Dia

Blog for my Loki feels, my obsession with the MCU, and photos of Tom Hiddleston (who is a blessing unto us all).  My Loki fanfic is on AO3 under my name Dia (.e.g. at http://archiveofourown.org/works/587470/chapters/1056106) Loki v. Killmonger fic coming soon 

[rozbessel]

be safe and wash your hands!

[karazrel]

Would you kill me, my love? For Wakanda? Without question.

[leah-cultice]

Balenciaga Fall 2020 RTW

[nelfs]

i will say that this coronavirus scare has definitely revealed that minimum-wage service workers are absolutely instrumental for society to function… all the hoity-toity business meetings can be cancelled, the NBA can be cancelled, public schools and colleges can be cancelled, government meetings can be cancelled, but the checkout line at the grocery store can’t be cancelled… in a perfect world i’d hope that this was a bellwether for better treatment of workers like me but i know we’ll just continue to get paid min wage with no rewards or thank-yous from the world during this time lolololol

[veliseraptor]

Do you think there might be some narrative reason as to why MCU keeps Loki kind of... incompetent all the time? Especially on the cunning/mischief front (though magical too)? That glimpse of redemption arc in Ragnarok made me think of a karma of sorts - like, Loki cannot win as a villain because he doesn't /want/ to be the villain and pushes himself to be one. Can I ask for your thoughts?

Are we talking in universe or out of universe? Because in universe - yeah, I buy that. It’s always been my explanation - Loki self-sabotages, and I do think there’s a certain amount of canon evidence in that direction. He gets too emotionally involved, or tries to act in ways that don’t play to his strengths, or is just…downright doing something that he doesn’t really want to be doing. 

Out of universe I think it’s just the fact that people don’t make very good competent villains a lot of the time. Heroes need an opponent but they need an opponent they can beat in a plausible way, so you have to walk a line between “this villain is formidable and challenging” and “this villain can realistically be overcome” and often people end up erring too far (imo) on the side of “this villain isn’t very good at what they do.” 

Also like. I think part of it is that people are bad at writing villains, especially specifically in superhero movies, who aren’t built around being super powerful or warrior oriented. Winter Soldier managed it with Pierce - who is, incidentally, my favorite non-Loki actual MCU villain - but otherwise…Zemo’s super cunning plan kind of falls apart when you look at it closely, and none of the others are really relying on anything that’s cerebrally oriented rather than “take over/destroy the world.” 

Loki doesn’t get to be smart/competent most of the time because the plot doesn’t let him be smart/competent. Out of universe, I think it’s as simple as that.

[loki-is-misunderstood]

Loki self-sabotaged until he made an arrangement with Thanos.  From now on,the self-sabotage is deliberate.  He’s a ringer, and he’s playing the long game against Thanos.  It won’t work if anyone else is on to him, especially Thor, with his sunny outlook and willingness to trust people.

[mcuobssession]

Reblog if…

You think Loki deserves genuine happiness and love for once in his long ass life

[guanin]

After being annoyed by the nth post of “Omg how dare Loki betray Thor again”, I realized the blatantly obvious. That’s exactly what Marvel wants us to think. Those three shots (stepping over bodies, Loki with the Tesseract, and Thanos) are set up to make us think that Loki is walking over the dead bodies of the Asgardians he’s meant to be protecting as if they were nothing, and handing the Tesseract to Thanos, who then uses it to make a portal to Earth. They’re quick shots in a fast paced trailer, and unless you go back and review it, that’s exactly what you see. Even many people who have watched it over and over still think that that’s Loki walking over the bodies because they’re walking to the left, which is then cut with a shot with Loki looking towards the left. In my first two viewings, I didn’t even notice the terror in Loki’s face because it happened so fast. They’re tricking our brains. We’re not supposed to notice right away that these shots are actually three, separate things.

They want most of the audience, the ones who aren’t analyzing shot by shot, to think that Loki is the villain again, rushing to side with Thanos for his own gain. It’s a familiar role for him, so I don’t see most people thinking much of it. So when it turns out that he’s not betraying Thor, it will be a “twist”. A cheap one, in my opinion, since it makes no sense with his character arc in Ragnarok, but misleading audiences through cleverly edited trailers is par for the course. In addition to Loki’s bruised, teary faced, and the terror that I’m sure is not only for his own life.

[loki-is-misunderstood]

Loki will end by being Thanos’ ultimate antagonist.  It’s in Marvel’s interest to keep the suspense as long as possible, though.

[veliseraptor]

for Very Important Reasons I need to get Loki to abruptly collapse in an AU where he’s ended up on Earth post-Ragnarok. anyone got any ideas because astonishingly enough I’m coming up blank

[loki-is-misunderstood]

Thanos throws him there.  Before or after Thanos helps himself to the Tesseract, your call.

[keybladesoras]

Freshman Year/Senior Year

[eternarle]

Man, I love this! You can see how each character has grown over the years. None of them can beat Bruce tho! He looks like an entirely new person!

[loki-is-misunderstood]

The messenger bearing the warning of Thanos crashing through the skylight in Dr. Strange’s home on Bleeker Street is the opening scene in the original graphic novel the Infinity Gauntlet.   And since the Silver Surfer is owned by Fox, someone else had to do it....

