#but when Loki fell off the Bifrost it was in part tragic because he was younger

[worstloki]

Thor being only 1500 is actually a reason to bring Loki back like not only is Thor going to have nothing to do without his bro and/or would do something recklesss to bring him back but Loki died at only like 1050. Loki died young

[seulbby]

my love

➛ in which this time it's real

➛ masterlist

➛ loki x fem!reader

➛ warnings: angst, death, grief, maybe cursing????

•°. *࿐

y/n experienced this before. especially with loki. he's faked his death more times than she's been on midgard (which is one but still). she's done the whole 5 stages of grief thing. but this time, she actually knows he's gone. her love is gone.

the first time loki faked his death, she was utterly heartbroken. y/n never thought she'd get over it. she was present when thor and loki were both hanging off the bifrost bridge. she was begging, pleading, with odin to just bring them both up. she saw the pain in her loves eyes, she saw the realization when he learned he'll never be good enough for odin. she saw him give up.

the second time she was more skeptical. she knew he was good at faking his death so before she actually starts to grief like last time she wanted to make sure he was dead before using up all her emotional energy.

loki then showed up to her room at the palace that night disguised as odin. y/n punched him after he came to her room. she was more relieved than angry but still, he faked his death for the fucking throne for frigga's sake. after the aftermath of the initial anger of it she ran up to him and flung herself at him with so much force he almost fell to the ground. with loki in the comfort of his love, he finally felt relaxed. she was there when the death of his mother actually hit him.

•°. *࿐

2013

"she thinks i hate her" loki said with an obvious sadness in his eyes. the sight made y/n's heart literally shatter in her heart. she's never seen loki this distraught, not even that pitiful day on the bifrost bridge.

"no she doesn't my love" y/n said with certainty. because she was certain that frigga didn't hate loki. before frigga's tragic death, y/n talked with her about loki. frigga knew he was just confused, she knew he loved her. she grew up with witches for god's sake.

"how do you know? it's not like she can tell you, she's dead"

"well, actually she did tell me. before it happened" loki turned to look at y/n whole still in her embrace.

"what on earth do you mean?" loki had wide eyes, still filled with sadness but now also with confused.

"when you and your mother first had your argument, she came to see me after. she knew what was to come, what was going to happen to her. she wanted to tell me she knew you didn't mean it. so i could tell you. because she knew you'd do this to yourself" after explaining what had happened with his mother and her, y/n saw he was almost relieved for a split second.

"a mother always knows" his mother always said that to him when she knew he was getting into trouble.

"a mother always knows my love" y/n repeated.

•°. *࿐

this time, y/n truly knows this isn't some misconception or loki playing one of his tricks. no, she watched as her love was strangled and ripped right out of her grasp. she was forced to watch the the life drain from his eyes. she truly knows this time, there's no resurrections.

when thanos and his children finally left, she was released out of there hold along with thor. as she crawled to his lifeless body, she wished this was all a nightmare. a sick, twisted, terrible nightmare. when she finally got to loki's body, it was cold and lifeless. most would say that's how he was before but she knew the real him.

"my love, oh my love" the tears falling down her bloody and battered face were ones of true anguish and depression. she lifted her hand to caress his cold, lifeless cheek.

"i love you, so much. you can rest easy now with your mother. one day we will meet again and have the life you promised me back when we were children." y/n whispered as she closed her loves eyes. thor was next to her at this point, lying on his brother, sobbing.

"we will avenge him y/n. no matter the cost" thor says to her.

"what else is there for me to loose?"

•°. *࿐

a/n: holy shiz balls this was short and really bad. but i wanted to get something out to you guys. i plan on making a part to connecting to the loki series when that comes out so let me know if you want that. happy reading and please reblog.

[be-a-snake-stab-your-brother]

INFINITY WAR COMMENTARY

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE AVOIDING SPOILERS

My long-ass reaction to my favorite Asgardians below the cut. 

LAST CHANCE IF YOU ARE ON MOBILE. 

SPOILERS! 

SPOILERS! 

LONG-ASS COMMENTARY BY YOURS TRULY.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Oooooooh boy.

Loki

Infinity War

Guys, I think he’s really dead this time.

