Then you notice that Loki is actually crying in the last gif.
And you notice he’s crying, but do you know why?
I do.
Loki has green eyes. In fact, in Thor, Tom Hiddleston had to wear contacts- that’s Loki’s colour. Green. And that’s important. Why?
Because in The Avengers, Tom Hiddleston did not wear contacts.
Tom Hiddleston’s eyes are blue.
Now, why, you may ask, is Tom Hiddleston not wearing contacts in The Avengers? Is it a mistake? No, there is no such thing as a mistake as big as that when it comes to this character. His eyes are blue because he is being possessed, controlled, by the tesseract. Like with every person who’s chest he touched with his staff, he had fallen prey to it’s power.When Loki let go of his staff and fell into the abyss, where do you think he landed? Happy sunshine land? Of course not. Wherever he was, it was terrible. It broke him. He had to fight, he had to protect himself, he had to become a savage to survive. He fell to a cruel and evil planet, an every-man-for-himself planet, a place where the meaning of the words ‘family’ and ‘love’ were forgotten. And this is where he lived for untold amounts of time. And eventually, one day, someone came looking for a servant. A scapegoat. And they found the broken once-prince of Asgard, something one could no longer call a man, alone and crying dry tears. They said redemption. They said power. They said friendship. And this once-man fell in love with the idea. His honour was returned, his staff, his fighting force and a reason- a reason to do something.
Redemption.
Loki, the once future king of Asgard, wanted only redemption. But he didn’t know the price he would have to pay to get it. In the end, he was merely a marionette puppet, his strings being toyed with by the one person he had learned to trust. The person who had taught him again what love was, what friendship was, and what it meant to be a warrior. But he had been manipulated. Instead of how to love, he had been taught how to hate. And oh, he hated everyone and everything. But above all, deep down, he hated himself.
But he would have redemption.
Because that’s what he really wanted, right? Loki didn’t want to kill, or maim, or destroy- that’s what he wanted. Loki wanted only a father’s love. A brothers companionship. And he had been manipulated into thinking he didn’t have that. But he could rectify his name, if he could prove himself capable, he would be redeemed! His father would be proud of him, his brother would trust him, and he could have that normal life he had always secretly wanted to have.
When he realised this, Loki did something he had not done in days, or months, or years.
He let out a tear.
Because he saw then that, for him, there was no going back. His brother did love him, after all that had happened, Thor wanted only to have his brother back. But Loki had ruined that. He had fallen prey to doubt and greed and judgement. He knew at that moment that he- and only he- had destroyed every good thing he had had, every chance of having the family that ran through his dreams. He saw that by that day, all hope was lost. No matter what Thor said, things would never be the same for the two of them as they had been when they were children. He knew that they had both changed too much and seen to much to ever look at each other the same again. He knew that from that point on, the two could never truly be brothers.
So when Thor said ‘Together,’ Loki cried.
Oh.
“YOU LACK CONVICTION.”
This is a magnificent scene.
1) Because Coulson, period.
2) Because he figures Loki out first. “You lack conviction.” Loki lacks certainty on a deeper level. He lacks certainty that he is right and that this is what he wants, and he lacks a real moral grounding on which to fight for his cause. He has double-thought and deceived himself into thinking he is some dark savior. Deep down he still thinks he is the blue skinned monster that his family could not possibly have ever really loved. Put simply,Loki doesn’t even know what he wants. If he wants to win, WHAT he wants to win, HOW he wants to win it. He has this myopic determination, but that’s just a coping mechanism for being as internally confused as he was in “Thor.”
3) Coulson recognizes this RIGHT AFTER HE WATCHES THOR AND LOKI INTERACTING, and sees the “fun of it” leaving Loki’s face once he’s dropped Thor out in the metal death trap. Because Thor stopped fighting, and LET Loki drop him out that metal death trap. Because Thor knows Loki needs to feel like he’s won. Like a heartbroken child that needs to feel validated, even in the most twisted way. (If you don’t believe me, just look at the gifs of Thor’s face and the way he leans back from the glass and just stands there frowning in confusion, and, then, disappointed resignation).
