The one and only Loki of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is dead… again. Yes, he’s been dead before, but as Thanos said “no resurrections this time”, and I think he meant it. However, we comic book junkies should’ve counted on the god of mischief to make some sort of return. Well, while Thanos was right, the funny thing is that no resurrections are needed. Our man Loki will be getting his own television series alongside his other MCU buddies on Disneyplus. Exciting, yes, because it’s hard to not get enough of Loki. Instead of having him come back from the dead again, Marvel found a loophole to still use him for future projects. If you’ve seen Avengers: Endgame (shame on you if you haven’t), you’ll know that the past version of Loki escaped from custody with the Tesseract. Ouch, the Avengers messed up big time on that one.
If you know the rules of time travel, you’ll know that doing it always has some kind of consequences. I mean, come on, every geek knows that. I’m glad he’s back, but something about this bothers me. It’s not really that it’s the past Loki, who represents his more evil self, but it’s more about how he died in Avengers: Infinity War. I’ll start out by saying that I think he died the best way he could have. For a while, we were used to seeing him as a envious, power-hungry villain, but his last two movies really saw a change in the character. By the end of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki found redemption by helping Thor and the Asgardians escape the destruction of their home. Sure, he also secretly nabbed the Tesseract, but we’ll get to that later.
Seeing Loki redeem himself was the beginning of some excellent character development. At that point, I was expecting him to be given a more anti-heroic arc and see that develop more. Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long, as it ended shortly after it began. Yes, he was one of the top contenders for who was going to die in Infinity War, but to be honest, I was kind of hoping for just more. The short answer: when I say “more”, I mean more screen time. If you haven’t seen Infinity War (and once again, shame on you if you haven’t), he dies in the very beginning. His death motivated Thor to kill Thanos, but in my opinion, he was underutilized.
And now for the long answer. I think Loki should’ve last way longer in Infinity War and not just because he’s Loki. For some people, that might be enough, but that’s only half of it. We all need to remember that Loki is the villain that banded the Avengers together. Technically, Thanos was pulling the strings, but the god of mischief was the one doing the dirty work. At that point, he wasn’t just an enemy of Thor, but an enemy of every Avenger. He didn’t just physically fight every Avenger, but he also gave each one a reason to hate him. The Avengers were threatened by him physically, mentally, and emotionally, but on top of all of that, he’s the villain who unintentionally brought them together.
This cannot be forgotten, because without Loki, there would be no Avengers. For the founding members, he is their first villain. Ever since then, they’ve had to deal with some nasty villains, but none matched Loki. That is, until Thanos finally met them and then, nicely put, the s@!t hit the fan. During the time of heavy anticipation and speculation, I expected Loki to actually fight alongside the Avengers in their fight against Thanos. Admit it, how awesome would it have been to see the hated villain who formed the Avengers actually assist them? Yeah, you all wanted to see that.
Imagine if Thanos didn’t kill him. In an alternate version of Infinity War, Loki used his usual trickster magic to fool Thanos and help Thor escape the doomed ship. Guess what happens after? They would both probably meet the Guardians of the Galaxy, but that’s not the interesting part. What I really wanted to see was both Thor and Loki meeting up with the Avengers again. Of course, they would have all been happy to see Thor, but imagine how they would’ve reacted after seeing Loki again. The only Avenger that got to see him post-The Avengers is Bruce Banner and his reaction was rather chill. He wasn’t too happy to see him, but he also wasn’t very angry. It was cool to see, but somehow, I doubt the other Avengers would have been so calm.
Hawkeye wasn’t in Infinity War, which is unfortunate, because he probably would’ve tried to kill Loki on sight. That wouldn’t of worked, but hey, it’s Hawkeye and Loki being a god wouldn’t stop him from trying. Then there’s Black Widow, who Loki gleefully taunted on the old Helicarrier, something she probably hasn’t forgotten about. Captain America fought him to a physical standpoint and barely held his own. The two of them are always overly-cautious and would likely be immediately alarmed once they saw Loki, understandably so. As for Iron Man, he and Loki traded blows, but their memorable dialogue exchange on top of Stark Tower instantly established their rivalry. Both men had something quick and snarky to say and when it came to an end, Iron Man had the last laugh. I’d imagine his reaction would be cautious, but would be oddly similar to Bruce’s. Sarcasm first, threats second.
Once the tense reunion ends, the Avengers would have to wonder how Loki could help them. I always imagined it as him acting as the Boromir of the group. Boromir was a bit of problem for the Fellowship, because right off the bat, he suggested using the ring as a weapon against Sauron. Not the best idea, considering it was a very dangerous weapon of uncontrollable power, but he was also susceptible to the corruption it enticed. We all know how much Loki loved the power of the Tesseract, so would it be hard to believe that he would’ve implored the Avengers to use it against Thanos? Probably not.
On the surface and since it’s Loki, that sounds like a bad idea. Then again, I can imagine that some Avengers could’ve possibly agreed with him. After all, Iron Man was the kind of guy to resort to desperate times and desperate measures. Just like Saroun, Thanos would’ve pursued the Tesseract and much like Boromir, Loki would’ve likely brought it to him with the misguided attempt to control it. As we all know, Loki isn’t the best team player and would’ve secretly kept the Tesseract with him and once Thanos was near, he would try to unleash its power. A noble intent, but in the end, his plan would’ve likely backfired. Once Thanos got it, that’s just another stone for him.
So how would I end his journey? Loki is a confident guy, but after seeing his plan fail, it would serve as a wake-up call. In his final moments, he would go directly after Thanos and as a final act of redemption, sacrifice himself. Yes, it would fail, because Thanos is Thanos. However, Loki’s sacrifice won’t have to be all heroic. Since it’s Loki, his final assault on Thanos would be more to undermine him or destroy something useful to him. That way, he’s giving a final “got you” to his enemy before dying. Let’s face it, that’s true Loki fashion.
What say you, MCU fans? If you’re ready for more Loki, get ready for his upcoming series. The past Loki is still Loki. He’ll grow on us.
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