I’ve thought this many times before. The only thing Odin demanded of Loki in the beginning scene of The Dark World was remorse. Loki wasn’t willing to give it.
-Hella wasn’t remorseful so Odin imprisoned her
-Thor was remorseful and gained his freedom
-Loki wasn’t remorseful so Odin imprisoned him
Why wasn’t Loki remorseful? Why wasn’t he sorry for what he’d done? If he’d been brainwashed or tortured or drugged into obedience, he would have been very sorry for his actions. The Winter Solder/ Bucky Barnes proves that. We are told flat out that he was tortured and brainwashed. Later, we discover the only reason he didn’t take his own life was because of Steve Rogers. That’s some pretty heavy remorse!
Loki did not have this kind of reaction, why? He repeated to Odin, Frigga and Thor that he wanted to rule Earth benevolently, yet all his actions proved to the contrary, that he never wanted Earth in the first place. So, why tell everyone he did? It always felt like a practiced cover story to begin with. Later, at the end of the Dark World, Loki proves he didn’t want the throne of Asgard when Thor refuses the throne and Loki (as Odin) sighs heavily. The only one left, again, was Loki, who wasn’t going to make the mistake of trying to rule as himself again.
What did Loki want at this point? Was he still scared of Thanos? He did set out to betray him and deprived him of two infinity stones. Did he still have the mental link with the Other? He could possibly hide himself from the Other the way he could hide from Heimdall, but there’s always the possibility the link was still haunting him until the Other died in GotG vol.1.
If Loki didn’t want Earth, why attack Earth? To make a cunning and masterful escape from his alliance with Thanos. In some cases, it seems Loki was doing everything in his power to warn the Avengers and help them become a unified force to be reckoned with. It seemed he was helping them defeat him.
-returning Hawkeye with a grudge
-putting them in the room with the mind stone so they could air out their differences
-taking down the helicarrier in such a way they could easily get it back up
-killing Coulson and giving them a rallying point
-faking “performance issues” with Stark so he could stay in the fight (see theory Loki and Tony)
-dropping clues that he intended to release the Hulk and that he intended to use Stark Tower
-allowing Selvig to build a fail-safe – a strong mental link plus his own mind powers, it is almost as good as telling him to build the failsafe
-abandoning the scepter only yards away from where it needed to be to close the portal – we know Loki thrives in chaos and doesn’t panic
-if he was in control of the Chitauri, then he is responsible for their terrible targeting. I couldn’t believe how many near-misses I saw when they were shooting at civilians
-laying down and taking the rest of the fight off after the Hulk smash. Since Thor took the exact same hit and got back up to fight, we know Loki could have. It was just a good time to surrender.
There are probably others besides, but ten is enough to prove my point. Loki never wanted Midgard, he even tried to orchestrate their victory and helped them unite. Why would he feel bad about that? He’s almost the hero of his own villain story. But no one understood the missing elements – he never mentioned Thanos or his alliance. They didn’t ask why he did it, only demanded apology for it. “I pushed you down a hill to save you from getting hit by a car.” But the victim only carries on about getting pushed down the hill, no never mind about why or the existence of the car.
Would Loki feel bad if he truly did something he considered heinous? All his supposed heinous actions were for a better cause, usually for others, so why should he feel bad about them? I don’t think I can answer this yet. Here’s a common pattern, though. The more I think about Loki, the more of a saint or hero he becomes. I try to remember to stick to Loki’s true character as an agent of chaos and a lover of mischief to be consistent and true to the MCU.
I totally agree with this. And I really don’t think it would’ve mattered to Odin if Loki had shown remorse or not – Odin was ready to get rid of him. It would’ve been death for Loki had it not been for Frigga. Maybe he thought since nobody was asking him how he survived the fall, or why or how anything else happened, that they really didn’t care. I think Loki also had his pride, and was too proud to say what happened to him.
💔
Hmm, I think in that context Odin wanted remorse like a parent and Loki at that point didn’t think of himself as a part of their family. Besides, not only is Loki not remorseful about what was necessary, he’s smart enough to call Odin out on the very same shit and because Odin is a hypocritical dirtbag he only shouts and shuts Loki up. So Loki gets thrown away because he’s too free thinking and strong willed to be an obedient child. Thor, meanwhile, still behaves like a child.
(And what about that comic tie in where Frigga knew about him being under Thanos? This family is so fucked, nah we won’t help our tortured child, his torturer was just one of the most frightening beings in the universe, fuck Loki, let’s imprison him. Both Odin and Frigga suck as both parents and strategists in this moment)
I think you are all way smarter than the Marvel writers, and I can see how you’d extrapolate the “Loki wanted to form the Avengers to fight Thanos and defeat him all along” theory from context clues, but I actually believe it’s a BONUS or a FAILSAFE for Loki IF conquering Midgard and handing over the Tesseract didn’t work (which is why Loki never subsequently showed interest in meddling in the Avengers’ affairs, when he had every power to do so). It’s a subtext of the film series, then, but not Loki’s initial or chief goal, which works well with who he is as a character, capable of contingencies, and of changing his plans on the head of a pin. I also think it’s worth remembering that Loki is very emotionally and psychologically damaged, so as much of a mastermind as he may be, he can still make mistakes in scheming out of pique, or emotional attachment (primarily, to Thor and his people).
When I have more time I’ll try to think about this more, since I was tagged! ❤
icyxmischief 