#but he’s the trickster you root for to ultimately win!!

[shortkidenergy]

ok listen this one is easy. grian is NOT a sexyman!!! I love grian. he is an impish little trickster bird man builder and that is fantastic but QUACKITY is a SEXYMAN. have you seen the TEETH people give him??? the eye scar he got from a PICKAX???? in CANON he is lusted after. he canonically has an ASS. LOOK AT THAT FACE. ITS 7 PIXELS. if that is not enough, here is his progression as a character:

starts out wide-eyed and trying to stand up against injustice

in doing so aligns himself with a dictator he ends up marrying

upon realizing that the dictator doesn’t respect him and is only after his body, divorces, kills, and betrays him

later coerces a child ruler into running an execution campaign against the strongest warrior on the server for his own revenge

corners and confronts said warrior at his weakest and STILL can’t win against him, ends up getting HIS EYE TAKEN OUT BY A PICKAX

tries to find happiness by getting engaged in a three-way all gay polycule

builds an entire nation for his fiancés and ends up abandoned by them

(his nation is modeled after las vegas. he runs casinos, bars, strip clubs etc. he’s literally trying to gain power through debt, seduction, and addiction)

(running this nation doesn’t give him anything he wants. he doesn’t gain power in any meaningful way. the people he loves have abandoned him. he gamboled and lost.)

tortures the most dangerous guy on the server at his most helpless because it finally gives him a sense of power and control

said guy never gives him what he wants. ends up escaping.

listen I never actually finished his lore but MY MAN’S ENTIRE CHARACTER IS THAT AS SOON AS HE LEARNS THAT THERE IS NO JUSTICE, ONLY POWER, HE KEEPS GRABBING FOR IT IN AN ATTEMPT TO FIND LOVE, SECURITY, AND HAPPINESS AND GETS BEATEN DOWN AGAIN AND AGAIN ONLY TO DRAG HIMSELF BACK A LITTLE MORE HOLLOW AND BLOODTHIRSTY THAN THE LAST TIME

he eats his dead husband’s heart.

ROUND FOUR:

GRIAN (6)

nominated from Last Life, Hermitcraft, Poultry Man, Ariana Griande, MCC, EVO, Fanon!Watcher, Among Us, YHS, 100 Hours Hardcore, Mother Spore, Build with Grian (NPC Grian)

vs

QUACKITY (22)

nominated from DSMP, Karmaland, Minecraft Extremo, TFTSMP

[worstloki]

Okay, this is gettin’ real screwed up here.

I watch a lot of TV. Probably too much. And I’ve seen characters beaten to their knees before, sometimes even with collars. And yeah, there’s usually someone standing over them, and it’s been a woman sometimes. The kind of scene we got in episode 5 of Loki is not new ground.

But here’s the thing. In EVERY OTHER SCENE I can remember like this, the person kneeling is the hero. They’ve been brought down, fully humbled before the sneering villain, and in a few minutes something will happen to get them back on their feet again. It’s usually a tense moment, a “what if they break?” that makes you want the hero to win. You aren’t rooting for, or even liking in some cases, the person standing. You’re cheering for the person on their knees.

This doesn’t seem to be the case with the Loki show. Yes, the viewers may be rooting for Loki, but there’s no hatred for Sif there. She’s not proved herself to be a cold, heartless villain, ruthlessly pounding the hero until all he can do is kneel at her feet.

Except…she did kind of do that. But it isn’t treated as something bad. It’s treated more as something Loki deserved, in my opinion. The show wants us to feel like he deserved to get repeatedly beaten up and told horrible things, just for cutting off a lock of Sif’s hair. I’ll grant, it’s peanuts compared to what happened to him in the mythology. But it’s still bad. Especially since they had him acknowledge it, repeat her cruel words back. They’re playing it off as if Loki is still the villain by himself, and is only good because of other people- Mobius, mostly, but Sif is part of that.

That’s not the way Loki’s character is. In the comics particularly, his biggest arcs are always about reinventing the labels given to him, changing “villain” into something good, something he can use, and doing it by himself. Yes, there’s outside influence, but ultimately Loki is the one who decided to change.

The show is not letting him do that. The show is portraying him as a stubborn jackass who refuses to change until other people show him the light- either with psychological torture presented as therapy, or with beating him up a bunch of times until he gives in. The show and its characters are forcing Loki to become good- they aren’t showing him doing it by himself. He is not becoming one of the good guys, he’s being essentially enslaved by them, and the show is passing it off as somehow all that good influence finally rubbed off on Loki’s cold, villainous heart. That’s why him betraying Mobius was shown as so bad even though Loki barely knew him and had been psychologically tortured by him- Mobius is written as a character who can choose to be good, and Loki is written as a character who must be forced to be good.

And something about an entire show revolving around an independent character being treated as a villain, literally enslaved by the “good guys” (back when the show still wanted us to think the TVA weren’t shady as all hell), beaten to his knees with a collar around his neck until he accepts that he deserves to be alone because he isn’t “good” like everybody else…that doesn’t go down right for me.

The TVA being presented in not just a neutral but often reliable light is something I thought would change once Loki literally called out their propaganda and Sylvie called them fascists, but, for some reason the authoritarian genocidalists are not being presented as a bad thing and it irks me too.

It's especially weird because of the way what Loki claims to have wanted by making choices for people and what Mobius claims the TVA do ARE THE EXACT SAME THINGS, except Loki, until the show, hadn't done that of his own volition and was being tortured during the invasion and is treated terribly for something he didn't even succeed in doing, while the TVA successfully erase events on a mass scale but are presented as having a higher (or at best, - equal) moral ground.

The exact same thing was done in Ragnarok where Loki's "turning point" from a tricksy villainous scoundrel happened because Thor left him frying on the ground and gave him a pep talk filled with lies and general slander about how he could be better - and people see that as good because Thor is framed as a hero, and it's because instead of accepting Loki is a complex character they take what the narrative tells at face value and that is that Loki fights the protagonist(s) so he's bad.

I personally don't like the narrative pushing a character that is canonically an abuse victim and attempted suicide and was tortured right after as someone who needs fixing because he's lusting for power and needs it to gain a sense of control during a retcon which is occurring for the sake of calling him a complete bad guy who needs to change (probably because no actual original character development could be thought of?) after he was just confirmed as queer and colloquially (i assume) called a narcissist because of twisted love.

That he deserves to be alone was presented neutrally as a joke even as he was repeatedly getting beaten to the ground, and then both people he could call friends were removed from his immediate vicinity right after.

Loki isn't being presented as a character that has done a huge mix of good and bad in the movies, he's being presented as an oft incompetent idiot that deserves what he gets because he shouldn't have run away from captors, or he cut Sif's hair, or he killed his mother, or he dared to think he had any importance or could do something good, because the truth is he's an evil lying scourge.

"But maybe," Mobius says, "Maybe he wants to mix it up. Sometimes you get tired of playing the same part. Is that possible? He can change?" And everyone's already forgotten that moments before the mission Mobius said to Loki's face that the TVA has pruned a lot of Loki variants because he's so nice! look! he has hope in him when no one else does! It's also easy to forget the "and hey, if it doesn't work, I'll delete him myself," right after because the guy was smiling through it and the scene is followed by Loki really badly trying to explain the logic of being a trickster who everyone knows is a trickster.