[sapphirreandgold-deactivated202]

If you seriously think that Loki is not going to fight Thanos with everything he has, if you seriously think Loki doesn’t hate Thanos and is just going to go back to the puppet he had to play in Avengers.

Then you really don’t know his character.

[meluive]

THANK YOU

[stanleyraymondkowalski]

hey guys you know whats great? heimdall commits treason against the throne in every single thor film & didnt give a single shit. iconic.

[appleqb]

About that vault scene

Everybody keeps going on about “Loki took the Tesseract” and I’m like, “ok, probably.” But the Tesseract can take care of it’s self, it’s a MacGuffin.

My thing is I really hope he took the Casket of Ancient Winters, it’s his birthright.

[victoriousgirlgrowsup]

I’m hoping he took both of them honestly

[mosellegreen]

I’m visiting my parents for the holiday (this is why I hate holidays) and Mom is watching a documentary about Charles Manson. They had an actor playing him when his brain chemistry acted up. One of his girls just spoke to him and he started screaming at her. She frantically apologized and he used that as his cue to hit her. And I just sat there flashing back to about a million versions of this in my childhood, my mother having a fit and assaulting me for trying to placate her, and this is what family life is. This is what the power our society gives parents over children means. Bring a child is exactly like being in a murderous cult.

And I need to find a way of dealing with this. Anyone want to conspire with me to end child abuse as society’s default setting?

[loki-is-misunderstood]

yes

[dayumdaughter]

Looks Like They Could Kill You But Is Actually a Cinnamon Roll: Thor

Looks Like A Cinnamon Roll But Could Actually Kill You: Bruce Banner

Looks Like They Could Kill You And Can Actually Kill You: Hela /Valkyrie

Looks Like A Cinnamon Roll And Is Actually A Cinnamon Roll: Korg

Sinnamon Roll: Loki

[veliseraptor]

I really did enjoy Ragnarok, I just didn't like how they made light of really serious moments from the previous films. It felt sort of like this film said "yeah it doesn't matter" about the whole Jotun thing and Loki's redemptive death in The Dark World and I just??? I didn't like how dismissive it was of such huge moments??

when I way I understand and agree with a lot of the criticisms - this is what I mean. I do feel like we didn’t get the same emotional punch as we have before! and that’s frustrating! a lot of the things I’m here for are the emotional punches! but those kinds of gaps, those kind of elisions, at least for me, are also what I come to fandom for. 

I don’t expect my superhero movies to get me angst and emotional depth in the degree that I want them. sometimes it’s there, and when it’s there, cool - but often it isn’t, or isn’t as much, or isn’t enough. and I guess that’s my hope for fandom: that they’ll see those moments where there should have been more emotional depth and add it in. 

for me, I guess, because there were so many places where I wanted more, wanted things to go deeper, that’s where I can see places to go, things I want more of. that’s the holes that I write into. and while I absolutely can understand that’s not how it is for everyone, that’s what it means for me. 

[veliseraptor]

Just got back from ragnarok, lmao, even in death odin's parenting is a b- at best. "hey yo so I know a lot of this family's problems stem from all the lies I've told you, but I live you and also SURPRISE SISTER, PEACE OUT BITCHES"

I laughed but also you are not wrong, anon, you are not wrong. and like. that scene was full of feelings but Odin did still kiiiind of get away with a lot of his fuckups without having to actually deal with the consequences. 

on the other hand I do feel kind of bad for Odin and I did come out of Ragnarok feeling like I have a deeper understanding of his character and where he comes from, like, dude still fucked up (a lot) but his history with Hela sure does add some interesting dimensions to things.

still. is “convenient Odin death” going to be the new “convenient Odinsleep”?

[veliseraptor]

So to contribute to all this Ragnarok craziness: do you agree that Loki definitely took the tesseract, and why? I'm concerned that he's going to head back to Thanos with it and that the "I'm here" scene was an emotional red herring, but I really want Loki to be on the right track - thoughts on this?

I do definitely agree - it seems like the best explanation for how he got out of the Vault, and the implication is certainly there with how he pauses and loooks at it for a second, and the fact that… (INFINITY WAR SPOILERS) we do know per the trailer that there is some Loki + Thanos + Tesseract stuff, but not much beyond that.

for why he took it - proximate reasons? to get out, I’d think. more long term reasons: Loki’s not about to let a very powerful artifact get out of his reach. (I’m hoping he snagged the Casket of Ancient Winters on the way out, too.) Loki is an opportunist: he sees a chance and he goes for it; even if he doesn’t know exactly what he’s going to do with it, it’ll probably be useful in the future. 

and maybe there is, at the back of his mind, the thought that he might be able to stave off the Thanos reckoning, though I’m inclined to think that Loki is not Thanos’s biggest fan. 

for development going forward - I mentioned that the arc of this movie, Tesseract or no Tesseract, actually made me feel better going forward. while there’s no guarantee (at all), the MCU has overall (with some exceptions) done a pretty good job of moving character development forward rather than backward, and Loki’s arc in this movie was enough forward movement that having him completely go back and turn villain again…would be a) really disappointing and b) imo, poor storytelling. 

I want to believe better of the Russos than that, who do seem to have a sense of how to tell a good story. there is…very little trust in the larger MCU, here, but I do feel like it seems unlikely that all of the character development that happened here will get totally unwritten.

…ofc next May watch me totally have to eat my words, orz. but give me this for now, I want to believe.