Heee, thank you! And I think they could ahve, but I don't think Loki actually needs that. He has skills - manipulating others around him even without a magic spear is one of those. remember his scene with Natasha? He didn't get to read through her, but what he did rather spectacularly was use her own fear to scare her. (or try to scare her, depends how you read that scene. i think he did manage to shake her) "To kill you slowly, intimately, like he knows you're afraid of -" I fail to remember the exact quote - he never said WHAT he would have Clint do to Nat. He left it for her to fill in the blanks. He also knew who Natasha was (and she came prepared for him to know that!). So what Loki does - what both Loki and Natasha do - is manipulate one another by using part truth, part lies. You can't lie without knowing the facts. Loki has to know the facts and he has to know them quickly. He can'+t always do research so he has to be cunning - and in Norse mythology, Loki is just that, a cunning trickster god of mischief.