Oh goodness, anon! You didn’t make this easy! I love it!
I’m not sure how much character growth exists in each individual scene I’ve come up with, but these are my favorite scenes that are part of their overall growth, imo. I can’t really order them, so I’ll just over-explain my thoughts about scenes from each movie.
Thor
The “Give Us a Kiss” Scene
The scene that sets up their brotherhood. And it was deleted. Fucking… Anyway, this scene shows their pre-Thor dynamic well. Loki loves his brother. Thor clearly loves him, too, but there’s so many issues with communication. And I really like that it’s made clear Thor enjoys Loki’s magic, even though he belittles it (in an effort to big up himself, I might add, whilst he’s feeling uncertain about his impending coronation). And, of course, my Thorki heart can’t help but scream when Thor doesn’t just drag Loki into a kiss right then and there. I love how a lot of post-IW time travel fics take Thor back to that moment and have him snog Loki senseless. More of that, please!
The Table Flip Scene
The extended version! They sit closer together. It’s made much more clear how surprised Loki is that Thor talks about shared glory, not just glory for himself. The way Loki plays Thor like a fiddle, but also seems to be genuine in a lot of ways (like the line about how Thor’s day will come–he really just wants to improve Thor and prove to everyone how great his own abilities are, not destroy Thor). Loki looking so fucking happy standing up next to Thor and the way they walk off together. They were so young! They had no idea!
Thor’s Apology Scene
I’ve talked at length about this apology. I love it. I love that Thor’s tries to initiate communication the only way he knows how. He wants to fix whatever’s gone wrong between them. But, of course, it’s not about him. So it doesn’t do anything. No communication occurs. It’s endlessly frustrating and perfect for that reason. Also, it’s great to have Thor in this position where he must talk down the “enemy”.
The Bifrost Fight Scene
*cries* Thor doesn’t even know what’s going on! But he doesn’t want to hurt Loki! asdfghjkl;’
Avengers
The Cliffside Reunion Scene
I feed off the miscommunication in this scene, both purposeful and accidental. Thor misunderstanding Loki’s perspective and anger. Loki’s accusations. Thor dismissing both, even though one is legit. Just… how it shows that they’re both such a mess. That they’re coming from different places. Also the neck grab. The conflict within Loki. The way he leans away, but doesn’t actually try to escape Thor’s hold (at first–he does shrug him off when he actually wants to). And Loki being a little shit at different points. The way the humor and emotion blends. Perfect way to summarize what’s up with their relationship and their characters (for those who haven’t seen Thor). Loki isn’t usually like this (Thor believes someone must be controlling Loki). They’re both terrible communicators. They love each other so much. They’re both deeply hurt and their wounds are fresh.
The Stark Tower Fight Scene
Thor reaching out. Loki hearing him. Loki wanting to accept. Loki knowing he can’t. Because it’s too late. The moment Thor decides he can’t get through to Loki. He comes so close, and yet… Plus, there’s yet another big hint that Loki doesn’t want to be doing this…
Thor: The Dark World
Thor and Loki’s Escape Scene
I will never not enjoy the way Loki’s a little, excited shit the entire time they’re committing treason. The shapeshifting. The spicy neck grab. The backseat driving. “Well Done. You’ve Just Decapitated Your Grandfather.” Loki being impressed with Thor outsmarting him. The way he lights up when he’s driving them through the pathway between realms. You can tell Loki’s slipped back into old behaviors, waiting for Thor to start behaving the way he used to when they went on unsanctioned adventures. Thor, on the other hand, is trying to remain detached/serious/focused. Though there are moments where he can’t help but treat Loki like an obnoxious little brother. Great balance.
The Brothers on the Boat Scene
Loki’s concern being for Thor’s happiness. The way their grief gets the better of both of them and they lash out. The way Loki effortlessly offers comfort. The way Thor looks when he realizes it’s worked, that it did comfort him. That there’s some part of Loki that’s still Loki, not just a selfish, cruel madman. The way Loki looks at Thor! There’s no scene that does better with their post-Thor/post-Avengers dynamic, imo. They both have a voice. No one’s condemning Thor for being upset, but it’s also crystal clear who Loki really is. Their communication problems are also a big part of the scene. Ugh! It’s amazing!
