Warning: Spoilers forLoki.
The season 2 finale ofLokifinally landed on Disney+, and fans are still recovering from its heart-wrenching conclusion. After mastering the ability to manipulate time, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) realizes the only way to prevent the timelines from dying is to change He Who Remains/Kang’s (Jonathan Majors) equation, which only he can do.
Traveling back in time to moments before the Temporal Loom explodes, Loki says goodbye to his friends before he walks across the platform and destroys the Loom. After the timelines scatter and begin to die, Loki grabs them all and takes them through a Fault he creates, leading to the End of Time where He Who Remains/Kang once was. Upon ascending a throne, he revitalizes the timelines and ultimately creates a Yggdrasil, the Norse tree of life, in whichall branches of the multiverse can exist.
Having saved the timelines and preserved free will for all, Loki sits at the End of Time alone on a throne. Fulfilling his glorious purpose, Loki’s final act is arguably one of the most selfless choices made by any character within the MCU. There’s no doubt his actions would make Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Odin (Anthony Hopkins) proud, but it’s worth questioning whether his choices would make him worthy enough to lift Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer.
He tried and failed to lift Mjolnir in the firstThorfilm but would likely be able to now. Onlysix characters in the MCUhave been able to lift Mjolnir, and it’s all but certain Loki would be lucky number seven on the list. He sacrificed himself for all those in existence, refused to take the easy way out when it would have “solved” their impending doom, and made his choices without the prospect of glory or praise.
Loki Sacrificed Himself
The one thing Loki feared most was ending up alone, and despite such a fear, he made the choice to sit on the throne by himself at the End of Time so that all of humanity in every possible timeline could exist and make their own choices. He knowingly sacrificed himself and his own happiness or glory to ensure the preservation of others and their free will. By destroying the Loom, he takes on a task he knows only he can fulfill and rises to the occasion in the most glorious way.
Loki accepts the burden of his purpose and saves the timelines as a result. Such a lasting sacrifice is no doubt a chosen path that would be deemed worthy enough to lift Mjolnir. Furthermore, Loki’s actions weren’t just a simple sacrifice; rather, his choices are something he’ll have to live with and continue to maintain for all time, which he understood and chose to do anyway. No one elsein the MCUhas ever made such a sacrifice.
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Loki Refused to Take the Easy Way Out
If Loki had prevented Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) from killing He Who Remains, the impending demise of the Temporal Loom would have been thwarted. While the branching timelines still would have died, the Sacred Timeline would have survived, as well asthe TVA. Loki could have easily remained with his friends and gone back to the way things were if he had stopped Sylvie in the first place. Her actions sparked the problem with the Loom and set everything in motion. However, he would have had to kill her in order to prevent those events from happening.
Ultimately, Loki could not take the “easy way out” because such an action would mean he’d have to sacrifice his friend and the numerous branching timelines, which he couldn’t do. While killing Sylvie would have been easier, Loki couldn’t accept such a solution. Instead, he made the harder choice and changedthe equation He Who Remains created. By seeing the bigger picture and rejecting the idea of the Sacred Timeline as the only way for existence to flourish, does he embody something worthy of Mjolnir?
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No Glory or Praise
Loki’s entire existence throughout the MCU has been based on his aspirations for glory and praise. Ever since his introduction in the originalThor, he’s sought out such rewards for himself. He even galvanized an army to attack New York and served as the villain inThe Avengers. Although fans watched Loki’s story develop beyond the events of the first Avengers movie, the Loki seen in the series doesn’t partake in those incidents.
Given Loki enters the series following the events in New York, his personal evolution becomes all the more meaningful in the show’s finale.Loki’s moral shiftand abdication of the need for any glory and praise speaks volumes regarding his worthiness. He understood he wouldn’t receive such accolades and chose his isolated path anyway. Given Loki’s choices during the finale, there’s no question whether he’d be worthy enough to lift Mjolnir. In fact, he most definitely would be.
