#wbss21

Plus it always just comes across as lazy writing to me in the comics and films when they adjust power levels as needed for the story. Like, if you can’t come up with a conceivable threat for these guys while retaining their power levels, then you just aren’t trying hard enough.

uhhh. ...I mean, thanks for calling my writing lazy? since that’s literally what I just said I do >.<

personally, I think it makes it more interesting when characters aren’t invulnerable. overpowered characters, especially when they can’t be matched by anyone, just tend to...not interest me as much. (there are some exceptions, but.) also, at a certain point it hits the dragonball z problem of “EVERYTHING HAS TO BE BIGGER THAN THE LAST” and that just becomes kind of absurd pretty quickly.

so I’m actually...okay? with loki and thor being on more even footing with the rest of the avengers than they could be. it makes for more interesting conflict, and more heightened stakes, when there’s an actual threat. if there’s no possibility of a character failing - if they’re just that powerful that there’s no threat severe enough to take them down (or, like, two) - that’s just incredibly limiting from a narrative perspective. 

Loki’s actually super strong. Stronger than most Asgardians. In the comics he’s rated at a level 50 strength. Meaning he can lift up to 50 tons. So yeah, waaaaay stronger than any normal human, or even super soldiers.

ehhh, well, I tend to keep my comics and MCU canon separate, because the comics rankings of strength/height/weight tend to be...weird as heck. and also fairly inconsistent as story needs require. so... [wiggles hand back and forth]

though - the movies seem to be hilariously inconsistent about the durability/strength of their characters too, though, like, plot dependent? Steve gets shot by a Chitauri weapon and it seems to legit hurt him but falls down an elevator shaft and seems basically okay? Loki can take a severe beating by the Hulk without much ill effect but a sword through the chest kills Frigga? yeah, the latter seems more violent because there is actual impaling happening, but...I mean, we can talk about how the MCU in general doesn’t seem to get the concept of blunt force trauma, because actually being slammed around the way Loki gets at the end of the Avengers would...cause a lot of very messy damage. we could chalk this one up to anatomical differences, I guess??? but like. 

basically I have decided to handwave the whole thing and, much like the MCU (and even more so comics), go with “what makes sense as far as the plot needs of this story goes, let’s just go with that”

There's so many assholes in the world. It can be hard to operate among them. Sounds like a pseudo intellect if ever I saw one, and believe me, I know plenty.

Actually after he went away I was thinking and realized that he sounded exactly like some of the assholes I went to college with, except in this situation I could not just walk away, could not tell him to go fuck himself, and could not get visibly upset because I was literally trapped in a situation in which I had to listen to and keep engaging with this guy at a minimally polite level. 

What do you think are some of the reasons Loki turned out the way he did? With such intense self-esteem issues, and feelings of self-doubt, feelings of being unlovable, etc... Loki obviously suffers pretty severely from these things.

Boy is that a complicated question. 

Honestly I don’t think there’s any one reason. Part of it I think is just...Loki. Like, I don’t think he was ever a terribly secure or emotionally stable person, probably predisposed to depression (genetically, maybe?) and basically I think a lot of factors combined exacerbated that. 

Honestly, I don’t ever think it’s simple to point at a person or character and say definitively “this is what made them the way they are” - my own experience with trying to sort out my issues (where did they come from) has taught me that question is a tangled mess of “this thing happens and you react to/internalize it in this way based on your own brain and then it becomes a pattern potentially both externally and internally” and there’s no really easy way of untangling those strands.

Like - take things with Odin, and Odin’s emotional constipation. Did it take an emotional toll on Loki? Undoubtedly, but the fact that it did and the way that it did probably also has a lot to do with Loki’s personality and outlook in general, which in turn were shaped by his surroundings, which in turn...and so on. I think it’s often easy to look at someone’s life and be like “here, right here is where things went wrong” and to a certain extent maybe that’s partly true? But people react so differently to things - what can be nothing to one person might break another, and there are so many factors that go into that.

When it comes to the question of “what could have made things better for Loki, or changed some of his unhealthy attitudes toward things” - I honestly don’t know. 

Man, I would read the heck out of this. Really though, I'd read the heck out of any of your stories!

Thank you! I’ve actually already written a couple scenes of this one, so although for various reasons I am a very slow writer, at least when it comes to actually getting shit done, I do plan to write that one at some point. Among many other things. Feel free to follow me here or on AO3 if you want to get updates when I actually post fic! (All my Loki fic is in one series, if that’s the part you’re interested in and you’d rather just subscribe to that.)

lizardbeths replied to your post “AU meme - uh, how about Thor isn't banished to MIdgard in the Thor...”

hee, karma. I love getting these but then trying to think of one to give you I was all "Uh, um, here, have a lame AU" But yours seems legit. :)

It would be cool to see you tackle a story of Loki and Thor, pre-Thor 1. Maybe from their childhood. You’ve hinted at Loki’s childhood being rough a few times, it’d be cool to see Thor being Loki’s big bro & comforting him through that maybe.

I've thought about it, actually; I just don't feel like I have a whole lot of new to offer the world of pre-Thor 1 fic. But I probably will eventually - if I do, though, it would likely be to explore my elaborate headcanon about the relationship (non-shippy!) between Loki and Sif, probably from Sif's point of view, because I see so many Loki fics that set her up as either The Worst or A Saint and I'm really not into either. 

...but yeah, I have a lot of feelings about pre-Thor state of affairs, I'm just (a) terrified of writing them into fic in case of pissing someone off and (b) feel like I don't have much new or exciting to contribute. But hey, that doesn't mean I won't do it at some point anyway.