What that really upsets me is the deep damage that ThorRagnarok done to Loki, Thor and their story. Suddenly every single line of that parody (for I refuse whit all my heart to consider that movie at the same level of the first Thor!!) not only is become canon, but it’s like having completely wipe out the previous, established canons. Disappeared.
As if Ragnarok is a gospel and the others movies just imprecise silliness to fix. Or to not being considered anymore. How is it been possible?
So now Thor is the poor, bullied hero who finally “put his brother in his place”, who spoke that (in)famous elevator speech so full of maturity and growth, who become the glorious, shining king.
And Loki? Oh, Loki is the God of Snakes, the Knives Thrower, the buffoon who watch a reenact of his own death like a pervert, who’s so full of happiness and self contentness to mock his own tragedy, just because. The God who can’t overcome a Midgardian sorcerer. The “whining space orphan”. The Grandmaster’s slut as if he couldn’t have enough strength, enough skills, enough power for stand up for himself. As if he couldn’t be his own hero and he can’t be nothing without someone else to validate him and his deeds.
Ragnarok has deprived the characters from everything.
I’m never been fond of Thor, but I didn’t hate him neither. With Ragnarok he’s become an arrogant bully, so full of himself to put everyone and everything down with a smile, in order to shine all alone.
I can’t get why and how this pile of lies is become more valid than an entire canon story already told throughout the years. As if the only possible truth about it is all those stupid jokes and nonsensical stuff. Snakes, knives, Loki who’s eat grapes while watches his own death, all the sexual unnecessary implies, the butt jokes, the gross humor…all valid, all gospel, all sacred truth, all incontrovertible facts.
While we have seen, and known, that Thor/Loki story it’s been something else. Something way too different. Way too deep. Yet Ragnarok mocked and diminished traumas, lies, toxic dynamics…everyhting for the sake of gross humor and mean giggles. As if Waititi were saying: “Oh, do you remember all that trauma shit, that unnecessary, psychological undertones, the suicidal attempt and the grief? Ahahah, surprise, bitches!!! Guess what? It’s been just a joke, not so serious, not so important! Just boring blablabla not fun at all!! Allow me to mess up everything for make you giggle. Allow me to respectfully disrespect all of you who empathise with the stupid traumas of that stupid Trickster. You have stan him way too much, imho, you weren’t supposed to. Let me put him, and all of you both, in your place.”
It’s like to have a pile of gold and thrown it away for an handful of mud. We have started with tragic Shakesperean moods and ended with a farce that have denaturalized every aspects.
And the most annoying, frustrating thing is that we, as old fans, are forced to accept those lies. Considering them even most important and most relevant than all the established (and commonly accepted) previous canons.
Well, I’m tired. Tired to explain. Tired to justify. Tired to make examples.
I refuse to consider Thor Ragnarok as part of Thor/Loki history. I’ll stick to Thor/TTDW/Avengers canons. Period. Because I have a gold mine, and I’ll never swap it whit a pile of mud.
First of all, society already places more value on people who look and behave like Thor. Thor is strong, muscular, and confident. He doesn’t waste a lot of time talking about his feelings. And he doesn’t waste a lot of time worrying about other people’s feelings. He has important man stuff to do.
And it is not just men who buy into this. Women do as well. Plenty of women watched the original Star Wars trilogy and found Han Solo to be suave and sexy. Even though he basically annoyed and insulted his way into Leia’s heart. Han reinforced the notion that a man, regardless of his quality of character or what he may have to offer, is entitled to the prize. He is entitled to possess the woman he wants. And even though their exchange of “I love you” and “I know” is cited as being clever and inventive, it’s actually rather dysfunctional. But we ladies ate it up, myself included.
Loki does not embody the traits our society associates with maleness. Neither does Peter Parker, actually. But the audience is okay with that, because Peter Parker is still classified as a boy. Loki is a man. But he is not overtly muscular. He has no facial hair. He prefers grace to brawn. Like the actor who portrays him, he is well read and sophisticated. He wants to talk about his feelings. He cannot just let things go.
A large chunk of the fandom has mistaken Loki’s traits for signs of homosexuality. On the surface, this might seem like a progressive interpretation…because yay gayness. But it is actually the opposite. What would be progressive would be allowing Loki to be a straight male, while acknowledging that he does not embody the traits generally associated with that designation.
So, that chunk of the fandom who bought into the notion that Loki’s lack of toxic male traits makes him totes gay, probably jumped for joy at the prospect of Loki having sexual relations with the Grand Master. Even if him doing so involved some measure of sexual assault…which it definitely would have. The GM is not a good guy. No matter how much we love and adore Jeff Goldblum. He was a horrible person. He was basically a futuristic Caligula. But if you are wondering just how many people find this idea entertaining, look no further than AO3, which is wrought with stories involving these two that bear rape related tags.
The reason some of us are so uncomfortable with Ragnarok is because it completely challenges OUR view of Loki. We believe that Loki has value as a person, that his pain is real and his grievances justified, that he has qualities and abilities equivalent or superior to any other Marvel character. Ragnarok showed us someone who was easily fooled, whose skills were limited, whose pain was trivial, whose grievances were petty, and whose value was far below that of the other characters around him. And it did so gleefully. And because, to most audience members, Loki is coded as a villain and does not have the same personhood as hero coded characters, this all seemed perfectly reasonable. Entertaining even. To most audience members, none of that shit matters anyway, as long as the hero wins in the end.
This probably would have been upsetting enough, in and of itself. But considering the fact that it appears it is not only the filmmaker who feels this way about Loki, but also the character of Thor as well, and you have some pretty outraged Loki fans. For some of us, Ragnarok was the final nail in the coffin of Thor’s relationship with Loki. Previously to that film, their relationship seemed salvageable. Many things had happened. But they could all be overlooked or explained. After Ragnarok…the only way that the brothers could reconcile completely would require Loki to abandon what remained of his self respect. Which made Loki’s death at the opening of Infinity War somewhat horrifying. Because it implied that Loki believes his only value as a character comes from his ability to sacrifice himself for others. Not just others, but others who have degraded and marginalized him.
To sum it up, when it comes to Ragnarok, I feel like there are three groups of fans. There are the people who never thought Loki had any value to begin with (because he is coded as a villain), the people who already thought that Loki’s only value was to exist as a queer stereotype, and then the people who were horrified by Loki’s portrayal in Ragnarok because it conflicted so strongly with our deeply held views about that character. We are not going to convince members of those first two groups to see Loki any other way. It is a waste of time to try.
Published
Goldnwulf 