#thor is also a title for whoever is able to wield mjolnir

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Why Kid Loki's Backstory in Loki Proves (More Than Anything Else) That the Writers Don't Understand Loki's Character

I've mostly already talked about this in a theory around Kid Loki, but now I'm going in a comic-heavy rant direction with it. Spoilers for Loki, Journey into Mystery, Immortal Thor, King Thor, and possibly more.

So Kid Loki in the show says he's taken in by the TVA for killing Thor. It is not clear whether Thor is also a child at this point in the timeline, or (as in my theory) this is Kid Loki from Journey into Mystery, a Kid Loki from our Loki's future (a future that hasn't happened yet in the main timeline of the MCU). Which would mean that the Thor he kills is an adult (probably. The future MCU option could deviate from Journey into Mystery and mean Thor is also a younger, reincarnated iteration of himself).

In the comics, the closest Kid Loki comes to killing Thor is 1., in Journey into Mystery, when he influences events during a battle to end the bloodshed by helping bring about Thor's sacrifice for the greater good. If he had not died, the battle would have gone on and led to more terrible destruction for Asgard. 2., In AoA, after "Kid Loki" ages up in Young Avengers, when he stabs Thor with Gram in order to free him from Loki's evil future self, who has hitched a ride inside Thor as a symbiote-like parasite.

In JiM, Loki privately and very deeply mourns Thor's death. (He also does so publicly, but in a way to avoid the suspicion of Asgard that he had something to do with Thor's death. But then the Asgardians go away and he's left alone, and he cries.) He knows what needed to be done, but he has lost his brother, his protector, his friend. He loves him. He is often shown throughout JiM to care about Thor. He calls for him instinctively when something he summons turns on him. He tries to make Thor promise to kill him if he goes bad again. He names his dog after him.

In Immortal Thor, we are reminded that Thor sought out Kid Loki, Thor awoke the piece of dormant soul inside him, Thor brought him back to himself and home to Asgard. Kid Loki would never kill Thor. Unless he had to.

Likewise, in King Thor, most of the comic is Loki, armed with the Necrosword, fighting Thor. Yet even here, even influenced by the elder god of the symbiotes themself, he cannot bring himself to annihilate Thor. (Now, he certainly does a good job of trying, even when he isn't as much under All-Black's influence. He makes an effort, I'm not discounting that. I'm not saying he's pretending to kill him, but in the end there's a shift.)

At a certain point, it stops being about Thor vs. Loki and the fight of an Asgardian lifetime. At a certain point, Loki very nearly gives it up, and Thor lets him. Loki says that it's too late, but not for their bond, not for a truce between them. It's too late to end this fight, because Loki has unleashed All-Black back into the universe, and it is too powerful even on its own for Loki to contain or control.

But the important thing here is that Loki stops. He stops fighting Thor. He stops trying to kill him. And when all hope is lost, as All-Black devours them, drowning them in despair and its own viscous, all-consuming darkness, Thor reaches for Loki, and Loki reaches back.

And this is a comic. We can make assumptions based on what we know about these characters, but at the end of the day, this is a comic, a stationary form of visual storytelling. Meaning that the panel portraying this moment does not display the first reaching hand, and so we cannot truly know who reaches for whom first. The important thing is that Loki reaches, too, but he could easily have reached out first.

Therefore, if Loki can reach for his brother, for comfort and peace and a promise of tomorrow, when all hope and light is dying around him, when he's about to die himself in a universe-ending disaster of his own making, centuries and millennia into a future of antagonism and villainy and sibling rivalry played out on a cosmic scale, then why the hell would he ever truly kill Thor as an eleven-year-old?

Aside from the shock factor (for both the main Loki and the viewers), it makes absolutely no sense. And if the writers cannot even comprehend that this would never happen, not in any universe (JiM and King Thor have nothing to do with each other, yet are connected by this one truth), no matter what Loki may claim, then why should they be expected to know anything else about Loki's character?

