Loki Appreciation 2018

[Raye]

I think the problem with Avengers Academy is that we've been stuck in event mode, so no character development could happen for months. The events have to use the first few characters you can recruit to the game, and their personalities have to be consistent with their earliest portrayals because the events had to be doable and make sense to the people just picking up the game, so they are just stuck in their starting personalities. If you think back tot he last STORY quests we had before this, Loki actually was making some progress, it just got overshadowed by the events. this will pose a bigger problem as time goes on, i think.

and that interview is pretty good! and i kinda figured it was something like that. I know Jason Aaron has said he had this story in mind for a long time, but was waiting for Gillen and Ewing to finish their work with him before starting, that's why Loki never appeared in God of Thunder. But he had no idea where they would take the character, so it stands to reason the big Loki story he's been sitting on all this time was with Loki as the villain. But at the same time, he did seem to like and respect what was being done with him, so he found a way to make that story work while not throwing out everything done with the character. I have some hope that at the end Loki will get to move forward again. But this is always going to be the big thing that could drag him down. Some writer comes along with a story they've been sitting on for years that requires Loki to be in full on villain mode again, but they won't make the effort to make it work with his more recent character development.

[Raye]

Well, I was waiting for someone else to respond before posting all this but it's been over a week, so may as well revive it...

first of all, this is the new login screen for Contest of Champions:



So that's kinda cool. I have still not succeeded in getting him I am now hoarding crystals so that in 3 or 4 months when he is added to the regular crystals, I will be able to open dozens at once and hopefully he (and Nightcrawler) will be one of them.

and then imgur began crapping out on me when trying to upload, so for Avengers Academy I will just explain what's been happening. too much has happened to post all the screens anyway.

Loki and Black Widow continued to work together. They still won't admit to each other that they like each other, but like EVERYONE ELSE seems to know it, including Tony who really likes BW and is jealous, but was also gracious towards Black Widow, saying it was cool if she wanted to be with someone else. But he did want to throw Loki at the Hulk to see if the Hulk would kill him. As this was going on, Loki's training in combat continued, he suffered some defeats along the way but in the end he beats Ares in the arena, (this is one of his new actions when leveling up 'beat a lesser god') and his training is complete. See? told you he was making progress. During all this Ares keeps making cryptic comments about Loki bringing war to the Academy, and this is a touch worrying. Loki asks him about this and Ares says it is Loki's 'destiny' and that they took a 'dimensional detour' but they are back on track. So, more hints about what is going on. After this, Loki tells Black Widow they need to stop searching for Fury's hidden vault (which it turns out is made of a Vibranium/Uru alloy, which implies Odin is in on things) for a bit, because Enchantress had Odin take her stolen artifacts away, and something about this revealed a hidden Asgardian artifact under the Bifrost which Loki thinks is more important to find right then. They dig it up, and it turns out to be Gungnir, Odin's spear, but it's all broken. They are confused about what this means, since Odin still has Gungnir perfectly intact. Meanwhile, After Enchantress is slapped down by Odin, Taskmaster says he no longer wants to be part of her little gang of evil, so ditches her and goes looking for a new 'crew'. He starts with Falcon and Kamala but just ends up being a third wheel on a date, then Tony and Wasp but doesn't think that's working, so he goes for Black Widow and Loki, and that seems to be a good fit. He says to BW that he didn't feel like he fit in with the 'bad' kids, or the 'good' kids so 'somewhere in the middle' felt right. So looks like that's what their little group is officially supposed to be, kinda gray area. So, then Loki and Black Widow go to Asgard together while they leave Taskmaster to attempt to repair this second Gungnir, which he says he can probably do because he's seen some movies with blacksmiths that's as far as I got right now.

I have a feeling it won't end particularly well, and this stuff about Loki being destined to bring war to the Academy IS worrying. But on the other hand, there have been previous hints from Odin that he has faith that Loki will do the right thing in the end, so maybe not. Either way, I don't think Loki actually intends anything bad. He really is making quite a bit of progress. He swallowed his pride, knuckled down and learned how to fight well, he's making friends, and his intentions seem a lot better.

