#Post Avengers 1 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

villainousshakespeare · 1 year

Text

Therapy Fit for a God Chapter 28

“Loki/OFC Rated E: Trigger Warnings: Smut, Sex, Oral Sex, Angst, talk of suicide, therapy, unhealthy family dynamics, mention of torture and mind control, touch starved, drinking, memory loss.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25, Chapter 26, Chapter 27

Loki’s plans to conquer and rule Midgard have come to a disastrous end. After being captured by the Avengers, he is being held on Earth. Odin has refused to interfere, and the outlook for the God of Mischief appear bleak. His only hope may lie in one mortal woman, a Psychiatric expert brought in to interrogate him.

Dr. Caroline Thorpe is intrigued by Loki and thinks that more lies beneath his actions than is commonly known. Can she find out the truth before he is shipped off to die for crimes against the Earth? And can Loki bring himself to care?

@yespolkadotkitty @just-the-hiddles @hopelessromanticspoonie @wine-and-whines @arch-venus25 @caffiend-queen @devilish–doll @enchantedbyhiddles @hiddlesholic @i-do-not-fangirl-i-fanwoman @kellatron55 @ladyoftheteaandblood @latent-thoughts @yespolkadotkitty@maryxglz @myoxisbroken @nuggsmum @nildespirandum @pedeka @redfoxwritesstuff @sinfully-lustful-darling @vodka-and-some-sass @wrathkitty @kingtwhiddleston @wolfsmom1 @poetic-fiasco @shiningloki @dangertoozmanykids101 @bookworm-christina @amwolowicz @delightfulheartdream @frostbitten-written @what-a-flammable-heart @tom-hlover @nonsensicalobsessions @myraiswack @loki-yoursaviourishere @ghostypau @ms-cellanies @colorfulfreakstudentpizza @mareebird @colorfulfreakstudentpizza @szycha22 @chokemedaddyloki @queenofallhobos @just-the-hiddles-reads @alwida10 @justjoanne242 @chantsdemarins @lovelysizzlingbluebird @lokiprompts @evieplease @unlucky-number-13 @bitchassbecky691 @georges-left-ear @mischief2sarawr

The Norns knew that Loki's patience had been tested over the years. After all, he had grown up with Thor. He liked to think that he was perfectly capable of calmly waiting for the pieces to fall into place as others struggled to catch up to realizations he had already come to long before.

That said, if Caroline and his parents did not soon join them, he was fully prepared to storm his mother's sitting room and drag them all out.

"You can pace if you like, it makes no difference to me."

Loki glared over to where the ancient Healer was sitting. He could not deny that he longed to do just as she suggested and wear a rut in the highly polished marble floor, but he refused to give in to the temptation. Not that he was fooling her or himself, of course. Between his fingers drumming on the arms of his chair and constantly adjusting the position of his legs, Loki was as fidgety as wolf pup in thunder storm.

"I am fine, thank you," was all he said, grinding his teeth when the woman gave him a look that clearly said she knew he was lying.

At least in the beginning he had been distracted as Eir rooted around in his head. The sensation had not been physically unpleasant, but Loki was far from comfortable with sharing the secrets of his mind with anyone. The woman had made small noises as she prodded with her seidr, causing odd surges of emotions he could not explain. At last, she had sighed and removed her hands from where they had been sunk into his hair.

"Not unworkable," was all she had said.

"Perhaps you could distract me," he suggested now, tilting back his heavy wooden chair to a dangerous angle. She had lived long enough, she must have stories.

"I thought that was the job of your little Midgardian girl," Eir replied.

"I did not mean... that is to say... I was not implying..."

"Relax, Princeling," Eir laughed, though not unkindly. "You are far too young for my taste."

"Just exactly how old are you?" he asked, words escaping before he could think better of them. Why did she put his so on the back foot? "Forgive me, that was unpolite of me."

"I am far too old to be offended by your asking," she said with a wave of her hand.

"Well then?" he prompted; curiosity roused.

"I don't really remember any longer," she told him with a shrug. "I have been a Healer since before Odin ascended to the throne."

"Implying you were once something else?"

"Oh, many things," she said vaguely.

"Such as?" really, could she not humor him and take his mind off of the fact that others were deciding his fate?

"A Valkyrie, for one."

"Truly?" Now that was interesting!

"You look surprised. I was not always old, you know. Yes, I was one of Bor's generals. For millennia I helped defend Asgard and its throne from all who sought to challenge it."

"From Valkyrie to Healer? That is quite a turn."

"Not as much as you might think. To take a life is easier than to save it, but to do either well requires a basis in the same basic knowledge. You must remember as well, Valkyries do not just give battle, they ferry the soles of the glorious dead to Valhalla. It is in itself a form of care for the wounded."

It made sense in a twisted sort of way. He could see it in her, too. The iron straight posture, the air of command, give her a winged horse and a Dragon Fang blade and Loki would not want to face her on the battlefield.

"So, what led to your change of heart?" he asked.

"Your grandfather declared war on the Jotunheim."

"I was told that Odin vanquished the Jotun," the Nine knew he had heard the story often enough.

"And so he did," Eir confirmed. "But that was hardly the first time the two realms went to war. Subjugation or extermination of the Frost Giants has a long history with the royal family."

"And what? You feared to face the cruel might of the Jotuns?"

"Why should I fear my own kin?"

"I beg your pardon?"

It was rare that something caught Loki completely off guard, but Eir's pronouncement, so calmly made, had his jaw dropping to the floor. He would have thought that she was jesting, but in his experience that was not in her nature. Yet she sat there so calm, returning his stare with an easy continence.

"It is not as though it was a secret," Eir shrugged. "My maternal grandmother Ygonda was a Jotun Princess. You need not look so horrified, Princeling. Such things were much more common back in the early days. My grandfather was an ambassador to the Jotunheim; we had still had diplomatic relations at the time. The story goes that one look at Ygonda and he was hopelessly besotted. It took some time, and from what I understand an intensive series of vocal lessons, but in the end, he wooed and won the Ice Princess."

"But they are so savage -"

"Asgardian propaganda," Eir waved away his characterization. "I lived with the Jotuns for quite some time in my younger days."

"You did?" even the possibility of such a thing was inconceivable in the world they lived in now.

"It was when I was in training to become a Valkyrie. I had mastered Asgardian methods of fighting, but that alone was not enough to be selected for their exalted ranks. I was a quarter Jotun, and my grandmother had long since returned to her homeland. While her marriage had been passionate, she never felt quite at home here. Our people can be less then welcoming to those who are different, even if they are royalty. I reached out to Ygonda and she was happy to welcome me into her home."

"What was it like?" Loki was fascinated.

