on assembling Avengers and Loki's master plan

[So gnine and I rewatched The Avengers and had a long conversation about what Loki was actually doing, and gnine (as is her wont, Smallville fans may recall) figured it all out!]

Whether Loki is the villain you love or the villain you love to hate (or just hate), there are two things about him that nearly everyone seems to agree on. One, Tom Hiddleston makes an awesomely compelling supervillain; and two, Loki's apparent masterplan in The Avengers makes no damn sense.

( So here's a plan that does! [Detailed spoilers for the Avengers, on the off-chance you haven't seen it yet.] )