In the light of recent events I decided to rant a little bit more – I understand the anger, the feeling of betrayal and I’m amazed by how big and devoted the Tom/Loki fandom is. I really enjoy reading your statements and I reblog many of them for discussion purposes, but please – let’s agree to not overstep the boundaries. That being said, I still live in the united states of denial and believe that we don’t really have anything to worry about. That is why I ask you: please take a few deep breaths and relax. Don’t be nasty to the Russos or other Marvel guys on Twitter, but question them. Questions are always welcome. If Loki’s fate is sealed, I’m sure they will be willing to reply.
I’ve wrote a couple of harsh words on the topic of Loki’s demise right after I left the cinema and when I calmed down, I wrote some posts devoted to the analysis of his scene and, most importantly, his words. Right now I would like to analyze what the Marvel guys said or showed us so far regarding our trickster.
My topic sentence for this essay is: I believe that the Russo brothers, Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus are not stupid.
These guys brought us The Winter Soldier – probably the smartest Marvel movie so far. They always paid great attention to details, they didn’t leave almost anything to chance. McFeely and Markus worked on Thor: The Dark World. We all remember Loki’s death scene and how it had to be re-written because nobody believed that Loki died for real. Now, the infamous Infinity War scene is preeetty much the same. I won’t be really going into details on why it doesn’t work and why, again, almost nobody believes it’s true. If you want to read my thoughts on this topic, you can go here, here and here.
Now, let me just write a short scenario to show you that it is in fact pretty much possible to produce a believable “Loki death” and that both the Russos and the screenwriters are aware of that:
After the Hulk is defeated and Thanos obtains the space stone, Thor and Loki attack him together. Members of the Black Order don’t interfere. They don’t have to. Thor can’t use his full power because he is still heavily drained after Hela and there are some civilians left on the ship. He gets beaten pretty easily. Now, Loki. He still has some stamina left and he uses it to conjure as many illusions of himself as possible. But Thanos is not stupid. He knows Loki and he knows his tricks. He destroys the illusions, one after another, as if they are nothing. He grabs the last Loki by the throat and lifts him up in the air. Loki struggles, but Thanos squeezes harder and… puff! Another illusion disappears. Thanos looks around, angrier and angrier with every passing second. Thor laughs out loud. ‘That’s my trickster brother’, he mutters. But – again – Thanos is not stupid. He notices something, a slight tremor in the darkness, and uses the space stone to stop it. The concealment spell falls and the real Loki is revealed, frozen in place. He looks at Thor for the last time. ‘I’m sorry brother –’, he says before his body explodes from the force of the power stone.
Now, this is pretty graphic. But, that’s how Loki dies in the comics (it’s not the power stone or Thanos that kills him though). Only after his original body is utterly and irrevocably destroyed, he is reborn as a young boy. It doesn’t get lost in space, it doesn’t just disappear… Now, did anyone actually see Loki’s body floating in space after the ship exploded? I don’t think so. (It also didn’t get destroyed because there are many bodies around Thor.)
Going back to my little fanfiction and what happened before: we still get the point that Loki loves Thor above everything else – he gives up the Tesseract for his life. We still know that he has come to terms with his true nature – he says “I’m not Asgardian”. We still know that he wants to trick and betray Thanos – we have the surprise Hulk attack. There is absolutely no need for his very repetitive monologue full of cryptic messages – preceded by a very suspicious absence. What is more, looking at my scenario we can be 95% sure he is a goner.
The scenario I described is a really simple one. It is also based on the comics. I’m more than sure that the screenwriters came up with it as well. I achieved all the same points they did and yet I made Loki’s demise more believable. If they truly wanted to kill him… don’t you think they would do it like that? If they truly wanted us to be 100% sure that Loki is not coming back, would they allow him to talk about the sun shining on him and his brother again? Wouldn’t they just have him say “I swear to you my undying loyalty” which is pretty straightforward, instead of “undying fidelity” which basically means “undying copy”? Loki might not be the God of Daggers, but he is the God of Words and Doppelgängers. They would not, I repeat, THEY WOULD NOT put such words in his mouth if they didn’t want us to get the hidden message.
Why would they make it any harder for themselves if they really wanted to be rid of him?
