"Loki. Even the Asgardian who likes you least can't deny your intelligence. But I know that deep down, you're an emotional person. Between the two of us, you're the less rational one. That's why you aren't suited for the battlefield."
"Every decision made on the front line is difficult, and there's no room for delay or evasion. At a time like that, you have to be a rational enough—even cold-blooded—commander, and see your own life and other people's lives as chips that can be weighed on the tactical scale. Choosing the best solution from an impossible polygon requires more than intelligence. What matters most is having the courage to be the one who survives to face everything."
"That's right. You've never lacked courage." Loki looked utterly dejected. He even ignored his image and sat down on the floor. "You're the brave one. And I'm a coward who runs away."
"That isn't true, Loki. The relationship between us isn't just superior and subordinate, and it isn't just general and commander. We're brothers too. People see you and me as one, and we're tangled together far more deeply than that. If the world left us until the end, and one of us had to die, then the one left behind couldn't really say he had survived either. Because we would have lost a part of ourselves forever, and from then on, we'd never be whole again." Thor sat down as well.
"I once said I had the courage to bury Asgard, to be the last one alive to face everything. But if you died too, then there would be no survivors at all. I wouldn't be able to summon the courage to rebuild Asgard either. All my strength and love would drain away through the wound where that part had been cut