#loki still has a special place in my heart. from a simpler time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

anxiousstark · 5 years

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緣分 ⎪Yuanfen {4}

Pairing: Tony Stark x Reader.

Summary: A relationship by fate or destiny; the blinding force of two people. But it is more difficult than that.

Warnings: None.

Word Count: 1799.

A/N: THIS HAS SCENES FROM THE AVENGERS! IT WILL FOLLOW SOME THINGS BUT NOT ALL OF THEM!

IMPORTANT: Tony Stark is 45 years old in this story and the reader is 28.

It had been about two months since Y/N arrived at Stark Tower. Her relationship with everyone had improved, except with Clint. She could feel him, sending her looks of disgust from the other side of the room where they were.

But, in general, the relationship with others had improved. Thor was really sweet and always looked out for her. With Bruce, she didn't talk much because he was a little quiet and she was quite shy. But there were times when Banner could not help but talk enthusiastically about his experiments and knowledge, and Y/N wasn't bothered by it because she saw how much he enjoyed it.

Steve was really sweet to her, and even though they didn't talk much, Steve seemed to know when Y/N wasn't feeling well. So it had become a habit for Steve to raise her head and smile at her, letting her know that everything was fine.

However, Natasha had become her best friend inside the tower and she was also the person who she spoke the most with when they were both alone.

And finally, Tony. Tony Stark. Y/N didn't know how to feel about Tony. Sometimes, she felt a pain in her chest that seemed to leave her breathless and she couldn't tell what kind of feeling it was. It seemed like a bitter feeling because it hurt, but at the same time, it seemed like a feeling of comfort, protection and well-being.

They were all in the living room or the kitchen. Each one doing his things silently so as not to disturb Tony who seemed to read some papers. But that concentration was interrupted by JARVIS. “Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overwritten.”

Tony took out of his trousers what seemed to be a really advanced and modern phone. The face of a man that Y/N didn’t know came out. “Stark, we need to talk.”

Tony rolled his eyes and looked at Y/N, he winked at her and then answered the man. “You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message.”

She tried to hide her smile. But then, she was surprised when the door of the elevator opened showing a man. He was short and he was wearing a suit. And seemed annoyed at Tony. “Stop joking. This is urgent.” He walked toward Tony and handed him some papers. He sighed, grabbing them and going over them quickly.

“Loki?” He read aloud and Y/N noticed how everyone sighed except Thor, who seemed to be nervous while biting his lower lip. “Who is Loki?”

“According to mythology.” Bruce decided to speak aloud and everyone’s attention went to him. “Loki was taken care of by Odin, who killed his giant father. It is believed he felt guilty for a second and decided to bring Loki back home where his wife and son waited. His son is Thor.”

“He is my brother.” Thor whispered, but it seemed like Y/N was the only one who heard him.

“He stole the Tessaract.” That man who Y/N learnt his name was Phil spoke.

An alarm began to sound, making everyone cover their ears because of how loud was the sound. "Stark, what's wrong?" Natasha asked, closing her eyes because of the pain she was beginning to feel in her ears.

Large screens appeared in front of Stark and images of Loki appeared on the screen. Y/N felt a great pain in her chest when she saw Loki. Those clothes, that helmet, that face and those cold eyes, trying to hide true feelings... She had seen him before.

Steve got up from the couch. "Avengers, it's time to go." Everyone started to move.

Y/N was confused, she knew what they were doing, but she had never seen them in action. Her gaze remained on Tony, who already wore the suit except for the face part. He realized that she was looking at him and he walked toward her "Stay here."

"What?" She didn't want to stay in the tower, but she also knew that she could not do anything to help. She had been training with Steve for the last two months in case something happened. But she did not have a shield or super strength or a suit or things like that. What she did would not help anyone. But still, she did not want to feel stupid, waiting in the tower for them to come back.

"We'll need someone to stay out with people to reassure them and not putting them in danger, if the Avengers are busy with Loki, someone else will have to help, right?" Phil decided to talk. He had been watching both of them and after saying those words he noticed how Tony looked at him pissed off.

But Stark could not say 'no' because she was looking at him with a special glow in her eyes. "Ugh, okay, go with Natasha and Clint, they'll take you." Tony ran to the balcony and using his hands and feet, disappeared into the dark sky.

When everyone arrived where Loki was, the first image they saw was that of thousands of people running out of the building and him walking slowly, following them. Golden light illuminated his body. His suit showing up.

He multiplied himself and appeared in different places, stopping people from running away and he repeated multiple times for them to kneel before him. “NOOOOW!” He screamed and everyone knelt down. They were terrified and you could see that on their faces.

