livebloggingmydescentintomadness:
Tag: mcu loki
Pardon my fandom rant, but…
…my biggest fear about Avengers 4 isn’t that Loki won’t come back: it’s the MCU, it’s Loki, he won’t stay dead for long. No, my biggest fear is that he’ll come back and that Thor, after all that happened in Infinity War – things that should finally have taught him humility and empathy and changed him for the better – STILL will treat his own brother like his inferior (because apparently the writers think saying Thor loves Loki is enough). And that this will be portrayed as a “happy ending” and something Loki should be content with, even thankful for, because who wants a brother who respects them anyway.
How the heck am I gonna be satisfied with that for either of them?!
I really hope – no, I beg – that anyone messaging Marvel about bringing Loki back would do him (and me) a favor and also drop them a line about Thor’s treatment of him, just to let them know we expect better. ‘Cause honestly, if it continues like so far, he’s probably no worse off dead.
My fear is Loki being resurrected by Thor’s noble and fearless actions, this making all about Thor… again. Loki’s death was about Thor, now Loki’s life could be about Thor as well, this confiding Loki’s status as a a useless twink / fridge wife
That’s exactly my fear too. That’s why I hope those theories about Thor going to Hel / Vallhalla to resurrect Loki don’t pan out, because then it will only be about Thor’s noble act and not about Loki himself. What I’d like to see is Loki to come back by his own incredible will and wits, somehow, like he’s always done. He died for Thor (again) now can’t his life be about himself?
“…now can’t his life be about himself?”
This!!
To your concerns, @shine-of-asgard: I haven’t read the Kid Loki or Agent of Asgard comics (yet…), but I get the sense that even though Thor was responsible for bringing Loki back, Loki has nonetheless been able to lead his own life – intertwined with Thor’s, of course, but not beholden to him. They might want to do something like that… but if Tom Hiddleston comes back in cameos as “Old Loki,” it wouldn’t have the same significance it does in the comics (I gather), because the MCU “Old Loki” was never actually evil. Even at his worst, in Thor and The Avengers, there were extenuating circumstances; he wasn’t in his right mind, and his intentions weren’t entirely malicious. I’m afraid that the way they’ll try to make it work is to frame Old Loki the way Ragnarok did, as not *evil* precisely – because even that would be giving him more credit for competence and motivational complexity/coherence than Ragnarok wanted to – but as *bad*, this cartoon trickster who betrays people for shits and giggles, or because it’s “in his nature” and he “just can’t help himself.”
Alternatively, though, Old Loki could just represent his envy and resentment against Thor and the pain and grievances he can’t move past, while Kid or Teen Loki is trying to live a new life free of all that baggage. That might be compelling, and would be worthy of Tom Hiddleston.
If they are going to reincarnate Loki with a new young actor… I wish Old Loki’s sacrifice had been more significant. I wish he had either had a real reconciliation of Thor, with an acknowledgment of fault on both sides and a resolve from both to do better, or that he had remained Thor’s enemy; the false reconciliation and “redemption” as submission to Thor’s will, and then the pointless shock-value death that didn’t even give much of a payoff to his connection with Thanos (what the hell happened, Marvel?!), are just such a disappointing end to his character arc. This is how your best, most complex and interesting character goes out, not with a bang but a whimper.
Those beautiful profiles
Loki in the comics is so powerful and so magical and can like time hop and zoom around and it’s so funny compared to mcu loki who just twinked about asgard until his dad yelled at him one time
comics loki: im going to rewrite time and trap various characters into vicious time hells and also I’m going to throw the dimensions out of WACK and i can fly sometimes and also I can turn into various forms of myself and i have green orb hands and im so powerful
mcu loki: i have a knife and im a size queen
That’s just what “Ragnarok” and, following it, “Infinity War” made him. There was more to him in previous movies: he made strategic use of illusions, the Casket of Ancient Winters, the Mind Stone, and secret pathways between worlds; he fucked with people’s heads and played double agent. Let’s please not forget that.
three Lokis, three Thors, three very different hugs 😉
Please forgive me, I had to write a small thing for this beautiful triptych!!!
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Loki sits astride Thor and digs his fingers through his long, golden hair. What a thrill even that small touch is, to be allowed to do this to his brother. It makes sense, now, why he’s so overwhelmed by the rest of it: the way their bared skin feels where they press together, the endless terrain of Thor’s body to be mapped by his hands, the look in those beloved eyes as Thor stares up at him. Thor’s hands clasp him close, bringing him down even more firmly in Thor’s lap.
