Miscellaneous recs (mostly Avengers related, but a couple of other comics related stuff)

[salinea]

Essays & meta:
coffeeandink on Avengers (especially liked the bits on Thor and Loki):

Loki is both Thor's brother and an alien, a friend and a traditional enemy, every strangeness and every unfitting (unfit) aspect now an answer instead of a puzzle. So long as Thor can only comprehend the Asgardian narrative, the Allfather's narrative, he cannot acknowledge that Loki the Liesmith has been lied to all his life; Loki the usurper has been kidnapped from his home, Loki the ambitious has always been treated as innately not-quite-right.

brownbetty on Loki in fandom

The thing is, I have the idea that what Loki is suffering is among other things, a crisis of morality. The Asgardian moral decision making flowchart seems to look more or less like this:

Should I do $thing?

Is it something Odin would do?
if yes: Goto 2.
if no: Goto 3.

Are you Odin?
if yes: You're Odin! Do what the hell you want!
if no: No way, man, that shit ain't right.

Will it make you sound awesome when it is immortalized in epic verse?
if yes: Do it! Definitely the ethical course.
if no: Don't do it. Unless it's punching a Jotunn. That's always hilarious right.

experimentalmadness on Magneto and the Frankenstein's Monster in XMFC:

The thing that all these stories have in common is whether it’s a Monster, a Golem, or Magneto, you are dealing with the pure unadulterated result of what happens when you ostracize a minority to the breaking point and then instead of realizing that you created this destructive force to begin with, you turn around and blame the very creature itself and call it the monster.

I think everyone's seen this one already but just in case, cluegirl On Sentiment:

When I saw The Avengers the first time, Loki's scornful "Sentiment" as he shanks Thor, (accompanied by the tear he will deny until the last breath is wrung out of him,) is the one I remembered. It was a beautiful line, and it was a beautiful, breathtaking moment, and it was meant to shine.

However upon second watching, I noticed an even more beautiful pattern to Joss's use of that word in other places. Sentiment. It's not a two dollar word, really, is it? You don't lay even odds on getting to hear it on any given day, because it's not an everyday word, or notion -- unless you own or work in a gift shop that specializes in engraving.

But that word is used in the Avengers four times. And each time it's spoken with scorn about something the speaker is trying to disprove -- and each time, the speaker fails to disprove anything at all, and in fact that point goes on to be staggeringly proven later on. It is, if I may say so, a beautiful evidence of Joss Whedon's actual skill as a writer well beyond snappy dialogue.

minnaway on the Avengers movie. I especially loved her observations about the way food/drinking was used in the movie and a few other things like:

9. If Loki/Bruce/Tony are one triangle, Bruce/Tony/Steve are another. Coulson tells Steve that Bruce isn't just the "thing" but a very smart person; Tony tells Steve that even without the suit he's a genius etc. etc. etc.; Bruce was trying to be Steve; Tony says everything special in Steve came from a bottle.

10. And Odin/Thor/Loki are mirrored by Fury/Steve/Tony. Loki notes that Odin had to summon...dark energy? dark matter? something or other? whatever, the point is, expend a shitlot of energy to get Thor to Midgard without the Bifrost; Fury has to call in cards and negotiate with the powers above him to get the Avengers Initiative in process. Odin traded his eye for ravens; Fury has a zillion electronic eyes keeping the earth under surveillance. Fury and Steve and Tony post Coulson's death, marking out the points of a triangle, and Tony with his chair half swiveled away.

(And Loki and Clint steal an eye specifically.)

Greg Rucka on writing women. (I have such an admiration crush on Greg Rucka)

Gender isn't simply a biological trait; it's a societal one. The female experience is different from that of the male, and if, as a male writer, you cannot accept that basic premise, then you will never, ever, be able to write women well. A man walking alone through Midtown Manhattan at three in the morning may have concerns for his safety, but I promise you, it's a very different experience for a woman taking the same walk, and it's different again for a man wearing a dress. Think about it. That's a societal factor, and it's a gendered one, and this is not and can not be subject to debate. If you're looking to argue that sexism is a thing of the past, that the world is gender-blind, you're not only wrong, you're lying to yourself.

rexluscus's page of Loki fanfics recs.

And some fics recs of mine own:

Móðir (2559 words) by what_alchemy
Summary:

When Odin places his Jötunn foundling in Frigga's arms, she knows what is to come.

Beautiful story about Frigga and her relationship with Loki.

When I Say Jump (12539 words) by lc2l

AVENGERS SPOILERS!!!

One minute Clint's reaching for his gun to stop Loki stealing the Tesseract, the next he's shooting Fury and taking it. Easy as switching sides.

mindcontrolled!Hawkeye/Loki. Wonderfully twisted and yet very honest.

and get him to swap our places (28734 words) by Mici
Fandom: Young Avengers
Relationships: Billy Kaplan/Teddy Altman, Billy Kaplan/Other (sort of), Teddy Altman/Other (sort of)
Characters: Billy Kaplan, William Lensherr, Tommy Shepherd, Thomas Lensherr, Teddy Altman, Kate Bishop, Cassie Lang, Eli Bradley, Jonas (Young Avengers), Julio Rictor
Summary:

Billy casts the most dubious of spells and gets into a shitload of trouble when he switches places with William Lensherr, Prince of Genosha, member of the House of M.

