MCU: 5 Ways Loki Is A Misunderstood Character (& 5 Ways He’s A Villain)

Loki, the upcoming Disney+ series, will take a deeper look at the complicated God of Mischief. Is he a true MCU bad guy… or just misunderstood?

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To say that the MCU’s Loki is a multilayered character would be an understatement. The character has so many facets to his personality that the Disney+ Loki series is set to take its deepest look into him yet. Having started as the villain in Thor, Loki went up against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in The Avengers.

Loki was given a hero’s death in Avengers: Infinity War when he went down attempting to end Thanos’ threat. And yet, there are more than a few reasons to believe that Loki has been a villain through and through the whole time. Still, the reasons for Loki’s role as an antagonist are deeper than they seem, making his status as a villain misunderstood.

10 Misunderstood: His Attempts To Be Closer To His Family Were Misconstrued As Mischeviousness

Quite a lot of Loki’s relationship with Odin doesn’t make sense due to how the latter treated him. It was the same with Thor, as the family considered Loki to be mischievous and a lost cause. However, the truth is that Loki actually tried to be close to them.

Loki was an able person in his own right, yet Odin and Thor saw his mastery with things like spells as Loki engaging in magic tricks. He attempted to provide advice to them but was told to “know his place” by both Thor and Odin. It was only after Loki realized they kept misjudging him that he embraced their perception of him and became the God of Mischief.

9 Villain: His Redemption Arc Wouldn’t Work If He Wasn’t An Antagonist

There are still a lot of unresolved questions about Loki and whether he did become a genuine protagonist by Avengers: Infinity War. However, Loki’s story just wouldn’t fit if he was always supposed to be a misguided character.

It was necessary for him to start off as a villain, as the heinous acts he committed in Thor and The Avengers were needed to signify the change into becoming the antihero he was starting from Thor: Ragnarok. After all, Loki’s threat was the reason why the Avengers formed in the first place and it will be him from this timeline who will appear in the Loki Disney+ series.

8 Misunderstood: He Was Always Overlooked In Favor Of Thor

Loki’s turn for the worst in his first appearance was explained by the character himself when he claimed to Thor that he never wanted to be the king but was tired of not being treated like his equal. The truth is that the Asgardians placed too much attention toward Thor to realize Loki’s potential.

Loki was shown to be a superb warrior himself, having aided Thor in many battles while possessing the skills for strategy and tactics. However, none of his accomplishments were ever celebrated, making it understandable why Loki’s frustrations eventually tipped to their boiling point.

7 Villain: His Good Actions Have Only Been Out Of Necessity

Loki started showing signs of change from Thor: The Dark World when he aided his brother in the fight against the Dark Elves. However, he had ulterior motives of faking his death to usurp Odin. In the same vein, Loki fought alongside Thor in Ragnarok against Hela but this was after he had fallen out of favor with the Grandmaster.

Overall, Loki’s good deeds only came about when he didn’t have any other option or when he had already planned to benefit from them. He never did anything a true protagonist would, whereas his general behavior fit the bill for a villainous character.

6 Misunderstood: His Treacherous Nature Has Generally Been In Response To Conflict

Strangely enough, despite the many betrayals Loki has committed, quite a few have been because something was done to him. In Thor, he plotted against his brother due to Thor having treated him as an inferior, while his killing of his biological father Laufey was a long time coming since the latter had abandoned him to die as a baby.

Even Loki’s betrayal of Thor to the Grandmaster in Ragnarok was after Thor had told him he didn’t care about Loki anymore, making Loki’s treachery a snap response out of feeling hurt. Loki definitely is a traitor by personality, but his reasons for being this way have been misjudged.

5 Villain: His Lack Of Remorse For Taking Lives

The argument can certainly be made that Loki changed from being a full-on killer, but he never did show any remorse or guilt for what he did during The Avengers. Even someone like Thanos had admitted he didn’t enjoy taking lives, yet Loki actually did the opposite.

In Thor: The Dark World, he openly boasted about the people he killed on Earth to his mother and justified it by claiming his father had killed a lot more. In other cases, Loki was very open to killing to further his own plans, such as when he offered Thor a plan to pretend to be loyal to the Grandmaster and kill him so they could rule Sakaar.

4 Misunderstood: He Never Hated Thor

Much is made of Thor always being willing to forgive him but Loki actually didn’t despise his brother as is believed. This was first seen when he was in a firm position to bring Thor harm after disguising as Odin but chose to let Thor be with Jane where he was happy.

In fact, Loki’s act of letting the Frost Giants into Asgard never involved getting Thor banished as he only wanted Odin to see that Thor wasn’t ready to be a king. In Avengers: Infinity War, Loki could have chosen to escape with the Tesseract but stayed on board to his doom because he didn’t want to leave Thor to die.

3 Villain: He Always Looks To Save His Own Skin First

Apart from his sacrifice in Avengers: Infinity War, Loki proved himself to be the most self-serving character in the MCU. In any given situation, his first move would be to find a way to save himself, and he only accounted for others if he wouldn’t be in jeopardy.

This was best seen in Thor: Ragnarok when Loki easily abandoned Asgard after Hela took over and was happy to stay in Sakaar rather than fight for his home. Had it not been for Thor, Loki wouldn’t have cared if Hela had killed off the Asgardians.

2 Misunderstood: His True Desire Was To Gain Odin’s Approval

It was believed by many that Loki had planned on killing the Frost Giants in Jotunheim due to a mad bid for revenge against them. However, his real plan was to prove himself to Odin that he was worthy, although he had the wrong idea of what would impress his father.

It was only after he was rejected by Odin that Loki fell into space and was corrupted by Thanos, meaning Loki wouldn’t have been interested in any of the villainous things he did in The Avengers had Odin understood the place Loki was coming from.

1 Villain: His Attempts To Have Thor Killed

Misguided as he may have been, there’s still no escaping the fact that Loki did try to kill Thor. This happened on more than one occasion, too, as Loki gave the order to the Destroyer to end Thor and dumped him from the sky to plummet to his doom in The Avengers.

It was later that Loki was avoided using lethal means against Thor. Had he been successful in his earlier attempts, though, Loki would have been responsible for not only killing his own brother but the future King of Asgard and the person who later put an end to Thanos.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mcu-loki-total-bad-guy-misunderstood-antagonist/