Thorki

Thorki is the familyship between Thor Odinson and Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel comics fandoms.

Thor
Thor and Loki were raised as brothers, but unknown to either one, Loki was actually born on Jotunheim and taken by Odin during a war. When Thor was to be named Odin's heir, Loki arranged an attack by the Frost Giants to sabotage the event, revealing that Thor was not ready to be king and leading to Thor's exile to Midgard (aka Earth). By the time Thor was able to return, Loki was attempting to destroy the Frost Giants to gain their father's favor, but Thor had learned the error of this, and they fought. This ended with Loki falling from the Bifrost into empty space, apparently dying before Thor's eyes.

Avengers
All of Asgard thought Loki was dead until Loki reappeared on Earth, and Thor went to Earth to return Loki and the Tesseract to Asgard. The brothers were mostly hostile with each other, and despite some attempt by Thor to reach out in the beginning, Loki was resistant and the two were unable to reconnect. Loki, and his attempt to lead an army to take over the Earth, is eventually defeated by Thor and the Avengers, and Thor brings Loki back to Asgard in chains.

Thor: Crown of Fools
The tie-in comic book Thor: Crown of Fools (2013) reveals that Thor's heart's desire is for Loki to be free from prison and that they will rule Asgard together.

Thor and his friends investigate the cause of disturbed wildlife and find a newly-appeared but ancient-looking citadel. Inside, they all hallucinate their heart's desire, and Thor's vision is of Loki. When Thor first sees Loki, he thinks that Loki is behind the appearance of the strange citadel and the disturbed wildlife. But Loki tells him that Odin has released him from prison, and ordered that he and Thor rule Asgard together. Thor admits that he's hoped for this, and he and Loki grip each others' wrists in agreement and Thor gets pulled further into the vision of his heart's desire of ruling alongside Loki. The visions of everyone's desires become extreme and corrupted, and when he and Loki embrace benevolent tyranny, Thor finally comes to his senses, ending his vision.

Thor: The Dark World
Loki is sentenced to Asgard's prison, where he stays until Thor goes to him for his help. Loki agrees, and Thor trusts him enough in this, because involves avenging the death of their mother. Thor and Loki fight side-by-side, and Loki is run-through with a sword, apparently dying in Thor's arms. This is later shown to be a trick, as Loki is alive.

Thor: Ragnarok
After being away from Asgard for some time, Thor returns to find a suspicious scene of "Odin" watching a play celebrating Loki's sacrifice, and Thor reveals that "Odin" is Loki in disguise. Thor takes Loki to Earth to find their father, who warns them of their sister Hela. Odin passes away, and Thor initially grows emotional, presumably at Loki, before Hela appears and the brothers work together against her. In a hasty retreat to Asgard, Hela knocks them both out of the bifrost and they fall, separately, to Sakaar. Loki visits Thor where he's being held as a champion fighter, and they struggle again to get along, and Loki leaves telling Thor that he's bet against him for the upcoming match. After Thor breaks out, The Grandmaster tasks Loki and Valkyrie to find Thor, and she bests Loki and presents him to Thor as a peace offering. Loki agrees to work with them to help them escape if they take him with them. He and Thor work together to get past the Grandmaster's security to commandeer a ship, but Loki attempts to betray Thor again, but Thor has prepared for this and incapacitates Loki instead. Thor leaves Sakaar to help Asgard against Hela, leaving Loki behind. Loki eventually comes to help Asgard with more fighters and with a ship large enough to evacuate the city, and he again fights side-by-side with Thor, and together they defeat Hela and save the Asgardians. Loki returns to Thor on the ship, and he is present as Thor symbolically takes a chair as king. Since the Asgardians need a new home, Thor decides to go to Earth. He and Loki later playfully chat about the problems of returning to Earth with Loki.

Avengers: Infinity War
Thanos, who was behind Loki's attempt on Earth in Avengers, intercepts the ship on their way to Earth. Thanos and his people murder half the Asgardians, and he kills Loki by breaking his neck. Before his death, Loki tells Thor, "I assure you, brother: The sun will shine on us again." Thor drags himself to hold Loki's body before their ship explodes.

Avengers: Endgame
Thor's trauma of losing Loki and so many of his people resonates in his character changes. He has gained a lot of weight, he is not much of an effective king on New Asgard which leads him to eventually give the title to Valkyrie, and he doesn't seem to be involved with any superhero activity until the new plan to gain the infinity stones through time travel.

