Hello, since my last Loki meta did really well, I’m going to do another, because my self-appointed job is now apparently Analytical Waffling at the whims of my hyper fixations.
Okay, so I want to talk about why Loki stabs Thor— or at least, why I think Loki stabs Thor. Because it’s become a bit of a joke in the MCU that Loki just goes around randomly trying to kill/hurt/stab Thor constantly for no reason, and I’m tired. Someone has definitely analyzed this scene before, but I can’t find those metas right now, and I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring because I keep thinking about it and why it speaks far more to his favor than not.
Just as a start off, Loki has (if you count TR) canonically stabbed Thor twice in the MCU, that’s it (unless you count the metaphorical kind, which would increase that number drastically). Once when they are children (which we lack context for), and in this scene right here:
THOR: Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?
Thor and Loki have been going at it for a while at this point. And neither of them seem too committed to really hurting each other more than necessary. They’re both tired, they’re both scared (though they wouldn’t admit it), and they’re both hurt (in more than one sense).
And then Thor tries to reason with Loki again. He holds him still, leaving no room for escape, and forces him to confront the destruction this is causing, and Loki does.
Loki looks around and sees, truly, what is going on around him, and he’s horrified. He doesn’t want this, this wasn’t his goal, and now that it’s happening, it’s nothing like what he thought it would be.
LOKI: (tries to look away) It's too late. It's too late to stop it.
This isn’t gloating, this is grief. He looks like he genuinely wants to put an end to the violence, but he doesn’t think it’s possible. He’s in over his head.
But Thor hasn’t given up yet. He still believes that they can work together, that their bond is strong enough to get through to Loki now that the seed of doubt has been planted. And you can practically see it working on Loki’s face. That he’s at war with his goals and his true desires and truly wants to say yes.
But Loki’s backed into a corner. At this point it’s important to remember he’s still under Thanos’s thumb, physically linked to the Other, being manipulated by the mind stone, and under threat and duress. To Loki, the choice Thor is giving him is not one he has the power to make. Still, he can’t trust himself to say no. He’s compromised, emotionally, and as long as Thor’s there daring to believe in him, he’s in danger.
THOR: No. We can. Together.
So Loki no longer wants to win, but he can’t, can’t say that, and so he gives himself an out the only way he thinks is possible. If he can’t make himself say no, and he can’t let himself say yes, he has to put distance between them, he has to get Thor to stop trying.
And so he stabs him— with a dagger that nominally would never do major harm to an Asgardian, aimed in an incredibly non lethal area.
To Loki at this moment, he’s acting out of desperate self preservation (admittedly in a way that is in reality self destructive, but, still…) And it works! His terrible plan works! (Yay for everyone but Loki!)
God he looks heartbroken. It’s like he knows if this works that Thor will give up on him, maybe, but that’s what he’s wanted, right? Right? (Wrong!)
And finally we have the iconic line:
It’s said in a mocking tone, but not necessarily to Thor. This, to me (and other people I’ve heard analyze this scene) is said to himself. For letting himself be swayed by what he considers his greatest weakness, sentiment (and, possibly even more, Thor himself).
I don’t have a gif for this one, but I love when people reference him leaving the staff behind. Because it’s very clearly an act of helpfulness through omission. Loki cannot accept Thor’s help, or his entreatment to help, so he does the next best thing— leave the staff— which effectively grants the Avengers the final (literal) key they need in order to win.
I always think of this scene as a great climax of all the pressure Loki is under to perform in this movie. His mask breaks, and he nearly gives in, but in the end his fear is too strong. And so, like a trapped animal, he lashes out in order to remove himself from the situation.
At least, that’s what I think.
