I’ve seen some posts about how Loki and Hela look alike and people are all “Sorry Thor, who was adopted again?” and I get that it’s tongue in cheek but still, it got me itching to make this post.
Basically – I feel like we can all assume Hela was pre-Frigga, right?? She sure as hell ain’t Frigga’s.
Odin loved Frigga, she was so precious to him and she was so good, there’s just no way she’d have sat back and let Odin take their kid off to cruelly conquer all those realms as described by Hela.
So we can surely only assume that he was happily pillaging realms with his daughter at his side right up until the moment he laid eyes on beautiful, compassionate Frigga. And. You know. He’s just getting a bit old for all of this, isn’t he? He’d like to settle down with the love of a good woman.
So he pulls back a bit from the pillaging, he’s trying to woo this stunning creature who’s so kind-of-heart and caring that there’s no way she’ll accept him unless he becomes a more benevolent leader, more gentle, more a protector of realms than a destroyer of realms, and he finds that he totally cool with that. It’s doable.
Only his kid’s like “Oh, Hel no.”
All thirsty for blood and battle and victory, just as he raised her. But she doesn’t fit his aesthetic now that he’s trying to be A Good King TM.
So he puts his kid in a box and starts again. Slate wiped. Together Odin and his new wife have a golden-haired boy, takes after his mum. Odin’s going to do it right this time, he’s going to raise this boy up good and strong and kind.
Except he can’t quite forget his first born, who he did love despite her failure to fall inline with his changing idealogy, and so when he finds that little baby on Jotunheim, helpless and alone, and decides to extend his newfound kindness to him…
Well. Maybe it’s no real coincidence that the glamour he gave him looks just a little bit like his firstborn.
I’m not at all sure that Loki’s Aesir appearance is a glamor that Odin put on him, though. I favor the theory that he’s a born shapeshifter and his instinct was to take on a form that his rescuer would find appealing and that would motivate him to care for baby Loki. So why did he end up looking the way he did? 3 possibilities: (1) that’s just how his Jotun genotype translated into Aesir phenotype; (2) he transformed into what a biological son of Odin might have looked like; (3) he took on an appearance that resembled Odin’s lost child.
To be honest I’ve long dismissed the notion that the glamour was Loki’s because I assume that the chains on him at the start of TDW are designed to suppress his magic (what’s the point of them if they don’t?) and the glamour remains firmly in place.
The theory to which I allude is one according to which the shapeshifting between Jotun and Aesir is not a glamour at all, but something more fundamental that can’t be suppressed the way his illusion magic can. Maybe that seems too ad hoc for some people. But in any case I don’t think it makes sense to consider it a glamour, i.e., something merely appearance-based, because it seems that the reason Loki shifted partly back into a Frost Giant when another Frost Giant grabbed his arm on Jotunheim was to protect him from frostbite. If he was always a Jotun on the cellular level and only looked Aesir because of Odin’s glamour, his appearance wouldn’t have needed to change. Maybe it was Odin who transformed his body rather than his body changing on its own.
I’ve seen some posts about how Loki and Hela look alike and people are all “Sorry Thor, who was adopted again?” and I get that it’s tongue in cheek but still, it got me itching to make this post.
Basically – I feel like we can all assume Hela was pre-Frigga, right?? She sure as hell ain’t Frigga’s.
Odin loved Frigga, she was so precious to him and she was so good, there’s just no way she’d have sat back and let Odin take their kid off to cruelly conquer all those realms as described by Hela.
So we can surely only assume that he was happily pillaging realms with his daughter at his side right up until the moment he laid eyes on beautiful, compassionate Frigga. And. You know. He’s just getting a bit old for all of this, isn’t he? He’d like to settle down with the love of a good woman.
So he pulls back a bit from the pillaging, he’s trying to woo this stunning creature who’s so kind-of-heart and caring that there’s no way she’ll accept him unless he becomes a more benevolent leader, more gentle, more a protector of realms than a destroyer of realms, and he finds that he totally cool with that. It’s doable.
Only his kid’s like “Oh, Hel no.”
All thirsty for blood and battle and victory, just as he raised her. But she doesn’t fit his aesthetic now that he’s trying to be A Good King TM.
So he puts his kid in a box and starts again. Slate wiped. Together Odin and his new wife have a golden-haired boy, takes after his mum. Odin’s going to do it right this time, he’s going to raise this boy up good and strong and kind.
Except he can’t quite forget his first born, who he did love despite her failure to fall inline with his changing idealogy, and so when he finds that little baby on Jotunheim, helpless and alone, and decides to extend his newfound kindness to him…
Well. Maybe it’s no real coincidence that the glamour he gave him looks just a little bit like his firstborn.
I’m not at all sure that Loki’s Aesir appearance is a glamor that Odin put on him, though. I favor the theory that he’s a born shapeshifter and his instinct was to take on a form that his rescuer would find appealing and that would motivate him to care for baby Loki. So why did he end up looking the way he did? 3 possibilities: (1) that’s just how his Jotun genotype translated into Aesir phenotype; (2) he transformed into what a biological son of Odin might have looked like; (3) he took on an appearance that resembled Odin’s lost child.
odin, glancing down at baby loki as he carries him home after finding him abandoned: good thing I still have all those green and black baby clothes from 4000 years ago that nobody knows about but me
Thor: There won’t be a kingdom to protect if you’re afraid to act! The Jotuns must learn to fear me, just as they once feared you! Odin: That’s pride and vanity talking, not leadership. You’ve forgotten everything I taught you about a warrior’s patience. Thor: While you wait, and be patient, the Nine Realms laugh at us. The old ways are done! You’d stand giving speeches while Asgard falls! Odin: You are a vain, greedy, cruel boy! Thor: And you are an old man and a fool! Odin: Yes, I was a fool to think you were ready. Thor Odinson, you have betrayed the express command of your king. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you have opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of war! You are unworthy of these realms! You’re unworthy of your title! You are unworthy of the loved ones you have betrayed. I now take from you your power! In the name of my father and his father before, I, Odin Allfather, cast you out!
