#when Loki's betrayed Thor one too many times by stealing the Tesseract

[woulddieforloki]

this song is so Brodinsons-coded

[imagine-loki]

Alluring whispers, Chapter 24

TITLE: Alluring whispers CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 24 AUTHOR: fanficshiddles ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki has the tesseract again and is captured by The Avengers. Where he discovers they have an omega who has healing powers living with them. He’s an Alpha and he wants her,badly. She is the epitome of all things good, and trying her best to avoid his seductive advances. But it’s not easy due to their instincts and biology. The Avengers do their best to keep the omega safe, but Loki is on the hunt and is hungry for her. RATING: M

Hope ran and ran until her legs started to hurt, she had made it to the edge of the city. There was a park nearby so she went there and took shelter underneath a small bridge that crossed a river.

She sat down on the ground and tucked her chin into her knees as she cried hysterically. She couldn’t believe it. She trusted him, but it had all been a lie. He was using her. Doing exactly what he didn’t want the Avengers doing.

‘Hypocritical asshole!’ She hissed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

She was angry, so SO angry… Yet why at the same time did she feel like her heart was breaking at the thought of being without him? She put her hand over her stomach and cried again. She was carrying his child for crying out loud. What the hell was she going to do next?

So many questions and thoughts raced through her mind. Had Loki known all along that she was an omega? It was obvious he was sent there to get her for her healing powers, but had he known she was an omega and that it would make everything so much easier?

She thought back to that time Loki had put a protective barrier around her room, to stop the Avengers from getting her to heal anyone else. Letting her rest and recover… Had that all been an act, too? Just to make her think he cared about her, not just for what she could do?

Whilst she wanted to speak to him and find out exactly, she really didn’t want to see him again. She knew that even now, while she knew the truth about his intentions, she would still be putty in his hands if he so wanted her to be. He would say jump and she would ask how high? It was in her biology, it wasn’t easy to ignore.

Explosions startled her, she knew it was The Avengers and Loki fighting against Owerfos and his army. It was getting closer, but she held her nerve and stayed put. Whilst she wasn’t really sure what to believe in anymore, she did have faith in The Avengers to win. Loki? She wasn’t so sure anymore. Heck, she wasn’t even sure what team he would be on, to be honest.

It wasn’t long before other civilians ran under the bridge for cover too. No one was taking any notice of Hope though, because they were all too scared about the battle themselves. And they just assumed Hope was taking refuge from it like them.

She curled up tightly and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when suddenly there was a loud explosion on the bridge and it started falling apart at the other side of the river, but slowly the rest of it was tumbling down. Hope scrambled out from underneath it and tried to help some others to get away from the falling rubble in the process.

When she was out, she saw some aliens coming towards her so she got up to her feet and ran as fast as she could. As she was running away from the aliens, an explosion right next to her sent her flying to the ground and she hit her head on impact.

-

When Hope started to come around, she was being carried. Once she was able to focus, she realised it was Loki.

‘I’ve got you, Hope. You’re ok. You’re safe.’ He said softly.

She could still hear the fight going on in the background, she couldn’t quite make out what was going on or where they were. Or where he was taking her. Was it to Owerfos?

But she knew she didn’t want to be in his arms… She tried pushing against his chest while complaining, but she was too weak. She didn’t give up though and kept wriggling, hoping he would put her down.

Loki tightened his hold on her, cradling her closer to his chest he growled at her in warning. ‘Stop squirming, Hope. You’re injured, I am not letting you go.’

Hope whined in response, her inner omega instincts telling her to behave and do as her Alpha said. Even if part of her wanted to defy him and continue fighting back, she didn’t.

He was happier when he felt her go limp in his arms, just giving up and allowing him to carry her to safety.

Owerfos was dead. He’d made sure of it. Now the Avengers were just cleaning up the rest of the army. It had been a difficult battle, but Loki knew all their weaknesses, so once they got going it had been relatively easy to take them down without too much damage to themselves.

As he carried Hope back in his arms, he felt his heart breaking again. He had no idea how he was going to get it into her head that he was being truthful. As soon as he had laid eyes upon her, he was in love. Sure, he had been battling with his own mind about whether to take her to Owerfos to be on their side, over his love and want for her. But the latter had won out quite quickly.

Not just because he was an Alpha and she was an omega and it was their fate to be together. But because he had fallen in love with her for who she was. Everything about her. From her stunning good looks to her kind and loving personality. Her laugh and her smile… Everything.

He sighed heavily once he got her on the quinjet. His stomach was in knots with worry over her, she had been injured and whilst she seemed ok, he wasn’t totally sure if the baby was. Depending on the impact of her fall.

Bruce said he would do scans of her entire body once they returned to base, to make sure she had no internal or head injuries and to check if the baby was ok.

But Loki couldn’t sense any distress from her womb when he placed his hand over her abdomen, so he had a feeling that their baby was fine. Or perhaps it was just hope from his part.

Clint got them back as quickly as possible. Loki kept a hold of Hope for the duration of the journey, refusing to let her go. When they got back to base, he rushed her straight to the lab with Bruce. She was mumbling incoherent words by the time Loki laid her down on a table and Bruce started scanning her.

Loki paced back and fore, biting his nails while he waited. Even though Bruce’s equipment was fast and the best in the world, it wasn’t quick enough for Loki’s liking.

Eventually though, Bruce was finished.

‘She’s fine. Concussion, but nothing major to worry about. And from what I can tell, the baby is fine. There’s no internal bleeding anywhere. Her body might feel like she’s been hit by a bus though, so she will need to take it easy for a few days.’

Loki nodded. ‘Thanks.’ He mumbled to him.

Loki scooped up Hope and carried her back to her room.