#of course another question is: is it loki's brother kid loki kills? #thor is also a title for whoever is able to wield mjolnir #but that's a different post #yet another question: why am i still so hung up on this one character's backstory #when i don't think kid loki's ever coming back to the show? #loki #loki tv show #loki comics #loki season 1 spoilers #loki rant #kid loki #journey into mystery kieron gillen #journey into mystery comic #journey into mystery spoilers #king thor spoilers #spoilers for immortal thor #(like one line)

[imagine-loki]

Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

TITLE: Of Numbers and Strange Friendships CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 27/? AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki being friends with Peter Parker RATING: T NOTES/WARNINGS: None so far.  Also on AO3 here

Loki returned to the bathroom to find Peter anxiously pacing while he waited for the god.  Loki chuckled at the sight and let his illusion fade so he was back to his normal form.  “You owe me a favor.  And you will be studying the material properly this evening and every evening until you know it properly,” he told Peter firmly.  He bailed Peter out to keep him from failing since if he failed, Aunt May wouldn’t let him keep working at his fake internship if he failed any of his classes.

Loki also had to admit that Peter had won him over with his interpretation of the teacher’s “only an act of god” can save you.  She hadn’t specified which god Peter was allowed to call upon.  He’d chosen to call upon Loki.  

“Thank you so much, Loki!” Peter exclaimed and hugged Loki around the neck.  “I swear, I’ll never let it happen again.  I swear, I swear,” he said in his loud puppy-like enthusiastic way.  

“You better not,” Loki told him firmly. “I will not cheat for you again,” he told the teen firmly. Loki had standards.  He only helped this time because Peter had goaded him with that ‘act of god’ line and he really didn’t want to lose Peter’s friendship if he lost the internship.  And he was really, really, going to make the teen earn the help he’d just gotten by making him study the material ten times as hard.  Or more.  The god would make sure that Peter didn’t think asking him to cheat would ever be the easy way out.

Poor Peter was in for a world of hurt and didn’t seem to realize it yet.

Loki was about to teleport home when Peter took his hand.  “Not yet, Loki!” he begged.  “Come to another class with me? Please???” he begged with a heartbreaking pout.

Loki rolled his eyes.  “Now why in the name of the Nine would I do that?” he asked.  He disliked this place and wanted to get out of this dingy high school. Especially the dingy bathroom of the school. 

“Because you get to show off?” Peter suggested.  Loki glared so Peter hurried on.  “We’re doing a section on mythology in my history class. The teacher said we can get extra credit for bringing in a myth to share with the class,” he explained a bit sheepishly.  He hadn’t been planning on asking, but if Loki was already here…

Loki gave Peter a considering look.  “You have gotten too good at using wording to your advantage,” he told his friend proudly.  “Very well, though this is two favors you owe me,” he warned.  Making deals with the Loki could be akin to making deals with the devil, though Peter didn’t think Loki would do anything to actually hurt him. 

“Fine, two favors,” Peter agreed.  He was too trusting of Loki, but Loki wouldn’t actually hurt him.  If he tried to do something out of line, Peter could always get Thor to intervene.  He doubted it would come to that.  Loki sighed and looked extremely put-upon, but let his casual clothes shimmer to his armor, including golden horned helmet.  If he was going to show off, he was going to do it properly.  “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” Peter told him and led him from the bathroom to his next class.  

The crowd parted for Loki in armor. His very presence caused the students to get out of his way.  His armor made them scurry faster.  That he had summoned a replica of his staff to carry as he walked made them stay out of his way quietly.  His well-practiced murder strut had them all staring in awe at the god being led by Peter Parker of all people.  How did that nerd get so lucky as to be friends with such powerful people?

Peter led him into one of the classrooms.  “Ms. King, I’ve brought my extra credit project,” Peter announced while the rest of the students just stared.  And stared.  And stared.  Most of them had seen Loki on the camping trip, but that was casual Loki, friendly, patient, teaching. This Loki? This was combat Loki.  This was the god, the prince of Asgard.  This was the man worthy of their respect and a hint of fear.  He could smite them where they all sat and not bat an eyelash.  

He looked intimidating as hell in his full armor and battle regalia. 

Especially holding the staff when the battle of New York wasn’t that far behind them.  “E-extra credit?” the teacher stammered, while Loki watched on, his court mask in place and completely unreadable.  He had a feeling the young teacher was enamored with him and fought back a smirk. 

“You said if we brought a myth to share with the class that you’d give us extra credit,” Peter reminded her patiently.  “I brought a literal myth, Loki prince of Asgard, god of mischief, chaos, lies, and stories,” he told her brightly, looking so proud of himself.  “He agreed to come share a story from Asgard for us,” 

“V-very well then.  Excellent work, Peter,” the teacher stammered.  

