THE most underrated scene in the entire movie. It was perfect. And do you know how often I see gif sets of it? This is the second one I’ve seen since the movie came out (It’s been over 5 months, now).
So let’s just pause for a moment from reblogging gifs of Tony’s sass, Loki’s sex appeal, or Bruce’s fluffiness and just appreciate this nameless, old, German guy and how, even though he knew he would probably die, he stood up to a tyrant to prove that the human race wouldn’t give up their freedom so easily.
Friendly reminder that it’s implied that he’s a Holocaust survivor.
I’ve seen some commentary running around on this photo set of people complaining this scene is so contrived and unrealistic and why aren’t they speaking German etc etc and I wanted to offer this for thought. sort of my own headcanon thoughts.
Loki doesn’t care about getting down to these people’s level or understanding them or crap like that. They’re human, ah no even less than that…insects to be ruled over, controlled, and obliterated if necessary. His first introduction to this world is to people who speak English, so he assumes in his arrogance that English is the dominant tongue.Thus it is English he uses. He wouldn’t care if they spoke German, Farsi, Hindi, Swahili…he is establishing his superiority using what he believes to be the language of kings and conquerors and he doesn’t care if they understand him or not, because he plans on backing it up with brute force anyways.
And this elderly fellow gets that. He knows how men like Loki operate. He lived through the horror of the Holocaust. He lost loved ones, family, parents, brothers, sisters, who knows how many were lost in the ash floating up from the furnaces or buried anonymously in snow-covered mass graves? Maybe his job requires him to be bilingual or maybe he spent part of his life in an english-speaking country like America or England, we don’t know.
He understands Loki perfectly. He’s a survivor and he’ll be damned if he’s gone through hell and lost people he loved only to have this smug bastard in his flashy clothes stride into his country and be yet another Hitler, another Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung or Pol Pot.
So he stands up and he looks this guy square in the eye and he’s thinking of his wife, his sons and daughters, his grandchildren, his neighbors, all the people that loves so dearly that he hopes will never ever go through what he had to go through or see what he had to see. So he speaks to Loki in English because he assumes that’s the only language this guy speaks and wants to make damn sure Loki understands one thing:
That he’s not afraid of him. That human beings can and will survive. That Loki is no one special, just another in a long line of tyrants and despots who treat life cheaply, and there’s always ALWAYS going to be someone who will stand up and defy men like him.
He’s thinking of his fellow survivors now. He’s thinking of the ones who stood up, who offered themselves so that someone else would live. He knows this defiance will get him killed. And he doesn’t care.
Someone has to do it.
A thousand times, this.