In Mighty Thor, the ending did not reveal who the second 'Jane' was, but it certainly does not contradict it being Loki. The timing of her arrival was awfully convenient, but I would imagine Loki is keeping tabs on her, so if he saw things going badly for her, he may feel he needs to step in. The one thing that's a bit off is the use of the Bifrost, since i don't think Loki has access to it right now on account of stabbing his mother and all. But no one else in Asgard has the ability to do an illusion like that, so it may be that he just made his regular old teleportation look all rainbowy. My guess is that 'Jane' will end up casting an illusion over Jane-Thor to allow her to change back to her regular plain Jane self (Mjolnir is off in another room right now so the clock is ticking on that front anyway) and then back to Thor mode, which I think ought to purge the gold from her system, like it purges the chemo from her system. Thereby saving her life while also preserving her secret. Without him it would be a choice of either her life or the secret identity. Jane will owe Loki AT LEAST a chance to explain himself after that, I would think. Which I assume is where we lead in to the story about Mjolnir, since it is probably another story of ye olden days, and that's kinda Loki's department now.

[Tycon]

Well, I was waiting for someone else to respond before posting all this but it's been over a week, so may as well revive it...

first of all, this is the new login screen for Contest of Champions:



So that's kinda cool. I have still not succeeded in getting him I am now hoarding crystals so that in 3 or 4 months when he is added to the regular crystals, I will be able to open dozens at once and hopefully he (and Nightcrawler) will be one of them.

and then imgur began crapping out on me when trying to upload, so for Avengers Academy I will just explain what's been happening. too much has happened to post all the screens anyway.

Loki and Black Widow continued to work together. They still won't admit to each other that they like each other, but like EVERYONE ELSE seems to know it, including Tony who really likes BW and is jealous, but was also gracious towards Black Widow, saying it was cool if she wanted to be with someone else. But he did want to throw Loki at the Hulk to see if the Hulk would kill him. As this was going on, Loki's training in combat continued, he suffered some defeats along the way but in the end he beats Ares in the arena, (this is one of his new actions when leveling up 'beat a lesser god') and his training is complete. See? told you he was making progress. During all this Ares keeps making cryptic comments about Loki bringing war to the Academy, and this is a touch worrying. Loki asks him about this and Ares says it is Loki's 'destiny' and that they took a 'dimensional detour' but they are back on track. So, more hints about what is going on. After this, Loki tells Black Widow they need to stop searching for Fury's hidden vault (which it turns out is made of a Vibranium/Uru alloy, which implies Odin is in on things) for a bit, because Enchantress had Odin take her stolen artifacts away, and something about this revealed a hidden Asgardian artifact under the Bifrost which Loki thinks is more important to find right then. They dig it up, and it turns out to be Gungnir, Odin's spear, but it's all broken. They are confused about what this means, since Odin still has Gungnir perfectly intact. Meanwhile, After Enchantress is slapped down by Odin, Taskmaster says he no longer wants to be part of her little gang of evil, so ditches her and goes looking for a new 'crew'. He starts with Falcon and Kamala but just ends up being a third wheel on a date, then Tony and Wasp but doesn't think that's working, so he goes for Black Widow and Loki, and that seems to be a good fit. He says to BW that he didn't feel like he fit in with the 'bad' kids, or the 'good' kids so 'somewhere in the middle' felt right. So looks like that's what their little group is officially supposed to be, kinda gray area. So, then Loki and Black Widow go to Asgard together while they leave Taskmaster to attempt to repair this second Gungnir, which he says he can probably do because he's seen some movies with blacksmiths that's as far as I got right now.

I have a feeling it won't end particularly well, and this stuff about Loki being destined to bring war to the Academy IS worrying. But on the other hand, there have been previous hints from Odin that he has faith that Loki will do the right thing in the end, so maybe not. Either way, I don't think Loki actually intends anything bad. He really is making quite a bit of progress. He swallowed his pride, knuckled down and learned how to fight well, he's making friends, and his intentions seem a lot better.

