Loki Deserves Better - Tumblr Posts
Hear, hear!!!
True Story
Marvel : Here's Nathalie Portman with Mjolnir!
Crowd : *applauds*
Marvel : We have Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Richard Madden!!
Crowd : *applauds*
Marvel : Here's the list for phase 4
Crowd : *applauds*
Marvel : Valkyrie will be openly LGBT!!!
Crowd : *applauds*
Tom Hiddleston : *breathes*
Crowd : LOKI! LOKI! LOKI! LOKI ! LOKI ! LOKI !
Marvel : ... I'm done with them ...
A fantastic piece - thank you for posting! I felt like Loki barely y held onto the lead role of his own damn series after episode 2. As long he retains his story arc and his prominence and gets his happy ending, I’m good. Bring on Season 2!
I don’t ask for much! 💚💛🖤
How Loki's finale sets up season 2 and the future of the MCU
Loki finale spoilers follow.
Just minutes into the season-one finale, Loki and Sylvie finally arrive at their destination following last week's big castle reveal. When the doors to their destiny swing open, Miss Minutes suddenly appears and congratulates the pair on completing this "awfully long journey."
Sure, season one was only six episodes long, but Loki's story started way before this. Combine all of his movie appearances with the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey hijinks of this show, and it sure does feel like we've been on a long journey with the God of Mischief.
And now, following that post-credits reveal, Marvel has confirmed that Loki will indeed return for a second season. Thank the gods this journey is continuing, because there are more loose threads in that final episode than there are in all of Asgard's finest tailories combined.
Loki ending explained
Upon arriving at the Citadel at the End of Time, Loki and Sylvie are promised all of their greatest desires, including an infinity gauntlet, the Throne of Asgard and a win against those "self-righteous' Avengers. Christmas came early for our Lokis, but despite all that, they both end up turning Miss Minutes down.
And with that, the Big Bad of Loki (and now the MCU as a whole) is revealed to be Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors, AKA He Who Remains AKA Kang the Conquerer AKA "a jerk" (his words, not ours) AKA the villain that comic book fans predicted all along. What follows is a hefty amount of exposition that puts even the first episode to shame, so we'll do our best to summarise.
While He Who Remains bops around to avoid Sylvie's sword, he serves the pair tea and begins to explain his big origin story. Eons ago, in the 31st century, our guy (let's call him Kang, even if the show didn't) discovered the multiverse around the same time that other Kang variants did. At first, they shared knowledge and tech amongst themselves, but as time went on, those who were not "pure of heart" began to invade other realities, which erupted into all-out war.
This Kang was different from the rest, because he discovered Alioth, a creature born of the tears in reality that this war created. He Who Remains weaponised the creature, thereby ending the multiversal war. To preserve cosmic harmony, this variant then decided to isolate the "sacred" timeline, his own, and prune the rest to avoid another war. He then created the TVA to maintain this peace and thereby keep his other variants at bay.
According to He Who Remains, the only way Loki and Sylvie can move forward is if they either take over the TVA or kill this variant, which would unleash the multiversal war along with an "infinite amount of devils." So either "stifling order or cataclysmic chaos."
Pressure mounts once they cross the threshold, the point beyond the timeline that Kang knows. Everything from this point on is a surprise to him, so he's content to let his fate rest in the hands of two Lokis because… he's tired, he says.
Sylvie thinks that He Who Remains is also He Who Fibs A Bunch, so she tries to kill him. Loki isn't so sure though, and as you might expect, the pair try to settle this with a cheeky knife fight. This ends with a big kiss (cue the strings!) and then a double cross.
That's right. Sylvie chooses vengeance over love and shoves Loki through a portal, sending him back to the TVA. And with that, Lady Loki guts Kang like a fish. He seems pretty chill about it though, promising that she'll see him soon... Ominous much?
At that point, all of the timelines start branching out like crazy, creating the multiverse of madness that Kang tried to stop, until he got bored of it. We then cut back to Sad Loki at the TVA where he tries to tell Mobius that a terrifying new threat is on the way. But Mobius doesn't even know who he is anymore.
Does this mean that the timeline has been altered? Or has Loki been thrown into a new reality? Either way, it's not looking too good for the God of Mischief because a statue of Jonathan Majors has replaced the Time Keepers one we usually see in the TVA lobby.
How Loki's finale sets up season 2 and the MCU's future
Season two is going to throw plenty of new challenges at Loki, and hopefully a lot less exposition. First of all, our God of Mischief will need to figure out what the Hel's going on in this new version of the TVA. How will he get Mobius on side if Kang has always ruled this timeline or rewritten history in some way?
And it's not just one Kang he needs to worry about. He Who Remains has now become They Who Remain, which means that there are an infinite number of time-travelling villains to fight. And the worst thing of all is that Loki doesn't even have Sylvie on side now either following that savage betrayal.
Things could soon change in that regard though given the pair's connection. With Kang's tempad, Sylvie can go anywhere now, and we wouldn't be surprised if she ends up drawn back to Loki in some way.