A lot of people payed more attention in Ragnarok than to the other Thor movies so it's not a new retcon and people seem fine with the extremely strange take that 'loki is bad but he can do good sometimes,' because the character is more animated and acts foolish and that's generally more fun for comedy, which is fair for people to prefer imo, people find different things entertaining.

But I do solidly hope the show doesn't go that way though and takes a side with Loki on the narrative stance eventually because I've seen a lot of people who just. miss that the TVA's concept is bad. And those who think they're "reforming" Loki. As if the guy needs anything but a break at this point lmao he only got away from Thanos like 2 days ago please just let him rest for a bit he's a fail villain and it's cringe to have your supposed 1st open queer character get beaten to a pulp by Sif and then put wack sexualizing shots for it too :/

it's like the show itself is trying to sell the angle of "Loki is a villain" and I'm a clown who is still wanting that to be intentional because if it is? It could be amazing and playing with how different parties are framed would be s p e c t a cu l ar and could encourage people to reassess the hero coding in other movies including ones Loki was previously in - but we're reaching the last two episodes and I don't feel like that'll happen.

I feel like even if Loki does reach the end of the show as a transformed person it'll be done leaving the audience with "perhaps you're not so bad after all, Loki," and then also give credit to Mobius or Sylvie or whoever else was involved, simply because as even of yet Loki hasn't taken on a lead role in the show. I'd argue he hasn't really contributed anything worthwhile to plot either. As you've said, he's being shown as someone who needs to change but isn't really motivated to. Aw man they better not make romantic love the reason he wants to change.

[qandnoablog]

Warning (Marvel Imagine)

Title: Discovered

Pairing: There might not be a final pairing (since I follow along with the movies as accurately as I can) but I do gravitate towards Loki <3

Warnings: Based on the movie - Avengers: Infinity War

Part: 11, [10], [9], [8], [7], [6], [5], [4], [3], [2], [1] Short story: [3], [2], [1]

Key: Y/N - Your Name Y/L/N - Your Last Name

Word Count: 3,689

Summary: After worrying about Thor, Hulk, Scrapper 142, and Loki in their fight against Hela, [Y/N] finally gets a response from the trickster god. But it’s not an answer to her question. In fact, it just raises more questions for her!

Note From Author: I finally finished this part! Thank you so much for being so patient with me and I hope that this is worth the long wait. I know Endgame came out nearly a whole year ago and I wanted to get the parts about Infinity War up after watching Endgame, but it’s been hard to find the motivation to keep going during these times. I hope all of you are healthy!

Part 11 - Warning

Since Loki’s visit, a day had barely passed.

[Y/N] could hardly calm down, let alone eat, as a foreboding feeling kept nagging within her heart. She couldn’t shake that ominous premonition that deeply rooted itself in her mind and her imagination ran wild on all kinds of scenarios that could have been happening. Thor, struggling to help both his people and fight his overpowered sister at the same time. Hulk rampaging around, mindlessly attacking whoever he was supposed to fight, possibly getting overwhelmed with numbers and destroying a large portion of Asgard. Scrapper 142 struggling against Hela, someone who had scarred her many, many years ago… And Loki with his rebel forces he claimed were with him as backup for his brother.

She had no idea how strong Hela was, the forces she commanded, and the state Asgard was in but she knew the Goddess of Death was very strong. Powerful enough to wipe out all of the fearsome Valkyrie at least, and Scrapper 142, the last surviving Valkyrie, was by no means weak. However, all [Y/N] could do now was anxiously wait for any news.

Throughout the day she desperately tried to get her mind off of Ragnarok. She tried taking a walk, visiting Peter and Ned, watching TV, amongst other things, but nothing helped. Not only that, but an overwhelming sense of drowsiness had washed over her a few hours after her talk with Loki. It nagged at her, forcing her eyes closed only to have her jolt awake before she collapsed from sleep mid walk.

Peter was very worried about her when she nearly fell over while walking down the busy streets of New York. He insisted that she go home, not giving her any room to argue. Defeated, she tried coffee, but that didn’t help either as her eyelids grew heavier and heavier by the minute.

Finally giving in to her exhaustion, [Y/N] rested her head on her bed and was out like a light.

Though sleeping should have been blissful, given that she was very mentally drained from all the stress and anxiety, something strange happened to her. It felt as though she was floating, rising up from her own body and flying out of her small room. She could see the world shrinking below her as she continued up higher and higher into the sky, gradually increasing in speed, but she was too tired to fight against this. So she followed the will of whatever force was pulling at her, shooting her through space and past the stars, towards a destination unknown.

Then, she came to an abrupt stop.

She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the dim lighting. Her body felt foreign, as though she wasn’t actually there. Her feet felt like they were on solid ground but… They also felt as though they could sink through the solid material without a problem. She could hear things and yet… They sounded distant. [Y/N] could feel heat radiating around her, the sound of fire crackling in her ears, but at the same time… It also felt cold. She could still feel the gentle breeze of home, the window being slightly cracked open and the air brushing against her sleeping body.

Finally, [Y/N]’s eyes adjusted just enough so that she could make out her surroundings and in that moment… She desperately wished she hadn’t.

The carnage around her was brutal and cruel. She could feel her heart race inside her chest, but it felt as though it were beating miles and miles away. Someone was talking, but she couldn’t register the words at all. The only thing she could focus on were the lifeless bodies scattered on the floor around her.

Walking around, avoiding stepping on the fallen, she steeled her nerves and bravely examined their faces. She didn’t know these people. All of them were strangers to her. It made her stomach, the one lying in her bed so far from this place, churn uncomfortably. She could hear someone screaming, but who wouldn’t in all this destruction?

“Oh my God,” she breathed out, her legs growing weak.

No one seemed to hear her. No one seemed to notice she was there. No one… Except for one man.

[Y/N] locked sights with the most beautiful pair of eyes she had ever seen. They were so golden and bright, brimming with a sort of power she could never hope to understand. Those eyes belonged to a wounded man who was lying on the floor. Injured but… Alive.

She hurried over to the fallen man, but when she reached out to help him, her hand phased through his body. [Y/N] couldn’t touch him or anything else. Confused and a bit frustrated, she looked back at the stranger, who seemed to be much wiser and older than her. Maybe… Maybe he wasn’t human…

“Did you send me here?” [Y/N] questioned, her voice gentle, though internally she wanted to shake him for answers.

“Who are you? Why am I here? Why can’t I touch anything? What happened here?!” The questions swarmed her, but she masked her internal distress and showed only a picture of calm with a tinge of worry.

But the man said nothing. Instead, he looked over at something else. No… At someone else.

“Alright, stop!”

[Y/N] knew that voice. She recognized it immediately since she had heard it only hours ago. Dread filled her as she turned around, facing the man who had yelled out those words. That was when she saw him.

Loki.

The God of Mischief was exactly how he was when he had visited her. His clothes. His hair. Everything was the same. But she couldn’t see his face. He wasn’t turned towards her. No, he was facing…

“Thor!” She gasped, but no one reacted to her voice. They all seemed to be deaf to her words.

