#loki article

[lokinewbiewitchy]

Loki For Witches

Loki is a God that can help any witch along his or her path. And although His paths can be hard, they are rewarding.

Probably the very best article about Loki that I’ve read!

[wolfpupp]

Loki takes Manhattan: Why earth? Well, why not?

It’s Sunday morning, and I’m lying in bed, completely unmotivated, when my muse whispers, “You should be writing.” Fuck! OK, OK, so here goes…

On the heels of my last “formal” content post: “Loki as a villain? What more than that?,” comes my next post in which I am bound and determined to ruffle feathers once again with a presumptive and opinionated Loki-related rant. After discussing last week’s post at great length with some friends, my girlfriend asked if I would write a “why Earth?” post. Of course, I’m all over this because I am spurred on by character motivation and hidden stories, so I willingly agreed. Now, if the question eludes you, don’t be overly surprised; I needed a bit of clarification, too. The “why Earth?” question really speaks to Loki’s motivations in “The Avengers,” a movie that profiles a Loki who is difficult to excuse or defend, but I claw and crawl nonetheless trying to shed light on awful choices. Shed light, I said! Not make excuses! Please understand the difference. I suppose I will take this moment to explain that I am not interested in making any cases that support total forgiveness for Loki — I am simply trying to make readers think a little bit more intently about a character profile. Again, as I said in my last post, if you feel strongly about Loki as a two-dimensional villain, there’s no need for you to read on. Go ahead and subject yourself if you really feel a need to argue with me, ‘cause I love that shit, too.

Alright, so let’s talk about the very obvious reasons why Loki is kicking over the traces on Earth in “The Avengers.” Well, the main reason is the Tesseract, of course. Once Odin’s Asgardian toy, someone dropped the ball and the cube was lost on Earth before being rediscovered in one of Captain America’s story arcs. Fast forward a little bit and the Tesseract is in the capable(?) hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. (yeah, ‘cause they don’t fuck shit up all the time). Cute. When we catch our first glimpse of “The Avengers” story by way of the ending credits of “Thor,” we are given our first introduction to the Tesseract, although we don’t know what it is, and the insight that Selvig is going to check it out. “Well, I guess that’s worth a look.” We see that Loki knows what it is, of course, and how does he know? Well, through his Chitauri friends, of course! Very simply stated, the deal woven with Thanos is to retrieve the Tesseract from Earth and deliver it to Thanos and “The Other” in a reasonable exchange for a Chitauri army. “The Other” states, “The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a…human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead. And our force, our Chitauri, will follow. The world will be his, the universe, yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?”

So, this seems like a fairly simple recon mission, no? Use the Tesseract to open a portal to transport to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s base and commandeer Selvig’s brain to develop a device that will enable the Tesseract to open a portal for the Chitauri to descend upon the Earth. Cool, well, what could go wrong? Wait, did everyone sit down to discuss the finer points of this plan, or is this a quick roll-out situation? We understand that the plan is fundamentally flawed because Loki’s allegiance to Thanos/”The Other”/the Chitauri is about as transparent as white bikini plucked off the sales rack at Walmart. Also, there seems to be a bit of discrepancy between the intentions for Earth. Again, “The Other” states, “And the humans, what can they do but burn?” Whereas Loki states, “I mean to rule this world, no burrow in it.” And, “The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you ideally threat. I mean to rule them. And why should I not?”

Er, um, so, guys, are we destroying Earth, or are we ruling it? Wtf is actually going on? Gods, these guys need to hire an Operations Officer and sit down with an agenda and a fucking sandwich. Thanos clearly wants universal power, and what that means for Earth is not good, but he seems to be OK with amusing Loki with Earth’s fate for the moment. Now, I will say again (I said it in my last post), Loki is not stupid, but in “The Avengers,” he’s rather unstable, misguided and, dare I say, confused with regard to the ways of the world. We cannot presume to think that Loki trusts, for even a moment, the intentions of Thanos/”The Other.” Do they give him a cool scepter powered by Tesseract technology? Yup. Check. Do they entrust him with retrieving the Tesseract on his own? Yup. Check. Do they promise him Earth? Yup, pretty much. Check. Still, you watched “Thor,” didn’t you? You have a little insight into Loki, the God of Broken Things. He’s going to smile to your face and then do whatever the fuck he wants when you’re not looking. We have to assume that intellectually, he does not trust his newly-found allies; however, what can he do? He surrendered himself to present fate when he tumbled into the black abyss to end up in podunk, what-the-fucksville, where he really had no choice but to align with the Chitauri force in order to reestablish himself. I mean, sure, it’s convenient that this alien race is twisted and hell bent on power and complete control, but Loki is in a position where, regardless of motivation, he can’t really refuse to work with them, ultimately in an effort to build himself back up.

Now, we know that Loki always has his own motivations, but he’s definitely answering to a force that’s bigger and more powerful than himself in “The Avengers,” at least in the immediate. He’s in a precarious situation and he knows it. While he sorts shit out, he’s living under the thumb of an intense threat. “The Other” states, “You will have your war, Asgardian. If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain.” Well, that’s frustrating and moderately unnerving. So, aside from the obviousness of the Tesseract factor and Loki’s invisible choker in the hands of his temporary keepers, “why Earth” anyway? What’s the point for retention instead of destruction? In my estimation, it’s about family, love, jealousy and, well, yes, sentiment. I warned you to stop reading, didn’t I?