Due to that gesture, Loki embraced his arms out, smiling. “Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation.” He walked slowly among the people who didn’t even dare to look at him. “The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

An old man got up from the crowd and Y/N’s heart started to beat rapidly, asking herself when will the others act against Loki. “Not to men like you.”

Loki smirked, but you could see the rage on that smirk. “There are no men like me.”

“There are always men like you.” The man decided to speak again. And after something she didn’t hear, the Tessaract started to form a blue light.

That is when she felt Steve move from her side and in seconds, he was kneeling before the old man, protecting him with his shield. The power of the Tessaract bounced off the captain's shield, hitting Loki and knocking him to the ground.

A conversation between both of them occurred, but she couldn’t listen to it from where she was hiding. Then, Natasha appeared in the Quinjet, taking out a machine gun. “Loki, drop the weapon and stand down.” Her voice seemed robotic due to the microphone of the Quinjet.

But Loki wasn’t going to listen and he started fighting against Steve. For a moment it seemed like Steve was going to lose as he lost his shield but he kicked Loki.

Y/N noticed that all the people had run away and then he looked back at Steve, worried about him. But that concern vanished when Loki was attacked by some kind of orange light, she could not help but smile. Tony Stark.

For a moment it seemed that Loki was going to give up, but no one noticed that Loki had looked to the side. Y/N followed his gaze and saw a small boy behind a tree, shaking. He had probably separated from his parents and tried to hide from Loki.

She could sense that Loki wanted that child to escape. Tony and Steve would not attack him if he had a child in his arms. Loki moved his body a little, positioning himself to run to the boy and grab him.

She came out of hiding. “What's going on?" Steve whispered to Tony. Objects on the ground were floating in the air. "Who is doing that?"

Tony decided to look behind him for a few seconds, and it was at that moment when he saw her, her eyes shining again. He had just discovered another of her powers. An inhuman force, coming from her, caused the child to end up in her arms. At first, the little boy was surprised but then he hugged her tightly while crying for his mother.

Y/N started stroking his back. "Don't worry, you'll be with your mother right away."

Steve looked over to where Tony was looking. "Another power..." he whispered.

Now with no escape, Y/N decided to get a little closer to Tony and Steve and it was at that very moment that Loki got up, confused. Then, he started to laugh. "Do not tell me you've gone to the side of the good guys."

She looked at Loki when she realized that he was talking to her. He smiled again. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Y/N. You've grown a lot." Tony looked at both of them, confused. Steve felt a little defensive and Y/N was still totally confused. "Well Tony, now that you have captured me." The smile did not leave his face. "If you're going to put me in that cell, you should put her in. I can tell you that she is even worse than me." He looked back at Y/N. "I'm not surprised that you were able to deceive them. Lying is one of your best qualities."

“What happens when two people meet by fate but it is physically impossible to be together?”

緣分 ⎪Yuanfen ⎪Masterlist

TAG YOURSELF

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THOSE PEOPLE IN BLACK I CAN’T TAG THEM!!!

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quxntumvandyne · 6 years

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Since The Beginning (Loki x Asgardian!Reader)

Part 2 | Part 3

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings: little bit of fighting at the end, two bad words ooooooo

Summary: You and Loki had been friends for as long as you can remember but recently has become overprotective and it’s getting on your nerves. However, what happens when you decide to go on a date with someone and things change between you and Loki? Will your friendship ever be the same?

A/N: FIRST LOKI FIC SO I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!!-lena

MASTERLIST

. . . . .

“Why of course I’ll go with you.”

“WHAT??”

Growing up, you’d never thought Loki as anything but a friend. Your best friend. You never cared much for Thor’s antics or his extremely loud and enthusiastic personality (which there was nothing wrong with), but more of Loki’s quiet yet clever ways.

You could relate more to him. Ever since childhood, you’ve been attached at the hip and many Asgardians knew it. But those were the old days, and now you two were adults. It never seemed like anything had changed for you about your relationship. You still spent a world of time together and had the best of times. You feel at home with Loki but not in that way.

Right?

You woke up early that morning, feeling rejuvenated from a long night of sleep and made yourself some breakfast in your small abode. It was a perfect size and you liked living alone; most of the time. Sometimes it grew cold and lonely but you enjoyed quiet and personal time. Loki did as well. But even more than that, you two enjoy one another’s company.

It was your birthday soon, so Loki has apparently planned a surprise for you in honor of your birthday. He always does something ridiculous but small, just the way you like it.

Not only would you be spending time with Loki but with some of your other friends as well; Aldis and Runa were coming and bringing their friends, Lambi, Groa, and Herjolf.

You loved your friends, but recently one had been acting a bit different around you.

