Character Analysis: Loki

Greetings to all of you Marvel fans out there! Today I am going to be talking a fan-favorite MCU character, Loki, the God of Mischief! Played by Tom Hiddleston. He has appeared in over 6 movies beginning with 2011's Thor and up to his latest appearance in Avengers: Endgame and his solo series, Loki is set to premiere on June 9th on Disney+. I'm going to deep dive into his comic book origins and MCU character arc from villain to anti-hero.

Oh, and SPOILERS abound!

Created by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, Loki first appeared on Journey into Mystery #85 in 1962, which featured the iconic image of Thor swinging Mjolnier around. Loki is also based in Norse mythology and Icelandic origins that I probably won't get into. He is the adopted son of Odin and Thor's brother. He is also considered to be gender fluid?? Ok. Loki has made other comic book appearances in Spider-Man, X-Men and Defenders and was part of his comic book miniseries that ran from 2004 to 2010 and other Loki stories like "Vote Loki", in which that the TV Show is based on. 

During the war between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants, Odin, the ruler of Asgardm found a small child after killing their leader in the Giants' stronghold. Feeling pity, Odin took in the child, because he was the child of his worthy adversary, and raised him alongside Thor. Throughout Loki's childhood and adolescence, he felt jealous and resentment from seeing how Thor was treated amongst the Asgardians. Feeling inferior to his brother, he became a sorcerer. As Loki reached adulthood, his talent for causing mischief earned him the nickname "God of Mischief", and no, it's not because he turned into a snake to prank Thor, he became malice with power and grew stronger as he sought for the Asgardian throne while seeking revenge. His evil misdeeds eventually came to Midgard, also known as Earth and frequently fought The Avengers. 

Now, comic book stuff aside, let's move on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnation of Loki.

Like I said, Loki first appeared in Thor(2011) as the main villain. His comic book origins were accurate, as he was always in Thor's shadow, but they did fight side by side during Thor and the Warriors Three's assault on Jotenheim, the home of the Frost Giants. Weird how the Frost Giants were the size of normal humans but that's besides the point. During Thor's exile, Loki claimed Odin's seat while he fell ill and has the understandable attention to prove that he Odin's worthy son by defeating the Frost Giants once and for all. How is this plan evil? Well he's basically going to kill the Frost Giants that aren't bad people. Meaning that he planned to commit genocide and Thor, having received his powers again, successfully stopped him by destroying the bifrost. But then it was rebuilt. Still don't know how though. 

Loki appeared again The Avengers, as the main villain who led an army of an alien race known as the Chitauri and invaded New York. In the Loki TV show, it's hinted that Loki will visit a timeline where Loki successfully destroyed the Big Apple. Anyway, the film continued the storyline of Thor's clash with Loki and it truly showed Loki's evil nature and what he can be capable of. Loki was eventually put into Asgardian custody and was imprisoned in Thor: The Dark World. In the second Thor film, Loki was an unlikely ally during the battle with Malekith with his army of dark elves. Loki, being the God of Mischief, betrays Thor but supposedly died at the hands of a dark elf. I forgot what his name was, I didn't like the movie as a whole. Anyway, before that, Thor and Loki have a heart-to-heart conversation with Thor questioning his trust in him. After Malekith is defeated however, Loki appears on the Asgardian throne posing as Odin, once again becoming the ruler of Asgard. 

Now, so far, Loki felt resentment ever since he was a child and Thor was favored from everyone, he grew up waiting to prove to Odin that he's worthy. All that Loki was attention and he never got it which caused him to nearly wipe out an entire race and destroy a city by using Thanos' army. We see Loki again in Thor: Ragnarok this time being an ally to Thor but that doesn't mean that his mischievous side fade away, he was still going to betray Thor but ended up helping him, Hulk and Valkyrie defeat their evil sister, Hela. 

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos and his associates attacked Thor's Asgardian ship. Loki hands the Tesseract, an Infinity Stone that opened the portal in the first Avengers film. Loki was then killed(for real this time) after attempting to help Thor by attempting to kill Thanos. This showed that Loki progressed from being a baddie to a selfless anti-hero who deep down cared for Thor. 

However, Tom Hiddleston returned as Loki in Avengers: Endgame as 2012 Loki. During one of the Time Travel scenes, Tony Stark and Scott Lang attempted to steal the Tesseract to bring everyone back from the Snap. Let's just say that it backfired and Loki steals it again and he breaks reality. This brought the conversation of the multiverse in the franchise. 

In 2021's Loki, the God of Mischief ends up in the TVA, which is the Time Variance Agency, an organization that exists outside of time and space and must choose between imprisonment or restoring the timeline. 

And that's the character of Loki, guys. Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment below your thoughts.