"Strange at first, but I adapted quickly. My focus was on battle and fighting techniques, of course. I was not as large as they were, of course, but I was fast. They taught me how to fight with the spears they prefer, and how to over awe your enemy. On top of that, I was enthralled by their healing magic. It was the first time I had ever dabbled in the restorative arts, and I loved the challenge it provided, a battle of its own you might say."

"I never even suspected," Loki shook his head as he stared at her.

"It is not something I advertise these days, relations between the two realms being what they were. When I was forced to choose sides, I realized that as much as I loved my Jotun family, my home was on Asgard. That being said, I am aware of how small-minded our people can be. Asgardians are proud, and not quick to be welcoming to anyone seen as different."

Loki knew firsthand how true that could be. He was a Prince of the Realm and yet he had never felt welcomed by his people. How much harder must it have been for someone of another race all together?

He took a long, hard look at Eir now. She had always seemed a giant to him, if not in the literal sense. There was a slight bluish tint to her skin, and if he looked for it, he could just make out raised lines on her forehead. A Frost Giant, here among the Gods on Asgard? He never would have thought it possible.

A wave of vertigo swept through him, causing him to lower his head into his hands.

"Prince Loki, are you quite well?" she asked.

"Fine," he said shortly. "But the sooner we fix whatever it is that is wrong with my memory, the happier I will be."

"I hope you are correct," she said. After a moment, she added "If, when we are finished with your procedure, you find yourself in need of a friendly ear, my office is always open to you."

"Why?" he asked, taken aback.

"I have always thought you were worth more than most of the youth of Asgard," she told him. "In a few millennia, you might even make a competent healer."

From anyone else he would have been offended, but he was aware enough to realize that for Eir this was the height of flattery.

"I will keep that in mind," he said with a nod. "If I don't go mad waiting for the others to join us."

"I forget sometimes what it is like to be young," she said with a sigh. "I am extremely glad I am past those days."

Loki almost wished that he was past them as well. Giving up his best intentions, he pushed himself from the chair. Eir had opened herself up to him, he no longer felt the need to hide his own feelings. Pushing his hair back from his high forehead, he began to pace the bounds of the room.

***

"Finally!"

Caroline had barely stepped in the room when Loki pounced at them. He had been on his feet, and from the looks of him he was about to tear the room apart. He walked towards her now, claiming her hands and bringing them to his lips to kiss her knuckles. Oh, she was a sucker for that!

"Sorry it took so long," she said, voice sounding a bit flustered even from that relatively innocent contact.

"Well?" he demanded, looking from her to where his parents stood tall beside her.

"I do not like this," Odin pronounced, as usual speaking louder than room required. She was beginning to see where Thor's way of speaking came from. "In my view of things, this loss of memory is a blessing. If you have indeed been tortured as this woman has led us to believe, why would you wish to recall such a thing?"

"I believe I can blur the worst of his pain," Eir spoke before Loki could form an answer.

Caroline was glad for the Healer's intervention. She had used everything she could think of to persuade the God, but Odin had been reluctant at best to go along with the path everyone else saw as the obvious choice. Finally, with Frigga's help, she had gotten him to the point where he agreed to allow Loki and Eir to decide. She only hoped he would stick with that decision long enough for the procedure to take place.

"What do you have in mind?" Frigga asked, looping her hand through her husband's arm.

"Now that I know that the Mind Stone was the cause of much of his torment, I can filter through his thoughts looking for its signature overriding his own brain pathways. Once I have that time period isolated, I can completely remove the block we placed on either side of it."

"I want to remember all of it," Loki insisted stubbornly.

"I am getting to that," Eir told him. "With your mother's help, I believe I can lift the mental block while leaving the emotional dampening in place. This will allow the prince to recall the facts of his past without the hurt he suffered."

"That sounds ideal!" Caroline beamed at the old Goddess.

"Excellent, let's do that then. When do we start?" Loki asked, eagerness written all over him.

"Not in the middle of the night," Frigga admonished him.

"We are all here now," Loki protested.

"I am not going to perform, or even assist on, work on my son's brain at anything less than one hundred percent. You will also want to be at your strongest, fully rested, for the procedure. I suggest we all get as much rest as remains this night and meet in Eir's offices tomorrow at midday."

"That is acceptable," Eir nodded. "Your Majesties, Princeling, I bid you goodnight."

Caroline tried not to be offended that she was completely left out of the woman's farewells. After all, she was hardly royalty. Still, she was hopeful that Loki would not want to linger here once he was back in possession of his memories. Assuming, of course, that he still wanted to remain with her at that point.

"You will think carefully about this, Loki," Odin instructed, glaring at his son. "There is still time to change your mind."

"My mind is set."

"Why don't you go get some sleep," Frigga suggested again, clearly wanting to hold off any impending arguments.

"Very well," Loki sighed, offering her is arm. "Caroline?"

"Hold!" Odin snapped. "You will not bring that woman back to your chambers."

"You can't be serious!" Loki bristled.

"This is the Royal Palace of Asgard, not a village tavern. She has no place here. Your mother can find her a bed in the servant's hall."

"Odin," Frigga pleaded.

"Caroline is not a servant," Loki insisted. "She is my intended."

Well, that was news to Caroline! And to Loki's true self, if it came down to it. Yes, he cared for her, but they had hardly had time to discuss anything of any permanence. Despite all of these mental protestations, Caroline could not help the thrill that passed through her as he spoke the hot, possessive words.

"She is no such thing! Such an idea is the height of lunacy. A phoenix does not mate with a moth after all."

"I love her, father."

"You don't even know her!"

"Even still."

"Loki, it is alright," Caroline said, swallowing a lump in her throat.

As angry as she was at Odin's treatment of her, she did not want to antagonize him to the point where he changed his mind on Loki's procedure. They just had to get his memories restored, and then they could escape from Asgard and Loki's tyrant of a father.

"It is not alright. I will not have you disrespected."

"Perhaps a compromise," Frigga once more attempted to play peacemaker. "Caroline is a guest, and as such I agree with Loki that it would not be suitable to lodge her with the servants. However, Loki needs all the rest he can get. I will therefore have a guest chamber prepared for her. It should not take more than a few moments."

"I will sleep better with her beside me."

Caroline loved the intention behind his declaration, but she knew that in this case it might actually not be true. It had been hard enough to keep him at arm's length earlier, if they spent all night (or what remained of it) pressed against each other, how long until her resistance gave way, and she threw herself on top of him?

"As much as I want to be there," she said, looking up into his eyes, "your mother is right. When I am next in your arms, I do not intend for either of us to get any rest at all."

It was a bold statement, particularly spoken as it was in front of his very disapproving father, but Caroline knew her Prince. A heat kindled in his eyes and she felt his pulse quicken to match hers. She could not be sure, but she almost thought she heard a rumbling noise like a growl deep in his chest.