Everything about Thor seemed unchanged since she had last seen him. Everything… Except his eye. It was covered by some sort of patch, indicating what must have happened after they parted, but [Y/N] couldn’t focus on that right now. Instead, she concentrated more on his head being firmly held by large hands of an alien she did not know.

The stranger’s whole body was a light purple color, though it looked darker in the dim lights of the broken room. His golden gloved hand, perhaps a gauntlet of some sort, stopped glowing with that unnatural power, moving away from Thor’s head. Thor stopped screaming in pain, going limp in the alien’s hand. He looked so… So defeated… Drained of so much energy.

She wanted to hurry over to Thor’s side. She wanted to force her powers to pry the alien’s hands off of him and save him from all this pain, but no matter how much she struggled to send out her energy, she could only feel it distantly react way back where her actual body lay. Nothing happened.

Since the discovery of her powers, this was the first time she was unable to use them. It was like her armor and without it… She felt utterly naked.

“We don’t have the Tesseract,” Thor coughed out, his voice rough from all the screaming. “It was destroyed on Asgard.”

Tesseract? [Y/N] quickly looked over at Loki, but he still did not face her. Please… Don’t tell me that thing you used on Earth…

Going against her silent prayers, the god lifted up his arm and in his open hand slowly appeared a glowing blue cube. The energy radiating off of it hummed with power and the purple man smiled in satisfaction as [Y/N]’s heart plummeted.

“You… really are the worst brother,” Thor huffed, out of breath from whatever struggle had led him to be in the hands of this monster.

“I assure you, Brother,” Loki began, stepping carefully over to the alien with the Tesseract in his hand, “the sun will shine on us again.”

“Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian,” the stranger said, his low voice rumbling throughout the whole place.

“Well, for one thing, I’m not Asgardian,” the god replied, the Tesseract still in his hand as he looked up at the towering enemy, “And for another…” He paused, taking in a breath, “We have the Hulk.”

As if on cue, Hulk barreled into the purple man just as Loki jumped onto Thor to get him out of the way. The Tesseract clattered onto the ground, but no one noticed it as the focus landed on the fight between Hulk and the alien. Hulk threw his fists and landed many punches onto the stranger, seemingly winning, when the words of another alien broke that glimmer of hope.

“Let him have his fun.”

The tides turned against Hulk as the purple man threw his own punches and dodged all of Hulk’s. He seemed ultimately unfazed by Hulk’s earlier bombardment of hits and fought him as if he were heartlessly fighting a child. As the battle continued, the spark of hope grew dimmer and dimmer.

“Stop,” [Y/N] began, moving forward while forgetting that no one could hear her.

She tried to run at the alien, to use her body weight to at least knock him off balance, but she phased through him and stumbled onto the ground. She tried to grab onto the purple being, but her hands merely passed through him. She tried to stand between him and the Hulk, but they couldn’t see her and continued fighting. Fists and blows phased through her as though she were air, and nothing she did stopped them. Finally, on the brink of despair, [Y/N] fell to her knees with tears streaming down her face.

“Stop! Please!” She begged, knowing that her pleas fell to deaf ears.

[Y/N] felt so useless as no one heard her beg and plead.

Then, she noticed another pair of eyes on her. She looked up to find Loki’s eyes briefly on her, staring right into her, before swiftly turning away. He could hear her. He could see her. That was when it clicked. If the golden-eyed stranger wasn’t the one who had brought her here, then it must have been Loki. But why?

Confusion, anguish, and rage bubbled in her heart. Her breathing became ragged as she tried to control her chaotic emotions. She made a move towards him but-

The sounds of the fight broke her concentration on the god as she quickly turned back to the alien and the Hulk. With one last hit, Hulk was knocked unconscious and no longer got back up. His bloody, beaten up face and the alien’s uninjured body showed just how strong the other side was.

Thor, ignoring the odds, hit the purple man with some sort of metal rod. It clattered onto the ground, echoing in the open space, but it didn’t even faze the alien. He merely turned to Thor and with a swift kick, he sent him flying backwards.

“Thor!” [Y/N] cried out, but her voice could not reach him. She knew that and yet she still screamed.

The god grunted in pain, barely standing up, when the other alien - the thinner, more pale one - moved his hand and metal went flying at Thor. The pieces of the ship latched onto him, imprisoning Thor and stopping him from making any more moves.

“Allfathers…” She heard the fallen man mutter, turning her attention back to the golden-eyed stranger. He strained to speak through the pain that seemed to radiate from his abdomen, “Let the dark magic flow through me one last…” He winced, holding out his hand, towards where the Hulk lay, “time.”

A rainbow of light streamed in, phasing through the metal walls of the ship, and engulfed the Hulk. His eyes slightly fluttered open, briefly regaining a bit of his consciousness, before floating up from the bright beam, and then was sent flying to the other side of the ship, vanishing without a trace. Everyone turned to the injured man, who breathed heavily from the efforts of the act he had just committed. It was clear that the purple giant, who had walked towards the fallen golden-eyed man, was not happy.

“That was a mistake,” he said as he grabbed the weapon another alien offered. With one swift, heartless blow, the stranger plunged the pointed staff downwards, straight into the already injured man.

“NO!!!” Thor roared as the monster plunged the weapon deeper while [Y/N] helplessly turned away.

She didn’t want to see anymore.

[Y/N] was right there, invisible to everyone else, and yet she could do nothing to stop it. So much blood had been shed. So much she couldn’t prevent. She wanted to return to her body back on Earth. She wanted to curl up in her bed and cry. She wanted to throw up all the contents in her stomach, which wasn’t much, but she couldn’t even do that. Something was keeping her there. So she had to stay. She had to watch. And it killed her inside.

“You’re going to die for that,” Thor promised, his rage seeping out from his tired and imprisoned body, but the aliens didn’t look bothered by his threats. Instead, that thin alien, who seemed to be the right-hand man of the purple one, waved his hand. The metal pieces around him followed his silent command as they wrapped around Thor’s mouth, preventing him from speaking anymore.

“Shhh,” the alien hushed, raising a long, bony finger in front of his mouth.

[Y/N] finally stood up from the floor, casting one regretful glance at the fallen man, before making her way over to Thor’s side. If she couldn’t be seen, heard, or touched, she might as well be beside her friend who must have suffered greatly from all this carnage. Her hand brushed against him to confirm that he didn’t notice her at all, and then she settled next to him. While she stood beside Thor, the Tesseract was given to the purple alien, the cube crushed in his bare hands, and the glowing stone from within placed in his golden gauntlet. She witnessed it all, yet she could do nothing about it.

“There are two more stones on Earth,” the giant alien spoke, admiring the stone’s power, “Find them, my children, and bring them to me on Titan.”

“Father we will not fail you,” the one female alien answered as they all bowed before him.

“If I might interject,” a voice rang out, interrupting their show of loyalty, as the God of Mischief called attention to himself, “If you’re going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that arena.”

“Loki,” [Y/N] huffed, sending sharp glares at the god. “Why did you bring me here?! Why are you making me watch this?! What exactly are you planning?!”

But he didn’t answer. Perhaps he couldn’t answer her. Not without alerting the others, anyways. Still, she had grown impatient. How could she not when being forced to watch this massacre?

Instead, Loki made his way over to the purple man, his smile unfaltering as their conversation continued. [Y/N] didn’t know what Loki’s intentions were, but she knew he was always full of schemes and ideas, so there had to be a reason for bringing her here. For making her witness all of this. And it had better be a good one.

