Meta: Thor's Apology is Sincere

[foundlingmother]

I’ll be the first to admit that Thor’s not exactly aces at understanding Loki, but, unlike some people, I don’t think he’s insincere in Thor, despite what he says in Avengers.

Indulge my journey through Thor’s perspective.

Thor’s on Midgard. Last time he saw Loki, they were loving brothers who had each other’s backs. Now Loki’s attacking him and his friends on Midgard. He’s got exactly zero context beyond the nonsense Sif and the Warriors Three fed him (and we know how little they’re aware of what's going on behind the scenes). He doesn’t want to fight Loki. He loves Loki. He has no idea why Loki’s angry, but that’s probably nothing new. I imagine Thor never really understood how he upset Loki but always apologized to make it better. Loki being Loki, he never tried to talk it out with Thor. He’d pull some prank, or hurt/insult Thor, or just push it aside. He, too, loves Thor, but also hates feeling vulnerable. So Thor pulls out the “Whatever I’ve done, I’m sorry.” And he is, and Loki could take the opportunity to tell Thor what his grievances with him are, and I think Thor would listen. He still might not fully understand, but Thor's in a prime mental state de-powered on Midgard to question what he "knows".

Two problems with that. First, Loki doesn’t do vulnerable. Second, this isn’t even about Thor (again, Thor doesn’t know that). Loki’s not trying to keep Thor on Midgard because he hates Thor. He’s trying to keep Thor on Midgard because Loki hates himself. He’s just found out he’s a Frost Giant, which means he’s the worst monster in existence, deserving of being in Thor’s shadow, and maybe even deserving of being killed by Thor. Loki’s scared of Thor, too, but even that’s about him. Thor’s apology is well-intentioned, but it was never going to fix the situation. Thor could have apologized for the specific ways he wronged Loki, and it wouldn’t have fixed the situation.

Then Thor makes it back to Asgard, and he finds a seemingly crazed, furious Loki who’s speaking a bunch of nonsense. I’m not your brother? I never was? WTF are you even talking about, Loki? When Thor says it’s madness, he means it. Loki sounds insane. I think this is where Thor starts to view Loki’s anger as purely a sudden mental breakdown, not the final product of centuries worth of insecurities and unfair treatment. Even figuring out what Loki was talking about wouldn’t have cleared it up for him. They’re still brothers. They were still raised together and played together (as he says in Avengers).

When they’re reunited in Avengers, the line that Thor responds to with “imagined slights” includes both a truth and a falsehood. If your sibling says to you in an argument, “I hate you because you were always the favorite and everyone thought you were better than me! Also, you tried to murder me once!” your reaction probably won’t be to start breaking down that statement and parsing truth from lies. Your sibling is accusing you of attempted murder. That’s crazy. It confirms to Thor what he already thought: Loki’s experiencing an intense mental breakdown and the anger primarily is about me. It’s not true, and we know this because we are the viewer who gets to witness everything, but it’s not weird that Thor thinks that. Maybe a tad bit self-absorbed, but considering his upbringing, even the self-absorbed perspective makes complete sense.

Throughout Avengers, Loki convinces Thor that he’s beyond reason. He can’t be reached or fixed (at least, he's very afraid that this is the truth, so much so that he won't confront Loki and have it confirmed). It… hurts him deeply. He loves his brother, but this Loki doesn’t seem to be capable of being that again. He’s wrong. That’s why spending about two seconds with Loki in TDW changes Thor’s attitude, even while he resists falling back into the easy camaraderie that they’ve shared.

Thor’s just painfully unaware of Loki's perspective. Painfully. There are points where a more reflective person would question what the hell’s up, but reflectiveness is something Thor’s still developing (also, there are points where a more communicative person than Loki would, you know, communicate, but they’re both fucked up from their upbringing, and that’s why they’re disaster siblings). However, just about the most unlikely moments where Thor would have an epiphany are the ones where he and Loki are fighting. Loki encourages Thor’s false perspective, on accident and/or on purpose (that whole hang-up about being vulnerable).

(Re-posted from Tumblr)

Comments

[fivestillalive]

I always think about how damn confused Thor must be the entire first movie!

Then the off-screen explanations he gets from Odin are probably... unhelpful. "There I, the All-Father, was, just being the bestest father, and Loki just couldn't handle the truth for some crazy unfathomable reason and went on a completely inexplicable rampage. Don't know where he could have gotten the idea that attacking other realms was a good thing. Anyway Thor, the point is you're the favorite and Loki's just crazy :) Pay no attention to when I banished you to Earth, I totally love you my son!"

It's no wonder he wasn't in a talk things out mood when he found Loki again.

[foundlingmother]

Yes, that's a very good point. The fact that he's fed Odin's perspective, with Odin's "I did a totally selfless thing saving a baby - I'm basically a hero and Loki should be super grateful wtf is his damage?" attitude. He's incredibly confused, then he's primed to reject Loki's perspective because it's in opposition to Odin's. *sigh* Frustrating. Poor Thor just keeps falling for Odin's manipulation. So glad Ragnarok gave me a really good way to completely destroy Thor's image of Odin. It might not be my favorite film, but I will use what works for me! *happy dance*

[fivestillalive]

Oh yeah, if I had to name a non-Loki-centric character arc for Thor throughout all his movies, it would be Thor slowly getting his mind free from Odin's influence, and Ragnarok's definitely the hardest hit for that!

[foundlingmother]

That's pretty much what my Thor is Misunderstood meta is about - the arc of Thor and his relationship to Odin. Though, even that arc is Loki-centric if you consider the impact Thor's arc with Odin has on his and Loki's relationship. Everything comes back to the relationship between the two of them XD