4) THE FACT THAT LOKI NEEDS TO PAUSE TO JUSTIFY HIMSELF TO COULSON, A MERE “ANT,” WHICH GIVES COULSON THE OPENING TO SHOOT HIM, PROVES THAT COULSON IS RIGHT. LOKI IS INSECURE IN HIS MISSION AND ITS SUCCESS, AND SO HE HAS TO MANUFACTURE THE BOMBAST AND THE DEFENSIVE WORDS TO MAKE HIMSELF FEEL BETTER AS MUCH AS TO PROVE HIS ENEMY WRONG. Magnificent writing.
Have you ever wondered why Loki’s eyes are so blue in The Avengers? In fact, Tom Hiddleston’s eyes are blue and he had to use green contacts plus effects in Thor. Loki’s eyes are blue in The Avengers because of his scepter. The same happened with Hawkeye and Selvig. Loki was very vulnerable when Thor smashed him on the floor. He had a few moments of lucity, just like when Natasha slapped Hawkeye. Thor asked Loki to look around and see the damage he caused, asking to help him. It was a conflic, you can see. Then his eyes became green. You can see in the last gif. The change is VERY notable. It was a conflict, but the power of the Tesseract was stronger. Loki did many bad things, but he was being possessed most of time. NOT like a robot, as with the others, but as said Loki “It touches everyone differently”. Everything makes sense to you now? One of the reasons why I can’t hate Loki at all. I’m not saying he’s not guilty, he is, but the Tesseract’s power fueled his hatred. He was being, in fact, controlled. Now we have sure of it.
okay so OBVIOUS jokes aside, can we talk about that pause in the first gif? tell me that’s not loki thinking back on when he first encountered the tesseract. I’d give anything to get inside that crazy little head and know what he saw, seeing how greatly it’s affecting him here. it showed him things he didn’t know existed, things he probably didn’t want to see at all. he references it later, on the mountain with thor, telling him he’s seen worlds he’s never known about—the true power of the tesseract. I feel like maybe the amount of knowledge and “truth” loki saw made him crazier. “it touches everyone differently.” the way he says that doesn’t exactly sound positive. A burden, if you will. I want to know how this is going to affect him in the future, I want to know the consequences I need them.
Can someone explain me this? o:
Left: Scepter off
Right: Scepter on
:D
TEEELL MEEEEEEEEE!!!!
“He’s someone who was born with an expectation of a particular entitlement. He was born to be a king. And then he finds out that the whole of his life is a lie. That he was this monster, cast out, left to die, bastard child of a kind of enemy race and adopted and lied to. And all of that heartache hardens into what becomes his destructive power and rage and I hope what people like about it is that it’s human; ultimately that the feelings are human. They’re bigger, they’re darker certainly, and they’re given full vent in a way that would be dangerous in real life. But I hope that people recognize the humanity in it” - Tom Hiddleston.
(You can delete this text if you want!)
Loki is taught from a very young age that being a Jotun was the equivalent of being a monster. He is socialized to believe that they are a thing of nightmares, a thing to be hated and feared. So when he realizes what he is, when he realizes that he is that outcast, this abominable figure, that he is a part of the hated race of Jotuns, he breaks. In the first gif in the set, Thor, (barely twelve years old, max?), is already proclaiming his hate for the Jotun race and vowing to ‘hunt them down and slay them all,’ Aside from how honestly sad that is to hear from someone as young as Thor, it also must be really painful for Loki, not in that moment, but much later, when Odin reveals who he truly is.
