Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-151.227.218.36-20140810130429/@comment-207.173.253.180-20141029234030

There still isn't enough information to conclusively say the scepter is the mind stone. There are still has too many unanswered questions. Why is it the same color as the Tesseract? Why would Thanos give it to Loki? How did Thanos acquire it? Why isn't it more powerful like the other stones? How could it transport Loki to Earth? What are they going to do in the seven or so upcoming movies with only two stones remaining to be revealed between them?

A couple of shots of the scepter in a teaser along with the known stones may seem like confirmation to those who are predisposed to believing the scepter is a stone, but beware of confirmation bias. The teaser says nothing outright, and the scepter could simply be there as filler (there's plenty of other filler), as misdirection, or just because it's a Tesseract-powered Macguffin that will also be featured in Avengers 2.

The Tesseract-powered scepter theory still does a much better job of explaining everything. For one, the Avengers movie states over and over that the scepter is powered by the Tesseract. Loki asks the brainwashed what the *Tesseract* has shown them, Cap and Fury both agree the scepter appears to be powered by "the cube", "like a HYDRA weapon", Selvig says of the scepter that the Tesseract cannot defend "against herself", and Loki couldn't brainwash the arc-reactor-equipped Tony Stark, the arc reactor technology being based on Tesseract research.

Second, it's also blue, the same color as the Tesseract, and James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy has said the reason the Power Stone is purple instead of red is because Infinity Stones have to have unique colors. If the scepter was the mind stone, it would violate that rule. And while the gauntlet shown in the teaser shows only five stones, only one is blue.

Third, while the scepter does exhibit some telepathy (or is that long-distance communication?) and brainwashing powers, none are as earth-shattering as the limitless energy source of the Tesseract, the universe-unmaking ability of the Aether, or the planet-destroying abilities of the power stone. However, the Tesseract's primary attribute is its use as a limitless *power* source, so the stones already appear to exhibit abilities charactaristic of other stones.

Fourth, the origin problem: How could Thanos have given Loki a Tesseract-powered weapon? I don't know the answer, but on the other hand, how could Thanos have acquired the mind stone? Marvel has to eventually explain where the mind stone came from, and when the arc of Phase 3 is about how Thanos comes to possess all the stones, the least satisfying answer is that he already had it. To top if off, it strains credulity for Thanos to simply entrust Loki, of all villians, with one of the six stones that he is obsessed with possessing. Saying the mind stone theory poses bigger problems for the origin of the scepter than saying it is powered by the Tesseract.

And finally, there are a lot of better candidates for the mind stone in the Marvel Universe than the scepter, and seven or so movies in which to reveal them, including Doctor Strange. The Eye of Agamotto if nothing else is already a better fit for the mind stone than the scepter. With all the Avengers to choose from, why cast an Avengers movie with only second-raters when you could have a roster with Cap, Thor, Hulk, and Iron Man? 'nuff said!