*sobs forever*

Loki is a tragic character, deep in the Shakespearean mold. (And we can probably thank his portrayer for that.)

Disjointed thoughts here. This got...long. 

On Loki in *THAT* scene

-The distress signal from the Asgardian vessel in the opening? That was Loki, right? I had to be. I will die on the headcanon hill that the voice is Loki’s. He *wants* to save his people, and this is his last-ditch effort for help, a raw and real exclamation of loss and fear. Guys, he cares. Too much, to be honest (which is exactly how his whole mess started how many years ago but I digress…)

-I have to wonder how much Loki and Thor plotted the initial part of the confrontation where Loki drops the line, “We have a Hulk.” I feel like both Loki and Thor might have planned that? Now, I’m not entirely sure that Thor knew Loki had the Tesseract. To be honest, one of the biggest mysteries for me still is WHY DID LOKI EVEN TAKE THE TESSERACT IN RAGNAROK? For power? To protect it? As an insurance policy? I have no idea, and it’s basically the only real, burning question I have about Loki’s motivations.

But anyway, the line, “You are the worst, brother.” Or, “You are the worst brother.” Punctuation matters. I, myself, feel that number one is more accurate. Remember their relationship. Remember that they might (at this point), still be putting on a show for Thanos, thinking that somehow he can be overpowered by the Hulk and Thor together. This kind of taunting is how they interact, even on good days.

Have I mentioned how much I love the “We have a Hulk” line? God bless Loki and his irreverent sense of humor. Look how far our little blue icicle has come since the confrontation in Stark’s tower! You know he had to love pulling out that quote. Oh, poor Lokes.

But…Hulk gets his ass kicked. Heimdall sends him down with the dark magic and shit gets real.

-Loki tries to pull his whole song and dance “let me betray my brother again” routine, but the problem is…he’s given himself away already, and both Thanos and Loki know it. Thanos tortures Thor with the Power Stone (the first real indication of his…well, power) and you can see Loki’s face contort in agony (lordy TH is such a stupendous actor, I really hope he gets some meaty roles in the future. The man is a damn artist and I don’t throw that term around lightly. Mad respect.)

So, anyway - even if Loki and Thor had planned the initial confrontation out, the minute Loki coughs up the Tesseract to protect Thor, he knows he’s doomed.

-And here is where it gets sad. Loki’s been on borrowed time - ever since his fall from the Bifrost, since being “recruited” by Thanos. Hell, in some ways, Loki’s been on borrowed time ever since Odin took him in as a baby. It was a terrible, awful thing to say, but Odin’s quote that it was Loki’s “birthright to die” is not wholly inaccurate. And by all accounts, he should have died when he fell into the Void. And he didn’t. He should have died when he was stabbed by the Dark Elf. But he didn’t. He ran and ran and ran. He cheated fate - the Norns - so many times. But he had to know that it would all catch up to him. That he couldn’t stay hidden as Odin forever, couldn’t stay locked up in prison forever, couldn’t be on Sakaar forever, that his entrapment to Thanos - the threat of the Other - that it would come back to haunt him.

It’s such a god damn tragedy.

If Loki wasn’t repentant, it would be a different matter altogether. If he didn’t hand over the Tesseract, even with Thor’s torture, maybe Thanos kills Thor, takes Loki captive and tortures him for it (again). Eventually molds Loki back into what he had been during the Avengers. But I get the feeling Thanos had some idea of Loki’s trajectory, that torturing Thor would be the one thing that was worse than death. (“He will make you long for something as sweet as pain.”) And the fate that was worse than death for Loki was seeing his brother die. Remember, Thanos wants to kill half the universe. Two brothers. In his twisted logic, one had to go. Loki knows this and wasn’t going to let Thor be the victim.

-And so he decides to go out on his terms, practically ensuring that he will die by pissing off Thanos. And at this point, at the end - he finally embraces every part of his identity - Asgardian, Jotun, prince, and king. Maybe, for a fleeting second, he believes he might succeed, but I’m pretty certain Loki knows that it false hope.

-The moment he reached Thor’s eyes and declares himself Odinson, Loki knows it’s over. This one measly sacrifice - a person he doesn’t even necessarily like (himself!) - to save Thor. Loki never really cared about Midgard, about the rest of the cosmos, but he will lay himself down for his brother - his family.

