In Avengers: Endgame, the followup film to Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos’ Infinity Stone quest is brought full circle by the order in which he acquires the Infinity Stones throughout the two Avengers films. When Thanos began his quest to obtain the six Infinity Stones within Infinity War, the Infinity Stone that Thanos acquired first in the film is also the last stone he obtains during Endgame.

Following the Marvel superhero team the Avengers, Avengers: Endgame is the fourth installment of the Avengers franchise and is the final film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga. At the beginning of Infinity War, the mad titan Thanos (played by Josh Brolin) is on a quest to acquire all six of the Infinity Stones: a set of six powerful gems that can control various facets of the universe, made up of Space, Reality, Power, Soul, Mind, and Time. As Thanos sets out to fulfill his evil plan of wiping out half of the universe’s population with just a snap of his fingers, Thanos collects each individual stone and adds them onto his Infinity Gauntlet, starting with the Power Infinity Stone. 

Out of the six Infinity Stones, the first one Thanos is able to procure on his quest is the Power Stone, which first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy. In the opening scenes of Infinity War, Thanos commandeers the spaceship carrying the last surviving Asgardians, takes the Space Infinity Stone out of the Tesseract, and adds it onto his Infinity Gauntlet alongside the Power Stone, which he had already acquired offscreen. While the Power Stone was left in the care of the Nova Corps on the planet Xandar at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, it is revealed in the beginning of Infinity War that Thanos obliterated Xandar and stole the Power Stone for himself.  

In Endgame, however, the Power Stone is the last and only stone added onto the Iron Gauntlet by Thanos, since all of the Infinity Stones were previously obtained by the Avengers through the use of time travel within Endgame. In the final scenes of Endgame, 2014 Nebula (Karen Gillan) uses Stark’s time travel device to transport 2014 Thanos and his army to the present. As 2014 Thanos attempts to steal the Iron Gauntlet containing all six Infinity Stones from Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Thanos removes the Power Stone from its seat in the gauntlet, uses the stone’s surge of power to push Captain Marvel back, and reattaches the Power Stone to the Iron Gauntlet. While 2014 Thanos is defeated by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) within the same scene, reattaching the Power Stone to the Iron Gauntlet completes Thanos’ Infinity Stone journey by ending his quest in the same way that it started.

While it may be true that Thanos’ journey comes full circle from the viewers perspective, it could also be argued that 2014 Thanos’ Infinity Stone quest never truly began. When 2014 Thanos is introduced within Endgame, he’s only begun searching for the Infinity Stones and has only recently become allied with Ronan (Lee Pace), who sends Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou) to claim the Power Stone from its original location on Morag before the events of Guardians of the Galaxy. Because this version of Thanos never claimed the Power Stone within his own timeline, the scene in Endgame would actually be the first time he adds not only the Power Stone to a gauntlet, but had access to any Infinity Stone at all.

Since the Power Stone was the first Infinity Stone claimed within Avengers: Infinity War and the last within Avengers: Endgame, not only does it nicely bookend Thanos’ journey, but it makes a compelling statement that the Power Infinity Stone, the one stone that was meant to bring its wielder great cosmic power, marked the beginning and end of Thanos’ failed quest to extinguish half of all life in the universe.  

More: Iron Man’s Endgame Death Was Even Worse For Spider-Man Than You Realized

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