#characters like kyl* r*n *spits* were never redeemed through character work

[a-flickering-soul]

Like, it's the way I genuinely can't think of many pop culture anti-heroes done as well as Loki?? There's been a lot of attempts in this era of pop culture to create good anti-heroes, but many of them either a) were never really villains to begin with, or b) never did the work to actually redeem them or make them sympathetic.

Loki is genuinely an incredibly well-done anti-hero (and I'm using the colloquial definition here of "a person who's 'bad' and does bad things, but is sympathetic and possibly redeemable", rather than the strict definition) because you see from the very first Thor movie how he was constantly shunned, excluded, and ultimately manipulated and lied to because of something he could not control. He lacked agency, so he went out and took it. He did genuine awful things because of the lack of agency, control, clarity, and community he had. And as a result, he was justifiably punished--but you still, as a viewer, remember the sheer agony on his face when he realized he never, ever had a chance.

His character evolves through the different ranges of villain to anti-hero throughout Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok, showing his change of nature to someone who is still very much conniving, untrustworthy, and power-hungry, but genuinely cares about other people. His character arc culminates in Avengers: Infinity War, where he sacrifices himself without hesitation for his brother and people, in the process accepting who he is in every aspect of his being (it is not to go unnoticed that he uses exactly what is villainous about him--lying, manipulation, magic, etc--against Thanos to attempt to save his loved ones).

Loki's evolution through villain and anti-hero is done through a near-imperceptible slide of actions and often-inscrutable motive, but never in a way that breaks character. I very much kudos Tom Hiddleston's acting and depth of character work, because I genuinely do not think another actor could have worked with the very limited information and talent Marvel (Taika Waititi and Kenneth Branagh excluded) gives out and come up with a compelling, intricate character the same way he did.