Second row: Loki’s spent a lot of time being told that his craft is silly, spent a lot of time in brother’s shadow, spent a lot of time being told to shut the fuck up. The one thing that he’s good at—being a wordsmith, of sorts, is something that he never gets to utilize, because he is constantly being mocked or shut down. It’s heartbreaking. Another thing about Loki, I genuinely believe he loves his brother. Loki doesn’t think Thor is fit for the crown, yet when Thor complains that this was ‘supposed to be his day of triumph’ Loki says, ‘It will come’ and I believe that Loki believes that. I believe that as Loki later states, that he never wanted the throne, he legitimately only wanted to be Thor’s equal. But, Loki, in doing this, in setting up this little charade, has managed to get his brother, the only person who really knew Loki, and still loved him, banished from Asgard. Yes, Loki wanted Thor’s coronation delayed, but I doubt he ever meant for it to get as bad as it did. There’s a point right before Odin’s sentenced Thor when Loki tries to intercede, and Odin shuts him up. I am convinced beyond a doubt that had he let Loki finish his sentence, he would have confessed. But that doesn’t happen, so what does? Thor gets banished, and for once, Loki isn’t second best, no one’s telling Loki to shut up and sit down (because he’ll never be as good as Thor, anyways). It’s a nice change. Is it awful on Loki’s behalf? Fuck yes it is. Is it understandable? To a degree. After that everything gets fucked up. Loki’s revealed to be Laufey’s son—something that he says with what I saw as an incredibly large amount of shame and sadness—and Odin falls into the Odin-Sleep, Loki is told that he is to be the ruler of Asgard until his father awake, Thor has been banished, you are the sole heir, etc. He looks confused, and a little hesitant, but he accepts. The thing here is that Loki went from having almost no authority to having literally, all possible authority. It’s like giving someone who can’t ride a bicycle without training wheels a Ferrari. It’s stupid, and he lets it get to his head.
Third row: Loki has literally lost it. He’s vowing to annihilate the Jotuns, in some weird show of power for his father’s sake, as if to tell him that he can be a warrior, he can be Thor. Loki hates his race, and I think it’s fair to say that he hates himself at this point. He’s fucking crying as he goads Thor into a fight. Loki is riddled with self-esteem issues, loneliness, and that emptiness that comes with feeling out of place and underappreciated all of your life. Loki is tragic, not because he falls into a starry abyss and is assumed to have been swallowed up in darkness just as he loses everything he’s ever had—but because even in “death”, he fails to realize that he is wrong. The Jotuns aren’t monsters because they have blue skin and red eyes, the Jotuns are monsters because of what they chose to do. Loki wanted so badly to dissociate from something that is intrinsic to his nature, that he nearly loses himself in the process.
Loki is the single most sympathetic villain I have ever come across. He is a product of how he was raised, how he was treated, how he was socialized, and a victim of who he is from birth, a Jotun. He never stood a chance.
“Monsters are real…they live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” –Stephen King
Loki saves Sif, Fandral, everybody im crying
The thing about Loki is that he’s the one who’s keeping an eye on the whole fight instead of just fighting his guy. Because I think he thinks it’s his responsibility to make sure everyone is on track and comes home safe. I just rewatched this and he is the one who reins everyone in “Thor let’s leave,” “Laufey we accept your deal,” “THOR WE HAVE TO LEAVE” “THOR!” As they’re all running away in Jotunheim after this fight, he’s the one who calls for Thor to make sure Thor is coming too. He’s the one who tattled to get Odin to come save them. And that way no one else has to risk being the coward, and that’s like Loki’s role on the team and it both leads to him being necessary AND leads to him being bullied.
I’m really not trying to criticize Thor or Sif or the Warriors Three because it’s not their fault, they never asked Loki to do this, and they’ve never had any reason to second-guess themselves because Odin doesn’t take Loki any more seriously than they do. Children don’t become bullies in a vacuum. It’s really Odin’s fault, is what I’m trying to say, and the whole royal Asgardian hierarchical/monarchic family culture.
*weeps openly*
