WARNING- before we begin this video, heads up – there are major spoilers for Avengers
Infinity War in this list.
Loki has been hailed as one of the best villains to ever appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
His character development over the course of the last several years has compelled and
astounded fans of the franchise, and it’s not hard to sympathize with Thor’s adoptive
brother, regardless of how sinister he can be.
During Avengers Infinity War, right off the bat, Thanos kills Loki, who tries to save
his brother and deceive Thanos, but fails to do so, resulting in his death.
Because of the circumstances of his death, and the deceptive nature of the character
in general, this has led many fans to theorize how Loki will come into play in the grander
scheme of things – and what role he’ll play in taking Thanos down.
So today, we’re diving into some of those hypotheticals with our list of the top 10
Loki fan theories that will make you question everything.
Or at least some things.
A solid amount of questioning and pondering, that’s for sure.
10 True Hero This theory speculates that Loki has actually
been a hero all along, and that his actions during the first Thor film and the first Avengers
film were all done out of good.
So let’s start by looking at Thor.
The theory outlines how in the first Thor film, everything that Loki did was intentionally
for the good of Asgard, knowing Thor was not ready to lead, and not because he wanted to
prove his worth, and that he wanted everyone to perceive his actions that way in order
to get the necessary results.
This spawns from his dialogue with Odin, where he tells his adoptive father that his actions
were, I quote, “for all of us!”
At the end of the film, he’s dangling over a portal, and lets himself fall in, ensuring
that all of the work he’s done is solidified.
That’s when he learns of a grander scheme – Thanos’ goal of getting the infinity
stones – and decides to take the responsibility to prevent it – by volunteering to attack
Earth.
This is a move he knows will fail because of the Avengers, and that it will ultimately
dismantle Thanos’ Chitauri army.
9 Intentionally Lost This theory plays off the idea that Loki has
been manipulating the events of the MCU.
Specifically, the events of the first Avengers film.
We saw how cunning he was when he intentionally got himself captured mid-way through the movie.
So this theory suggests that the attack on New York was all part of a bigger plan to
get him to return to Asgard with the tesseract.
He ends up in a prison cell in Thor the Dark World, only to eventually be released and
help Thor out, gaining his trust, and disguising himself as Odin – which gets him EXACTLY
what he originally wanted in the original Thor movie.
Although, that doesn’t last long though, does it?
8 Everything is his Fault Loki is pretty much the reason why Thanos
has been successful, and why a lot of other bad stuff has happened in the MCU.
Alright, let’s break it down.
In the first Avengers movie, Loki loses both the Tesseract and the Specter.
The Specter is then used to by Hydra to conduct a bunch of experiments which results in the
abilities of the Maximoff twins.
It also results in the creation of Ultron – Wanda gives Tony that vision which leads
to his obsession with creating Ultron, which then leads to the creation of Vision – who
then walks around with the mind stone on his forehead, right out in the open.
This leads to the battle of Sokovia, which leads to the Accords, which leads to the divide
between the Avengers.
But let’s jump back to Thor the Dark World – Loki becomes Odin and reigns over Asgard
for the next four years, and makes some serious muck ups – not saving Nidavellir and Eitri
when Thanos attacks, leading to the creation of the gauntlet.
He also replaces Heimdall, which prevents the MCU heroes from having further insight
of what other horrible things Thanos was stirring up in the galaxy, which is why they have next
to no warning about Thanos coming to Earth, lessening their chances of actually being
successful in the battle against him.
He’s the one who gives the Collector an Infinity Stone, and that one Thanos snatches
up easily in Infinity War.
Let’s back up again to Ragnarok – Loki saves the Tesseract, bringing it with him
on the Asgardian ship rather than destroying it, which pretty much just puts it in the
hands of Thanos, and also causes his and Heimdall’s deaths, and allows Thanos to succeed in Infinity
War.