-And just…it’s the worst? The best? Each movie his motivations stem from someone else. In Thor 1 he does it for his father, to win his love and respect. In Thor 2 for his mother, to avenge her death. In Thor 3 it was for his people, for Asgard - to save his home. And now in Infinity War he does it for his brother, because he loves him too damn much. (And in the Avengers? For Thanos, partially; and for himself, but not really. Loki failed in New York. Probably because he lacked conviction. He never wanted power, never really liked himself. Of course that invasion failed.)

-So he conjures a dagger. If he is going to die, he’s going to do it his way, Loki-style. And someone pointed out on Tumblr that his attack was the same move Laufey tried to pull on Odin. Good lord, the layering with this character. I’m crying again, I just can’t guys. “Look at me, brother. This is me. Loki. God. Prince. King. Family. I do this for you.” Agh.

-And then the line, “You will never be a god.” That is PURE Loki. Haughty Loki, who even staring death in the face will not bow in fear. He is better than Thanos, who needs a power stone to overcome a god. His last words are defiance - you will never be better than me, no matter how much power you accumulate.

Guys, I love this character so much you have no idea. There is so much I relate to in Loki’s internal struggles and demons and just…god, he is so fucking tragic.

-And I want to backtrack to the line, “The sun will shine on us again,” which Loki tells Thor. Oh man. It’s a goodbye. We will meet again in Valhalla, brother. It could also be more than that. I don't know where the scriptwriters came up with this idea, but a Google search brought me this from an…unlikely source?

“Today marks a profound and bittersweet milestone for all of us, as we bear witness to both an end and a beginning. And while we must continue on, we must also be grateful to have been blessed with someone who has so ably guided us to where we are today. When there has been so much love and happiness for someone, it is natural to be reluctant to close such a wonderful chapter in our lives, for moving forward is rarely accomplished without considerable grief and sadness. And while our sorrow may be profound, the clouds will clear, and the sun will shine on us again. And in that warm, bright light we will find ourselves facing a glorious future. A future of exciting challenges and infinite possibilities, in which the horizon will stretch out before us, trimmed in the heavenly glow of the sunrise of our tomorrow.

Eddie, The Prince and Me"

Again, I have no idea if this is a reference. I don’t even know this movie and from a brief reading of reviews, it looks pretty terrible. Nonetheless, I like the quote as I feel like in its entirety it’s a wonderful send off to the character and Tom Hiddleston as his portrayer. And frankly, it’s so god damn poetic that it makes me want to cry. Again. Loki, Loki, Loki - that small bit of comfort you offer your brother, yourself in that dark hour. That quote is young Loki, start of Thor 1 Loki, where he still maintains some of that quiet innocence that gets ravaged by stupid Thanos. He comes full circle in this scene.

-And on that note, I rarely talk about actors on my blogs, because they are people with private lives and interests and I’m really not a celebrity culture person at all. This being said, I would understand if Tom Hiddleston would be in part relieved to let Loki go. Let the man get all the meaty roles in the future, let him do Shakespeare on the grandest stages (or the smallest, most intimate venues, where, in my mind, those plays really shine), allow him to grace his talent and abilities in future productions. I personally cannot wait to see what he does next. And let us be thankful for his absolutely brilliant, nuanced portrayal of Loki, who could have easily been a stock villain and instead became one of the most compelling characters I have had to pleasure of watching on screen.

On Thor

-I wanted to comment on two things. One, his conversation with Rocket, where he lists all the horrible events that have happened to him since the first movie. I loved seeing Thor’s vulnerability in this scene, the way he tries to overcome everything with flippant humor and his golden-retriever attitude. That’s who he is. (It probably drove Loki, an introvert with a penchant for brooding, insane in their childhood.) The throwaway line about Loki being dead more than once - that’s misplaced hope, that’s Thor saying “Please, no. Please let it be a lie,” even when he knows it’s not. Ugh.

-When Thor lays his axe into Thanos, saying something along the lines of, “I said I’ll kill you for that.” Yes, for Asgard. Yes, for Heimdall. Yes, for everything he’s lost. But most of all? For Loki. I refuse to read that scene any other way. Thor is on a revenge quest for his brother this entire film. I hope he kicks the shit out of Thanos in Avengers 4.