-

‘So is no one going to talk about the fact that we have allowed Loki to come back here when he has betrayed Hope?’ Tony asked the rest of the team while Bruce had been seeing to Hope.

The team all looked at one another, uncertain.

‘He did help us defeat them in the end.’ Vision said first.

‘Exactly. My brother may be a liar sometimes’ Thor trailed off from the look he got. ‘Alright, maybe a lot of the time… But he is not lying about this. I truly believe that even though he was originally planning to steal her for her powers, that his mind changed because he fell in love with her.’

Natasha ran a hand down her face. ‘I don’t know what to think anymore. But we can’t act irrationally towards him, because he will just take her away from us again. At least while they are here, we can keep an eye on them. Make sure she is safe.’

The team mumbled in agreement, albeit reluctantly from some of them.

[demigodofhoolemere]

Long bitterness below because I saw something that drove me crazy and I wasn’t gonna be able to rest until I articulated my frustrated thoughts

~~~~~

@ the person who wrote this I just wanna talk

https://screenrant.com/mcu-avengers-most-shameless-things-loki-ever-done/

Most of these are just outright wrong and it only takes the slightest glance at canon events to prove them as such, and the ones that have any amount of accuracy to them are devoid of critical context.

I don’t remember seeing much of this stuff before Ragnarok but it’s everywhere now and it’s kind of telling of the narrative bias that movie planted in everyone’s heads that people are now looking back with a lens that’s colored to be against him from the outset without bothering to take into consideration context, critical thinking skills, or empathy. The narrative tells us that he’s just bad so let’s not look any further than that I guess.

Wasn’t gonna debate each of them but the more I think about it the more it’s gonna bug me until I do, so here comes the bitter canon police...

Number 10

1) Right from the off: “Loki and Thor have always had a love/hate relationship — though it gravitates more toward the ‘hate’ part.” Um... always? Because last I checked, despite their differences, they grew up as best friends. Their problems that we see onscreen span from 2011-2017, a measly 6 years compared to over a thousand years of life together. This is a blip on the radar, one that certainly doesn’t constitute leaning towards mainly hate for each other. Heck, even during this time period, they’re clearly shown to love each other. Loki definitely gets angry, but I wouldn’t say he outright “loathes” Thor, at least not in a way that diminishes the love he also has for him.

2) “As such, Loki has betrayed Thor and his adoptive family many times.” This is so wrong I barely have the energy to explain why. People love to give examples of all of Loki’s supposed betrayals and they pretty much all fall down under scrutiny. The only ones I can understand listing are lying to Thor about Odin being dead, along with his attempts to kill Thor at the climax of the first movie (this stuff was when he was waaay out of his right mind, btw — not that he’s not responsible for his actions, but context is still important when taking into account anything he does), and various things in Ragnarok that were out of character for him to do in the first place. Anything else, even if it’s bad, cannot be counted specifically as betrayals against his adoptive family, since things like coming to Earth weren’t about them. If only a couple of instances are able to qualify as betrayals, then no, he has not done this “many” times, no matter how much people like to push that idea.

3) “Of course, Thor often got the brunt of it.” I’ll let that one stand because Thor got a fair number of screams aimed at him, but honestly, I’d say the person most negatively affected by Loki’s actions tends to be Loki. Thor really didn’t get more than he could handle. And as much as I love him, he’s not innocent of dishing his own stuff onto Loki as well. Wording it this way makes it sound like he’s Loki’s abuse victim (when more than anything, they are both the victims of Odin’s awful parenting rather than each other).

4) “So, it’s basically a normal sibling relationship that they portrayed. Oh, and Loki is never apologetic about his violence against Thor — siblings through and through.” First of all when I see stuff like this I have deep concerns for other people’s relationships with their siblings and am reminded of how grateful I am for my sister, but secondly, I don’t get the impression that Asgardians do much apologizing overall. You don’t see Thor apologizing for violence against Loki either. Terrible habit, but it seems to be the culture they were raised in. Besides, I feel like dying for Thor multiple times is decent substitution. (And while it’s not totally clear what he was specifically referring to, it’s worth noting Loki did profusely tell Thor he was sorry on Svartalfheim.)

Number 9

1) Oh my word, I am tired of seeing this. That scene was filmed as a real death, and everyone from Tom Hiddleston to Kevin Feige continued to refer to it as such after the reshoots. I wouldn’t know where to find it right now but I know there’s a quote from Kevin about it being real and that it was only just non-fatal enough for him to survive it. The only place anyone ever says he faked it? In Ragnarok, which is already filled to the brim with retcons, and it’s said by Thor (or whoever that is in Ragnarok who took Thor’s face) who has no knowledge of what really happened, he just makes assumptions and accusations that Loki isn’t given the chance to refute. It. Was. Not. Fake.

2) “He was rather casual about it and didn’t care much about how the rest of his family would take the news.” Source? We don’t exactly get the time to see his feelings on the matter. Also, Thor is the only one who would have cared anyway. Frigga was killed and Odin wanted him dead.

Number 8

1) “One of the reasons why Loki faked his own death was to seize a great opportunity [...]” He must not be good at carrying out his own plans then, since he immediately genuinely tried to offer the throne to Thor. Thor turned it down. Was there still satisfaction from getting the chance to prove that he can be a king? Yeah, because he’s still never felt like he’s been able to prove himself as equal. The chance to prove people wrong about him, and especially the chance to prove his own worth to himself, is exciting, hence that grin at the end. He’s certainly not upset at that opportunity. But that only happened because Thor didn’t take him up on the offer.

2) “The worst part was that he cast a spell on Odin and exiled him in a retirement home on Earth.” The... the worst part? That he removed the man who would have killed Thor upon return and was willing to have all of Asgard and everyone in it destroyed? And still had the mercy to send him somewhere that he’d be safe and taken care of every single day? Uh... okay.

3) “For a time, Loki ruled the Asgardians in their process of recovery from the Dark Elves’ attack.” Yeah, exactly. Thanks for aiding my point. Even Ragnarok of all things, despite the issues I have with the way Loki was portrayed as king, still manages to prove this point by showing things on Asgard being peaceful and repaired.

Number 7

1) Mostly correct this time, but missing the context of why Loki is angry enough at Odin to want the Dark Elves to go after him. Without considering all of the lies and heartache Odin caused that sent Loki’s mind spiraling in the first place, let alone the fact that he left him to spend the next 4,000 years of his life in solitary (which is outright torture, and Loki knew it would be because he seemed to have no problem with the thought of being executed instead), it makes it sound like it was a purely petty betrayal rather than based in any reason. Loki does everything for a reason.

2) “One would think that Loki would’ve learned a lot from this but he kept on being his usual self after a short bout of guilt and anger in his cell.” First of all I think you greatly underestimate how long that’s gonna stick with Loki. Secondly, if by ‘kept on being his usual self’ you mean the immediately following scenes wherein he helps Thor go get revenge on the monsters that killed Frigga and ultimately dies to avenge her and save his brother’s life, then you forgot the actual events of canon again and also inadvertently complimented him by saying that’s normal for him.

