Is Loki Still Alive?

   Before I get started, I need to make something clear. As far as my blog title goes, I am referring to the original MCU timeline Loki that appeared to have died in Avengers: Infinity War. Though Loki was shown in Avengers: End Game, it was Loki from two different times. If what the Ancient One told Hulk is true, that means any mistake with an Infinity Stone or otherwise could branch into a different timeline. The first time we saw Loki in End Game was when Thor and Rocket traveled to 2013 Asgard during the events of Thor: The Dark World. Loki was in his prison cell as Thor and Rocket were seen sneaking past in the background. Since the Reality Stone/Aether, as well as Mjolnir, were returned to this time by Captain America, that means no branched timeline was formed. However, the second time we see Loki is 2012 during the events of the first Avengers' film in the Battle of New York. During this time heist gone wrong, Loki somehow escaped with the Tesseract/Space Stone, causing a new branched timeline. With that out of the way, as stated, this will be about how main timeline Loki could still be alive. After all, Loki is the God of Mischief, and we've seen him fake his death twice before the events of Infinity War.

   Part of this blog is probably my sad selfishness, not wanting to believe he's dead. Then again, it could be argued that this makes his death that much more impactful. This may be different from the comics but the MCU is still mainly based on them. From what has been learned in the comics, no one stays dead forever... except Uncle Ben! Poor Uncle Ben! The other reason is that the way he died doesn't make sense for his character. Loki was not stupid, and he usually played the long game. What he did in Infinity War is so far from his character. To argue my reasoning, some people have theories as to why he did what he did. One is that he just wanted to do the right thing for his brother Thor, and the people of Asgard, by sacrificing himself. Another one I've heard is that he intentionally got himself killed to go to Valhalla, get himself an army of important dead Asgardian warriors, and somehow be able to battle Thanos. I don't think either is true, but sacrificing himself for the greater good is a great redeeming quality. We've really seen Loki grow in the MCU, especially during the events of Thor: Ragnarok leading up to the opening moments of Infinity War. 

   As I mentioned before, Loki faked his death twice before. Once was at the end of the first Thor movie, when he let go of the Rainbow Bridge, seemingly falling through space to his death. Though many people assumed he died, it turned out that he came into contact with Thanos, through The Other, and was tasked with retrieving the Tesseract from Earth with an army of Chitauri warriors for Thanos, in order to rule said planet. In fact, the credit scene after the film saw Nick Fury showing the Tesseract to a Shield recruited Dr. Erik Selvig, who as we saw, was mind controlled by Loki. This was the set up for the first Avengers movie.  Although, some have argued that this was not a faked death after all. There's a theory stating that he died but was resurrected, hence why Thanos said "no resurrections this time" as he killed Loki. I still maintain he went through a wormhole the first time and what Thanos said was just referring to Loki's ability to fake his own death. The second time Loki seemingly died was during the events of Thor: The Dark World, where it appeared he died at the hands of the Malekith and the Dark Elves on Svartalfheim. However, the credits scene in Thor: The Dark World showed he removed and replaced Odin with himself as leader of Asgard in the form of the All Father. That remained for 4 years until the events of Thor: Ragnarok, when Thor saw for himself. After two different times that he faked his death, it's easy to see why I and others theorize that he may have done it again.

   For those not in the know or forgot what happened, I should probably mention exactly what Loki did in Infinity War and expand on why I believe it was out of his character. It did seem that Loki was trying to toy with Thanos, as he went back and forth several times in mere moments on what appeared to be his motives. Thanos asked Loki to give him the Tesseract, which contained the Space Stone within. Thor expressed that it was destroyed along with Asgard. Thanos then started using the Power Stone he had acquired earlier to kill Thor. At first, Loki said that Thanos should kill Thor but after witnessing enough torture to his brother, he told Thanos to stop and said he would give him the Tesseract, as it then appeared in Loki's hand. As Loki was about to hand Thanos the Tesseract, he responded to Thanos calling him an Asgardian, saying he wasn't Asgardian..and also that they had a Hulk. The Hulk then burst onto the scene and fought Thanos briefly before being defeated and knocked unconscious. Heimdall then used the last of Asgardian dark magic to summon the Bifrost one final time, sending Hulk to Earth. Thanos then killed Heimdall by stabbing him through the heart. Ebony Maw put a stop to Thor's agonizing cry by shutting his mouth with metal and chaining him up.

