(COMIC CONTAIN SPOILER STUFF) Thor Ragnarok is the BEST Thor movies by far, but i was pissed because of “that scene”. So i’m”fixing” it my own way, your welcome guys!
Do you know what’s another moment I loved about this movie? When Loki makes his grand YOUR SAVIOR IS HERE! entrance, this is Thor’s reaction:
He’s delighted to see that dramatic little shit!
It complements the moment that comes not too much later, when Thor finds his lightning powers again and comes raining lightning down on the bridge, Loki does this absolute fucking smirk:
THEY ARE SO DELIGHTED BY EACH OTHER.
After all the years we had to struggle our way through the breaking of their relationship, the losses they both suffered, the cracks to both their foundations, the bitterness and strife that kept wedging itself in between them, literal years of watching them break apart and break apart and break apart.
And this movie could have broken them for good. But instead it understood that they cannot go backwards, but that does not mean they cannot still go forward. That they can’t both be grow and change and find each other again.
The death of the last of their family might have split them apart, it almost did, but when it really came down to it, they both chose to move on, to be something more, and that allowed them to come back together.
It allowed them to smile when they saw each other again, genuine and real. After all that hurt–when Loki shows up again, their first reaction to the sight of the other is one of being glad to see the other, both of them.
THIS WAS SUCH A PERFECTLY EXECUTED RUNNING STORY THREAD.
Loki’s use of illusion magic is shown throughout the film, it’s used to trick or betray or keep his distance, it shows his vulnerability when Valkyrie caught him, and then finally to show that he’s really there on the ship.
That final moment has all the greater impact because we’ve seen it used throughout the movie and because we realize that it’s tied to showing where Loki’s at. Is he in a manipulative place? A desperate place? A selfish place? A vulnerable place? We see all of those, demonstrated through whether he’s present or just a magic spell.
And then we see him really there and we understand that he’s not just really there physically, he’s really there emotionally, too. He’s ready to be something more, to move on from the past, to try being a little more actually present in this life and this family he wants.
The culmination of the use of his illusion magic is used beautifully in this movie, that moment shows everything about how Loki has grown after all the shit they’ve all been through. And we get it because we’ve seen that he’s a wily sort, he’ll absolutely use that tool to keep his distance when he wants to.
So if he’s really there, then he really chose to be there, in person and for real.
This is not something we’ve seen him do before. Not that he would have had any occasion to in previous movies, but this is kind of in a different category from other things he does with magic: mostly illusions, shapeshifting, and moving things around.
This is some wild-ass, blatantly self-interested speculation, but… what if the power to draw out other people’s memories is a relatively new ability that he gained from his interaction with the Mind Stone? Scarlet Witch got her powers from experimentation with the Mind Stone, and one of the things we’ve seen her do is get into people’s heads and make them experience things based on their worst fears and most painful memories.
This at least suggests that forcing people to re-experience memories is one of the things that the Mind Stone can do, in addition to co-opting their will to make them serve the aims of the wielder. I think everyone I know has dismissed the idea that Thanos was controlling Loki the way Loki controlled Barton and Selvig; that’s probably not something you can do to a magically powerful being like Loki. BUT Scarlet Witch was able to do the fear-exploiting thing with Thor, and Loki simultaneously experienced and forced the Valkyrie to re-experience her worst memory – that is something you can do to more powerful beings.
So… this provides some circumstantial evidence in favor of the theory I explore in my fic The Abyss Gazes Also about what happened between Thanos and Loki: that Thanos exploited Loki’s own fears, resentments, and insecurities and forced him to re-experience his most traumatic memories involving his family (especially Thor and Odin) to manipulate him into invading Earth on Thanos’s behalf and fighting against his adoptive family.
I was thinking exactly along these lines and am SO EXCITED that for wherever reason we have new Loki powers to play with!
I think he always had the abilities to tap into someone’s memories, there just wasn’t any place to showcase those abilities yet or maybe he just never bothered to practice them. And I think it isn’t clear if HE could see Valkyrie’s memories, or if he simply triggered her to see them.
If he did that to distract her, why not take her down before she recovers from the flashback?
Instead, he seemed only a little less dazed than she was at the end which (added to her rage at having to remember) allows her to take him out with one punch.
His stricken facial expression, as well as his general air of disorientation, did seem to suggest that he had seen it, too.
This is not something we’ve seen him do before. Not that he would have had any occasion to in previous movies, but this is kind of in a different category from other things he does with magic: mostly illusions, shapeshifting, and moving things around.
This is some wild-ass, blatantly self-interested speculation, but… what if the power to draw out other people’s memories is a relatively new ability that he gained from his interaction with the Mind Stone? Scarlet Witch got her powers from experimentation with the Mind Stone, and one of the things we’ve seen her do is get into people’s heads and make them experience things based on their worst fears and most painful memories.
This at least suggests that forcing people to re-experience memories is one of the things that the Mind Stone can do, in addition to co-opting their will to make them serve the aims of the wielder. I think everyone I know has dismissed the idea that Thanos was controlling Loki the way Loki controlled Barton and Selvig; that’s probably not something you can do to a magically powerful being like Loki. BUT Scarlet Witch was able to do the fear-exploiting thing with Thor, and Loki simultaneously experienced and forced the Valkyrie to re-experience her worst memory – that is something you can do to more powerful beings.
So… this provides some circumstantial evidence in favor of the theory I explore in my fic The Abyss Gazes Also about what happened between Thanos and Loki: that Thanos exploited Loki’s own fears, resentments, and insecurities and forced him to re-experience his most traumatic memories involving his family (especially Thor and Odin) to manipulate him into invading Earth on Thanos’s behalf and fighting against his adoptive family.
Loki is the Philosopher King 