The following contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder.
The newest entry in the Thor franchise has recently been released, and it's a hot topic of discussion for Marvel fans. Thor: Love and Thunder continues the story of the god of thunder as he goes on new adventures and rekindles old loves. Love and Thunder acts as a sort of follow-up to Thor: Ragnarok, as both are directed by Taika Waititi and have similar tones and styles, though the events of Love and Thunder really follow the events of Avengers: Endgame and where Thor's story was left after that film.
Love and Thundercontinues Thor's story and sees the return of many of the characters that have become staples in his tale. However, there is one character whose absence is glaringly obvious. Loki has been one of the central players in Thor's story since the beginning, and most of the Thor movies center on their relationship and how they slowly rebuild it throughout each entry. However, Loki's death in the main timeline in Avengers: Infinity War complicated this dynamic. Though the character still exists in a way as a variant (with his own show), he's no longer a part of the main MCU story, at least not yet. It would have been difficult logistically to include Loki in Love and Thunder, but the movie feels lacking for not including him in any way.
Loki is a main character in the Thor series, in the same way that Bucky is central to the Captain America movies and Rhodey is a necessary part of the Iron Man stories. These MCU movies typically have a central cast of characters that differs for each hero, and the tone and general feeling of the movies can change depending on who the characters are. For example, an MCU Spider-Man movie without Ned and MJ simply wouldn't feel like an MCU Spider-Man movie. Likewise, a Thor movie without Loki really doesn't feel like the Thor movies that audiences have come to know and love.
The brotherly dynamic between Thor and Loki is the standout of the first two movies, both of which are seen as kind of underwhelming in their own ways. Their conflict is central to both of those stories and is most interesting dynamic in the movies, especially in contrast to Thor and Jane, which is a relationship that never quite works. Even in Love and Thunder, which manages to improve their chemistry a little bit, their love story still feels rushed and not completely genuine. The absence of Thor having any other meaningful relationships to deal with in the story becomes much more obvious because of this.
Loki is a fan-favorite MCU character, and for a good reason. He always steals the scene and manages to make whatever he’s in more interesting. It would have been nice to somehow have him back in Love and Thunder, and not just for fan-service reasons. The movie’s story could have only been improved if he had been around. Unfortunately, logistically it wouldn’t work with where the MCU is right now story-wise. The only way to do so would be to bring the main character variant Loki from the TV show over into the main timeline, but him having to explain his journey to the audience and to Thor would take up too much time.
This all isn’t to find some way that he could be slotted back in; rather, it’s to point out that the Thor franchise works best when it’s about family. Though Love and Thunder also touches on those themes, it’s missing the family dynamic that has always worked the best in these films.
While Love and Thunder gives Thor new journeys to go on and is able to expand his story past Endgame, it still feels a little like the story was stretched beyond what it was meant for. It feels more like a story that was manufactured just to give Thor another movie, rather than a natural extension of his ourney up to that point. It’s not as though Thor’s story needs to be so tied to Loki’s that both need to end when one character is no longer in the picture. However, it becomes more complicated when the staple brotherly relationship isn’t present in a film about pursuing love.
It’s not as though mentions of Loki are totally absent from the movie. The film brings up his death and show the ways that Thor has honored him through a slightly comical back tattoo and weaving a strand of Loki’s hair into his own (which was also something Thor did in Ragnarok when he believed Loki to be dead). This, at least, nods towards the fact that Thor loved his brother enough to honor him, but it still doesn’t make up for physically having him on the adventure.
Loki is a favorite for a reason, and his commentary and general demeanor always save the Thor films from being too bland (though the Taika Waititi Thor movies don’t exactly suffer from a blandness problem). When the franchise was quite literally built around the relationship between Thor and his brother, it becomes a problem when that relationship is no longer part of the story. It leaves the movie feeling a little empty, and like it doesn’t fully fit with the rest of the Thor universe. Sometimes it’s hard to understand how important something is until it’s gone, and the absence of the god of mischief from the newest Thor installment is a perfect example of that.