The Confrontation with Malekith and Loki’s “Death”
Thor trusting Loki not only to carry out the plan, but to protect Jane. The way Thor protects Loki. The way he holds him and cries while Loki “dies”. This scene makes me cry. It’s so wonderful. It shows how deeply Thor cares about and trusts Loki, even when he’s angry with him and trying to distance himself. Thor’s loving and protective and conflicted. And heartbroken. I know lots of people get upset about Thor leaving Loki’s body, but I don’t hold that against him. He just committed treason. He can’t take Loki’s body to Asgard. Anyway, this scene is a pretty clear example of character growth. It’s meant to be the moment Thor realizes he gave up on Loki too quickly. And it’s a moment of redemption for Loki (this isn’t negated by the fact he survived–Loki’s illusions are canonically unable to be touched without disruption).
Thor Returns to Face “Odin’s” Judgement
So, I think this scene often gets written off as Loki being evil because of the line at the end, but I don’t see it that way. He offers Thor the throne. He offers Thor the freedom Odin refused to grant him. He lets Thor leave with supportive words from Odin. That’s… all out of a deep love for Thor. Yeah, he benefits from some of it, but what’s he getting out of making Odin look like a good, supportive father? That’s just Loki telling Thor he’s proud of him. And he should be. Thor’s line in that scene really shows how he’s grown through the movies. No longer the child proclaiming himself king. Able to admit that others possess skills he does not. It’s great. I wish this scene were addressed more in fics. I think there’s so much to play with here, and always love seeing people tackle it.
“why can’t female heroes kick arse in heels” because it’s not practical and will literally snap your damn ankle you can scream weaponised femininity all you want but first off, you need to admit that they’re not an almighty symbol of empowerment, and secondly that if you do a job with a lot of physical activity in heels you’re risking your own safety. all these women fighting in heels on tv are going to end up seriously injuring themselves.
weaponised femininity is a concept made up in an attempt to get us to embrace the industries created to hold us back/profit from our insecurities so that we can continue to fit into the male expectation of what a woman should be and not question why we are forced to spend thousands on our appearance every year
just a small anecdote. I had a friend who worked in theater; she was the stage manager and an actress came to her in tears one day because the director absolutely refused to let her do a choreographed fight scene in less than 3 inch heels because “they’re platforms so you’ll be okay.” My friend, who is a woman’s size 10, brought her own heels in the next day and DEMANDED the director put them on and try the choreography before the actress did it. He finally agreed to change it, without putting the heels on.
so like I know you might think of “all those women on tv fighting in heels” as fictional woman who WOULD hurt themselves in real life, but its fiction so its okay…except those women are portrayed by real actresses who are actually fighting in actual heels, being directed by dudes who have never worn a pair of heels in their lives, alongside men who aren’t expected to constantly wear things that make their stunts 2x more dangerous than they have to be. Just a thought.
Men take “let’s see feminine women being badass” to mean “let’s see women impractically focused on their appearance in combat situations.“
That’s why I loved Black Panther even more Nakia took off her heels and used them as weapons and was running and driving around barefoot in that one scene
A number of stuntwomen have spoken out about getting injured on sets because the character is wearing heels and skimpy clothing that provide no protection or padding. It literally harms rl women.
The only way I wanna see a women fight with heels is if she takes them off and fights with them a la Mulan/Nakia style.
sorry i can’t hear the noise of male entitlement over the sound of Evangeline Lilly and every other woman sighing in frustration
They photoshopped the heels onto wonder woman. Not even Gal Gadot could fight in them, but it was so important to The Look™ that they frame by frame added them. Gal wore flats to the red carpet in protest.
There’s some things about Loki in the Avengers that don’t add up.
