Ahhhh I literally had a post in my drafts about this— I hope you don’t mind me adding on and delving into the ‘Loki has always been different’ part you mentioned. I completely agree with you OP about his relationships with those within the TVA/series.
As an autistic individual myself, I see Loki’s Jotun heritage as a metaphor for a broader range of experiences and not only about the obvious context - which isn’t an uncommon thing in media texts. But Loki clearly spent a lot of his life feeling ‘different’ and not understanding why as OP mentioned. Similarly, neurodivergent people tend to feel the same way and can empathise with that sensation. I know that as an autistic person, I often feel like ‘the odd one out’ and have done all my life and it irked me that no one could tell me why I felt that way.
I remember sobbing when Loki learnt the truth, that he wasn’t being ‘dramatic’ or ‘delusional’ when he felt he wasn’t receiving the same treatment as Thor from Odin. Also, in no way am I trying to take this character or scene away from anyone who may have actually experienced a similar thing with being adopted or having an unhealthy relationship with a parent/relative (trust me, I know what that’s like which is why I also relate to Loki but anyway—). But I think Loki’s story is so universal when it comes to his struggles and fears. It makes him a character a lot of people can relate to for different reasons.
“You know it all makes sense now…”
I think we’ve all had that moment ourselves, especially when we’ve gotten a diagnosis or researched about neurodivergence and come to the conclusion we may be on the spectrum. Things click into place… It’s Loki’s raw emotion that also draws us in. The confusion, the shock, the anger, the heartbreak… Loki learnt that he wasn’t ‘imagining things’, that his internalised thoughts had been more grounded in reality than he had maybe ever expected. It’s something many autistic people also experience, that cycle of grief to acceptance.
Loki, at his core, is a character who often feels misunderstood or mischaracterised by those around him. He plays into the roles thrust upon him to appease others, to be what he thinks others see him as. I have often felt misunderstood in my life, and I also struggle with telling people who I am, naturally falling into roles within different environments and groups that I felt “needed filling”. If you were to ask me to describe myself, I likely would give very limited, stock sounding answers: “I’m funny I guess, I think I’m kind, approachable…?”
That’s something Loki also struggles with:
“What makes a Loki a Loki?”
“Independence. Authority. Style.”
Loki doesn’t seem to know who he is without others around him. He doesn’t know where he fits in without others around him. He always had the role of ‘living in Thor’s shadow’, the ‘second son’, ‘the trickster’ with his family and he became something else entirely with the TVA fam, and when he lost that he found himself asking: “Without them, where do I belong?” His relationships with the TVA fam were different in a sense that he felt like he met others like him, as OP mentioned: displaced, manipulated/lied to, striving for purpose in their own ways.
Loki is palatable to neurodivergent audiences because his story is so relatable. There are moments where we can see ourselves in him. We can relate to his struggles with identity, his feeling of not being enough or equal, his experiences with being misjudged or misunderstood, the internal and external expectations he faces… There’s so much about his character that resonates to me.
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