“Almighty Thanos, I, Loki, prince of Asgard…” He began, then paused, looking down at the floor, “Odinson…” Loki glanced over at his brother, the two making eye contact as something was shared between them with that one word, “the rightful king of Jotunheim,” he continued as he faced the purple alien again, “God of Mischief,” a blade appeared in his hand, hidden behind the rest of his arm but clearly visible to Thor and [Y/N], “do hereby pledge to you-”

“No!” [Y/N] cried, realizing what he intended, “Stop! I know you can hear me, you bastard! Don’t you dare-”

“-my undying fidelity,” Loki finished, ignoring [Y/N] as he bowed his head slightly.

Taking in one final breath, the god thrust his blade upwards towards Thano’s head. However, the blade stopped before it could reach flesh, the blue infinity stone obeying the purple giant’s command and preventing Loki’s hand from moving another inch.

“Undying?” The monster - Thanos - repeated, a smug smile on his face, as he used his gauntlet-free hand to grab onto Loki’s extended arm. “You should choose your words more carefully.”

The god winced at the amount of force and unwillingly let go of his blade. It fell to the floor, clattering with the sound of metal on metal. Pulling Loki slightly forward, Thanos used his other hand to wrap around the god’s neck. The infinity stone was no longer needed as he raised Loki higher off the floor. Loki struggled against Thanos’ grip, but it was a futile effort. The alien was just too powerful.

“No,” [Y/N] whispered, crumpling to the ground. “Why?!” She hated seeing this. She hated not being able to do anything. She hated being so useless. So why? Why did she have to witness this? What was the end goal? “Why are you making me watch this?!”

But as she expected, no one would answer her.

“You,” Loki strained to be heard as his throat was slowly being crushed, “will never be…” He struggled to finish, the veins on his head visible as life was gradually being choked out of him. “...a god.”

Midgardian, she heard him whisper silently in her head, a voice that was so weak and quiet yet still having that signature sly tone of his.

“Alien,” [Y/N] murmured back, her voice breaking slightly as she stared at Loki’s struggling figure.

Though it was very faint, she heard him chuckle. It was a tickling sensation that brushed across her mind, but she wasn’t granted enough time to even register it.

There was a soft crack, and then everything seemed to spiral out of control. [Y/N]’s body was thrown off the ship and was propelled through space at a sickening speed. She barreled towards her limp body, slamming into it and then suddenly wheezed as she jolted up on her bed.

Sweat covered her body as tears streamed down her face. She gasped for air, as if she was the one being choked by Thanos, and stumbled down onto the floor. Though she felt weak all over, she managed to stagger into the bathroom and heaved up everything within her stomach, her head just above the toilet bowl.

It took her a few minutes to gather her thoughts.

The cool bathroom tiles felt nice against her skin and she flushed before finally getting up. Washing off the bile that coated her lips, not even bothering to wipe off the excess water, she wandered back to her bed. Looking around the quiet room, alone in the sunlight streaming in through all the windows, she noticed that the whole place was a mess. All those times she had tried to use her abilities to help must have affected the surroundings here and not where Thor and Loki were… Everything was in a chaotic display, but still silent. Well, except for the sobbing that had escaped her.

Unable to do much else, she hugged her knees to her chest and cried. She desperately wanted this all to be a dream. She wanted someone to tell her that it was all just a nightmare, to have Loki just materialize out of nowhere and laugh at the sick joke he had just played. But he did not appear. And she knew that it was all real.

[Y/N] wished she could continue to bawl and tire herself out so that sleep could erase these memories. To let all these bottled up emotions out and forget the whole thing, but… This wasn’t the time to cry. Thanos had told his “children” to go retrieve the other two stones on Earth.

They were coming.

Wiping away her tears, she bolted off the bed and hurried to dress up, throwing on whatever clothes she had lying around, and ran out the apartment door. There wasn’t even time to close or lock it, as she continued to race out into the open streets of New York. She wasn’t even sure she would return there, knowing the battle that was coming ahead, but she couldn’t allow herself to think too hard on it.

[Y/N] now knew why Loki had made her watch that whole event. He had known he would die and that Thor would be left alone. Hulk was sent somewhere by that golden-eyed man but she didn’t know where. All she knew was that Thanos was heading towards Earth. She had to warn the Avengers, both ex-members and current ones, but how?

Reaching for the phone she usually kept in her pocket, her heart sank when there was no familiar bulk there.

“Shit,” she cursed as she continued charging down the street, not turning back for the forgotten phone.

Tony has a way to reach Steve, [Y/N] thought to herself, He needs to know this too so I’ll just have to find him!

Suddenly, a familiar, sparking circle opened up right in front of her. This time it wasn’t like a wormhole but a link to another place on Earth. She could see people on the other side, some moving out of the way, but she was unable to stop at this point. Bracing herself, she ran straight into the portal and crashed into someone. She didn’t even have time to activate her powers and faced the full tackle head-on. The two groaned in pain, landing on top of one another after the collision.

“A little warning next time,” [Y/N] grumbled, rubbing her sore head.

God, I really hate magic.

“[Y/N]?”

The voice that called out her name wasn’t the one she was expecting. She looked down at the person she had toppled onto and was in for another surprise.

“Bruce?!”

Author’s Note: @e7here4l while going back to my previous posts to remember exactly what [Y/N]’s journey was, I noticed that I never tagged you even though I said that I would. I’m really, really sorry that it took so long to tag you and I hope you will still take time to enjoy my work!

[PART 12]

Tags: @themeanestlittlewitch  @stressedandbandobessed7771 @moistpotatobear @fxckingfat​ @e7here4l

[cherubchoirs]

An Explanation of Yaldabaoth

So with Christmas Eve coming up, let’s finally talk about Yaldabaoth – who he is, his motivations and goals, and why he suits P5’s story. Basically, I see a lot of confusion (as well as frustration) surrounding his character and his status as the final antagonist, but I totally get that. His writing is messy and his execution left a lot to be desired, despite the idea of him being sound, so I understand why so many players felt he came out of nowhere and screws up the story’s themes. As I am (unfortunately) a big fan of his character, I wanted to put together a post that might help people confused by him see how he fits in, why he was included in the story, and why he makes a satisfying final boss for the plot of P5. And even if you still hate him (totally fair! Everyone’s got different taste and no matter what, his handling is god awful), I just hope I can sort of explain him so he at least makes more sense. This is going to be long, so let’s get started!

First, Yaldabaoth (also known as the Demiurge) is a figure from Gnostic lore, the false god of the material world. He came to be when Sophia, a part of the unknowable, Supreme God, decided to create something separate from the Pleroma (the divine totality) all on her own, without divine permission. So she gave birth to Yaldabaoth; however, he was so monstrous she grew immediately ashamed of her creation, and so provided him with a throne which she then wrapped in a cloud to hide him and make him ignorant in turn. Unable to behold his mother or the divine, he then believed himself to be god. Because of this, Yaldabaoth set about creating the material world, a place he unwittingly based upon the true world of divinity. His creations are animal, like him, but with Sophia’s divine spark as she provides him the power to create. This world is poorly made due to Yaldabaoth’s own incompetence and so that divine spark is trapped in the material, making it something like a spiritual prison. Because of this, however, humanity can ascend while Yaldabaoth cannot, making him envious of human beings. He grows to hate humanity, angered by their imperfection (as he bungles their creation) and the fact that they can ascend while he’s forever trapped in the depths – he turns spiteful, and he is sometimes thought of as the God of the Old Testament as an explanation for his cruelty. Obviously this is incredibly simplified (as I am by no means an expert on Gnosticism), but this is the basis of his character, and I think it really is something the writers played with (including that Satanael, his son, is the one to rebel against him and his ignorance, which is why he is cast from heaven).

