–Potential to tastefully retcon some of the damaging, clownish “whiny white rich boy twink” characterization in Ragnarok (???? i have literally seen these terms used by Waititi stans and i am just like uhhh have we all been sleeping through the whole “Loki is a child of an imperialist colony of Asgard that Odin treats as subhuman and Loki has internalized racism” thing), which has been too easily “explained away” as “Chaotic Neutral Loki.” Not really guys, while I agree Chaotic Neutral is absolutely Loki’s truest alignment, that’s not interchangeable with “constant brunt of jokes often centered on the effects of genuine trauma.”
–Potential to resurrect the character from the dead (PLEASE) post-infinity War.
–Potential to more fully exploit the character’s role as a gray-amoral antihero and Trickster, capable of working both against and FOR the “good” guys (such as the Avengers) without the guilt and sanctimony frequently exhibited toward him for not fitting the prescribed role of “hero” BY the so-called “heroes” who often do just as bad or worse things but it’s “okay” because they’re the “good” guys. Basically I can’t wait to see a narrative that centers on Loki by Loki’s own terms.
–For that reason I actually hope we don’t see much of Thor in this series. Thor tends to overshadow Loki and while I like Loki and Thor both best when they are with each other, being complementary halves of a whole entity, I think proximity to Thor is rarely good for Loki’s mental, emotional, or physical wellbeing.
–Potential to explain, and fully, certain loopholes between The Dark World and Ragnarok, such as how the hell he survived being impaled by Kurse, when he clearly actually was injured (illusions cannot be run through, they’re just glamours that solid objects pass through and reveal as tricks).
–Potential for further flashbacks into Thor and Loki’s childhood, fleshing out their dynamic with each other and with their parents.
–Frigga cameos in said flashbacks???? MAMA! ;A; ❤
–Please God do not make Loki enter a romance with Amora or Lorelei (nothing against either character, Amora in particular is mega awesome, but I have no interest in seeing forced heteronormative romances with characters who are so SIMILAR to Loki and will only bring out the worst in him.
–Please God DO show romances or flirtations confirming Loki’s queerness/bisexuality.
–GENDERFLUID. LOKI. CONFIRM THIS COMICS CANON. LOKI. IN. FEMALE. FORM. RIGHT. NOW. LADY LOKI RIGHT NOW. NOW!!!!!
–Loki doing a thousand million different comedic and clever and cutthroat disguises, shape shifting!!!!!!
–LOKI SHOWING THAT LOKI IS A HYPER-COMPETENT SORCERER ON TIER WITH DR. STRANGE, NOT A LAUGHINGSTOCK PISSBABY THAT THOR HAS TO RESCUE FROM A PORTAPOTTY
–Finally maybe some scenes of Loki interacting with Thanos’s other “children” like Nebula and Gamora. Dare I say it, maybe even scenes of Loki’s mistreatment by Thanos thanks to people like Ebony Maw (since it’s on Disney, I doubt they’ll ever go into as graphic of detail as I imagine his torture being, but I’d like to have something concrete to point out to Loki naysayers, to show that no, I’m not just a “bleeding heart imagining he was mistreated.”) Actually that’s a good question, does anyone know the intended viewing audience for this show? is it gonna be like TV-14, or TV-MA?
–As an anon has now CONFIRMED, Tom Hiddleston has CHOSEN to contractually enter into this show. It wasn’t an obligation, he’s done his six out of six movies. This means Tom likes what he sees, and Tom has great integrity to the character. Since Chris Hemsworth sadly seems to have lost patience with the Loki fandom, this is why I also hope he really isn’t involved too much.
My only fear is that this is a consolation prize for Loki being “really dead” in the MCU movies, and that these will be “fill in the blanks” episodes taking place strictly while Loki is on the throne of Asgard, or in Sakaar, which means they’ll carry the sort of frantically neo-Dadaist tone of Ragnarok, in which Loki’s character doesn’t fare well. Again, I hope Tom’s enthusiasm for the role proves this wrong.
