The story line of Thor and Loki throughout Thor and the Avengers have been very dynamic. I just want to gush about the amazing character development I've noticed coming from the writers of the scripts (Joss Whedon and all 6 writers who worked on Thor) and the actors who contributed to the development of Thor and Loki (Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston).
I was very pleased that the Thor that exists in the beginning of the first movie was not a fully developed hero, king, or warrior, he was young and arrogant. I liked that he didn't just start out as a 2 dimensional "hero" that didn't develop at all. The writers could have taken the Thor character from The Avengers and the Thor comic books who was already heroic and had most things figured out. I was impressed to see a lot of the family dynamics between Odin, Frigga, Thor, and Loki coming mostly from the Norse myths than the comic books.
Thor's relationship with Loki was very interesting in the first film. Thor really cared for his younger brother but still believed that he was smarter and more worthy than him (in more than the regular "sibling" kind of way). Loki from the comic books and the Norse myths was a liar and a maker of mischief so basically he made life difficult for everyone in Asgard just for some laughs. All back story on Loki aside, this puts him at a disadvantage in the running for king to begin with. Loki has made it difficult for people to trust him and I think this makes Thor feel superior to Loki. In the film we hear some lines from Thor like, "know your place, brother" in response to Loki giving Thor actual wise advice. Heimdall and Odin are also not interested in anything Loki has to say, ever. But during Thor's time on Midgard (Earth), he changes when he realizes that his father has told him he is unworthy of the throne because of his arrogance. When Thor is stripped of his powers and falls for a mortal woman, he learns what it is like to not be able to resolve every problem by going to war, and he learns what it feels like to want to help and protect someone. Once he becomes "worthy" and returns to Asgard, it is hard to say whether he still doesn't trust Loki, but he definitely cares for him and he may have regretted the way he treated him in the past but he doesn't mention it or apologize. I just really liked how they both started out as somewhat naive young men and we were given reasons on how they developed into their iconic characters.
Now: Loki's transition from "Thor" Loki:
I was very pleased that the Thor that exists in the beginning of the first movie was not a fully developed hero, king, or warrior, he was young and arrogant. I liked that he didn't just start out as a 2 dimensional "hero" that didn't develop at all. The writers could have taken the Thor character from The Avengers and the Thor comic books who was already heroic and had most things figured out. I was impressed to see a lot of the family dynamics between Odin, Frigga, Thor, and Loki coming mostly from the Norse myths than the comic books.
Thor's relationship with Loki was very interesting in the first film. Thor really cared for his younger brother but still believed that he was smarter and more worthy than him (in more than the regular "sibling" kind of way). Loki from the comic books and the Norse myths was a liar and a maker of mischief so basically he made life difficult for everyone in Asgard just for some laughs. All back story on Loki aside, this puts him at a disadvantage in the running for king to begin with. Loki has made it difficult for people to trust him and I think this makes Thor feel superior to Loki. In the film we hear some lines from Thor like, "know your place, brother" in response to Loki giving Thor actual wise advice. Heimdall and Odin are also not interested in anything Loki has to say, ever. But during Thor's time on Midgard (Earth), he changes when he realizes that his father has told him he is unworthy of the throne because of his arrogance. When Thor is stripped of his powers and falls for a mortal woman, he learns what it is like to not be able to resolve every problem by going to war, and he learns what it feels like to want to help and protect someone. Once he becomes "worthy" and returns to Asgard, it is hard to say whether he still doesn't trust Loki, but he definitely cares for him and he may have regretted the way he treated him in the past but he doesn't mention it or apologize. I just really liked how they both started out as somewhat naive young men and we were given reasons on how they developed into their iconic characters.
