Avengers: Infinity War: Is Thanos really the villain?

A fan theory suggests that Thanos is not the real villain in Avengers: Infinity War and there have been signs since the very first Avengers movie showing this.

Careful of spoilers moving forward if you have not seen Avengers: Infinity War. While this post will not be going into great detail about the movie, it will contain some mild spoilers.

A recent fan theory has emerged that Thanos is not the true villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While we may have seen him wipe out half the universe, and half of our heroes, with a snap of his fingers. He cannot be truly blamed as another has been influencing him.

The idea comes from a Reddit thread suggesting one of the infinity stones is actually corrupting everyone who comes into contact with it. There have been clues about this, beginnging from the very first Avengers movie.

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That stone in question is the Mind Stone and how, whenever it is around, someone wants to either kill everyone, or, in Thanos’ case, a lot of people.

Here are the clues!

In Avengers: Assemble, Loki has the Mind Stone, which he acquired from Thanos. Loki is hell-bent on ruling Earth and has no trouble destroying a bucket load of people. Now, while you might say it’s just Loki being Loki, the theory is the Mind Stone corrupted him, and the evidence is based on Thor’s reaction to Loki’s plan.

Thor tries to reason with him and tries to bring him back from the world of insanity that he has dived head first into. Basically, Thor can see a noticeable and strange change in his brother’s behavior, which, if the theory is correct, is because of the Mind Stone.

Next clue is in Captain America: Civil War. Hydra attempts to wipe out any living person who poses a threat. Again mass murder, and oh, Hydra was in possession of the Mind Stone. Hydra is followed by Ultron, who actually came from the Mind Stone and wanted to kill everyone.

The only kink in the theory is Vision. Yet, an argument could be made that because he was made for evil, the mind-altering process the Mind Stone appears to have on everyone, may have been in reverse when it came to him.

Finally, there’s Thanos, who wipes out half the universe.

It’s certainly an interesting theory, and one you can get your head wrapped into. Whether or not it will turn out to be anything is something that we won’t know until the next installment is released. If it is, the question I want to add in is– is someone else controlling the Mind Stone or does the stone act on its own.

What do you think? Share your thoughts with a comment below.