#he’s served more punishment than many ‘heroes’ combined for actions not half as bad as what they’d done

[worstloki]

people worry or disagree with how the writers describe loki but in a way they not wrong as loki could be seen as pompous he literally went to earth and told people to kneel before him and called hulk a dull creature before uttering i am a god and his line i am loki and i am burdened with glorious purpose like sorry to burst your bubble, but that is clearly a pompus attitude. loki practically thinks his better than people on earth and they should kneel before him because his a god and better than a dull creature the hulk, i like loki but some of his fans are blind to his flaws also loki is an ass, i don't see how it wrong to call him that. like what are we going to call him? a sweetheart/angel for killing people? and trying to rule earth? etc like loki himself says his bit of both, good and bad. his not a saint. no offense but some loki fans need to stop wrapping him into cotton wool and accept/acknowledge his not a saint/his flaws after all his called the god of mischief for a reason.

I wouldn’t call him any more pompous for killing people, no, and he literally is a god, even if it’s only as a title (but remember how Hela and Thor were raving on about that in Ragnarok?), so I’m not seeing any real arguments for Loki being those things or an @$$ other than “boo hoo Loki killed people.”

It ain’t news that he’s done good and bad things, though feel free to expand on how that’s an argument in favour of kept characterisation when Loki’s expressed through words and action that he doesn’t want a throne, sees other races more equally than other Asgardians, and is ridiculously sentimental and selfless even when it comes to hatred. He’s also proven he holds jealousy towards Thor though that only lasted through Thor 1, resentment towards being treated lesser and betrayed, and a trademark stubbornness for the idea he deserves to be treated at least equally to others, which was exemplified and at its extreme in Avengers 1.

None of this is to say he hasn’t killed or lied/tricked people, but even if we for a moment pretend Loki wasn’t being tortured or wasn’t influenced by the mind stone his behaviour and personality still doesn’t line up (in what we’ve seen so far). This opinion will vary, and we’ve only seen clips so far, but please refrain from insisting that Loki is an @$$ with the proof that the character or another says he’s a bit of both.

Frankly how the writer describes the character is especially concerning because that’s the one way I’ve seen him describe him. “A pompous @$$” doesn’t show that he’s understood the character completely, only that he’s chalked up the Avengers 1 attitude to arrogance alone, but, I also don’t expect an interview to demonstrate the whole of his thoughts, which I think is reasonable.

Maybe sit down and read some decent meta before deciding he’s being cotton wrapped for being flawed and that people aren’t already aware of this stuff because the “fans are blind but I’m right bc I agree with canon” attitude isn’t very good. It’s okay to be critical of the media you consume and have different interpretations of things, or even the same, but all you’ve done here is shown you haven’t paid attention to and are still insisting on invalidating another view.

If you think that’s an accurate description of the character then that’s wonderful for you! Now try not to make fun of people who may not be in awe of the same words, especially if they provide decent reason to be apprehensive of them.

#anon #I’m too tired for this right now #Loki might not be a saint for killing but people are allowed to call him one for lasting a millennia on Asgard with the way he was treated #or for putting maybe 2% effort into the attack and 40% into monologuing away clues to his plan for the invasion #or if we’re going further forward than the past two movies #for not betraying Thor and risking the universe in TDW #for showing up with the statesman in Ragnarok after Thor left him convulsing indefinitely on the ground on sakaar #for not taking advantage of Asgard or bring its downfall while ruling as Odin #you’re allowed to think Loki’s an @$$ but you don’t get to tell others that they should too #especially not with whatever trash argument ‘should we call him an angel for killing people?’ is #you know what? maybe I will call him an Angel for that #the death toll of the invasion wasn’t even 80 and he stalled Thanos by YEARS singlehandedly and took 3 stones out of his reach #he then takes the prison sentence he gets and sticks to it till broken out #he’s served more punishment than many ‘heroes’ combined for actions not half as bad as what they’d done #maybe Loki’s an angel and anon is the @$$? #who is to say? #not me because I am by far too tired for this #blanket warm #whatever this ask is meant to be...... not warm #‘Loki thinks himself above the dull creature of the hulk and the humans who wouldn’t survive being thrown around by him’ yeah no sh*t #it’s a good think Thor for example doesn’t exhibit similar traits despite his ‘redemption’ in Thor 1 🙄 #imagine thinking that ‘characters have flaws’ is an argument when someone says a character is feeling ooc to them #anon no really I insist the only thing about Loki that is flawed is the deterioration of his eyebrows after Thor 1 #it does seem you’ll enjoy the show though so that’s good for you #I agree critical thinking off is a way to enjoy it too! #the Loki show #Loki spoilers #Loki show spoilers #‘wrapping him in cotton’ just made me think about Asgardian bathroom habits again #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA show comes out today!!!!