On Loki’s Return?

-Okay, look guys, I want Loki to revive as much as the next person, believe me. I want to see his full reconciliation with Thor, for him to prance around with the Avengers, and play pranks and be happy!Loki. I know there’s all types of speculation due to the leaked pictures from Avengers 4, and yeah, it would be EPIC if somehow Loki helped in defeating Thanos in that alternate timeline that the remaining Avengers seem to be traveling to. If this gets offered to me on a silver platter, fuck yeah I will rejoice.

-And yes, what did happen to Loki in those few minutes during the Hulk/Thanos confrontation? What if Loki’s line about the sun was more than a goodbye? We’re all pretty certain that the heroes who got ashed will be back, will it be the same for Loki, Gamora, and Vision? I don’t know. My instinct says “no,” but we’re all going to have to wait until next year. (Or, Agent of Asgard Loki? That, too, would be awesome.)

On Valhalla

-I would love a small scene of Loki in the afterlife, meeting with Frigga, who escorts him to Valhalla. It’s not going to happen on screen, but I’m totally going to write a short fic about it, because TEARS and CATHARSIS.

On the Rest of the Film

-I have a fair amount to say about the rest of the film, too! But I’m going to save that for a different meta as I have to leave for work soon. Suffice it to say I enjoyed about 90% of it. A few places dragged, I have no investment in Wanda/Vision, so that really didn’t hold my interest. Tony/Peter Parker/Dr. Strange was inspired, and the Thor + GoG bits were wonderful. Plus, Okoye giving that look to Banner as he tripped in the Hulkbuster suit. I about died there, it was fantastic.

-The snap. Jesus Christ on a cracker that was rough. Especially Tony and Spiderman. Like, rough.

-This film is way too existential for a super-hero movie. Which is why I love it. It’s brooding, dark tone is also a fantastic reflection on the world’s current geopolitical situation and, for me, a product of that kind of “millenial generation depression” that’s been commented on before. I’ll have more to say about this in my larger Infinity War post.

And finally, no better way to eulogize Loki than this:

“Now cracks a noble heart.—Good night, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

[hogwartslessons-blog]

Mythology| Thursday. July 5th, 2018| Lesson Twelve:  Of Treasures, Trials, and Endings

Freyja and Brisingamen  

Two of the greatest magical weapons in Norse mythology belonged to the father/son pair of Odin and Thor. Odin was in possession of Gungnir - a great spear that never missed its mark. Odin himself fashioned the spear from the wood of Yggdrasil and carved magical runes into it.

Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, was so heavy it was said that only he was able to lift it. While it was a weapon of great destruction - launching thunderbolts and lightening, and capable of smashing the skulls of giants - it was also a symbol of creation, and used in birth ceremonies as well. 

Skidbladnir was the most fascinating magical structure in Norse mythology - at least that’s how I see it. Known as the god’s ship, Skidbladnir had been crafted by the dwarves, and could sail across the sea, as well as through the air and over land. As if that weren’t impressive enough, the ship could be folded up like a napkin and tucked into someone’s pocket! I definitely need to meet the dwarves who crafted this magic. I have a few rather large items I would love to be able to tuck away into a pocket!

Skidbladnir

Treasures and Talismans

Many Norse myths are centered around heroes searching for some sort of treasure. You could argue, however that both the greatest and worst treasures that these gods and heroes found were, in fact, magical talismans, weapons, structures, and rings of power.

The goddess Freyja was given one such talisman by four dwarves who had crafted it. This talisman was a necklace called the Brisingamen and it was said to have shone brighter than the stars. While it did not cause her any grief, it did cause her to produce treasure whenever she cried. If she was on land, and her tears fell on rock, they turned to gold. If she was at sea, however, she created amber with her tears.

Freyja and Brisingamen  

Two of the greatest magical weapons in Norse mythology belonged to the father/son pair of Odin and Thor. Odin was in possession of Gungnir - a great spear that never missed its mark. Odin himself fashioned the spear from the wood of Yggdrasil and carved magical runes into it.

Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, was so heavy it was said that only he was able to lift it. While it was a weapon of great destruction - launching thunderbolts and lightening, and capable of smashing the skulls of giants - it was also a symbol of creation, and used in birth ceremonies as well. 

Skidbladnir was the most fascinating magical structure in Norse mythology - at least that’s how I see it. Known as the god’s ship, Skidbladnir had been crafted by the dwarves, and could sail across the sea, as well as through the air and over land. As if that weren’t impressive enough, the ship could be folded up like a napkin and tucked into someone’s pocket! I definitely need to meet the dwarves who crafted this magic. I have a few rather large items I would love to be able to tuck away into a pocket!

Skidbladnir

The last piece of magic found quite frequently in Norse mythology are rings of power. Now, these rings were all symbols of fame, fortune, and power; however some were blessings, and some were curses. 

On the blessing’s side, Odin’s ring Draupnir, dripped eight similar gold rings every ninth day, spreading its wealth. Thor’s Oath Ring was also seen as a promise of fair play and good faith. Other pure rings belonged to heroes such as Orthnit, Wolfdietrich, and Dietrich. These pure rings led the heroes to great treasures, such as, in the case of Dietrich, a cape of invisibility, a girdle of strength, a magical sword, and a hoard of highly-valued rings.

Draupnir 

 Many rings of power, however, were tainted by corruption and greed, and so they cursed and corrupted their bearer, even if their bearers began pure of intention. An example you are already somewhat familiar with is the ring Andvaranaut. This ring was cursed by Andvari. Hreidmar inherited the ring, who was killed by Fafnir (whom you may recall from our previous lesson), who was in turn killed by Sigurd, to whom also befel a tragic fate.

Before accepting a magic ring, dears, please be sure to have it thoroughly checked out. Don’t even touch it. In fact, just walk away. No ring of power is worth your life!

Magic use in Mythology 

While we know that there were magic practitioners in the Norse civilization, it is very interesting to note who could use magic in their myths. While many mythologies across the world have their entire pantheon capable of working magic, this was not the case in Norse Mythology. If you recall from our previous lesson this year, the gods were broken up into two groups: the Aesir and the Vanir. It was the Vanir who possessed the magic, not the Aesir.

Certainly the Aesir could benefit from magic. As we just discussed, many of them both owned and used several magical talismans. Thor alone held two magic rings as well as Mjölnir. They simply did not make the items themselves, nor were they able to practice any magic on their own. 

But what about Odin? Yes, Odin was Aesir, but also think back to our tales of Odin as a hero. He spent an incredible amount of time and energy - not to mention self-sacrifice - to achieve great knowledge. In his search for knowledge, Odin learnt every possible thing about magic that he could from the Vanir, Freyja.

Ragnarok

One of the aspects of Norse Mythology that I find most fascinating is their myths surrounding the end of the world. In and of itself, it is not very common for a culture’s mythology to detail the end of the world. Some certainly do, but the detail in which the Norse end of the world myth is outlined is rather impressive.

In our last lesson, we spoke about Odin and his relentless and self-sacrificial pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. The single driving force behind this quest was to find a way to stop Ragnarok - the Norse term used to describe the events which culminated in the end of the world - from occurring. Sadly, this pursuit was in vain, as Odin learned that the one event that was the catalyst of Ragnarok, the harbinger of doom, if you will, had already occurred. Because that event had already transpired, Ragnarok was inevitably unavoidable.

 The doomsday event that signaled the beginning of the end, as it were, was the death of the god Baldur (aka Balder, Baldr), by means of Loki’s treachery. This death also signalled Loki’s descent to the dark side, if you will, and his eventual role as the leader of the end of the world.

You may be wondering why the death of this one god was so pivotal. Because he was the best of them. Baldur was the one that never did anything wrong. He was kind and generous and forgiving. He was known as the gentle god, and also as the god of love, peace, forgiveness, justice, light, and purity. He was a son of Odin, and Thor’s half-brother.

