Okay I’m sorry but nothing will ever beat the pure tragic poeticism of that one shot in Thor 2011 of Loki looking down at his hand in total shock during the battle of Jotunheim as he tries to rationalize why This Thing That Is Happening Cannot Be Happening.
Like, just to reiterate, Frost Giants are able to burn Asgardians through touch alone with severe frostbite that even healing stones can’t fix completely (Or, technically, anyone who isn’t a Frost Giant I guess, but I imagine the results are far worse). And like fuck if that doesn’t say enough. Because those guys are made of some strong stuff.
But Loki fully expecting to burn, doesn’t.
Not only does he not burn, but his arm is forced into a form he’s never taken before, one that he didn’t cause or choose intentionally. It just did it. For him.
HE KNOWS. He knows what it must mean, but the fucking SHOCK of it. It can’t mean that. He must be thinking. It can’t be. But there’s no other immediate explanation!
And he doesn’t have time to think about it. He’s in the middle of a fight! This guys trying to kill him!So he has to snap out of it. And then he goes on to save literally almost EVERYONE ELSE!
This fucking tableau. This fucking tableau!!
Look at it! Actually, just stop reading this post and go watch this part of the movie! I won’t even blame you! Like holy fuck.
This shot gets me every time. It (unfortunately) goes by so fast in the actual movie but it is SO GOOD. This just. Dawning horror of taking a moment to process that that really just happened. The breathing. THE BREATHING. And he looks at his arm like it’s not even his. Like it’s something entirely alien to him. Because IT IS.
This kid is not ready for this information. He’s so very much not ready. He’s panicking, he’s in denial about it. He’s questioning absolutely everything he knows about himself and trying to make sense of it against this new reality that he’s just been dropped into. He’s wondering what am I? and formulating an answer that’s impossible to comprehend. And the worst part is, it makes sense.
It makes sense in the most awful way possible. And when that last bit of hope that he might be wrong— that last doubt— dies, when that thin steel rod holding him together finally snaps, he can’t even say that he doesn’t understand. Because, to Loki, this is the confirmation that not only are all his worst fears correct and 100% founded, but that they are a part of him he will never be able to circumvent. It’s all been in vein. And they’ve all known. They’ve known all along.
Everything he’s worked against himself for, everything he’s done, the way people have treated him his whole life, all the things that in his mind make him less than what he’s supposed to be…
And he can’t change a thing.
…Anyways, that shot of him looking at his arm might be one of my favorite cinematic moments of all time, and I’d just like everyone to appreciate it. That’s all.
(Also… how anyone can watch this movie and not view his attack/attempted genocide against Jotunheim as a metaphor for his own self destruction/ self hatred and a manifestation of his inability to accept himself as he is is completely beyond me. But that’s a post for another time.)
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