"Very well," he said at last. "I expect the room that she is given to be suitable for one of the highest rank."

"Of course," Frigga agreed quickly. "Caroline, if you come with me, I will escort you."

Caroline gave a small gasp as, ignoring his mother for the moment, Loki pulled her into his arms. His kiss was slow, long, and hot, promising all sorts of things that she could not wait to collect on. Part way through, she vaguely heard Odin snort and storm out of the room, but she could barely be bothered to notice, so consumed was she with Loki's embrace.

"You have made your point, and he is gone," Frigga said at last.

Caroline sighed with regret as Loki pulled back at last placing one last chaste kiss to her nose.

"That was not to make a point," Loki spoke in a raspy voice, eyes locked with Caroline's. "That was to make a promise. Sleep well, my love. It will be your last alone.

For those interested, I did some research on Eir before writing this chapter. It turns out that in myths she is referenced at different points as being a Valkyrie and being Jotun. This seemed such a wonderful opportunity for this story, I just had to give her this history here.

#Loki #Loki/OFC #Loki Fan Fic #Romance #Tom Hiddleston #Post Avengers 1 #memory loss #therapy #Odin's A+ parenting #Frigga #Odin is an ass #Eir

49 notes · View notes

iam93percentstardust · 1 year

Text

one of the things that really bothers me about modern franchises, and in particular over the last 5 years or so, is their refusal to commit. what i mean here when i say this is that it's not uncommon for a major franchise to make a decision, whether about the plot or the characters, that should have had huge, world-changing consequences... and then just never address that again or worse, immediately go back and undo it. and i'm gonna pick on star wars and the mcu here because those are the two big franchises i'm into at the moment (and i think they're kind of the worst at this), but i don't want you to walk away from this thinking that this is solely a disney thing. i've seen this happen with game of thrones and supernatural and plenty of other non-disney franchises. spoilers ahead, you've been warned:

in ant-man & the wasp quantumania, scott and hope make the life-altering decision to stay behind in the quantum realm and defeat kang instead of going through the portal to return to their world. this should have been a huge meta decision for the mcu, and when i first saw it in theaters, my immediate thought was wow, what is this going to mean for the mcu going forward? are we going to get a movie/miniseries about scott and hope helping to rebuild the quantum realm? how are cassie, janet, and hank going to react to the losses of their loved ones (in some cases, for the second time)? is cassie going to become the "first" young avenger because she has to take her father's place among the team lineup (and i only say first because as of this moment, none of the other young avengers introduced to the franchise are official avengers yet)? except nope, because less than 2 minutes later, cassie had fixed the portal that had broken way back at the beginning of the movie and brought scott and hope back.

and it felt like such a cheat. i was so disappointed in that theater, not as someone who was invested in these characters on a personal level (because yay, cassie gets her dad back!), but as someone who has spent years investing themselves in the story of the mcu. what was the point of wasting screentime on scott and hope accepting their new lives in the quantum realm if it was just going to immediately be undone? the entire scene could have been cut to scott and hope making it back bare seconds before the portal closed and it would have had the same emotional impact. there was nothing added by making scott and hope (and us) think that there was no way back only to rip the rug out from under us and go "gotcha! you really thought we were gonna give this movie a sad ending? haha! you're so dumb!"

and this isn't the first time the mcu has done this. one of the biggest complaints about endgame was the decision to set it five years in the future with no consideration for how that would actually change the setting of the mcu. characters were brought back to the exact place they disappeared from with no consideration for how things might have changed in the interim five years (like planes that weren't in the air anymore, buildings no longer standing, even just something as simple as a chair being unoccupied). and then the mcu didn't even really have the courage to address how this would have shaped the world other than a few jokes and making the bad guys in the falcon and the winter soldier people who cared about how the world had screwed them over during the blip.

and things like this happen over and over and over again. the accords are put into place in civil war, but by the time we get to she-hulk, they're gone with no explanation because, as best as i can tell, the writers didn't want to have to deal with the worldbuilding that went into the accords. gamora is killed in infinity war, but heaven forbid quill not have an emotional investment in a film he appears for maybe 10 minutes in so now she's back in endgame. steve got to go live in the past with his ex-girlfriend (which is in itself a refusal to commit after the mcu both gave her a different husband and had the woman herself tell him to move on) but we need to establish that messing with timelines is bad because that's what the entire next phase hinges on so actually his ending was predestined and it's only everyone else who can't change time. whoever took this entire town and also wanda hostage and forced them to live out a sitcom fantasy is bad and needs to be stopped but wait, it's actually wanda and she can't be the bad guy yet, we need her for doctor strange 2, so actually everyone's going to defend her now and say that no one else could ever possibly understand her grief. thor has decided to accept responsibility as king of asgard, but we can't use him for any more movies if he's stuck in asgard, so actually he's decided to pass it on to someone whose entire leadership capability is developed offscreen. i could list more examples but this is making me angry, so let's move on to star wars instead.

with star wars, i look at first the oft-quoted meme, "somehow palpatine has returned." yeah, i shouldn't really need to go into detail on how that counts as a refusal to commit but. the last jedi was a study in how johnson refused to commit to anything that abrams had laid down in the force awakens, but rise of skywalker was almost like abrams had looked at the franchise and said "screw you for taking it away from me, i'm going to come up with the most bullshit stuff just to spite you for doing that in the first place. and i'm going to start by undoing the most important plot point of the first trilogy: the emperor dies." and yeah, disney's kind of tried to salvage this by dropping hints into the bad batch and the mandalorian about cloning, but that only really works if you're watching the franchise chronologically and not considering that both of those series came out after rise of skywalker.

and then there's the mandalorian, my sweet summer child, who is, in my opinion, the worst at backtracking their plot points. i'm not entirely convinced that any of the higher ups for this show really knew what they were doing when they started working on it and i'm not convinced that they know what they're doing now. yeah, there's the tie-in to the last season of clone wars, but the mandalorian has managed to walk back pretty much every single major plot point it's had. din is this legendary warrior who can't be beat, but no one will watch this show if he defeats everyone too early, so he's constantly getting beat up (tbf, sometimes some of the fights he loses makes sense like the krayt dragon and the mudhorn, but a lot of them don't. at all). moff gideon is dead, no wait no he's not, now he's imprisoned, no wait no he's not, now he's definitely dead, you can totally believe us this time guys. grogu can use the force and must be placed with the jedi, but wait, the only person still actively teaching the way of the jedi is luke and all of his students will be brutally murdered ten years from now, and we can't have that, everyone will be mad at us for killing off such a cute character and no one will buy baby yoda dolls (and also we have to set up luke's character degradation from hopeful, believes-in-love cinnamon roll to "i'm going to kill my nephew") so in between seasons let's have grogu decide to go back to din (and don't even get me started on how frustrating it is that a casual mandalorian watcher also had to watch book of boba fett to understand why grogu is back). din has the darksaber now which makes him king of mandalore, that's totally going to be important and what the entire series has been building up to, right? wrong! he might have spent the first two seasons making connections, learning about the world outside his sheltered upbringing, and demonstrating the various qualities that would make for a good leader, but the entire third season will be about din realizing that actually he's super unworthy and the darksaber should actually go to someone who... saw an animal in the water.

and it's really, really frustrating as a viewer! because how am i supposed to get invested in any of these plot decisions when they almost always get reversed? why should i care that mj and ned have forgotten peter when ant-man 3 has shown me that they'll remember him the next time they're all on screen together? why should i care that tech is dead when half of the last season of clone wars was about how echo was actually alive? if none of these decisions have any permanence, then where are the emotional stakes? why should i watch your movie if all you're going to tell me is that nothing matters?

