Many , including myself, are trying to process what just happened and WHY Loki would do such a stupid pitiful attempt to attack Thanos and get himself killed in the first 10mins. It was shocking and violent but perhaps it has a purpose.
My thoughts:
Loki had a line in Ragnarok: “I can’t see into the future, I’m not a witch.” . However one of the abilities of the Tesseract is to give visions of the future that may or may not be true. Thor wasn’t aware until the last minute that Loki had the Tesseract again but within that time of Loki stealing it from the vault and the “I’m here” scene Loki would have tapped into it to help him escape Asgard, the byproduct: he saw something. Even if it is 50/50 odds what he saw was true his nature is try and tip situations in his favor. In order for the best outcome to happen he needs Thor to have motivated anger. Just losing the Asgardian people would create a depressed king Loki won’t be able to work with but Loki knows that if he dies violently In front of Thor (again) it will give Thor the drive to want revenge. Remember, in DW Loki was faking his death and would have felt how upset Thor was ( seeming even more so then the death of their own mother). Thor, after meeting the GotG, tells Gamora “ your father killed my brother” not “ your father killed my people.”
Back to the start of IW: there is about 3mins of Hulk and Thanos fighting that we don’t see Loki at all. Then Loki pops out of nowhere suddenly wanting to help Thanos and be an “Earth tour guide”? His demeanor shifts too quickly for me not to believe there is something else going on here. At this point Thanos already has the Space stone so why would Loki draw attention to himself again? Because he knows if he irritates Thanos further it will set up his “death” to get Thor in the emotional state needed.
Dr. Strange only saw one timeline where they will win in the end and if it is the same as what Loki is seeing they are both seemingly making the best plays by making the “dumbest” choices they can’t explain without ruining the end game.
For Loki to say the “The sun will shine on us again”.. Not “you” suggests Loki knows something, he doesn’t intend to die here, and is helping set up the most elaborate fuck over for Thanos yet. This starts with an angry Thor.
1. Tom Hiddleston signed a six film deal, so we can expect him to be in Avengers 4.
2. Loki is known as a ‘Silvertongue’, so his choice of words is always extremely important. So, when he says “undying fidelity”. I think this is an allusion to the fact that he is not dead.
3. Further on from the ‘Silvertongue’ point, Loki says “I promise you, brother, the sun will shine on us again”. This seems too far out of place to be a coincidence. I think Loki is trying to subtly tell Thor that he has a trick up his sleeve that may end up saving them.
4. Loki has already feigned death so many times, is it really so far fetched to think he has done it again?
5. He disappeared from the scene for several minutes and we have no idea what he was doing during that time. He then reappears super cocky and arrogant which is a direct contrast to how terrified he’d been a few minutes prior. This seems to suggest that perhaps he is using an illusion of some sort.
6. He emphasizes the fact that he is a “God of Mischief”, thus perhaps hinting to Thor that he is about to perform a trick, or to allude to the audience that all is not as it seems.
7. Loki did not change into his Jotun form after he died. This seems odd because his Aesir form is an illusion, so it should have disappeared when he died. Furthermore, there are a couple of mentions of Loki being “the rightful King of Jotunheim” and “not Asgardian”, which may be an attempt to draw the audience’s attention to this fact.
8. It was very uncharacteristic of Loki to act so impulsive by stabbing Thanos with a small dagger. It seems to me that the attack was more of a distraction than a real attack. The Loki we know would have attempted to use some sort of illusion or trick in order to attack Thanos and mean it.
9. Tom Hiddleston mentions in a recent interview that “Chaos isn’t something that’s threatening to Loki” and that “Everything is fine”. This seems to suggest that Loki is alright, and hasn’t actually died.
10. Loki’s choice of last words, “You will never be a god”, introduces the idea that maybe Loki has survived due to the fact that he’s a God, and cannot be killed so easily.
11. If the Russo brothers wanted to make Loki’s death truly believable, they would have had Loki using his illusions, and Thanos seeing straight through them and then killing him. The fact that none of Loki’s powers were used at all, makes it seem that he has perhaps feigned death.
12. Finally, I refuse to believe that Thor’s last words to Loki are “You really are the worst brother”, it just seems so wrong to me after all they’ve been through.
My current theory for Avengers 4 and Dr. Strange’s plan has come down to the following points you need to pay attention to.
1. Gamora’s soul is bound to the soul stone.
She was bound because she was sacrificed in exchange for the stone.
2. After The Snap, Thanos found himself at a quiet, orange colored, watery place, where he briefly speaks to Gamora as a child. This place was inside the soul stone, and it was Gamora’s soul. Note that the color fits.
3. Everyone who became dust and Gamora’s soul can be saved. Other manual deaths may be permanent.
4. Dr. Strange has seen the one possible future where the heroes succeed. Strange is planning to set up everything so that this timeline occurs.
5. Likely on Titan, Dr. Strange travels into the past via the Time Gem and recruits Heimdall, The Hulk and possibly Loki.
6a. The Hulk is crucial for the victory timeline, and he must do something at the right moment. For this reason, Heimdall sacrificed himself to send Hulk back to Earth, and Hulk refuses to show himself until the time is right. If Loki was recruited as well, his job was to ensure Thor’s survival, because he is crucial for the victory timeline.
6b. Note that Dr. Strange had Heimdall send Hulk to himself on Earth, so Strange knew beforehand that someone had sent Hulk, and he may have realized later that it was himself. This is how he knew what to do.
7. Dr. Strange sacrifices the Time Gem at to correct moment to save Tony, because Tony is required for the victory timeline, saying to Tony: “It was the only way.”
8. Furthering point 7, all the major technicians (Rocket, Tony, Bruce, Shuri) are still around. They may be required to combine their brilliance in order to beat Thanos.
9. For each infinity stone, a character sacrificed themselves or someone they loved, at least attempting to do so. These sacrifices usually happened in the presence of a particular stone. It may be that these sacrifices make different characters the real masters of the stones.
Power Gem: Groot sacrifices himself out of love (Guardians vol. 1) Space Gem: Loki for Thor Reality Gem: Quill -> Gamora (attempted in presence of the gem) Soul Gem: Gamora -> herself (for Nebula, but not in presence of the gem) Mind Gem: Wanda -> Vision Time Gem: Strange -> unclear at this point (maybe himself & his duty)
Even with Dr. Strange’s sacrifice being unclear and Gamora not being in the presence of the soul gem, all of this is a pattern, and pattern implies purpose. This leads me to consider that these characters, when working together, have full control over all the stones, and the stones may refuse Thanos even if he wields them.
