Loki’s ending in the season 2 finale of his titular show was bittersweet, bringing the God of Mischief full circle from his self-serving ways when we first met him. For Marvel fans who’ve been watching for years now, there’s even a clue from 12 years ago that drops a hint as to what might be in store for Loki—and he’s not even in the film.
Warning: spoilers ahead for all episodes of Loki.
Loki and the Tesseract have a storied history
Those who have watched Captain America: The First Avenger might remember that this is the first time that we see the Tesseract. Back then, we didn’t know that it was actually the home for one of the Infinity Stones, the Space Stone. At first, it just appeared as a cube that produced seemingly limitless energy.
Red Skull took it in Tønsberg, Norway during World War Two, a place that is forever connected to the Asgardian gods. Odin fought the Frost Giants there and defeated them, driving them from Earth. Later, Odin would find baby Frost Giant Loki, adopting him and raising him (nearly) as his own.
In the modern-day MCU, Valkyrie has founded New Asgard in Tønsberg, creating a home for the displaced people of Asgard.
The connection to Loki doesn’t necessarily lie in the location—although it makes the link even neater. Loki and the Tesseract have a special relationship, to say the least. He steals it to use its power to launch a full-scale assault on Earth on the orders of Thanos and later steals it once again, triggering all the events of Loki. He is irrevocably linked to the Tesseract—and its secret location offers a clue to his final fate.
Where did Red Skull find the Tesseract?
Red Skull found the Tesseract in a large house in Tønsberg, hidden within an enormous mural of—you guessed it—the Tree of Life, also known as Yggdrasil. This is a cyclical link to Loki’s final sacrifice, becoming the centre of the Tree of Life in order to save every timeline.
While it’s unlikely that Marvel had Yggdrasil bookmarked for Loki’s final mission all the way back in 2011 when Captain America: The First Avenger came out, but it does highlight that Loki has finally accepted and even welcomed his Asgardian/Norse mythology roots.
Battling to be recognized as a true god alongside his father, brother, and companions, Loki now sits within Yggdrasil, which is believed to contain all of the nine realms in its branches and trunk. He oversees and created it all, arguably making himself the most powerful god of all time in Norse terms. It’s possibly the saddest way his dream could have come true—but the fact it links back to imagery from the introduction of the Tesseract 12 years ago demonstrates just how satisfying his ending truly is.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