EDIT: You know how you can watch something a thousand times and somehow it takes that thousandth time to catch something? Yeah. Anyway, Loki directed Kurse to Asgard’s power plant so he could turn the shield off. THAT is what he was directing him towards, it was to let the Elves in to get to Odin. He didn’t even unknowingly lead Kurse to Frigga, Kurse just went where Malekith was, and Malekith found Frigga because she was guarding the Stone. Kurse would have killed her anyway, Loki’s actions had no bearing on that. Hold him responsible for getting the shield shut down and letting more Elves in (while still referring to point 1 for why), but Frigga’s death never had anything to do with him because Kurse got out anyway. Loki just doesn’t know that. But a character blaming themselves doesn’t mean they’re right.

Number 6

1) Another thing I wish would stop cropping up in all discussions of Loki. Stealing the Tesseract isn’t his ~thing~. I’m annoyed with this one just on principle lol.

2) “Throughout all the MCU movies, Loki has stolen the Tesseract at least thrice, each in three different movies. He just doesn’t know when to give up.” None of those times were just for the lolz like people say. In Avengers he had to get it for Thanos to save his life. In Ragnarok, what the heck was he supposed to do, leave an Infinity Stone floating around in space for anyone to get? It’s not like it would have been destroyed with Asgard. Better to take it and keep it safe. And in Endgame, while I felt that was starting to lean too much into ‘haha I love taking the Tesseract’ territory, it was to get away from the imprisonment and possible death that would have been waiting for him in either SHIELD or Asgardian custody. Loki does everything for a reason.

Number 5

1) “[...] he immediately embraced his evil tendencies.” ROFL I’m sorry but the idea of THIS kid having had prior evil tendencies is actually hilarious.

2) “[...] killing countless innocents on Earth [...]” In canon, there were 74 fatalities in the Battle of New York, which were caused by the Chitauri that Thanos sent rather than directly by Loki. Loki’s personal kill count on Earth can be listed on one hand — literally, it’s something like 5 confirmed onscreen deaths by his hand, with several other unconfirmed ones because we just see him attack but not how badly people got hit. The 80 people that Natasha mentions were the SHIELD agents that went down with the base in the beginning, which wasn’t Loki’s doing, outside of the few guards he killed when he got there. That was pretty easy to count.

3) “[...] and probably other planets as well.” Supposition. Not even the slightest bit of hinting of that in canon. Next.

4) Loki himself was being tortured and under extreme emotional duress and mental manipulation during this movie. Not that he’s automatically 100% absolved of responsibilities, because he did make choices of his own, but again - CONTEXT. This was a fight for his life. He was not well, physically, mentally, or emotionally. There is almost nothing he did in this movie that he would do under normal circumstances in his right mind.

5) “In addition to that, he also put his homeworld of Asgard in constant danger. Odin’s words about Loki being followed by death and destruction wherever he goes definitely rang true.” If you’re referring to the first movie when he lets the Jotuns in, both instances of that were planned in such a way that no Asgardians were supposed to be in danger; he couldn’t have known the guards to the vault wouldn’t be able to take them (and that first plan was intended to protect Asgard from a young and arrogant Thor’s reign; another of few instances that can count as betrayal, but done with reason), and the second time he brought them in was specifically to kill them because, with the combination of his unstable mind and the kind of things Odin praises, he thought it would finally gain him approval from his father (and he was raised with no regard for Jotun lives therefore he didn’t even grasp that it was wrong). That’s the only time Asgard was even slightly jeopardized by Loki. In every single other instance, he is pretty darn devoted to protecting Asgard. Time and again. Odin’s words are a load of crap. Loki has only been surrounded by things like that in the last couple of years, when out of his right mind or coerced or both. This is not something that has always been, and it’s certainly hypocritical for Odin of all people to be making accusations like that when he and his favorite son have done worse things. Heck, Thor’s body count on Jotunheim in the very beginning is on its own a larger number than Loki’s body count in the entire MCU, all for being called a princess. Many of the heroes in the franchise have worse — even significantly worse — body counts than Loki.

Number 4

1) Tortured and controlled by Thanos. Next.

2) “[...] the culmination of all of Loki’s plans ever since he left Asgard to become a villain.” For one thing I love how this makes it sound like he made the conscious decision to run away and be a villain lol, but I just... you remember how he left Asgard, right? When he made a suicide attempt by falling into the void that he could not possibly think he would survive through? He didn’t exactly have future plans in mind. He was trying to die.

3) Now you’re only assuming people died? I thought it was countless?

Number 3

1) This wasn’t a takeover of Asgard. Frigga, who knew that he’s a Frost Giant, appointed him as regent for the time being. What he did with the power is what’s questionable, but the way he got it was completely legit. There was no scheming — he didn’t even want it at first. The thought of proving himself got to his head but he didn’t take the throne purposely nor was it illegally, or done in deception or under false pretenses.

2) While the things he did were wrong, it was not technically a betrayal of Odin or Asgard. He did what he did precisely because it was the sort of thing his father and his people would usually see as heroic. If you wanna call it a betrayal of Asgard for taking the risk of having Jotuns there, I guess, but not of Odin, and it was not done maliciously towards them. The ones who actually suffered for this were the Jotuns.

3) “[...] quickly transformed into one of Asgard’s most dangerous enemies.” He transformed into Odin’s enemy. If he were an enemy of Asgard he wouldn’t have spent his years on the throne protecting it.

Number 2

1) This one is mostly fair and I consider this to be the worst thing Loki’s done. However, this is hardly about shamelessness. This (and seemingly all of the article) is written in the assumption that his actions were done in his right mind. Again: he was in the middle of a mental breakdown. That doesn’t exonerate him but it’s sure as heck important context.

Number 1

(covered the image because no one needs to see that)

1) “[...] betraying the whole universe just because you can is pure evil.” Yeah, it would be. Good thing for Loki then that that’s not what he did. 

2) “Loki consciously served Thanos with the initial goal of becoming ‘king’ of the Earth.” Loki was consciously fighting to stay alive because disobedience and failure would mean unimaginable horrors.

Working with Thanos is NOT something he would do just because. As far as wanting to be king of Earth goes, Thanos canonically messed with Loki’s head. He made him think that was what he wanted, just like he dug into his mind to make him angrier at Thor. Thor himself, who has known Loki their entire lives, noted that his behavior and goals were uncharacteristic of him.

3) “It seems like Loki got his just desserts on that front.” Gotta say, I’m genuinely a little horrified when I see people say that Loki deserved that death. No one deserves to have their windpipe crushed and neck snapped brutally by their abuser. That was the most gratuitously graphic character death I’ve ever seen. Even if you think he wasn’t tortured by him before and willingly joined forces with him, he still wouldn’t deserve that fate. It’s too morbid for anybody. ‘Just desserts’ is supposed to be about justice. There’s no carrying out of justice here. It’s just senseless and cruel, and done to a man who had gotten out of the dark place in his life to start anew.