A false, artificial god who believes himself to be the Supreme Being, resents humankind, and traps them in a prison...sounds pretty familiar. So what’s different about his character in P5? This Yaldabaoth is the creator of the Metaverse, and he is born from the will of the public – people wished for ease and comfort over free will, the luxury to be free of making decisions and taking responsibility for themselves, which the Holy Grail explains to the PTs as its origin.

However, Yaldabaoth is also just a manifestation of that need - one that gained sentience through the power it was fed, but he is still simply the unconscious desire of the public made material as pointed out by Lavenza (but this explanation scene is where things get rushed, confusing, and glossed over to a frustrating extent)

Yaldabaoth IS society, a tangible stand-in for the true villain of P5 – The people of the public that allow, condone, and even encourage those the PTs have fought. They can defeat criminals, but as long as society remains intact, another will immediately spring up to take their place. Makoto actually states as much when Joker comes to retrieve her from her cell:

Yaldabaoth, therefor, is not just a god thrown into the plot randomly for the biggest bad possible – he is the evils of society incarnate, the people who allow the heinous crimes the PTs had been fighting against, the people that consumed these devastating crimes as entertainment or turned a blind eye to people in need, the people that threw the PTs out the minute any doubt was cast on them. The apathetic, uncaring, callous public as a whole, the ones who constantly ignore or support these criminals until it is no longer convenient (more on that in a minute) – The palace rulers are absolute monsters and yet...we see them all over society because they are a product of that society. And then there’s Futaba, an orphan and mentally ill girl left to rot by society; Sae, a woman trying so hard to achieve her justice and support her sister, constantly stamped down in a society that says a woman can’t, a woman shouldn’t. Society is the true villain and Yaldabaoth is their collective will, manifested so that the final boss battle of the game can just be the PTs taking down the whole of a corrupt society. It’s really the ultimate culmination of their efforts and what they’ve fought against. Because as awful as they all are, the palace rulers are products of a screwed up society (one that reflects our own) – Totally and 100% responsible for their acts, but they were allowed to exist due to this society.

SO if they’re made by society, why are they “escaped convicts” from the Prison of Regression? This is a representation of how society is broken – it creates these criminals, it condones their actions, but once they become too “disruptive”, THEN and ONLY then do they become an issue. Yaldabaoth, to me, is similar to a supercomputer type villain (think AM, a very similar character imo) – the palace rulers are errant, erratic variables that upset the status quo and so must be culled. His dialogue reads very much like a sterile computer program and I think rather than completely outright malicious in his intent, he is performing what he believes to be a necessary function:

Society creates them, encourages them, and then becomes upset when their actions are brought to light and so punishes them (or in Shido’s case at first and so often irl, are let off) so as to quickly restore equilibrium where they can once again ignore all of their ills. Essentially, the palace rulers exhibit that the whole system is sick and doesn’t work, yet people by and large pretend it does because it’s so much easier to say it was one “bad apple” or blame the victims rather than admitting the entire framework of society is completely rotten from the inside out.

What is Yaldabaoth’s goal then? He sets up a game to see if society can be shaken from this apathy or if they no longer wish to lead their own lives. Joker plays the trickster, an antihero the public can root for, the rebellious and glamorous rogue that punishes criminals without help of the establishment. If he wins, this would indicate the public no longer wishes for the status quo, but for a new society that wants to reinvent itself, which is generally well explained...

Goro Akechi is his opposite – He creates chaos and fear in the public to push them back into their comfortable boxes, make them wish for the status quo represented by Shido so they can stop living in fear and return to their lives where they can ignore everything around them. If he wins, this would signal that the public don’t want to fight but instead only want security and familiarity, choosing to turn a blind eye to everything the trickster had accomplished in order to remain safe. (This is made much less clear in the dialogue, because they don’t go over Goro’s role much at all.)

He sets up the entire game on this premise, and the experiment runs...however, it ends unexpectedly. Joker succeeds in taking down Akechi and the PTs expose Shido’s crimes as well as the conspiracy itself, but the public still does not support the Phantom Thieves. They clamor for a disgraced Shido and THIS is why Joker still loses – remember, Yaldabaoth is only a representation of society itself, and society no longer believes in the Phantom Thieves. Yaldabaoth did expect the loss, he knew how far gone humanity was, he just didn’t expect this exact scenario. Of course, the game was rigged – as Lavenza says, Yaldabaoth expects Joker to fulfill the role of the Trickster and so he keeps him close, watching over him in an attempt to stall him out as Lavenza explains. 

However, due to the set up of the game, the only win condition is public support. Joker doesn’t earn it and therefor he loses, a decision that is not arbitrary despite possibly appearing so (although it is certainly unfair, pointed out by Morgana).

After offering Joker his deal (that’s a whole OTHER post I could write, y’all know I’m a clown), Yaldabaoth then moves to merge reality with Mementos in order to exert his will over the whole of the public. He wishes to rid them of their free will because, as Yaldabaoth sees it, it seems a vast majority of the public wish to no longer have it anyway and the ones that do merely become anomalies that must be purged from his system before they become too disruptive. Of course, this is an oversimplified way of viewing the issue, but again, he’s sort of like a computer – he will take care of the issue in the most efficient way possible, and that is to rule over society himself. (Again, using the word “administrator” invokes computer terminology and likens him to a mechanical program):

Interestingly, his defeat is brought about by the public backing the Phantom Thieves 100% - an action that triggers Arsene’s evolution into Satanael, Yaldabaoth’s rebellious son. Satanael is of the Fool Arcana, the confidant that represents Joker’s bond to Yaldabaoth himself...to the public, in a sense, and so it’s fitting that this persona is the one to destroy him as he is no longer needed.

So Yaldabaoth is both a character in his own right and representative of the will of the public as well. His writing is confusing, lacking in explanation, and relies heavily on obscure references to his Gnostic roots along with religious symbolism (eg., the floors of Mementos taking their names from the Qliphoth and the palace rulers being representative of the seven deadly sins), and I think that’s why he feels so out of place to so many players. However, the best possible final antagonist for P5’s themes and plot is society itself – the society that shunned them, the society that created the palace rulers, the society that desperately needs to be done away with if we wish for these travesties to come to an end. Because P5 isn’t about individual evil, it’s about institutional evils that create and perpetuate so much individual pain that goes unnoticed and uncared for. Yaldabaoth is the amalgamation and manifestation of that broken system, he gives it a presence and a voice so that the PTs can fight back against it physically. So even though his writing is handled poorly and his execution is lacking, I find him to be a perfect fit and a satisfying conclusion to P5’s themes as an unfair, cruel society turned into a dogmatic god. 

