‘Infinity War’ Theory: Thanos Was Not The Film’s True Villain

Sure, Thanos might have wiped out half the universe with just the snap of his fingers, but a new Avengers: Infinity War theory is suggesting he wasn’t the big bad after all. No, it wasn’t the Black Order, or Star-Lord (who single-handedly sabotaged a perfectly laid plan to remove Thanos’s gauntlet.) The theory is suggesting the true villain of Infinity War was the Mind Stone itself.

A Marvel fan posted the new theory to Reddit which is gaining some traction among Infinity War theorists. User zaneman777 is suggesting all of the Infinity Stones are the villains, but most specifically the Mind Stone. The theorist also believes the Mind Stone is the main villain in almost every other Marvel movie in some aspect.

“So I have been going through the series again and been noticing that every time the mind stone is involved there is somebody who wants to kill everybody or at least a great deal of people,” zaneman777 explained.

The theory makes six points to argue its case. The first notes that Thanos has been in possession of the Mind Stone for as long as we’ve known about the Mad Titan. He gives the stone to Loki in the original Avengers, and the Mind Stone could have been how Thanos turned to the dark side, to begin with.

Get to know the minds behind the Mind Stone with our final look at the Complete History of the Infinity Stones: https://t.co/TVoR4mfXZn

— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) September 28, 2018

Another point suggests the Mind Stone had warped the mind of Loki in the Avengers, which only Thor noticed since he is his brother. Thor calls Loki mad and his intentions madness throughout the movie and tried to get him to return to his normal state of mind.

Also, during Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when S.H.I.E.L.D. is actually secretly Hydra, they are in possession of the Mind Stone. This is when the plan is concocted to wipe out anyone in the world that they deem a threat using Zola’s algorithm. The theory believes the Mind Stone is controlling Hydra to follow through with this extremely dangerous plan.

Scarlett Witch’s powers also came from the Mind Stone, and she was the ultimate reason for the creation of Ultron in the second Avengers film. Wanda Maximoff manipulated Tony Stark’s mind at the beginning of the film which eventually led to him creating the robot who almost wiped out the entire planet.

When it comes to Vision himself who holds the Mind Stone in his head from Avengers: Age of Ultron through Infinity War, the theory somewhat loses steam. In Ultron, Vision admits that he is on the side of life and ends up defeating the last Ultron robot at the film’s conclusion. With Vision being so diplomatic and good-natured, the theory doesn’t seem to hold up here. However, zaneman777 believes the Mind Stone had an effect on Vision where he almost accidentally kills War Machine during the big battle in Captain America: Civil War. Vision is also weakened throughout Infinity War by weapons used by the Black Order.

Some might see this theory as a bit of a stretch, but zaneman777’s explanation does have some merit. To see how the Mind Stone theory carries on into the next film, catch Avengers 4 when it hits theaters on May 3, 2019.