The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 5.

At this point, it seems that one of the main goals of the MCU Disney Plus shows is to flesh out characters that never fully got their due in the main films. WandaVision gave Wanda more of a character arc than she's gotten before and expanded her power set, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier gave a little more depth to both Sam and Bucky. Loki has had a similar journey in his own show, both with emotional depth as well as a chance to explore the extent of his powers. After Episode 5 particularly, it seems that the MCU is ready to extend his abilities a bit.

It's always been a known fact of Loki's character that he can use magic, but often in the MCU, the times he uses it in any impressive way are few and far between. It's usually just used for a quick illusion or a brief moment of shapeshifting. Episode 5 of Loki, entitled "Journey Into Mystery", took the time to explicitly discuss this issue, and show what a Loki could do if they had full control of their powers. Not only does Sylvie have abilities that 2012 Loki does not, but Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant) has an extensive amount of power, and is very vocal about how much better it is to use magic rather than knives or other weapons. It seems that the MCU is setting Loki up to be much more powerful than he's been in the past, and to perhaps finally take control of this immense amount of magic he's theoretically had access to this whole time.

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In the scene where Classic Loki laments the use of knives over magic, Marvel seems to be explicitly referencing the complaints that were common in the fandom after the release of Avengers: Infinity War. Many fans pointed out that it seemed like such a strange choice in that movie for Loki to try and stab Thanos with a tiny knife to try and kill him. In general, for years fans have been expressing their frustration about how Loki seldom uses his magical abilities for anything significant. This scene was a definite nod to that, and seemed to signal that Marvel wants Loki to finally unlock the potential of his powers.

Classic-Loki-casts-magic

We saw it with Classic Loki at the end of the episode: Loki could do so much with his abilities if he was given the chance to. Classic Loki conjures a whole facsimile of Asgard to distract Alioth, which is an incredible show of power. That variant of Loki didn’t die in Infinity War, and instead focused more on his magical abilities. Going forward, it would be great to see the main version of Loki take a note out of Classic Loki’s book and learn how to fully harness the magic that he wields.

Loki doesn’t seem to believe that his magic is that powerful, but earlier in the series we see him stop a building with his telekinetic abilities, so clearly the potential is there. Sylvie certainly believes that Loki could do so much more with his magic, as she assures him that he will be able to enchant Alioth using the same set of powers she does because they’re the same, and she’s right. Part of what’s interesting about seeing Loki meet variants of himself is that they show him what he could be, not just emotionally, but in regards to magical abilities.

In general, it seems that in the show, we get the most displays of power from Loki when he’s performing a selfless act, like stopping the building or enchanting Alioth (and, of course, Classic Loki’s sacrifice). Perhaps this would explain why in the MCU prior, the audience never got to see this much magic from Loki, because he only ever really used it to further his own ends. Maybe the key to him becoming more powerful is in becoming a better person, and learning to do things for others and not just himself.

President-Loki

Currently, fans don’t know how Loki is going to end. There’s a possibility that it will conclude with Loki (albeit the 2012 version we’ve been following in this show) rejoining the timeline of the MCU, and going on further adventures. It is rumored that Loki might make an appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (which would be fitting after this show), which would give Marvel a reason to want to set him up for the future. Not only will they want to be able to take his character farther by unlocking new abilities, but if he’s going to be doing magic alongside Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch, Marvel definitely needs to elevate his abilities to something more impressive so that he can be somewhat on par with their magic levels.

In any case, this episode of Loki definitely seemed focused on expanding Loki’s powers, which means that Marvel must have a plan for it going forward. At this point, it seems very likely that they’re still planning to use him in the future of the MCU, and much like Wanda’s journey into unlocking her magic in WandaVision, they needed to figure out a way to make him more powerful than he’s been in the past. It’s just nice to see Marvel finally acknowledge that this character should have a significant amount of power - he’s a god, after all. It seems like up until this point, they really downplayed Loki’s powers, and never fully gave him the chance to show them off. Hopefully, after Loki is finished, the MCU continues to let him grow into his power, and find new and interesting things for the God of Mischief to do with his magic.

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