The Infinity Stones are placed throughout Middle Earth. Does Thanos succeed in collecting them?
R1: Takes place near the end of Fellowship. The Power stone is concealed within an orb deep down in Gondor's archives, though only Denethor knows what it is and fears having to wield it. Only defense here is Gondor's soldiers and Faramir. The Tesseract is in Lóthlórien, protected by Galadriel and Celeborn. Time stone is in Rivendell (but Elrond can not use it). The Reality stone is in Erebor under the dwarves' protection. The Soul stone is kept in the blue mountains and is enchanted to work similarly to Vormir. The Ring in this scenario is the Mind stone (idk how but Sauron tied his life force to it, and as we know Mount Doom is the only solution of getting rid of it). Thanos and the black order attempt to collect the stones in the same order they did in Infinity War.
R2: Same as R1, but takes place during the Two Towers and Saruman is in possession of the Soul stone.
R3: Same as R2, but the Mind stone is left in the house of Tom Bombadil, King Brand of Dale, Grimbeorn and Dain all unite forces to protect Erebor, Elrond wears the Time stone in an Eye of Agamotto sort of fashion and can use it, Gondor is being protected by Huan of Valinor (for some reason), and Gandalf is in possession of the Tesseract.
How does this version of Infinity War play out?