This meta really just gives an overview of everything he represents, so I can always go into more detail about any of the points but I hope this explanation helps those that were confused by his inclusion in P5! I’m perfectly happy to elaborate on anything I talked about and clear up any confusion (I didn’t want this post to go on literally FOREVER, so I know some things might require more info), so feel free to ask questions! Other than that have a happy Day of Reckoning and remember to celebrate Bad End Akira’s birthday 🥳🎉

[icyxmischief]

Very old Loki headcanons from 2012!

It’s come to my attention that my blog has a whole link to headcanons that are ooooooold.  Most of them are still exactly what I think of Loki so I’m going to post them again here but remove the link, as my headcanons and meta tags are far more comprehensive! 

Please read however! :3 

Loki Headcanons, Character Motives, DiscussionThis list is BY NO MEANS EXHAUSTIVE. PLEASE REFER TO MY TAG “headcanons"

AND MY TAG “meta” FOR ALL DISCUSSIONS OF THIS CHARACTER.1.

Loki wears high-collared clothing even irrespective of battle armor (that is, all the time) because he knows that there is a place on each side of his neck that acts almost like a zen pressure point. If someone clasps his neck it has an odd quelling effect. As an inborn logistician, Loki does not want adversaries or even friends to have that kind of control over him, so he tries to shield access to his vulnerable spot. However, Thor frequently gains access anyway. There are in fact four separate “neck scruff” moments between them (one in “Thor,” in a deleted scene, and three in “Avengers”) and in each Loki is noticeably tranquillized, even, in some cases, dazed. Can you spot them?

2.

Loki’s D&D alliance has changed in the duration between “Thor” and “The Avengers” from Chaotic Good with his family and Lawful Neutral with his country/society, to Lawful Evil against both. He is a salvageable/redeemable character, though, who may revert to a state of “goodness” given enough time and compassionate acceptance. Loki is the epitome of the well-meaning but deeply misguided anti-hero.

3.

Loki’s Meyers-Brigg Personality is some bizarre mixture of Artisan, Rational, and Idealist. He is, at intervals a Composer and a Mastermind (INTJ), with a few notable emotional traits of the Healer (INFP). The only thing he is NOT is a Guardian. In the Harry Potter world, Loki would be a Slytherin with traces of Ravenclaw (he is, when lucid, very curious and cerebral).

4.

Loki is bisexual or perhaps pansexual. Or technically, assigning him a sexual orientation is pointless since he can change genders at will. In sexual relations, whether with a man or with a woman, Loki likes to be “on top” at the onset of the relationship. But with time and painstakingly gained trust, he prefers to be the vulnerable partner. He is capable of being a kind and caring lover, but his partner should be a deeply patient person who can expect a number of arguments based on his evasiveness, egotism, and sensitivity.

5.

Loki claims to be a trickster, to have no concrete ethical convictions, and to be playfully sadistic, but underneath this carefully crafted façade of whimsically cruel nonchalance—and it IS a conscious façade of “who gives a shit what you think, I’m wonderful!”—is a basically serious, somber, rigidly principled, and insecure being who forms ferociously loyal alliances to the people whom he loves. This odd mix of viciousness and sweetness makes Loki a frequently tragic being, as it opens him up for rejection on some level almost constantly. Loki is permanently and severely wounded when he perceives he has been wronged or betrayed (and Loki has very recently developed a bit of a persecution complex, so sometimes those wrongdoings are entirely imagined). He can be completely incapacitated by the belief that someone has been UNFAIR to him, getting emotionally and psychologically stuck on fanatically reliving the unfairness and plotting a way to exact justice. To compensate for a basically weak and insecure constitution, Loki adheres to forced, fanatical beliefs that don’t actually seem to reflect who he is. Doing so gives him psychological armor, however false, to hide behind, and buffers him against the fact that he is completely alone. For instance, his claimed conviction that “freedom is a lie” and “people are happiest when they have someone to bow down to” clashes deeply with his intrinsic role as a mischief-maker and free spirit and, despite his obviously genius-level I.Q., is bizarrely anti-intellectual. In short, Loki lies to himself to feel less terrified of his solitude and personal rejection by others. Engaging in a kind of double-think, he even fully believes his own lies and acts on them with sometimes atrocious results.

6.

Loki probably has a “godly” equivalent of one or more of the “Dissociative” disorders. This means that he has more than one discrete “personality.” Each personality (there are at least two) comes out erratically with little known trigger and sometimes is indistinguishable from the other except based on a tone of voice, type of laugh, or type of smile. Loki himself seems to be unaware of this shift of personalities and even slightly confused whenever a shift takes place. He then covers up the confusion with some bombastic display or arrogant declaration, but clearly is disturbed by the feeling of lost control. While this tendency is innate, and probably has a lot to do with being a Frost Giant made to masquerade as an Asgardian all his life, it was drastically exacerbated when Odin confessed Loki’s true heritage and insinuated that he kidnapped Loki from his real parents because Loki would one day prove a convenient political tool. At that point Loki realized he was entirely uncertain of his identity at all, and previously dormant personality traits awoke and vied for control. This confused selfhood is easily mistaken for some form of Bipolar Disorder, since Loki’s moods are volatile and change often. But it is not a true mood disorder because these emotional upheavals all directly derive from his confused sense of self and his uncertainty over how to deal with it. It is also confused with some rough equivalent of Paranoid Schizophrenia, but Loki is often too high-functioning and lucid to totally qualify for a Schizophreniform Disorder (although there are times that I honestly wonder). While in his childhood and youth he was calm, gentle, and reticent, Loki now exhibits pathologically narcissistic and histrionic traits, and he definitely has Borderline Personality Disorder: which is characterized by unstable personal relationships, an unstable sense of self, a tendency to “split” (lionize and demonize at sudden intervals in black and white terms) other people, and a need to deliberately test the patience of others in order to see how much he can “get away with” before he pushes them away and is abandoned.

All this has become instead a discussion of PTSD. 

7. (the big one)

Family for Loki is obviously a complicated issue, probably the most sensitive of all issues. It is in fact the issue from which all his pathological traits derive. Loki, or at least one of the “Lokis plural,” still loves his adoptive brother Thor dearly. But in the mess of everything that has happened (“it’s too late!”), in getting in far over his head with increasingly misguided efforts to be accepted and approved of, Loki no longer knows how to act around or relate to Thor. He also genuinely resents Thor for naturally being everything Loki tries, and fails, to be. He is deeply conflicted about his brother—hence actually talking to him without skewering him, then laughing as Tony Stark beats the shit out of him; hence gazing at him tenderly and crying, then dropping him out a steel trap or stabbing him. Despite all this, Thor is probably Loki’s best (perhaps only) hope for a normal relationship with another living person. Loki perennially seems to rediscover this fact and feel remorse about it. In his innermost self, Loki doesn’t want Thor to be hurt and he is grateful that Thor frets for and puts up with him. Loki probably loves Thor the most of his entire adopted family, since he was shown to defend Thor to their formidable-tempered father, and to counsel Thor against being injured by the Frost Giants (again, Loki USED to be the level-headed of the two brothers!). At the same time, a lifetime of living in Thor’s shadow had made Loki resentful enough by the middle of the film “Thor” to passively, and then quite actively, resist restoring his brother to Asgard. Loki also loves and misses his adoptive mother Frigg/Frigga and would be hard pressed to ever do her physical harm. The only person he completely hates in his adoptive family is his father Odin, though even that hatred is the inverse of having once devotedly adored the “All-Father.” In fact, Loki’s first great act of betrayal—to let the Frost Giants into Asgard and then set up a dimensional portal to commit genocide on his entire native race—was a desperate attempt to prove his love and loyalty to Odin, and to finally feel he had earned Odin’s love—genuine, not with practical perks— in return. He was unwilling to let anyone kill Odin, even though to do so would win him the throne of Asgard, and he proudly proclaimed himself a “son of Odin,” before Odin reiterated his relentless disappointment in Loki (“I could have done it, father, for you! For all of us!” “No, Loki.”). It was only at that point, suspended over a black hole between the dimensions, that Loki completely lost hope in earning Odin’s love. It was then, erroneously, that Loki decided love could not be earned, and had to be TAKEN. This is probably the root of his obsessive preoccupation with subjugating others. Significantly, that was the moment when Loki attempted to commit suicide, and when he survived, it was when he became a great deal more malicious.

