Hullo! This has nothing to do with your post, I just wanted to babble at you about Loki for a little bit and this was most convenient. So you were telling me you thought Loki was so much more likable than Thor because the narrative acknowledges his bad actions (paraphrasing you, sorry) but not Thor's? I've been thinking more about this and I think it's also that the bad Loki does we don't really believe. Or react to, that's a better term. We are told he's killed lots of people, but we don't see the suffering, we don't see the little girl bursting into tears because her daddy's never coming home again. We go, "Ok, he's killed lots of people," and incorporate it into our understanding of the story, but it's not presented in such a way so as to get an emotional reaction. (or is that just me? hmm...)
But when Thor is a jerk to him, or Odin rejects him, or he's having an existential crisis, or one of the other many bad things that happen to him, we really feel it--we see his face go all wibbly and tears well up in his eyes. Because he's a good actor, we really believe, on some level just below the one that knows we're just watching a movie, that we're looking at a human who is very upset. But we never believe that we've just seen a human die when he kills someone.
Does that make sense?
Wait, actually, I'll respond to your post, while I'm here. Do tell me (something I don't know) about Loki's sexual practices. You know, since I'm on the subject and all.
Wibbly Loki
So you were telling me you thought Loki was so much more likable than Thor because the narrative acknowledges his bad actions (paraphrasing you, sorry) but not Thor's?
I've been thinking more about this and I think it's also that the bad Loki does we don't really believe. Or react to, that's a better term. We are told he's killed lots of people, but we don't see the suffering, we don't see the little girl bursting into tears because her daddy's never coming home again. We go, "Ok, he's killed lots of people," and incorporate it into our understanding of the story, but it's not presented in such a way so as to get an emotional reaction. (or is that just me? hmm...)
But when Thor is a jerk to him, or Odin rejects him, or he's having an existential crisis, or one of the other many bad things that happen to him, we really feel it--we see his face go all wibbly and tears well up in his eyes. Because he's a good actor, we really believe, on some level just below the one that knows we're just watching a movie, that we're looking at a human who is very upset. But we never believe that we've just seen a human die when he kills someone.
Does that make sense?
Wait, actually, I'll respond to your post, while I'm here. Do tell me (something I don't know) about Loki's sexual practices.
You know, since I'm on the subject and all.