Loki feels a small twinge of jealousy in his chest, like being pelted with freezing rain. His brother’s touch is so assured, so practiced, that this could not be the first time he’s held a lover to him.
"You’re an old hand at this, then?“ Loki whispers in his brother’s ear even as he pulls at Thor’s hair, tipping his head back. “How many have been in this bed before me?“
Thor looks at him with that damned honest confusion. He’s as clear as a forest stream, letting Loki see right through him. “Why do you ask such a thing?”
"Well.“ Loki let’s his thin sleeping robe slip from his shoulders. Thor’s hands help it along. "Here I am at last, and you act as if you’ve had me like this a dozen times. Not a tremor in your hands. It makes me wonder."
"Oh, Loki.” Thor cranes his neck up to kiss him, another new thrill that Loki cannot refuse. When they part, Thor is smiling. “I have been holding you all our lives. Of course I’ve become very good at it."
And Loki, pleased with this explanation, allows his brother to prove his claim. Very thoroughly.
OH MY GOOOOOOOOOODS!!! This! THIS! I was literally scrolling tumblr with tears in my eyes cause everything sucks right now and then I see this! You made my day 300% better and I love this so much!!!
Thank you 🙂 No one has ever written a thing inspired by my silly art <333
Some time ago, you responded to a post from @oneformischief saying that Loki “struggles with mental illness” and that “Happiness is foreign to Loki … because he’s incapable, through no fault of his own, of being happy”. Would you mind elaborating on that? And if Loki can’t be fully happy, how can he come as close to happiness as possible?
Wow, I quite like what I said in that post! Thank you for the question and reminding me my own meta exists!
The way Loki’s depicted in the films, I see a lot of indicators of mental illness. He attempts suicide at least once (though I don’t think it’s hard to read the scene with Kurse as, at least, Loki displaying a disregard for his own survival). He openly admits to Frigga in a deleted scene that he wants to be unable to tell reality from illusion. These are some specific instances that feel very relatable to my own struggles with mental illness, but there’s just a general element to his character that speaks to many mentally ill fans. This offers an opportunity for a lot of different interpretations. I tend to characterize Loki as having depression, as I struggle with depression, but I know other people who characterize Loki as having bipolar disorder, BPD, etc. He has no stated diagnoses (something tells me Asgard’s even worse at treating mental illness than we humans are), so it’s really up to the viewer to determine that.
Like I said, I tend to think of Loki in terms of him having depression, or exhibiting depressive behaviors as part of another mental illness. People who are depressed, through no fault of their own, experience persistent sadness or apathy. This is the result of a malfunctioning brain. It’s not the choice of the individual. They are not choosing to be sad or apathetic, they are suffering from an illness. You’ve probably heard a similar comparison before, but when there’s a problem with someone’s… let’s say liver, we don’t demand that they fix it through sheer willpower. We treat the liver. The same should be true of the brain.
There are various ways to treat mental illness. Not everyone will take medication (though the more it’s destigmatized, the better). I can’t really imagine that Loki would ever take pills… or that they would work for him being a different species. However, I think he’d benefit from therapy (honestly, I can’t think of a MCU character that wouldn’t benefit from a bit of therapy). But, as I mentioned in that post, I think the first step is actually Loki getting what he wants, which isn’t anything unreasonable, imo. I mean, I think he has crimes to atone for, but people can still treat him with basic respect and decency while he does so. And Thanos’ defeat would certainly help Loki to feel a lot freer without that looming threat. (Let’s all live in a magical timeline where Loki isn’t dead!) After that point, where all of Loki’s basic needs are met and he has a support system, at least in his brother (though ideally he makes more friends), then he’s got to learn ways to manage his mental health and avoid self-destructive tendencies (oh boy does Loki have self-destructive tendencies). That’s about as specific as I can get on how he gets as close to happiness as possible. It’s management of a chronic illness. Some days are good. Some are alright. Some days are bad. You learn ways to continue, and when it’s a good time to let yourself have a break.
I hope this answered your question, or made it a little clearer what I meant in that post. I don’t know… do you want to add anything @philosopherking1887 (or any of my other followers–you’re all welcome to contribute with your perspectives)?
Nothing to add here. I think I do on the linked post, though. Off to do that.
Loki is the Philosopher King 