Evidence that Loki was Tortured
There’s plenty of evidence that Thanos tortured Loki between Thor (2011) and Avengers (2012), and there are lots of posts about it. But I’ve never seen all the evidence (gifs, movie quotes, and interviews) gathered in one place, so I made this for reference and convenient linking. Additions are welcome. (I’ll reblog my own addition because only ten images per post. Ugh.)
(That was really short....I hate writing introductions.)
(Gifs by @tomhiddleston-loki)
Loki holds himself very still while the Other raised (his? its?) hand to his head. His eyes are visibly watering, he blinks rapidly, and he swallows hard in the first gif. He’s terrified, he knows it’s going to hurt, but he doesn’t fight back. He knows better. He’s learned better.
It looks like his face is burned or bruised here (credits scene for Thor (2011)). Given how much you have to do to leave a mark on his skin, that’s...pretty frightening. (I will add evidence for this in my self-reblog; only ten images per post.)
(Gifs by @cannonballonfire)
(Gif by @tomhiddleston-gifs)
Note how much worse he looks here than he does at the end of Thor (2011). (I’ll also address this in the self-reblog.) He’s very pale. There are dark circles under his eyes as well, most notably in this last gif, but visible in the previous three as well. He’s really sweaty, which you can see most clearly in the top two gifs. And then....
(I have no idea who made this gif; if anyone recognizes it, please let me know and I will add credit)
(I got these from @nikkoliferous)
He doubles over when he’s walking out of the lab with his mind-controlled people. And then his back gives out on him when he’s climbing into the Hummer, and he looks desperate, tired, and scared when he looks up, shivering. None of which makes sense unless he was previously injured.
Gifs 4-10 (of all gifs on this post) speak of heat exhaustion/heat stroke, considering....
The most common signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion include:
Confusion (will include a gif of this in my addition)
Dizziness (cause of doubling over)
Fainting (cause of doubling over)
Muscle or abdominal cramps (cause of doubling over/back giving out/trembling)
Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea (cause of doubling over)
(From https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/heat-exhaustion#1-2 )
Consider, now, that Loki is a Frost Giant. Consider how much worse that’d make either of those already serious conditions.
Quote(s) from the Movies:
“You think you know pain? He will make you long for something sweet as pain.” —the Other
“You think you know pain?” The Other knows that Loki knows what pain is. How would he know exactly how much pain Loki’d been in? How would he know that he can make it worse than any pain Loki’s felt before unless he’d been there, maybe even caused it?
And Thanos doesn’t shy away from torture; actually, it’s more or less his M.O. when it comes to indoctrinating recruits/his “children”:
“He tortured me, turned me into a weapon.”—Gamora
“Thanos pulled my eye from my head, my brain from my skull, and my arm from my body....”—Nebula (I omitted the rest of the quote because it wasn’t strictly relevant)
“As a child my father would have Gamora and me battle one another in ‘training.’ Every time my sister prevailed my father would replace a piece of me with machinery, claiming he wanted me to be her equal. But she won, again and again and again. Never once refraining. Because of them, I am this. So after I murder my sister, I will buy a warship with every conceivable instrument of death. I will hunt my father like a dog and I will tear him apart slowly, piece by piece, until he knows some semblance of the profound and unceasing pain I know every single day."—Nebula
While we’re on the subject of Thanos’ children...recall Ebony Maw’s speech:
“Hear me and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the great Thanos. You may think this is suffering, no. It is salvation. The universal scale tips toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile. For even in death, you have become children of Thanos.”
Doesn’t that sound sort of like Loki’s speech....
(After demanding that a crowd kneels) “Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity....You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”
Both have similar undertones of “you think this is bad for you; no, it’s actually good. It’s what you really want.”
Incidentally, Ebony Maw also happens to be a master torturer (as is evident when he tortures Doctor Strange, which I can’t include a gif of until the reblog).
Links to Interviews + Relevant Quotes:
From http://collider.com/the-avengers-tom-hiddleston-interview/ :
“I think somewhere between the end of Thor and the beginning of The Avengers, Loki has been to the Marvel equivalent of the 7th circle of hell.”
From https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=VdfobYiZsVk&t=1050 (it’s at around 17:35 if the link doesn’t take you there):
“I think he went, like with everything else to—Joss Whedon and I discussed it...[...]—it was just, like, the worst place imaginable. I think he went to sort of all the darkest recesses of the universe. I’m sure he had a brush with—several brushes with death. I think he ran into the shadiest characters you can find in the Nine Realms. I think he had to rely on his wits to protect himself. It was really, really, really unpleasant, I think. I don’t have any frame of reference for that except for imagining what it might be like to be kidnapped by a terrorist cell or something and have to survive a very, very frightening and precarious existence. But whatever it was, it was important that when Loki came back for the Avengers that whatever compassion he had left was absolutely shriveled to a minimum because of the experience that he had. Harrowing, I think, and scarring for life—in a way that Thor and Odin and Frigga find very, very difficult to understand.”
(Please don’t reblog without my reblog immediately below; it’s important!)
