Will Loki Betray Everyone in Infinity War?

[gif by fancykraken,

excerpted from

larger work]

In the Infinity War trailer, we see Loki handing the Tesseract (containing the Space Stone) to Thanos. Obviously wary, Loki knows to never take his eyes off Thanos even for a second.

Loki is "contractually obliged" to produce the Tesseract for Thanos because that was Thanos' price for the loan of the Chitauri army when Loki attempted to conquer Earth. If Loki tries to get out of that contract, Thanos will kill him. As Loki was famously warned in the first Avengers movie --

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.

You think you know pain?

He will make you long for something

as sweet as pain.

[gif found here]

But I predict that Loki, God of Mischief, will be so bold and daring as to DOUBLE-CROSS Thanos! Yes, Loki gives him a Tesseract -- but is it THE Tesseract?

Remember in Thor: Ragnarok, Hela says that Odin's treasury is full of fakes. She contemptuously knocks over Odin's "Infinity Gauntlet" as an example. Walking by the Tesseract, she says something like "Oh, that's good!" What does she mean? That the Tesseract is real or that it's a particularly convincing fake? I think she means it's a good fake.

Later, when Loki is on his way to summon Surtur the Fire Demon, he spots the Tesseract in the treasury and slows down to look at it. We don't see Loki actually take the Tesseract but clearly, that's where he gets it from.

[gif by prison-mikes-bandana,

excerpted from

larger post]

But if the Tesseract and its Space Stone are fake, why doesn't Thanos find out right away? As shown in the Infinity War trailer, it's only the second Infinity Stone obtained by Thanos for the Gauntlet. When he fights Steve Rogers, you can see that the Gauntlet only has two Stones at that point. It is not yet up to full power.

[gif by brendaonao3]

I think the Space Stone is a good enough fake or has been put under a powerful enough spell by Loki that its diluted power, but its deficiencies will not be discernible among the other real Stones until the crucial moment when Thanos finally tries to use the complete, fully armed Gauntlet for its intended purpose -- to wipe out half the universe with a snap of his fingers. At that moment, when full power is needed, the Gauntlet will fail because of the inadequate Space Stone. And the remaining Avengers will then be able to defeat Thanos.

Loki's trickery will therefore save the universe and he will finally deserve that saviour statue he had already narcissistically erected to himself in Thor: Ragnarok!

Only Loki would have the skill, guts and unmitigated gall to coolly double-cross Thanos like that. As Loki always said, "Trust my rage."

If my prediction comes true, remember -- you read it here first!

["Trust my rage."

gifset by marvellingoverlife]