DarthxErik

haruhi fujioka, pictured moments before disaster

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LOKI

Artist: Wesley Burt / Jackson Sze / Aleksi Briclot

cackles

what I really like about all these vintage couple’s portraits is that there is a very certain romatic decorum kept up – certain themes and poses – which, while of course being the mainstream preferred view of couples repeated throughout many studios, are just… so nice to look at. 

this staged affection, a mix of theatricality and intimacy, the couple holding still for a couple of moments and now immortalised in a very set sequence of embraces and kisses. there is a charm to it even when I can’t tell whether this was a genuine couple portait or just actors hired by the photographer.

the kiss on the bare shoulder (eyes perfectly averted), the cheek caress, the piano and the violin, the interrupted embrace, the woman tilted back as in a half-stopped dance…

I simply must torment you a bit with these, let us see some of my personal favourites! (part one due to the image limit)

let us start with the kiss on the cheek (eyes averted! oh the pose! these were taken between 1910-1940)

or the nearly opposite energy (how daring!) of the kiss or caress with direct eye contact (1910-1930)

and then the innocent – yet so flirty – classic of the park encounter! (1890-1920)

and then the famed kiss on the bare shoulder – what an idea, what a vibe, such intimacy! (1910-1930)

and oh, I am not done, look at this – the adoration of the woman! look at this expression, this pose, this decorum! (1910-1940)

and then some of my favourites from the more playful or direct category, enjoy (1910-1930):

and, at last (thank you for still being here and witnessing my recent fascination with vintage polish photography) my three absolute favourites outside of any particular categories (1910-1930)

just look at her. just look.

Have another fake preview…

You guys are just encouraging me with these notes. 👀

I promised Twitter that if my tweet about this gets 300 retweets I’ll post another fake page. 👀

Christine Daaé, where is your red scarf?

Theory:

I'm currently convinced Sylvie has, at some point after the events of the finale, settled down in Oklahoma.

More specific, in Broxton.

These are pictures of the cars parked at the McDonald's establishment Sylvie's working at.

their license plates are:

One thing these cars all have in common is that they have the same County code. In this case, CA represent Caddo county, Oklahoma.

Broxton is an unincorporated community in Caddo County, Oklahoma.

In the comics, Sylvie Lushton, the Sylvie our Sylvie was based on, originated from Broxton, Oklahoma.

So as a reference to her comics self, I think our Sylvie decided to settle down in Broxton, Oklahoma.

She has a car, Ford Ranger F100 1969's model, obviously has a job at McDonald's and likely even a house.

In fact, they did film for a day or two in a residential area and a house. The people living in that area described the scene as a scene set in "rural America" which could further indicate that the house belongs to Sylvie.

The scheduling gods, planning Summer 2023

I will actually never be normal about the fact that when Ed and Stede do the weird thing and swap clothes in Ep. 4, they also swap rings. THEY. SWAP. RINGS. They knew each other for 5 minutes and were already in love. I love these two co-captains with my whole heart and I will not rest until I see them together and happy and thriving.

#this is how loki can still win

Considering what was done to his character in Ragnarok, I would not be surprised if Marvel deliberately killed him before the title card and made him look completely weak and incompetent in the process because they’re mad that this morally ambiguous queer-coded nerd gets more female admiration than the standard male power fantasies they’re marketing.

There’s a list of Loki powers almost a mile long, in the comic book world he is ranked more powerful than Valkyrie and listed as one of the characters powerful enough to take down Thanos. I mean, he’s a god. I don’t understand why they’ve decided to completely shit on his characterization and reduce him to just a knife fighter.

Because he overshadowed the “traditional straight coded hero” and that’s a crime

According to the Russos, he “made his bed” and has to lie in it (with Thanos). But the film frames it as Loki betraying Thor (yet again) for stealing the tesseract from the vaults to hand to Thanos. So his betrayal of Thor in this instance (that is in exchange for THOR’S LIFE) is now the reason Thor is justified in saying “you really are the worst brother.” And those will now forever be Thor’s last words to Loki. So Loki’s stuck between the two alpha-males who are essentially two phallic symbols, and he can’t win. He died because the men in charge of crafting these films never saw what made Loki so appealing. And that’s super insulting considering how closely they got to work with Tom–one of their finest actors, period. 

Foolish of 2014-me to think that the Russos helming IW/Endgame was a brilliant idea for how they treated Steve/Bucky in Winter Soldier (another pair they totally dismissed in Endgame because “NO HOMO”?!)

So, all the female leads in Endgame either had no plot relevancy, were killed off (Gamora, Natasha), were made more masculine as to have a more relevant part of the plot (Valkyrie, Nebula)….and the character meant for the female gaze/queer/non cis white male fanbase was killed off in the most brutal way possible in IW with NO RESURRECTIONS and that…was…it. They had no qualms keeping it that way. BUT OH WASN’T IT AWESOME WHEN STEVE CARRIED MJOLNIR (another phallic reference)? OR WHEN TONY SNAPPED HIS FINGERS? OR WHEN THE THREE DUDE-BROS FACED THANOS TOGETHER?! 