~~~~~

That was longer than I ever intended to let myself get worked up over a dumb ScreenRant post but I feel better with that out of my system.

Here’s to fact-checking before making accusations that have no basis 🥂

[katelynrushe26]

Looking Back on Loki - Part 2

SPOILER ALERT!!

THIS ESSAY WILL ALSO GIVE AWAY THE BEGINNING OF THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET AND YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING IN IT TO BE RUINED, SEE IT BEFORE READING THIS.

IF NOT FOR YOUR OWN SAKE, THEN DO IT FOR LOKI'S.

--

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

It's worth mentioning that during this film's post-production, actor Tom Hiddleston appeared in character as Loki at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con. He "interrupted" a sneak preview of Thor: The Dark World, scolded the crowd for not accepting him as their king the summer before, then vowed to show them the preview if they pledged their loyalty to him. Needless to say, the crowd got their preview and the God of Mischief gained a wildly supportive army that day.

I bring this up because it showed how aware Marvel was of Loki's popularity at the time, as well as how keen they were to play to it. I think that contributed a lot to his role in The Dark World.

The filmmakers knew we wanted to see him turn good and team up with Thor. They knew we debated if and how he would die in future films, and they knew how much we wanted to see him succeed for once. Because of this, there was a real sense that they toyed with our expectations for Loki in the second Thor film, and the end result was perfect for his character.

Loki hit rock bottom in The Dark World. Not only was he disgraced before all of Asgard, but Odin seemed to disown him and left him virtually powerless by imprisoning him. Then, when Loki thought things couldn't get worse, he caused the death of his adoptive mother Frigga. The dark elf Malekith invaded Asgard, and when a henchman named Kurse found Loki in the dungeon, Loki told him the way to the throne room. He did this for revenge on Odin, but it was Frigga that Kurse killed instead.

This made Loki snap again. Now there really was no salvaging his life, and with Thanos no doubt hunting him down after his failure on Earth, he knew his days were numbered. This and his rage over Frigga's death made him decide to cooperate when Thor asked him to help stop Malekith. This would only mean temporary freedom for Loki, but that was all he needed to carry out his new plan.

His chance came during a fight between him, Thor, and Kurse on the dark elves' home world. Loki killed Kurse, saving Thor and avenging Frigga, but he was wounded in the process. Thus we got the scene we were expecting where he died dramatically in Thor's arms after redeeming himself. The twist was that it wasn't real.

To my knowledge, it's never been confirmed if Kurse really stabbed Loki, since Loki's powers allowed him to cast illusions of such things. Either way, he wasn't fatally wounded, but he took advantage of Thor's emotional state and faked his own death. Thor was forced to leave him behind and pursue Malekith, one of Odin's guards found Loki, Loki killed the guard and assumed his appearance (possibly even disguising the guard's body as his own), and returned to Odin. After that, he used his powers to trap Odin on Earth, assumed his adoptive father's appearance, and took on a new life as the King of Asgard. At long last, the God of Mischief had succeeded.