Baldur, god of goodness and light  

When Baldur was young, he and his mother both had a vision of his death. So outraged were the gods by this prospect that they ordered all living things - plants, animals, and gods alike - to swear an oath never to harm Baldur. The myth becomes a bit murky at this point as there are several versions, but the general theme is that one plant did not swear this oath. The plant has been referred to as either mistletoe, which did not swear because it was too young to be able to swear a binding oath, or a willow tree that was under a spell from Loki causing it to refuse to take that oath. In the willow tree version of the story, once Loki’s spell wore off, the willow bent its branches and wept for eternity for the treachery it had been a part of, hence the common name “weeping willow” for that particular species of tree.

 Regardless of which plant it was, Loki fashioned a spear or an arrow, depending on the version of the myth you are reading, and gave it to Baldur’s twin brother Hodr (aka Hod), who was blind. At that time in the lives of the gods, they often took great sport in throwing objects and weapons at Baldur who had become for all intents and purposes invulnerable to injury through the oaths that had been taken to protect him.

I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Hodr threw the spear (or arrow) at Baldur, and he was killed. Enraged, Odin mated with a giantess who gave birth to Vali, who in turn grew to adulthood in one day. Vali’s sole purpose was to kill Hodr to avenge Baldur’s death, which he did. Yes, Loki got away with it.

Maybe it was that Loki got away with it that was truly the unstoppable catalyst, for from that point onward he was no longer Thor’s friend and confidante, but more cruel, more meddlesome, and, ultimately, so evil as to intentionally try to end the world.

And so this is what the Norse have predicted the end of the world will be. Loki, his offspring, and the giants will come together against the gods of Asgard who have gathered their own hoards of dead warriors in Valhalla. A great battle will take place, during which Asgard will be destroyed, along with Bifrost. 

[beyondthedreamline]