Loki stood in front of the class and vanished his staff.  He was in his element with a captive attentive audience.  But what story to tell them?  Should he tell them of the creation of the world?  The battle of Jotunheim?  One of thousands of adventures he and Thor had growing up?The truth behind the battle of New York? 

Which story?

He decided on one of himself and Thor.  One that had made it into the myths, but was very true.  “This is a story of myself and Thor from many centuries ago,” he started the tale in front of the enraptured students and teacher.  “One morning, the entire palace woke to Thor roaring from his bedchamber.  He stormed all the way to the throne room to confront the Allfather in a rage.  Quite literally mind, as it rained in the palace as he walked as if a tiny stormcloud followed him, Mother was not pleased,” he added with a smirk. “We all arrived in the throne room to find out why he was in such a temper. His anger was understandable, of course, when he explained that his beloved hammer had gone missing.  No one had thought it possible, as only the worthy are capable of lifting Mjolnir.  However, someone had stolen the hammer from Thor’s bedside table in the dead of night, leaving only a ransom note in their wake,” 

“What did they ask for?” a small voice from the crowd asked when Loki paused.

“Who stole it?” someone else asked.  

Loki appreciated his audience goading him on. 

Loki chuckled.  “They asked for Freya’s hand in marriage.  Freya is the goddess of beauty and was always sought to be wed.  We also recognized the language in the note as belonging to the giants.  Thor stomped to Freya and demanded she give herself to the giants, that she marry their leader so he would get his hammer back,” he laughed again at the memory. “Needless to say that did not work, as she slapped him senseless.  He deserved it, the oaf.  So we had to come up with another way to get Mjolnir back, since we could not allow the giants to continue to have a weapon so powerful in their possession.  For whoever was worthy to lift the hammer would also have the power of Thor while they wielded it.  

We came up with a plan that we would disguise Thor as Freya and sneak into the giant’s territory to trick them into giving Mjolnir back during the wedding as they promised. I went along with him, disguised as his handmaid,” his form shimmered to Lady Loki to emphasize how he’d managed this and shifted back a moment later.  “We made it all the way to the giants without issue.  They were wary of Thor, of course, since he hadn’t bothered to allow me to use my magic to make him female and was in a flimsy disguise, but they bought my lies and the wedding began.  My idiot brother almost gave us away multiple times during the wedding feast, since the moron decided to eat the entire feast, which included and entire ox, seven salmon, and at least three trays of pastries.  He also drank three entire casks of wine,” he gestured to indicate how big a cask was and the kids looks impressed.  It was quite a lot of wine.  More than any woman, even an Asgardian one, would be able to drink on her own. 

“Again, we were saved by my silver tongue and lies.  Finally, the giants, being even more stupid than my idiot brother, performed part of the traditional wedding ceremony wherein Mjolnir, or a replica therin, is placed on the bride’s lap in a prayer to Thor for fertility. The moronic giants placed the actual Mjolnir in Thor’s lap.  At which time he ripped off his dress and proceeded to smite all of the giants and anything in his sight.  He swung the stupid hammer the entire way home, seemingly unconcerned that he had nearly killed me as well in his uncontrolled attack,” 

The entire room applauded his story, amused at the thought of Thor in a dress and surprised that the tale was real.  Loki told other stories from his childhood, most of them embarrassing stories about Thor.

He also very, very firmly shot down the possibility that he had ever had sex with a horse, much less had given birth to an eight legged horse.  Despite that Odin did, in fact, ride Sleipnir.

Frost actually formed around his feet, spreading out around him as the temperature dropped in the room, creeping up the walls in his anger at the question and the insinuation.  Peter jumped up from his seat, concerned.  “Mr. Loki?  Why don’t you tell them about the herd of bilgesnipe Mr. Thor led into the throne room?” he asked, trying to draw Loki’s attention away from his anger at the question to the possibility of making fun of Thor.  

Loki relaxed and gave Peter a nod of his head.  He’d never let Peter suffer and reigned in his temper if only for Peter’s sake. The ice vanished as he began the next story, enjoying telling of Thor embarrassing himself.  

And everyone gained a newly rekindled appreciation of Peter’s magical ability to control his blood brother’s temper.  

#Loki #God of Mischief #Submitted fic #submission #Of numbers and strange friendships #Chapter 27 #Nekoamamori