What's interesting is that he never sought further revenge on Thor after his brother defeated Malekith and came home. Thor had broken Loki out of prison and committed treason by leaving Asgard, so no one would have questioned a steep punishment for the God of Thunder, but Loki allowed Thor to go free and live happily on Earth with his human friends. Maybe he had made some kind of peace with Thor during their time together, maybe he couldn't properly restrain Thor since he didn't have any of Odin's powers, or maybe he thought that letting Thor leave Asgard on good terms would minimize suspicion towards himself. Whatever the reason, fully pardoning his brother after everything they had put each other through showed growth on Loki's part.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

It would take four years for Loki to show up again in the MCU. He was supposed to make a cameo in 2015's The Avengers: Age of Ultron when Thor had a vision of Asgard's destruction, but like a lot of things in that film, he was cut for time. Between that and all the questions that The Dark World had left us with, there was still a good amount of excitement for Loki's comeback in Thor: Ragnarok.

To put it simply, this Thor movie turned out to be very different from the first two. It's said that director Taika Waititi, best known for comedies, was given free reign with Ragnarok, so there ended up being way more emphasis on humor than drama this time around. For Loki, this meant giving us a more cowardly, inept, and silly God of Mischief than we were used to seeing.

In terms of the narrative, this character inconsistency can actually be justified. Loki spent his whole life seeking admiration and eventually power, and once he gained both at the end of The Dark World, he had no goals left to work towards. This caused him to lose a lot of his drive and his edge over the four years he spent disguised as Odin, and not having to worry about Thanos finding him anymore allowed him to become oblivious to the world around him. It made sense that after Thor caught on and exposed him as an imposter at the start of Ragnarok, Loki had to spin his wheels a bit before finding a new direction in life.

He hit rock bottom again after Thor made him take them to the real Odin on Earth. The brothers found their father moments before he died, and although Odin forgave Loki, his death was one betrayal too many for Thor to do the same. The final nail in the coffin came when Thor's half-sister Hela sensed Odin's passing and seized control of Asgard.

The best Loki could think to do was give up on his home again and simply look out for himself. When he and Thor became stranded on the planet Sakaar, he quickly schmoozed his way into favor with its ruler, the Grandmaster. He made one half-hearted attempt to help Thor, mostly so he could brag about his new social status, but when Thor still wanted nothing to do with him, Loki tried to betray his brother for financial gain. Thor outwitted him though, saying that Loki's refusal to be more than the God of Mischief had made him predictable, and escaped back to Asgard without him.

This marked the ultimate turning point for Loki. All his schemes of the past seven years had been for nothing, and having Thor completely give up on him this time made him finally realize what he had ruined between them. What was more, he had no guarantee that he would be safely hidden from Thanos on Sakaar. There was a chance he might die soon anyway, so why not die doing something genuinely admirable?

After making his own escape from Sakaar, Loki took his brother's words to heart and returned to Asgard to help Thor defeat Hela. This involved destroying their home like Thor had foreseen, and it was Loki who set that destruction in motion. Curiously enough, he had to do it in Odin's vault—the same room where he had first learned of his Frost Giant lineage. The ship that he had arrived on allowed Asgard's people to evacuate in time, and Loki further proved his loyalty by joining them on their voyage to Earth. It was during this voyage that he made his peace with Thor and watched his brother assume the role of Asgard's new king.

It seemed like Loki was finally a real hero, but in the midst of it all, he had secretly made another huge mistake in another moment of weakness.

The Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

And that brings us to the grand finale. Infinity War is still less than two weeks old, and it's already broken the record as the fastest movie to ever gross $1 billion at the box office. It's well on its way to becoming the highest grossing film of all time, and I think that's largely because of how many upsetting character deaths occur throughout the plot. Fans want to figure out how the next Avengers film will resolve things, if it even can, and a good way to look for clues is by watching Infinity Wars again. And if that doesn't work, then at least they'll get the most out of what could be their favorite characters' final appearances on the big screen.

The film is shocking and bleak, and Loki's death in the opening scene sets that tone perfectly.

His huge mistake at the end of Ragnarok was stealing the Tesseract from Odin's vault before he escaped from Asgard. Loki did this on impulse as well, not because he wanted a peace offering for Thanos, but because he remembered how powerful the device was and couldn't resist the thought of possessing it again. Now that the Tesseract was away from Asgard though, Thanos could sense the Infinity Stone inside of it and was able to track down the Asgardians' ship in space. The Mad Titan boarded their ship, and in a horrible twist of irony, half the people that Loki had helped to rescue were slaughtered before his eyes.

Even then, he tried to deny having the Tesseract since he knew what his enemy meant to do with the stone it contained. It wasn't until Thanos started torturing Thor in front of him that Loki revealed the device, though he still didn't give up. He stalled for time so the Hulk could attack Thanos, and when the Hulk lost that fight, Loki attempted to finish the job himself.

Loki often defeated opponents by distracting them with illusions of himself and then striking from behind. However, he didn't do that this time; perhaps he decided he was through with hiding. Instead he faced Thanos himself, pretended to offer his services again, and tried to stab his former ally in the throat. Sadly, the God of Mischief really had become predictable, and after stopping the blow, Thanos lifted him into the air by his neck while Thor watched helplessly. Loki declared that the Mad Titan would never be a god, then Thanos killed him with one squeeze. The last we saw of Thor's little brother was his body lying on the floor while the God of Thunder grieved over him.  

~

I've heard complaints that this sendoff for Loki was anticlimactic, but I disagree. The scene pretty much covered all the bases it needed to for his story arc: proving that he valued his brother's life more than his own ambition, having him team up with two of the Avengers to an extent, showing that he'd accepted his past by stating he was Odin's son but not an Asgardian, and letting him get in a few last tricks and interesting lines. I even kind of like that his death was so simple and blunt this time. He already had an epic sci-fi spectacle death in the first Thor film and a dramatic Shakespearean death in the second, so it was fitting that his third death had none of those theatrics. That sold the reality of it so much more.

