Why did Red Skull guard the Soul Stone?

As revealed in Avengers: Infinity War, Red Skull has been condemned to eternally safeguard the path to the Soul Stone on the desolate planet Vormir. This shocking twist left viewers wondering – why was the long-lost Hydra commander forced into this bleak sentinel duty by the very weapon he once tried to claim? What poetic justice led the Tesseract itself to forge this fate for the power-hungry Red Skull?

A History of Obsession: Johann Schmidt and the Myth of the "Superior Man"

Johann Schmidt was born physically deformed, suffering social stigma as "Red Skull" which twisted him into a cruel megalomaniac obsessed with amassing power over others. Becoming leader of the Nazi‘s deep science division in the 1930s, Hydra, Red Skull hungered for occult artifacts like the Tesseract to solidify his status as the Third Reich‘s "superior man."

When Herr Schmidt located the Tesseract in 1942, he intended to use its cosmic energies to develop unbeatable WMDs, not realizing the Space Stone had a life and intentions of its own…

The Will of the Stones: Sentience and Judgment

The Infinity Stones may appear as glossy gems, but within each Stone lies truncated fragments of the same primordial force that birthed the universe itself. Though their intelligence is opaque to humans, they evaluate those who seek to utilize them – often reacting if they sense greed or hubris in one unworthy of wielding their tremendous power.

Of all the Stones, the Space Stone may have the most discerning judgment, as it grants dominion over space itself – the ability to appear anywhere instantly across the universe. Such omnipresence would allow one to easily locate and collect the other five Stones…

Bad Touch: Mishandling the Tesseract

When Red Skull located the Tesseract and handled it directly – likely driven by egomania and lust for control – he provoked the Stone‘s wrath. It reacted by instantly transporting Schmidt across the stars to Vormir, where the Soul Stone lay hidden…

A Stone to Guard the Stone

Marooned on the lifeless Vormir, Red Skull was magically prevented from dying or communicating off-world, but compelled to serve as the Soul Stone‘s sentinel for eternity.

Perhaps the Space Stone banished him there because in its esoteric wisdom, it thought the Soul Stone itself would desire a guardian who sought ultimate power, only to have it ripped away – a perfidious man now forced to guide others towards the very prize he would never possess. A poetically just sentence for the once proud Johann Schmidt!

So while the reasons behind Red Skull‘s banishment contain more sorcery than science, this surprising encounter perfectly illustrates the unfathomable intelligence – and judgment – lurking within the Infinity Stones…