This is why, when the credits rolled for Endgame…I felt like I was no longer represented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The one character I truly resonated w/ had already been killed off, in the most GRAPHIC DEATH SCENE OF THE ENTIRE MCU? unsatisfactory and ambiguous way, and not even mentioned by his brother in the second installment. The way Gamora is killed by her abuser and the fact that THAT Gamora never gets the final say still makes me sick to my stomach. The fact that Nebula had a better feature in Endgame is perhaps the only part of Endgame that pleasantly surprised me and kept me engaged. But she didn’t get to kill Thanos. She deserved that lethal blow. It never came. These films, I realized…were never for me. And as all the dude-bros excitedly chatted during the credits about their favorite moments of the film, I escaped as quickly as I could so I could bawl my eyes out in the restroom. I felt like ripping my Loki get-up off, and never cosplaying as Loki again. As I ran into the restroom, some dude saw me in my Loki IW cosplay, and remarked “wow. That’s dark.” 

And everywhere I turn, the merchandise for the film has Thanos’ stupid purple head plastered all over everything. Even on kids clothing. It makes me sick if I think too much on it, and how that stupid purple grape was an outright ABUSER to his two “adoptive children.” But this is the villain that outlived Loki and was meant to outSHINE Loki.

And yet, I got to cosplay as Loki at a convention this last week, and you will not BELIEVE the number of children who yelled “Loki!! :D” as I walked by. Children love Loki. As they should! He’s awesome. Fun. Charming. Witty. Accessible. Human. Loki isn’t dead. He will never die. The Russos tried, and failed. And I hope the Loki Series is a huge success and it’s Kevin Feige’s apology to us. But we’ll see. :/

WORD.

If we felt particularly represented by Loki, then we were never the target demographic, we just got accidentally tangled up in the net that Hiddleston, Branagh and Whedon cast out in those first three films (I’m counting Whedon for TDW because he did script-doctoring for many of the good Loki scenes and at least one of those scenes was suggested by TH himself, sooo) featuring Loki because they respected the character and bothered sitting down and talking about how to make Loki make sense in each film, while still being an organic part of the story and the other characters. No one had to outshine anyone.

I’m unspeakably disappointed, baffled and angry with Kevin Feige, in particular, he went from talking about Loki as if he understood him perfectly in the behind the scenes commentary of TDW, to letting Hemsworth and Waititi squash him down like a bug in Ragnarok, and perhaps in Endgame too, going by how much say Hemsworth had on how Thor was portrayed.

(I personally would have forgiven Loki’s death in IW, awful, gross, graphic, cruel and traumatizing as it was, if it had paid off in Endgame. If it had meant anything at all other than propping Thanos up and trying to make us stop caring about Loki. The payoff never came. The sun never shone on them again.)

And, ah, I’m so glad children like Loki’s character. c: I was getting real sad again until you brought up that bit.

@darthxerik I’m sorry the series failed all of us. Loki does live, but nowhere in the MCU. He lives in the innumerable fanfics dedicated to the OG Loki we know and love.

@lovelysizzlingbluebird

It may surprise you to learn that I’ve grown some more nuanced opinions since I wrote this commentary. So much about me has evolved since I shared the above ramblings—and that’s a good thing!

I still stand by my disdain for what Marvel overall did to Loki in IW-Endgame, but I’ve grown to accept Ragnarok as part of the story despite my criticisms of it (the fans who enjoy Ragnarok make up a sizable portion of the fandom and I think it unfair to be extremely gatekeepy and better for my mental health to see the value in it and try and see the positives that it brought the community).

Part of the reason IW/Endgame were so difficult for me is because of where I was at in my own personal journey at the time of writing that. Everyone relates to stories in a very unique, personal way. We see ourselves in them, and if we cannot, we abandon them or write our own stories. Much like Loki does any time the people telling the story seem to want to put him in a box.

At the time of writing the above ramblings I had not realized many things about myself—but I was journeying towards many realizations. I had already begun my break away from so much toxicity that had held me back all of my life. But I had not yet deconstructed my own gender, and I had not yet found the love of my life. I love my broodier sadder past-self. But I’m in a new place now. I’ve grown, I’ve changed—and so has Tom’s-Loki, I believe.

And so… I found positive meaning in the Loki Series. I love it, for so many personal and allegorical reasons. I see such queer positivity in it, and I see the love story at center as a mirror to the love story in my own personal life. Perhaps it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and perhaps it doesn’t fit everyone’s boxes. That’s ok. I see myself in it, so I embrace it.

Going forward, I have come to accept that people have nuanced opinions especially when it comes to art, and to allegory. It’s all fiction at the end of the day. And Loki’s story(stories) will always live on no matter what. Hope you find solace in whatever form Loki takes for you that is meaningful. 💚🖤👐 And if the MCU stories don’t do it for you anymore then there’s always comics, fanfiction, and other forms of media that Loki exists in. Ragnarok on Netflix is awesome. There’s even God of War, the videogame.

No corporations can contain our stories—especially the stories of the God of stories.

How these screens got me

Go For it, The Corinthian!