In Mighty Thor, the ending did not reveal who the second 'Jane' was, but it certainly does not contradict it being Loki. The timing of her arrival was awfully convenient, but I would imagine Loki is keeping tabs on her, so if he saw things going badly for her, he may feel he needs to step in. The one thing that's a bit off is the use of the Bifrost, since i don't think Loki has access to it right now on account of stabbing his mother and all. But no one else in Asgard has the ability to do an illusion like that, so it may be that he just made his regular old teleportation look all rainbowy. My guess is that 'Jane' will end up casting an illusion over Jane-Thor to allow her to change back to her regular plain Jane self (Mjolnir is off in another room right now so the clock is ticking on that front anyway) and then back to Thor mode, which I think ought to purge the gold from her system, like it purges the chemo from her system. Thereby saving her life while also preserving her secret. Without him it would be a choice of either her life or the secret identity. Jane will owe Loki AT LEAST a chance to explain himself after that, I would think. Which I assume is where we lead in to the story about Mjolnir, since it is probably another story of ye olden days, and that's kinda Loki's department now.

At leat he's getting something beyond the "I'm evil mwhaha" in other Marvel games. Future Fight has basically cemented his role as one of the villains. Every time there is someone acting out of character, nine out of 10 times it's usually Loki controlling them for some reason.

[Riimi]

Well, I was waiting for someone else to respond before posting all this but it's been over a week, so may as well revive it...

first of all, this is the new login screen for Contest of Champions:



So that's kinda cool. I have still not succeeded in getting him I am now hoarding crystals so that in 3 or 4 months when he is added to the regular crystals, I will be able to open dozens at once and hopefully he (and Nightcrawler) will be one of them.

and then imgur began crapping out on me when trying to upload, so for Avengers Academy I will just explain what's been happening. too much has happened to post all the screens anyway.

...Stuff about Avenger's Academy...

I have a feeling it won't end particularly well, and this stuff about Loki being destined to bring war to the Academy IS worrying. But on the other hand, there have been previous hints from Odin that he has faith that Loki will do the right thing in the end, so maybe not. Either way, I don't think Loki actually intends anything bad. He really is making quite a bit of progress. He swallowed his pride, knuckled down and learned how to fight well, he's making friends, and his intentions seem a lot better.

My guess is that something kind of like Siege happened where Loki was up to no good but then things got out of his control and nearly everyone ended up dying. Then, at the last minute, somebody was able to restore everyone using time magic. Not sure who that somebody is--could have even been Loki himself, although the Uru on the vault would make me guess that it was the last desperate act of Odin. Which would be why some people sort of have this feeling that Loki's "destined" to screw them over. More, I think they devs are really kind of combining Kid and AoA Loki into one, and the whole theme of Loki having to beat his destiny is very much from AoA. In other words, I think he'll come out on top (and from a writing standpoint, it's kind of necessary to address his tendencies towards evil in some way, because if he doesn't beat them then there's even more of an expectation that his face turn is fake or temporary.)

In Mighty Thor, the ending did not reveal who the second 'Jane' was, but it certainly does not contradict it being Loki. The timing of her arrival was awfully convenient, but I would imagine Loki is keeping tabs on her, so if he saw things going badly for her, he may feel he needs to step in. The one thing that's a bit off is the use of the Bifrost, since i don't think Loki has access to it right now on account of stabbing his mother and all. But no one else in Asgard has the ability to do an illusion like that, so it may be that he just made his regular old teleportation look all rainbowy. My guess is that 'Jane' will end up casting an illusion over Jane-Thor to allow her to change back to her regular plain Jane self (Mjolnir is off in another room right now so the clock is ticking on that front anyway) and then back to Thor mode, which I think ought to purge the gold from her system, like it purges the chemo from her system. Thereby saving her life while also preserving her secret. Without him it would be a choice of either her life or the secret identity. Jane will owe Loki AT LEAST a chance to explain himself after that, I would think. Which I assume is where we lead in to the story about Mjolnir, since it is probably another story of ye olden days, and that's kinda Loki's department now.