8.

Loki is a very obstinate person once he gets into “the zone.” He will sacrifice devastating collateral as well as his own wellbeing in order to “win the game” or obtain what he craves. He is also a brilliant tactician, logistician, and strategist. He works in contingencies and despite being violently stubborn about his ultimate goal, will change courses dozens of times to reach it: chameleons change colors based on their environment and easily shed their skins, after all. As everything else, this ultimately goes back to his basic insecurity and personal confusion, and even a sense of self-loathing.

9.

Loki has several types of laughter that inform the observant person of when he is “lucid” or dangerous. His “real” and innocuous laugh is either a quiet, closed-lipped “HM!” or a calmly clucked series of “eh heh heh heh’”s. His “crazy” laugh is a loud, booming, arrogant, frantic, and abrupt guffaw often accompanied by tossing his head to and fro. Loki’s smiles also determine his mental states. A toothy grin is actually a sign that he is genuinely tickled. He is not aware of these tics, which is ironic, since he is such a fastidious student of other people’s giveaway habits and traits.

10.

Loki is a control freak and has a Napoleon Complex. Again, it comes from a combination of family issues and innate pathology. He hates to feel like he has lost control or had to give too much of himself unfairly to others because he spent his entire childhood and youth doing so to a dysfunctional extent in the vain hope of fitting in and being approved of by Asgardian society. For this reason, something as trivial as losing a chess game causes him to lash out in a resentful rage at the person to whom he has lost. It is not just losing a chess game to Loki; it is literally more evidence of his insufficiency and his unlucky destiny as a being who is constantly used and discarded. Other people frequently misinterpret this as evidence that Loki is greedy, and spoiled, and some crazy hormonal “Drama Queen.” In reality, Loki has no sense of self-preservation at all; he is reckless (whereas he once was very prudent) and sometimes the opposite of self-indulgent, and his violent tantrum-like response to loss of control has a much more tragic source.

11.

Loki hates the sensation of being cold and the sensation of being wet, but this is not because he cannot withstand these sensations; on the contrary the cold is his natural element, and the revulsion is entirely psychological. Both trigger recollections of his actual heritage as a Frost Giant, of which he is ashamed and disgusted. It doesn’t help that he is literally also a runt of his race. He in fact gets embarrassed showing strangers his blue skin and red eyes—unless of course he is in one of his more megalomaniacal states.

12.

Loki is a shape shifter and can change both genders and species, and frequently does so for shits and giggles. When he and Thor were children and Loki began to study sorcery to compensate for his physical smallness, he put on “changing shows” to make his brother laugh, especially when Thor was sad about something.

13.

Loki respects and is strangely fascinated by Tony Stark. In many ways he can relate to Tony, who is like a far saner, far less fanatical, version of him. Of all the “Avengers,” aside Thor, Tony is the individual who Loki can most tolerate. But Tony also makes him the angriest the fastest because Tony is so brilliant, insightful, and unflappable.  

14.

When Loki is very tired or dozes off lightly, and is not properly in bed, objects and living things randomly transform and shape shift under his half-conscious powers.

Loki also has difficulty waking up once he has fallen into a deep sleep.  It takes him forever to trust his environment enough to fall unconscious, and he hates that feeling of “total surrender,” but once he is asleep, he sleeps like a rock.  It is in fact directly after awakening, when still achieving a state of consciousness, that Loki is the most like his childhood self: quiet and gentle. He is also unusually impressionable in that state. When they were boys, Thor recognized this and was very protective of his little brother until Loki had fully awakened. This has not changed, but Loki is careful to be alone most of the time when he expects to rouse from slumber so that nobody witnesses it.

15.

We become what we are told we are, if we are told enough times. Loki, treated with almost a racist bigotry throughout his childhood, and suddenly exposed to the fact that he belongs to a race of hated monsters, believes himself to be an agent of chaos, pain, and subjugation. He believes he must be the equal and opposite foil to his brother. For life to continue, death must exist; for the earth to be fertilized and yield new life, bacterial agents must exact decay. What is tragic about this, and probably the reason for Loki’s obviously forced self-exultation, is the fact that more than anything, he wanted to be one of the agents of good, light, and order until it became clear to him that nobody would ever allow this—and now Loki embraces his role as the doer of dirty work, as the negative inverse in the eternal counter-balance of light and dark, gods and devils, and indeed, on some level, he plays a necessary role in the universe. But this was not what he originally wanted himself to be, and it is still not what he wants to be even now. This is a core reason for why he is jealous of and resentful toward Thor. Thor literally lives the life Loki wishes he could live.

16.

Loki actually enjoys taking the long route to victory. He foregoes easier and more certain methods to achieving his goals solely for the pure enjoyment of fabricating highly circuitous plots and watching them come to fruition with often delightfully surprising side developments that force him to use his wits and ingenuity in order to wriggle out on top. He is a thrillseeker, as most sociopaths are. It’s almost like tinkering with a motherboard to him—one that is plugged into an electrical outlet and could shock him at any moment if he makes the wrong move. He loves that sensation. In another life, he would actually make an excellent vigilante hero.

17.

When Loki was a child and ashamed of something, he would cast a spell that made him physically disappear and sit in dejected silence for hours. Only Thor could find him and convince him to become visible again. This is almost like a literal internalization of disempowerment, of the fact that he is constantly told to “shut up” or “know his place” by elders; even Thor snapped this at Loki once, in the “Thor” film, when Loki was only trying to convince Heimdall to let the group through the Bifrost, and when Loki was trying to keep Thor from being killed by Frost Giants.

18.