Lambi was such a sweetheart and had a great personality, not to mention enjoyable to look at. But you’d grown somewhat awkward around each other. You liked being around him as well, but something was keeping you from getting any closer.

Ugh, men could be so confusing and overrated.

You got dressed in a gold and teal A-line dress with some simple matching gold sandals and small black studded earrings. You left most of your hair down but tied two braided small strands of hair together in the back with a small gold flower pin behind your left ear. It was now almost lunch time and you decided to walk down to the little café (a/n: do they have those in Asgard? Idk lol) to meet your friends.

“Y/N!” Runa shrieked in excitement. She and Aldis both ran up to hug you and you were so excited to see them like it had been years. It had only been a week, but for best friends like you three, it felt like years. You also gave gentler hugs to Lambi and Herjolf and lastly Loki, who you hugged a bit longer.

Loki was someone nobody could replace. You had this special bond that nobody understood but you two and you liked it that way. It was your special relationship and nothing could come in between that. At least, that’s what you thought.

“So, Y/N/N any big plans for your birthday?” Lambi asks from across the table. Before you could make a peep, Loki cut in to divert the attention from his master plan for your birthday.

“Oh, there’s a little something planned.” Loki looked over at you and winked, in his true nature, and took another sip of his tea. You knew a bunch of other girls in Asgard had a crush on the adopted son of Odin, but recently whenever he looked at you liked that, your heart would swell and this strange warm feeling in your chest appeared. It has never happened before, except recently when it was Loki’s birthday.

You and your friends (and Thor) threw Loki a big party and Loki took you out on to the dance floor by yourselves and danced together for a whole song. Everyone’s eyes in the whole place were on the two of you and the tension between the two of you had never felt more different. Your eyes were constantly locked on one another the whole song and you could feel the blush that had risen on your cheeks when the song was over. All eyes were on you and you two were attached at the hip the rest of the night.

Since that night, your relationship had felt different but nothing romantic. You didn’t like Loki like that, he was your best friend and you didn’t want to jeopardize that.

“Y/N? Hello?” Aldis said, snapping her fingers in front of your face. You snapped back to reality, feeling a bit embarrassed but also giggling at everyone’s reactions. As long as your friends were happy, you couldn’t ask for more.

You threw away your trash and walked out with your friends, behind Lambi and Herjolf but with Loki behind you.

Loki wasn’t great friends with the other two boys. He never made friends easily, but it never mattered to him because he had his few close friends and you. Loki had become a simpler person after school had ended and he had learned to love the smaller things in life more.

Lambi interrupts your train of thought, by slowing down and walking next to you, Herjolf still in front and your friends chatting away about Odin knows what; Loki was still behind you and you could almost feel him listening.

“Hi, Y/N,” Lambi said, with his hands in his pockets and face a bit pink. Was he nervous about something?

“Hi, Lambi? To what do I owe the pleasure of interrupting your conversation with Herjolf?” You replied smirking, a bit flirtatiously almost but it slipped out that way before you realized what is sounded like. Lambi’s cheeks grew redder by the second as he stumbled on his words.

“Oh you know- um- it wasn’t- we weren’t,” Lambi stuttered and you giggled.

“Lambi, I’m just joking around. What’s going on?”

He lets out a deep breath and loosened his whole body, seeming more relaxed.

“Well, you and I are not all that close, but I was wondering if maybe we could hang out sometime? You know, like just you and me?” He spoke very quickly, but once you figured out what he said, you stood straight like a board.

You were shocked at this question and stopped for a moment. Everyone kept walking until they noticed you had stopped and you must have had a strange look on your face. You could almost feel Loki’s gaze at the back of your head and the daggers he was glaring at Lambi. Everyone had stopped walking and talking, with all eyes on you now but you shook it off and caught back up with Lambi, everyone beginning to walk again. There were few things that caught you off guard, but this was completely out of the blue.

Where did that come from? I mean, going out once with him wouldn’t hurt right? Right?

“Well, it depends on what we’d be doing exactly,” you replied, with your cheeks flushing and the feeling of butterflies in your chest.

“Um, I mean maybe some dinner? Or a night at my house to watch some movies and eat junk food?” he said, seeming unsure of himself.

“We could always figure out the details later,” you said.

“Of course.”

“And this wouldn’t be too close to my birthday, right?”

“Oh no, of course not. That’s much too important to interrupt.”

“Well then, I don’t see why not?” you said.

This time it was Lambi who paused, obviously shocked at your answer to what seemed like a date.

“Really? You would spend a night with me? Wait, I didn’t mean-“

You cut him off to quiet his awkward stutters. “Lambi, yes I would love to go on a date with you.”

