The Wordsmith's Forge

>> Thor 2 shows a battle on Vanaheim, where the fighters are wielding an array of swords, some energy-bow type things and some shoulder-mounted weaponry which also shoots uknown energy.

All of which are "Tesseract blue". <<

Not exactly. Okay, well, they may look identical to other people, but to me they don't. The energy of Loki's staff had a distinctly greenish hint; Loki's own energy is a vivid green; the Tesseract is blue-white with a queasy roil in it; which frosts over a slightly deeper blue on people's eyes; and the arc reactor is a very pure, stable blue-white. The energy weapons had a subtly different blue tint, if I remember right, but I've only seen that movie once.

Same type of energy, but it can look and act differently depending on context. Electricity can look blue or yellow or purplish.

Let's say, science fantasy looks a lot different when viewed with a knowledge of physics and metaphysics.

>> It peeves me off, as THAT implies that the energy used by default in THOSE realms, including all but Midgard, are all based on the same concepts and sources. "Magic" versus what we identify as science or technology. <<

Psh. It's all one wide field. People just look at the ditches and think they're divisions. It makes a lot more sense when you consider things as subsets rather than unrelated sets.

>> Which totally CRAPS on what the actual concept of a tesseract / is / even if it does explain the POWER behind a tesseract. <<

True. In Marvel context, the Tesseract or Cosmic Cube has had multiple explanations and powers (or lack thereof); and only some of that overlaps with a real tesseract of any kind. Although to be fair, that rippling does happen with a hypercube, and if you touch a 3D object to anything with more dimensions, then you can a) destroy the 3D object and/or b) rip a hole in reality. Except for teflon, it seems to be safe, but I wouldn't stick it into a bag of holding.

>> My first introduction to a tesseract as a concept was in a kids' story called "A Wrinkle in Time", where n-dimensional folded space created instantaneous travel between galaxies, without a deep mathematical explanation. <<

Ah yes, that was fascinating.

>> Forty years later, the shorthand for the same concept is "wormhole". So, sitting in the theater, I could anticipate what the Tesseract DID, based on its name, <<

Agreed.

>> without relying on the craptastic scene between Fury and Clint, and just enjoy Clint's BEST line in the movie: "A doorway swings both ways." <<

Well said. Loki and Clint are eerily well matched.

>> But again, that completely and totally BLOWS the original Tesseract Loki used and abused in the first Avengers movie. By confusing the TOOL with the POWER source, movie canon has left the impression that they are the same thing, <<

Problem.

>> and that in fact, the TESSERACT powered the SPEAR. <<

Well ... neither, really. They're both tools of different sorts. The energy is inside them. At its core, it's the same; but when you put it into a container and make it do things, you can change both the composition and the effect of the energy. Consider the color changes along the electromagnetic spectrum, for instance. But the Tesseract and the spear did seem to be linked in some way.

>> No. Just worlds of NO. (Like, nine realms' worth of worlds...) <<

Well, that's what you get when people try to write metaphysics and physics without knowing diddly about either.

>> So, Avengers implies one explanation, Thor 2 implies another explanation, and they of course contradict each other... and NOBODY in charge of Marvel continuity seems to care. <<

*sigh* Too true.