in continuing “local woman shows up two years late to the fandom with Starbucks” thoughts about IW/Endgame*
in an AU where Loki is the one who survives the attack on the Statesman and Thor dies, and assuming everything else goes the same (it wouldn’t because they’re very different people and that would have knock-on effects, but work with me here) –
the Time Heist in Endgame but it’s 2023 Loki walking into 2012 Loki’s temporary secret hideout, just fucking decking his younger self, and then walking out with the scepter and the Tesseract before Clint and the goons can even register what’s happened. (maybe he drops a quick “hey, this isn’t going to work out the way you think! actually you can and should just go home with Thor when he gets here. I know groveling is excruciating but in this case it’s better than the alternative.”)
the Avengers can’t actually let him go to Asgard to get the Aether because he would one hundred percent just save Frigga whether she wants to be saved or not
he’s had a long decade. he has no fucks left to give.
* when I initially posted this on Twitter last night I accidentally typed “Star Wars” instead of “Starbucks” which tbh is also true, SW is still my fannish baseline and probably will be for a while.
have also decided that in this AU
- Steve and Natasha also go to 2012 with Loki because uuuuhhhhh it’s Loki and they don’t quite trust him and I was sadly deprived of Steve and Natasha team-up badassery in Endgame
- they’re waiting very nervously outside the secret hideout but he comes out with the Tesseract and the scepter and that’s a relief
- but he has to take a moment to just stare at the Tesseract because it’s this fucking thing again, the thing he traded for his brother’s life and then lost Thor anyway
- Steve and Natasha are very patient about this, because they both know what it’s like to try and try and try and still lose
- (Loki decking his younger self is absolutely necessary. also Loki remembers to get his clothes right for how he looked in 2012 but forgets to change his hair, because it amuses me, personally, and I think five years post-IW he’d finally have some of those fancy Vikings-style braided hairstyles we keep being deprived of. Clint and Selvig and the goons don’t mention the change in hairstyle but 2012 Loki is like “…what…is happening..” before Loki decks him.)
- all three go to get the Time Stone from the Ancient One because I think that particular interaction would be very interesting
- Professor Hulk/Bruce and Clint go to Vormir and the sacrifice ends up being Bruce giving up his Hulkness, though they have to sit with it for a while and sort of just…talk? for the first time? while Clint awkwardly third-wheels and thinks about just being the sacrifice because wow, this is awkward and surely the Hulk is a more valuable player than he is since he’s been…you know…doing the whole Ronin thing as in canon.
- but the Hulk ends up being the sacrifice, and afterwards Bruce just stands there feeling…empty, because who is he anymore without the Hulk? it’s been years since he had the option of being just Bruce Banner, and he doesn’t know who Bruce Banner is.
- but it worked, and they’ve got the Soul Stone
- Nebula, Rocket, Rhodey, Tony, and Scott go to space to engage in an elaborate heist to get the Aether from the Collector because MAN, that is some chaos energy in a group but they probably need all of it to pull that off
- (they literally cannot send Loki to Asgard to get it there because of issues like “was in prison at the time” and “it’s Loki, he will just bring Frigga and probably Thor back to the present”)
- they also get the Power Stone, either during that brief interval when it is also on Knowhere or a little while earlier on Morag, like in canon Endgame
- this can also tip off 2014 Thanos as in canon if we MUST have a giant battle sequence
obviously Loki still finds some way of bringing Thor back
though like, if I was actually writing Endgame/in the various Marvel writers rooms, I actually wouldn’t do it in Endgame; obvs this sequence of events makes Loki the show impossible, but since everyone seems to be opening the multiverse at once… and/or do the set-up of Loki as a consequence of 2014-to-2023 Gamora being picked up by the TVA, and through a series of shenanigans she and Sylvie end up playing out the killing He Who Remains season finale.
and IW!Thor comes back through a further series of shenanigans with Loki and Valkyrie (and Sif and Jane and further company) in a completely different movie that for obvious reasons cannot be Thor 4 but is a very, very loose adaptation of the Gor the Godkiller comics arc that includes multiverse fuckery, time travel, and also somehow several versions of everyone involved.
as a consequence of Natasha surviving and Steve not staying in the past, the events of FATWS continue as in canon (maybe the shield gets fixed somehow?), but Natasha gets a Black Widow 2 movie with Steve as her sidekick. they are totally off-grid and unaware of the FATWS events. Alexei and Steve have a very confused meeting.
(I’ll probably be proven wrong, but I’m convinced that Alexei’s belief that he fought Captain America at a point when Steve was in ice was multiverse shenanigans starting to leak through.)
Tony can either die as in canon or retire, since he was pretty much out of the game between IW and Endgame anyway.