WHOEVER HOLDS THIS HAMMER, IF HE BE WORTHY, SHALL POSSESS THE HAMMER OF THOR.
Hela’s use of Mjolnir once upon a time lends a whole new context to what Thor’s arc over his movies + the Avengers movies already was–his story is one of an immensely powerful god who must either learn to wield it with care towards others or be lost to evil and violence and cruelty, not only himself but everyone else around him. It lends an entirely new context to Odin’s reaction to Thor’s fight on Jotunheim and his words–words that must have been so much an echo of what Hela may have said once upon a time.
The realms must learn to fear her, just like her father. That he only sits there now and is a fool not to bring the other Realms under the hell of Asgard. And, just as he did with such a heavy heart, he had to cast her out, her violence and cruelty and vanity too much to bear.
Then again he must do the same with Thor.
Where Thor is different (and we do not know how many chances Odin gave Hela, though, she would not have wanted them or used them) is that he finds the strength to look around him when he’s pulled up short. That he becomes worthy of the hammer, that he becomes the great man and great king that his people need him to be.
He rules without Mjolnir, because his power is not sourced to it, his power comes from the same place Hela’s does, it comes from within himself and his people, it’s on the same level as hears. Thor is the redemption of Odin’s line, Thor is the inverse image of Hela and she of him. Where her greed and cruelty only grew, his was erased and nobility grew in its place instead.
I love the ending of Thor: Ragnarok, that Thor may not want the throne, but it only makes him all the more suited to it. That it’s the next step on the journey his story has taken over the course of these movies, that his people need him and he will sacrifice what needs to be, in order to lead them. Not because he wants power or fame. But because it’s right. It’s finally right.
Thor doesn’t need Mjolnir to show that he is worthy in and of himself. It was a beautiful weapon, it was more akin to a friend for all the years he had it with him. But it was still ultimately a weapon and Thor does not need it to remind himself to be a good man or a good ruler. He just simply is.
Loki, I love you, boo, but you’re never going to be the worst anymore, sorry big sis has that covered.
I love this on a LOL level but I also love it in the sense that, while Loki will still have issues, it will give both him and Thor breathing room to realize things are not as bad as they could be. Loki doesn’t have to feel like he has to live up to being this monster he’s painted up as how he thinks his family sees him, he can settle more into a middle of the road trickster type.
Thor has dealt with so much shit by this point, has lost so much and seen so much violence and evil from others, can look at Loki and not see him as the worst kind of betrayal ever, either. He’s always wanted to believe in Loki, wishes he could trust him, but he’s come to a point where he recognizes who he himself has grown into, that he’s grown up a lot, he’s grown into more than he used to be, and if Loki comes along, Thor will be so glad to have him there, but if not, he knows that he has the strength to carry on.
Loki can realize, hey, he’s not the only one in a shitty situation, that it sucks when someone who should be your sibling just wrecks everything because they’re being an asshole, that he can understand much more of what Thor’s been through and what he’s going through. That he wasn’t the only one who was lied to–yes, it gives Thor new understanding, but it also gives Loki new understanding, that he’s not the only one who’s been hurt.
I love it because they can always think of Hela and go, yeah, okay, we have our problems, but at least we’re not The Actual Worst Shittiest Odinkid as dark humor, but also that, yeah, it gives them both perspective that lets them grow. And that’s why I love the ending of the movie–maybe it’ll stick, maybe it won’t, but I wouldn’t have thought it possible with the road they were on before and yet! Now I do.
I love it because, hey, don’t be a rerun of Hela, Loki.
It’s true, he doesn’t look that much like Odin, but it puts in mind the theme of family resemblance and, hey, look who does look like a family member:
But Loki and Hela aren’t related by blood, yet they look like. Sure, sure, comic designs are being ported over to the MCU etc. But you know what’s confirmed by this movie:
Shapeshifter Loki.
Odin, having had to seal Hela away before she caused too much damage, still thinking of her and the loss of her, his firstborn, and not too much later, this happens:
SHAPESHIFTER LOKI, EVEN AS A BABY, PICKING UP ON ODIN’S THOUGHTS OF HELA AND SHIFTING TO A FORM THAT RESEMBLED HER.
Picking up on just what exactly would allow him to survive, to be taken in and cared for, to be loved and protected. And Odin, grieving over the loss of his firstborn, coming to love this child who looks so much like her, this new chance to do right with a child.
Ragnarok (and all of the Thor movies, really) is the story about how Thor is actually the redemption of Odin’s line, of course, that the terrible power both Hela and Thor wield is something they either do or don’t learn to do with compassion and good in their hearts.
But I love that this makes Loki just as important a part of the family as he can be. He has his mother’s magic, she would be proud of him, he is Odinson just as much as Thor is, Thor is closer to having his mother’s looks, Loki and Hela share looks, Thor and Hela share a power beyond almost anyone else we’ve seen, the web of connections and themes is everywhere and Loki is 100% fucking there with them all.
Loki is the Philosopher King 