There is a reason that people ship “Thorki,” and I think it’s because they realize the depth of emotion between the two characters. I don’t ship the characters to that exact extent, but I do get it. We are robbed of an important scene in “Thor” wherein Loki and his brother share a touching exchange before Thor’s embellished coming-of-age ceremony, which really gives some important insight into the dynamic between these characters. The scene is light, the pair laugh, and we believe that there is true kinship between them. Loki says, “I’ve looked forward to this day as long as you have. You’re my brother and my friend. Sometimes I’m envious, but never doubt that I love you.” Well, fuck, Loki. Sure, you can make the case that Loki is just blowing smoke and using words as weapons, but I will say again that his character forces you to make a choice. You either believe that he’s spewing touching bullshit only to make the final blow hurt more, or you believe that under a layer of hurt that there is real feeling.

Of course, prior to this conversation, he’s already set up the Jotuns with entrance into Asgard, but does this mean that he not being truthful about loving Thor? He admits being envious, after all. There is truth there, and isn’t it also a fact that we sometimes hurt the ones we love the most? Of course, there’s a severity of action that follows, which is hard to ignore, but it’s difficult to make a stone hard case that Loki isn’t conveying a touch of sincerity. After all, at this point in the story, he’s acting out of jealously — he doesn’t know the full truth yet that makes him come undone.

So, fundamentally, Loki is overcome with envy; he feels inadequate next to Thor and he feels like he can never really measure up in the eyes of his family. Sif sees it: “He may speak for the good of Asgard, but he’s always been jealous of Thor.” Therefore, what can we assume that his love really means to anyone? Is his love worth less than Thor’s love, or Odin’s love, or Frigga’s love? Maybe, even though he does his best to make us believe that he would never possibly make a wrong move and that all of his actions are completely intentional and justifiable. Loki’s principle decisions are built on a foundation of wanting — he wants what Thor has, what Thor is; things that he cannot wholly achieve. He claims that allowing the Jotuns access to Asgard is “just a bit of fun,” and it may have been. Mischief and all that, but Loki’s small actions and choices push him into a corner where he is forced to make additional damaging movements, which only serve to worsen and compound poor decisions. Thor tells him, “I’ve changed,” and Loki responds, “So I have I – now fight me.” He does change in “Thor.” He’s not just envious for envy’s sake. He knows the truth of his background. He knows about the lies and intentions surrounding his entire existence, and he has real motivation for being angry.

What I think really compounds this anger is the realization that during the “hero’s journey,” Thor has achieved yet another badge that seems a foreign thing for Loki: love. “I don’t know what happened on Earth to make you so soft! Don’t tell me it was that woman. Oh, it was…” You could be blind to see the betrayal here. We are able to bear witness to Loki’s understanding that Thor has achieved love — yet another thing that he has not held, or cannot hold. It’s enough to, well, force him to disintegrate. His voice is tight, he shakes, and we get that one Loki tear that has to make the viewer wonder, is he just overwrought with hate, or is he overwrought with hurt? I can’t help thinking that he’s overwrought with the fact that he’s gone too far and that his actions are moving him away from the things that matter to him the most.

So, Earth, right. Thor says to Loki in “The Avengers,” “So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?” Well, Thor knows our guy, Loki, however, in as much as I agree with this statement, I have to counter the word, “imagined.” That is a subjective term in this case, as it seems as though the slights to which Thor refers are not at all imagined by Loki. They are real and very, very raw. Suggesting that they are imagined can only help fuel the anger behind Loki’s choices and reinforce his resolve to continue moving forward with his plans for domination. “I’ve come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.” It’s just like Loki to pepper the truth with something snarky and off-color. He has come too far for anything else — he’s bound by his choices. What his “glorious purpose” is, in actuality, remains to be seen. Is glorious purpose bringing the world to its knees? Obtaining the Tesseract? Cutting down his brother? All of the above?

Loki knows about Thor’s feelings for Earth; about his feelings for Jane, and I think that these points are tremendous motivators for someone who is polarized by jealousy. It would be easy to destroy the Earth, sure, but to what end? Where would he go? Again, Asgard is off limits. Loki needs to reestablish himself. Perhaps more importantly though is that by holding the Earth, but ruling it, commanding it, that power is going to wound Thor. That power will take away from Thor everything that Loki feels has been taken away from him. Now, if he didn’t love Thor, feel anything for Thor, why would this matter? Well, it wouldn’t, and that’s the point, I think. He loves Thor and he’s hurt by circumstance. Hurting back is the only way that Loki can express his feelings, regardless of how misguided they really are. By holding the world, he can, for all intents and purposes, attain equality with Thor, which is what he notes to be the only thing that he ever really wanted.

So, once again, we are met with Loki’s threefold motivations. In the case of “why Earth?,” I believe it’s strongly about the obvious — the Tesseract, but that it’s also about jealousy and love, and what is wrought from those things when you’re trying to understand a character who is so compromised and burdened, truly, by a purpose that he just doesn’t understand or know how to handle. I will say again that in “The Avengers,” we witness a disintegration of character that takes away from Loki a little bit, but I think it serves as character device through which he will eventually evolve.

So, friends, “why Earth?,” I ask you. Well, why not? Why not, indeed? -RDP