And then there was this interview, with this interesting little excerpt:
Thor: Ragnarok’s director Taika Waititi – New Zealander of the Year, blossoming fashion icon, and man of a thousand poses – is swift to launch into a description of Loki, the unbeloved son of Asgard, as, “someone who tries so hard to embody this idea of the tortured artist, this tortured, gothy orphan.”
“Swift to launch into” this description, huh? Kind of sounds like someone with an idée fixe, a preoccupation, a grudge… probably a secondhand grudge, on behalf of one Chris Hemsworth, but one he has made charmingly his own.
What gets me most about this is using “orphan” as sth degrading. Not to mention disregarding someone’s pain: “tortured, gothy orphan”. And as someone who loves gothic art, I have to ask what’s wrong with being a goth and gothic things?
Waititi is trying to make it sound like Loki is a big fake and a phoney, “trying” to be tortured, “trying” to be artistic, “trying” to be emo and goth, like, Loki’s legitimate pain, heartbreak, and suffering is something he is faking so that he will be seen as these things. The whole thing is really insulting, and along the lines of stereotyping. And Tom Hiddleston had said these things, Loki’s soul was tortured, he had deep, inner reservoirs of pain, and yeah, Loki had a sensitive, artistic relationship with Frigga. He compared it like Thor being the star quarterback, and Loki being the sensitive artist. But Waititi is trying to say Loki is a big faker and a poser that just wants attention and to stab his brother.
And there is nothing wrong with being goth! I love gothic music too! ❤❤❤❤
When you bring up those quotes from Tom, it makes me wonder whether Taika was really saying it about Tom under the guise of saying it about Loki: that Tom is trying so hard to make Loki into a tortured, artistic orphan with real trauma and pain.
Taika sounds like the most callous kind of neurotypical or “mentally healthy” person who thinks everyone with mental illness must somehow be faking it for attention or as an excuse for behaving badly.
Sigh… I really think that Taika should evaluate himself and his way of thinking.
That would require a capacity for self-reflection and self-criticism that he pretty obviously lacks.
I jumped ship from Tumblr and this is where I landed. I'm a philosophy postdoc (INTJ, she/her) with a serious thing for Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Sometimes I even write fanfiction about it. Mostly Loki and Thor/Loki (sometimes NSFW), some miscellaneous Hiddles, MCU (Steve/Tony or "Superhusbands" is my secondary ship), occasional Cherik, Game of Thrones, LOTR, Whedonverse... whatever catches my fancy, really.
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