Plot-bunny: The Avengers
May. 23rd, 2012 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marbleglove
This is mostly a re-imagining of The Avengers, with everything in the movie taking place, but a bunch of other stuff happening too that changes the perspective.
Loki is, in my opinion, the single most sympathetic of all super-villains. I mean, there’s the classic younger-brother issues with a heroic older-brother, but more to the point, he was raised on stories of how evil the frost giants are and how much everyone hates and fears them, and then, whoops, surprise, you’re a frost giant and no one told you. I would have thought that a good father, having adopted a frost giant, might have toned down the frost-giants-are-evil stories a bit, but Odin apparently didn't think of that. So my reading on Loki is really more along the lines of a teenager going through a personal melt-down rather than a true villain.
The thing that makes him a super-villain is just how over-powered he is. What he needs is someone to hold him down, tell him his family still loves him, and then send him to bed early to get some sleep. What he gets is a bunch of humans who are far beneath his weight-class and a brother who is more interested in the humans than in him, telling him that he’s being evil, which mostly just escalates the conflict.
In my head, in the movie Thor, Loki reads a lot like a 15-year-old who’s too strong for his own good and winds up on the street after having a public melt-down. In the movie The Avengers, he’s more like a 19-year-old who’s found himself a place in a gang, has done all sorts of violent and vicious things, but is still mostly feeling pain himself and lashing out.
All of this makes me want to redeem him.
He had a crappy revelation in his adolescence, but so too have a lot of other people, and they largely manage to refind their balance. I want Loki to refind his balance, to be a good guy, or at least, not a bad guy.
And then I consider:
Loki is a trickster god, right? Mischief and chaos and plans within plans. And lies. One can’t forget the lies.
And yet, his plan in The Avengers is fairly straight-forward. I mean, there is a small amount of subterfuge with him allowing himself to be taken captive, but it’s not all that much.
And then I consider his battle plan with the Chitauri. Open a single portal right over The Avenger’s base of operations? Then allow through a few advanced guard to test the waters and give the good guys a chance to take stock of the enemy? Wait until the first advanced guard is down and then call in the rest?
I think Loki was playing the two sides against each other.
Say Loki landed amongst the Chitauri when he fell. They are not necessarily a pleasant people and Loki isn’t the type to stay quietly in hiding for the rest of his life. So he needs to get out of there. But the only way out is to make a deal.
But having made a deal, the only way out of the deal is to make sure that the Chitauri are completely decimated. So he has to set up a full-scale conflict that the Avengers will win, knowing that they aren’t going to go into battle under his leadership, especially given the necessity of endangering civilians. Plus, the Chitauri would probably notice a betrayal that blatant. So he needs to escalate a conflict and create a battle plan, so that it looks like he’s leading the Chitauri to conquer the Earth, when he’s really using Earth to get rid of the Chitauri.
So in the end, he plays the role of a villain, a somewhat idiotic villain, and his feeling of superiority/contempt/anger/betrayal increase with the fact that everyone believes the act.
And in the end, he can’t even explain himself both because he’s gagged, and because he’s a god of lies which pretty much gives everyone permission to believe or disbelieve whatever they want about him.
Loki is, in my opinion, the single most sympathetic of all super-villains. I mean, there’s the classic younger-brother issues with a heroic older-brother, but more to the point, he was raised on stories of how evil the frost giants are and how much everyone hates and fears them, and then, whoops, surprise, you’re a frost giant and no one told you. I would have thought that a good father, having adopted a frost giant, might have toned down the frost-giants-are-evil stories a bit, but Odin apparently didn't think of that. So my reading on Loki is really more along the lines of a teenager going through a personal melt-down rather than a true villain.
The thing that makes him a super-villain is just how over-powered he is. What he needs is someone to hold him down, tell him his family still loves him, and then send him to bed early to get some sleep. What he gets is a bunch of humans who are far beneath his weight-class and a brother who is more interested in the humans than in him, telling him that he’s being evil, which mostly just escalates the conflict.
In my head, in the movie Thor, Loki reads a lot like a 15-year-old who’s too strong for his own good and winds up on the street after having a public melt-down. In the movie The Avengers, he’s more like a 19-year-old who’s found himself a place in a gang, has done all sorts of violent and vicious things, but is still mostly feeling pain himself and lashing out.
All of this makes me want to redeem him.
He had a crappy revelation in his adolescence, but so too have a lot of other people, and they largely manage to refind their balance. I want Loki to refind his balance, to be a good guy, or at least, not a bad guy.
And then I consider:
Loki is a trickster god, right? Mischief and chaos and plans within plans. And lies. One can’t forget the lies.
And yet, his plan in The Avengers is fairly straight-forward. I mean, there is a small amount of subterfuge with him allowing himself to be taken captive, but it’s not all that much.
