Loki Deserves Better - Blog Posts

rowendownthestream

11 months ago

while this is an absolutely great take on this issue, and i completely understand you frustration with the showrunners for royally screwing up our favorite character (as we probably all do on this side of the fandom), i would like to quickly remind the class of that time tom mentioned in an interview that he only had ~5% input in the series despite being an executive producer who should've had much more power (i really wish that i was able to find the picture of it that i had found as a source but i've somehow lost it in my files).

i personally cannot find it in myself to blame him for the destruction of his character because he has shown in multiple instances how much he cares about loki and his story (see his knowledge of loki in the comics as well as his understanding of norse mythology, especially compared to the rest of the cast in the thor movies alone). all of the issues that have occurred after 2013 usually can be directly connected back to the writers fundementally misunderstanding (or just not giving a fuck about) loki, or the director changing things last minute to make him look bad - as op said above about nerfing and deleting crucial scenes for his character, even since the very first movie.

as i previously said, your feelings on the matter are completely valid, and i respect your opinion. however, based on the information that i have as a fan (because we will likely never know about all of the decisions that went into this), it is unfair to be blaming tom for decisions that were originally out of his hands, or even ones that were taken away from him.

EDIT: I FOUND THE PICTURE GUYS

While This Is An Absolutely Great Take On This Issue, And I Completely Understand You Frustration With

Any time I see someone say "Marvel knew what they were doing when they cast Tom Hiddleston" I feel a bit like...they didn't though? I think you're projecting some 4D chess grandmaster stuff onto Marvel Studios that doesn't really exist.

Tom was cast via Kenneth Branagh and yes it was PHENOMENAL casting but let's not pretend like Marvel Studios didn't spend the next near-decade and a half deleting Loki's scenes, killing him then instantly reviving him, deleting yet more of his scenes, killing him again, retconning killing him, sticking him off-screen for almost half a decade, removing yet another scene and not even compensating his fans with a DVD extra, killing him again, then suddenly remembering he's popular (again) and coming up with something to use a now-for-real-dead character as the lead but it wasn't exactly the same character (just another version of him) and now they're apparently done with him again when it's pretty obvious he'll be wheeled out of that tree at some point.

I love Loki. I love Tom's portrayal of Loki but the only people who have consistently genuinely seemed to care about the character are the fans. Because we've been given nothing but crumbs by Marvel and yet produce all this beautiful fan art, fan fic and meta. Marvel have just kinda stumbled around Loki like some perpetually confused pigeon in a hall of mirrors that keeps crashing into its own reflection shrugging "huh...what IS this? Ooh shiny!"

Knew what they were doing? More like lucked out with a very talented and charismatic actor and a dedicated fanbase that formed 2011-12 and is somehow, despite everything still here.