the Mind Stone’s powers (control, influence, opening portals) were specifically useful for conquering Earth. It was the right tool for the job.
Second, Thanos might not have been that attached to it yet. In the comics and implied in the films, Thanos’s primary goal is collecting all six stones, but he might have prioritized certain ones. The Mind Stone for the Space Stone is arguably a good trade since the Space Stone allows instant teleportation anywhere in the universe.
Third, the scepter form limited the Mind Stone’s power. It wasn’t the raw stone, it was contained in a weapon. This made it controllable and less likely that Loki could fully exploit its capabilities.
The Arrogance Factor
There’s also a simpler explanation: Thanos is arrogant. He believes he’s the most powerful being in the universe and that his plan is inevitable. From his perspective, what’s Loki going to do? Betray him? Run away with the stone?
Thanos knows Loki is physically weaker, less intelligent, and has nowhere to hide. Even if Loki tried something, Thanos could crush him. So why not use him? Arrogance might have made Thanos underestimate the risk because he simply didn’t see Loki as a legitimate threat.
My Conclusion
Thanos didn’t trust Loki with the Mind Stone. He manipulated him, monitored him through the Other, possibly influenced him through the scepter itself, and treated him as an expendable asset in a low-risk intelligence-gathering operation.
Loki was never meant to be a long-term ally. He was a tool. A pawn. And whether he succeeded or failed didn’t really matter to Thanos’s larger plan. The 2012 invasion of Earth was a probe, not a serious attempt at conquest, and Loki was the perfect disposable agent for the job.
The “trust” was an illusion. It was control dressed up as partnership. And honestly? That makes Thanos even more terrifying as a villain. He’s not just powerful, he’s manipulative enough to make someone like Loki think they’re working together when really, he’s just being used.
So no, Thanos didn’t trust Loki. He just knew exactly how to exploit him.
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