He clapped his hands together in excited Lambi fashion. “Fantastic.”

You and Lambi had now drifted to the back of the group, with Aldis, Runa, and Herjolf in the front, laughing and having a nice time and Loki directly in front of you. He seemed to be walking stiffer and you could tell something was up with him but decided to leave it alone until you got closer to your apartment.

You and Lambi decided to have dinner on Friday night and then go to his house to watch a movie and he would take you home. You hadn’t quite decided why you said yes or how the date would end up going, but it wouldn’t hurt to spend some time with Lambi. Right?

Once everyone had gone home, it was just you and Loki until you reached your apartment and Loki went home. You walked in silence for a good 3 minutes before Loki spoke up.

“So, Lambi?”

You were shocked by his hostile tone and emotionless face. It wasn’t like him to act this way; almost jealous.

“Um, yes. I thought it would be nice, just the two of us and I don’t see why not?” you replied, questioningly. You’d never been out much with other before except a couple and Loki had never acted this way before because of it. It was truely unlike him.

“You do realize, my dear Y/N/N, that he is a bit of an asshole and has a reputation.”

You stopped again on the sidewalk, now upset at Loki’s statement about Lambi. What did he know about Lambi?

“Loki, you’re not even close with Lambi. How would you know that?”

“Y/N, everyone knows it. You’re obviously not paying attention if you don’t. It’s like he flaunts it. He’ll take any girl he can get.”

You audibly gasped as Loki realized what he said. He didn’t mean that, did he?

Well, he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t believe it.

“Wait. Y/N, that’s not what I-“

“Oh no Loki, I know exactly what you meant.” You walked away, hearing Loki follow you and calling for you. You could feel the wind in your hair and your dress, walking quickly to get away from Loki before you could become more upset with him.

He managed to catch up and grabbed your arm. “Y/N, I didn’t mean it like that, I just want to protect you. I never meant to say that.”

“But you did Loki. And now you can’t take it back. Just get away from me.”

You tried to pull away but Loki’s iron grip prevented you from leaving his grasp.

“LOKI I SAID LET GO!” you screamed at him. You were now crying heavily and you were shaking from anger. Loki only looked at you with despair and regret as he let you go and you turned away and walked home, feelings his eyes on you the entire time.

You finally made it home to your apartment, slammed the door shut and slid down to your knees, hands covering your face and just sobbed.

Loki had never acted this way toward you and he had no reason to. It was just a date. You had never hated him more in a moment; mainly because he usually never gave you a reason to hate him, but you weren’t going to let him ruin your one night with Lambi. You lived your own life and didn’t need Loki to tell you what to do and what not to do.

And if Lambi did end up being an ass, then you’d deal with it yourself and move on.

Maybe from both of them.

OKAY OKAY SO IF YOU WANT ME TO MAKE THIS A THREE PARTER PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN ASKS OR REBLOG/COMMENT!!!!!

I didn’t plan on making it a three parter but I wanted to end it here. I know on a sad note, I’m sorry! But if you want me to continue it, I will and I can make a separate taglist! Of course if you want, I can add you to my permanent one or just this one. Thank you for reading!!

permanent taglist: @magic-marvel @holland-haven @lokis-sunflower-anna @e-ms-world @minnie-marvel @0captain-marvel0 @peter-prkers @hedwigthelegend @signed-potato

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1wngdngl · 7 years

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Daily Reviews - Thor: Ragnarok

I finally mustered up the courage and saw “Thor: Ragnarok”, with my parents, aunt, and uncle.

I don’t know if I’ll sleep tonight.

The movie was just so intense. So many questions answered, so many questions raised, so much death, so much special effects, so much: “How do they say that with a straight face?!”, so much irreverent humor, so many times the movie turned to the fandom’s expectations and said, “Nope! This is how it happens!” The general tone is a bit lighter than the other Thor movies, more like “Guardians of the Galaxy”. (I wonder who directed it?)

It’s a very fun movie, and it will be seared on my brain forever, for good or ill. Sorry, but I’m spoiler-tagging the rest. 😉

(all stuff below is based on memory after one viewing, including quotes. So don’t expect 100% accuracy!)

Based on the previews and stuff, I’d been having a hard time figuring out the role of various characters like Hela, the Grandmaster, etc. and how they all tied in, and what order all the events happened in. But now I can provide a basic synopsis:

(First, you know how theatres play those little videos about ‘please turn off your phone before the movie’? They did one of those, but it was written so that Loki is watching Thor’s gladiatorial match, and Loki’s cell goes off, and Thor yells at him for ruining the moment. Why Loki would even have a cell phone, who knows... >.>)

The movie proper starts in media res, with Thor fighting Surtur (I thought that’s who that fiery demon guy in the promos was). Thor defeats him pretty easily and brings back the prize, Surtur’s helmet, to Asgard. It’s revealed that ever since his “vision” in “Age of Ultron” when Thor saw Asgard being destroyed, he’s been cruising the Nine Realms looking to vanquish any possible threats.

