foundlingmother:

Hi new followers! I sometimes write Ragnarok meta. It’s not positive. I try to cultivate an environment on my blog where people can have fun and where people who like Ragnarok are welcome. Hence why I’m writing this. I want you to know I have a tag: 

“ragnarok discourse” 

You deserve the dashboard that’s right for you. Blacklist if you do not like to see anything negative about Ragnarok, or any Ragnarok discourse in general, and stop reading here.

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Ok, let me start by saying that Thor needs to incapacitate Loki when he attempts to betray him in Ragnarok. This isn’t up for debate, imo. Loki is attempting to prevent Thor from returning to Asgard to save a bunch of innocent lives. For me, this is similar to when Thor used Mjolnir to immobilize Loki in Thor. He needed to do that in order to save people. 

That specific part isn’t a problem for me. Thor is in the right to incapacitate Loki, who is in the wrong by betraying Thor.

Now, I could go on forever and ever about how I feel Loki’s betrayal doesn’t make a lot of sense. MCU Loki–unlike comics Loki–doesn’t have a habit of betraying Thor for petty or purely self-serving reasons. He does betray Thor, but there’s an understandable reason for it when it happens (understandable does not mean righteous, btw). It’s not something he does for shit and giggles. We know this because we see in Thor that the experience of being betrayed by Loki is foreign. It’s new.

Like I said, forever and ever. However, proving that both characters are OOC in this scene isn’t the point of this post. No, the point is to talk about the obedience disk (I nearly wrote obedience dick XD). I’ve done this before, but… I have to do it again.

Better.

Bigger.

Bolder.

Not actually any of those things. Mostly just not as upset as I was the last time.

I want to talk about the intent of the filmmakers. 

I don’t really give a shit about the intent of the filmmakers. I’m one of those death of the author people. Personal interpretations are not based on the notes in the script or the private thoughts or directions of anyone on set. I think it’s important to take a look at, however, to

definitively

prove one point: that my interpretation isn’t crazy. It doesn’t come from nothing.

My opinion: I believe the obedience disk is a disgusting torture device that causes both Thor and Loki immense pain. I feel disgusted and uncomfortable seeing it used on both of them. I can understand the necessity when Thor’s lacking resources and needs to incapacitate Loki, but I find it OOC that Thor leaves Loki defenseless and in serious pain. I don’t think Thor would do that. I don’t even think he’d be gloating. He did gloat when outsmarting Loki in TDW, but the handcuffs didn’t cause Loki the sort of pain the obedience disk does. I do not think Thor could ever be pleased watching his brother writhe in pain, no matter how much of a shit he’s being (and Loki is a shit).

A lot of people, in my experience, think there’s no basis for this interpretation. They’ll say it’s just an inconvenience, it’s not that bad. They’ll wonder why I’m blowing it so out of proportion or what movie I even watched.

And that’s where our receipts come in.

Hold on! Stop!

Can someone please explain to me what the pain of a thousand screaming squirrels is? What is this metric?

……….Let’s move on……….

Again, I don’t think that interpretations of movies need to rely on the notes within a script. We don’t have access to those when consuming the movie. My point is that the intention of the filmmakers was to portray Thor and Loki suffering when the obedience disk is used on them (or when Thor messes with it), and so it’s not an overreaction that I should take it that way, or that I should be disturbed that (the impostor) Thor smugly leaves Loki in a situation where he cannot move enough to free or protect himself.

Big thanks to @loxxxlay and @philosopherking1887 for listening to me rant (thought you guys might like to see organized and measured thoughts), and credit to @incredifishface, who reblogged a meta with a response, which I feel I kind of picked words and phrases and arguments from during this, though it was unintentional. I’m just not good at coming up with my own words.

Thank you for bringing in actual textual evidence. I feel like there isn’t enough of that in this fandom. Or on Tumblr in general. Or, you know, in life.