When the Avengers go back in time, they inadvertently create branched timelines. In one, while Loki is in chains after the battle of New York, Loki picks up the tesseract and teleports away. So there is now another version of Loki in a parallel timeline, in which Loki escaped after his defeat in New York.

In another branched timeline, Loki is left in the prison on Asgard after the battle of New York, but it's left unclear if he will get out as he did in Thor: The Dark World. In this timeline, Jane Foster no longer has an infinity stone trapped inside her, this timeline's Thor does not have his hammer because the future Thor took it, and Queen Frigga is aware that Thor has traveled time and has suffered some sort of trauma. The effect of these changes on this timeline's Loki is not yet known.

Original Loki
Loki is the original antagonist of the Thor comics, and Thor's struggle with his brother is a common conflict in their storylines. Loki was adopted as a child by King Odin and raised as Thor's brother, and Loki grew jealous and later resentful and hateful of his brother, leading to a long and contentious history between the two.

During a siege on Asgard, Loki used the Norn Stones to help the Avengers, dying in the process; his last words were to Thor: "I'm sorry, brother." Although Loki had laid plans to return from death, this was a final death, and any new Loki would never be the original Loki.

Kid Loki
Thor deeply mourns the loss of his brother. He asks Hela to speak with Loki's soul, but Loki had written himself out of the book of Hel and so his soul was not in Hel.

Against everyone's wishes, Thor goes looking for Loki and finds him reborn as a child. Loki has no memories of his past or his identity, but he tearfully admits to having dreams in which he's done horrible things which he fears are memories of his past life. Thor restores part of Loki's identity and powers. In Asgard, Loki is repeatedly threatened, attacked, and bullied for the actions of his former self, but Thor adamantly defends his brother. Loki idolizes and deeply loves his older brother, and he helps Thor while trying to become a better person than he was in his previous life. Loki still makes use of his skill of trickery, which Thor does not approve of. Thor even lost his temper and threatened Loki when he learns of Loki's tricks, sending Loki into tears and leading Thor to apologize. Thor later dies and is replaced by Tanarus, and everyone's memories of Thor are replaced as well, but Loki accuses Tanarus of being an impostor even though he can not remember his real brother's name. Loki goes on a quest to find the truth, leading to the return of Thor and everyone's memories.

Unknown to Thor, Kid Loki later sacrifices himself, being replaced by "Ikol", a remnant of the original Loki. Before doing so, he seeks council from Thor, although Thor didn't understand what this was about and tried to be helpful.

Agent of Asgard and later
The new Loki feels deep guilt for the murder of his child self, but keeps the secret from everyone including Thor. He aged himself up to a teenager/young adult and later becomes an "agent of Asgard", doing work for the All-Mothers to right his past deeds. One of his first tasks is to pull a corruption from Thor, and Loki breaks into Avengers tower and apparently attacks Thor, successfully pulling the corruption from his brother by stabbing him with a magical sword. The Avengers capture Loki, and he and Thor talk candidly, showing they are still on good terms. Loki later convinces Thor to work with him under the guise of breaking Sigurd out of Asgard's prisons. Thor reluctantly agrees, despite not approving of the trickery involved; he distracts Heimdall with a glorious battle, allowing Loki to sneak in unseen.

Loki and Thor later learn of the existence of their sister Angela, who was abducted as a child from Asgard by the Angels of the hidden tenth realm. The brothers go to the tenth realm, which is inhabited solely by women, and Loki in her female form creates an alliance with the Angels while Thor is held captive. Loki tricks the angels into a massive defeat against Asgard's defenses, using her trickery to help save her brother and her home.

Upon their return to Midgard, Loki finds himself unable to lie, and finally admits to his brother that he had killed his child self. Thor is so enraged that he beats Loki terribly, then takes him to Asgard for punishment.

The brothers later make amends, and Thor ascends to the throne of Asgard and Loki claims kingship of Jotunheim for killing the previous king, his father Laufey. Loki began to grow bored with kingship, but Thor encourages Loki to be a good leader and take it seriously, hopeful that Loki can finally be happy with his new position.