Anyway, Thor goes back to Asgard. Heimdall has been replaced as Gatekeeper by Skurge from the comics. I couldn’t recall what had happened to Heimdall at the end of “The Dark World”, but I guess he was banished or something. Thor’s friends seem to be free and well in “Ragnarok” though.

We get to finally see what Loki had been up to during his four years ruling Asgard as “Odin”. And apparently, he didn’t do a horrible job. The damage from the dark elves’ attack is cleaned up, everything is running smoothly. The craziest thing he’s done as Odin is have a giant statue of his ‘son’, Loki, commissioned. In fact, Odin goes so far as to deliver a sort of eulogy regarding Loki’s ‘sacrifice’ in “The Dark World”. And the eulogy is, it’s...I don’t even...

You know that scene in “The Dark World”, where Loki is seemingly dying on the sands of Svartalfheim, with Thor cradling him and murmuring: “It’s okay, it’s okay”?

That scene that showed that Loki was capable of doing something good at the last, a final moment of vulnerability in him, a moment of raw honesty between the brothers?

Of course, even “The Dark World” showed that Loki hadn’t really died, but the fans still debated whether the whole death was a ruse, or whether he simply survived when it wasn’t expected. Whether his ‘last words’ to Thor had been his true feelings.

Well, in Odin’s eulogy/memorial in “Ragnarok”, that ‘death scene’ is played on a big screen, in front of a huge crowd, with every moment exaggerated to comedic levels. Loki-on-the-screen easily confesses to everything he’s ever done (”Sorry for that thing with the Tesseract, and for trying to kill you, and being an incorrigible traitor.”), while Thor-on-the-screen easily forgives him (”Don’t worry about it! I know you didn’t mean any harm.”). When Loki-on-the-screen finally ‘dies’, Thor lets out a truly over-the-top, wailing, “Noooo!”.

Part of me wonders whether the scene was meant as a subtle “Take that” toward the fans that thought there might have been anything genuine in that ‘death scene’ (or about Loki in general).

Anyway, after the ‘video’, Loki-as-Odin gives a little speech that makes it sound as though Loki was a hero who conquered the dark elf menace single-handedly, all for the greater good. One line of “Odin’s” struck me, something like: “I never imagined when I took in that little blue icicle that he’d be the one to melt my heart.” Obviously it’s horribly cheesy and not something Odin would actually say, but it did hit me - that Loki here is casually admitting to where he had come from. Is that something that the Asgardians had even known about before? They don’t seem shocked by the line, so maybe word of Loki’s origins had gotten around after his initial “death” off the Bifrost, or after Loki had been brought back to Asgard as a prisoner.

Anyway, Thor arrives just in time to witness the ‘memorial service’. Loki doesn’t notice him at first, but when he does, he’s less than thrilled at Thor’s presence. I don’t know if it’s because he just doesn’t like Thor being around, or because the eulogy was not something Thor was meant to hear. Even if Odin could have had a way of knowing what had happened between Thor and Loki during the ‘death scene’, the fact is that Loki mis-represents that scene to make himself look better, something Odin would have had no reason to do.

So Thor gets suspicious, and he starts threatening “Odin” until Loki is forced to reveal himself, to the shock and horror of the Asgardians standing around. Thor forces Loki to come with him to Earth so they can find the real Odin and bring him back to Asgard. Now, I remember around the time of “The Dark World”, some interview had stated that Loki hadn’t actually killed Odin (though who knows why not, when it would have been simpler). Apparently, Loki stuck him in some retirement home on Earth, while also either putting him in a coma or removing his memories, I don’t remember which. Which is pretty horrible when you think of it, but Loki’s hatred of Odin shouldn’t really be a surprise at this point. (Why didn’t he just kill him, though?)

Well, Odin’s not at “Shady Acres” or wherever anymore, so the two go to Doctor Strange for help in finding him. And this is where that stinger from the “Doctor Strange” movie comes in, with Strange reluctantly agreeing to help if it gets Thor off the planet faster. We also get to see what Loki was up to while Thor and Strange had their conversation. I’d thought he was maybe waiting outside, or looking for Odin elsewhere, but instead: “I’ve been falling for thirty minutes.” Loki and Strange don’t get along at all in their brief interaction - Loki is indignant that a mere mortal dares call himself a sorcerer, while Strange treats Loki like a buffoon.

