Where would Loki be if the TVA hadn’t swooped in to remove him from the fork timeline he created during Avengers: Endgame‘s flunked Time Heist? The MCU has been grappling with heady questions like this, often asking themes surrounding predestination, freewill, and butterfly influences in its newest Disney+ streak Loki, mentioned for the Asgardian God of Mischief himself. Therefore, figuring out what would have become of a Loki, fresh off his Tesseract-enabled escape from the MCU’s primary timeline, is correspondingly complex.

Predicting where Loki would have ended up is stimulated even more difficult when considering his continually fluctuating characterization throughout the MCU’s earlier enterings. During his first outing in Thor, Loki was more or less a jealous hazard to his more epic friend, who, much to the mischief god’s chagrin, was first in line to take the Asgardian throne. In 2012 ‘s The Avengers, Loki serves as the primary antagonist and a catalyst for Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye to come together for the first time to knock him down a few pegs. Crucially, Loki’s 2012 edition of the character has come immediately from his embarrassing loss and has still not been knew the growth he would go on to find in last-minute films.

Related: Loki Highlights How Confusing The MCU’s New Time Travel Is

Without the events of Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok, and Avengers: Infinity War to impact his arc, a Loki removed from the TVA’s inexplicable Sacred Timeline could appear different from the Loki fans recognize deepen during the Infinity Saga. Here’s our breakdown of the elements that would change in the God of Mischief’s MCU story in this new and hypothetical timeline.

Battered and defeated by the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes at the tail-end of The Avengers, it is very likely that, contributed his style, Loki would have gone back to Thanos. Though the Mad Titan’s presence is often fogged during the Infinity Saga’s earlier enters, Thanos’ machinations were felt heavily in Marvel’s first major team-up flick, serving as the military muscle behind Loki’s conquest. After lending Loki the restricting Mind Stone and transmitting him off to beat Earth into submission, it should be remembered that it was Thanos’ army of Chitauri that roughly pas New York.

In the wake of his humiliating loss, a Loki from 2012 would have very few allies to turn to. Therefore, it forms sense that after making an escape via the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame the God of Mischief might try to reconnect with his boss in an attempt to regroup. How Thanos would respond to an fruitless Loki is certainly up for debate but, from all that is known of the Infinity Saga’s large-hearted bad, it is hard to imagine a particularly warm reception on the Mad Titan’s part.

It is possible that, upon returning to Thanos, the pressure on Loki to succeed would naturally lead him to tumble even further into darkness. Loki could have found himself even more entrenched in Thanos’ mission and dogma, predicated on a impression the universe’s scarcity of available resources could be balanced with an arbitrary go of lives. Whether Loki was encouraged to support Thanos out of fear for himself, a desire to impress, or because he was convinced by the Mad Titan’s rhetoric, the God of Mischief’s magical abilities was able to bolster Thanos’ already-formidable forces.

Related: Why Phase 4’s Loki Still Has A Redemption Problem Because Of The Avengers

Since his fairly unambiguously villainous picture in The Avengers, Loki has bloomed into a far more nuanced and gray-headed persona, at times even displaying downright altruism. Considering how Thanos – a anatomy with who Loki had apparently little autobiography – was able to so quickly inspire such violence in him, it is hard to imagine the sheer devastation that would result from a longer-lasting allegiance. It is even harder to imagine how Thanos-aligned Loki could ever claw himself back onto a righteous path.

Loki’s relationship with his brother Thor, who could is indicated in Loki, has been central to the character since his very first appearance in the MCU. Over the course of the Infinity Saga, the two siblings gradually came back mutually respect each other, teaming up to combat various evil pushes in Thor: Ragnarok. Responsible for saving much of the Asgardian population at the end of that film, Loki( now referring to himself as “Odinson”) appears next in Avengers: Infinity War, exclusively to be killed by Thanos after a desperate attempt to take him out and save his beings. In one of the franchise’s most haunting portraits, Thor birthplaces his brother’s body in his arms, a particularly moving tableau given the pair’s complicated history.

Assuming that Loki would have regressed to his more villainous modes, he would have had far fewer chances to interact and make amends with Thor. Loki would have been absent from Asgard for the entirety of Thor: The Dark World, missing the impossible-to-stop death of Frigga – an episode that, in part, shook some impression into him. He also wouldn’t have been able to fake his death at the end of that film , nor play “his fathers” and rule in his stead. Eventually, if the TVA hadn’t intercepted Loki and he’d gone on a different street, he and Thor likely wouldn’t have ever reforged their bails. Perhaps they would never have heard each other again at all.

As revealed in Loki episode 1’s tribunal situation, a time-ripped version of the character believes that the Avengers went back in time in order to prevent him , not Thanos, from contacting his ultimate objective. Therefore, considering Loki’s belief and pride that his strategy will work out eventually, it seems unlikely that he ought to have been backed away from his more diabolical projects. If the TVA and Mobius hadn’t interceded, it’s likely that Loki would have redoubled his efforts and believing all that he was destined to accomplish, eventually making a satisfy saving arc all but impossible.

Related: Theory: Loki’s Time-Keepers Don’t Exist – TVA Secret Revealed

The first few of Loki episodes have demonstrated that they fantastically telling gauges for where the MCU is headed as supporters continue to watch Phase 4 uncover. As multiverses and disparate timelines take the forefront of the franchise’s overarching story( as taunted in upcoming projects such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ), the Disney+ serial seem to be priming love for a deeper understanding of how exactly they drive. From what we have learned with the show’s titular character, one small-time step off of the Sacred Timeline makes gurgles that have the potential to disrupt the universe and smartly reinvent even its most popular characters.

Next: Loki’s Alternate Timeline Explanation … Explained

Read more: screenrant.com