#and also i want to make a point that the early mcu did permanent stakes really well #iron man 1 ends with tony announcing that he's iron man and that's something that still resonated years later #the entire second film hinged on that one moment #loki falling into the bifrost is what leads him to the chitauri which is what kickstarted the avengers #steve is woken from the ice and the first organization who presents themselves as someone to trust is shield #which sets up the betrayal he feels in the winter soldier #these moments resonate throughout the first two stages and the decisions the characters made MATTERED #so you can't help but get invested because what if it's the wrong decision???#anyway i'm frustrated with the state of franchises #alle talks #long post

787 notes · View notes

soliloquent-stark · 4 months

Text

tony's biggest fear coming true, over and over again

alternatively titled: "i watched my friends die. you'd think that'd be as bad as it gets, right? nope. wasn't the worst part." "the worst part is that you didn't."

robert downey jr as tony stark in iron man (2008), iron man 3 (2013), avengers: age of ultron (2015), and avengers: infinity war (2018)

#my gf posted her sad steve edit today so it was only fair i posted sad tony content too #gifs by soliloquent #tony my beloved #tony stark #iron man #mcu gifs #marvel #mcu #tony stark meta #iron man 1 #iron man 3 #avengers age of ultron #avengers infinity war

140 notes · View notes

florida3exclamationpoints · 3 days

Text

Steggy + textposts pt. 1/?

#this is pt 1 bc its just general #all the ones I've posted so far have had a theme #steggymonth #steggy #steve rogers #peggy carter #captain america #the first avenger #ca:tfa #agent carter #marvel #mcu #text post meme #steggy text posts #scheduling

78 notes · View notes

miss-lauryn-hill · 5 months

Text

LOKI APPRECIATION WEEK 2023 | for @dailyloki Day#1 : Favorite Loki Scene(s)

Breaking Brad || (2x02)

107 notes · View notes

ljlokijinx · 9 months

Text

The Avengers getting pardoned and returning to the Avengers Tower. Tony and Pepper are away so Peter is left to show them around.

Steve, getting out of the quinjet: Where's Stark?

Peter, dropping from the air: Good afternoon pussies, cowards and scaredy-cats my name is Spider-man and I've been doing what the US government paid for and entrusted you with while you were busy throwing a tantrum against 117 countries and then running away from all responsibility to go live with your African sugar-daddy.

Steve:

Clint, to Natasha: Wow, he didn't even fucking stutter.

#avengers funny #avengers incorrect quotes #avengers incorrect scenarios #avengers #peter parker #spiderman #tony stark #black widow #bamf peter parker #powerful peter parker #post civil war #sassy peter parker #clint barton #steve rogers #peter fucking with the Avengers since day 1

173 notes · View notes

abby118 · 2 months

Text

I know I don't talk a lot about how much I despise the series, Ragnarok, or IW, but know that's just because I don't want to give it the time of day. There are a myriad of things I disagree with and/or find downright offensive for the story as well as its characters.

It's such a shame, but it's evident that the people responsible for the "sequels" knew fuck all about the narrative they were supposed to be presenting. They ended up making shoddy remakes and I can't wrap my head around how so many people are utterly blind to it. The sheer mischaracterisation of all the characters is astounding.

They threw away years worth of highly valuable backstory and, with that, any chances of elaborating on any of the of subjects they could've addressed, just to make everybody into their miserably written comic relief. It's disgusting and shows just how little respect the new creators hold for the fanbase (and essentially, their own creations).

I applaud every single one of you who have the mental energy to write these elaborate metas pointing out what went wrong. I've got a lot to say too, but I can't bring myself to do so and acknowledge it.

I'm so grateful there are still people who understand the characters and their story, you are deeply appreciated and I love seeing you 🖤💚

(PS- in case you haven't noticed I don't hesitate to block you so called fans of the post 2013 era, so if any of you end up seeing this, stay away from my blog. You will get blocked.)

#anti loki series #anti loki show #Loki #2011-2013 Loki supremacy #anti ragnarok #anti iw #Thor 1 #The Avengers #Thor The Dark World #Loki deserves better #everybody there deserves better #the Loki trilogy #and that's what led me to write hundreds of K words of my post TDW fanfic. lore and all

39 notes · View notes

worstloki · 6 months

Text

Loki telling the Avengers he's never had a family before them all and Thor is sitting in the back of the room spitting out his coffee sobbing crying he feels sick to his stomach

#Thor like THEN WHAT AM I????#Loki like YOU'RE LIVING HERE TOO WHAT"S THE PROBLEM????#Thor like you very much had a family you have a family what was Asgard to you the past millennia and a half #Loki like um a fake family i thought we went over that when it was clear they lied to me (and you) our entire lives ?#Thor should feel sick about it actually #I don't think Thor ever Got the fact that if Loki was being disowned/separating himself from the family that includes. their parents.#i don't think he comprehended that if Loki doesn't consider them his parents anymore he wouldn't consider them his parents anymore #i think Thor just assumes it's symbolic or something or that inevitably Loki will get over it and come back btw #i think that should happen if post-Avengers 1 Loki is banished to Earth #and I think Thor should actually be upset and feel sick aobut it #i think Thor didn't understand that being lied to hurt Loki even when he watched Loki let go on the bifrost

58 notes · View notes

aceofwhump · 2 years

Text

No. 1 A LITTLE OUT OF THE ORDINARY: Unconventional Restraints

@whumptober @whumptober-archive

302 notes · View notes

technicalthinker · 5 months

Text

youtube

Loki & Mobius | Suburban Legends [+S2]

Since I uploaded it on youtube, I thought I might re-share this with that link. It took me 10 years but I have returned to my roots of MCU edits, THAT is what the Loki/Mobius dynamic did to me.