Ravonna will almost certainly pop up again too. The TVA is all she's known, before the mindwipe anyway, and her quest to discover free will could end up transforming the Judge into an ally of sorts. And boy does Loki need all the help he can get.
Beyond the show itself, Loki's finale also just changed Marvel's entire trajectory. Not since we saw America's Ass has the MCU been left so shook by one event, but here we are, about to dive into the multiverse of madness.
The most obvious connection is between this and Doctor Strange's next film, which happens to be called The Multiverse of Madness. The good Doctor must be having heart palpitations after watching this episode, and rightly so, because he's perhaps the only one strong enough to fix this mess, aside from Wanda of course. In fact, the Scarlet Witch could turn out to be the key to everything going on here.
As a Nexus Being, Wanda can reshape reality itself, and that's going to come in handy given all of the Nexus shizz happening from this point on. Elizabeth Olsen's involvement in the film has already been confirmed, and at the end of WandaVision, it was strongly implied that Wanda will visit another reality to try and rescue some version of her now deceased children. Could this help fix things somehow or perhaps make them worse?
Doctor Strange and Wanda aren't the only ones caught up in all this. An animated show called What If...? will dive into some of Marvel's alternate realities firsthand, and the upcoming Spider-Man sequel will also tackle the multiverse with cameos from franchise stars who appeared pre-Marvel. Who knows? Maybe Spider-Ham will turn out be the one who saves everyone.
All this multiverse tomfoolery also opens the gates for X-Men and Fantastic Four characters to finally join the MCU. Marvel's First Family, as they're known in the comics, are already confirmed to star in their own film, and those Merry Mutants won't be far behind either. Whether those teams end up being recast or whether they ask the original actors to come back, one mutant whose return has already been confirmed is Deadpool.
I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose. LOKI — 02x06 “Glorious Purpose”
This so great and so beautiful and SO SAD
Why this scene has been deleted?! I don't understand
Thor’s Way of Showing affection (Infinity War Spoilers)
Anyway, in Infinity War we got multiple heart-wrenching scenes *Cough* finale with Spiderman *Cough* and of course, we have Loki’s death at the beginning of the movie. I couldn’t help but notice something about the way he dies in terms that he gets grabbed on the neck a lot.
So in one of the deleted scenes, Thor grabs Loki’s neck as a sign of affection just before going into the throne room for the coronation ceremony. Thor grabs Loki’s neck as a sign of affection. The thing is he doesn’t just do that in the first movie he continually does this throughout the Thor movies.
So next I began thinking Thor also grabs Loki’s neck in the Avengers movie when trying to convince him to come home to Asgard. Once again this is an act of affection as a way of convincing Loki to come home and we can assume at this point that Thor shows Loki his affection via grabbing him by the neck. That or Asgardians just like grabbing people by the neck since Loki throws Stark out a window via the neck.
We can also assume that Thor picked up this habit from Odin who also grabs Figga by the neck as a sign of affection during the final time they see each other. Real shame Odin was such a shit father, Frigga was the best mum.
Onto Thor the Dark World where Thor grabs Loki’s neck twice, the first time it is when Thor is threatening him. After escaping from Asgard Thor and Loki get into an argument stemming from Frigga’s recent death which course Thor to try to attack Loki. If you actually look at Loki’s face you can see that he is momentary scared and confused by Thor’s actions. Personally, I believe that the reason for this is because Loki is not used to Thor grabbing his neck in any way except in affection and the fact that Loki is the little brother and he’s looking for comfort from his big bro.
The next time in the movie when Thor grabs Loki’s neck is when Loki is dying on Svartalfheim and Loki is calling himself a fool. Thor grabs Loki’s neck as a way of trying to comfort his brother in what they both thoughts were Loki’s last moments. This moment was actually very brief since Thor quickly removes his hand from Loki’s neck but overall the fact that Thor is basically begging Loki to stay with him generally shows Thor’s affection.
Now in Ragnarok, if I’m not mistaken although I might be Thor never grabs Loki by the next with the exception of when Loki is masquerading as Odin and Mjolnir is going straight at Loki’s face since Thor’s hand is on the back of his neck. Apart from that scene Thor never touches Loki’s neck however he does pat Loki on the back as a way of showing his love for Loki especially since Thor has previously its always been holding Loki’s neck. Now Thor pats Loki on the back during the elevator scene (Get help scene) where Thor is talking about them going their sperate ways which Thor thinks is what Loki wants plot twist it really isn’t Thor is trying to show his love for Loki by letting him go. Ragnarok was the movie where we get a pivotal changing point in Thor and Loki’s relationship and grabbing the neck seems to be something that has changed since Thor is no longer comfortable doing this or some other reason.