I mentally handwaved the timing of the arrival by reasoning that "dramatically appropriate arrivals" would be in Loki's suite of fourth-wall adjacent powers, but your explanation makes sense, too And yeah, although it's not 100% certain yet, I have no idea who else it could be. As for the Bifrost, he could have made himself look like Jane in Asgard and then asked Heimdall (who's now free). Although I guess that would still raise the question of how "Jane" got to Asgard in the first place. He could probably lie about that, though. That's a good guess as far as a cure goes, I had absolutely no idea how that would work. I imagined him being all like "Okay, I only need a few simple ingredients: The Sight of a blind Man, the Wind beneath a Sparrow's Wing, and the silver Lining of a Cloud" (of course, that's not going to be what actually happens, but once I thought of it I couldn't imagine anything else). And then they would all be like "wut". Your idea is much more probable. I agree with you in regards to everything after that. I am wondering if his story helps get his brother's arc into motion, because the first issue of that run comes out in November, iirc. And a tale about Mjolnir seems very appropriate. Mostly, I just want him to have something to do with his brother, even if Thor's probably going to be a bit of a surly bastard when they see each other again.

[Shura]

About Avengers academy, my game doesn´t work since the A.I.M event started, but with tumblr is easy to seen the screenshots, I too think that something similar to Siege happened before the timefog, I don´t think is just coincidence his characterization, they seems to have had inspiration from his recents comic arcs, I mean, it´s being 5 - 6 years? it´s time for the games to use him as something that is not a villain, that´s getting tired, specially when they use the movie costume, nothing against it, but the comicbook book one should have priority, but I guess the movie looks also has more chances of a gray area, than the classic comicbook one, Haven´t play Contest of Champions but from what I see he doesn´t seem really evil.

Speaking about movie costumes... I wanted to see them with his asgardian clothes but this doesn´t look bad t all, so I can wait, I´m curious about why is Loki with Thor, and in Midgard, there will be only a few scene on Midgard, but I certainly didn´t expect to see Loki in those
2hs6m44.jpg

Now, about the last TMT issue, well it could be Loki, I´ve seen comments about it in othe places and most of them thinks he is the most logical choice, I can´t think about a better choice, as was said before illusion + perfect timing + a reason to save her (I don´t think Loki would lose a good chance to blackmail her, I mean, it doesn´t sounds good but she will be a problem for him and doesn´t seem like an easy task to make her trust him), unless something weird happens (remember the end of the League of the Realms arc? They only part that doesn´t seem to fit is the rainbow brigde, but anything else (even iif it´s not green) would be more blatant.

[juan678]

art by Yuniss

[rpmaluki]

The wig is atrocious but the man is just too beautiful and I like the suit but I hope we get to see him in his full asgardian get-up, horns included.

[Raye]

There's more:




and a few more: https://devintownsends.tumblr.com/po...anna-hold-your


I did not realize they were from Ragnarok when I first saw them, (though, he's obviously in Loki mode cus the hair) but it's the exact same suit.

I wonder why they are in civvies, interesting. Loki's clearly a lot more dapper than Thor, though. (and if you look back in this thread a couple pages, I posted a pic of him in his Asgardian costume, too. it's mostly just his head because it was a selfie, but still. He will be in his Asgardian outfit in the movie as well. Edit: here's the link again so you don't have to go looking https://www.instagram.com/p/BI464OMhT3E/ )

My guess is that something kind of like Siege happened where Loki was up to no good but then things got out of his control and nearly everyone ended up dying. Then, at the last minute, somebody was able to restore everyone using time magic. Not sure who that somebody is--could have even been Loki himself, although the Uru on the vault would make me guess that it was the last desperate act of Odin. Which would be why some people sort of have this feeling that Loki's "destined" to screw them over. More, I think they devs are really kind of combining Kid and AoA Loki into one, and the whole theme of Loki having to beat his destiny is very much from AoA. In other words, I think he'll come out on top (and from a writing standpoint, it's kind of necessary to address his tendencies towards evil in some way, because if he doesn't beat them then there's even more of an expectation that his face turn is fake or temporary.)