//I don’t think he would either, but isn’t he contractually obligated? That’s my only fear. Does anyone know to how many films Tom must be committed? Last I heard he owed one more “film” should they choose to use him, which means mcr is right in saying he signed on for an entirely new project voluntarily.
I think I have compassion fatigue for the character at this point, and I was almost hoping Marvel would be done with him after the next film.
I am also a little concerned that a character who’s always been shown as subsidiary is now obtaining center stage, and I’m afraid of “canon” we will learn that contradicts long-held dear headcanons of mine. Basically I never expected something this comprehensive to take place with Loki as the star, and I’m terrified that the new material is gonna rip my heart apart afresh in unexpected ways. What if Loki is shown to hate children, or be a bad parent? Me: dead. What if Loki is shown to be a womanizer? Me: dead. What if he’s shown plotting to kill Thor even after they’ve reconciled? Me: dead. And so on and so forth.
I guess I just need to have more faith in my own seven-year-long insights about this character. But so many bad things have happened both in-universe and IRL that I’m finding hope hard to come by.
That’s not for ONE MINUTE to say that you guys shouldn’t be OVERJOYED, or that I won’t eventually feel the same happiness. I’m certainly excited that we’ll be getting fresh material which will only feed my drive to write meta and rp. I just hope I’m not forgotten with the other “old” Loki blogs when all the hype hits XD;
I belatedly caught that too, in the wide shot. You can see both brothers, but Loki’s chest is heaving and Thor’s is not. That made me obsessively rewind.
Loki’s as close to crying, proper heaving sobs, as you’ll ever see. He never breaks, because he’s Loki. But yeah. His entire body’s grieving. He’ll never get a chance to go back and feel Odin’s love as it was meant to be.
Unless A4 gets really timey wimey.
Well, guess I’ll be spending this day in tears. Thanks a lot 😭😭😭😭
Also i guess that’s how Tom was playing this scene, and that’s why at the Comic Con he said that line about “realising the love of his father”.
Mhh, I already saw it when I watched the movie for the first time but I still don’t consider this as a real grief for the beloved father. I look at it from a psychological perspective. It’s a normal reaction to cry when you’re coming out of an extremely emotional situation where you found out another family secret, feel guilty cause you did something cruel and became something you never really wanted because then you are no different from the one person you rejected because of that. And suddenly this person seemed to show a kind of affection, something you had wished to get all your life. You don’t know if you’re surprised, deeply touched or just misguided. It’s a common reaction to feel something towards your „abuser“, it’s called Stockholm syndrome.
I don’t consider Loki’s tears as a grief over losing his father. But that’s of course just my point of view.
I’ve never noticed this before! :’O Honestly I’m kind of in between the two ideas, from the way Odin and Loki interacted in Thor 2011, I can kinda see Loki being like, despite everything they still loved each other, but Odin from the Dark World treated Loki like the absolute worst, so I think that would lend itself towards what @motherhela said.
Either way, tho, Loki crying is the worst feeling. 😢
As moving as this is, it’s really confusing when you consider the last time Odin saw Loki.
I’m going to agree with @motherhela. Loki is visibly upset because it’s an upsetting situation.
Loki was just recently ripped away from Asgard…after seeing (and being threatened by) Thor for the first time in years. He spent 30 minutes falling. Then he saw his dad again for the first time in years, only to find out that his dad is dying. Then Loki found out that he has a sister and that Asgard is on the brink of destruction. On top of all that, his cover was blown. So, he knew it would only be a matter of time before Thanos found him, which is probably why he was considering staying on Sakaar. I’d be crying too. Or vomiting. Or both.
As far as I’m concerned Odin’s “evidence of love” for Loki was too little, too late, and frankly only served to make Loki more conflicted (been there) by feeling obligated to return affection to someone who kept him at arm’s length at best for most of his life. Odin used Loki as a convenient chess piece in his extravagantly corrupt game of imperialist conquest. There is no better way to break a people than to take one of their own and assimilate that person into the dominant culture, giving them a case of, once they learn their true heritage, internalized racism that there is no evidence Loki ever got over.
