17 Fan Theories About The Infinity Stones That Will Change The Way You Watch The MCU

From Redditor u/MultiverseofSanity:

I think Jane's encounter with the Reality Stone gave her cancer.

Infinity stones are incredibly dangerous to humans, and we know it was killing her in Thor 2. Hulk said in Endgame they output high levels of gamma radiation.

Gamma radiation would make her temporarily sick and it can produce long term effects, such as cancer.

From Redditor u/SicknessVoid:

TL;DR: The Avengers could have won against Thanos in many ways, but if the snap doesn't happen and isn't reversed the events of Eternals don't happen and a Celestial destroys Earth.

So, we all know Doctor Strange's infamous line about only one timeline out of 14 Million leads to victory against Thanos. This single line is the only reason why all the ways fans have come up with since the release of Infinity War to defeat Thanos don't work apparently. But what if I told you that all the ways people thought of DO work? What if I told you that Thor going for the head would have actually stopped Thanos?

The problem is, for the Earth to survive, Thanos has to succeed and the Avengers have to reverse his actions. Because otherwise a giant Celestial will bust out of the Earth's core a few years later with no one able to stop it.

Let me explain further, the events of Eternals only happen the way they do because Thanos' snap was reversed. Because Thanos' snap was reversed Ajak decides that humanity is worth saving. This sets in motion the events of Eternals. In a timeline where the Avengers succeed against Thanos, there is no snap to reverse. In this timeline Ajak and Icarus never tell the other Eternals about the Celestial sleeping in the Earth's core and it destroys Earth when it busts out a few years later.

Doctor Strange probably saw hundreds or even millions of timelines where the Avengers actually win, but all of these timelines eventually lead to Earth's destruction. The only one where it doesn't happen is the one in which Thanos snaps and then his snap is undone.

From Redditor u/blueliger2:

In the first Captain America movie we meet Red Skull who is using the Tesseract (Space Stone) to power his weapons. We see him use these weapons on German military personnel at the beginning of the movie. What happens when they get hit? They simply vanish. Nothing is left of them. Youd be left to believe that they got disintegrated or something similar, but I believe they were actually teleported to random spots around the galaxy. Think of it, the Space Stone allows those who control it the ability to teleport across space like we see Thanos do multiple times in Infinity War.

Also during that time during the MCU (WWII), Red Skull just knew it was a powerful artifact that could be harnessed for power, he didn't know it was the Space Stone. Because of this, he simply thought his weapons just obliterated his enemies, but in reality they are just getting sent to random places. Some on to different planets, some in the the void of space.

From Redditor u/Maester_Chief_:

In Guardians of the Galaxy, we see the Collector detailing the origin of the Infinity Stones to the Guardians. We see the Power Stone placed in the staff of the Celestial, Eson the Searcher who then absolutely obliterates an entire planet with it. The telltale purple energy erupts from his staff and creates massive cracks in the ground, disintegrates the people running away, and is then shown to encapsulate the entire surface of the planet, destroying it. My theory posits that the meteor filled with Vibranium that landed in Wakanda was a shard/remnant from this planet.

It is obvious that Infinity Stones give off energy that matches their monochromatic theme. The yellow Mind Stone that Vision possesses shoots yellow energy beams. The green Time Stone manifests as a green circular rune around Dr. Strange's hands when messing with time travel. The Tessaract is blue, as is the beam that transported Red Skull away at the end of Captain America The First Avenger. I could go on.

We also know that the Infinity Stones can impart lasting powers, even when it is long gone in distance. Captain Marvel got her powers from the Space Stone/Light Speed Engine explosion. (Her photon beams are also blue-yellow to go with the above paragraph). Wanda and Pietro Maximoff got their powers from the Mind Stone manipulation in Sokovia.

So how does this tie in with Vibranium? Well we see time and again that the power stone emits purple energy. And what else does this? Black Panthers new Vibranium suit in his titular movie as it absorbs and re-emits energy. When we see the actual Vibranium meteor itself in the Black Panther opening, it is filled with a purplish-blue hue. When it strikes Wakanda, this meteor creates giant cracks in the ground that the purple-blue energy follows, just as with Eson the Searcher. 

Even the heart shaped herb, the plant that is imbued with the Vibranium's powers is purple. If that's not enough purple color, the ancestral plane is heavily soaked in a purple theme with purple cosmic lights in the background. My theory is that the planet that was destroyed by the Celestial with the Power Stone was imbued with (purple) energy from the Power Stone. Perhaps this energy interacted with particular metals in this planet's crust/core, or perhaps its journey through space also had it interact with certain heat/pressure/cosmic power to create Vibranium. But As the planet fell apart, pieces of its crust/core were jettisoned into space, with one piece hurtling towards planet Earth, set to change the course of the MCU forever.

From Redditor u/XanPerkyCheck:

[In Infinity War,] Thanos moves his [gauntlet] hand towards Rogers, and Rogers stops it with both hands. Thanos strains a bit more, but is unable to move his hand forward or close his grip, so he just knocks Rogers out with his non-glove hand instead.

If you look at his facial expression, he looks shocked upon the initial block, then he looks really perplexed with his eyes squinting and all, like he's thinking "how is this guy able to do this"? But what is 'this' that Rogers is doing?

I don't believe it's physically blocking Thanos' hand. Thanos beat up Hulk, and Rogers is definitely not stronger than Hulk, not to mention Thanos knocks out Rogers seconds later, while Rogers' uppercut punch did nothing to Thanos.

The [gauntlet] works by responding to the will of the user, and in that moment, both of them were in physical contact with the glove. So Rogers was kind of "out-willing" Thanos, and while none of the Infinity Stones were actively being used, they were implicitly responding to both Thanos' and Rogers' wills respectively, with Rogers' influence being greater. And that's how he was able to resist Thanos.

From Redditor u/Sliightly:

Prior to the Infinity Gauntlet being forged, Thanos’ primary weapon was the Thanoscopter sword.

He goes to Nidavellir to get a weapon made to hold all the Stones, presumably threatening the dwarves, because Eitri says “I thought if i made it for him, he’d let them live.”

Eitri must’ve tried saying they had no Uru for the Gauntlet, so Thanos would’ve offered his sword be melted down into the crafting materials for the Gauntlet, [which is why he has his sword in Endgame, but not Infinity War.]