As Marvel fans wait for Avengers: Endgame to arrive and answer all the lingering questions that Infinity War left us with, the fan theories about how Endgame will play out have been coming by the day, and are mined from just about every little detail possible in Infinity War. One of the most popular fixations is how the Infinity Gauntlet will be defeated, and today brings a theory that one seemingly dead Avenger could be the key.
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Here’s the argument for why The Vision will be the one who finally stops Thanos’ reign of terror with the Infinity Stones:
You can read the full theory that’s making the rounds on Reddit down below, but the general premise of it has to do with how Vision actually dies twice in the climactic act of Avengers: Infinity War, and how each of those deaths played out. Basically, the first time around, Scarlet Witch uses her power to make the Mind Stone explode, which in turn causes Vision’s entire body to explode into pieces, thereby killing him. However, after Thanos uses the Time Stone to turn back the clock on Vision’s death, the Mad Titan simply reaches down and pulls the Mind Stone from Vision’s head, leaving his body as a gray, empty husk.
Here’s where things get tricky! The Reddit theory speculates that Vision somehow transferred his mind into the Mind Stone, and has been secretly influencing Thanos. Therefore, the characters disintegrated in the Snap will be revealed as not being totally destroyed, as Vision/Mind Stone swayed Thanos to do something less destructive, even while blocking the Mad Titan’s awareness of the merciful act. It would then be Vision’s consciousness that gives the MCU heroes a key advantage at a pivotal moment in Avengers: Endgame — similar to how Thanos was mind-gamed by Adam Warlock at a key moment in the original Infinity Gauntlet comics.
That’s a much bigger leap of assumption than we (or a lot of other fans, apparently) are willing to make, but that doesn’t mean the theory is totally off the mark. During Infinity War‘s sequence in Wakanda leading up to the battle with the Black Order’s army, Vision is brought to Shuri in order to have the Mind Stone safely disconnected from his head. During that diagnostic review, Bruce Banner postulates that Vision has evolved into something far beyond what he began as in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Bruce thinks that Vision is part Mind Stone, part Tony Stark, part Ultron, part J.A.R.V.I.S., and likely something greater than the sum of those parts, which is why he could theoretically live on without the Mind Stone.
It follows then that Vision may have become strong enough to actually download himself into the Mind Stone without losing his unique consciousness, and could therefore expose a weakness in the Infinity Stones’ circuit of power. How that weakness ultimately gets exploited is a whole other conversation, as this is just one of several potential weak points in the Infinity Gauntlet that fans have spotted, so far.Another is the Soul Stone, which may hold a secret weakness, based on the childlike “ghost” of Gamora we see there at the end of Infinity War.
Do you think Vision is still alive and well in the Mind Stone? Let us know in the comments!
Avengers: Infinity War is now available on home video. Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, Avengers: Endgame on April 26, 2019, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019.