After the end of Avengers: Infinity War, fans were going into overdrive as they tried to work out what’s next for the franchise and analyze every detail in order to discover how the remaining heroes might be able to turn the tables on Thanos in order to restore the universe to how it was before. If this extensive new theory is right, though, it could be that the Avengers have a bit of help on the inside, as one of the Infinity Stones may be aiding with the battle against the Mad Titan.
The eyebrow-raising theory was posited by Reddit user @ZeekOwl91, who makes a surprisingly convincing argument as to why this could be the case. For starters, it may explain some discrepancies in The Avengers, when the Mind Stone makes its first appearance within Loki’s scepter. Perhaps all of these apparent plot holes were just the work of the psychic Stone influencing others’ actions?
These bits are just my speculation, but I believe it looked into Hawkeye’s mind, maybe even his heart, and saw something in him(and this could be foreshadowing for the later films). It also “helped Dr. Selvig put a way to breach the device that powered the Tesseract”. It kept Loki from taking control of Tony, although this part use to confuse me. Most say that the scepter couldn’t get passed Tony’s chest piece or the metal, but I think the Mind stone deliberately kept Loki from controlling Stark. I think that scene where Fury and the Avengers are arguing in the lab around the scepter on the Helicarrier was where the Mind stone could have looked into their minds, and from there it decided to help them out, and this is why Loki wasn’t able to control Tony.
And after doing a re-watch of the MCU films before going into Infinity War, one has to wonder why Thanos gave the scepter to Loki in the first place, knowing that it contained the Mind stone: Maybe he wanted four Infinity stones in one place so that he could just focus on getting the other two and a device capable of wielding all six, but I think the Mind stone may have had a hand in this(Thanos giving the scepter to Loki).
As fans know, after that, the Mind Stone became the key ingredient in giving Vision life in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The wholly good nature of the android isn’t totally explored in the movies, so perhaps – as this theory argues – he’s the embodiment of the Infinity Stone itself. That would explain why he can lift Mjolnir, after all.
If you’ll think back to Avengers: Age of Ultron, after Vision is created and he pops out of the cradle, he says that he’s “On the side of Life.” I’ve always assumed that Vision is actually the personification of the Mind stone, with bits and pieces from Tony, Bruce, JARVIS, Ultron, and some help from Thor, so whatever he says, it’s safe to say that that’s what the Mind stone is thinking. We also get a glimpse of what’s inside of the stone in Age of Ultron, as Tony and Bruce mention that it looks like a “brain, with neurons firing… Like it’s thinking”. So what could the Mind stone have been thinking about?
As for Infinity War, the user says that they believe the Mind Stone actively worked against Thanos and his plan to wipe out half of reality, which is why the Gauntlet’s burnt out after his almighty finger snap. This could even make sense of the fact that all of the original heroes are still alive, apparently by chance.
I think the reason why the Infinity Gauntlet looked damaged and burnt up after Thanos snapped his fingers, the Mind stone was the one trying to fight it. Seeing as it was on the side of Life as Vision stated, what Thanos was doing was going against everything it stood for. In the end, it wasn’t strong enough to fight the other five stones, but I believe it fought against Thanos’ original intention.
Continuing on, it reads:
Thanos wanted to wipe out life, but it would be Random, Dispassionate, Fair, and I think the Mind stone may have gone against this bit in particular, because it chose certain beings to be kept alive, mainly the original Avengers team. If the snap was truly random, dispassionate and fair, I think half of the original team would have been wiped out too, and maybe this was why the Gauntlet looked so damaged in the end.
This is actually a very impressive theory that casts a lot of the MCU in a new light. Clearly, most of these were just convenient plot holes that had to happen for the narrative to progress, but this theory could actually make them part of some greater plan. Plus, we know the Stones have “a certain wisdom,” as Red Skull said about the Soul Stone in Infinity War. As such, it’ll be interesting to see if this idea still holds up after Avengers 4 arrives.