Yeah, something similar to Siege would make sense.

I mentally handwaved the timing of the arrival by reasoning that "dramatically appropriate arrivals" would be in Loki's suite of fourth-wall adjacent powers, but your explanation makes sense, too And yeah, although it's not 100% certain yet, I have no idea who else it could be. As for the Bifrost, he could have made himself look like Jane in Asgard and then asked Heimdall (who's now free). Although I guess that would still raise the question of how "Jane" got to Asgard in the first place. He could probably lie about that, though. That's a good guess as far as a cure goes, I had absolutely no idea how that would work. I imagined him being all like "Okay, I only need a few simple ingredients: The Sight of a blind Man, the Wind beneath a Sparrow's Wing, and the silver Lining of a Cloud" (of course, that's not going to be what actually happens, but once I thought of it I couldn't imagine anything else). And then they would all be like "wut". Your idea is much more probable. I agree with you in regards to everything after that. I am wondering if his story helps get his brother's arc into motion, because the first issue of that run comes out in November, iirc. And a tale about Mjolnir seems very appropriate. Mostly, I just want him to have something to do with his brother, even if Thor's probably going to be a bit of a surly bastard when they see each other again.

We have seen him previously remotely spying on people with magic, so it is well within his capabilities, but since he is now the God of Stories and all, he may have just picked the most narratively compelling moment to make his move.

And yeah, I want to see him interact with his brother, too. But from the scraps I've been able to gather, looks like Unworthy Thor is going to be a buddy cop thing in space with Beta Ray Bill. Which, i mean, sounds fun, but... I do hope he gets back to Earth soonish, and back with Loki. They have things to work out.

About Avengers academy, my game doesn´t work since the A.I.M event started,

ack! that sucks, MODOK is kinda creepy but Squirrel Girl is pretty adorable....

but with tumblr is easy to seen the screenshots, I too think that something similar to Siege happened before the timefog, I don´t think is just coincidence his characterization, they seems to have had inspiration from his recents comic arcs, I mean, it´s being 5 - 6 years? it´s time for the games to use him as something that is not a villain, that´s getting tired, specially when they use the movie costume, nothing against it, but the comicbook book one should have priority, but I guess the movie looks also has more chances of a gray area, than the classic comicbook one, Haven´t play Contest of Champions but from what I see he doesn´t seem really evil.

yup, i am pretty happy that his face turn is making it's way into other media now. I have noticed some people kind of confused by it though, because I think most people that play these sorts of games don't read the comics, so are most familiar with his movie characterization, which is why they use that costume so much. but yeah, though I like Movie Loki just fine, I do want to see more of the comic version out there. the Avengers Academy version seems to be a sort of amalgam of the two appearance wise, but characterization wise, he's definitely more post-JIM comics.

Now, about the last TMT issue, well it could be Loki, I´ve seen comments about it in othe places and most of them thinks he is the most logical choice, I can´t think about a better choice, as was said before illusion + perfect timing + a reason to save her (I don´t think Loki would lose a good chance to blackmail her, I mean, it doesn´t sounds good but she will be a problem for him and doesn´t seem like an easy task to make her trust him), unless something weird happens (remember the end of the League of the Realms arc? They only part that doesn´t seem to fit is the rainbow brigde, but anything else (even iif it´s not green) would be more blatant.

The only other possibility i can think of is if Mjolnir itself is somehow projecting this or taking her form to try and protect it's wielder. But Mjolnir has never displayed powers even remotely like that, while disguising himself as other people is something Loki has done on many occasions, so Loki does seem the most likely by a lot. And I don't think blackmail is his sole reason hre. Remember after their fight in Alfheim, he said to himself that he and Jane still had a lot of work to do, so he's got plans and they involve her, so he can't let her die.