   Ebony Maw then grabbed the Tesseract and presented it to Thanos. Thanos then removed his armor and crushed the cosmic cube with his bare hand, revealing the second of six Infinity Stones he needed, and added it to his gauntlet.  Loki then offered his assistance to help guide the Children of Thanos to Earth to retrieve two Infinity Stones the planet contained at the time. Loki then seemingly recanted his earlier statement, calling himself Loki of Asgard, Odin's son (or Odinson), rightful King of Jotunheim, and pledged his undying fidelity to Thanos. He then said to Thor that the sun would one day shine on them again. Loki, with a small dagger hidden behind him, then tried to thrust it into the neck of Thanos. However, now armed with two Infinity Stones, Thanos was unaffected and said that Loki should have chosen a better word than undying. If you dig a little deeper within the MCU, it's easy to surmise that Thanos wanted to kill Loki for failing him several years earlier. Thanos had tasked Loki with gathering the Tesseract/Space Stone and armed him with another Infinity Stone, the Mind Stone, which was in Loki's scepter. Loki's failure to provide Thanos with two stones left Thanos with none. As Infinity War's opening moments continued, Thanos then proceeded to strangle Loki, who though he was losing his battle to stay alive, was able to tell Thanos that he'd never be a God.  Thanos then crushed Loki's neck, killing him, as a muffled Thor devastatingly screamed in anguish. 

   I'll be honest, I'm getting a little emotional thinking about this. People can say what they want about these kind of films, but they get you emotionally invested with the characters, humanizing even those that are super powered and some that aren't even human . That's good writing! Now that that's out of the way, tell me how logical it was for Loki to try to kill Thanos like that, knowing it would be impossible! That's what I mean about out of character. It's one thing to kill a normal human like Phil Coulson like that, but it's completely illogical to try to kill a being as strong as Thanos, especially with Infinity Stones. That's why I feel like he somehow faked his death a third time. That then raises the two questions; how, and where did he go? 

   This one is tough as I don't have a set theory. First, I'll go into a theory that was proposed after the release of Infinity War but was debunked when End Game came out. There's a theory that the body Thanos killed was not Loki's and that Loki was impersonating Bruce Banner the entire time in Infinity War. The reason this was proposed was due to the fact that after the Hulk's loss to Thanos, Banner was not able to transform into the Hulk for the rest of the movie. Just for fun, I'll get that situation soon but for now I'll continue with the theory. Not being able to turn into the Hulk would be understandable if Loki was impersonating Banner, as he obviously wouldn't be able to do it. Another reason would be Banner's awkwardness and being somewhat below his normal intelligence level throughout Infinity War. As far as the awkwardness when Banner saw Natasha, that would more likely be attributed to Banner having been away from Earth and not seeing his possible lost love for a few years. 

