Anti Hero

A-Z Blog Challenge Day 6

/ Jen Bradlee / 8 Comments

Slide12

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” ~ Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Fearless minds climb soonest into crowns.” ~ William Shakespeare

When Loki falls from the bridge at the end of Thor, we see a sort of acceptance in his eyes as he falls.  He accepts his fate. So when we see him in the Avengers, after the betrayal and whatever happened to him between that moment of the fall and coming through the portal, Loki’s priorities have shifted.

He has experienced true fear: being shunned from everything he’s known, everyone who cared about him, being left to die, then tortured and forced into servitude (the power of the Tesseract). What does he have left to fear? Death does not scare him, because he’s faced fates worse than death.

Once Frigga is gone, Loki releases whatever fear remains.  He has become truly fearless, and that creates room for him to seize power as he’d always dreamed.

Loki understands fear like no one else, and as we all know, fear can be a powerful motivator if wielded properly.

Does this make him less of an anti hero and more of a villain?  Or does it just make him dangerous?

I’m dying for your thoughts on this…please comment.  Thanks.

*Images were found on Google images. No copyright infringement intended. Merely used as illustration points.

A-Z Blog Challenge Day 5

/ Jen Bradlee / 6 Comments

Slide17

“One nice thing about egotists: they don’t talk about other people.” ~ George Carlin

This goes back to the whole confidence/cocky thing I mentioned a few days ago.  But the definition of an egotist is different.  An Egotist is a person who is excessively conceited or self-absorbed; a self-seeker.

Loki is worried about one person, himself. His mission in each film has revolved around his needs, his desires, and his self preservation.  The only person he even vaguely considers trying to please is his mother, Frigga. But even then, Loki is disinterested in doing anything for anyone except himself.

He demands respect and adoration from everyone, focusing on his own selfish needs. This is obvious in the Avengers. Loki answers to only one authority, himself. He doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions, only the outcome and what it will provide him when all is said and done. That is, in my mind, the epitome of egotistical.

Does this make him more a villain and less of an anti hero?  Well, we all have ego, but can we let it drive us, define us, rule us and still be a good person? That’s a tough question.

I’m interested in what you think. Comment below.  🙂

*Images were found on Google images. No copyright infringement intended. Merely used as illustration points.

A-Z Blog Challenge Day 4

/ Jen Bradlee / 15 Comments

Slide13

“He looks strong and animal and dominant, a beast of sex.”

~ Portia Da Costa

When I think of the word Dominant, I immediately think, Alpha Male which is described as: a man tending to assume a dominant or domineering role in social or professional situations.  Being an Alpha and Dominant go hand in hand.

Loki is intelligent and commands presence wherever he goes. He is able to articulate his ideas and orders in a clear and concise manner. He is in control, even when it looks like he isn’t. This is the mark of someone who carries the Dominant trait.

One thing I noticed about him though the course of the three films is his ability to adapt and use whatever is in front of him to push his ultimate agenda.  A good chess player is able to anticipate all the possibilities and see the game ten moves ahead, always prepared for whatever comes his way. This is what Loki does.  He studies the world around him as a chess player does the game board.  Self preservation.  He is maintaining his control in every eventuality.

There is another reason I chose Dominant to describe Loki. While we haven’t seen any romantic interest for him in the films, there is an over abundance of it in the Marvel fandom. Fangirls can’t get enough of this sinful character.  Enter Loki’s Dirty Whispers, a submission-based tumblr page that focuses on the fantasies of those fans. Loki takes center stage as the Dom of their dreams.

How do you see this trait in Loki?  Alpha Male? A Dom?  Whatever you see when you look at him under this light, there’s no denying that he has a commanding presence that even six Avengers could not overshadow.

Share your thoughts…

*Images were found on Google images. No copyright infringement intended. Merely used as illustration points.

A-Z Blog Challenge Day 3

/ Jen Bradlee / 12 Comments

Slide4

“Don’t get too cocky, life will always find a way to humble you.” ~ Unknown

“Confidence is too often the result of ignorance. If you’re feeling cocky,

it’s probably because there’s something you don’t know.” ~ Unknown

I’ll admit.  I was torn with the letter “C”.  At first glance, Loki comes off as cocky and a bit arrogant,  especially in the Avengers.  He has a chip on his shoulder through the film. Tony Stark calls him a “Full-tilt Diva”.  But was the power trip merely a cover for some grander scheme?

Loki had been banished from Asgard, tossed from the bridge at the end of Thor. When he appears in the Avengers, he looks like hell, worse than after he’d been smashed by the Hulk, blown up by Hawkeye’s arrow, and beaten with Thor’s hammer. Okay well basically after getting his ass handed to him by the Avengers, he still looks better than he did after coming through the portal in the beginning.

So the question remains…was his attitude, be it confidence or cockiness, part of the role he assigned himself so he could achieve his ultimate goal of returning to Asgard?  I believe it was.

Although I will say this, Loki always carries himself with an air of confidence that to some could appear as cocky. Is it merely the connotation of the words? A villain would be seen as cocky, while an anti hero would be portrayed as confident.

What do you think, is Loki Confident or Cocky?  Does it matter?

*Images were found on Google images. No copyright infringement intended. Merely used as illustration points.

A-Z Blog Challenge Day 2

/ Jen Bradlee / 6 Comments

Slide3

“The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.”  ~ Horus Fe-Nix

There comes a moment in every man’s story that defines them. For Loki, that moment was when he realized that his entire life, all his expectations for his future had been based on a lie.

To him this was a betrayal. He believed he knew who he was and what his role was in the future of Asgard. The venomous words Odin spoke in the first Thor film must have felt like a killing blow to everything Loki had been taught to believe about himself. He had to reconstruct his identity from the ashes of the life he had known.

That moment, that betrayal, cemented a resolve inside of him that led him down the path of the villain, but Loki still retained elements of the Anti Hero deep inside himself.

What do you think?  Had Loki not been betrayed by those closest to him, would he have chosen the path he did?

*Images were found on Google images. No copyright infringement intended. Merely used as illustration points.

A – Z Blog Challenge Day 1

/ Jen Bradlee / 21 Comments

I’ve decided at the last possible second to join the A-Z Blog Challenge.

I’m in lust/love with Loki as a character.  I find that he influences a lot of my writing, so I decided to discuss some of the reasons why by addressing his characteristics.  The more I watch Thor, Thor 2, and Avengers, the more I discover about him as a character and his development in the Marvel series of films.  Now, I’ve not read the comic books, so bear with me.  The greatest thing I’ve noticed when it comes to Loki is his complexity.

Our gut instinct is to brand him as the villain, because every story needs one and in many cases, he fits that description.  But as Tom Hiddleston said of Loki, “Every villain is a hero in his own mind.”  That being said, I’ve decided to compile a list of character traits for Loki, one for each day this month, showcasing the traits that can be inherent in both a villain and an anti hero.

Slide1

Anti Hero is defined as: a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.

Villain is defined as: a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.

By these definitions alone, Loki is both an Anti Hero and a Villain.

For Day One:

Slide2

“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” ~ Salvador Dali

If you’ve seen the films, then you really don’t need me to go into great detail about how ambitious Loki is and how his ambitions only grow with every passing film. His character is multifaceted, intricate, and deceptive.  In the beginning we believe him to be the bad guy, a man without conscience, and while this is true, Loki is merely following the path of his own ambitious nature.  He knows what he wants and he invests everything to obtain it. Is not that true ambition?

Time to sound off. What do you think?

*Images were found on Google images. No copyright infringement intended. Merely used as illustration points.