#lokius #loki #loki spoilers #marvel #mobius m mobius #loki laufeyson #i posted this as a tumblr video on my edit-blog but thought i'd share it here #IF ANY OF YA'LL OG'S REMEMBER THE AVENGERS EDITS BACK IN THE DAY #I'D ARGUE I WAS LAYING SOME FANDOM GROUNDWORK RIGHT THERE #my impact may be argued but 1. i was so damn early uh 2. mY FIRST EDIT THAT ACTUALLY GOT TRACTION WAS MARVEL SO #im hAVING A FULL CIRCLE MOMENT HERE DONT MIND ME #marvel blogging

24 notes · View notes

musclesandhammering · 4 months

Text

Friendly reminder that there’s only one multiverse in the mcu. It covers everything- Marvel, Sony, Fox, etc. Those are all universes inside the multiverse… of which there is only one :) :)

#I’m so annoyed at ppl (even like cbm YouTubers and stuff) referring to ‘all the multiverses’ etc #THERE AREN’T ‘ALL’#THERE IS ONE (1)#dsmom is called ‘THE Multiverse of Madness’#THE #as in the one singular one #and in that movie there’s everything from abstract paint worlds to alternate avengers to xmen and inhumans #the reason they only showed branch timelines that looked similar to 616 in the Loki series is because #for most of it the sacred timeline was a thing #in which the only branches that even had a chance to form were the ones that looked similar to 616 #that settles it I’m definitely doing a huge meta post explaining the multiverse in detail #that no one will read #bc yall only engage with my shitposts apparently :/#sigh #loki series #dsmom #mcu #mcu multiverse #multiverse saga

13 notes · View notes

villainousshakespeare · 2 years

Text

Therapy Fit for a God Chapter 11

Loki/OFC Rated M (may go up to E in future chapters) Trigger Warnings: Angst, talk of suicide, therapy, unhealthy family dynamics, mention of torture and mind control, touch starved

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10

Loki paced the confines of his bedroom, feeling as though he were back in his cell at the SHEILD facility. It was a more comfortable prison certainly, but he was no less trapped.

Which was completely absurd, considering that no mystical chains bound him. No lock kept him leaving his prison. No soldiers with advanced weaponry guarded him, ready to kill him upon the merest provocation. No, the sole thing keeping him penned in - in his own home! - was one very determined mortal woman, armed with nothing more than fierce determination and a demanding tongue.

He must be still suffering aftereffects of the Mind Stone, Loki decided. That was the only reason he could think of for why he had let Caroline order him around like she had.

She had met him at the tavern with a smile of satisfaction and a sled laden with packages. She had dismissed the idea of supper at the establishment, which Loki had thought an amazingly generous offer of him, considering they were fugitives from Earth's most well-equipped military force. After having a quick drink for the road, she had marched them out to trek back to the cabin. She had refused to either allow him to whisk away her purchases or even pull the overloaded sled, insisting that she was more than capable, thank you very much, and did not want him snooping through her bags.

Once back home, Loki had assumed that the ordeal of secrecy was over. Oh, had he been wrong! Caroline had peremptorily pointed towards the bedroom.

"Oh, are we retiring early," he had leered, trying to at least regain some sort of upper hand.

He didn't know why he bothered. He should have realized by now that the tactics that worked so well on every other human he encountered were of no good whatsoever used upon Caroline. She had rolled her eyes, pursed her lips, and insisted he stop trying to flirt at once. Really, for someone who purported to be interested in his self-esteem, the confounded woman did more than anyone he could think of to wound it!

"And just what do you expect me to do in there? Alone?" he had demanded, glaring at her.

"I don't know," she had retorted, glaring right back. "Perhaps you could find some way to unwind. You seem a little tense."

"And do you have any idea just how long I am in this enforced exile?" he could ignore suggestion every bit as well as she!

"I have quite a bit of work to do. I would say at least a few hours. You might try to get some rest, our event begins around midnight, if I have planned things right.

"Midnight! That is hours from now!"

"It will be later if I don't get started. The bedroom!"

Loki, much to his shock and dismay, had grumblingly walked into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. That had been hours ago! In the interim, he had heard all kinds of distressing noises. Loud banging, items being moved about, and on multiple occasions Caroline using language he would not have thought her capable of. Even Thor might have blanched at some of her more creative phrases. He had a sharp impulse to go to her aid, but he knew that he would not be greeted with the gratitude such an act should demand, and so he stayed in his room and sulked.

Eventually, as the moon rose and he became more agitated, Loki could smell a curious mixture of wood smoke and cooked meat. Oddly, it seemed to be coming not from under the door, but through the window. He had heard the kitchen door open and shut numerous times and wondered what in all the realms the mad woman could be doing. For a being who had lived for more than a century, Loki could not understand how a few measly hours could seem such an eternity.

Finally, when he was beginning to think that the Other's torture had been nothing in comparison to Carolines, a light tap on the door sounded tentatively.

"Enter," he all but yelled, ready to wrench the door open himself but determined to maintain some shred of his dignity.

Caroline opened the door with a face covered in a mixture of apprehension and excitement. She was wearing the large parka and a hat topped with a pompom and looked absolutely delightful.

"Okay, I think everything is ready," she told him, nervously shifting her weight from one foot onto the other. "Keep in mind that I only had so much to work with. I had to make substitutions, and in some cases I was only able to take a wild stab at what I thought would be right."

"Caroline, love," Loki made his voice very calm and very pleasant. "If you don't get out of the way and show me what you have done to my home, I will turn you into a bilgerat."

"I don't know what that is, but somehow I don't think I would like it," she said with a quirk of a smile.

"You would not," he agreed, taking a large step towards the door.

"Okay," she repeated, stepping aside so that he could exit, "but it's not inside your home. You have to come out back with me."

"More snowmen?" he asked, magicking on a coat and struggling to keep himself from running. "Do we now have a frozen army surrounding us?"

"Um, in a manner of speaking," she laughed nervously.

Loki shot her a look and made a bee line for the door. What had the girl done now?

Whatever he had been imagining, it was not what greeted his eyes. A large campfire had been built in the back yard, utilizing firewood from inside. A number of branches had been erected to form a frame from which hung a large kettle. The aroma that had seeped into his bedroom seemed to come from that, and he realized that he was ravenously hungry.

The cook fire was just the beginning of the site that met him, however. Three big fur pelts were laid out around the fire, and cups and bowls laid upon two of them. On the third was some sort of projector, throwing an image in his direction. Turning, Loki saw a picture was being thrown up onto the side of the cabin. Blues, silvers, purples, all in various hues and shadings, formed a kaleidoscope of stunning beauty. There was an intricate pattern to the design, and his eye could almost catch out a deeper symbolism in the way the colors danced with each other.