Let’s also remember it’s in the context of Odin conveniently expiring right after telling his sons of yet another problem he swept under the rug and let fester, for them to later clean up with, among other things, their total lack of a sense of personal boundaries from Odin and from each other; Thor’s learned narcissism; Loki’s learned jealousy and paranoia; and a sibling who literally wants to kill them and destroy their world, specifically because she was fed the rhetoric of conquest, and then punished for acting on it too autonomously.
Odin does not deserve forgiveness. I am glad for whatever closure Thor and Loki obtained, but it was not with their father’s help.
Loki is crying here in good part because he KNOWS he will NEVER obtain true closure with Odin. He didn’t get a chance to say a word. And that’s agonizing for Loki, who communicates both intent and emotion with exceptionally nuanced linguistic routes, far more than with action.
And Thor, how Thor mistreats Loki (and vice versa) in the wake of Odin’s death, is ripe evidence of this. Odin’s spirit has barely dissipated before Thor is wrongly blaming Loki for his death: because it’s far less painful a case of cognitive dissonance to blame the “bad” little brother than the patriarch who was “all-knowing and wise” and metonymic of your entire home, society, and values (values that in crisis you will cling too all the more blindly and tenaciously).
^^^^ Couldn’t have said it better in its totality myself. Nebula could even be like “that’s rough, buddy” when Loki confided to her that Thor continued to adulate Odin because it’s less painful of a cognitive dissonance for Thor to think Loki is the bad apple and Odin is the gruff but well-meaning patriarch.
There are stunning similarities between Odin and Thanos, particularly when you take into account Odin’s reign of “benevolent” imperialism, which was finally made explicit in Ragnarok despite all of Ragnarok’s narrative flaws. The only difference between Odin and Thanos is: A) scale of genocide B) Odin was a cunning pragmatist who knew he was wrong and concealed it systematically, and Thanos was a mad ideologue who fully believed his cause was noble and justified. Not sure which is worse, since the effects are the same: a lot of innocent people dead, and your own children totally fucked up.
My whole journey through making Thor: Ragnarok — I knew this was coming. By the end of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki has been accepted as Thor’s brother again. — Tom Hiddleston (x)
That’s Thor realizing he finally made it through his brother, he fucking did it
I’m afraid I have a much less satisfying, much sadder, take on Ragnarok’s events than this: Loki realized Thor is the only family he has left, and Thor made it abundantly clear that the conditions of “reacceptance” were for Loki to mimic his old role of flanking Thor and serving Thor’s ends unquestioningly. So their reunion is, to me, bittersweet, because Loki still defines himself as Thor’s foil, and Thor never once was willing to just say to his brother, “You were to blame for SOME, but not ALL, of what happened to our family and friends, and hey, what exactly DID happen to you after you fell into a wormhole off the Bifrost?”
To me, that speaks of one-sided “reconciliation,” and it’s unfortunate, and frustrating, and sad. Ultimately it goes back to the fact that Thor’s character regressed alarmingly as a person to behavior seen in the first Thor movie. Then, oddly, Thor is back to his evolved, better, kinder self in Infinity War. This blip on the radar will always confuse me as a consumer of media and as a professional writer.
However, the silver lining of this moment is that Loki’s return to Asgard to rescue the remaining refugees–when Thor sees it–is what immediately galvanizes Thor into being able to repel Hela, and gain the upper hand in battle.
For me the real moment that Thor shows he has accepted Loki is when he trusts Loki to resurrect Surtur single-handedly. THAT moment is both touching and rewarding, as is the “I’m here” moment and the off-screen hug.
//Sometimes i imagine like, Loki talking to Tony Stark or someone, and Thor is just standing there, picking at his hair, flicking his ear, flicking his nose, headlocking him, and Loki just kind of smacks his hands away and steadfastly keeps talking, concentration amazingly unbroken, while Thor has this shitty Big Brother Grin™ on his face and continues to be a loving asshole, and Tony just kind of looks askance at Bruce or Pepper or someone and is like “this is why I’m an only child lol” and Loki without missing a beat goes “yes and why I WISH I were” and Thor just bawls with laughter.
Like give me more of that shit Marvel. That shit is why we watch your damn movies, not convoluted plots about magic gemstones.
icyxmischief 