Oh my lord I almost cried T-T
This was so angsty I love it

This broke my heart to read. Beautifully done.

That was beautiful. It perfectly described the relationships between the characters. East of Eden is a wonderful book and it was pure genius to put it together with Thor. My favorite part of East of Eden has always been the relationship between Cal and Aaron and I loved how you cared it into the Thor universe. It was beautiful.

Heartbreakingly beautiful.

I wish I had words that could describe how absolutely and incredibly amazing this piece is... I don't.
This is gorgeous. Heart-wrenchingly, heartbreakingly gorgeous.
Thank you so much for writing this.

Interesting and poetic.

FAN!

Oh, yes. Only in Thor, the golden brother. For he, after all, was one of the reasons. In fact, he is kind of the... main one, is he not? Loki felt and still feels unloved, unwanted, uneded, unseen, unheard... everything veiled by that dark shadow. Thus, he became lost... but is it forever? I surely hope not, for Thor... now, indeed, he realizes it all. The sadness and regret have him now. But is it really too late? Well, we'll find out... in the upcoming Thor movie, "Thor, The Dark World"! :)

An excellent, wonderfully-written, brilliant piece!

Aw, it's so sad :( But beautiful all the same. You just want to give Lokiy a hug. What's up with people thinking that decline is inevitable and that caring is wasted? You just end up with a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't think that /anyone's/ existence could be a mistake, but Asgard just didn't have the capacity to appreciate his.

Nooo ! Damn you to the darkest pits of Hel, Odin ! You're the one unworthy of the boys you did such a poor job of bringing up :( Now I feel like my heart is big enough to hug and love the entire world *sob*. Thank you for this fic !

It's really a sad story and it can explain so much. I often wondered why the no loki. How can someone so wise can say that ?
What is really sad is that it is Odin who made Loki as he is. It is because of him that he become like that.

This is so beautiful, I cried!

Dayum, for real. This is... shoot, I don't even have the words to describe what this is. Only that is is, period, one of the most incredible pieces of writing I've EVER seen. Seriously. Not just on this site, but anywhere, whether published or not. You, my friend, are a brilliant, brilliant writer. I'm not even sure where to start.

First, this is probably the most amazing character study of Loki that I've ever come across. And I think it was an absolute stroke of genius to parallel it with "East of Eden", because the reality is, Cal and Aron's story so closely resembles that of Loki's and Thor's, and it isn't something I ever realized until I read your story here. But it matches it perfectly.

And this writing is just so incredibly beautiful, so amazingly insightful and poignant and heart-wrenching. Heart-BREAKING. Seriously, you've taken what was already such a profound and deeply layered and devastating story and portrayal of Loki in the film, and only delved further, and brought out more from it. You've absolutely captured the almost unbearable tragedy of this character, how truly sad and painful and despairing he is.

What I think I find most fascinating, and what I also found to just tear my heart to pieces, was how you portray Loki's absolute NEED and fruitless hope for Odin to show him something, some sign that he loves him, that he regards him with equal care and attention and love as he does Thor. How desperate Loki tries for it, and how he's fighting against something he never can defeat, he never can win against. But he keeps trying because he doesn't understand WHY, he doesn't understand why it is Odin doesn't love him like he does Thor. Doesn't regard him as equal. And I thought you only highlighted and revealed further part of why it's such a horrible tragedy through the scene of Loki sitting beside Odin's bed while he's sick, literally begging his father to let him in, to give him meaning and purpose, to let him help and mean something to Odin himself. But Odin just won't. He just CAN'T, and Loki doesn't understand. And so he's left with nothing. Only pain and confusion and hopelessness. And from that, you can understand better than ever just why it was he fell, why he went mad. The hurt here also comes from the fact that, Loki truly does understand Odin in a way Thor never could. I love how you've contrasted Loki to Thor in showing the differences in their awareness and perception.

Loki knows Odin is growing sick and weak and tired. He knows something's wrong with Odin. But Thor never realizes it at all. He never realizes. So it's then Loki who's truly sensitive to Odin and the weight of his responsibility as king. The one who cares about it. But Odin is so mistrustful of Loki, and living in so much fear of the consequences of his own actions against Loki, that he won't allow his care to touch him. He won't let Loki love him, just as he won't let himself love Loki. It's just so unbearably tragic. You show Loki reaching out with everything, with an open heart and trying so hard to be accepted and loved and given a place in Odin's heart, and Odin pushing him away out of fear and an inability to accept that attempt as genuine and true, probably again because of his own fear and overwhelming guilt. Loki tried, and Odin wouldn't and couldn't take it because it was too painful to him too. Similar, of course, to the end of the film, when Loki screams at him "I could have done it father. For you! For all of us!" And again, Odin rejects him.

This is just such an AMAZINGLY crafted piece of work, and I'm absolutely astounded by it. By it's beauty, by it's great understanding of the characters. By it's subtlety. By how you've shown so brilliantly the tragedy of Loki, and of everyone around him in their inability to just LOVE him. To do the right thing. And how, subsequently, they doom all of them because of it.

You can really understand Loki actions then from his own perspective. How it must have looked to him, how everyone's actions must have looked to him. Like Thor coming home, and whereas before, he always regarded Loki with, as you said, apathy and disregard for his worth and talents, not noticing him even, suddenly he comes back from Earth with an open and caring heart, claiming love and understanding. You can understand how that looked to Loki. How fake and meaningless that would appear to him, and how little, too late it would seem to him. Like "Oh, NOW you care. But you don't really, do you? Isn't most of that love for a woman you hardly have known for more than a moment?". You can understand Loki's rage and pain. And it's just so sad. And of course, Odin's blatant and blunt rejection of him and his actions at the end, even when Loki tried again so hard to win his love and approval, to the point he was willing to fabricate a scenario in which he could save the day in the way Thor might have. That was just the final blow, the last unraveling of string which lead to Loki's fall.

Seriously, this is just such a brilliant, beautiful piece and I sincerely hope you'll be writing more about Loki and the characters around him. You do so wonderfully.

I'm off to read your other story about him now, and I'll be sure to leave a review for that one as well. Thanks so much again for sharing your incredible talents with us!

Oh, my. This is beautiful, so, so beautiful - I love that you incorporated the quotes from East of Eden, because, well, one, that book ranks fairly high on my list of Favorite Books of All Time, and because, two, the parallels are perfect.

This is exactly how I've imagined the family dynamic, exactly how I imagined Frigga and Odin felt of Loki; you've managed to put to words the anguish in a family that really isn't a family, and it's brilliant. Love it. Totally using this piece as headcanon from now on.

Great!