History Fridge / THEAVENGERS

** Alternative fridge to the above: They may not even know who Captain America is. Yes, Captain America was a huge, inspirational propaganda symbol and war hero during WWII, but he entered the war late and "died" before it was over. That war was 70 years ago. He's probably a footnote, maybe a paragraph or two, in the history books at best. Many of these officers may have grown up never even knowing that Captain America was ever a thing that existed and, to them, he would just be some crazy guy in a star-spangled uniform barking orders at them. Seeing him take down a handful of Chitauri gave them the sense that he actually knew what he was talking about, however; as one officer explicitly points out, they have no idea what's going on.

* Loki appears in the beginning of the movie through a portal having survived freezing in space. As we know from Thor, he's a frost giant.

* It's easy to overlook but Loki often ends up relying on external power rather than inner strength. He makes use of Odin's sceptre and the Destroyer in Thor, and here he's using the alien sceptre, its mind control of heroes and an alien army (his own tricks and strength are there but not as prominent). In contrast all the heroes' powers are things that they made (Stark) or that come from their own qualities (Banner, Cap etc.). For all his talk of superiority Loki only seems to get by relying on other people's power. This may come from his own self-esteem issues that make him doubt his own strength. Loki is the God of Mischief. His primary power is manipulation and deceit, so it would make perfect sense that he'd achieve his ends by maneuvering people with power rather than wielding his own.

* There's a very good reason Hawkeye said to Black Widow that "you and I remember Budapest very differently". He's the sniper and she does infiltration; even when deployed on the same mission, there's really no reason they'll spend more than a fifth of the time in the same environment.
** There's actually a FreezeFrameBonus early in the film where one of the screens on the Helicarrier is showing previous mission footage of Hawkeye and Widow standing side-by-side and firing their weapons at off-screen enemies just as they are when she brings up Budapest. Presumably this footage is from the missions she's referring too, thus making his response referring to the general lack of extradimensional alien invaders in Budapest.

* [[http://maskofreason.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/very-good-writing-why-loki-won-in-the-avengers/ Loki may not have lost after all...]]

* When Banner and Natasha first meet in India, Banner expresses clear disgust that she used a child to draw him out. Later in the scene, he tells her "I don't always get what I want" while rocking a baby cradle, implying his own thwarted wish for a child. Given Natasha's skill set, it's likely she knew that playing on Banner's wish for children was the most foolproof way to manipulate him; it's also a good theory as to why Hulk attacked her, if he was manifesting Banner's subconscious anger that Natasha had basically struck an open wound.

* During their argument when Tony says even without his armor he's still a "genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist" Steve tells him he knows "guys who are none of that who are worth ten of you!" He can only be talking about the Howling Commandos/Invaders and especially Bucky.
** It goes deeper, too. Tony's bottom line (since his CharacterDevelopment back in Iron Man 1) has always been about someone's legacy - what they've accomplished. As far as he sees it at that point, he's done more with his brains, his drive, and the money he's gained from the first two that Steve has ever been or probably ever will be able to do. Steve on the other hand focuses more on the interpersonal side of things, and a guy who doesn't care about the people he works with in order to reach a goal probably brings up some bad memories that to him, aren't so distant.

** Not to mention that explosions are like a warm summer breeze for an Asgardian.

** It also reveals another fact - Tony has ''massive'' trust issues. His (possibly resolved) daddy issues aside, Stane's betrayal probably didn't do his trust in others any favors. Between being unable to lose anyone else and being hesitant to trust anyone with that kind of power (besides Rhodes) its no wonder he's been working alone for so long.

** And even if he didn't manage to brainwash Tony, he could still kill him and have the Chitauri come through the portal before whatever Avengers were left showed up.

* Initially, it seems as though Thor's reaction to hearing that his beloved brother was now a mass murderer ("he's adopted") was surprisingly indifferent for a superhero, but then I realized that Thor is a ''Viking'' god, and presumably has some Viking values...so death doesn't mean the same thing to him as it does to us. Thor thought that those killed, since it was part of a war, had died honorably. Which is the ''best anyone can hope for'' in his view. Even though Loki is still morally in the wrong for doing it, it's not as big a deal as it would be to a human. A subtle hint to the Asgardians' BlueAndOrangeMorality.
** That said, he still seems uncomfortable with Loki having offed so many people - a sign that what he learned during his origin movie has stuck with him and he still recognizes Midgardian values.

** This ties in with the "broke Harlem" bit. The last time (that we know of) that Banner had contact with the US government, he did them a ''huge'' favor by taking down the Abomination, and then they tried to take him out anyway. The years they've been pursuing him aside, he's probably still sore about that.

* During their argument when Tony says even without his armor he's still a "genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist" Steve tells him he knows "guys who are none of that who are worth ten of you!" He can only be talking about the Howling Commandos/Invaders and especially Bucky.

