At the end of my posts, I always ask what movie you want me to review next. But no one had any suggestions. So, I thought that while you brainstorm your favorite Marvel movie, I would do something a little different for this post. Today I am doing a character analysis of my favorite Marvel character: Loki. 

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It is no surprise that Loki’s role in the Marvel Universe is to cause chaos as the god of mischief. Loki first appears in Thor, where he lives in his brother’s shadow. Although he makes some questionable choices, he is not really a villain, but rather trying to prove he is a worthy son.

Tom Hiddleson, who plays Loki, does a fantastic job portraying his love for Thor and desire to be a good King. At the end of the film, he lets go and falls into the void, dying. This is the first of many faked deaths.  

In Avengers we learn that he became a lap dog for Thanos. Loki’s goal is to use the tesseract to open portals between Earth and Thanos’ universe. Loki is clearly a villain as shown by his wicked methods to achieve his goal. However, the fangirl in me blames the torture Loki went through with Thanos for his bad behavior. He fails, and Thor brings him back to Asgard to be locked up for his crimes. 

In Thor: The Dark World, Loki embraces his true self and joins Thor in beating the Dark Elves. Then, Loki dies (aka faking his death again). Once again the audience can see Loki’s devastation over the loss of his mother. With him repeatedly switching sides, Loki is not your typical villain. I believe his biggest problem is getting other people to believe him. In the first Thor movie, it is clearly shown that Thor’s closest friends do not like Loki or trust him. Loki will never be able to achieve his goal of being king because no one will follow the god of mischief.

Next, we see him in Thor: Ragnarök. Thor discovers that Loki did not die and is pretending to be their father, Odin Allfather. Loki brings Thor to Odin, just before Odin dies of old age. This might be a first in the Avenger Universe! His death releases Hela, the goddess of death and Odin’s firstborn. I know Thor is Odin’s firstborn, but the writers are covering up this plot hole by claiming Odin lied to everyone to protect them from Hela. Although a better cover-up is claiming that Loki and Hela are related since they look so similar. Thor looks like he is the adopted one. 

The Bifrost brings all three to Asgard, but Hela kicks her brothers out to the trash planet. Loki loves it there as he can be his true self and no one hates him for it. Thor and Loki team up with a Valkyrie and the Hulk to escape. They cause Ragnarok, killing Hela and surviving.

Loki resurfaces in Avengers: Endgame, where *spoilers* he dies at the hands of Thanos in the first five minutes. Imagine the only reason you go to the movie theater is to watch your favorite character Loki and he dies in the first five minutes! I was devastated. The only thing keeping me going was the thought that he faked his death, again.

He is also not a villain in his Disney Plus series where the original Avengers Loki is teleported in time. I have chosen not to include this Loki in my analysis since it is an alternate timeline, there are too many Loki’s, and the whole you can only love yourself thing.

Overall, Loki’s character arc can be simplified to embracing himself and learning he does not have to be perfect to be loved. Loki also learned through his faked deaths that Thor is the only one that would miss him.