   When Banner was asked by Shuri about how he and Tony built Vision, it was as if he wasn't a brilliant scientist with multiple PHD's. Although, since End Game debunked the theory of Loki impersonating Banner, we could attribute this more to showing Shuri's superior intellect within the MCU. Even Vision, who was being operated on by Shuri in an attempt to safely remove the Mind Stone from him, looked at Banner inquisitively. This was probably just used for levity, which for a movie with such sad repercussions, actually had a great deal of.  Now that we know it wasn't Loki and that Banner simply couldn't Hulk out, we then ask why he wasn't able to. This is a tangent but I can't help myself, as everything in the MCU is so interconnected and it's hard for fans not to think of things. Many people thought that Banner couldn't Hulk out because Hulk was scared after his beat down by Thanos. That actually leads to yet another tangent when it comes to why Hulk was so easily defeated. It wasn't that Thanos was that much stronger than the Hulk, it was that he was clearly a much better fighter. All Hulk knew was to smash, while Thanos was vastly intelligent. Back to my original tangent, I subscribe to a different theory about why Banner could not Hulk out. I don't think Hulk was scared; it's that he was tired of bailing Banner out all the time and felt underappreciated. That was a recurring theme throughout Infinity War, with both Banner and Hulk disagreeing. In a way, it makes sense that the two become one in End Game.

   Back to Loki! Man can I get sidetracked? How could Loki escape and where did he go if he did? When Loki faked his death in Thor: The Dark World, Thor watched him physically "die." Therefore, if Loki did in fact fake his death in Infinity War, he must have been able to do the same where a physical body died at the hands of Thanos. The illusion had to be so good that it looked and felt like the real thing, which clearly Loki was very good at. This leads to where he went and why. The why is pretty obvious, as he would have wanted to live. Loki could have used the Tesseract to transport himself somewhere else. However, I'm not sure if the Tesseract could be used and not also come with someone, as it did for Loki in End Game in the 2012 time period. Then again, the Tesseract also cast Red Skull out and he was transferred to Vormir, tasked with leading others to another Infinity Stone he could not possess, the Soul Stone. Even though that's very specific, it still counts as using the Tesseract to travel through space without physically holding onto it. I thought to myself; why would Loki transfer himself somewhere without the Tesseract? Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't. However, knowing how strong Thanos was and that he'd just end up being hunted throughout space for the Tesseract, Loki was smart about it and left it behind to live another day. 

   I had a theory that maybe Loki sent himself to Jotunheim to rightfully reign as King. Although, I don't remember how many Frost Giants were even left there. He did kill his birth father Lauffey. Now that I'm thinking about it, why would Loki want to be in a cold and barren wasteland like Jotunheim? The only thing I can think of is that he'd finally get to rule something. Let's say this theory is true. If that's the case, where had Loki been for the five years after Infinity War? My guess is he was one of the unfortunate souls that Thanos snapped away. That would mean Thanos still got to kill Loki. Either way, if Loki did in fact fake his death in Infinity War, I'm sure he'd want to stay low key, even if he survived the snap. 

   As far as where else Loki could have gone, I'm not sure. He really could have transferred himself anywhere and possibly even disguised himself as another being like he did when he pretended to be Odin. I also thought maybe a Skrull could have taken Loki's place but I don't know if Loki or the Skrulls have met or even know of each other. The Universe is a pretty big place after all. As I said earlier, Loki tends to play the long game so there has to be a goal in mind. I know that the 2012 Loki will be a part of his own Disney+ show and one particular element of that will have Loki locked up in what is known as the TVA, or Time Variance Authority. This organization imprisons beings that go through time without regard. However, what confuses me is how Loki gets mixed up in this. This particular Loki has the Tesseract, which enables him to go throughout space on a whim, but has nothing to do with time travel. The only thing I can think of is that he perhaps somehow attains the Time Stone from the Ancient One. If Loki somehow escapes this prison, he could perhaps travel to the current MCU timeline where his future self is deceased. However, this version of Loki hadn't grown over the coarse of the MCU and therefore, would still be hell bent on ruling Earth or Asgard.

   Back to my original point, I think I just don't want to believe Loki is really dead. For him to go out the way he did was just so unlike him. If they do in fact make it 100% that Loki died, I wouldn't mind some kind of scene in a future movie, possibly Thor: Love and Thunder, that shows Loki in Valhalla with his Asgardian parents Odin and Frigga. In this scene, it would be made known that Loki sacrificed himself for Thor and Asgard. I would love some feedback with theories as to why you may think Loki is still alive because I'm dying to read them.