They knew we are going to question everything. Why give us more arguments?
Loki’s absence during the fight sequence is not without meaning. Maybe we will get a deleted scene explaining what happened or maybe we will have to wait until the next movie comes out. Maybe Loki had a surprise visit from time-travelling Doctor Strange who encouraged him to sacrifice himself for greater good. Maybe. Or maybe, as he tried to explain, he was not the one who got choked to death.
Now, the fun part begins:
Half of the viewers believe that Loki survived. If his reappearance is supposed to be one of the surprises promised for Avengers 4, the directors have to cast a shadow of doubt on what we established before. They cannot just lie to us. That would be very unprofessional. But, they can misdirect. They can… cause some mischief by giving us vague information.
Remember Age of Ultron? It was said that “(…) an important member of the Avengers is going to die in this movie”. I’m not trying to diss Quicksilver here, but he was a member of the Avengers for like… five minutes before he got killed?
“No resurrections this time” – well, no need to resurrect someone who isn’t dead, right? Thanos is not lying, the Russos are not lying… They are misdirecting. Why do they have to make two characters remind us that this is the end of Loki? First Thanos, then Thor… When will the pope chip in? They could show it instead of explaining it. They could make his death work. But no, they intentionally chose a different path.
The interviews – they are pretty much beating around the bush, aren’t they? I’m really waiting for the day when they say/write: “Okay, guys. No more games. Loki is dead. For real.” Again, pretty simple thing to do, right? Yet they don’t do that. Because that’s lying. They can mislead, they can twist some things, but there are borders they cannot cross. Just like Loki, the Russos and the screenwriters are pretty much very cautious when it comes to talking.
“So you have to imagine it’s emotional as they go through scenes that either represent, as I said, some sort of a curtain dropping, or just scenes that allow them to reflect on how far they’ve come, so there are a lot of days like that, that were emotional. And for Tom in particular, yeah, there was some. Some days were more emotional than others” – sure, it was emotional. But is the death confirmed? Is it described as permanent? Nope. Also, please notice the “some days” part.
Now, the infamous podcast:
it was really important to deliver that line
this is it (yeah, no resurrections, okay)
how distressing it was for Tom (Why do they keep bringing that up? Because they think that Tom’s distress makes it final for us. I mean, it’s pretty fucking sad, but final? Nah…)
something about everyone getting old and not being able to play the same character forever – they know that’s a weak-ass argument. This is not serious. Don’t take it seriously. No serious writer or director would off a character just because the actor is getting old. It doesn’t hold. If that was their real reason, they would NEVER admit that. Because that would mean they are unable to deal with the issue which… would make them look very unprofessional in return. And they are fucking professionals. Sure, Tom is getting old, as is the rest of the cast, but for at least the next few years it surely won’t be an issue some make-up cannot fix.
a new direction – it doesn’t necessarily mean that old characters must die. Some will, sure, but some will retire. As far as Loki is concerned it’s extremely easy. He and Thor have to find a new home for their people. They can go back to space. They don’t have to stay in Norway. Loki is still one of the most popular characters in the whole MCU and they can bring him back for cameos. PEOPLE LOVE CAMEOS. He can pop up in a Doctor Strange movie. He may appear in the Guardians of the Galaxy. Or he may stay on the new Asgard, “managing” it while Thor goes on some new adventures/to do his own cameos/whatever.
Thor’s man pain motivation – yeah, that’s an easy one. He just needs to believe that Loki is dead.
Summing up, nothing they say makes me believe that Loki’s arc is done for good. Okay, maybe he is dead (which I don’t believe), but his death won’t be without meaning. What he did equals committing a suicide and he had to have a good reason for it (Doctor Strange, anyone?). However, I’m more inclining towards the fidelity theory, a.k.a. my doppelganger died in my place.
Way too many people described Loki’s behavior as weird.
Way too many people noticed the inconsistencies in his scene.
Way too many people doubt this death.
Way too many people have exactly the same arguments.
Is this just denial? Could be, but I talked to some antis and they agree with me. So you don’t really have to like Loki to realize that there is something fishy going on here. And the Russos know that.
Don’t let some word games bring you down.
Until they say – in these exact words – “Loki is dead” – he is not.
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