Finally the most recent movie Infinity fucking War the movie which I went into the theatre thinking I’m ready then when the opening credits began I started whispering ‘I’m not ready’ over and over again while grasping my chair arms so tightly my hands started going white until my friend told me to stop. Loki dies. The fact is that Loki dies because Thanos strangulates him then snaps his neck. I repeat strangulates him then snaps his neck. Thanos grabs Loki in the same way that Thor used to show his love and takes the very life from him with Thor helplessly watching confined in metal. I’m not even going to talk about how Thor’s last word to his little brother who he has just started to reconnect with was ‘You really are the worst brother ever’.
So thank you, Marvel, for taking something Loki had grown up with as a meaning of love and turning it into the very thing that kills him. Thank you for tearing my heart out in the first 5 god damn minutes then managing to tear out what little remained at the end of the movie with so many people being dusted. Thank you, Marvel.
BTW Loki had better be back in the next movie he deserved better
Asgardians (Infinity War Spoilers)
What the fuck happened to Loki’s body? Thor ends up in space and picked up by the Guardians and we see the wreckage in space so we can assume that the Asgardian ship was blown to pieces. So is Loki’s body just floating in the middle of space somewhere? Are the Asgardian's bodies just floating in space? Is Valkyrie going to return to where the ship was and just find floating metal and a shit ton of dead bodies? That is assuming that Valkyrie survived the snapping.
God damn it all I want Avengers 4 now!
while this is an absolutely great take on this issue, and i completely understand you frustration with the showrunners for royally screwing up our favorite character (as we probably all do on this side of the fandom), i would like to quickly remind the class of that time tom mentioned in an interview that he only had ~5% input in the series despite being an executive producer who should've had much more power (i really wish that i was able to find the picture of it that i had found as a source but i've somehow lost it in my files).
i personally cannot find it in myself to blame him for the destruction of his character because he has shown in multiple instances how much he cares about loki and his story (see his knowledge of loki in the comics as well as his understanding of norse mythology, especially compared to the rest of the cast in the thor movies alone). all of the issues that have occurred after 2013 usually can be directly connected back to the writers fundementally misunderstanding (or just not giving a fuck about) loki, or the director changing things last minute to make him look bad - as op said above about nerfing and deleting crucial scenes for his character, even since the very first movie.
as i previously said, your feelings on the matter are completely valid, and i respect your opinion. however, based on the information that i have as a fan (because we will likely never know about all of the decisions that went into this), it is unfair to be blaming tom for decisions that were originally out of his hands, or even ones that were taken away from him.
EDIT: I FOUND THE PICTURE GUYS
Any time I see someone say "Marvel knew what they were doing when they cast Tom Hiddleston" I feel a bit like...they didn't though? I think you're projecting some 4D chess grandmaster stuff onto Marvel Studios that doesn't really exist.
Tom was cast via Kenneth Branagh and yes it was PHENOMENAL casting but let's not pretend like Marvel Studios didn't spend the next near-decade and a half deleting Loki's scenes, killing him then instantly reviving him, deleting yet more of his scenes, killing him again, retconning killing him, sticking him off-screen for almost half a decade, removing yet another scene and not even compensating his fans with a DVD extra, killing him again, then suddenly remembering he's popular (again) and coming up with something to use a now-for-real-dead character as the lead but it wasn't exactly the same character (just another version of him) and now they're apparently done with him again when it's pretty obvious he'll be wheeled out of that tree at some point.
I love Loki. I love Tom's portrayal of Loki but the only people who have consistently genuinely seemed to care about the character are the fans. Because we've been given nothing but crumbs by Marvel and yet produce all this beautiful fan art, fan fic and meta. Marvel have just kinda stumbled around Loki like some perpetually confused pigeon in a hall of mirrors that keeps crashing into its own reflection shrugging "huh...what IS this? Ooh shiny!"
Knew what they were doing? More like lucked out with a very talented and charismatic actor and a dedicated fanbase that formed 2011-12 and is somehow, despite everything still here.
Shoutout to my boy MCU Loki, who circa 2018 onward became wildly misunderstood by canon and fandom
Worst pain
just wanting to prove a quick point here. reblog if you believe loki is a complex, well-developed, three-dimensional character who didn’t deserve to be killed in the first 5 minutes of the movie. let’s see how many we are
This might be an unpopular opinion, but of all the characters in the MCU, Nebula deserved to kill Thanos the most. Gamora and Loki also deserved justice. Remember, Thanos tortured all three of them. He surgically “enhanced” Gamora so she could be a weapon, put Loki under the influence of the mind stone and tortured him to the point he was struggling to walk in Avengers(while also having the Other physically harm him when communicating, not to mention the on screen coercion), and ripped Nebula apart and put her back together enough for her to be mainly metal by Infinity War. The three of them were personally affected by Thanos yet two of them die by his hand, and the other doesn’t even get to avenge herself? Not to mention the fact that the Russos not only tried to make Thanos’ sacrifice seem sympathetic, but also as if he wasn’t the cruel genocidal bastard we saw in the end credits of Age of Ultron, who in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 called Ronin boy and promised to destroy an entire planet without blinking an eye if he gave him the power stone. It’s interesting that the MCU attempts to justify an abuser while conveniently refusing to acknowledge the people they’ve abused.