In first photo he looks like he was falling through a space dumpster – but he was relatively OK.
In second picture, a year (or so) after he fell through abyss, he looks like a drug addict in desperate need of a dose. He is all sweaty, shaky, his eyes are hollow, he is pale, and stumbles when he walks.
Why would Loki exchange unlimited power (he knew exactly what the Tesseract was since it was once held in Odin’s treasury) that he could have used to get ALL the realms if he wanted to for just Midgard? It doesn’t make sense.
And in the end- when he said “I’ll have that drink now" after getting Hulk smashed, didn’t he seem different? Like he had snapped out of something?
What the hell happened to him?
Thanos, that’s what. I believe after Loki got a glimpse of the Tesseract, Thanos somehow learned about it and abducted Loki. Tortured, threatened, put put him on a “drug” of some sort- maybe the scepter or some other sort of energy, poisoned Loki’s mind.
Thanos’s influence brought out features Loki already had and made them grotesque- all his anger, pain, jealousy, thirst for attention, taste for mass destruction. Once done, Loki became a tool for Thanos.
The way Loki kept talking about freedom- wasn’t it suspicious? Wasn’t it like a subconsciousness cry for help?
(To those who think this theory is an attempt to vindicate Loki’s actions and make him “innocent”- it’s not.) The scepter’s control was not breaking a man’s personality and creating something new- no- it was bringing up characteristics of the man and making them extreme.
also
the bit mentioned, “The scepter’s control was not “breaking man’s personality and creating something new”- no- it was bringing up the strongest characteristics of the man and making them extreme.”
Remember when Bruce was getting kind of worked up
and he grabbed that fucking scepter?
ALL OF IT. You’re brilliant and I love you, beautiful individual that wrote this.
Headcanon accepted and filed in the official library under the letter B for Brilliant.
THIS
(PLEASE NOTE: I’ve made changes to this post to cut back on length and improve the organization of the argument)
The Scepter is basically the One Ring of Power. And this is 100% my take on Loki’s time between “Thor" and “Avengers", jsyk.
This is much more painful to read after Infinity War.
Lokiwanted to get away from Thanos as far as possible. But in the end he didn’t run. He faced Thanos head on. Did he really feel like he had nothing more to lose?
Because I’m a huge fucking dork and also pieces from the soundtracks kept coming up when I did a random song meme yesterday, I’m going to do my top 5 tracks from the Lord of the Rings movie soundtracks, composed by the sublime Howard Shore.
“The Breaking of the Fellowship,” FOTR
“The Steward of Gondor,” ROTK, featuring Billy Boyd singing (yeah, I like it depressing)
“Forth Eorlingas,” TTT
“The Ride of the Rohirrim,” ROTK
“Amon Hen,” FOTR, but mostly just for the bit at the end where Boromir dies… and then the transition into the next track, which is, of course, “The Breaking of the Fellowship”
Honorable mentions for “Concerning Hobbits” (a happy one!) and the end of “The Bridge of Khazad-dum,” after Gandalf falls, with that high keening boy soprano line. Man, that made me cry all 13 times I saw it in the theater.
But the cookbook was Susan Unger’s brainchild. “I was a young adult living in San Francisco in the 80’s, and the HIV epidemic was really coming at us full force and I wanted to do something….Had the AIDs crisis not been going on, I’m not sure I would have thought of the idea,” Unger said.
From start to finish, the project took about 12-18 months. The process involved queer members reaching out to the families they had been alienated from, for traditional family recipes to fill the cookbook. “The project provided a way for young people to reach out to their parents and grandparents,” Unger told me.
The Sha’ar Zahav congregation wanted to do more than just brunches. “The cookbook gave us a sense we were doing something,” said Ogus. Three dollars from every purchase of the cookbook went to the Food Bank of the San Francisco AIDs Foundation. A total of $13,000 went to the San Francisco Food Bank (about 51,607.28 in today’s dollars).
Loki is the Philosopher King 