Great exploration of the House of M reality, and especially what it would mean for Billy and Tommy (if, you know, they had been in it as anything more than shadows). I just love characterisation here, they have a lot of subtlety. The only criticism I'd make against it is that it has no real plot and it gets resolved too easily. I especially love how, while not appearing in this story, Magneto casts a large shadow.

Zhashtar (3095 words) by epistolic
Fandom: The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Relationships: Loki/Thor
Characters: Loki (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), Clint Barton
Summary:

Love is for children.

I just love the writing/atmosphere in here. Very evocative and sort of... sword & sorcery in a way that feels almost poetic. You know, Tanith Lee-like. Very & short insta portrait.

Family Ties (84560 words) by skiesovergideon
Fandom: Thor (2011)
Characters: Loki (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), Iron Man, Captain America - Character, various and sundry OCs
Summary:

After his fall from the Bifrost, Loki finds himself taken in by a suburban family and lacking most of his magic. He resolves to escape them as soon as possible. This does not go the way he planned.

Pre-Avengers movie Loki redemption (mostly) epic fic. Lots of OCs, very ingenuous plottig with a kickass finale and it mostly works well in term of characterisation without cheating (too much, and what cheating there is has intra-story justification).

Comments

[brooms]

The female experience is different from that of the male, and if, as a male writer, you cannot accept that basic premise, then you will never, ever, be able to write women well.

it is true that the female experience is different from that of the male, just like the south asian experience is different from that of the east asian or black experiences, and these are all different from the white experience. and i do agree that recognizing this is very important. but not as important when it comes to writing women or minorities well as remembering the sameness/what is shared, rather than the differences.

i think writers often fail at writing female characters and minorities because, more than anything else, they just can't get past the otherness.

it's why i understand the criticism in this article about ethnic neutrality - http://thegrio.com/2012/05/16/shonda-rhimes-scandal-presents-blueprint-for-survival-of-blacks-on-network-tv/ - but still commend shonda rhimes on the way she writes minorities in her shows.

[salinea]

I think both are true. Both are mistakes one can make - to overly emphasize differences, or to overly emphasize similarities.

Did you read his full interview or only the bit I quoted?

[brooms]

i'm just more bothered by the former because if writers were more focused on the similarities, more stuff would pass the bechdel test and tokenism/smurfette problems wouldn't be as prevalent.

no, i'm saving the full interview for later when i can read it all in one go.

[hamsterwoman]

Love the Asgard decision-making flowchart you linked! XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

it's the perfect complimentary to the Norse mythology crisis flowchart!

[hamsterwoman]

It really is! (I love that thing also)

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this! If you like Frigga, you probably saw this but skiesovergideon also has two lovely stories about Frigga's totally unshakeable devotion to Loki.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen! Thanks for the tip!

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

Thank you for these! I'll have a good time digesting them.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of use! :)

[flo-nelja.livejournal.com]

Merci pour les liens !

Je n'ai lu que le meta pour l'instant, et c'était awesome. :-)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

De rien! :)

[flo-nelja.livejournal.com]

Sinon, avec je ne sais plus quel post, il y avait un long commentaire en mode "je ne comprends pas pourquoi il n'y a pas plus de fans de Loki qui partent du principe qu'il était en partie contrôlé par Thanos !" qui était intéressant aussi, avec de bons arguments.

(Tiens, puisqu'on part par là, j'ai lu aussi la fic de mind control, depuis. Je suis prévisible ^^)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

le long posts où j'ai dit que je me posais cette question aussi?

*rire* alors, tu as aimé?

[flo-nelja.livejournal.com]

Ouaip, j'ai vu plus d'arguments dans les commentaires.

D'un autre côté, comme quelqu'un le faisait remarquer, conquête, génocide, etc, c'est quelque chose que Loki faisait déjà dans le film 1, sans contrôle. Ce n'est pas sur des humains, mais on peut dire que c'est in character pour lui. Donc s'il l'aurait fait quand même... on peut se demander si l'influence change tant de choses.

Ouaip, merci pour le lien !

[i-llbedammned.livejournal.com]

I have been fangirling over Loki and these Recs make me very happy. Thank you for pointing me in their direction.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! :)

[twhitesakura.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say thank you for this, especially since I'm partial to the Loki character. Also, I loved "When I Say Jump." Thanks for recommending it. ♥

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! :D

Lokie is ♥

[layniapetrovna.livejournal.com]

Merci à nouveau.

Je viens enfin d'arriver au JiM #637 et Loki en jeune GameMaster de "Generic Dungeon Genocide" (et fanboy des New Mutants) suffirait à me faire adorer cette série.