And then I consider his battle plan with the Chitauri. Open a single portal right over The Avenger’s base of operations? Then allow through a few advanced guard to test the waters and give the good guys a chance to take stock of the enemy? Wait until the first advanced guard is down and then call in the rest?
I think Loki was playing the two sides against each other.
Say Loki landed amongst the Chitauri when he fell. They are not necessarily a pleasant people and Loki isn’t the type to stay quietly in hiding for the rest of his life. So he needs to get out of there. But the only way out is to make a deal.
But having made a deal, the only way out of the deal is to make sure that the Chitauri are completely decimated. So he has to set up a full-scale conflict that the Avengers will win, knowing that they aren’t going to go into battle under his leadership, especially given the necessity of endangering civilians. Plus, the Chitauri would probably notice a betrayal that blatant. So he needs to escalate a conflict and create a battle plan, so that it looks like he’s leading the Chitauri to conquer the Earth, when he’s really using Earth to get rid of the Chitauri.
So in the end, he plays the role of a villain, a somewhat idiotic villain, and his feeling of superiority/contempt/anger/betrayal increase with the fact that everyone believes the act.
And in the end, he can’t even explain himself both because he’s gagged, and because he’s a god of lies which pretty much gives everyone permission to believe or disbelieve whatever they want about him.
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-28 06:54 am (UTC)Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-28 01:24 pm (UTC)one of the resons I love this: http://archiveofourown.org/works/306674
is just how, while being a Villain, non-villanous Loki can be... just mischief!
my favorite sentence there:
"There were too few times he actually interacted with Loki when he was attacking the Avengers; the exception being when they were sparring as they were now, and briefly when Loki arrived for Jane’s weekly kidnapping. That last one made Thor happy. His brother was making an effort to get to know the woman he loved. And for her part, Jane was always eager to be kidnapped, always returning with a new direction or new theory for her work."
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-28 08:39 pm (UTC)And duck shooting! Hee. And that damn dog who laughed at me! Oh the flashbacks.
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-28 09:03 pm (UTC)if it is Fenrir though he is a prankster just like his daddy...
The amaizing plan for the World to know Doom is Tacky!!
and come here Glitter Ferret!
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-29 02:41 am (UTC)Loki framing Dr. Doom for being tacky just cracks me up, because surely Dr. Doom is tacky enough on his own, but not to the level of glitter geese, of course.
The Glitter Ferret that hates Tony!
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-29 02:52 am (UTC)Doom really is quite Tacky, and Loki is a huge diva who can't take insults to his fashion sense, the love of green which brought them together now separates the two...
Also my head canon states that Loki is the God of Internet trolls in this modern age... and he has a Perez Hilton style blog which makes fun of all the heros, villains and their fashion choices and love lives... or lack thereof
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-29 05:14 am (UTC)Your head canon has infected me, Loki is surely the God of Internet trolls and I desperately want to see his blog, or rather see the Avengers see his blog. Tony would definitely know about it and get offended.
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-29 12:48 pm (UTC)There is no way that Steve or Thor are more hunky than he is! The fan pool was clearly higged
It is a great headcannon!
Fury also likes to visit it to be able to manipulate the avenger's images and get petty revenge on Tony's schemes by leaving scathing critiques of his taste
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-30 04:59 am (UTC)Steve is mostly just resigned: the Internet is new, celebrity stalkers are, alas, not. Thor, on the other hand, is delighted by the blog, but he always needs someone else (re: Tony) to show him how to get to it, which does not improve Tony's day.
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-30 12:44 pm (UTC)he likes less the embarassing pictures of him eating which show up on occasion...
and their facination in comparing him do dogs...
Darcy is a secret contributor
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-30 05:23 pm (UTC)But Darcy is definitely a contributor. Possibly even an administrator.
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-30 05:53 pm (UTC)Darcy is one of the few people that know that Loki is behind the website.
She helps the minor SHIELD agents, Pepper and other support personel take petty revenge against the Avengers (mostly Tony) by posting the most outrageous pictures and starting rumors...
Such as the rumor that Iron Man and was having a steamy affair with a fellow avenger... and a villain
at which point the internet took over with people posting theories and shipping the most outrageous pairing...
Personal favorite was Victor Von Doom and Iron Man... because they both wear metal armors
Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-31 01:53 am (UTC)Re: Well
Date: 2012-05-31 01:58 am (UTC)everyone knows Tony is overcompensating with his womanizing ways to hide his unrequited love for Steve
Re: Well
Date: 2012-06-01 01:17 am (UTC)Re: Well
Date: 2012-06-01 02:13 am (UTC)things only get worse when he finds out about fangirls... those are the most terrifying than anything thing he has, so far, stumbled upon