‘Thor: Love and Thunder‘ is the fourth Thor movie, and part of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). As Korg narrates, the story picks up after the God of Thunder has helped the Avengers defeat Thanos. Thus, ‘Love and Thunder‘ doesn’t include Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. 

The god of mischief, originally born in Jotunheim, had a long and acrimonious relationship with Thor, marred by jealousy and murderous rage. However, they learned to get along during their many misadventures, and Loki eventually started using his duplicitousness to help his brother. The change became most evident since ‘Ragnarok’ when Loki returned to fight Hela and protect Asgard. 

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However, his bravado was short-lived since the Asgardian ship was soon attacked by Thanos. In a last-ditch effort, Loki pretended to swear fealty and offered Thanos the Tesseract, which held the Space Stone. He intended to get close and stab him with one of his blades. Thanos, already wearing some of the Infinity Stones, saw past Loki’s plan and ended up choking the life out of him while Thor watched. 

Since then, we have seen Hiddleston’s character in the Disney+ series, but he’s not appeared in any of the MCU movies. Thor, however, pays tribute to his fallen brother in ‘Love and Thunder’. By now, the Asgardian has come a long way and suffered many losses. The man who once courted war in his youth is much more measured and tries to talk Zeus into helping him stop Gorr the God Butcher. However, Zeus is in no mood to listen, preferring to remain cooped up in Omnipotent City while Gorr kills what he considers non-major Gods. When Thor, dressed as one of the Emotion Gods, insists on being heard, Zeus flicks away his disguise – but flicks too hard, taking off all of Thor’s clothes.

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Audiences see Thor’s back, which includes a tattoo that says “RIP Loki” over a broken helmet similar to his fallen brother’s. 

Fans first caught this when the trailer dropped, and while many have found it to be a touching gesture, Loki is notorious for faking his death, as evident in ‘Dark Worlds’. Thus, some fans have speculated that the joke might ultimately be on Thor, to get something as permanent as a tattoo with the name of a god for whom death seems to be an impermanent matter.