Nothing To See Here

there’s this moment when they appear at the bottom of the stairs and thor rolls down the last couple and stands up and he says

we could’ve just walked.

and it made me think of how magic works in terry pratchett’s novels, how (to paraphrase) the hard part wasn’t turning someone into a frog, it was not turning someone into a frog when you knew how easy it was.

like, the whole scene with dr. strange is just. all magic. all pointless magic. unnecessary magic, when, well. they could have just walked.

whereas loki doesn’t really rely on magic overmuch in the movie – he uses it as a tool, when he needs it, but if the job can be done with plain old non-magical trickery or a knife, he just uses those. he resorts to magic when he’s cornered by valkyrie, he uses it when his goals are most directly accomplished by using magic rather than by other means.

whereas dr. strange is using magic all over his scene, just to use it. just because he can. magic was unnecessary for ninety percent of what he did in that scene, the only time he needed magic was to whisk them away to norway. but he teleported all over the place even when he only needed to move a few feet, gave thor an ever-refilling beer that just spilled everywhere, floated around to make a show of how ~magical~ he was, when…

he could have just walked.

i mean, i’m very sure that the filmmakers intended it for comedic effect, but there’s also a layer there of dr. strange being much less comfortable with magic than loki is – loki doesn’t need to bust out the magic at every opportunity, it’s simply a skill, a tool that is completely under his control and at his disposal. whereas dr. strange (at least in his scene in ragnarok) is showing off, which reeks of insecurity.

Was reading through the “Thor” script  and found this:

“Perhaps you should not have so carelessly abandoned me.” This gives Laufey pause. – Why did Laufey pause if Loki was telling the truth?

“That’s what I would have done.” – It seems more like angry and rash words, after Laufey realized his own son was raised up by the sworn enemy and brainwashed to turn against him, and was berated “know your place” by the enemy’s crown prince right in the place he originally belonged to. (How ironic!)

Laufey was a king and when a king decides to give up his offspring, he would finish it with his own hands or at least ask an executioner to do so. Just casting the baby out is imprudent and unwise.

And another probable hint the film gives:

“Only one of you can ascend to the throne. But both of you were born to be kings.”

“I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day. Bring about an alliance, bring about permanent peace. Through you.”

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Oh god…. 3

Personally I have three ways of approaching this.

1) The lame-ass but most realistic one: Tom was too busy working on Hamlet to promote “Ragnarok” with Chris as much as he used to do. No crazy press junkets, no photo shoots, just that one chinese interview together. Let’s not forget Chris has three kids now and filming in Brisbane was a great bonus for him. And if I can judge by that rock-paper-scissors vid, they were both too tired and too overwhelmed by Taika and Jeff’s presence to try to fit in some jokes and teasing of their own.

2) Marvel doesn’t really care to promote the Hiddlesworth bromance anymore. This is even worse because I can’t imagine the same people who probably had a part in the famous Moscow photo session, or even encouraged them to say “I love Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Hemsworth loves me” and “But then when (Chris) smiles it’s all ok” are not interested in that anymore. They probably knew back then the bromance sells (remember Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in “Sherlock Holmes”?), and they know it now. So what happened? Was Marvel  only interested in promoting Thor/Hulk? It’s cute and fitting and fanboyish but it’s not as appealing, is it? Also, given the AMOUNT of Thorki fan service Taika gave us, and how he is more interested in showing men loving each other than fist fights, and how he himself is so touchy-feely with his actors and is not ashamed to admit how gorgeous and yummy Chris is, it’s weird that Marvel didn’t take advantage of that.

Then again, we all remember “The Dark World” promos and clips and interviews, and how it was ALL about Thorki, right? There were clips  that were not even included in the film, like “Hitting doesn’t solve everything, brother”, a phrase which, coming from Tom’s british lips, deliberately sounded a LOT like “kissing”. Or “If you trusted me you’d be the fool I always took you for”. And really, Loki “died” early on in the film so there wasn’t as much Loki screen time as one would expect. But Marvel knew Loki sells and so did his  bromance with Thor, hence those Thorki promos.

Which brings me to my worst scenario:

3) Life has changed them both and they just can’t act like they did 6-7 years ago. They’re not young enthusiastic ready-for-anything unknown actors anymore who’d do anything to impress Natalie Portman and the unsuspecting audience. Chris is too busy being there for his kids, having real-life stuff to deal with, and Tom is probably trying to keep a balance between being the serious theatre actor that he is and the superstar who tries his best to remain in the limelight. I remember last summer seeing his vid for UNICEFIreland where he put his Loki wig on saying “He’s back” and I was like… (to my shame, I admit) “…Is Loki still relevant? Yes Thor:Ragnarok etc etc but this is not 2012 anymore.” Well he was doing what he does best: being Loki, getting ready to be adored once more. In that same period I don’t know if his very public romance with Taylor Swift was just a publicity stunt to get people talking about him again, or if it was part of his James Bond PR. I don’t know why it had to be so public, why he was so eager to be seen. This all looks a lot like stress to me, like there was too much pressure on him to be in the spotlight again. 

