It’s odd that certain people want to tell us that Agent Loki hasn’t died, when they were so adamant that Kid Loki is dead.
The narration itself says that Agent Loki hasn’t died (see the ominous phrase “it is not death”). Conversely, the narration of the recap pages frequently refers to Loki “killing” zir child-self.
The text tell us that Ikol!Loki or Agent!Loki or whomever was a simulacrum that took over kid Loki’s body (but already existed in kid Loki’s mind. As Leah tells Loki, the bird is all in your head). The text tells us that Ikol did this to become Loki, to have a chance at life. The subtext tells is that this is Loki’s original sin, the death of zir innocence and childhood, that propels Loki into adulthood, in mind if not (immediately) in body.
The text tells us that kid!Loki is not merely dead, but destroyed. Overwritten. On a meta level, this is to ensure that kid!Loki cannot be retroactively vilified.
The text tells us that overwriting kid Loki has “confounded the nature” of Ikol. Loki cannot return to the malevolence ze once had. Ze cannot complete the plan. Two months (ish) after Ikol became Loki, ze went off-script for the first time, deciding to go against zir thirst for power. Agent!Loki has already changed. Agent!Loki is not just Ikol, ze is heavily influenced by kid Loki’s nature and personality. After the child’s death, Agent Loki keeps the instagram account. Agent Loki seems to have kid Loki’s memories, too. Ikol was absent when kid Loki sent Leah away, but in Young Avengers Loki knows exactly what happened to her.
Kid Loki is not as dead as the text would have us think. Kid Loki cannot return, is not dead, because kid Loki has irrevocably changed: into Agent Loki.
I think Agent Loki is deader than they want us to think.
The switch from Agent Loki to God of Stories isn’t just taking a third option. It isn’t just ‘ego death’. Agent Loki lost everything and decided to mold zir successor instead of leaving the world to King Loki. Ze put zir character in a blender and hoped it would come out with something useful.
yes, there is something of Agent Loki in the God of Stories.
But they’re not the same person. Agent Loki, our Loki, the protagonist of Agent of Asgard, is gone. At least as gone as Kid Loki.
Interesting, that Loki literally changed form when ze became the God of Stories, when going from Kid to Ikol/Agent Loki did not inherently change zir body.
Interesting, that kid Loki’s death works as a metaphor for change much better than Agent Loki’s death does.
There’s a concept in philosophy of selfhood, of identity in the sense of “the thing that makes you separate from other people”. We believe that each of us is a separate entity, generally. Each of us has a self. We ascribe characteristics to it, and we consider our “self” to remain constant from one day to the next, even though we may act very differently.
The thought experiment Theseus’ Ship illustrates this idea with an inanimate object:
Theseus has a wooden ship. He uses it extensively, and over the years it requires many repairs. The sails tear, the boards rot, and the nails rust. Over the decades of his sailing career, eventually he realizes that every piece of his ship has been replaced at least once. With no part of the original ship remaining intact, is this still the same ship? If not, when did it cease to be the same ship?
Maybe people believe there is a clear answer to the paradox of Theseus’ Ship, whether their answer be “yes” or “no.” But what if we muddy the water with human experience?
There is some question as to how, why, and when a person’s self can change. If a felon has an accident, gets amnesia, and starts working at a dog shelter, unaware of her past, should she be punished for her crimes before the accident? Does the lack of memory make her a different person?
When Phineas Gage suffered severe brain trauma while working on the railroad, his frontal lobe was completely destroyed. He survived the incident (in 1848, somewhat miraculously), but his friends and family described him as acting “like a completely different person” afterwards. Is pre-accident Phineas the same person as post-accident Phineas?
In 1974, Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. In the 19 months that followed, she began to take part in their cause, publically supporting them and committing illegal acts in their name. She took on the name ‘Tania.’ 19 months after she was kidnapped, she was arrested in San Francisco. In her trail, the defense claimed that Patty was brainwashed, that ‘Tania’ was not the same person as Patty, and that she was back to being Patty now.
But those are extreme cases. Simpler questions exist, too. Am I the same person I was ten years ago? What do I share with that version of me?
Now, Loki Laufeyson of Marvel-616:
Loki is a classic villain in this Marvel universe. His anger and vitriol toward Thor is usually explained by his childhood in his brother’s shadow as the less-favored prince of Asgard.
Then, Loki brought Ragnarok. Long story short, Asgard fell and all of the Asgardians died, only to be reborn on Earth. Among the reborn Asgardians was Loki, now a woman. She claimed to be done with lies, her role as God of Lies fulfilled at the final Ragnarok.
