Ah, right, a Disney+ Loki series is coming in 2019 and perhaps someone’s looking into turning a bad guy into a more sympathetic character? Eagled-Eyed Marvel fans have recently noticed that the company’s website seems to have become a little revisionist, tweaking/retconning Loki’s MCU origin. These changes make the God of Mischief look more sympathetic, by revealing him to be more of a puppet of Thanos than audiences may have realized initially. Loki’s new Marvel bio now makes him sound less like a psychopath that helped an army of Chitauri rain down on New York, causing billions of dollars of destruction and likely killing thousands (though clearly, this is a bit glossed over in “The Avengers”) and merely manipulated and tricked by what he thought was his own weapon. Here’s what the bio says:
READ MORE: Loki’s Fake Death In ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Was Supposed To Be Permanent
Offering the God of Mischief dominion over his brother’s favorite realm Earth, Thanos requested the Tesseract in return. Gifted with a Scepter that acted as a mind control device, Loki would be able to influence others. Unbeknownst to him, the Scepter was also influencing him, fueling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth.
OK, fine, but, look, mind-influencing scepter or no scepter, Loki, on his own accord, struck a pact with Thanos wherein he would rule over Earth and all its humans, before there was any mind-control manipulation, so he was mad and power-hungry regardless. Maybe the Tesseract-powered scepter made him more ruthless against, Thor, the Avengers and the people of Earth, but dude had designs on ruling over the entire planet, so let’s not try and pretend he’s any kind of heroic saint.
READ MORE: Tom Hiddleston Confirmed For Loki Marvel Series; Disney+ Scheduled For Late 2019 Launch
All of this is to say—besides, why the hell am I writing this piece, oh well, I already started—if this is indeed Marvel’s intention, to soften the image of Loki before his series, it seems pointless. Loki didn’t possess the scepter in “Thor,” and he was a sociopathic f*ck then. He didn’t have it in the subsequent “Thor” movies, and while he wasn’t quite the antagonist anymore, he certainly betrayed his brother every opportunity he got because Loki is a self-interested opportunist and as the God of Mischief, fundamentally predestined always to try and ruin a good situation.
READ MORE: Ranked: All The Characters Of The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Frankly, that’s a great character and as someone who has grown more sympathetic, naturally, and learned to find empathy for his brothers and others, Loki over the years has become more and more complex and more interesting. He’s also had very many moments of redemption throughout his character arc, sympathetic clutch moments in ‘The Dark World,’ ‘Ragnorak’ and especially in “Avengers: Infinity War” where he essentially tries to rescue his brother, ending up sacrificing himself in the process.
READ MORE: Who Are The Remaining Unused Marvel Characters And Could They Make A Viable Movie?
Point is, Loki is pretty great as he is and just because you’re starting a Disney+ series about the character, and you need him to be the protagonist, that doesn’t mean you need to soften his thorny, complex edges for the sake of the series, in fact, you’d just be doing a disservice to the character and audiences who love the darkness and light that always wrestles inside the prince of troublemaking. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, I’m happy to consult on the show, and my rates are reasonable.