Finally I don’t know if his relationship with Chris has changed. I don’t know if Tom’s just… tired, you know? And let’s not forget that single people find it hard to relate to their now married and “serious” friends. Even if their friendship doesn’t change and the strong feelings remain the same, marriage keeps those friends too busy.

However I’m sure Hiddlesworth isn’t done with us yet. I’m sure they still have strong and tender feelings for each other. Maybe we’ll get a new surge of Hiddlesworth love from them with the upcoming “Infinity War”. Tom is still an honourary Hemsworth,  they’re still “brothers from another mother”.  I’m quite positive the affection between them is genuine and we’ve got this one pic to prove it: 

In short,

Oh yeah, animosity is the word for it. My very close friends are cool people, they are still creative and “crazy artists” like before, just too busy. But my colleagues, whose life choice was a big family anyway, see me as a strange fruit, an alien who just landed in their midst, the bad sense of a “crazy artist” (=irresponsible, too lazy/noncomformist/distracted to settle for cooking complicated dishes – don’t try telling them that complicated dishes are for families and you’d rather spend that precious time on complicated art that STAYS).

And surely they kinda envy the carelessness, and  they don’t understand the point of going to conventions just to get an autograph from G.R.R. Martin when they’d be happy just spending time at the beach with the kids.

Yeah, I’m envious too because I find myself left out of situations that are normal and come easily to most people. Kids are everything and hell, if Chris can do it why can’t we. :-P

1) The brief for Thor Ragnarok coming directly from Chris - and as stated in many interviews by himself and Taika Waititi - was to “make Thor the coolest character in the film”. Which we can only interpret as “as opposed to Loki”, who objectively upstaged Thor in every film they’ve been in together. So Ragnarok was written to suit Chris and the direction he wanted to go. Which is completely understandable, but doesn't make it any better for Tom and his dramatic act. So there is that.

Sorry for playing the devil’s advocate here, do you really think there’s some kind of competition between Chris and Tom? I personally doubt it, it would be unprofessional and kind of immature of them to say “Hey your part is bigger than mine, not fair”. I’m sure they both realized early on that Loki upstaged Thor in all films, it was quite obvious, but if Tom didn’t like the part he could have said no, or have a say in it, they took so many liberties with Taika in charge after all. Taika said in an interview that Chris, Bruce and Tom all wanted their characters changed and they enjoyed the freshness and freedom that improvisation brought them. Taika did admit that Loki is humiliated in his film and his fans might not like that, and that Chris was bored with Thor’s character so far and wanted to change him. That doesn’t necessarily mean Tom grew bitter for seeing Chris getting the script he deserved, Loki is still more popular than Thor. Just my opinion though.

But your second argument holds a LOT of water and I’m kinda “shocked” to find out about this. “Disastrous year” and “He damaged his brand by overexposing in all the wrong ways”,  you mean the TS thing? Or was there something else as well?

Wait, Hamlet was about regaining credibility? I haven’t followed his work lately but I thought he was always into theatre. “Rather than anyone actually seeing it”, you mean he JUST did it for the PR or that the play wasn’t very popular? 

Finally, if Marvel finds Tom’s PR faux pas harmless, why didn’t they “force” him to promote the film with Chris? Unless of course you mean that they all thought it was better for him to stay low. 

On the first point: I don’t think that there was any kind of fierce competition or malicious intent behind any of this. Chris wanted a Thor film that would finally let <i>him</i> shine. Tom probably also wanted Chris to have that.  Was there a way of achieving that without turning Loki down? I would like to think that there was. I would like to think that Chris would have prefered that. But it is what it is now. I think that Tom is, on one hand, happy for Chris, but, on the other, he takes his character Loki very seriously. He probably did want to take Loki in a new direction, but I can’t conceivably imagine it being this particular direction. Of course, this is pure speculation, but I imagine that Tom probably has some conflicting feelings on this matter.

On the second point: TS affair was undoubtedly the culmination of his PR disaster, but even before that he was on some bizarre PR offensive to become Hollywood lead man/traditional hero type that included constant Bond interviews, naked photoshoots etc. The problem with TS was not whether it was real or not, but the very deliberate PR circus they’ve made out of it. (Compare and contrast to Prince Harry dating Megan Markle for months and not a single paparazzi shot making its way onto the front page of Daily Mail). Again I don’t know if it was Tom’s idea or someone advised him, but it backfired spectacularly with general public’s opinion turning against him. 

Hamlet play was most definitely a conscious effort to bring back Tom-Hiddleston-the-serious-Shakespearian-actor image and was staged with that purpose in mind. By doing a short run in a tiny venue and making it impossible to get tickets, they’ve made it into the hottest ticket in town. Every reviewer wanted to get in. It was on the front pages of all the newspapers in UK. Very few people actually saw it, but everybody knew Tom Hiddleston was playing Hamlet. A very smart move on his part. 

