The problem with Loki...
Blame all the think-time I've had lately while working on a stone mill, with nothing but routine movements and sense deprivation to keep me company...
So, I watched The Avengers the other day (crappy cam stream, but whatever, we don't have a non-dubbed cinema in town). And it was fun and I had a great time, but...
... I was a little disappointed.
I liked Loki a lot in 'Thor'. In fact, it was the only thing I liked about 'Thor'. Tom Hiddleston is wonderful, yes, but I liked the character.
Let's face it, at the beginning of the movie, Thor is an idiot and Odin is a dick. Loki's plan might err on the side of the heartless, but I like my princes Machiavellian and -were I an Asgardian- I'd rather have a ruler who thinks about long-term consequences instead of a lying, baby-stealing dick who is a terrible judge of character, or Thor (whose idea of a cunning plan is, as the saying goes, 'everybody on the count of three!').
So, I liked Loki. I was rooting for him. Sure, he got a little hysterical in the end, but give the guy a break, he had a terrible week.
And then came The Avengers.
And I couldn't root for Loki any longer. Sure, I still like him (he's feral and gorgeous and manipulative and he's enjoying himself at last), but I can't root for him. His excuse for invading Earth is hollow (humanity craves subjugation, so you're going to sacrifice yourself and give it to us? Puh-leeze!). There are no shades of gray in his reasoning. He wants to rule, so he's going to take over the nearest realm and spit in his brother's eye while he's at it. He makes a terrible deal (seriously, you'd think the Liesmith could negotiate better than that) because he can't wait to get his hands on some real state.
What is there to sympathise with? Sure, Loki's Number One Fangirl, Tom Hiddleston, tries to justify him. "Loki goes through the Seventh Circle of Hell after falling off the Bifrost," he says in an interview...
(why the seventh? Hiddleston read Classics at university, he must be familiar with Dante... why the Circle of Violence instead of, I don't know, the Circle of Treachery? Or the Circle of Anger? Or the Circle of Greed? All of those fit better with Loki's transgressions... unless he's gone to Hell for blasphemy -against Odin? Talk about getting your mythologies mixed up!- or sodomy -oh hai there kink meme!-, it makes no sense.)
... anyway, yes, Loki saw terrible things after leaving Asgard. He was alone, he felt betrayed, his sense of entitlement smarted, whatever. That might explain Loki's newly-discovered sense of megalomania (it's no wonder that he only sees Tony Star as his equal amongst The Avengers), but it doesn't make me want to join his army. At all.
You know it's bad when I'm rooting for the good guys.
So, yeah, consider me disappointed. Joss Whedon wanted to put his superheroes on display, but I feel he could have done that a lot better if he'd given them a more relatable villain to go up against.
Hopefully the director of Thor 2 feels better disposed towards Loki. I wouldn't want him to get redeemed (redemption sucks all the fun out of interesting characters), but I'd really enjoy seeing him with a motivation more realistic than "rawr, I will destroy you all!".
(he's going to be pissed when he finds out with whom he really made his deal, for example; he might side with Thor only to obliterate his mistake. Or to save his skin. All better motivations than "I'm a spoiled princeling with daddy issues")
Anyway... this is what happens when I have too much time to think.
So, I watched The Avengers the other day (crappy cam stream, but whatever, we don't have a non-dubbed cinema in town). And it was fun and I had a great time, but...
... I was a little disappointed.
I liked Loki a lot in 'Thor'. In fact, it was the only thing I liked about 'Thor'. Tom Hiddleston is wonderful, yes, but I liked the character.
Let's face it, at the beginning of the movie, Thor is an idiot and Odin is a dick. Loki's plan might err on the side of the heartless, but I like my princes Machiavellian and -were I an Asgardian- I'd rather have a ruler who thinks about long-term consequences instead of a lying, baby-stealing dick who is a terrible judge of character, or Thor (whose idea of a cunning plan is, as the saying goes, 'everybody on the count of three!').
So, I liked Loki. I was rooting for him. Sure, he got a little hysterical in the end, but give the guy a break, he had a terrible week.
And then came The Avengers.
And I couldn't root for Loki any longer. Sure, I still like him (he's feral and gorgeous and manipulative and he's enjoying himself at last), but I can't root for him. His excuse for invading Earth is hollow (humanity craves subjugation, so you're going to sacrifice yourself and give it to us? Puh-leeze!). There are no shades of gray in his reasoning. He wants to rule, so he's going to take over the nearest realm and spit in his brother's eye while he's at it. He makes a terrible deal (seriously, you'd think the Liesmith could negotiate better than that) because he can't wait to get his hands on some real state.
What is there to sympathise with? Sure, Loki's Number One Fangirl, Tom Hiddleston, tries to justify him. "Loki goes through the Seventh Circle of Hell after falling off the Bifrost," he says in an interview...
(why the seventh? Hiddleston read Classics at university, he must be familiar with Dante... why the Circle of Violence instead of, I don't know, the Circle of Treachery? Or the Circle of Anger? Or the Circle of Greed? All of those fit better with Loki's transgressions... unless he's gone to Hell for blasphemy -against Odin? Talk about getting your mythologies mixed up!- or sodomy -oh hai there kink meme!-, it makes no sense.)
... anyway, yes, Loki saw terrible things after leaving Asgard. He was alone, he felt betrayed, his sense of entitlement smarted, whatever. That might explain Loki's newly-discovered sense of megalomania (it's no wonder that he only sees Tony Star as his equal amongst The Avengers), but it doesn't make me want to join his army. At all.
You know it's bad when I'm rooting for the good guys.
So, yeah, consider me disappointed. Joss Whedon wanted to put his superheroes on display, but I feel he could have done that a lot better if he'd given them a more relatable villain to go up against.
Hopefully the director of Thor 2 feels better disposed towards Loki. I wouldn't want him to get redeemed (redemption sucks all the fun out of interesting characters), but I'd really enjoy seeing him with a motivation more realistic than "rawr, I will destroy you all!".
(he's going to be pissed when he finds out with whom he really made his deal, for example; he might side with Thor only to obliterate his mistake. Or to save his skin. All better motivations than "I'm a spoiled princeling with daddy issues")
Anyway... this is what happens when I have too much time to think.