The Infinity Stones received quite a bit of screentime during the final few films in the Infinity Saga as you would expect, and while we saw the immense power they boast there were still many details left unanswered.
One of these details that weren’t explicitly addressed in the films would explain why Thanos was capable of wielding all six stones for an extended duration of time, while both Avengers members The Hulk and Iron Man struggled to do so for just moments.
In a post to Reddit, fans are discussing this exact moment questioning whether Thanos is just significantly stronger than the pair of Avengers, or if it was due to the Nidavellirian gauntlet that the Mad Titan used to wield them.
Fans were quick to debunk the gauntlet theory by reminding us that Thanos wielded individual stones without any gauntlet at specific points of his battles in the MCU.
Countering this, fans suggested that one stone wouldn’t be too taxing on Thanos whereas all six could take quite the toll.
Thanos ultimately did suffer significant injuries from the stones but this came after he used their powers to snap half the universe away. Alternatively, Hulk and Iron Man both began to wither away after simply inserting their arms into the gauntlet.
It seems the issue doesn’t come from either gauntlet as we do see Thanos wield Stark’s gauntlet with no issue for a short amount of time. We’ll likely never know for certain but the most likely answer is that The Mad Titan’s power allowed him to wield the stones freely before the snap.