7 He Won’t Come Back One of the more unfortunate theories circulating
the interwebs is that Loki is one of the only characters who died in Infinity War who won’t
come back.
The reasoning behind this is twofold – one, his sacrifice meant something, and was too
important to be reversed – he’s the reason why Thor is alive.
Second, he died prior to Thanos wiping people out with the Infinity Gauntlet, and therefore
won’t be revived since he was killed by different, more physical means.
Running with the latter reason, there’s a whole pandora’s box of intricacies that
may be used to justify why exactly he won’t be allowed to return, along the lines of how
the infinity stones kill someone versus straight up physical murder.
But the former reason seems like it could play more crucially when it comes to not altering
the timeline of the MCU too much (if we’re running with the whole time-travel-will-be-used
to reverse things theory).
This could also mean that both Heimdall and Vision won’t be able to return either, having
made similar sacrifices – Heimdall saved the Hulk, sending him to Earth in order to
warn the Avengers, and Vision was killed in an attempt to destroy the mind stone to prevent
Thanos from getting a complete set of stones, becoming omnipotent.
6 His Sexuality Moving away from the seriousness of the fate
of the MCU, this theory dives into Loki’s sexuality, and what floats his boat.
While it’s canon in the comics that Loki is pansexual and is gender fluid, the MCU
films have yet to give us any insight on what makes Loki all tingly inside.
Even though you bet your butt that all those Thorki shippers think it’s his big handsome
and totally not biologically related to his brother.
Yeah – we have a list on Avengers ships, Y'all should probably check it out.
Anywho, fans have speculated that now that the MCU has FINALLY introduced a queer character
to the mix in the form of Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, Loki may also come out of the closet
– if he makes it out of Avengers 4 alive, that is.
5 Thanos and Loki are in cahoots Riffing off that theory we discussed earlier
about everything Loki has done is how Thanos has been able to succeed, this one suggests
that rather than Loki being a pawn, he and Thanos were in cahoots, and he’s actually
working with him with the promise of getting Asgard once he’s helped Thanos complete
his task – that was the original deal he made when he was given the Scepter to begin
with, along with dominion over Earth.
In order to keep up this charade, he and Thanos staged his death in Infinity War, which is
why Thor was kept alive after Thanos had ‘killed’ him.
Why else wouldn’t he take out the Asgardian then and there, rather than leaving him alive,
potentially creating a threat later on down the road?
4 Loki Survives If you think the god of mischief has really
turned a leaf and is an anti-hero on the side of good rather than working for Thanos, perhaps
this theory will tickle your fancy better than the last one.
Loki’s attempt to deceive Thanos is arguably not his best trick – so much so, that many
think it was deliberately bad.
This is because it was all a ploy for Loki to get out of there while faking his own death.
One theory by Reddit user steampunk_peguin_ points out that he had a tiny window of opportunity
to use the Tesseract to get out of there without being noticed – when he offers it to Thanos.
The Hulk then tackles Thanos and the two begin to fight, and Loki drops the Tesseract to
the ground.
He could have teleported out of there, and used a duplicate of himself to fake his death,
like he did during Thor The Dark World.
They go on to speculate that Loki’s last words are a hint to Thor – I assure you
brother the sun will shine on us again – a veiled message to Thor that he’s actually
on Earth.
3 Thor will have to sacrifice Loki One of the biggest theories about the upcoming
Avengers 4 is that time travel will be essential to reversing what Thanos has done to the Universe.
We’ve already seen photos leaked from the set, and in those photos, we see Loki, locked
up in chains.
While many people have assumed this is because the Battle of New York is important – two
infinity stones were involved – one theory speculates that the return to this moment
in the timeline is because of Loki rather than the destruction of one or both of the
stones present.
Riffing off of the Everything is Loki’s Fault theory, perhaps the Avengers realize
he’s the key to fixing the timeline so that Thanos doesn’t get his hands on all of the
Infinity Stones, and in order to ensure this, they must kill Loki.
