As we approach the Loki series, I sat down to watch Thor with the sole focus to understand Loki's story. What were his motives? Why did he behave the way he did? Did he start out truly evil, or was he the victim of circumstance? The big question is, without knowing where the MCU would end up, did the writing beef out his back story enough from the word go?
In a word, no. The change in Loki within this movie can be seen as a sudden left turn. He went from being slightly underhand, to a cold blooded murderer. How did this happen? What sparked that kind of evil intent? I've delved further to try and figure this out.
From the beginning of the movie, we see Thor as an arrogant, entitled child. He has no redeeming qualities, even as a child. We then look at Loki, who shows a lot of differences to the other Asgardians even down to the physicality. We are shown a clear segregation in the colours, the body language and mannerisms. We are shown how Thor is rewarded for his arrogance, with the throne being promised to him from a young age. Loki seems to stand back and barely speaks as a child, showing he is overshadowed by his brother. He is constantly told to let the big guns fight, to admire Thor and serve the family. It feels that he is the child being dealt quite a rubbish hand in a way, being pushed to the side while Thor receives all of the glory of his royal blood. Reaching present day, we see that nothing much has changed. Loki is still overshadowed by Thor who is promised the throne, is sent as front line to frighten other worlds into peace and comes home celebrating his mighty strength and power.
Loki whispers in Thor's ear, feeding his ego, which results in Thor leading the warriors three into the frost giant fight. They swoop in, all guns blazing, showing Thor's really dangerous flaws, proving to the audience that he is not worthy of being king. Loki even tries to get Thor to leave the fight, but Thor proves his arrogance again by saying 'know your place brother'. Thor's actions result in Odin banishing him to Earth. The reaction from Loki is genuine in my opinion. I don't believe he knew his actions would lead to to this, but I feel we see his opportunist approach from this point onwards in the movie. It shows that Loki is very much the brains while Thor is the braun in this family. Odin's illness takes hold and Loki ends up taking the throne. To an extent, apart from being a little underhand, he hasn't actually done anything truly evil. He is the next in line to take the throne now that Thor is banished. When asked to bring Thor back, Loki quite rightly says that his first act as king cannot be to overturn the last Kings final act. There is still a level of respect to Odin as king.
When Loki finds out that he isn't actually Asgardian, I believe that something in him changes. He now knows he has no connection to the people he grew up with, the people that pushed him aside and gave him that inferiority complex. I think that this is the point he shuts off a lot of his emotion in order to obtain the status that he wants. Is this a reaction of someone who is a victim of circumstance? He has been lied to, his identity is not what he had grown up to believe and along with his treatment from a young age, he could even be paranoid that everyone knew this whole time and were laughing behind his back.
I can't say that I blame him for his bitterness at this point. His attitude, his reasoning and his reactions to the abrupt changes in his life can be understood to an extent. However, I think the taste of power once he took the throne, mixed with his bitterness of the lies and what he feels is betrayal, leads him down this dark path. It can be argued that he's dramatically turned because he sends the Destroyer to kill Thor, his own brother. Now, does Loki really want Thor dead at this point, or does he know that Thor will prevail and he just wants to delay his return to Asgard while he takes his place on the throne? His anger and thirst for further power begins to fuel the evil intent.
A lot of this is conjecture, as the story doesn't truly explain Loki's backstory. We guess his intent from the behaviours of others around him and his reactions to new information. If you've ever suffered trauma, your immediate reactions do not define who you are. They are a coping mechanism. Can you really be to blame for the circumstances you have no control over? At what point do you say its no longer coping and it's become a premeditated intention?
There's much more we could say about his behaviours, the murder, allowing access to the frost giants into the treasury... But the overall questions stand - is Loki an Evil Mastermind, a lucky pragmatist? Or is he an outcast, a victim of circumstance whose reactions deem him a villain? We explore this on our podcast, 'That Superhero Thing' but it's really up to you to decide...
If you want to listen to our full thoughts on Loki's MCU debut, you can check them out on this weeks episode of That Superhero Thing podcast.