shine-of-asgard:

epic-penguin-cupcakes:

“Loki’s death makes sense. His story was at an end. What would they have even done with him moving forward?”

I see this a lot, and it’s funny. It’s funny in the same way that people still believing that Loki is a villain is painfully comical. There’s such a lack of understanding for this character and so many people’s brains just seem to shut down completely when his future in the MCU is brought up. 

So, what might we have gotten if the Russos hadn’t chosen to off him for cheap shock value? 

An exploration of his heritage. 

Now imagine if Captain America or Brace Banner had some incredibly powerful hidden ability that the MCU had not yet utilized or ever touched upon since it’s original discovery. You’d expect for Marvel to eventually explore this at some point, right? Then why is this somehow not the case with Loki’s undeveloped frost giant abilities?

Working with the Avengers.

As soon as I walked out of the theater in 2012, my mind was wondering what it would be like if Loki had been fighting alongside the Avengers rather than against them. Ragnarok had set up the potential for just that: Loki being forced to ally himself with his former enemies – Cue the snarky banter with Tony Stark, a magical team up with Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange, surprising even himself when he instinctively shoves Clint out of the way of an oncoming attack… THIS would have brought his original arc full circle. If they really wanted to kill him off, then he should have died while protecting the planet he’d once attempted to rule. Though really, why does a villain need to die to be redeemed? You shouldn’t follow the norm just because it’s the norm. That’s just lazy writing.

Betraying Thanos.

It’s kind of Loki’s “thing”. He betrays people who have put their trust in him. Usually it’s the good guys who pay the price for his deceptions, but wouldn’t it have been interesting to see Loki’s talents turned upon the big bad? Giving Loki the role that Mephisto had in the comics (serving as an advisor to Thanos before betraying him) would have been ideal in this scenario. In no way is attacking Thanos head-on with a tiny knife intelligent. Loki should’ve been better than this.

Reconciliation with Thor.

There is no Thor without Loki. There is no Loki without Thor. Ragnarok gave us two brothers who were finally at peace with each other in the end and prepared to move forward together. An exploration of their relationship as siblings really trying to get along despite their differences would have been a breath of fresh air, to be honest. Thor is king, but every king needs an advisor. What better advisor to have than your own brother?

Mastering his own mind.

Hiddleston has claimed that something he would have liked to explore with Loki and see the character do if he’d survived Infinity War was to conquer his own mind, because Loki doesn’t know his own mind. He’s mentally unstable and plagued by feelings of self-disgust. Hiddleston has outright claimed that Loki deep down doesn’t really like himself. The character finally coming to terms with himself and discovering his place in the universe could have been a nice arc for the character to complete moving forward, perhaps fully settling into the role of anti-hero and accepting that his chaotic side can still be used for good rather than evil.

The Marvel cinematic universe’s first openly LGBTQ character.

The Russos claim that Marvel wants to work with stories that speak to where society is at today, and yet they still chose to kill one of their only two queer-coded characters. That’s not what today’s society wants. Why not make MCU history and give Loki a boyfriend? Hell, why not make cinematic history and let Loki be openly genderfluid? They could have done for LGBTQ people with Loki what was done for people of color with Black Panther. They could have given a marginalized group of people much needed representation. Instead, Loki, a bisexual and genderfluid character was killed to move along one of Marvel’s many cishet characters’ revenge arcs. 

You make too much sense, which is how I know all your proposals are way beyond Marvel.