Oh, speaking of the League of Realms, Sir Ivory Honeyshot is back! yaaay! I loved him. But if the League of Realms is to stick to it's original theme of having one member from each realm, well... they ARE now short a giant, and Loki technically is one... they also need a new Dark Elf, or to rescue the one from before, and a new Asgardian and a Midgardian which could be Jane.

[Ken Ashcroft]

That hair is looking dangerously like a mullet! Are you sure Tom is playing Loki and not auditioning for the part of Superman as he looked in the return of Superman in the comics?

[Raye]

I think his hair is just tied/pinned back up top not actually CUT short... cus yeah we don't need a mulleted Loki.

man they're goin nuts with the set photos....



https://twitter.com/Daley_Pearson/st...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

[Shura]

mmm.... Mjolnir doing the illusion is king of weird, it has never done something that different from its default power, at least I can´t remember anything similar, maybe in the Silver age, when there was a lot of strange rules and power (like Loki being weak to water that was pretty ridiculous).
It´s pretty clear that Loki see Jane as a key player in the war, but given how she sees him right now... I think his better option is blackmail just t make his plans easier, unless she is willing to give him a chance.

I´ve seen comments about those pictures being for a post-credit scene or something related to Doctor Strange

http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/...52f04ab5325a29

I want to see the new costumes(and Hela pleasepleaseplease!) hopefully this time with helmets and more armored of war focused , about the hair, here´s a close picture, yeah,it looks like t has... braids? it looks good but a bit too oily

tumblr_ocakkaPC9R1qecss8o1_1280.jpg

[Raye]

Yeah, I agree the Mjolnir thing wouldn't make much sense... it's just the only other thing that would even kinda work here due to the low-level sorta-sentience it seems to have acquired along the way somewhere, and the fact that Jane seems to manage to make it do some things it hasn't done before. Anyone else on Asgard who would want to help Jane wouldn't be able to do an illusion like that, anyone besides Loki that could make an illusion like that wouldn't want to help her. So that leaves it as kind of a choice between Loki and the hammer. and Loki seems far more likely.

I think some blackmail may be required to get her help, but I was just saying that I don't think that's his sole reason, here. If he could get her help AND her trust, that would be the better option, and I think he knows that. Better to get someone's willing help than forced help, every time. He could use this situation in both ways, though. Saving her life and/or secret identity gives him some trust points. Learning her secret identity gives him some potential blackmail points. But this kind of implies he ALREADY KNEW who was under the helmet, and chose not to say anything about it. Unless of course it was him that tipped off the SHIELD agents.

as for Hiddleston there, i don't see braids, but his hair definitely is long all over, just kinda slicked back. And yeah, oily looking... it always kinda was, but this seems more than it was before.

[Shura]

Ok, here´s another good reason of why are both of them in Midgard

2a4o7et.jpg

[Raye]

wtf.... so, i guess we now know Loki for sure did not kill Odin (I mean, I knew Hopkins was brought back, but it could have been in flashback for all we knew) but what is he doing dressed as a homeless person on Midgard? did like, Loki wipe his mind or something?

[Raye]

yet another one:



So, now I'm trying to figure out what's going on here. We've got Loki dressed impeccably, Thor dressed kinda grungy, and Odin looking like a hobo, but they are all in Midgardian clothes, and on Midgard. We can see that Thor and Loki have been spotted by the general populace because the newspapers behind Hemsworth mention them both, so they've been there for little while, a few days at the very least. This also says to me that if Loki is trying to keep his presence hidden, he's doing a pretty bad job at it, so is 'death' has already probably been revealed to be faked, which kinda says to me that this may not be a post-credits scene for Doctor Strange, despite the business card with the address for the Sanctum Sanctorum, and is probably a scene from Ragnarok itself. At first I assumed Thor and Loki weren't there together, just because of how the Dark World ended, but if this is from sometime in the middle of Ragnarok and they are going to Strange for help, Loki's presence may be necessary because he can do magic and Thor can't. Does not explain Odin, though...