In of the Marvel animation universe, Thor and Loki shared a strong bond with one another when they were teenagers during their training days, as Thor is trained in combat while Loki studies magic. Because Thor makes a public sceptical out of his training sessions Loki praises his older brother for his victories and agrees with him about the "weak strength" of his swords. This is why Sif accuses Loki of protecting Thor from the truth behind his public training victories, as they do him no favors. After Thor has a fight with their father about it and wishes to prove himself as a true warrior, Thor drags Loki into his plan to stow themselves away on the ship of the Warriors Three; so they can find the Sword of Surtur together. Loki begins to see that Sif is right about him granting Thor no favors, along with him knowing that both of them being the princes of Asgard is the main reason why their father wishes for them to remain within the safety of their kingdom.

What If...?
In the MCU multiverse, there is a universe in which Odin found Loki and then returned to his father, and Thor is raised as an only child. This Thor is known for throwing extravagant parties, and throws such a party on Earth. Loki, in his frost giant form in this universe, arrives for the party and he and Thor greet each other happily as close friends. Loki calls Thor his "brother from another mother" and they both say they're "brothers forever". When Thor is about to get caught for partying, Loki is initially about to leave, but Thor convinces him and the others to stay and help him clean up the mess they've made on Earth.

Quotes
"I never wanted the throne, I only ever wanted to be your equal!"

- Loki to Thor, Thor

"There was one time when we were children, he transformed himself into a snake, and he knows I love snakes. So, I went to pick up the snake to admire it, and he transformed back into himself, and he was like: "Bleh, it's me!" And he stabbed me. We were eight at the time."

- Thor to Bruce and Valkyrie about Loki, Thor: Ragnarok

"I assure you, brother: The sun will shine on us again."

- Loki to Thor, Avengers: Endgame

"You are my brother, Loki. And I love you. And I think... today... ...today I will even trust you."

- Thor to Loki, All New Marvel Now! Point One No. 1 (2014)

Behind the Scenes
"They are all they have. As in, there's nothing left. Everyone's gone. Odin's gone. Frigga's gone. The Warriors Three are gone. Asgard is basically gone. And so Thor and Loki turn to each other and say, 'You’re all that I have left. And actually, that's enough.'"

- Tom Hiddleston, on Thor and Loki's relationship in Thor: Ragnarok

Fanon
Interest in Thorki rose in the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom following their introductions in the film Thor and even more following The Avengers. Most initial stories focused on the rift that's grown between them following Loki leaving Asgard, with one (typically Thor) wanting to bridge the distance and the other (typically Loki) pulling away.

For comic book fandom, the brothers have been around for decades, but interest was notably renewed with the Journey into Mystery arc featuring Kid Loki and his subsequent death and the rebirth of the original Loki in his body. Interest increased with Teen Loki in the Loki: Agent of Asgard series, which featured Loki trying to do good in his own way, and his regular run-ins with his brother. Many fanfic were written about Loki's guilt and in keeping the secret from his brother.

Many Thorki fics also ship the characters romantically. Various AUs are premised on Loki not being adopted, and so Loki and Thor would not be considered related in these instances. Arranged marriage, war, and politics are common elements.

The ship got international mainstream media attention when a fan-edited poster for Thor: The Dark World was accidentally used as an official poster for the film at a Shanghai movie theater. Entertainment Weekly named the "Fake Thor Poster" as #17 on their 25 Best Movie Posters of 2013, stating: "A fantasy shipper's Photoshop job that was inadvertently used as genuine advertising in Shanghai. Vastly more interesting than any of the official Thor posters."

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Thor/Loki (Marvel comics) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Thor/Loki (Avengers film) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Thor/Loki (Thor film) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Thor/Loki (Avengers film) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Thor/Loki (Thor film) tag on FanFiction.net

TUMBLR

WIKIS

Lists
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 * DEC 11th 2017
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! 3rd
 * Avengers: Infinity War (APR 27th 2018)
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! 27 ! 99
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Trivia

 * Thor's vambraces in Avengers were carved in Loki's honor as a symbol of Thor's mourning for his brother's apparent death.
 * In 2018, Thorki was ranked 22nd on Tumblr's Top 100 Ships of 2018. In 2019, Thorki was ranked 58th.
 * Thorki is the most popular ship on AO3 for both Thor and Loki.
 * Thorki is the fifth most popular ship on AO3 for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Variations

 * Hiddlesworth refers to the ship between their MCU actors Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth
 * Sylkior refers to the ship between Loki, Thor, and Sylvie Laufeydottir