Does this Loki twist mean that Black Widow died for nothing?
An unexpected scene in the first episode has got fans talking.
Tom Hiddleston's Loki series on Disney Plus looks to be another hit for the streaming service and Marvel Studios, but it has had to weather some fan controversy after a surprising inclusion in episode one.
During Loki's attempted escape from the surreal headquarters of the Time Variance Authority, he encountered office worker Casey (Eugene Cordero) and demanded that the all-powerful Tesseract be returned to him.
Fearing for his life, Casey obliged and revealed where he had been keeping the ancient cosmic weapon – in a desk drawer, along with several other useless infinity stones.
It was a jaw-dropping reveal that left Loki himself questioning whether the TVA was indeed "the greatest power in the universe", while fans watching at home felt similarly shaken.
Fans are now doubting whether the devastating character deaths featured in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame – Black Widow, Vision and Gamora – were strictly necessary after this revelation.
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The aforementioned Loki scene has certainly struck a nerve with passionate Marvel fans, some of whom now believe that beloved Avenger and former spy Natasha Romanoff died "for nothing".
Her death was depicted in Endgame, where she sacrificed her life so that the Marvel heroes would attain the soul stone, as well as ensuring longtime friend Hawkeye could return home to his family.
While it's understandable why fans might feel this way, it's up for debate whether Nat's death was indeed pointless as there are complexities to this situation which haven't been fully acknowledged.
Although it initially appears that the TVA has an abundance of Infinity Stones lying around that they could easily have loaned out to help stop Thanos, that isn't exactly true.
The fact that the mysterious organisation is in possession of several copies of multiple stones implies that these are from alternate timelines that have since been "pruned".
This is relevant because, in Marvel's comic book continuity, the Infinity Stones are only functional within their native universe, so any from parallel branches would have been no use during the crossover blockbuster.
That's not to say that the TVA hasn't made some morally questionable decisions since its creation, as many fans are already theorising that there could be a major Marvel villain pulling the strings behind the bureaucratic oddity.
As for Natasha, her story may well loop into the plot of future Loki episodes, with a notable scene showed off in the series trailer seemingly showing Tom Hiddleston's Loki sitting with the spy near her resting place on Vormir.
However, there has been no word from Marvel Studios about Scarlett Johansson returning for the show, leading some fans to speculate that the mystery figure could instead be Sophia Di Martino in her rumoured Lady Loki role.
Loki is available to stream on Disney Plus - for more information, consult our Loki release schedule. To watch, sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year. Check out more of our Sci-Fi and Fantasy coverage, as well as our guides to the best movies on Disney Plus and best shows on Disney Plus.
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