Thanos’ ingenuity is proven fairly early on in Avengers: Infinity War when the Guardians of the Galaxy go to stop him from grabbing the Reality Stone on Knowhere. Gamora bravely kills her adoptive father and it seems the threat’s over, until it’s revealed that the whole scenario is an illusion created by the Mad Titan, who’s already got his hands on the Infinity Stone in question.
It’s a smart rug-pull moment that’s just one of many instances in the film when the heroes are put one step behind Thanos. However, ComicBook.com have realized something that doesn’t quite make sense about this scene: how the heck does the villain know the Guardians will meet him on Knowhere?
To refresh your memory, Thanos needs Gamora so that he can find out the location of the Soul Stone. As such, this Knowhere mission offers the Titan the perfect trap to get his daughter in his grip. But, when you stop and think about it, there’s no way that Thanos should be able to know that the Guardians would track him down to the hollowed-out Celestial head.
The Guardians only find out about what Thanos is planning when they accidentally pick up Thor, who managed to survive the villain’s attack on the Asgardian refugee ship. You could suggest that the Mad Titan left the God of Thunder alive deliberately in order to lure the Guardians to him but again, he surely wouldn’t know that Star-Lord and co. would soon cross that part of space.
That is unless – and this part is all us – Thanos used the Space Stone to manipulate the flight pattern of the Guardians’ ship so that they would come across Thor, setting his trap in motion. That’s a bit of a leap, but is vaguely plausible. Otherwise, it’s just one massive coincidence that Gamora stopped by, hugely advancing his plan to obtain all of the Stones in Avengers: Infinity War as quickly as possible.