Minute Forty-Nine: From King Loki’s Appearance to Kneeling Sif’s Request

Joining us to discuss the iconic appearance of Loki on the throne and King Loki’s reaction to ‘his friends’ is Matt Carroll, one of the two co-hosts of the award-winning MCUCast and founder of the Stranded Panda Podcast Network.

In the forty-ninth minute of Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film Thor...

• Loki is on the throne. So is he King Loki? Is he just a regent while Odin is in the Odinsleep? He clearly thinks he’s king, and earlier, it seemed like Odin was about to make Thor king. So how does this work exactly?
• Do King Loki’s initial words ‘my friends’ speak to him trying to find a place to belong or does it speak more to him expressing his disingenuous feelings towards these four? He kinda reeks of insincerity here.
• This all makes us wonder again what exactly were Loki’s initial plans.
• Does the fact that he now knows he’s a Jotun make him struggle all the more here?
• All of this speaks to how fascinating a character Loki is over the course of the MCU.

The friends have such a great reaction when King Loki announces himself.

• Loki’s voice even seems like it drops an octave when he says “your king.”
• The initial shot of Loki on the throne is so iconic in the comics.
• Sif clearly doesn’t like that Loki is on the throne. Wow, does she reek of irritation.
• How is Loki holding Gungnir? In the comics, only Odin can hold it. Clearly, they’re different universes.
• Regardless, the echo ringing out after Loki stands and strikes it on the ground is fantastic.
• The friends really have to be surprised. It was only a few hours ago they were all in the healing room together.
• Sif’s daggers with her eyes as she calls him her king dig in deep. So great!
• Again back to that leap in logic – why did this group jump so quickly to the idea that Loki was behind all of this? Maybe they pushed him into this? Is he only the god of mischief because they bullied him?
• Would this have played better if Hiddleston didn’t play it so strongly? Or are we reading it wrong? As Matt says, maybe he’s just uncomfortable with being in this role.
• Did any of them know his origins? Or do they just sense something more menacing with him?
• What’s funny is that Loki ends up making Thor into a better leader by everything he does in this film.

It’s a mental shift for the Warriors Three and Sif as they come up against King Loki. Tune in!

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