Imagine being Heimdall and having a spirit so generous that you could sincerely say “welcome home” to the individual who once turned you into an icicle and is now showing up 15 minutes late without Starbucks to the apocalypse that he sort of started.
That’s because Heimdall knows that he himself was a traitor and deserved it. He also sees that Loki is more loyal than he has to be. Oh yeah, and his brother Thor was the one that told him to go start Ragnarok in the first place.
Heimdall commited treasons TWO times. The second time Loki-as-Odin pardoned him. Heimdall still was the gatekeeper in Avengers: AoU (2015).
OP is so willingly blind and petty? Loki showed up with an evacuation vessel to help a place he didn’t own any loyalty or debt to. As for “icicling” Heimdall, lol Loki would have been in his right to kill him if he wanted, seeing as he was King at the time.
Also? Heimdall only saw Loki cause Loki allowed him to, so guess who was being magnanimous in that scene? Yep, Loki.
And let’s not forget that Heimdall went for the kill, and Loki in response just froze him.
Yeah, that was a weird bit of writing in Thor 1, which is in most respects a very well-crafted movie. Why did Heimdall (apparently) attempt to kill Loki after Loki pronounced a banishment sentence? Was it revenge for having let the Frost Giants into Asgard, resulting in the deaths of two Einherjar? Did he believe Loki posed an immediate threat to the safety of Asgard? Also, why did Loki let Heimdall see him coming back from Jotunheim previously, and why did he admit to letting the Jotnar in before Thor’s coronation? He still had plausible deniability at that point.
I certainly don’t hate Heimdall, but he does seem inordinately hostile to Loki in Thor 1, and is suspicious of him – to the point of disobeying both Loki’s orders and Odin’s by sending the W4 to Asgard to retrieve Thor – before he has any good reason to be. I wonder if Heimdall’s hostility to Loki is a subtle allusion to the fact that in myth, they’re prophesied to kill each other at Ragnarok
Interesting point about Heimdall still being gatekeeper in AOU – that hadn’t occurred to me. So Loki must have banished him later… maybe it took him a while to figure out that it was Loki in disguise? If so, that’s a really impressive masquerade on Loki’s part; he must have been wearing the Odin glamour at virtually every moment, even when alone and/or asleep. Alternatively, Heimdall might have been aware but kept it to himself because after TDW, he knew that Odin wasn’t a fit ruler anymore. But then he might have threatened to reveal Loki’s identity because Loki did something he didn’t approve of, whereupon Loki banished him.
We first see Heimdall in Thor 1 when Thor and his merry band are approaching Heimdall for travel to Jotunheim. Loki speaks first and Heimdall cuts him off & harshly tells him “Enough.” Just another example of an Asgardian commoner treating an Asgardian Prince with disdain. Moments later, as “the Team” heads inside for transport, Volstagg walks past Loki and insults him saying, “what’s the matter, Silver Tongue turn to lead?” No one, at this point, knows that Loki gave info to Laufey that allowed a few Frost Giants to enter the Weapons Vault during Thor’s coronation. I’ve always been angered at the lack of respect Loki received at the hands of non-royal Asgardians from the beginning of the film.
Actually, Heimdall interrupts to say “You’re not dressed warmly enough,” Loki starts to say “I don’t know what you mean,” and Thor cuts him off with “Enough.” The upshot is that non-royals don’t show him deference and Thor reinforces that behavior rather than discouraging it. The deleted scene in which the servant laughs at Thor’s “Some do battle, others just do tricks” quip both establishes that dynamic and provides a presumed explanation: Loki’s use of magic is disdained, in keeping with the attitude in historical Norse culture that male practitioners of seidr are shamefully unmanly.
I jumped ship from Tumblr and this is where I landed. I'm a philosophy postdoc (INTJ, she/her) with a serious thing for Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Sometimes I even write fanfiction about it. Mostly Loki and Thor/Loki (sometimes NSFW), some miscellaneous Hiddles, MCU (Steve/Tony or "Superhusbands" is my secondary ship), occasional Cherik, Game of Thrones, LOTR, Whedonverse... whatever catches my fancy, really.
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