Caroline pulled some sort of remote from her pocket and pressed a button on it, and a wall of music filled the night. The voices were low, below basso even, and melded together to suggest something deep and primal. It was a perfect counterpoint he realized to the light, outward searching pattern on the wall.

"What have you done?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"Mal tvir sign Konungr," her attempt at the old tongue was garbled, but endearingly so. "Welcome to your feast, Prince Loki."

Loki stared at her in confused disbelief. What was this? His confusion must have shown on his face, for Caroline took his hand and led him down to the furs. She sat on one, and then gestured impatiently for him to take the other.

"Caroline, what is all of this?" he asked carefully, not wanting to offend her when she had obviously gone to a huge amount of effort.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

"I can hardly tell. The design on the cabin is breathtaking," he grasped at the first thing to truly take his breath away.

"That was what took most of my time today," she told him. "It would have been much easier with the internet. I took a photograph of the design, and then had the man in the art store turn it into a slide. There are a few others, but this was my favorite."

"It is beautiful," he agreed.

"I'm glad you like it, because getting it made so quickly was not cheap," she laughed. "Still, I wasn't sure when you would agree to go back, so I wanted it done today. I can be quite persuasive when I choose to be."

"I've noticed. There is an almost crystalline symmetry to it, while the colors also manage to evoke movement."

"It was originally painted onto snow, which accounts for some of the crystal pattern you are seeing," she sounded pleased.

"And the music?"

Caroline pulled a face and looked a bit guilty.

"There I had to use complete conjecture. This is a tape of monks chanting, throat singing they call it. Imagine voices like these, low and sonorous, but echoing off the walls of caves and underground lakes."

Loki could imagine it. The sound would be even deeper and more mysterious. He wished that he could hear it, but the song that Caroline had provided was itself somehow profound. He glanced over, still confused, and saw that she was taking a long pull from her cup. Following her lead, he lifted his own glass and took a swallow. The drink was fruity, but not overly sweet. Some sort of liquor gave it a fortifying base that sent a warmth through his body.

"Delicious."

"Another approximation on my part," she admitted. "But I think I have it about right, at least from my understanding of what I read."

"What you read where?" he was truly baffled.

"In the book you suggested."

"What book? I don't remember giving you something to read."

"When we were discussing Jotuns the other night. You suggested I read about them, so I did. The book on alien species was remarkably informative. This, everything around you, is based on a traditional Jotun victory feast."

Loki stared at her, a myriad of emotions vying for prominence within him. His first, bitter instinct was to reject it all instantly and storm inside in anger. He could feel himself begin to rise, and only barely managed restrain the impulse. It was the look on Caroline's face, hopeful and afraid at once, that kept him seated.

"Explain," he said as calmly as he could.

"The picture that you like so much, it was done by a Jotun artist named Alvtra. She was an artist of some renowned about five hundred years ago. She used dyes from the berries that grown underground in their mountain caves to stain the hard packed snow that covers the cliff sides. This one, I believe, represents ascension into the heavens after death. There were quite a few examples of her work, but as I said this was my favorite."

"A Frost Giant made this?" he asked, trying to get his mind around it.

"It is only one of their art forms, if the most celebrated. They also weave beautiful tapestries from the wool of some animal that roams Jotunheimen. I didn't quite have time to replicate that. The singing is the Midgard equivalent of the chanting of their priests. They have extensive singing, both for rites and for entertainment. It is mostly them males that perform in gatherings, as lower voices are considered the pinnacle of the art, but females will sing amongst themselves, or to pass the time."

"They sing?" his brain seemed to be malfunctioning, as he could only manage the stupidest questions.

"They do. In fact, the book even mentioned that Jotun women sometimes have been known to choose a mate solely on his musical ability. Tell me Loki, do you sing?"

"From time to time," he answered honestly, barely catching the lame teasing she attempted. "Why Caroline? This must have taken hours of work. In fact, I know it did, I could hear you for most of it. Why did you do this?"

"I wanted you to see that, even if you are half or even all Frost Giant, that doesn't have to be a bad thing. There is beauty in the Jotun world if you bother to look for it, just as there is in Asgard or Earth, or anywhere else. You don't have to let the prejudice of where you grew up blind you to that. I'm not saying that Frost Giants are all good, but nor are they all bad. They are what we all are - a messy mixture of the two."

"You did this for me?" he stared from the projection to the fire to the woman sitting on the opposite fur, looking tiny and vulnerable in her giant coat.

"I wanted you to see the beauty in your ancestry, so that you could see the beauty in yourself that I see."

Loki stared at her for a moment more, and then leaned forward and kissed her.

***

She could not remember ever being so nervous in her life. Whenever Caroline got an idea, it inevitably took over her brain until she had to act on it. When she read the information on Frost Giants, she had realized instantly that Loki would never have read it. If he had, it was probably because some pedantic teacher in his past had made them do so, only to scoff it off as Jotun propaganda.

She had dearly wanted to make him look deeper, to make him think beyond the slogans that had been fed to him as child and see what the other side might hold. Perhaps, if she could get him to see that the species were not mindless, soulless beasts, he might begin to see his own worth.

The pictures of the art on the snow cliff walls had been her first idea. She had hoped that she might have a reproduction made full size, or at least wall sized, that she might gift to Loki for his home. His resistance to internet had thwarted this idea, and though she had understood his caution, it had made things more difficult.

Putting on her problem-solving hat, she had come up with the idea of the projection. When she finally got Loki to provide her a list of stores, and amazingly there was an art shop included, she had gotten her first sense of victory.

The feast idea had come next. There had not been a ton to do since they had arrived wherever in remote Scandinavia Loki had absconded with her, but they had each managed to make a decent meal for each other. It was such fundamental welcoming part of every society that she knew of it just made sense that the Jotuns would have some version of it.

Going back to the book, she had found that they did indeed have a traditional feast that was described in some detail. After a successful hunt or battle, the Frost Giants would celebrate with a midnight feast held under the stars. She didn't know what the animal they ate actually tasted like, but in the picture, it looked remarkably like a moose. She had never cooked moose before, but the man in the butcher shop had been very helpful with suggestions for spices and vegetables to pair with it. The traditional drink had been more up her alley, mixing berries with a rich port like wine.

The final touch had been when she found the cd of the Tibetan throat singers at the counter in the artist's shop. There was nowhere in town that sold a cd player, but the art shop owner had seen the amount of money she had shelled out for the slides and helpfully offered to sell her his own old cd player for an exorbitant amount of money. Considering she had an actual prince footing the bill, she decided to go for it.

The work in setting it all up had been good, since it kept her too busy to think. She was terrified, once she succeeded in pestering Loki into taking her and then lugging it all back to the cabin again. Now that the challenge of all that was over, what if he hated it? What if sent him spiraling back into another suicidal downturn? Nothing in her professional training had prepared her for dealing with alien races, and she was going far beyond her usual methods of therapy.