As for killing him in the first scene, I understand why it was done. We needed a personal reason to hate Thanos, and the film needed to show us how high the stakes had grown. Also, I'm not sure what else the writers could've done with Loki in this film. What made him so interesting was his moral conflict, the question of whether or not he would become one of the heroes. When he did that at the end of Ragnarok, he completed his arc. If he'd survived and been just another good guy throughout Infinity War, I think he would've been a lot less interesting, and if he'd become a villain or a double agent again, I think it would've felt too contrived. Besides, his death became Thor's main motivation to destroy Thanos, and since this was brought up multiple times, it still felt like Loki had a presence throughout the film.

Production photos of the fourth Avengers movie have surfaced since Infinity War's release. Because they appear to take place during the events of the first film and feature the characters wearing mysterious wrist devices, fans have speculated that the story will involve time travel to undo the final moments of Infinity War. It's possible that Loki could "return" that way, with Thor encountering a past version of his brother. There's also hope that he might come back from the dead as a result of the Avengers meddling with the past.

Personally, I think the best way to bring him "back" would be in spirit, with Thor either using the Infinity Stones to connect with him or by dying as well. It'd be a fitting and poignant end for the God of Thunder to sacrifice himself for the universe and then have his brother lead him to Valhalla as a reward. We'll just have to wait and see.

If this is the last time we'll ever see Loki, I'll close with this: When he first saw himself as a Frost Giant, he wondered if he was cursed. He was right in a way. His curse was that for all the cunning and strategic thinking he possessed, his emotions were always what ended up dictating his choices. In this regard, he was more like Thor than he wanted to believe, and since he never had the same opportunity as Thor to learn self-control, his emotions continued to sabotage him at every turn. When he saved the Tesseract from destruction on a whim, the penalties of this curse became cataclysmic.

Still, there was a way Loki could have kept the Tesseract out of Thanos's hands. All he had to do was keep it cloaked in invisibility, continue denying that he had it, and let Thanos kill Thor. That would have been the more sensible choice in the grand scheme of things, since Thanos wanted the Infinity Stones to "save" the universe by committing genocide. However, Loki's emotions pushed him to reveal the device in exchange for his brother's life.

Several other characters, mostly the heroes, had to choose between someone's life and an Infinity Stone throughout the film. Most of them gave up the stone to spare the person's life. The only willing exception was Thanos, who tortured one of his own children and killed another to claim a stone. Loki may never have quite been a hero, but in the end, he had more in common with the heroes than he did with the villain. The son of Odin who had once tried to kill his brother and save Asgard by also committing genocide had replaced his hate with compassion, and his emotions made the better choice as a result.

In the end, Loki understood the value of life, and that's no curse.

[soldierwinterthe]

Illusion

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Word Count: 2880

Warnings: Mentions of fight. THOR RAGNAROK SPOILER

Feedback is always appreciated.

Ragnarok.

All the people of Asgard know the legend of this unique and catastrophic event. It’s the destruction of Asgard, and of his people.

No one, though, had ever really thought about it, until Asgard lost the King of the Gods.

Odin is dead.

In the last two years, while we thought that Odin sat on the throne, actually Loki was: he had made everyone believe that he was dead, and had taken his father’s place.

I cried Loki’s death. He and I are friends since childhood; along with Thor, we were inseparable. Although they were two princes, and I.. a normal person, they were very kind to me. The friendship between me and Loki is much stronger than that between me and Thor.

In fact, as in a children’s fairy tale, I fell in love with Loki. Too bad he doesn’t know; I decided not to say anything to him. His rejection would be too embarrassing, and my heart would break.

When Thor found out what Loki did, they started off in search of Odin; but now it was all over. The King of the Gods is dead, and this led to the release of Hela, the Goddess of Death. Thor and Loki’s sister.

The two Gods tried to stop her, but it was useless.

Thus, while Thor and Loki are dispersed, to Asgard chaos reigns. After completely destroying the army, Hela sat on the throne, ready to conquer the other kingdoms; but, coming to the Bifrost, she discovered that the Sword -the weapon to activate the Bifrost- had been stolen.

I know exactly who took the Sword: Heimdall, who was hiding in the mountains of Asgard. He, after he was able to find me, asked me to help him. In fact, we are trying to save more Asgardians as possible from Hela.

For now we are hidden, but time is running out, and soon the Goddess of Death will find us.

I’m sitting next to some kids, and I try to reassure them, telling them that everything will be fine, and that soon the God of Thunder will save us. Will it really happen? Thor can’t be dead, and even Loki.. I know that both are alive, and they will come back to help us.

“Y/n?”

I raise my eyes, and I see Heimdall quickly walking toward me; something is going to happen, I understand from his eyes.

His eyes are beautiful; every time I look at them, they always have a strange light, and their color, a shining gold, makes me feel like it’s all going to be fine in one way or the other. Behind  Heidmall, there’s the splendid Brifost Sword, which he protects with his own life.

“Heimdall, what happens?”

I know it’s a stupid question; only one thing can disturb Heimdall. The arrival of Hela. In fact, he warns me in a low voice that we must bring all the people away from where we are now, before the Goddess arrives. All of us, we head to Brifost; maybe, if Hela is distracted, Heimdall can use the Sword, and we can run away. But when we get to the Bridge, waiting for us is a huge monster with the appearance of a wolf: it’s Fenrir, Hela’s personal animal.

I scream to people to go back, but on the other side of the Bridge are coming Hela soldiers. We are trapped.