There is no real question whether the other gods have changed. Thor is still Thor, even after dying and coming back. Is this Loki still Loki?
The writers think, yes. Loki is revealed to be lying: all of her actions were a scheme to set Baldr against Thor as ruler of Asgard. Loki admits that she stole the human body meant for Sif, and returns to male form.
Some time later, Loki’s schemes get the best of him, and he dies defending Asgard from a danger that he originally brought. “I’m sorry, Thor,” he tells his brother, before dying.
Then comes the second (or, if we count Sif!Loki, the third) Loki. This is Serrure, Kid-Loki. This child is Loki reincarnated as a child on Earth. When Thor finds him, he doesn’t know the name Loki, and has no conscious memories of being the God of Mischief and Lies. Thor gets him to touch Mjolnir, and suddenly Loki remembers- some things. He remembers that Thor is his brother, that he is Loki, and that he has done terrible things. He doesn’t know what those things are, really, and he also knows no magic.
Is this child the same person as Loki? Thor thinks so- he treats this kid-Loki as the brother he remembers from childhood and defends him from those who would harm him. The Asgardians believe he is Loki, too, mistrusting him immediately and blaming him for the crimes that the Old Loki committed against them.
Who is Kid-Loki? If memories make a person, this child is Loki from the past, the Loki that existed centuries ago when Thor was a child. In a way, all of those crimes haven’t been committed yet.
Or is there only one Loki, and this child can be said to be Loki-with-amnesia?
Then, Ikol arrives on the scene. When Old Loki died, he was destroyed, leaving nothing but a scream. Ikol is the echo of that scream, a construct, a spirit left by the Old, dead Loki for the new Loki to find. Ikol has the memory and personality of the Old Loki, and speaks about him in first person, although he does make some distinctions.
Ikol tells kid-Loki: Old Loki died for a reason. He had become too predictable, a poor thing for a god of Chaos to be. He had to die to change, to escape the predictability of his own personality. He would rather die and allow a new Loki to be born than to remain as he was.
Is Ikol Loki? He is the parts of Loki that are not the child: his adult memories and personality. He is not fully real: he lacks a body, and appears to kid-Loki as a magpie, and to others as nothing but a whisper. Is he a magical AI, left to guide the child, or the actual spirit of Old Loki?
But if Ikol is Loki, what does that make the kid-Loki?
This goes on for two years of comics. Then, Old Loki’s final scheme comes to a close.
A demon (Mephisto) will be able to take over the realm of Hell if kid-Loki continues to exist. No to live, Ikol clarifies, because a dead kid-Loki is still kid-Loki. Kid-Loki needs to cease to be, to become something else. Ikol offers a solution: “The part of me you carried in your head. It is not you. Let it overwrite your mind. You will no longer exist.”
The Old Loki wanted to change, yes. But he wanted this opportunity for a person he could consider himself, not for a hypothetical child. So, he will take the child’s place.
Kid-Loki, mourning his own future, chooses to change rather than let Mephisto rule.
Another Loki is born. Call him what you will. I will call him AOA!Loki, although he is not yet the protagonist of his own comic quite yet.
AOA!Loki considers himself to be fully Loki. This is how he describes the moment of Kid-Loki’s death:
Young Avengers Issue #5:
A specter of kid-Loki, generally assumed to be the manifestation of AOA!Loki’s conscience, says: “Loki’s the bad guy!... His clothes are green, but his heart is black! Everyone knows that… Except, that Loki died. Then he was resurrected as a little boy, and that darling, innocent, winsome, and very attractive boy strove to change. He did. And then, just when he proved Loki didn’t have to be a bad guy… A phantom copy of his dead self annihilated his soul and took over his body.”
…
(To AOA!Loki): “You’re a loathesome murderer in a stolen suit of skin.”
AOA!Loki: “Gods are not like people. They are real. We are creatures of story. I stepped into your part. And now that part steps into me. This body does not just confound my power. It confounds my nature.”
Here, Loki's conscience is Not Happy with him. Says a lot of accusatory statements (but even here, AOA!Loki is called a 'copy', not the original Loki).
Here, Ikol-Loki, or AOA!Loki, or whatever Loki also reflects on who he is and how he got here. He also admits that the act of inhabiting the child's body/role is changing who he is. His nature is changed. He can't be the villain who steals a boy's magic and leaves his team to die, no matter how much he'd like to.
