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One Marvellous Scene: Loki and Frigga

Thor The Dark World isn't that bad guys.

By Danny DuffPublished 4 years ago 5 min read
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Thor: The Dark World? Really? I'm going to talk about a scene from Thor: The Dark World as one of the best scenes in the MCU?

Yup.

Thor: The Dark Thor gets a bad rap, but it's not the worst MCU film... because Captain Marvel exists. No it's not great, but there is one thing that is actually really great in the movie that almost completely saves it: Loki.

People think that the boring villain Malekith is one of the biggest problems with this movie, but it's not. The actual biggest problem is not enough Loki.

Tom Hiddleston is always great in the role, and the sequences where Thor and Loki team up is genuinely fun and exciting. Unfortunately, this section of the movie is far too short and only lasts for maybe a quarter of the total run time, when it should be what the entire film is about.

Thor and Loki both just lost their mom. It's what made Thor desperate enough to ask Loki for help in the first place, and it's what unites them despite their vast differences. But then Loki "dies" before the third act, and the movie stops being about the one relationship that actually works.

Now, Frigga's death scene is actually really good. The following Viking funeral is visually stunning, and is perfectly paired with the one memorable track from the movie's score. Loki's reaction to his mother's death is perfectly subtle yet poignant. But the scene I want to talk about actually takes place a little bit before that, and gives us an incredible amount of insight into Loki's character. The scene I want to talk about is the one where Frigga comes to visit Loki while he's in prison.

So here's how the scene plays out: Frigga shows up in Loki's cell and we basically get this really great emotional scene between a mother and her adopted son. Loki complains about being locked up and Frigga tells him that he is facing the consequences of his actions and only has himself to blame. She basically just gives him a very mom talk. Then Loki says that they aren't really his parents. There is this great exchange, Frigga: "Am I not your mother?" Loki: "You are not." You can just see in their eyes how much this hurts both of them to say. But then there is this great moment at the end of the scene where Loki goes to touch his mother's hand and she disappears, because she isn't really there, just an illusion.

Now, at first this looks like Frigga just force projected herself there so that she could talk to Loki. Which makes sense, they establish that Loki learned his powers from his mother, so it makes sense that she would be able to do that. But there's actually another way to interpret this scene.

The way that I've alway thought of it, is that the projection is not created by Frigga, but by Loki. She was just another illusion created by Loki to give himself someone to talk to, and to tell himself what he knows he needs to hear. This actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it too. The way Loki touches her that causes her to vanish, is very similar to how he will wave away other illusions with his hands. Plus, later on when Thor comes to visit, Loki reveals what he actually looks like and he's a complete mess. So there is this sense that everything is not as it seems.

This interpretation also gives us some really interesting insight into how Loki thinks. If his mom isn't actually there then everything that she says comes from Loki. She's saying what Loki thinks his mom would say, or maybe what Loki wants his mom to say. He's using his mother as a way to have a conscience. It's as if Loki knows that he's made mistakes, but isn't able to admit that to himself, so instead he makes his mom do it.

But it goes deeper than that too. It's almost like, Loki doesn't believe that he can be redeemed. He doesn't feel that he is accepted by his parents, or worthy of being loved. And he is just desperately in need of someone to tell him this. So he creates this fantasy of his mother, unconditionally reaching out to him with love, just so he can spit it back in her face.

I think this line is kind of the key to the whole scene, Frigga: "Always so perceptive, about everyone but yourself." Loki blames everyone else for his problems, but somewhere deep down, he knows he is the one at fault. But he just can't manage to admit that, going as far to have an illusion of his mother do it for him.

It's some really good stuff. And it's in Thor: the Dark Thor of all places!

Now, I may be wrong about this scene and maybe it was intended to be Frigga projecting herself there. But what I really like about the scene is that it's left ambiguous. It's unexplained, and left completely to the viewer's interpretation. The fact that there is more than one way to look at this scene already makes it much more dynamic and interesting than most of its peers.

What also makes this scene especially gut wrenching, is the events that follow it. When the big bad henchman guy Kurse, escapes the prison, Loki tells him how to get to the throne room. So in a way, Loki is directly responsible for the death of his mother. She probably would've lived too, since she was kind of kicking Malekith's ass before Kurse showed up. And Loki knows this too, that's why he reacts so strongly during the funeral sequence.

This is called good writing. And it shouldn't really be a surprise either. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote this screenplay as well as the Captain America trilogy plus Infinity War and Endgame, which are all widely considered to be among the best of the MCU. What is surprising, is that the rest of the movie isn't this strong. All the pieces are there, and if they actually kept up the energy in the Loki escape sequence for the rest of the movie, this could've been a genuinely great entry in the MCU.

So back to the prison cell scene. Knowing that Frigga will die, and that Loki is partially at fault, makes this even more tragic. The last thing that Loki says to Frigga, is that she isn't his real mom. And that's assuming that she is even really there to begin with.

Loki is by far the most complex character in the Thor series, and this scene explores his character unlike any scene before, or even after it. And it does it without you even noticing. It's not some grand monologue, or revelation about his parentage, but a deceptively complex conversation between a mother and son. I only wish that the rest of the movie was this great, but I'm at least glad that we got this One Marvellous Scene.

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About the Creator

Danny Duff

Danny Duff is a writer and filmmaker. He likes writing about movies, TV, and sometimes video games.

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