I think the factor that a lot of those “Loki versus Doctor Strange” posts are overlooking is the vast cultural differences in attitudes toward magic that are in play here.
Like, Loki comes from a culture where magic items are mass-produced tools and commodities. Doctor Strange was trained in magic by a culture where even the most trivial sorcerous gadgets have personalities and opinions and probably enjoy messing with your mind.
Loki comes from a culture where the most basic application of combat magic is hitting stuff really hard. Doctor Strange was trained in magic by a culture where the most basic application of combat magic involves giving the space-time continuum a wedgie.
While there’s no doubt that Loki is an enormous skilled magician, fundamentally he approaches magic as a technician would; magic is a complicated and esoteric tool, but it is a tool, and a commonplace one at that. Doctor Strange gets everything he knows about magic from a bunch of cloistered weirdos who regard even the tiniest exercise of magic as a profound expression of one’s truest self and think making a guy choose between being a wizard and ever walking again is a fun character-building exercise.
Basically, what we’re looking at here is an engineer versus an Artist™.
There are certainly cultural differences between Loki and Dr. Strange that I think relate to their differences in approach to magic and I agree with some of this. However, I really think that Loki is just as much an artist as Dr. Strange is a scientist. Dr. Strange was a man of science before he was dropped in a culture that asked him to set aside every thing he believed to be true.
Dr. Strange still approaches magic scientifically. He studies and studies, and he hungers for more. He experiments with different techniques. As a surgeon, he would have to have creative qualities but certainly being dropped into a totally new culture – I think – helped him think even more abstractly and expand his idea of what is and what is not possible.
On the other hand, Loki has always used magic creatively but he was dropped into a culture that valued control and order. Yes, magic is approached in a very mechanical way so to speak. It is commonplace in Asgard, but not the kind of magic that Loki actually likes to do. It’s either highly frowned upon or banned altogether to do the kind of magic Loki actually likes to do.
In Asgard, you’re not supposed to use magic to be deceptive or to bend the rules. You’re supposed to learn what you’re taught. You can use it to fight your opponent, but tricking them is viewed as weak and dishonorable. It’s much better to fight for honor and glory, so sure that just means hitting things very hard for the most part. This is very limiting.
Loki can abide by those rules sometimes and he can use magic on a technical level using proper spells and tomes and magical items because that’s what he was taught to do, but… Loki is magic. He can do things that his peers can’t. He creates as much as he borrows from lessons, and he probably genuinely believes that Dr. Strange is just as below him as his peers in this regard.
I don’t want to or mean to be pedantic here – but Loki has tried to separate himself from the culture he was raised into for a reason and I believe that is in part because Loki is an “architect” as much as an “engineer.” The movies don’t do a good job of showing it, but Loki eat, breathes, and sleeps magic in a way that no one else in his society does which has given him much frustration.
Hence, why Loki sets himself apart from others who “do” magic.
Tasertrickslove 