I am not sure whether or not I agree with this theory, but I will put it as a headcanon for now since it is well-thought-out: Loki originally formed an alliance with Thanos of the Titans thinking “cakewalk!” He was quickly proven wrong and got in over his head with the most dangerous being in the universe while making his bid for the chitauri. The plan, which Loki was now forced to carry out, was to cause the Avengers to assemble and to LOSE TO THEM PURPOSEFULLY (Loki never wanted to rule the “worthless” Midgardians anyway) to have an excuse for Thor to take him home to Asgard (which he still wants to conquer and refashion in his own image). Once in Asgard, Loki will fetch Thanos his payment for the use of the chitauri and the restoration to Asgard’s throne—by handing over the Infinity Glove/Gauntlet that is pictured as part of Odin’s treasury in the “Thor” film. At this point Loki’s feelings about ruling Asgard and harming his adoptive family are mixed, but he absolutely has NO CHOICE but to follow through (the Chitauri said “if you betray us there is no corner of any universe in which he [Thanos] cannot find you” and “you think you know pain? He [Thanos] will make you long for something so sweet as pain”). In the aftermath of this, what Loki will do remains to be seen or even guessed at. Many speculate that this is where his “redemption arc” will take place. In the duration, if “Thor 2” rumors are true, Loki will be either advising Thor against or machinating alongside an Asgardian sorceress and her allies. Probably the latter, as a way to execute his plans to get on the Throne of Asgard and get to the gauntlet that he owes Thanos.

19.

Sometime in the span of the Avengers franchise, possibly in Avengers 2 but probably not as early as Thor 2, Loki will in some way recant his crimes and redeem himself. I have not a clue how but too much effort was put into making him deeply sympathetic in the beginning for this to not take place. It will just be after he stirs up A LOT more shit (since he is technically a Marvel “big bad”). The person who will get through to him will be Thor. No doubt.

I personally am expecting one of the films to end with a teaser to the Journey Into Mystery comics arc, with a reborn child Loki.  

Well this happened, yay! lol. 

20.

Loki coveted his current wife Sigyn of the Vanir (the Norse Goddess of Fidelity) with his usual possessive and jealous nature, but he also killed and impersonated her fiance Theoric of the Crimson Hawks because Theoric was a controlling brute and Loki, who had taken time and effort to get to know Sigyn quite well, was moved by her bookish and intellectual temperament and her feelings of hopelessness and disempowerment (to which he could closely relate).  They are, as spouses, surprisingly gentle and tender, and they baby each other a lot.  Sigyn is no pushover, though her nature is quiet and introspective. Loki is a devoted father to his twin sons Vali and Narvi, which makes their ultimate fate in Norse mythology all the more tragic.

Headcanon directly derived from Tumblr user Asgardian-Spook.  <3 :)

21.

Loki is a quintessential Scorpio. His moon is in Cancer and his ascendant is Gemini.  

His birthday was November 14.  He is at least eight-nine hundred years old (the “Thor” film puts his infancy at around 965 A.D.).

22.

Pathological liar? Yes and no.

Loki is capable of sincerity unwaveringly in one form: when he cries. He cannot feign tears and crying is how constantly brewing intense emotions that he cannot quantify or qualify in his typically over-intellectual manner simply broil to the surface.  

No other form of deceit is beyond him to execute successfully, however. There is a reason why the God of Mischief is also sometimes called the God of Lies. He did not invent lying, but lying is closely tied to illusive endeavors and so he became proficient at it. It is also important to note that lying is not always a cruel or destructive force. It can be put to kind uses, in the form of sparing someone’s feelings by concealing hurtful truths, and when he was younger, Loki was known to do so.  Ironically, if he recognized that Odin, in his own destructively rigid way, was trying to do just that with respect to Loki’s Jotun heritage, it would have spared Loki himself a lot of heartache.

23. (how did Loki get from “Thor” to “Avengers”?)

As confirmed by Tom Hiddleston, the immensely skilled actor who portrays Loki in the Marvel films, when Hiddleston referred to a conversation with “Avengers” director Joss Whedon:

In the end of “Thor,” when Loki essentially attempted suicide and fell into a dimensional wormhole between the realms, a kind of liminal “seventh circle of hell” (Hiddleston’s words), the temporal flow was different than it is in the “real” world, and he spent years there in total solitude staring at stars and supernovas and black holes and reliving over and over how terribly awry his life had gone before becoming lost.  In this period Loki’s memories were severely distorted and he began to remember the last moments before he let go of Mjolnir’s handle in a warped way (for instance, he remembered Thor “throwing him” into the abyss rather than letting go himself while Thor frantically screamed his name, as he states in “Avengers”).

This was followed by being discovered by the Chitauri, who scried his most intimate thoughts and tortured him for sport and sent him to witness suffering and evil in every conceivable reality, realm, and universe (including earth, where he made contact with Eric Selvig and saw the Tesseract), and told him he was right in believing there was no value in freedom or love.  

At this point Loki completely snapped. He bargained retrieval of the Tesseract for release onto Midgard, which the Chitauri were to, in turn, help him conquer.  After contacting Thanos, the Chitauri agreed to this. Loki decided this was a win-win. Either he would rule Midgard and finally be a rightful king just like his brother and force his way into Asgard to get the Infinity Gauntlet for Thanos, OR he would fail, and be taken back to Asgard as a prisoner, and stillget the Infinity Gauntlet for Thanos.

This explains many things about Loki. It explains why he was so sickly and gaunt when he returned to earth, as well as so much more markedly insane and cruel.  It explains his belief in himself as some savior-pariah: “Freedom is life’s greatest lie” because the freedom to aspire as an individual is also the freedom to fail, to be found wanting, to be thought inferior: just as Loki himself was found inferior by his family and society.  So essentially, Loki’s raison d’etre is a kind of warped and twisted megalomaniacal “philanthropy.” As Hiddleston put it, “Every villain is a hero in his own mind.”

Addendum: Because of this purgatorial experience in outer space, twilight and evening, and the appearance of a clear starry night sky in general, cause Loki to become nervous and depressed, though almost no one is aware of this.

24.

Loki finds rain and thunderstorms relaxing and uplifting, even in spite of himself.

The reasons are obvious even to him. <3

25.

When Loki is extremely emotionally agitated, to calm himself, he either cups his own neck with his hands, or he jiggles his left hand at his side frantically.

26. Everything Loki and Sigyn can be found in this post: http://icy-mischief.tumblr.com/post/32629880715/logyn-headcanons-master-post-mostly-sweetdreamr-for

27. Everything Loki and Tony (not a pairing, but a character comparison) can be found in these posts, which I will add to as time permits:

http://icy-mischief.tumblr.com/post/33117237448/tony-and-loki-are-alike-and-different-1

http://icy-mischief.tumblr.com/post/33125946272/tony-and-loki-are-alike-and-different-2

http://icy-mischief.tumblr.com/post/33129217327/tony-and-loki-are-alike-and-different-3

http://icy-mischief.tumblr.com/post/33130071948/tony-and-loki-are-alike-and-different-4

28. The following post is a proposed list of Loki’s internal monologue during the film “Thor,” since we all know how labyrinthine his mind is, and how often he changes his course: http://icy-mischief.tumblr.com/post/35072821755/strategy-shift-ok-im-actually-curious-and-i-think

29. I was asked by a follower to compare Loki to Magneto and this post is what I came up with: http://icy-mischief.tumblr.com/post/35374292652/loki-vs-magneto

30: Loki and the Body Politic (an essay by another writer that encapsulates many of my beliefs) : http://pleasantvilles.tumblr.com/post/54144354420/chaos-theory-on-lokis-experience-of-embodiment

31: MY THEORY OF THOR 2: http://icy-mischief.tumblr.com/post/55192114069/so-what-do-i-think-will-happen-in-thor-2-you-ask