I look at Heimdall, and nodding toward him, I pull my daggers -Loki has given them to me so many years ago- and I prepare for the battle. Fenrir roars, and starts running toward us. I try to use my body as a shield, but the more he approaches, and the more I feel smaller than he is.

Suddenly, we hear noises in the distance; I look up, and I see a small ship coming towards us. From inside it falls something: a huge green creature, which immediately launches on Fenrir.

The ship from where the strange creature falls stops on the Bridge, and I see two people coming out from the inside. A woman, and Thor. I smile, and I run fast to him.

“Y/n!”

Thor embraces me, while he tells me he’s happy to see that I’m fine. My smile soon disappears, noticing the absence of someone. Loki is not together with his brother.

“Loki is alive, Y/n. But I don’t think we’ll see him.”

A huge hole is formed in my stomach; Loki is alive. But he preferred to be saved, to save his people. I nod, accepting the reality. Perhaps Thor has always been right: Loki only cares about himself.

Thor moves away from me, headed toward Hela, intending to fight her. Meanwhile, I help people walk to the entrance of the Bifrost, but again, we are trapped. Outside, there are other soldiers who run toward us.

I begin to attack them, together with the other Asgardians who want to defend their lives and that of others, even if they aren’t soldiers. I’ve got the cable to fight –in fact, Loki and Thor taught me many fighting techniques when we were little- but I’m just me against hundreds of warriors. When it seems that everything is lost, from the fog, a strange creature appears, which seems to be entirely made of stone. At first, he seems to rise, but then I realize he’s standing on a huge spaceship, which it is approached to the bridge.

Other creatures come out of the ship, flinging on the soldiers of Hela; finally, their leader comes out of the ship: Loki. I widened my eyes when I see him get off the ship’s ramp with a smile on his face.

“Please, feel free to come down.”

People start running to the spaceship to get safe, while some of them continue to fight. I keep staring at Loki, who finally notices my presence in the midst of all this chaos; I thought I would never see him again.

Suddenly, someone makes me back to reality: one of Hela’s soldiers strikes me behind, clenching his hands around my throat. I give him an elbow right in the stomach, and turning around, I stab him with my dagger. The soldier falls to the ground, lifeless.

“I note with pleasure that you’ve become stronger.”

I turn around, and I see Loki approaching me; the first thing I would do is hug him and squeeze strong to me, but I refrain. Not to let him understand the feelings that I feel, I’ve always tried to make him believe that jokingly I hate him.

"Glad to see you, Loki. I thought you were dead. Again.”

Loki smiles, but we don’t have much time to chat; many other soldiers are threatening us.

Meanwhile, the battle of Thor against Hela moves to the bridge; Thor seems to have become stronger, though, Hela is very powerful, and seems to have the best on his brother.

So, Thor comes up with an idea, a weird and crazy idea: to make the Ragnarok happen.

His plan is to awaken Surtur, and let him fight with Hela, until the complete destruction of Asgard.

However, Surtur’s crown is in the castle, where Odin preserved the most important and powerful relics.

It’ll be Loki to go to the castle, and take the crown, while Thor distracts Hela. “I’m going with Loki.” I tell the two brothers, who they immediately beg me to get on the ship and save me, along with the other Asgardians.

“I can’t escape, Thor. I want to fight. And then someone has to check that Loki doesn’t do stupid things. Again.”

Me and Thor look at the God of Mischief, who pretending to be offended by my words, he rolls his eyes.

In recent years, Loki has done horrible things –he tried to conquer a world that it didn’t belong to him, and then he faked his death, and left Odin alone on Earth- but in spite of everything, I can’t hate him. He’s still Loki, my friend. Thor tells me to be careful, and after hugging him, I follow Loki in the castle.

This is the craziest plan I ever heard, I think to myself as I walk silently through the corridors of the castle along with Loki.

We should try to save our home, and instead we are about to resurrect Surtur, who will destroy it. And if we can’t even stop Hela with him? We will all die.

“Are you all right?”

I turn to Loki, who looks at me worried. Even if it doesn’t seem, I can feel that he is also afraid of what might happen.

Before I didn’t have time to observe him well; his hair grew a little. Seeing Thor with short hair, I thought how Loki would be without his long hair. It would emphasize his face and pale skin. He’s wearing different clothes from those he always wears; this uniform is perfect for him. But I believe that whatever he wore, I would love it. Now that I think, if Loki and I die, he will never know that I’m in love with him.

“We’re about to destroy Asgard. Our people might die. Yeah, never been better.” I say sarcastically. Should I tell him? I’m so afraid..

Finally, I and Loki arrive in the relics room, and we walk quickly toward the crown of Surtur; suddenly, however, Loki stops. I turn to look at what has attracted his attention: the Tesseract. 

“Loki.. don’t even think about it.”

Loki looks at me, and sighing, he begins to walk again.

“I don’t want to steal the Tesseract. Again.”

A sad smile comes to my face; because of Tesseract, Loki killed innocent people, but eventually Thor managed to stop him.

“You don’t want to steal it again, I know. I feel it.”

“Really? And what do you feel? I betrayed my brother, more than once.”

As Loki says these words, he approaches the Surtur crown, and after taking it from his hands, I and he go away, ready to resurrect the creature.

“You betrayed Thor, but you’ve always come back to him to help him. When Thor came back, he told me I would never see you again. Yet you are here, to try to save your people. Our people.”

Loki looks at me while still holding Surtur’s crown. I approach to him, and as I recover the crown, our hands touch.

“Actually Loki, God of Mischief, you’re a good man.”

I try to say more; maybe this is the exact time I should tell Loki that I love him. Like in a fairy tale...

