A Few Thoughts on Loki

Many Avengers fans take Loki’s status as the franchise’s most successful villain as a matter of fact rather than opinion.  Between his love/hate relationship with Thor, his penchant for scheming, his flair for the dramatic, and Tom Hiddleston’s engaging performance, his acclaim is easy to understand.  Also reasonable is Marvel’s eagerness to take advantage of his popularity (especially considering his devoted legion of acolytes.)  Today’s post isn’t so much about Loki as a favorite character, though I do like him – more so, it’s a comparison of his three film appearances in the Avengersverse.  (Loki-related spoilers for Thor and The Dark World.)

For my money, Loki’s first appearance is easily his best.  Yes, the daddy issues loom large, but understandably so; the revelation that Loki isn’t from Asgard but Jotunheim, taken by Odin as a baby, is massive, and it has a believably profound effect on him.  When he discovers the truth, you can practically see him breaking, and it’s that damage that fuels his actions.  He’s a perfect storm of paternal betrayal, sibling resentment, and self-loathing paradoxically mixed with a superiority complex – it’s just ripe for drama.  Besides that, though, he’s one smart cookie.  He’s playing everybody, shades of Iago.  His many-layered plan incorporates the unpredictabilities that arise, and each layer presents a motivation that feels true to the character.  Each time I think I know what he’s up to, it makes sense and I get why he’s doing it (evil though it is.)  Then, as another layer gets peeled back and I see he’s doing a different thing for entirely different reasons, it makes just as much sense.  I love that.  Finally, while there’s a lot of sympathy to be found in Loki’s situation, it’s still clear that he is wholly unjustified.  Having learned that he’s really a Frost Giant, his next course of action is to kill everyone in Jotunheim with all-but-literal fire from heaven, purging them from the nine realms, and in turn, somehow, from himself.  That’s as horrible as it is twisted.  The world-shaking truths he finds about himself don’t make him any less of a villain, and as much as it kills Thor to do it, he needs to be crushed.  This keeps him from veering too far into woobie territory, despite the tragic catalyst that propels him.

Now, I adore The Avengers, and I still find Loki pretty entertaining in it, but for me, it’s actually the least successful of his three appearances.  The menace, sneakiness, and ability to hit someone where it hurts are all intact.  However, the film skimps on his intelligence and does a poor job explaining his motivations, both of which are so essential to my appreciation for his character in Thor.  After seeing the movie multiple times, I still can’t exactly pinpoint why Loki does any of what he does.  It’s a confused hodgepodge of revenge, blackmail, and power-hungriness.  Oh, and insanity – Bruce observes that Loki’s brain “is a bag full of cats” and that “you can smell crazy on him.”  It takes a halfhearted stab at assorted motivations and adds a heaping dose of “‘cause he’s evil and crazy.”  Like I said, still entertaining, but not nearly as intriguing.

Thor:  The Dark World falls somewhere between the two.  Loki is again less effective than he is in Thor, and his plotting isn’t that careful web of intricate malevolence.  Additionally, Frigga’s death lends itself a bit too well to “poor Loki!” cooing, and in general, it’s noticeable that his part was beefed up due to his popularity.  Yet, it’s a step back in the right direction – it remembers that Loki doesn’t just do things Because Reasons, and it mostly keeps focus on his fraught relationship with Thor, always a winner.  I tend to prefer the loftier Loki of the first film to the snarkier version that follows, but the latter offers one of The Dark World’s biggest laughs, the fantastic scene of Loki magically “disguising” himself as Cap that I wouldn’t trade for anything.