Someone on Twitter linked me to a discussion about Loki over at the IMDb page for The Avengers.
Granted, the thread definitely died like… a week ago, but whatever. I was going to put in my two cents by contributing a paragraph or so to the thread. Inevitably, though, it turned into a full blown mini novel about all of my Loki feelings, because I have a lot of them. So I figured I’d just share it here instead, just in case anyone is interested in my babbling perspective.
Full on, nerd infused, Loki feelings ahead.
To me, Loki is a character that merits an in depth discussion and analysis like the one in said thread. He’s not just some one dimensional, evil, dictating, killing machine and nothing more, like some have so blindly chosen to see him. Tom Hiddleston said so himself that he did all he could to avoid that. The last thing he and Joss wanted was for Loki to be another cackling, mustache-twirling villain.
The comments about Loki’s cultural influences really hit the nail on the head, I think. It’s something I was constantly thinking about. I think it plays a HUGE part in Loki’s behavior — just as much as his mental and emotional instability, his sense of rejection and betrayal (brought on mainly by everything that went down in Thor), and the probable outside influences he had (Thanos and the Other, and whatever/whoever else he may have encountered). Remember, Loki was in an extremely vulnerable state when he fell at the end of Thor. As many have pointed out, who the hell knows what happened to Loki during the period between Thor and The Avengers? We got a glimpse, but certainly not the whole story. Loki has more than likely gone through the equivalent of hell and back. You can’t tell me that doesn’t do something to a person. You can’t tell me that doesn’t, at the very least, loosen a few screws.
BUT, on top of all that, revisiting the whole cultural thing — He was raised, from infancy, within a strong belief system that he is a God, the makings of a king and that humans are inferior to him in every single way; that their existence is basically trivial in comparison to Asgardians. If you grow up being taught to believe that an ant has lesser value than you, that it’s less important, and thus to kill an ant has lesser meaning, do you think that you’re going to give two shits when you find yourself needing to step on one (or 80+ of them) to accomplish something of great importance? No. It’s a matter of perspective, and the difference between the admirers and fans of Loki, and those who are indifferent, is that we’re open minded enough and willing enough to try and look at the whole picture through Loki’s eyes. Sure, Thor was able to see humans differently, but that’s Thor. Not Loki. Thor went through very different experiences. Also, I’ll just take a moment to point out the obvious; Loki isn’t the only one to have taken lives. There’s plenty others who, as Black Widow put it, have red on their ledger. It doesn’t make it okay, but it does emphasize how hypocritical it is to chastise Loki for that reason.
I think it was made pretty clear that despite being of an entirely different race, Loki and the Asgardians still possess many of the same emotions and flaws that humans possess. There’s only so much bending someone can take before they break. There are a lot of horrific things out there that have the power to transform an individual. To get under their skin and into the core of their being. We can’t always win those battles.
I think people should really think about why The Avengers let Loki live and go home with Thor.
There’s good and bad in all of us. We all walk a fine line between the two on a continual basis. One can waver between the dark and the light and make the wrong decisions and lose themselves in the darkest of emotions. Pardon my boldness, but who are we to judge them, really? There, I said it.
You simply can not dismiss Loki as just plain evil through and through and ignore all of the other facets that go along with him. You can’t. Yes, Loki behaved oh-so-badly and horribly and deserves punishment. And yes, of course he should not be allowed to do the terrible things he’s done, whatever the reasoning or influences — despite it all, in the end, there’s still no justification that makes it all okay. But he’s also a rich, colorful, multi-layered character that can envelop us in an array of confusing and conflicting emotions. He can make us sympathize for him and hate him at the same time. He can make us look beyond the villain, and you can’t deny that this makes him one fucking awesome character. I mean, how is that not totally fascinating? Maybe it’s just my love and interest in psychology rearing it’s ever-hungry head, but that is just some damn-good, juicy stuff, and it’s what easily makes Loki my favorite. Because on some level, deep down, in one way or another, we can all relate to him in a much more raw and revealing way than we can to the superheroes or “good guys”. And maybe that’s too uncomfortable a thing for some to take, but I think it’s just… so beautifully human.
This is all thanks to Tom Hiddleston, of course. Bravo, Tom! And alright, I’ll give credit to Branagh and Whedon as well. In fact, I’d love to hug them all, really. Thank you, you brilliant bastards.