"This was He-El's brilliance—making everyone think he didn't care about the Infinity Stones." Stephen Strange shook his head and gave a solemn warning:
"He-El didn't not need the Infinity Stones. He intended to catch everything in one net. He planned to let Thanos gather all six Infinity Stones, then, when Thanos went to Earth to seize the Reality Stone in his possession, take all six Infinity Stones at once.
He-El's arrangements on Earth were terrifying. Even if, in the end, he gathered all six Infinity Stones, he would still achieve his goal. And because he fought off the aliens and protected Earth, he would forever remain Earth's saint, great man, and hero.
Yet all of this had been He-El's deliberate, invisible guidance.
Not a single person on Earth had noticed."
Thor's brows furrowed. He-El and Earth, He-El and the Avengers, He-El and S.H.I.E.L.D., He-El and Nick Fury, He-El and Stephen Strange, He-El and the Infinity Stones—everything was tangled together in a muddled, chaotic mess. Even Thor, whose brain was all muscle, found it hard to understand what they were doing.
And there was Thanos eventually taking the Stones to Earth to seize He-El's Reality Stone. Thor did not know much about that.
Thor's understanding of the future had already passed.
Back then, Stephen Strange had only verbally explained the Dark Elves' invasion of Asgard and his mother's death to Thor. As for anything after that, Thor had hurried back to Asgard and knew nothing of what followed.
"What does He-El want by gathering the Infinity Stones?" Thor had initially understood what Stephen Strange meant, but asking him to deduce and think through the reasons behind it all was asking too much of his muscle-brain.
It was far more complicated than swinging a hammer at someone.
"I don't know either." Stephen