They find Odin in Norway or somewhere like that, but he’s not doing too well. Partly from age, partly from the still-raw pain of losing Frigga a few years earlier, partly from whatever spell Loki had used on him (about which Thor derisively commented, “Mother would be so proud”. Did Frigga actually teach Loki spells to manipulate thought/memory, or did he find that in a book somewhere?)

Odin is accepting toward his own pending death, but he’s worried about a forthcoming danger to the realms. As his last wish, he bids, “My sons, you must protect Asgard.” He says “My sons,” plural. As though he can’t even muster the energy to be angry at Loki’s treatment of him. Then he dies, and it’s a solemn moment, for a few seconds. Until Thor turns to Loki, enraged at his causing Odin’s death. Before a fight can break out, however, Hela appears.

[I’m really pleased that Odin got a proper send-off in this movie, when I wasn’t sure if he’d appear at all. You can tell he has a lasting legacy that affects the plot and the fates of the other characters.]

I’d known Hela was in this movie, and I wasn’t sure what kind of role it would be for her. I was happy to see that, despite her being shown as attractive and dangerous, she wasn’t dressed skimpily nor portrayed as a femme fatale who used her “womanly wiles” to get her way. She’s more just violent and power-hungry, and could kill everyone herself if it pleased her. She’s probably the only character in the movie (excepting maybe Odin), who’s portrayed completely dark and seriously.

Her backstory has been changed quite a bit from the myths and Marvel comics. In “Ragnarok” she is not related to Thanos in any way and is not his “mistress of death”. Nor is she shown to be Loki’s daughter or any other relation to him - she’s actually older than him. Rather, she is the sister of Thor and Odin’s firstborn child.

Apparently, back before Odin was the wise, peace-loving ruler Thor knew, Odin led many bloody wars against the other realms to place them under Asgard’s rule. Hela was his powerful heir, his sword arm against their opponents. But then Odin developed a change of heart, and decided to seek more peaceable relationships with the other realms. Hela didn’t want to give up the fight, so Odin eventually imprisoned her to keep the realms safe.

But now that Odin’s dead, the seal on Hela’s prison is broken, and she heads back to Asgard to claim her right of rulership there. Thor and Loki try to go after her, but due to some kind of wormhole/portal craziness, end up on the far end of the universe on the planet of Sakaar.

Thor wakes to find himself alone on a trash heap, and before he can fully orient himself, he is taken prisoner by a woman named...uh, what was her name? I think it’s Brunhilde, though I don’t know if they actually say it in the movie. Anyway, she’s basically like a slave trader, selling the ones she captures to the Grandmaster, who forces them to compete in his deadly games for fun and profit.

Thor is desperate to escape imprisonment and go back to Asgard at once to stop Hela’s reign. You see, she’s not the nicest ruler, and when the Asgardians refuse to accept her - apparently because she’s unstable and violent, and wants to lead them on a new bloody conquest of the universe - she starts killing people without discretion. That’s including the Warriors Three, which makes me sad :( . She even revives a bunch of people to be zombie warriors for her. That Skurge guy decides to ally with her, making her sort of fill the role of the Enchantress.

Hela takes a moment to explain to Skurge and the audience how she used to be esteemed by Odin until he became “soft”. This discussion takes place next to an interesting mural that depicts Odin’s interactions with the other realms. As an example of Odin’s “going soft”, Hela points at an illustration of Odin and Laufey making a treaty to end the Asgard-Jotunheim war. Hela acts as though she is familiar with this war and treaty, which means that Thor and Loki would have been young children when she was sealed away.

[Having Hela be related to Thor, having her be a relic of Odin’s dark past, really adds a lot to complicate Thor’s view of Asgard and his father. He never knew he had a sister, and now he has to kill her, poor guy. I wonder if Hela’s mother is meant to be Frigga? I don’t think the movie said.]

In order for Thor to get out of Sakaar, though, and get back to Asgard to stop Hela, he must survive his match against the Grandmaster’s reigning champion.

Meanwhile, Loki has also ended up on Sakaar, a few weeks before Thor somehow? He’s used that time to try to ingratiate himself to the Grandmaster, hoping it’ll help him make his way in this weird new world. He has a conversation with Thor via astral projection, reminding me of the convo between Loki and Frigga in “The Dark World”. It’s a good thing Loki isn’t physically present, because Thor might have punched him otherwise. He blames Loki for Odin’s death and the freeing of Hela. Regarding Thor being displaced as Odin’s true heir: “It hurts, doesn’t it?” Loki says. “Thinking you’re one thing and then finding out you’re not?” More tense words are exchanged, but then it’s time for Thor’s match in the arena. [sorry if I’m getting any events out of order!]

