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The Infinity Stones have been the primary thorns in the sides of various Marvel characters from almost the beginning.  Those rainbow-colored gems, when taken all together, only wiped out half the life in the universe. 

Now they’re the subject of debate on fan forums, with the key question being which one is more important: the Space Stone or the Mind Stone? Meanwhile, more casual fans may be asking, which is which? The debate of which one is most important in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a heated one.

What are all the Infinity Stones?

Thanos looking at the Infinity Guantlet with four stones in it
Thanos and the Infinity Guantlet | Marvel

The first Infinity Stone we saw is better known by another name: the Tesseract. That’s the glowing blue cube that caused so much trouble in The Avengers.

However, the Tesseract is the box. What gives it its power is the blue space stone, which allows whoever is holding it to transport wherever they want. It’s basically a teleport. It’s also what gave Captain Marvel her powers. 

The other key stone is the mind stone. It’s yellow, and it’s what powered Loki’s scepter, which allowed him to control Hawkeye. Later on, it’s what gives Vision his powers, and he dies after Thanos steals it to complete his collection. 

The other stones are the Reality Stone (red), which gave Scarlet Witch her powers, the Power Stone (purple), the Time Stone (green), and the Soul Stone (orange). It was the last one that led to Gamora and Black Widow’s deaths. On a Reddit forum, however, the key stones are seen as the Space Stone and the Mind Stone. 

The case for the Space Stone

The forum listed the heroes that got their powers from the stones, including the already mentioned Captain Marvel, Vision, and Scarlet Witch. Also in the group is the short-lived Quicksilver from Age of Ultron. 

However, the conversation quickly turned to a Mind vs Space stone debate. One fan noted: “The Mind Stone gave three people powers and was the last Stone Thanos got, but the Space Stone was in a lot of movies and was the weapon Loki used in his assault on Earth.”

But one fan responded that the space stone was more important in the series because it tied into so many subplots. Red Skull experimented with it in Captain America: The First Avenger, as did  Howard Stark. 

Thanos sent Loki to Earth to get it, it gave Carol Danvers her powers, and it was in Odin’s vault. And even though Thanos has been defeated, we’re still not done with the stones because Loki stole the Space Stone in Endgame, and that will presumably be the basis for his Disney+ show. 

And another fan cracked that the Space Stone appears in more movies than Hawkeye. That may or may not be true, but maybe the eventual Hawkeye series will even things out. 

Maybe the Mind Stone is the Best? Or some other stone?

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On the other hand, fans pointed out the Mind stone was Loki’s weapon that got the best of Hawkeye. Another fan said: “One of the Avengers’ lives literally depended on the Mind Stone, and the entire epic Battle of Wakanda was fought to protect that stone, I’m gonna go with Mind Stone.”

But the Time Stone had its boosters too, with one fan arguing for the Time Stone because that was Doctor Strange’s  “whole arc,”  and it was especially important in determining how to defeat Thanos.  Another fan said,  “Time stone for sure. The only stone that was the catalyst to saving half of the universe.”

It would seem that picking the most important Infinity Stone is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child. But whereas a parent would say they love all their children equally, a Marvel fan would say that all the stones are equally important because Thanos had to have them all to execute the snap. So the best answer is, arguably, “all of the above.”