* When [[spoiler: Iron Man is lying down and the team is unsure if he's still alive, no one tries to give him CPR (a fact which Stark himself lampshades when he wakes up). That's because none of the other three Avengers present at the scene would know to give him CPR: Thor is from another world, Hulk is, well, hulked out, and Cap was frozen from the 40s to present day - CPR was only developed in the 60s.]]

* The reason that Tony is so accepting and understanding of Bruce, while the other Avengers are fearful and try to overlook his "affliction?" Tony knows exactly how Bruce feels. Tony also had to deal with the fact that he is responsible for untold destruction and endangering innocent lives due to his history of manufacturing weapons. So when he tells Bruce that he can use his abilities for the benefit of others, he's speaking from experience.

* [[spoiler: Considering that it took going unconscious to break Loki's MindControl, take a look at Hawkeye and Selvig throughout the movie. This is especially true for Selvig--he never changes clothing and starts noticeably growing stubble. It's clear that Loki is forcing those he controls to stay awake constantly in order to complete his project. It also explains why Hawkeye looks worse and worse. It may also have affected him in the fight with Natasha]].

* The reason Tony is wearing a BlackSabbath shirt throughout the film? Because he's Iron Man!

* Tony's nickname for Loki is "Reindeer Games," which obviously comes from his ridiculous helmet. But it's still pretty appropriate, considering his [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer back story]].

** The mercs have a Quinjet that they use to arrive to the Helicarrier without being caught. They could have dropped Selvig and all of his instruments on the top of Stark Tower and then left.

* Of course a blast of lightning from Mjolnir would supercharge an Arc Reactor - the Arc Reactor is a reverse-engineered Tesseract, and the Tesseract is Aesir technology.

* When Thor [[spoiler: winds up and hits Cap's shield with all his might, he has no way of knowing that the shield can repulse anything. He would be more likely to believe that any shield would be useless against Mjolnir. In the heat of battle, he just wanted to get away from the people who were preventing him from keeping his brother from doing anything stupid(er), but he would have been horrified and guilt-ridden if he had turned someone who was basically a interfering bystander into a smear of protein a few molecules thick]].

* This troper just realized while rewatching the climax that the bracelets Tony puts on before activating the Mark VII are a precursor to the Mark XLII subcutaneous implants.

* Why couldn't Loki brainwash Tony? He needed to access people's hearts to control them. What was blocking Tony's heart? His arc reactor, made from the same technology as the Tesseract! Also a nice call-back to the first Film/IronMan movie where Pepper called the arc reactor "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart." It's also a nod back to earlier in the film, when Thor tried attacking Tony using lightning from Mjolnir. It wasn't as devastating as Thor intended because Tony's arc reactor absorbed the energy Thor used to summon and cast it. Here, Loki is using the same type of energy to cast his MindControl spell...only for it to get sucked into Tony's arc reactor as soon as the scepter touched it.

* Why couldn't Loki brainwash Tony? He needed to access people's hearts to control them. What was blocking Tony's heart? His arc reactor, made from the same technology as the Tesseract! Also a nice call-back to the first Film/IronMan movie where Pepper called the arc reactor "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart."
** It's also a nod back to earlier in the film, when Thor tried attacking Tony using lightning from Mjolnir. It wasn't as devastating as Thor intended because Tony's arc reactor absorbed the energy Thor used to summon and cast it. Here, Loki is using the same type of energy to cast his MindControl spell...only for it to get sucked into Tony's arc reactor as soon as the scepter touched it.

* I'm a little ashamed it took me this long to figure it out, but the reason Tony is wearing a BlackSabbath shirt throughout the film? Because he's Iron Man!

* We have seen in ''Thor: The Dark World'' that Dr.Selvig has gone nuts by Loki's mind control. Nobody mentioned it, but that means that Hawkeye should be a raving madman now as well.

* As been pointed out on the main page with NoOshaCompliance, the Helicarrier's layout seems pretty badly considered with the angled runway (used primarily for landing aircraft) terminating directly over one of those gargantuan rotors sucking air down to lift the carrier. It seems really stupid until you think about the function used by Steve and Tony to slow the rotors down temporarily, a function that apparently has its own special red lever to be activated. At first glance, that seems pretty plot convenient, solely for the purpose of giving Tony a way to escape. However, being able to abruptly reduce the speed of the rotors for a brief moment would be an ideal safety feature to keep anaircraft with an aborted landing from being sucked down into one. It's a safe bet that the function can probably be engaged from the bridge, or even automatically, with the lever serving as a fail safe.
** On the other hand, the main (only?) aircraft seen on the Helicarrier are the Quinjets and Harriers, both of which sport VTOL capabilities. Why does it sport a secondary slanted runway, then? It might be an actual USN carrier, retrofitted with its flight systems, or it might be intended as camouflage, allowing it to pass for one while in the water.
*** Or, more simply, because occasionally non-VTOL aircraft have to land there.