Loki Never Faked His Death
I’ve seen enough times that in discussions, people almost always bring up this argument that Loki intentionally faked his death and count it as one of his wrong doings. It has specially happened more often after TR and its retcons and the narrative’s attempt to dismiss and diminish Loki’s pain. They claim that Loki faked his death twice, in Thor 1 and TDW. Here’s why this assumption is wrong:
1. In Thor(2011) Loki committed suicide.
Everything Loki did in Thor 1 was to prove to Odin that he is a worthy son. He is not in a right mental state. After he finds out about the truth of his parentage the thin steel rod that’s been holding his brain together snaps according to Kenneth Branagh. So he thinks by eliminating the danger of Jotunheim he is doing what Odin wants of him. Because Odin wanted to use Loki to bring permanent peace. So Loki in his disordered state of mind thinks by attempting genocide and killing all the monsters once and for all, he is doing his kingdom and Odin a favor. Because he is nullifying the enemy’s danger like what Odin wanted to use him for in the first place. All he wants is Odin’s approval and acknowledgment. In the scene when he is holding the Gungnir, he is literally and figuratively hanging by a thin thread on the edge of an abyss. He tells Odin:
“I could have done it father! I could have done it! For you! For all of us!”
He looks hopefully to Odin. This is his last hope to be accepted. Instead all Loki hears is a disappointed “No Loki”. All Loki sees is disapproval, rejection and disappointment. This breaks Loki. He has lost everything.
And then Loki lets go, not just physically but mentally. He doesn’t see any place, love and acceptance for himself. He doesn’t want to live anymore. He lets go and commits suicide.
Possible counterarguments:
“Loki wanted to escape from the consequences of his actions.”
All Loki cares about at that point is Odin’s approval. He doesn’t think he did anything wrong. He has grown up in a racist culture that sees Jotuns as monsters who are inferior, monsters and lesser people. He was also the rightful king at the time that was betrayed by his subjects and since Asgard is a monarchy, the king’s order is the law and he can’t be punished for his actions as the king.
“Loki knew he would survive.”
According to the “Thor the Dark World Prelude” comic which is part of MCU canon the general knowledge is that when someone falls in the void, they will die. Everyone believed Loki died. That means this is also what Loki believed to happen. It was Frigga who searched for Loki and finally found out that Loki is alive.
“Why didn’t Loki tell his family that he is alive?”
First reason is that Loki has broken ties with his family at that time. He is hurt and heartbroken and probably doesn’t want to see them again. Second, when Heimdall could finally see him he was with the Chitauri and had the scepter. We know before that he was with Thanos and possibly under torture and most probably he would rather be found. Frigga only found him after he was “ready to lead”. And since neither her nor Heimdall knew about Thanos’ involvement, we can conclude that it was Thanos who stopped Loki from being found.
Where does this assumption come from that Loki’s suicide was his attempt at faking his death?
Because there is a scene in TR, in which Loki jokes and laughs about his attempted suicide. As if it was a funny and unimportant thing. Just a story for entertainment. This scene is put in the movie to show all the pain Loki went through was nothing, to further the retcon that all Loki does, are tricks and he does them because he has no other reason except that he is the god of mischief.
2. In TDW Loki didn’t intentionally fake his death. He only survived.
I explained this many times before. So I just copy my explanation from another one of my posts.
“Loki didn’t fake his death to usurp Odin:
1. Loki’s illusions can’t hold upon contact. They get either dissolved or disoriented. In other words they are like images and projections. They are not solid unless they are put on an actual person. Like when Loki was putting illusion on Thor and himself, or when he was Odin and Thor had grabbed him and the illusion didn’t wear off until Loki wanted. So Loki actually was stabbed through the chest to save Thor.
2. The stabbing through chest wasn’t and couldn’t have been planned. Loki didn’t know that the blade couldn’t kill the Kursed. He couldn’t know that Kursed would then impale him on the blade. He also didn’t know if Kursed would hold him on the blade until he died or throw him away sooner. So when he activated that grenade he did it with complete knowledge that it could kill him too. So he also didn’t know that he would survive the stabbing and he didn’t have any hope for it. Because he instantly activated sth that could kill him too. So his apology to Thor was also sincere.
Loki’s sacrifice was real. His only fault!!! was that he survived. And when he survived he took advantage of his situation. He didn’t inform Thor because Thor had promised to return him to his cell. He usurped the throne to take revenge on Odin and in doing so he not only protected Thor and his friends from the consequence of their treason, he made sure to separate the Tesseract and the Aether. Not to mention he offered the throne to Thor and Thor refused.”[X]
Where does this assumption come from that Loki faked his death in TDW?
Thor tells Loki: “You faked your own death” in TR and then continues to blame Loki for everything that happened. And because Thor is the hero of the narrative, people accept everything he says as the truth. It doesn’t matter to them that in the same movie Thor constantly throw things at Loki to know if he is actually there which further proves that Loki’s illusions are not solid.
In conclusion, Loki never faked his death intentionally. He never did it to hurt Thor. He committed suicide when he let go of Gungnir because he had lost all hope that he could ever be a worthy son in the eye of Odin. He was actually stabbed in TDW to save Thor’s life and he thought he was going to die but he survived and took advantage of the situation. His sacrifice was real and the fact that he did survive, doesn’t diminish its value. Loki never intentionally faked his death.
