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Many fans question why Doctor Strange didn’t use his mind-wiping spell against Thanos in Infinity War, but there are many plausible explanations.
Ever since the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, fans have called into question whether Doctor Strange’s memory-erasing spell creates an Avengers: Infinity War plot hole. With a spell so powerful, many wonder why Strange didn’t simply use it against Thanos himself, wiping his mind to forget about the Infinity Stones. While it’s a good point, there are several plausible reasons as to why he chose not to cast it.
In order to make the world forget Peter Parker is Spider-Man, Doctor Strange willingly cast his memory-erasing spell with ease before Peter interrupted him. Not only did this spell affect everyone on Earth, but the effects also reached out across the multiverse, even if it wasn’t intentional. He was able to cast it again at the end of No Way Home, wiping everyone’s mind of Peter Parker, which is without a doubt one of Strange’s strongest spells.
With this being the case, it seems like it would’ve been a handy spell to call upon during their battle against Thanos in Infinity War. Making Thanos and all his followers forget about the existence of Infinity Stones could’ve offered a quick fix for the Avengers, plus he had the time to do it while sitting on Titan. Ignoring the real-world answer that the spell would’ve made for an anti-climatic ending, this idea has caused numerous online threads to crop up, all debating back and forth as to whether it’s an overlooked plot hole.
One such thread is from user seminormalactivity on Reddit, who suggests the spell “only works when the ‘target’ is physically in front of the spell, bound in its circle.” Although never explained in No Way Home, this could very well be the case, as the most advanced spells tend to have more casting requirements. This means Strange’s only chance of wiping Thanos’ mind would’ve been when they finally held him down, although it didn’t last long, and Strange was busy keeping him still.
The post’s top commenter provides an even simpler explanation, and it’s that he might not have even known the spell during the events of Infinity War. With Strange returning from the Blip over a year before the events of No Way Home, it means there’s been plenty of time for him to continue his study and research and learn the memory-erasing spell. Plus, even if he did know of it, he may have seen it as too risky to cast without practice, given that the spell didn’t take much of an interruption from Peter to cause havoc in the multiverse.
The same user may also provide the best answer, as they point out that Doctor Strange peered into 14,000,605 possible futures, and the one in which the Avengers won was when he didn’t use the spell. They then use this to support the events from Eternals, as Strange allowing the snap to occur set back the Celestial emergence by five years, thus saving Earth in the long run.
While it feels like an easy answer to give for all of Strange’s actions, it’s also the most plausible. No one knows what Strange saw within all the futures, though it’s clear a very specific series of events needed to occur for that one in 14 million chance to come true. So for whatever reason, the memory spell simply wasn’t part of that chance.
Other commenters also offer some valid reasonings, such as the spell requiring the “willing participation of the subject,” as well as the fact that Thanos already held some stones, which might’ve allowed him to negate the spell. And so, while the question of why Doctor Strange didn’t use the memory-erasing spell is a valid one, the amount of explanations means it’s far from a plot hole.
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