[notesfromthepen]

Killers and Monsters...and Regular People Everywhere

Killers and Monsters...and Regular People Everywhere

I like to think of myself as a realist. Never will you hear me say that there is no need for prisons, that no one should be incarcerated. Without question, there are individuals whose freedom is detrimental to the functioning of a safe and healthy society, who, once arrested, cannot be safely released back into society. Though the percentage of these hopeless cases are far more rare than some would have you believe.

There are arguments to be made—not necessarily by me—about where these people belong, and what the purpose their incarceration is to serve, whether it is about punishment or rehabilitation, or some combination of the two. I'm not here to tackle these issues today. What I aim to do, is much simpler. As with most of my writings, I aim to reveal a better vantage point on a reality, a more complete truth (as much as is possible when coming from the perspective of a flawed human being) and to dispel myths and misinformation through the knowledge gained of personal experience. 

This piece is titled Killers and Monsters because being in prison has shown me that there is a difference between the two, and it's a difference that needs to be shouted to the masses...or at least needs to be made more clearly to those willing to listen.

Rarely are complex issues laid out in plain black and white. If they were, they wouldn't be very complex. Admittedly, it would be much easier if everyone in prison were actual monsters, if the nature of the crime matched the person who'd committed it and you could identify a bad guy by simple appearance. Unfortunately, life isn't a Steven Segal movie. No, real life is much more nuanced. Get close enough and you will see that crime and punishment is a picture, much too intricate, to be painted in simple black and whites.

The illusion that our prisons are full of boogie men, blood-thirsty killers, and heartless drug lords, allows us the comfort of sleeping sound at night while nearly two million of our brothers and sisters rot in prison. (America has the highest incarceration rate in the world: 5% of the worlds population yet 25% of the world's prisoners). This painting of inmates, as maniacal killers and evil degenerates who deserved to be locked away, is a masterful propaganda technique used to manipulate a population into supporting the injustices of a system that will eventually, directly or indirectly, oppress the same population it relies on for survival. It would be death for the status quo if these incarcerated men and women were not looked upon as villains, but were thought of as they actually are: our brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. It's easy to subjugate the "other," much more difficult to oppress someone you know or can relate to.

Would it surprise you to hear that you could not, with any degree of accuracy above random chance, guess the crimes of the inmates in prison based on their appearance alone? (Other than child molesters, they seem to be more susceptible to superficial giveaways of their criminal proclivities, such as appearance and demeanor.)

Maybe, maybe not.

Would it surprise you if I said that you could not increase your chances of guessing correctly, even after observing the inmates for extended periods of time? Or even if you were allowed comprehensive conversations (excluding direct questioning about their actual crimes) with an inmate, would you be able to accurately predict the nature of their offense?

Growing up, I had an idea of what a murderer would look like. I was raised in the 80s when our pop culture had clearly defined, however unrealistic, depictions of heroes and villains. So I grew up thinking, for the most part, you could tell what a killer looks like, what a thief or drug dealer acts like (most of them wore black clothes, had scars on their faces, shifty eyes, and a snarl.) When I was younger I used to wonder if anyone I knew had ever killed another person. It was a reoccurring thought that would usually end with the false assumption that, "of course not, I'd know if someone was a killer." But how would I have known? By their shifty eyes?

After coming to prison I realized how wrong I was. It is both inspiring and terrifying, the moment you realize how unreliable our beliefs can be. 

In prison you generally only ask about another inmates case under certain circumstances. 1: If you are bunkies, and 2: If you are a fellow gang member...and that's about it. In both cases it's to ensure that you're not living or associating with a child molester or a rat.

It's definitely not an icebreaker; you don't just come out and ask. Nearly all of the interactions in prison are with people that you know nothing about, or knew nothing about initially. It's only after time, after a level of trust and comfort is established, that you learn about someone's case. In a way it's kind of beautiful; there is less to be prejudice about; it's only after you've become close with somebody that you learn about the worst moment of their life, of the worst act they've committed. By then there's a context, a face and a story to the person who committed the crime. Too bad life isn't like this. We should get to know someone first, judge them on their personality and nature before we judge them on their past.

It's easy to hold onto idealistic beliefs when you keep your distance from the reality. It's easier to hate black people when you've never known, really known, a black person...etc.

