wow
at last Thor saw what was wrong with Loki but still. A very bittersweet ending. I wish there was more

Interesting take on the "Loki's been mind-controlled" trope, and very believable from what little I've read about brainwashing. He seemed to know in "Avengers" how it worked: "You would come after whatever tortures Fury managed to concoct. You would appear as a friend, a balm - and I would believe you."

And he's right, he can't simply walk back into his old life after having been changed so profoundly; a lot of fic is, I think, accurate in assuming that Thor kind of wants that and doesn't understand that it will never happen. Even if Loki had never been tortured, he learned too many things that rewrote his understanding of himself, and he'll never be able to unlearn them.

Really well written story. Nicely done.

Absolutely fantastic.
I couldn't stop reading it from the moment I started. I applaud your style of writing.
You deserve great recognition for your work.

Oh, my goodness... that ending... wow-

"He could almost pretend like they were truly brothers, that none of the evil between them had come to pass, that Loki had not let himself be led down a path that irreparably ripped them apart." You do have a very nice way with words. I wish I could say exactly what it is I like about this sentence...it's just very evocative and nicely worded and just reads well. And tragic, again. I know I've exhausted my quota on that adjective.

Unexpected ending, unsatisfying as I suspect it's meant to be, because no one is satisfied, not Loki, not Thor, surely not Odin or Frigga either. One wonders what it would take to end this unresolved state of affairs, whether Loki would stay there for eternity. Whether Thor would let him, or drag him out. I bet the events of Thor 2 would get him out! Asgard needs saving and Loki's the only one who can do it...

Well-done! ;-)

"But what was the extent of their influence? If he had truly been enchanted, then how many of his actions were really, truly his own? How much of what he felt was not genuine, had been implanted in him by his captors?" Isn't *that* a one-way ticket to the looney bin! To not be able to trust the most basic of your senses, your own thoughts, emotions, etc...yeah, pretty tortuous.

"When Loki was finally able to break his silence, the words he spoke were not his own, were not in any way what he wanted to say. His vocal cords were acting with no influence from his brain." Tragic, tragic. Bad enough to have your voice taken away, but to have your words replaced with someone else's - to me this type of stuff is just as horrific, and maybe more so, as the physical torture.

All of this is just so tragic. Especially Loki's hope that maybe he hadn't done all those awful things, and his in-the-gutters self-esteem...I'm guessing there's not going to be a totally rosy ending to this somehow!

I really appreciate this line: "After all, Thor was to be king, and a king who actively courted war was not the king that Asgard needed." Because it's true, right? Good Lord, Asgard didn't need that Thor for a king! So, wrong though it was the way Loki went about it (he got a couple of Einherjar killed after all, along with the general risk he took), he was *right* to want to prevent Thor from gaining that much power at that time. It's one of the things I like about "Thor," the good guys aren't perfect and the bad guys aren't pure (and pointlessly) evil.

Also like the bit about ruling being "boring" and a heavy burden. That strikes me as very believable for Loki. Substitute the word "ruling" for "management" and I relate to him very, very much, actually!

"It did not occur to him that Odin had never suggested otherwise. Indeed, it was only Loki's own vicious self-doubt whispering those things in his ear. / But it drowned out all else." Yeeeeeessssss. This is totally the way I see Loki. Especially now that he knows he's Jotun, he sees everything through colored glasses and thinks things are far worse than they actually are - a cycle hard to break free of.

The way you handled Loki's breaking was i think very plausible. I especially liked the bit where he kind of broke free of it for a bit, realized what they were doing to him, because it felt very realistic. I personally don't think Loki would have had to be pushed nearly this hard - I think he already had a lot of anger against Thor at this point - but you've certainly done this in a believable way. I wonder though how you would treat Loki sending the Destroyer after Thor within this story? Because that would surely risk rousing quite a bit of ire from Thor!

It's very well-written and flows nicely and makes sense. I really like the ending, even the rhythm created by the way the paragraphs break here. I like that, because of the weird "let them wonder if it's Loki" shot that Joss Whedon did when Loki was given the scepter, that you can imagine that in that scene there *was* blood caked in his hair and clothes. And it just paints such a tragic picture. You can imagine that some part of Loki *knows* this is all a lie, them treating him this new way, making him into a king...but the lie is more pleasant than the "truth" that's wormed its way into his heart so he gives himself over to it. "Reforged" indeed.

lovely. and so sad! so true-to-character and likely of a situation. i like the open ending, as well. just lovely.

Absolutely amazing. Love the way you finished it, rather sad though.
This story has made it to my top 5 favourites on this website! :D

Very Dark, but Great Story!

Loki has to forgive himself, first, long before he can mend anything with anyone else. Hopefully Thor will not give up on him. This is a great story. Thanks!

Come on loki give in to the good

I want them to come save him

Man I feel sorry for loki

This is quite lovely. I really feel for Loki, and the fact that he thinks he deserves all of this makes me sad, but I can see how he would think that.

Love it, and I'm a little sorry to see it end!