Finally, regarding Marvel’s PR: I guess my point is - they have either directly “advised” or simply “agreed” that it would be best for him to lay low. 

Oh god…. 3

Personally I have three ways of approaching this.

1) The lame-ass but most realistic one: Tom was too busy working on Hamlet to promote “Ragnarok” with Chris as much as he used to do. No crazy press junkets, no photo shoots, just that one chinese interview together. Let’s not forget Chris has three kids now and filming in Brisbane was a great bonus for him. And if I can judge by that rock-paper-scissors vid, they were both too tired and too overwhelmed by Taika and Jeff’s presence to try to fit in some jokes and teasing of their own.

2) Marvel doesn’t really care to promote the Hiddlesworth bromance anymore. This is even worse because I can’t imagine the same people who probably had a part in the famous Moscow photo session, or even encouraged them to say “I love Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Hemsworth loves me” and “But then when (Chris) smiles it’s all ok” are not interested in that anymore. They probably knew back then the bromance sells (remember Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in “Sherlock Holmes”?), and they know it now. So what happened? Was Marvel  only interested in promoting Thor/Hulk? It’s cute and fitting and fanboyish but it’s not as appealing, is it? Also, given the AMOUNT of Thorki fan service Taika gave us, and how he is more interested in showing men loving each other than fist fights, and how he himself is so touchy-feely with his actors and is not ashamed to admit how gorgeous and yummy Chris is, it’s weird that Marvel didn’t take advantage of that.

Then again, we all remember “The Dark World” promos and clips and interviews, and how it was ALL about Thorki, right? There were clips  that were not even included in the film, like “Hitting doesn’t solve everything, brother”, a phrase which, coming from Tom’s british lips, deliberately sounded a LOT like “kissing”. Or “If you trusted me you’d be the fool I always took you for”. And really, Loki “died” early on in the film so there wasn’t as much Loki screen time as one would expect. But Marvel knew Loki sells and so did his  bromance with Thor, hence those Thorki promos.

Which brings me to my worst scenario:

3) Life has changed them both and they just can’t act like they did 6-7 years ago. They’re not young enthusiastic ready-for-anything unknown actors anymore who’d do anything to impress Natalie Portman and the unsuspecting audience. Chris is too busy being there for his kids, having real-life stuff to deal with, and Tom is probably trying to keep a balance between being the serious theatre actor that he is and the superstar who tries his best to remain in the limelight. I remember last summer seeing his vid for UNICEFIreland where he put his Loki wig on saying “He’s back” and I was like… (to my shame, I admit) “…Is Loki still relevant? Yes Thor:Ragnarok etc etc but this is not 2012 anymore.” Well he was doing what he does best: being Loki, getting ready to be adored once more. In that same period I don’t know if his very public romance with Taylor Swift was just a publicity stunt to get people talking about him again, or if it was part of his James Bond PR. I don’t know why it had to be so public, why he was so eager to be seen. This all looks a lot like stress to me, like there was too much pressure on him to be in the spotlight again. 

Finally I don’t know if his relationship with Chris has changed. I don’t know if Tom’s just… tired, you know? And let’s not forget that single people find it hard to relate to their now married and “serious” friends. Even if their friendship doesn’t change and the strong feelings remain the same, marriage keeps those friends too busy.

However I’m sure Hiddlesworth isn’t done with us yet. I’m sure they still have strong and tender feelings for each other. Maybe we’ll get a new surge of Hiddlesworth love from them with the upcoming “Infinity War”. Tom is still an honourary Hemsworth,  they’re still “brothers from another mother”.  I’m quite positive the affection between them is genuine and we’ve got this one pic to prove it: 

In short,

Oh yeah, animosity is the word for it. My very close friends are cool people, they are still creative and “crazy artists” like before, just too busy. But my colleagues, whose life choice was a big family anyway, see me as a strange fruit, an alien who just landed in their midst, the bad sense of a “crazy artist” (=irresponsible, too lazy/noncomformist/distracted to settle for cooking complicated dishes – don’t try telling them that complicated dishes are for families and you’d rather spend that precious time on complicated art that STAYS).

And surely they kinda envy the carelessness, and  they don’t understand the point of going to conventions just to get an autograph from G.R.R. Martin when they’d be happy just spending time at the beach with the kids.

Yeah, I’m envious too because I find myself left out of situations that are normal and come easily to most people. Kids are everything and hell, if Chris can do it why can’t we. :-P

1) The brief for Thor Ragnarok coming directly from Chris - and as stated in many interviews by himself and Taika Waititi - was to “make Thor the coolest character in the film”. Which we can only interpret as “as opposed to Loki”, who objectively upstaged Thor in every film they’ve been in together. So Ragnarok was written to suit Chris and the direction he wanted to go. Which is completely understandable, but doesn't make it any better for Tom and his dramatic act. So there is that.