And who better to do this than Thor, his brother, who at that point still thinks Loki is the
worst thing to ever happen?
And likely the only one with the power to actually kill him?
Perhaps Thor of the present timeline, along with the other Avengers, will have to manipulate
circumstances, leaving them with no choice but to kill Loki rather than to return him
to Asgard and put him in prison.
2 Bruce Banner is Loki This one suggests that Loki has been undercover
as Bruce Banner.
As journalist Josh Dickey describes, I quote, “Loki’s dagger sneak attack on Thanos
was feeble.
He knew it wouldn’t work.
Heimdall also knows Banner can probably survive anything Thanos throws at him in the short-term.
On Earth, Banner is acting loopy.
Can’t Hulk out.
Deception more useful now than force.
Banner is Loki.”
Despite it being pointed out that Banner, inside the Hulk Buster suit tried to Hulk
out, the way this theory could work is that perhaps Loki has possessed Banner, somehow
using a new trick inspired by what he was capable of doing with the Mind stone when
it was in the Spectre.
1 Loki Has Played Thanos One theory speculates that Loki has been playing
Thanos all along.
This theory outlines how Loki has been playing the long game, and knew about Thanos right
from the get-go, and manipulated all of the events that have occurred after the first
Thor movie onwards.
The theory speculates that this is he becomes aware of Thanos’ plan after he falls through
that portal at the end of the first Thor movie, and decides he can take advantage of the situation
by letting Thanos collect all of the gems for him.
He is given the Sceptre, uses it to dismantle Thanos’ Chitauri army in the Avengers film
by bringing them to Earth so that the Avengers will defeat them, all while keeping the Tesseract
away from Thanos in the meantime.
He’s then the one who sends Sif and Volstagg to deliver the other Infinity Stone to the
Collector for safekeeping all while he’s disguised as Odin at the end of Thor The Dark
World – which as we mentioned, causes A LOT of trouble.
This spreads out the stones, which will later force Thanos into collecting them within a
tighter amount of time, therefore becoming preoccupied with the rallying opposition of
the heroes and what not.
It also ensures that the heroes will come into direct conflict with the Mad Titan, and
will continue to distract him with their efforts to defeat him later on.
Loki’s actions as Odin ensure that Thanos can get to Eitri undetected, causing a mold
of the Gauntlet to be made, which will allow Loki in the future to have a new one made
for him after Thanos’ snap pretty much destroys it.
By the time Infinity War rolls around, Loki has positioned himself to take on Thanos when
the mad titan attacks the Asgardian’s ship SINCE HE MADE SURE THE TESSERACT WASN’T
DESTROYED IN RAGNAROK, and he seemingly gets himself killed in order to operate secretly
and set the next stage of his plan in motion while everyone assumes he’s dead.
When Loki returns, with Thanos thinking he’s dead, he’ll have the opportunity to go after
the Infinity Gauntlet himself while the remaining Avengers struggle to take him on.
And just like in the Infinity Gauntlet comic, Thanos will be distracted, giving Loki the
opportunity to make a move and get the Infinity Gauntlet himself instead of it being Nebula.
To further this theory, photos have been leaked from the set of Avengers 4, showing Loki in
chains right after the battle of New York.
Could this shine more light on Loki’s master plan and what else he’s been manipulating
behind the scenes?
Essentially, this theory is a beast, but to sum it up – everything Loki has done in
the MCU up until now has been a master plan to manipulate Thanos so that at the right
time, he’ll take the Infinity Stones for himself, get a new gauntlet made – thanks
to his brother Thor being still alive and visiting Eitri, that is – and then assume
his role as the ruler of the universe.
There we have it friends!
That was a beast of a list, wasn’t it?
So, what do you all think?
Will Loki return for good in the Avengers 4?
Will he get a better ending than he did in Infinity War if he is meant to die?
And how do you think his story will pan out in those Battle of New York scenes?
Let us know all of your thoughts in those comments below!
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