Young Avengers Issue #13:
AOA!Loki, overcome by guilt, tells the Young Avengers: “The Loki whose body this was. He managed to change. To be good. To be a better part… I killed him and took over. Basically. It’s complicated. It involved a whole lot of manipulation…I’m not the murderer Loki. I’m the murder weapon Loki. I’m a copy the old Loki made to lie in wait for his innocent self. I’m not the murderer. I’m just identical to him. I had no choice.”
This is Loki, arguably trying to dodge responsibility for his actions. How much of this is true? Did he really have no choice?
Loki: Agent of Asgard Issue #10:
AOA!Loki, unable to lie, tells Thor and Verity:
“I killed him. I killed him, Thor. My child-self. I formed a scheme that erased him- from my being and from existence. It was my first act as Loki, and it damned me. So let me be damned… I am the echo of a scream. I am the magpie who whispers. I am the crime that will not be forgiven. And this is my story…”
The recap page is green words on a black background, apparently paraphrasing or quoting AOA!Loki:
This is the story of Loki.
Loki, who was doomed to never be anything by Loki- Loki the bad son, Loki the villain- until the day he died.
So.. he died.
Which was, of course, his greatest scheme of all.
For soon he was reborn into a new, youthful body, free to choose his own fate. “Kid Loki” – a new personality, free from the taint of the old… at first. For this new Loki took the fading echo of the old- both ghost and copy- to advise him and give him knowledge.
All Lokis, it seems, must damn themselves early.
The ghost-copy, called Ikol, had neither power not magic, but what he had was enough – kid Loki’s ear. With this, he crafted a scheme that would give him control of the godling’s body…
…and cast kid Loki’s very self- his mind and soul and being- into total annihilation, destroying the child forever.
Perhaps all Lokis must fall to the void, as well.
After the deed was done, Ikol-Loki – the third Loki- found himself trapped in the shape of his victim, playing the role of the good trickster despite his worst intentions. And though he changed that shape- aging to young-manhood – he was still tormented by shame and guilt and slef-loathing. By the echo of a final scream- Kid Loki’s accusation that he could never truly change.
So he tried to be better. He tried to change. He tried to grow, and to this end, he made a deal with the All-Mother. To perform mission for Asgard to erase his evil past. And so was born…
…The Agent of Asgard.
How true is this account? This must be honestly what AOA!Loki believes to be true, but as mentioned, he is not an impartial observer. AOA!Loki hates himself. His guilt over kid Loki’s fate literally almost destroyed the multiverse (Young Avengers Issue #12-13). This could be the result of an unreliable narrator.
(It also omits Loki's repeated line, "I'm sorry", which he tells Thor throughout Issue #10)
And, of course, there is the other Loki.
Call him Future Loki or King Loki.
The recap page for Agent of Asgard Issue #6 says this of King Loki:
And there is a second Loki- an older Loki. The Agent of an older Asgard, able to walk freely in time, who has returned to the present from the end of all things to ensure his future comes to be. A golden future of peace and plenty that the All-Mother also wishes to see come to pass- but a future in which Loki will not and cannot change his story. A future that traps his forever- with the All-Mother’s knowledge and consent.
In Agent of Asgard Issue #5, AOA!Loki finds him deep in the bowels of Asgard.
AOA!Loki: “I had my suspicions.”
King Loki: “Liar. You never suspected. You only hoped. You hoped so hard… ‘Boo Hoo, I’m not the baddie! I’m just a copy!’ ‘I can chaaange!’ Hoping to wash the blood off your hands and onto mine… well, aside from the innocent child-self you slew in my name.”
As far as we know, there are no deaths and rebirths between AOA!Loki and King Loki. As far as we’ve been told, King Loki is who AOA!Loki will become.
Are they the same person?
King Loki considers himself to be the same person as Old Loki, as he says “you slew [kid Loki] in my name.”
AOA!Loki considers himself a copy of Old Loki, given his own life. Kid Loki’s death was his “first act as Loki”, and while he remembers much of Old Loki’s life, he doesn’t (apparently) consider it to have happened to him, exactly.
So.. who is Loki?
It’s unclear, and the narrative is contradictory. Twice Kid-Loki is said to have his own soul, which doesn’t make sense. Loki is reincarnated when he dies because Old Loki got his name written out of the books of Hel. His soul doesn’t stay dead- which implies that there is only one Loki soul in existence, minus time travel and alternate universes.
So how can Kid-Loki’s soul be said to have been annihilated?
