Do not confuse Loki’s absolute confidence with an acceptance of place in the universe. He is very much a lost soul.
Mirella’s
sacrifice to save Loki’s life leaves him feeling that he has more moral
worth that he has ascribed to himself. Where the death of lesser
creatures has meant little in the past, Mirella’s sacrifice strikes a
chord of loss in him. She showed him freedom from the bonds he has
wrapped around himself, and with her death he will never have a chance
to experience it again (in that way, at least). And he regrets, if
subconsciously, that his actions lead to her death. With moral worth
comes the realization that he is the tyrant of his own world, except
that his world is empty and the real world demands interaction (and
compromise, among other criteria) to successfully lead others.
Loki
is stunned to think that all of his plans have failed due to his own
self-righteous arrogance. He decides to take a hiatus from villainy and
“play by the rules” while he is on Midgard/Earth. He does not, however,
resolve to become a hero. Heroism holds few rewards that interest him.
After he has committed himself to follow the rules, he encounters Rowan.
Her intuitive yet stagnant life pulls Loki to take her in and make her
better—make her work to the best of her abilities rather than allow them
to languish in a job she hates.
When
they first meet he is objective about discovering her skills and
abilities. He chooses her trust as his reward for behaving as a
respectable human. He later decides he can accomplish his task quicker
if he helps her to become better. To him, he intends to correct the
inefficiencies in her life, but to her it comes across as a wish to make
her a better person. Loki reads Rowan’s unfinished novel to get an idea
of what he can do with it to help her so she’ll finish it and move
on—the story is the source of her fear and stagnation. Rowan takes a
chance to let him read it at all, and she assumes he wants to read it to
know more of her world and know her better. These are byproducts that
Loki takes for granted, but then realizes he would miss if they weren’t
part of the package.
From
the time they first meet Loki and Rowan are always a little awkward
with each other, but at the same time they are comfortable together.
This can be explained by their personality types: she is an INFJ and he
is an INTJ. They are both introverted intuitives, but the outside world
sees their auxiliary functions of extraverted feeling and extraverted
thinking respectively. They organize information similarly until it
comes to focal points and priorities.
Surprisingly,
Loki has little problem caging his hatred and destructive urges. His
burgeoning feelings for Rowan help him to make personal growth a
priority rather than a diversion. After several weeks of helping others
improve their systems and workflow, he eventually finds himself wanting
to be a better person for her. She has come to rely on his friendship, and he hers.
Over
the days and weeks he spends with her, he develops sincere affection
for her and begins to incorporate her into his world as an anchor. He
chooses to remain mortal as a challenge to himself and for his love of
Rowan. He has come to love the challenges of the simple life that he has
begun to build with her.
After
almost a year together, they both inspire the other to grow and push
their own boundaries. Rowan gains confidence in her writing abilities
and promoting herself, and Loki learns to appreciate helping others
rather than just improving systems. He is still cold and dislikes people
in general, but he shows a little humor and has grown fond of the area
they live in. Rowan is now the center of his world. He cannot imagine
his life without her now. They become engaged with a child on the way,
and Loki’s awareness begins to expand to incorporate the roles of
husband and father, but then tragedy strikes and jeopardizes everything
Loki has worked for the past year.
Rowan
is killed in an accident. Her death prompts Loki to fall back on his
more traditional coping mechanisms of hatred and blame—blame for Thor’s
lack of help and hatred for Rowan’s fate. He has no support system and
his faith in humanity is shattered. His faith in Rowan, however, does
not waver—she has become his conviction—and he cannot accept her
wrongful death and continue his life as a mortal. He commits suicide
only to be resurrected by Odin. Rather than continue his life in Asgard,
he instead vows revenge on the force that caused her death—fate itself.
In this case he learns through Odin and other unknown contacts that
Thanos and his possession of several Infinity Gems had been the cause of
Rowan’s death, as well as the cause that brought the two of them
together in the first place. Upon learning this, Loki accepts Director
Fury’s offer to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. as a spy for them to report on
Thanos’s plans as he gets closer to him.
Loki’s
alliance with S.H.I.E.L.D. is tenuous and practical, as he is only
working with them for his own means. Yet Nick Fury needs all the help he
can get to combat Thanos. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Loki understands this and agrees to offer his help to the Avengers
Initiative. He operates on his own, not with the rest of the Avengers,
and only reports back to Fury. In Loki’s eyes he is doing S.H.I.E.L.D. a
favor that he will later collect on. He cares nothing for Fury’s
promise to erase his criminal record on Earth now that Rowan is gone. He
is no longer mortal, therefore he no longer cares what Earth thinks of
him. His only focus is taking down Thanos.
Loki becomes an anti-hero since his actions benefit others even if his reasons are for his own benefit.
No comments:
Post a Comment