Loki Completely Changes The God Of Mischief’s Reason For Existence

Compared to Norse mythology and Marvel Comics, Loki’s MCU TV show makes a big change to the God of Mischief’s reason for existence. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, wherein 2012-era Loki (Tom Hiddleston) escapes with an Infinity Stone, Loki picks up with the God of Mischief being arrested by the Time Variance Authority (TVA for short) for disrupting the main MCU timeline (revealed to be the “Sacred Timeline”). The TVA, which exists outside of time and space, aims to fix the broken timeline, with Owen Wilson’s Mobius M. Mobius assigned to Loki’s case.

In Loki episode 1 “Glorious Purpose”, Mobius escorts Loki to the “Time Theatre” in order to review his place in the Sacred Timeline, forcing him to witness all of the pain that he previously caused, including the death of his adoptive mother Frigga (as shown in 2013’s Thor: The Dark World). Mobius questions Loki’s history of hurting others before Loki attempts to escape the TVA, eventually returning to the Time Theatre and watching more of his future unfold – ending with his death at the hands of Thanos, as seen in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

While in Norse mythology and, to an extent, Marvel Comics, Loki’s existence is based on being the God of Mischief, with a clear-cut purpose to challenge boundaries and test conventions, the Loki TV show explains a rather different purpose for the character in the MCU. As an embodiment of chaos, Loki was considered to be necessary to evolution – given that complete order without chaos results in stagnation. However, as Mobius explains in Loki episode 1, the Loki of the MCU is merely a vessel for pain, necessary to allow other characters – namely, the Avengers – to become the best versions of themselves.

When thought about for any length of time, this change to Loki’s so-called “Glorious Purpose” is way darker and sadder than his original reason for being. His place in the Sacred Timeline is to cause pain, death, and destruction to make other characters better. This is extremely meta and points to Loki fulfilling an archetypal role rather than having his own free will. While it’s a common storytelling maxim that the best villains should believe that they are the hero of their own story, Mobius’s cruel examination of the God of Mischief confirms that, no, Loki is definitely the villain – at least as far as his place in the Sacred Timeline is concerned.

Given this bombshell reveal, it’s likely that the rest of the Loki TV show will follow the God of Mischief trying to disprove Mobius’s theory, establishing that he can be more than his “villain” label by becoming a force for positive change. At the end of episode 1, Mobius enlists Loki to help the TVA in tracking down other rogue Loki variants from different timelines – set to bring the God of Mischief face to face with his previous and potential failings in a very literal way. Whatever the future has in store for Loki, hopefully the disgraced God can break free from his seemingly predetermined raison d’être and forge a new path for himself among the ranks of the TVA.

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