starrynightfantasies:

vixensregretnothing:

So I came across this gif …

And then came across this screen cap …

And I couldn’t help but notice that Loki is lined-up with the women. Now, I suppose it makes sense to situate him close to the queen, but wouldn’t it be more logical, from a social and familial perspective, to have him standing opposite of her? In other words, wouldn’t this layout may more sense?

Frigga ….. Loki

Sif ….. Hogun

Volastagg ….. Fandral

*(or whatever combination you can think of with Frigga and Loki remaining on the top tier)

Instead the layout looks like this:

And I’m just kind of baffled because why the heck is Hogun closest to Odin? Why is the guy who’s neither family nor Asgardian way up there?

Additionally, during a procession like this:

…The pair that walks down together divides from the center to either side of the room.

So after looking at this and scratching my head, the only thing I could do to justify this weird positioning is with headcanon.

What if the positioning is not by social rank or even familial rank, but by rank in strength between the 2 genders? Those of the court with feminine strength are on the left, while those with masculine strength are on the right.

For the men, let’s assume that Hogun has fought in the most battles with his bare hands or whatever it is Asgardians use as a means of measuring strength in manhood. If this were the case, his positioning makes much more sense. We could then assume that Fandral and Volstagg were likewise ranked accordingly.

As for the women … This is where it gets really interesting. In addition to being Queen, Frigga is also powerful in the arts of seidr— very likely the most powerful in all of Asgard. Loki, because his gifts lie in a traditionally feminine art, would be next in line.

And then there’s Sif … Dear, dear Sif. While she fights like a “man,” she is still a woman, and as a woman warrior her feminine strength ranks beneath that of a male sorcerer. If Sif had chosen to study seidr, I think it’s entirely possible that Loki could have ranked beneath even her.

So while Sif might be bitter about the sheer inequality of it all, it doesn’t take that much of an imagination to take a guess at the kind of social derision Loki gets for being filed with Asgard’s notions of femininity.

And this servant (after hearing Thor’s snide remarks) is a clear example of this. This incident occurred right before the coronation ceremony even began.

So on top of being incredibly insecure with his masculinity and possibly his very identity as man in the warrior culture of Asgard …

Loki also happens to be Asgard’s most feared ‘monster’ of lore.

Fantastic. By this point in the movie, his identity is splintered at least three to four different ways instead of just two, and so he grasps as straws in an effort to put the pieces back together again. For his troubles, he cuts up his own hands trying to do it and ultimately gives up. He chooses to die.

Unfortunately for him, in what could be the worst luck of all nine realms, he somehow survives and gets his psyche splintered even further. Whether or not he gets tortured by Thanos is just a detail to me. You don’t fall through a black hole and come out the other side with all screws in place and all the lights on, much less with your whole body intact. If Loki had crossed an event horizon, his body would have gone through spaghettification (yes, it’s a thing).  And being intelligent, I don’t doubt that Loki had some concept of this when he let go. There’s literally no surer way to die.

I am crying. Thanks for that. Really. 😦

I know I just posted this, but I keep a pretty long queue so it had been a while since I’d seen it, and it just occurred to me to add: as interesting and insightful as this meta is, I’m pretty sure the real reason for the positions people are standing in is that the director wanted to keep the Warriors Three together so that they would be introduced as a unit, and he wasn’t all that concerned about the world-internal reasons for having them stand that way…