Why Loki Let People Believe He Was Dead in TDW
This is the part two of my post in which I explained that Loki never faked his death and as @iamanartichokeâ beautifully states in her post, Loki only ever faked the âideaâ of his death:
âPlotting to fake oneâs own death is not the same thing as taking advantage of a fatal blow turning out to not be fatal. And the trickery comes in because Loki didnât make any effort to tell Thor he survived, because he took Odinâs place, because he let everyone keep on thinking he was dead when he wasnât. So, what Loki really faked was the âideaâ of his death. But the injury, the sacrifice, the intent to die - that was all real.â
So in this post Iâm going to explain why what Loki did was actually logical and it wasnât done out of malice.
What could possibly happen if he didnât use the situation to his advantage?
Worst case scenario: he would be executed.
In Lokiâs trial Odin tells him that the only reason Loki wonât be executed is because of Frigga.
âFrigga is the only reason youâre still alive and you will never see her again.â
So now Frigga was dead and Loki not only had escaped by the help of people who committed treason against Odin, he had helped them with it. And the fact that Thor had to commit treason in the first place because Odin wasnât thinking rationally, shows that he would be more furious and it was a high possibility that he would turn his anger on Loki. Loki has no reason to believe otherwise after the way Odin treated him in the trial and straight out told him that his birthright was to die.
Best case scenario: he would be returned to his cell.
That was Thorâs promise to him.
âI will grant it to you. Vengeance. And afterward this cell.â
Or more accurately he would be returned to his torture. Because Odin had sentenced Loki to solitary confinement for life. And solitary confinement is torture, pure and simple. Lokiâs imprisonment condition completely resembles with the description of solitary confinement:
âWhatâs emerged from the reports and testimonies reads like a mix of medieval cruelty and sci-fi dystopia. For 23 hours or more per day, in whatâs euphemistically called âadministrative segregationâ or âspecial housing,â prisoners are kept in bathroom-sized cells, under fluorescent lights that never shut off. Video surveillance is constant. Social contact is restricted to rare glimpses of other prisoners, encounters with guards, and brief video conferences with friends or family. For stimulation, prisoners might have a few books; often they donât have television, or even a radio.â [X]
Loki was kept in a small cell-bathroom-sized is an acute description actually- that was continuously illuminated with an artificial light. He didnât have permission to ever access fresh air and sunlight. The cells were under constant surveillance of the guards and his social encounter was limited to glimpses of other prisoners and encounters with guards and talking with Friggaâs illusions. And even Frigga had to conceal those illusions from the guards because Odin forbade Loki to have visitors and even see his mother and Frigga was in fact disobeying Odin to see her son. And Lokiâs only form of stimulation was the few books his mother sent him.
I explained it here before:
âLong-term solitary confinement has harmful psychological effects and the symptoms include:
Visual and auditory hallucinations
Hypersensitivity to noise and touch
Uncontrollable feelings of rage and fear
Distortions of time and perception
Increased risk of suicide
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)[X]
The effects are specially magnified for people with mental health issues. Â A simple search will reveal what it does to the mind. Loki already was mentally ill, heâd committed suicide before. He had fell through the void and was deprived of any form of stimuli and we donât know how long it took. We donât know what tortures he went through when he was with Thanos. Then he came back and he was sentenced to more torture by his father that would worsen his already unstable state of mind. He would probably lose his mind if Frigga hadnât find a way to visit him. Just look at his appearance after he removed all the illusions. Itâs obvious from the state of his torn and old shirt that he had wore a glamor in front of Frigga to hide how he was affected by the situation.â
During all that year Loki was also deprived of any kind of human touch which results in skin-hunger:
âNeuroscientist Huda Akil identifies a lack of touchâalongside other factorsâas potential factors that might lead the brain to rewire itself and cause psychological problems[in solitary confinement].â [X]
Also Look at his reaction when he is out in the fresh air and natural light:
And compare it to his expression in Avengers when he was in the sunlight:
They are basically the same. Which further proves that he was tortured during his time with Thanos and perhaps thatâs the first time he sees sunlight after such a long time.
So if he would go back he was condemned to endure the same torture for the rest of his 4000 years. This time without visits from Frigga or books. Loki also had no reason to believe that Thor would visit him since he didnât bother to do it before. Lokiâs punishment wasnât fair, specially in comparison to Thorâs punishment for a similar crime. It wasnât redeeming and its only purpose was torture and its only result would be a Loki with a worst state of mind than before. So probably itâs better to say that this is the worst case scenario and execution in comparison was the better option!
Still think what Loki did to Odin was horrible? No, Odin had it coming. He lied to Loki his entire life, made him feel unloved and unworthy, raised him to hate his own race, had plans to use Loki as a political tool, denied him when he was on the verge of falling to an abyss literally and metaphorically, was unnecessarily cruel to Loki in the trial and intentionally hurt him with his words and never once asked Loki what had happened to him after his fall, prevented Loki to see his mother and have any visitors, didnât let Loki to be in his motherâs funeral and sentenced him to a fate worse than death. Lokiâs revenge wasnât even sth cruel in comparison. He locked Odinâs power and took his memories-sth that made Odin forget his grief-and left him in a retirement home to be taken care of. And no, Odinâs death wasnât Lokiâs fault. Also by taking the throne, Loki made sure to separate two infinity stones and also prevented Thor and his friends to be punished for their treason.
âBut Thor mourned and cried for Loki who was alive the entire time.â
Thor didnât give Loki enough reason that he wouldnât be alright without Loki. He had thought Loki died after his fall from the Bifrost and his first question upon seeing Loki was:
âWhere is the Tesseract?â
And thatâs one of the reasons Loki questioned his mourning in Avengers. And sure, Thor was upset both times when he thought he lost Loki but he had given up on Loki once. Who could say he wouldnât do it again? What if Thor thought Loki had betrayed him this time and he had promised Loki death for his betrayal. Also Thor never visited Loki in his cell, refused to mourn Friggaâs death with Loki even when Loki showed him how devastated he was, and never asked Loki what had happened to him after his fall. He was completely fine with letting Loki rot in his cell and never seeing him again. And Loki preferred to be remembered as someone who died with honor by Thor than going back to be a disappointment.
And probably the most important reason that Loki faked the idea of his death was to hide from Thanos. And what better way to do it plain sight and be safe in the most protected place. Loki had logical and legitimate reasons for letting people believe he was dead. He didnât do it to hurt Thor or for power or because heâs a trickster and canât help himself. He did it because that was the best option he had in that situation.
