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As we see in Avengers: Infinity War, not only does Thanos have the gauntlet but

he also collects all the stones.

However... how did he know what was needed to house the stones? I am not too bothered by "a mystical item forged by dwarves using a collapses star so it will have special powers", but more the physical size and more specifically why the slot for the Soul Stone is 3 times larger than the others.

The first time we get to see the size of an Infinity Stone is in Guardians of the Galaxy. Equally the Mind Stone is seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron, once its case is destroyed. All the other stones are encased in some medium but it would be safe to assume they are all the same physical size.

And then we have the Soul Stone. Is there any in-universe explanation as to how Thanos came to the knowledge of the actual size to design a gauntlet that could physically house them?

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    The slot for the soul stone isn't three times larger than the others; the largest slot is on the back of the gauntlet, and that's where Thanos places the last stone he obtains, which was the mind stone (taken from Vision), not the soul stone. The stone in that slot either doesn't fill the entire slot or resizes to fit the available space (which doesn't make a ton of sense, but I think is what happens).
    – Anthony Grist
    May 10, 2018 at 17:55
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    @AnthonyGrist - As I started reading that I read "The largest slot is on the back of the gauntlet and that's where Thanos puts his hand in..."
    – Odin1806
    May 10, 2018 at 17:58
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    Perhaps the casing size is unimportant and he just went for what looked cool? Also its possible that he had no idea how to make it and it was a design of the dwarfs made for him, in which case I'd guess they used knowledge given to them by the as guardian who did at one point possess two stones.( And a bunch of magic)(and a fake glove)
    – Ummdustry
    May 10, 2018 at 18:05
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    I just chalked the gauntlet up to Thanos researching based on legend and hearsay for the size and capabilities of the glove... trying to be as prepared as he could from the small bits of knowledge he could collect. He knew the size of the ?power? stone from the Guardians movie and potentially the size of the mind stone from being the "owner" of the scepter before granting it to Loki...
    – Odin1806
    May 10, 2018 at 18:05
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    It speaks more to how much Eitri and the Dwarves of Nidavellir know about the Stones to be honest.
    – Möoz
    May 14, 2018 at 5:15

3 Answers 3

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  1. The slot on the back of the gauntlet is used by Thanos to host the Mind Stone, so there's no reason to think of it as "the slot for the Soul Stone"
  2. Thanos is clearly collecting the stones in no particular order, and put them in the gauntlet in the order he finds them. So there is no way he could know that order before having the gauntlet built.
  3. The slot on the back of the gauntlet is not three times the size of the other slots. The slot on the back of the gauntlet is instead larger than the apparent size of the light emitted by the other stones, which themselves are hosted in 5 slots way bigger of the stones size.

So, basically:

  • No gem goes in any specific slot
  • The back of the hand happens to be 5 times bigger than the same size divided by 5 (that is, the knuckles), so it goes quite naturally that the slots in that area are a little smaller than the one on the back.
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The first time we see the Infinity Gauntlet in the MCU is actually in Thor. A small scene where the Destroyer leaves the Asgardian vault shows a gauntlet with all the stones. This is later referred to in Thor: Ragnarok when Hella dismisses said Gauntlet as a fake, knocking it off it's plinth. But the Gauntlet and the stone sizes are accounted for... which does raise more interesting questions.

Thanos travels to Nidavellir forcing the dwarves to create the gauntlet for him. We know that the inhabitants of Nidavellir do work for Asgard, as they created Thor's hammer(s). So it's actually quite possible that the design plans for the gauntlet are actually Asgardian in nature and were held on Nidavellir (as was the mould for creating the fake).

In various explanations of the stones (e.g. in Infinity War with Doctor Strange), we see images of the stones that indicate their shape and size. I'm guessing these are well known by those who know the lore of the stones as opposed to people who just see them in their containers. Thanos has studied the stones for a long time, he would know what they look like... as would the Asgardians.

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  • In your second paragraph I think your assumptions are somewhat mistaken. Firstly, the dwarves don't really work for Asgard but have done work for Asgard in return for protection. Secondly, the plans are almost certainly Dwarven as we see multiple prototype gauntlets on Nidavellir and Thor saying "it's in your head" when talking about creating Stormbreaker.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Apr 29, 2019 at 11:02
  • It's also worth noting that the stones seem to change size so whether or not their "initial" size is known is largely irrelevant I think.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Apr 29, 2019 at 11:03
  • Ahh yes - thanks for pointing out that mistake in the second paragraph. I meant to say "do work for Asgard" as opposed to "work for Asgard". The reason I say the plans are likely Asgardian in nature, is because Odin, or Odin's father are more likely to know the lore of the stones over the dwarves. They would have told the dwarves what to create and the dimensions, and the dwarves would have created the moulds for it in the case of the gauntlet. And, I mean we already see an near identical one on Asgard already, so it's already been created."
    – Mo Jiwa
    Apr 29, 2019 at 11:06
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    The Aether, which is not a stone at all, is more interesting, as Thanos (or someone) would have had to shape that to a particular size themselves... somehow.
    – Mo Jiwa
    Apr 29, 2019 at 11:07
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    Well a gauntlet has been created but as its fake it probably won't "work". I think the stones actually change size and shape themselves as needed/as they want rather than anything fancy like people forcing them to be a certain size.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Apr 29, 2019 at 11:07
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Many beings throughout the universe have all sorts of knowledge about the infinity stones, throughout the movies several characters have described their origins and what some of them do. It seems once they realized what the aether was the asgardians knew that and the tesseract were infinity stones and that they shouldn't be kept together. They are not secret or unknown just their location (well some of their locations) are.

Therefore it is safe to assume that Thanos, who has been studying them for aeons, will know how big to make the spaces and if he didn’t the fact the dwarfs can make a glove to wield their power suggests they would also know exactly how big the spaces need to be.

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    You could expand on this by commenting on how the Power Stone had a "containment device" and how the Soul Stone was placed in the Staff, and how the Space Stone was encased in he Tesseract. Someone had to build those.
    – Möoz
    May 14, 2018 at 5:14

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