Instead, I lower my gaze, remaining in silence. Then, I approach the Fire of Life, and I put the Surtur crown inside. As soon as I walk away, everything around me and Loki begins to shake. Me and the God of Mischief exchange a look, and immediately we run as fast as possible towards the castle doors, to go out and reach safety. Surtur is about to arrive, and he will soon destroy the first thing he will be facing: the castle. The place where exactly we are now and Loki.

I’m running as fast as possible, while Loki is exactly in front of me. Suddenly, I see cracks forming on the walls, growing more and more up to the ceiling. I block when I see part of the walls fall straight to me. I cover my head with my arms, but I feel my body move; when I open my eyes, I see Loki’s face a few inches from mine, he’s obviously worried.

“Are you okay?” he asks me as I swallow deeply; it’s the first time that he’s so close to me, and despite everything around us is falling, I can’t help but think of his lips so close to mine.

Unable to say a word, all I do is nod.

Loki helps me to get up, and immediately we start to run away. On the corner of my eye, I look behind what’s going on; the castle is on fire.

Suddenly, I snatch myself against Loki’s back; I turn to find out why he stopped, and my body freezes. The fire has now surrounded us.

“What are we going to do?” I scream to Loki. He approaches me, and he tightens my body to his; I blush, and not because of the fire.

“Close your eyes.”

At my awakening, everything is confused.

The first thing I remember is the conversation between myself and Loki; then I threw Surtur’s crown into the fire, and then his awakening.

The castle was beginning to fall one piece at a time, due to Surtur growing more and more. Loki and I started to run, and then I remember anything else. Maybe something hit me, maybe I fainted.

I look around: surely we are no longer on Asgard. The room I am in isn’t very big, there is only one bed, where I’m relaxed, a small furniture with a large mirror, and a window. I get up quickly, and approaching the window, I’m breathless. Outside there’s.. nothing. It’s all dark, here and there are some rocks, some smaller, some bigger. They are asteroids. We are in the space.

The door behind me opens, and Thor enters in the room. He looks at the bed, but when he sees that it’s empty, he glances through the room until his eyes stand on me.

“Thor.”

He comes to me, and clutches me in his arms, whispering to be happy that finally I woke up.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. Surtur was born, the castle was destroyed, and before I got on the ship, I saw you lying on the Bridge, helpless. I took you in my arms, and then we escaped.”

“Where’s Loki?”

Thor low the gaze to avoid mine; he sits on the bed, and I follow him. His silence makes me feel uncomfortable; I’m afraid of what he will say.

“I think.. I don’t know, maybe.. Loki isn’t there. I didn’t find him.”

I froze; Thor only found me on the Bridge. But maybe Loki escaped alone, maybe he didn’t want to come with us. The God of Mischief is always saved... right?

“He’s alive, Thor. I feel it. Sooner or later we’ll see him.”

Thor looks at me, and nodding at my words of hope, he smiles. He still loves his brother after all. He also hopes that Loki is fine.

About twenty minutes later, I sit next to the window of my room, watching the infinite darkness of space; from Asgard I saw the sky in a completely different way. Only now I understand his true beauty. I think back to Loki, and because he didn’t want to come with us on the ship. Why did he want to leave us again? Why did he abandon me again?

“Are you sad for something?”

I jump, and in front of me, just a few feet away, there’s Loki, with a brilliant smile on his face. I smile, and I step forward toward him to embrace him, but immediately I stop. Loki seems confused; is he really that in front of me, or is it just an illusion?

“Why every time something horrible happens, you make everybody believe that you are dead, and in fact you are alive?”

“It must be my nature.” Loki says, smiling; I roll my eyes, but his laughter makes me smile too. If he’s here, illusion or not, at least means he’s alive.

"What happened in the castle?”

“The fire enveloped us; I hold you to me, and we’re gone because of my powers. But you’re faint; don’t worry. It happens when you’re too close to a beautiful God like me.”

I make a hysterical laugh when I hear his words; the funny thing is that he’s right. Well, probably I’m fainted because the fire, and the sudden ’teleporter’. But a bit is also his fault.

“I’m glad you’re alive Loki. Even if you’re not really here.”

Loki furrows, and slowly he takes a few steps toward me; my body freezes as he gets closer and closer. I’m afraid if I try to touch him, he can disappear, and this time forever.

“Y/n, I’m really here.” Loki says as if he had read my thoughts. His hand is approaching my face, and a shiver runs through my back when Loki’s soft hand touches my cheek. I look up, and my eyes meet his; Loki is getting closer to me, and I’m breathless. Is he really doing what he is doing? Loki, the God of Mischief, my friend that I love since I was a child, and I never said anything to him.. he’s kissing me. I don’t move, and I feel my face blush at the same time when Loki turns away from me, a grin appears on his face.

“W-why did you do it?” I ask Loki with the few words I can say.

“You thought I was just an illusion.”

“Well, you could shake my hand, or hug me, or give me a slap, or shake my hand..”

I close my mouth, no longer knowing what to say. Loki stares at me with a grin on his face as I feel more embarrassed.

“I missed you Y/n. I really missed you.”

Forever Tag: @hotwinchester - @doro7winchester - @iamthenewthor - @cirunia - @frickin-bats - @giftofdreams - @ria132love - @flirtswithdanger - @littlenerdgirl16 - @nanie5 - @crownedloki - @im-a-fandom-slut - @deanxfuckingadorablexwinchester - @jerk-bitch-and-an-angel - @superhero-lover101 - @abbessolute - @eggsywife - @niallandsebastianaremylife - @deliriouslyvoorhees - @queenmrsmarch - @mischiefmanaged71 - @pandazombie69 - @redeyed-winchester - @unhappysugarglider

If you want to be tagged in my stories, just ask me!