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lizbeeI should be editing the next episode of Antimatter Pod, but someone is wrong on the internet, so.
First of all, can I just say that it's super weird to me that r/loki is a chill space with memes and fan theories and a minimum of sexism, while Tumblr is a trashfire of misogyny and bad takes? What's up with that?
Sophia Di Martino said something in an interview about Loki having a pretty privileged and comfortable childhood compared with Sylvie, and some fans are very, very angry that the bad lady said their man had a single good day, ever, and it's just a sign that she and the showrunners are plotting to destroy Loki's character and indeed Tom Hiddleston's actual life.
As it happens, I watched Thor again last night. For the second time ever, I should say, and wow, that was certainly a movie. Remember when we were super impressed that there were three whole women in a Marvel movie? To this day I do not understand the purpose of Darcy; my flatmate tells me she's there for comic relief, but that seems unlikely.
Anyway, the thing that Thor makes clear is that Loki's life before he learned the truth about his identity and betrayed Thor/Asgard was ... pretty okay. He had allies, if not close friends. He had his brother's trust, despite the childhood stabbing incidents attested to in Ragnarok. He fought alongside Thor and the Warriors Three and The Only Lady One. He may have been lonely in a crowd, and felt like an outsider, but ... so do lots of people, to be honest.
I don't want to suggest that it was all fun and games, or that Odin and Frigga were good parents. I mean, Odin stole a baby and Frigga went along with it. That is, how shall I put it, bad. And then you have the whole, "Sure, we live in a weirdly patriarchal monarchy, but I'll tell both my sons that they could be kings even though only one of them can actually have the job" thing. Odin makes Sarek look like space dad of the year.
But Loki's choices are his own. He may not have intended to get Thor banished permanently, but he took advantage of it, and the whole "I just found out I'm a Frost Giant and I'm going to use genocide against my own biological people to cope" thing is entirely him. (And Odin. Mate, don't raise the kid you stole to hate his heritage. That's messed up, man.) Loki's a grown god, and there comes a point where he's the one responsible for his decisions and their outcomes. (Marvel tells us that Thanos was manipulating Loki's mind during Avengers, which ... fine, okay, but it's not on-screen canon, and he still made the choice to invade and conquer Earth. The manipulation was about making him malleable to Thanos, not forcing him to do bad things.)
(And Loki, the series, is about him realising that! "I betrayed everyone who ever loved me. I betrayed my father, my brother, my home…" This is the story of Loki finally achieving a shred of meaningful self-awareness -- just enough that he can make a good faith attempt to act differently.)
Compared to all this -- Sylvie was a child when she was stolen (again) from her home, and she grew to adulthood living a fairly marginalised life in the apocalypses of the universe. Loki was lonely? Well, Sylvie was lonely and also in constant danger. From the TVA, from whatever threats exist in her apocalypse refuges.
The thing is, it's not actually a competition. Loki enjoying a childhood of comfort doesn't negate the emotional abuse which underpinned it. Sylvie struggling to survive from a young age doesn't change the fact that she has also made some very, very bad choices and killed a lot of innocent people along the way. She needs a redemption arc as much as him! Every Loki has had a rough life, and every Loki has made bad choices -- the only difference between Sylvie and Loki and the rest* is that they are a tiny bit self-aware, and also very tired of their own shenanigans and failings. And that's where real growth begins.
* I'd put Classic Loki in the self-aware pile, too. And maybe also Lokigator, he seems pretty self-actualised.
First of all, can I just say that it's super weird to me that r/loki is a chill space with memes and fan theories and a minimum of sexism, while Tumblr is a trashfire of misogyny and bad takes? What's up with that?
Sophia Di Martino said something in an interview about Loki having a pretty privileged and comfortable childhood compared with Sylvie, and some fans are very, very angry that the bad lady said their man had a single good day, ever, and it's just a sign that she and the showrunners are plotting to destroy Loki's character and indeed Tom Hiddleston's actual life.
As it happens, I watched Thor again last night. For the second time ever, I should say, and wow, that was certainly a movie. Remember when we were super impressed that there were three whole women in a Marvel movie? To this day I do not understand the purpose of Darcy; my flatmate tells me she's there for comic relief, but that seems unlikely.
Anyway, the thing that Thor makes clear is that Loki's life before he learned the truth about his identity and betrayed Thor/Asgard was ... pretty okay. He had allies, if not close friends. He had his brother's trust, despite the childhood stabbing incidents attested to in Ragnarok. He fought alongside Thor and the Warriors Three and The Only Lady One. He may have been lonely in a crowd, and felt like an outsider, but ... so do lots of people, to be honest.
I don't want to suggest that it was all fun and games, or that Odin and Frigga were good parents. I mean, Odin stole a baby and Frigga went along with it. That is, how shall I put it, bad. And then you have the whole, "Sure, we live in a weirdly patriarchal monarchy, but I'll tell both my sons that they could be kings even though only one of them can actually have the job" thing. Odin makes Sarek look like space dad of the year.
But Loki's choices are his own. He may not have intended to get Thor banished permanently, but he took advantage of it, and the whole "I just found out I'm a Frost Giant and I'm going to use genocide against my own biological people to cope" thing is entirely him. (And Odin. Mate, don't raise the kid you stole to hate his heritage. That's messed up, man.) Loki's a grown god, and there comes a point where he's the one responsible for his decisions and their outcomes. (Marvel tells us that Thanos was manipulating Loki's mind during Avengers, which ... fine, okay, but it's not on-screen canon, and he still made the choice to invade and conquer Earth. The manipulation was about making him malleable to Thanos, not forcing him to do bad things.)
(And Loki, the series, is about him realising that! "I betrayed everyone who ever loved me. I betrayed my father, my brother, my home…" This is the story of Loki finally achieving a shred of meaningful self-awareness -- just enough that he can make a good faith attempt to act differently.)
Compared to all this -- Sylvie was a child when she was stolen (again) from her home, and she grew to adulthood living a fairly marginalised life in the apocalypses of the universe. Loki was lonely? Well, Sylvie was lonely and also in constant danger. From the TVA, from whatever threats exist in her apocalypse refuges.
The thing is, it's not actually a competition. Loki enjoying a childhood of comfort doesn't negate the emotional abuse which underpinned it. Sylvie struggling to survive from a young age doesn't change the fact that she has also made some very, very bad choices and killed a lot of innocent people along the way. She needs a redemption arc as much as him! Every Loki has had a rough life, and every Loki has made bad choices -- the only difference between Sylvie and Loki and the rest* is that they are a tiny bit self-aware, and also very tired of their own shenanigans and failings. And that's where real growth begins.
* I'd put Classic Loki in the self-aware pile, too. And maybe also Lokigator, he seems pretty self-actualised.