Truth be told, she had long since stopped thinking Loki as a patient. He was so more than that to her, not that patients were unimportant. He had become a friend, a remarkably close friend in a shockingly short space of time. Caroline had always been a woman who trusted her instincts, and her instincts told her that Loki was someone she wanted, perhaps even needed in her life. He made her feel more alive than she had realized she could feel. She just wanted to give him some of that back.

And so, when he stepped out the back door and saw her handiwork, she had been filled with panic. What if he hated it? What if he sent her away? Back to SHIELD perhaps. She had no more than a vague idea of where they were, she could hardly lead his enemies here before he could jump to another location, perhaps one in another galaxy. If not that, he could just hop somewhere else himself, leaving her in the relative safety of their present location to fend for herself. He had made it clear that he did not want to discuss his Jotun heritage, and here she was rubbing his face in it.

His reaction to the art had been heartening. She tried to draw it out of him, wanting him to comit to appreciating it before telling him its origins. She thought that she was succeeding, he certainly seemed taken to it. The music was a bit less of a sure thing, but he also appeared to like the wine.

But eventually, the truth had to be told, otherwise what was the purpose to the whole endeavor? She saw him start to rise when she admitted the whole, and for a moment thought her worst fears were about to be realized. She had stepped too far, pushed him too hard too fast. When he had remained to question her further, she had known a moment of pure joy.

Or at least, she had thought that was joy. It certainly seemed so at the time. He was there still, what more could she possibly want? A question that was answered only moments later, when Loki leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.

She had imagined it countless times. How he would taste, if he would be playful or passionate. She had never imagined he would be tentative. A brief moment his lips met hers, and then he was pulling back, eyes full of uncertainty.

"I am sorry, Caroline," he said, worry clouding his velvet voice. "I did not mean to presume, to trespass. If you prefer, I can move to the other side of the fire."

Caroline's eyes widened at the deference in this God as he anxiously played with his hand. Emotion welled within her, almost too much to contain inside. Reaching out, as she had yearned to do so many times before, she curled her fingers into his long hair, darker than the sky above them, and brought his head back to hers.

This time the kiss held no hesitation. After a startled half beat, Loki gave a soft gasp and reached out to pull her into him. His tongue swiped across the seam of her lips, and she opened her mouth to him, letting out small mewling sound as he dipped within. As she kissed him back, following his lead by beginning to explore him with her own tongue, Caroline felt Loki lay her back, joining her to lie on the soft pelts she had bought at the supply store.

Her coat was open somehow, he must have worked the zipper while she was distracted with his kisses, and Loki's hand, large and strong, was mapping out her body, filling her with more than enough warmth to make up for the increased exposure. His kisses moved away from her mouth, causing her some disappointment, until she felt them trail down her neck and back up again, making her shiver with something other than cold.

"My darling, dearest Caroline," he whispered hoarsely in her ear. "I do not deserve you."

"You do," she said, shaking her head as much as she could while he nibbled at her neck. "Loki, you deserve so much."

"Say that I might have you, and I will be satisfied for now," he chuckled.

"You... you may," she panted out, feeling desire pool in her core. "I want you so much."

"Excellent," he smiled, kissing her lips once more deeply before sitting back up.

"Loki?" she asked uncertainly, terrified for a moment that this had all been some cruel form of revenge.

"Eat up, darling," he smiled at her with a wink, ladling some of the moose stew into her bowl. "You will be needing all of your strength soon."

"But..."

"Yes?"

"The food could wait," she suggested, reddening at her own desperation.

"Oh no, my dearest. Not when you went to so much trouble. Besides, you made me wait for quite some time this evening. I believe it is my turn."

Caroline made a choking sound as looked at his evil, mischievous grin.

"Don't worry," he whispered, leaning close and chewing a bit on her ear, "I promise, I will make it worth the wait for both of us."

#Loki #Loki/ofc #Therapy #Loki fanfic #Romance #slow burn #loki needs a hug #loki gets a hug!#and maybe more...#mention of past abuse #story contains mention of abuse and torture #post Avengers 1 #on the run #friends to lovers #eventual smut #jotunheimen #Therapist/patient relationship

93 notes · View notes

martianbugsbunny · 6 months

Note

Personally i doubt thor knows loki loves him

U know what I'm gonna take the challenge on this one. Now, this post will only discuss their relationship in the movies before Ragnarok, because I don't really like that movie and I think it did a great disservice to both the characters and their relationship; the brightest and best of them comes from Thor, Avengers, and Dark World in my opinion, so I will be talking about what I love rather than what I have at best apathy for. Sticking it under the cut (it got looooong because I love to think about their dynamic), so if you want my opinion, read on, and if you've seen enough opinions for a lifetime and don't want any more, scrumble away and have a lovely day

Okay so let's start with Thor. In the beginning of that movie, there is absolutely no doubt in Thor's heart that Loki loves him, and here's why: Thor is an arrogant man who is largely blind to the things he doesn't agree with or understand. He has this mentality of other people just being made to love and adore him, because he's the future warrior king of Asgard, he's the golden boy, and because Asgard's people really do love and adore him, so his arrogance is only being confirmed by other people's actions. And of course, there's nobody who should love and adore Thor more than his brother, right?

Now, here's where I want to digress for a minute to talk about how incredibly unhealthy their relationship is. Thor kind of has the same outlook that Loki expresses in Avengers, that people are beneath him, and that's why they should all be looking up to him with awe and praise, and that extends even to his own brother. He tells Loki to mind his place and kind of brushes off his advice, because even though they're brothers and that's the closest anyone could get to being his equal, it's still not enough. Thor views Loki as another person who is beneath him, but who ultimately can't do anything but look up to him and love him.

This is an illusion.

Loki does love Thor. Their relationship, with how complicated and messy it is, only works if they truly love each other, and they do. But it's not the blind, adulating love that Thor expects. It's a jealous, aching love. Loki craves being equal to Thor, a problem that's only exacerbated by the way Thor denies him that position. He craves to be loved as he's assumed to love. And the problem with a love like that is how quickly it can turn. If Thor won't give Loki the affection he needs, then Loki isn't going to show Thor affection the way Thor wants him to, either.

That first movie is in multiple ways a brutal awakening for Thor. He's not the man his father wants him to be. His entire life he's been training to be king and then that future seems like it's been ripped away from him. He has his power and then it's all gone. And his brother, this person around whom he's constructed a narrative of almost reverent adoration, suddenly turns against him, tries to keep him in exile and then to kill him, tries to take the life that was promised to Thor. That looks absolutely nothing like the love Thor has believed Loki feels for him.