I've watched shows like Date Line and 20/20 and gotten all worked up about the senseless and brutal murder of a helpless woman or an innocent child and thought things like: if you willingly take another persons life you should be put to death, or at least you should never, ever, get out of prison. This was just more belief at a distance, based on nothing but reactionary emotion, uninformed, safe from scrutiny, belief. It was ignorant. I'd never known anyone who had killed someone, or anyone who'd had a family member killed.

But the salacious crime stories, meant to play on fear and intrigue, are often the only ones that get told. So it’s easy to see the fault line that these beliefs rise from.

Over the last few years I've learned that the wall we imagine separating us, the free citizens from the degenerate criminals, is much thinner than you think. Often it's only a stroke of bad-luck, a moment of impulse-control between us.

Don't agree?

If you have ever drank more than a beer and found yourself getting behind the wheel of a vehicle without waiting at least an hour to drive, you could be right here in the bunk next to me.

My two time bunkie/best friend is in here for vehicular manslaughter in which he blew a .09 blood alcohol level (just .01 over the legal limit, roughly half a beer) The person driving the other car involved in the accident was also intoxicated, much more so than him but, because the guy died and my friend lived, he was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 13 years in prison, on his 1st prison sentence. And make no mistake, there are plenty of people in here for similar cases. A sixteen year old, who thought he was giving a friend a ride to steal a twenty dollar bag of weed, finds out that his friend killed somebody in the house while he waited in the car and is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Thrown away for a stupid teenage mistake.

The point is, we're not all monsters. By my—completely unscientific but nonetheless reliable—calculations, the percentage of monsters, assholes, douchebags, slime balls, lazy fucks, hard workers, generous, ingenious, lucky, funny, genuine, unlucky, selfish and selfless men in the prison system is the exact same as it is in anywhere else in the free world.

The two main differences seem to be upbringing and luck but, surprisingly, not their nature. Without going into a series of examples I'd ask you to trust me when I say that there are people who've committed murder, the most serious of crimes, that I'd trust with my life, and that my mind would be blown if I found out that they'd stole a candy bar after they were released.

But they're almost never the ones we hear about. It's always the escaped convict who kills someone that makes the news, or the inmate who rapes someone after their parole. In these cases, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy; truly reformed inmates rarely ever attempt to escape prison, and they certainly don't hurt people if they do, so you're never gonna hear about them. And there IS no salacious story to be told about the inmates who are successfully released. This is why we only ever hear about the terrifying minority. But this inaccurate exposure leads to the false narrative of prison being populated by blood thirsty monsters.

You never hear about people like another one of my bunkies: One of the best people I've known in my entire life is in here for killing someone eighteen years ago in an act of perceived self-defense. He understands his crime, and himself, in a deep and profound way that many of us will never know. He fully accepts the responsibility of his action and the pain it's caused and it breaks his heart. And after living with it for all these years, he admits that, though he may have felt threatened, he could've, should've, handled it differently. And not because he got thrown in prison for it but because he took someone's life. Trust me, it is the most sobering act you can commit. And though I didn't know him eighteen years ago, in the years that I have known him, it's hard to imagine him hurting anyone. He's a funny, generous, thoughtful person who does anything he can to help other people with no expectation of personal gain. You might think you’d be able to bullshit the parole board for fifteen minutes, but I've lived with this man 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 2 years straight. It is not bullshit.

This is just one example of many, since I've come to prison, that has shown me how easy it is to think about crime and punishment from a distance, and how wrong I was about my opinions. People make mistakes, some really stupid and hurtful mistakes, but some really change, and everyone deserves that chance.

Let's be honest, there ARE “monsters” in here: child rapists and baby killers, sociopaths, remorseless murderers, and heinous heartless criminals, but they are an unequivocally small minority. During the six years I've been in prison, in the three joints I've been to, from maximum to minimum security facilities, I've run across maybe a handful of, what most would consider, "evil" people beyond rehabilitation. Many inmates are ignorant, impulsive, immature, and emotionally stunted, but very few are actually bad people. And unfortunately this place does almost nothing to help them get better.

It's so easy to throw monsters away, it's easy to turn your back on people you think, because they're in prison, must deserve whatever their punishment is. But the reality is you're throwing away your brothers and sisters, you're turning your back on your neighbors and friends, and you're wrong about who it is behind these walls. 

I'm ashamed that it took me coming here to realize just how wrong I was, how naive I was, how willfully ignorant my beliefs were. I can only hope that it doesn't take an up close experience like mine for you to take a second look at some of your untested beliefs.

Because it's never so black and white as to think the fence separating prison and the free world has nothing but monsters and killers on one side and regular people on the other.

This picture here calls for more color.