The Avengers was the big phenomenon that completely changed the landscape of Hollywood. It made team up films to be relevant and from there on, the shared Universe of Marvel was really established. Joss Whedon took the film to a whole new level, and it was overall elevated by character performances. Everyone was just remarkable in the film, but it was Loki who stole the show!
Tom Hiddleston’s Loki turned out to be the best MCU villain for 2 phases of the MCU, and he only got some real competition in Phase 3, as Killmonger and Thanos gave us two more legendary villains. But ever since The Avengers, Loki has been amongst the heroes of the MCU, and he even died a noble death being accepted as an Odinson. So, all this makes us think that what really happened to Loki in Phase 1?
Sure Loki was villainous right from the start. He had this God Complex, but in his heart, he only wanted acceptance from his father and to be treated equally. But something really snapped within him when we saw him in The Avengers. So far we have not really given it much of a thought, as people believed that the events of Thor lead to his sour motives, but was that the only reason for his deeds? I mean he was murdering people for fun. All that worked for him as a villain, but as Thor pointed out, there was a big change in his behavior.
So for all that, there had to be an external factor which we now know about. A biography and report provided by Marvel have confirmed that Loki was actually influenced by the Scepter which had the Mind Stone in it. Thanos gave him the Scepter in order to lead an invasion to Earth, conquer the planet and get the Tesseract. Here’s Loki’s “On Screen Full Report” which reads the following on Marvel’s official website:
“Arriving at the Sanctuary through a wormhole caused by the Bifrost, Loki met the Other, ruler of the ancient race of extraterrestrials the Chitauri, and Thanos. Offering the God of Mischief dominion over his brother’s favorite realm Earth, Thanos requested the Tesseract in return. Gifted with a Scepter that acted as a mind control device, Loki would be able to influence others. Unbeknownst to him, the Scepter was also influencing him, fueling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth.”
So there you have it. The Scepter caused Loki to be this formidable Villain. Not just him, we saw the scepter literally taking control of many people including Hawkeye. And it was even influencing the whole team of Avengers at the moment where the argument between them picked up a lot of heat on the Helicarrier.
This leads us to believe that the Mind Stone may actually be evil. In the heated argument session, you see how the presence of this Infinity Stone leads things to total chaos.
We see the Avengers counter one another, and then the angle shifts to the perspective of the Mind Stone, and the whole scene turns upside down until Banner unknowingly grabs the Scepter for others to notice. The Avengers may have dodged a big green bullet fired by the Mind Stone there, as they got distracted by the attack Barton made on the Helicarrier.
More reason to believe the evil powers of the Mind Stone is that it has been present in all three Avengers movies, and things have led to a catastrophe one after the other. It led to the creation of Ultron. So, if you think about it, the Mind Stone really does a number on whoever gets his/her hands upon it for a long period of time. Thanos found the stone first as revealed by the Thanos Novel, so he was probably led to a path of villainy being influenced by the Mind Stone as well. Then we had Loki and Ultron, who also turned out to be major antagonists!
Avengers: Endgame may have a bit to explain about the Soul Stone, but it also has to answer these questions posed for the Mind Stone. Let’s see what really happens in Avengers: Endgame. Honestly, thinking about the Mind Stone is freaking me out for real! It may have done a number on me as well.
Avengers: Endgame comes out on April 26.