It turns out that Thor’s opponent is the Hulk. [Loki is watching the match from the balcony, and his reaction when the Hulk appears is, “I need to get off this planet. o.0″] At first Thor is happy to see his old buddy from the Avengers, his bash brother. But Hulk isn’t as receptive toward Thor. Turns out that Bruce was kidnapped along with the Quinjet right at the end of “Age of Ultron”, so he’s been stuck in Hulk form in the arena for the past two years, and doesn’t remember much from before that. So Thor is forced to fight him for real. He’s hampered a bit by his lack of Mjolnir, just using two short swords instead. Thor does show a brief display of being able to use electricity without Mjolnir, which confounds him. [spirit!Odin eventually explains that Thor had the power all along, and that Mjolnir was just a focus for that power.]

The match ends with both of them still alive, and they spend time afterward healing up, with Thor trying to get through to Banner. Eventually the two of them escape the arena complex together, and begin planning a way to get off the planet.

The Grandmaster isn’t happy about losing two of his strongest fighters, so he asks Loki (his newest ‘employee’) and Brunhilde to go retrieve them - for a hefty prize, of course. Brunhilde finds Thor first. She reveals that she’s had a change of heart and she wants to help him escape. You see, she used to be a Valkyrie - an elite female warrior of Asgard - but when all the rest of the Valkyrie were slaughtered by Hela, she fled, eventually ending up on Sakaar. She says she wants to regain some honor, and get revenge on Hela.

Thor, Hulk, and Brunhilde go and pick up Loki - whom Brunhilde had basically tied up in a closet - and then go to steal the Grandmaster’s spaceship and escape. But just as Thor is about to board, he stops, and suggests that Loki should stay on Sakaar. “We’re different people, and our paths diverged long ago. This world is lawless, chaotic - you’d fit in just fine here.” Plus there’s the fact that, now that Loki’s masquerading as Odin was revealed, the Asgardians might not be keen to welcome him back. Plus plus, going to Asgard means facing Hela, who will quite likely kill any who challenge her.

So it looks like Loki is going to stay on Sakaar, with Thor’s blessing - but then Loki reveals that he never actually gave up on capturing Thor. The prize money from that would set him up quite comfortably, he explains. I don’t know why this betrayal surprised me. It shouldn’t, it shouldn’t. But that’s the kind of duality Loki presents - you know you can’t trust him, he exudes an aura of suspiciousness; yet, like Thor in “The Dark World”, you wish you could trust him, to believe that you can make an ally of him, and benefit from his humor, and knowledge, and connections.

I’d claim that Loki’s constant betrayals show that he holds no loyalty to any other person and is acting out of simple self-interest, but many times his betrayals end up hurting himself in rather predictable ways. The way Thor treats it, it’s like Loki has a compulsion for betrayals, one which Loki and Thor are both aware of. Thor basically predicted that Loki would betray him in “Ragnarok”, and reacts with more disappointment than anger.

Even as he subdues Loki, Thor makes a simple but memorable observation: “Isn’t this all getting a little same-y? We team up, you betray me, I retaliate. Don’t you think there’s some room for change, for growth? I know you’ll always be the “God of Mischief” - but you could be something more.” Thor boards the ship and leaves Loki behind, and Thor and his two allies speed along toward Asgard.

Speaking of Asgard, Heimdall has come back from exile to try to help the Asgardians escape to another world via Bifrost. Hela isn’t too keen on that, though, and sends her zombie army to stop them. But then Thor arrives! He fights Hela’s army of undead, but Hela herself is too much for him. She even blinds one of his eyes!

Just then, however, Loki also arrives in another ship with some other escapees. I don’t remember the reasoning Loki gave for why he bothered to come back. Maybe he took to heart Thor’s challenge to do something brave, or at least unpredictable. While Heimdall hurries all the Asgardians onto the spaceship, Thor and the others try to figure out how to destroy Hela, who is clearly more powerful than any of them.

Eventually, Thor realizes that they will have to destroy Asgard with Hela on it, so she doesn’t escape to any of the other realms. The best way to do that is to summon Surtur - that demon Thor fought at the beginning of the movie - and doing that requires combining Surtur’s crown with the Eternal Flame that’s in the Vault.

Loki gets drafted to go activate this “Self-destruct” mechanism in the Vault (because they think he’s the fastest, or the best one at remaining unseen, who knows), while Thor and the others distract Hela. There’s a part where Loki runs right past the Tesseract in the Vault, before stopping to give it a long look. The scene cuts away then, but you just know he took it and put it in his dimensional pocket. After all, the Tesseract is one of the Infinity Gems, so it has to appear in the “Infinity War” movie. ;) (I wonder if he snagged any other relics while he was there, like the Casket of Ancient Winters, which I thought had fallen into the abyss when the Bifrost was destroyed?)