Now: Loki's transition from "Thor" Loki:
To "Avengers" Loki:
Loki's origin story, back story, and childhood is something that is very often touched on in the comic books and is in the movie as long as you pay attention to Loki's story line aside from the fact that he's trying to keep Thor out of Asgard so that he can be king. Let's start with the clip of Thor and Loki as young children in the relic room with Odin. They are looking at Mijolnir and Odin is telling them that they are both meant to be kings and Thor says that he will "hunt down the Frost Giants and slay them all!". Thor and Loki have obviously grown up into an environment where the Jotuns (Frost Giants) are not liked at all. They knew from childhood that there was a war between Asgard and Jotunheim and that the Jotuns were the enemies. Fast forward to Loki's existential crisis after finding out that he is a Jotun saying to Odin "because I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?" this is important because this man was raised believing that the Jotuns are monsters. He then goes on to say that he now understands why Thor was the favourite son, because Loki was always the enemy and it was out of his control. I think that, at this point, all the remarks from Volstagg, Sif, Thor, and Heimdall that Loki had gotten during his entire life stung even more. By now, in the movie, Thor has already been banished for being arrogant and childish and just rude to his father (not ready to be king). While a lot of people are believing that Loki is just trying to keep Thor out of Asgard because he wants power, Loki is really just trying to prove to his father that he is capable and worthy of the throne and his father's approval. Loki genuinely believes that Asgard would crumble under Thor's rule and wants to make Odin change his mind. This is why Loki makes the deal with Laufey, he lures him into Odin's bed chamber, telling him that he will have the chance to slay Odin and get the Casket. This is a significant part because Loki slays his own birth father for multiple reasons: the first, because Loki hates him for abandoning him and because he was raised to hate the Jotuns, especially Laufey; secondly, because Loki wants to show his parents that he has a hero by saving his father from an attack; and third, to prove that he is a worthy king. It's very interesting to note how he refers to himself to Laufey as "the son of Odin"-still considering himself to be Odin's son when he knows he's not. However, Loki then goes on to kill all the Frost Giants, every single one of them by using the Bifrost to destroy Jotuneheim. It so hard to believe how shameful Loki has been made to believe it is to be a Jotun that he would kill the entire race, meanwhile knowing that he is a part of it. I can't even comprehend that kind of self-hatred, I would like to think that Loki's fate could have been changed by his families attitude towards the entire realm of Jotunheim. Loki has not gone evil at this point in the film and I don't think we've actually seen Loki do anything necessarily evil but at this point he is still trying to prove that he is capable. He wants to be successful in destroying Jotunheim so he can run back to the palace and say "Look father! I killed every single Frost Giant for you! Now you don't have to worry about them, you don't have to hate them" but he is stopped by Thor and whilst hanging off the Bifrost, he says to his father that he "could have done it, for you, for all of us" and he is still returned with a dissaproving "no, Loki". I don't understand at all why Loki's father would just continue to tell him that he's not good enough as he is hanging off a bridge. Loki then let's go- this is hard to analyze because we know that Loki knows about secret passageways between the realms but we also know that using them at this point was not a part of his plan. So, I mean, we do know that his current emotional state made him want to leave his family but it's hard to say when exactly he decided to go to Midgard for the Tesseract.
Then there's the end of the credits scene where we see Loki starting to control Eric Selvig's mind. It's hard to say how long Loki's been on Midgard and how fast he thought of a plan or if it was in his mind the whole time, but Loki seems to now be searching for power. This is completely understandable since I think there's only so much hatred a person can deal with before their heart stops being sad and starts to become ice cold.
So Loki's transition is so psychologically understandable, he goes from crying for 50% of the Thor film to demanding some respect. He's gone beyond trying to win the approval of his family to giving up completely and takes it into his own hands to try and become king. This part is very interesting to me since Loki has somewhat abandoned Asgard yet still introduces himself as "Loki of Asgard". He knows of his Jotun heritage- which means his skin is naturally blue and his eyes are naturally red- but he still chooses to walk around with an "Asgardian" appearance (caucasian skin and blue/green eyes). This shows us of the shame that Loki still believes to come with being a Jotun but he doesn't refer to himself as Thor's brother or Odin's son as he says to Thor that he is not his brother and asks if Thor knows of his true parentage. I thought it was quite sad that Loki also asks Thor if he mourned while thinking he was dead. As if he thought that his family wouldn't even mourn his death.
In Thor 2, I'd like to see Loki have some sort of reconciliation with Odin, Frigga, and Thor even though this has never really been done before. Even though I think that Loki will continue to be a menace in the second Thor film, I'd love to see something resolved between he and his family. My prediction for what Loki's situation will be in Asgard, is that he may be yelled at and imprisoned like how he often is in the myths and comic books, and he will somehow get out and continue to be hated while more distance grows between he and his family.
Then there's the end of the credits scene where we see Loki starting to control Eric Selvig's mind. It's hard to say how long Loki's been on Midgard and how fast he thought of a plan or if it was in his mind the whole time, but Loki seems to now be searching for power. This is completely understandable since I think there's only so much hatred a person can deal with before their heart stops being sad and starts to become ice cold.
So Loki's transition is so psychologically understandable, he goes from crying for 50% of the Thor film to demanding some respect. He's gone beyond trying to win the approval of his family to giving up completely and takes it into his own hands to try and become king. This part is very interesting to me since Loki has somewhat abandoned Asgard yet still introduces himself as "Loki of Asgard". He knows of his Jotun heritage- which means his skin is naturally blue and his eyes are naturally red- but he still chooses to walk around with an "Asgardian" appearance (caucasian skin and blue/green eyes). This shows us of the shame that Loki still believes to come with being a Jotun but he doesn't refer to himself as Thor's brother or Odin's son as he says to Thor that he is not his brother and asks if Thor knows of his true parentage. I thought it was quite sad that Loki also asks Thor if he mourned while thinking he was dead. As if he thought that his family wouldn't even mourn his death.
In Thor 2, I'd like to see Loki have some sort of reconciliation with Odin, Frigga, and Thor even though this has never really been done before. Even though I think that Loki will continue to be a menace in the second Thor film, I'd love to see something resolved between he and his family. My prediction for what Loki's situation will be in Asgard, is that he may be yelled at and imprisoned like how he often is in the myths and comic books, and he will somehow get out and continue to be hated while more distance grows between he and his family.