The MCU Doesn't Know How Loki's Conjuring Power Works

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been inconsistent when it comes to Loki’s powers, especially now that he’s leading his own TV show, and one ability that this universe doesn’t seem to fully understand is that of conjuration. Now that the Infinity Saga came to an end and with it the arcs of most of its main heroes, the MCU is ready to move forward with its Phase 4, which will cover both TV series and movies and introduce a bunch of new characters while also continuing exploring the stories of well-established ones. Among those is Loki, who even though was killed in Avengers: Infinity War, is now back with his own TV show.

The time heist in Avengers: Endgame left many different timeline branches, one of those the result of Loki from 2012 escaping with the Tesseract. Because of this, Loki sees the title character being brought to the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an organization that oversees the timeline and makes sure everything goes as planned in order to avoid a “multiverse madness”. However, the TVA seized Loki’s talents and used him to help them catch another Loki variant, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), but both Lokis ended up joining forces to escape and uncover the truth behind the TVA. During this whole process, Loki has displayed some of his most impressive talents, but there’s one that has been inconsistent not only in the show but throughout Loki’s MCU history so far: conjuration.

Loki is a master sorcerer thanks to his adoptive mother, Frigga (Rene Russo), who taught him how to wield Asgardian magic. Loki became extremely skilled in magic and it’s his main asset in battle, and through this, he can make use of many other abilities, as are illusion manipulation, duplication casting (which he did a lot throughout the MCU Phase 1), shapeshifting, telekinesis, and conjuration. The latter has been used by Loki on many occasions, but there’s one big inconsistency in it as there’s confusion over whether the things he conjures are real or not, as there have been examples of both.

Among the earliest examples of Loki’s conjuring powers is when Heimdall (Idris Elba) was about to attack him in Thor. The God of Mischief quickly summoned the Casket of Ancient Winters to shield himself and froze Heimdall alive, later making the casket disappear with a wave of his hands. He has also used his conjuring powers to summon his daggers during battle and made the Tesseract appear in Infinity War in order to trick Thanos. One of the most impressive displays of this power happened in Loki episode 5 when Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant) conjured Asgard to distract Alioth, but this was a completely fake Asgard – however, early on in that same episode, Loki conjured a blanket for him and Sylvie, which just like the Casket of Ancient Winters and his daggers, was tangible. This is one inconsistency that the MCU is yet to explain, but it shows that the MCU still doesn’t fully know how some of Loki’s powers work, and just like the audience, they are getting to know them a bit better with each passing episode.

Of course, it could also be that Loki’s conjuring powers can do a bit of both depending on what he needs: the things he conjures can be as real as the casket and the blanket (as he needed to defend himself and cover himself and Sylvie from the cold of the Void) or as fake as Asgard just to fool the enemy. It remains to be seen if Loki or future MCU projects will clear some of the confusion around Loki’s powers at some point or if they will continue to be one of many mysteries about the character.

Next: MCU Phase 4 Just Made One Loki Power Way Stronger