what she says: I'm fine

what she means: So it’s interesting how the fact Loki probably had to have sex with Jeff Goldblum to keep himself alive and safe was both never made textual AND used as the butt of a joke (lol pun intended), because it doesn’t matter if Loki was sort of willing and it doesn’t matter if he’s sort of evil either - how can you give consent when you fall headfirst on a planet dominated by a psychotic pervert and why is sexual violence such a fun thing when it’s about men and this is James Bond all over again and how they inserted that ‘Maybe I got fucked before, you don’t know’ line during a high tension moment leading up to torture and possibly rape because that’s what’s fashionable now, gay subtext, amirite, which I’ve got nothing against but funnily enough it never seems to lead anywhere and hey, coming back to 'Thor: Ragnarok', isn’t it neat how the sexually ambiguous, feminine-coded brother ended up as a courtesan-slash-sex slave and the painfully straight übermensch brother got sent to the arena to fight and die and yay for novel and groundbreaking storytelling, right, because this is new, how women are sold into sex and/or need to pretend to be willing sexual partners to madmen so they have a shot at escaping violence and death while men are made to fight and somehow their kind of enslavement is recognized as terrible and tragic and something they're no part of, but women, eh, who can be sure about them, and my God, Loki couldn’t have been more stereotypically gay if they’d tried, I mean, Fashion-Conscious Drama Queen Initiates A Reign of Self-Obsessed Musical Theatre and how is that okay on top of Valkyrie, a canon bisexual woman, being coded as Thor’s love interest and also - #thor ragnarok #marvel #loki laufeyson #abuse for ts #rape for ts #negativity #imo this is the other problem with representation #we get one non white director #and we want to like him #we want to think he can do no wrong #but this movie #my god #it read like fanfiction #and not in a good way #also it was probably #the most misogynistic thor movie to date #just compare it with the first thor #where women were allowed to be women #also themselves #bc one thing i don't need #is women to get drunk and belch on screen #i mean sure #sometimes women do that #but this sudden idea #that feminist movies #need to have women act like (fictional) men do #well i hate it #sorry for ranting #but i do #i'd take a thousand jane forsters @awed-frog Okay, I reblogged the original post by @awed-frog but the text came out so strangely that it’s irritating the hell out of me, so I’m making a new post in the hope Tumblr doesn’t glitch it up too. This perspective on ‘Ragnarok’ is so interesting I have to respond to it, because I had completely the opposite reaction to everything! I loved the structure and pacing and the endless supply of in-jokes (the Douglas Adams reference most of all). This is a story with distinctly Antipodean humour, which you may or may not get – I sometimes struggle with the American humour in Marvel movies, different cultures tell their jokes different ways. The emotional beats were quiet and strong, trusting in the audience to understand their significance without overstatement: Thor going through funeral rites as best he can while imprisoned, Loki’s visible distress at the idea of Thor leaving him behind. There was also finally some solid textual support for Loki being more than a villain – which, given all the things he’s done to Earth, Asgard and Thor specifically, is no mean feat. I mean, at the point when you have a character who has faked his own death TWICE while trying to commit genocide BOTH TIMES, you have to lean hard into the inherent morbid comedy of the thing to keep it all from spiralling into cartoonish ridiculousness. I like Loki, largely because Tom Hiddleston has great facial expressions that can sell inconsistent characterisation, but seriously, it takes the actual apocalypse for him to step up and be useful. ‘Ragnarok’ reminds us that while Loki loves to play the victim and the martyr, he rarely is one. Usually, he’s the opposite. Trickery and charm are his great skills and as Thor pointed out, Sakaar was the perfect environment for him to thrive. We see him chat up girls, watch fights with the Grandmaster and act as a kind of pet bounty hunter, all of which he would hardly need much coercion to do. You can definitely read sexual subtext into their interactions, but I saw no implication of Loki being any more sexually threatened by the Grandmaster than Valkyrie was – that is to say, not at all. This is the guy who was willing to shove his brother straight back into the arena if it meant getting a step up in his new life, why would he feel uncomfortable sleeping his way to the top? I love the detail of him turning his 'death' into a play because he's literally the actor, the liar, the manipulator of events. In the end, Loki is a conman, and a very talented one. I’m sad that Jane won’t be returning to the Thor franchise, because I loved her character from the start and I truly enjoyed her dynamic with Thor. Also, DARCY. I will sorely miss Darcy Lewis. The truth is, I can’t think of a really satisfactory way for their departures to be handled on-screen, because I did not want them to depart at all. I feel like it should be pointed out, though, that ‘Thor: the Dark World’ was essentially Jane and Thor’s second date, and Jane was already running low on patience with his trans-Bifrost lifestyle. He’s kind and adorable and undeniably high-maintenance. If Jane had to have an exit, I’d prefer it like this, a low-key and everyday break-up rather than some big melodramatic event for Thor to brood over and Jane to be eventually talked out of. Also, just because I love Jane doesn’t mean I can’t love Valkyrie, and vice versa. It’s not a competition, however much Marvel tried to make it one. I’m a bit uncomfortable with your tag comment about the first Thor movie, describing it as the one ‘where women were allowed to be women’, because women are all kinds of things. I think I understand what you mean, there is rather an excess of traditionally masculine misbehaviour in mainstream media, but sometimes women are angry and disillusioned and drink way too much in order to cope, and that’s a story worth telling too. Honestly, I was on board with Valkyrie’s character from the minute she fell off her spaceship. She’s not a ‘better than the boys’ stereotype, she’s an embittered alcoholic warrior who gets dragged into friendship with Thor against her better judgement, and while that friendship might eventually shift into something romantic, it wasn’t shoehorned into her arc, for which I am intensely grateful. Ragnarok is, in so many ways, a movie with its foundations in the anger of the dispossessed. There are plenty of articles written on the subject by people better qualified than me. All I can say is that, as an Australian, I live in the messy aftermath of colonialism, with the awareness that my nation as I know it was founded on a violent invasion and that its impact is still being felt today. The line ‘where do you think all of this gold came from?’ was so flawless it kind of knocked my breath away. Hela tore apart Odin’s legacy and the narrative backed her right to do so the whole time. The only way to defeat her was to acknowledge that her claim was rightful and her story was true. That’s unbelievably powerful. Emotional resonance is a weird thing. So much of what we love in a story is entirely in the eye of the beholder, and perhaps it also depends on what other narratives are around us at the time – I, for instance, am personally tired of grimdark superheroism that’s all about how we can’t trust each other. What I need right now is Thor’s relentless optimism in the face of disaster, the man who makes friends wherever he goes, the god-prince who loses everything but rescues what really matters out of the ashes. Ragnarok isn’t a perfect movie, but it’s the best I’ve seen in a very long time and talking about it has made me want to watch it all over again.