Anyway, Loki summons Surtur, who makes short work of Hela, before destroying the rest of Asgard. So in essence, Thor and Loki cause Ragnarok in order to defeat Hela.

The group of Asgardians that survived huddle together on the spaceship, their new home. Thor is now king of a new “Asgard”, one that is not a fixed world, but a migrant group of people. Loki, despite being at ground zero when Surtur was summoned, manages to escape onto the spaceship as well (maybe he used the Tesseract to make a quick getaway?).

In the stinger, Thor and Loki discuss where the ship should travel to next. Thor wants to visit Earth (maybe to set up a colony there?). But then some sort of other, gigantic spaceship appears right in front of them, looming menacingly… [Does Thanos have a spaceship?]

Sorry for the longest summary ever. Here’s a few more general thoughts that didn’t go anywhere else:

Loki is like the butt-monkey of “Ragnarok”. Other characters share this role sometime, and Loki certainly provided comedic value in other movies, but in something like “The Dark World”, there was also a dangerous, angry aspect to him, and a thirst for revenge. In “Ragnarok”, he’s at the end of many jokes, loses most of his battles, and isn’t treated as a threat by anyone. Maybe spending four years as “Odin” without any battle practice made him get sloppy?

In “The Dark World”, Thor and Loki try for a bit to maintain a cool professional relationship (”We’re pursuing the same enemy, that’s all.”), before that attitude tumbles down. In “Ragnarok” they don’t even try to pretend at distance. They were brothers for a thousand years, and stored in their shared memory is every fight, every insult, every silly moment, every childhood fear, every catchphrase, every quirk and whim. The question in “Ragnarok” is whether they have any future together, or whether they’ve grown too far apart and should stay apart.

A couple of offhand comments mentioned that Loki once turned Thor into a frog, and himself into a snake (not at the same time, thankfully). In the first Thor movie, the most he seemed able to do was make duplicates. In “The Dark World” he can change his and Thor’s appearance using illusion magic, but that’s all it seemed to be – illusion with no substance. While saying he’s able to actually turn people into animals isn’t contradictory with past movies, it does make you wonder why this ability hasn’t shown up before. For instance, when he was fighting Kurse, why didn’t Loki just zap him and turn him into a mouse? Fanon can probably assist here. Maybe that sort of full transformation takes a lot of setup and isn’t suited for the battlefield. It might require the target to stand motionless for some time, or to be fed a special potion.

This movie seems to uphold the stance that “Loki doesn’t have children”. They made Hela be Odin’s child rather than his, the wolf Fenrir/Fenris was Hela’s familiar from before Loki was born. And I think Sleipnir has shown up during Odin’s battle against Jotunheim, so Loki couldn’t be his parent either. (Wonder what happened to Sleipnir – did he die when Asgard got destroyed?)

I don’t think Sif was in “Ragnarok” at all. Jane was mentioned briefly, with the comment that she had broken up with Thor. Maybe to make Thor available to pursue Brunhilde? I’m not so surprised Jane and Thor might not work out – they’re very different people, Thor has a much longer lifespan, he was always busy travelling the realms and couldn’t see her much. Too bad though, when much of “The Dark World” focused on keeping Jane safe, plus Thor gave up the throne then partly so he could be with Jane. Oh well, we’ll see what happens in the future.

I like that Bruce/the Hulk had a pretty big role in this movie, not just a cameo. There were loads of other callbacks to previous movies, quotes, music, etc., such that you’d need to see both other Thor movies and Avengers movies to get them all. Things like “A wise king must always be ready for war”, a song from the Thor I soundtrack, Odin’s Weapons Vault, Stan Lee making an appearance, Thor getting an eyepatch like Odin’s, Tony calling Thor “Pointbreak”, and so on.

One thing that struck me was how much fun Thor and Loki’s actors seemed to have in reprising their roles. I wonder what it was like for them filming together again after several years?

Now that I’ve finally seen Ragnarok, I can go back and start catching up on fanfic for it. I like fanfic. It fills in the gaps, provides explanation for confusing things, records your favorite quotes, and helps you make connections between movies.

Oh, and I should also check out that “Infinity War” trailer. Has the identity/location of the Soul Stone ever been revealed in the MCU? That’s the only Infinity Stone I can’t account for. >.>

I should also get a hold of the “Ragnarok: Prelude” book, to see if it helps explain anything further…

#daily reviews #movies #marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #thor #thor: ragnarok

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