I would feel some doubt at that point. I think anyone would. My sibling tried to kill me. Does he still love me? Did he ever love me?

And to add to that natural doubt, Thor doesn't understand Loki. He never really has. He doesn't know what it's like to be, as Loki says later, living in the shade of someone else's greatness, the trickster brother who's never really trusted, let alone lauded. And correct me if I'm wrong, but even by the end of Thor, he doesn't know what really tipped Loki off the deep end. He doesn't know that Loki's just found out he's a Jotun in a land of Asgardians, that he's the very thing he's been brought up to hate and fear, so Thor doesn't understand why Loki is acting so erratically, which must compound the doubt for him. From his point of view it's like a light switch flicked and now Loki's trying to kill him, which increases the did he ever? question. Was it always a facade? And I don't think Thor ever quite realizes the illusion he built around Loki, the difference between his expectations and reality to begin with, so he also wouldn't be seeing that it's not quite instantaneous, that there were years of building resentment and longing that contributed to the tipping point of Loki's changed behavior.

So by the end of Thor, yes, he's got to be wondering if Loki loved him.

But when Thor appears in Avengers, do you remember what plea he makes? He says I grieved for you, I want you to come home. That's not the kind of thing you say to someone you think doesn't care about you. That's a plea to the heart. That's Thor trying to get to the love he knows is in there somewhere, behind everything else that's built up around Loki's heart; that's Thor saying I know you still love me, I don't know what changed, but please let our bond be enough to fix it. Whatever he's been thinking about between the events of those two movies, he's moved past that doubt enough to think maybe Loki's love for him will be enough to bring him home, even if some part of him expects Loki to say no anyway. We know that in the interim he learned of Loki's status as a Jotun, so maybe Thor's even begun to try to understand. Maybe he's been thinking about the fact that life got very hard and very confusing for Loki very suddenly, and he wonders if now that some time has passed, there's a chance Loki wants to come back and work through it with him and their parents. When he says "we were raised together, we played together, we fought together," he's not just trying to convince Loki that he's loved, he's trying to remind Loki of his own love.

Again, during the Battle of New York itself, Thor makes a similar plea. He offers that he and Loki stop the fight together, and his eyes are so incredibly soft when he says it, you know he believes it can still work. That belief comes from knowing there's something in Loki that wants to say yes, something that loves Thor enough to give up his dream of kingdom and stop the invasion. His use of together is interesting not just because he's offering Loki a way out, putting it on the table that Loki can exercise his heart and choose a better path, but also because he's finally putting Loki on the same level he is. We can do this, we can return home, you just have to find some part of you that loves me enough to choose equality with me in this fight over equality with me in having thrones. He also holds back when he's dueling Loki, which is a horrible idea if you actually believe a person has the capacity to kill you, but if you don't believe that, it's an ultimate show of trust. Thor kind of puts his life in Loki's hands by not using his full strength, and only after Loki rejects his offer and stabs him does he finally use more brute force, although it's still not enough to kill Loki or even knock him out. Thor really believes, not just wants to believe, that Loki will not kill him given the chance, that there is something in him that wants to go home, and it's all because Thor, after all his shattered illusions, still believes there is love for him in Loki's heart, even if it has been touched and twisted by anger and pain.

In Dark World, Thor is much more pessimistic when he breaks Loki out of jail. He basically says that his brother is no longer in there, that he won't hesitate to kill Loki if he steps out of line. I think this is important to note because Thor isn't saying I don't believe you love me anymore, he's saying the person who loved me is dead and this shell is all that remains. Thor says he no longer has hope, but he's still clinging to that belief that Loki did love him, in his own way, and he would rather view Loki as dead than let go of it.

But beyond that, there's the fact that he not only lets Loki out of the handcuffs, he gives Loki a knife. Once again, you don't give a weapon to someone you wouldn't trust not to kill you, and you don't trust someone you've had so much tension with not to kill you unless you believe they love you. Loki says "trust my rage" re: Frigga being killed, but I would argue that actually wouldn't go in his favor. Thor has seen what Loki resorts to when he's not processing his emotions in any way other than rage: he attacks Thor, he falls into perfidy, he just lashes out at the closest target. And even despite that, despite having fought Loki in Thor and in Avengers, having witnessed firsthand what destruction Loki was willing to either cause or help facilitate, Thor still gives him a weapon and trusts that Loki isn't going to kill him. There is clearly still a part of Thor that is saying he loves me, he's not going to kill me.

Of course, by the end of that movie, Thor is rewarded in his faith. Loki stabs Kurse to save Thor, and it appears to cost him his life, and as he's dying, what does Thor say? Stay with me. In essence, loving me so much you'll die for me isn't enough, love me so much you'll stay alive for me. It's not a rational thing to say to someone who appears to be bleeding out; a person can't generally stave off death on willpower alone when they've been stabbed in the gut. Thor always ends up speaking to Loki's heart, because he knows that heart is bitter and full of rage and grief but also love, even though Loki is absolutely horrible at expressing it most of the time. I want to talk about why Loki might've faked his death and taken Odin's place at the end of that movie in another post, but part of me really thinks he chose that specific way to fake his death because he wanted Thor to see that Loki did love him, and that was the only way he could think of to reach out without actually having to confront his own pain and the enormity of the breach between them. Now, the "I didn't do it for him" could be taken one of two ways: it was actually for Frigga, or it was actually for Thor. I'm very much inclined to believe the latter, as Thor is the one present in the scene. Also, the expression on Thor's face when Loki says that is so frozen, like yes, I wanted more than anything to be told that you still care, but not like this. And it feels like Loki is doing his best to communicate that he does love Thor, but his communication skills, especially with Thor, are severely distorted, partially by that unhealthy relationship they had early on where he most likely never felt entirely welcome to speak his true feelings, and partially by the chasm that opened between them when Loki went into his downward spiral of destruction, both of himself and of others. I genuinely think Loki doesn't know how to just say it. To quote myself from an earlier post I made about Loki, he feels like "there’s no way he can possibly repair the relationships he’s broken," so he doesn't try to apologize and make up for it. Like someone else (I forget who) has already said, sacrifice is the way Loki makes up for things. So he gives Thor this image of a sacrifice, the ultimate expression of love and devotion, because he doesn't know how else to say it.

What's the point of all this? Thor knew Loki loved him. That's the whole point of their story. Their love for each other is the cornerstone on which that immense cosmic narrative is built. Even with doubt, anger, bitterness, frustration, grief, pain all complicating their relationship and getting in the way of actually expressing love to each other, the fundamental truth of Thor and Loki is love. Is faith. Is hope. Is saying maybe you don't know how to say it, maybe you're trying to shut it down, but I know there is something in you that loves me and that's the part I choose to believe in.

Thor knew Loki loved him.

19 notes · View notes