Tag: odinsons

Do you think that Thor realizes that he was abused by Odin? His opinion on Odin doesn’t seem to be as high as it used to be, but he still seems to admire him. Do you think that he has any idea how much his father really damaged him and Loki? I feel like he still thinks his father was a great man, despite his faults.

icyxmischief:

//Absolutely not.  I don’t think Thor consciously realizes it at all, and I doubt he ever will.  It can be difficult for the child of abuse in any form to acknowledge as an adult that the parent figure they (and in this case their whole culture) admired (even in this case revered) was toxic.  This often leads to misplaced feelings of shame, vulnerability, and guilt.  Especially in Asgard, which has a no-tolerance policy for the “weakness” of mental illness (and no modern concept thereof).  You literally battle away your feelings there; the lifespans are so long that certain social customs remain antiquated.

When I used to volunteer as a mentor-tutor for underprivileged children, and when I took developmental psychology courses, one of the most striking things I noticed was that children of abuse of varying forms, physical, sexual, or emotional/psychological, are often tremendously DEFENSIVE of the abusing parent.  For instance, the children of parents who use corporal punishment are often, as adults, the people who fly into a genuine fury at child advocates who say that spanking is abusive.  

For Thor to acknowledge Odin abused him, he must acknowledge that every value and principle for which he stands, that derived from Odin–even parts of Thor’s personality–were faulty.  This would mean the exhausting work of reinventing HIMSELF, too.  

This, I think, is exactly why Thor still refuses to fully acknowledge that Loki was also abused, and that Odin’s abuse is partially responsible for Loki’s wildly misguided behavior.  Even as of Ragnarok, Thor sees Loki’s mistakes as 100% of Loki’s own volition, and while LOKI ALONE is to blame for Loki’s actions, it makes a great deal of difference when you acknowledge that Odin’s messed up parenting originates a lot of Thor and Loki’s misunderstandings, as well as Loki’s desperate attempt to emulate and please their father.  

It’s, cognitively and emotionally speaking, easier to blame Loki, because Loki has always been something of a misfit in the family structure.  Loki also has less emotional power over Thor as a sibling than Odin has as a father, both personal and cultural.  It’s a horrible irony that Odin’s abuse of Loki is perpetuated by Thor’s unwillingness to see that abuse, IN GOOD PART BECAUSE ODIN HAS ALWAYS KEPT THOR SO CLOSELY IN ODIN’S SHADOW, AND DENIED THOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO THINK FOR HIMSELF.  One of the best examples of this is in The Dark World, when Odin treats Jane Foster, Thor’s beloved, like a literal animal, and earlier, tells him he should marry Sif instead.  

This only changes SLIGHTLY near the end of Ragnarok, with the “what are you, Thor, God of Hammers?” speech.  

It’s all very sad. I wish Thor had been able to say, “You know, I loved our father, but he was fucked up, and SOME stuff wasn’t actually your fault” to Loki before Loki died.  I thought for sure he would in The Dark World, when Odin literally ordered him KILLED for treason, but Thor remains way more willing to forgive Odin because Odin has Thor in an almost Stockholm Syndrome deadlock, even post-mortem.  

Literally the only time Odin ever let Thor do what Thor wanted was when Odin was actually Loki in disguise. 

iamanartichoke:

allfathers:

I love you, my sons.

This is such an interesting contrast in reactions between Loki and Thor with the context of Odin’s quote, because you can tell that while Loki is taken aback, shocked, and even saddened by these words, Thor is still reeling from the revelation of Hela and impending Ragnarok and it doesn’t seem like Odin’s words even really register to him. He knows and has always known that Odin loves him; he’s never been made to doubt it and he has no reason to react with anything other than the barest acknowledgement while his head is still spinning with this new truth he must face. 

Loki, however, is much more preoccupied and consumed with the verbal acknowledgement of Odin’s love, and the issue of Hela is little more than a footnote to the conversation for him. He knows much better than Thor how deceptive Odin is, and while initially he’s somewhat surprised by the reveal of Hela, he’s not bowled over in astonished shock the way Thor is. 

Loki expects Odin’s lies and is far more bewildered by Odin’s love, while Thor expects Odin’s love and is stunned by Odin’s lies. There’s something incredibly straightforward in that, expressed in each of their reactions, that really just drives home the dichotomy between Thor and Loki in general. 

yume-no-fantasy:

Thor: Killed people of Jotunheim because he was called a “princess” and nearly led Asgard into war because of his immaturity, arrogance and hotheadedness

Odin: Punished him by banishing to Midgard to learn his lesson and become better; he can come back to become king of Asgard once he proves himself worthy 😊

Loki: Killed people of Earth because he had turned mad and villainous after returning alive from an abyss that he fell into and was presumed dead, where he likely experienced unimaginable horrors that broke him and possibly had his mind manipulated by Thanos (A little background: He had let himself fall into the void out of despair, as Odin had denied him approval even after he tried so desperately to prove himself a worthy son. This was shortly after he had been hurt and devastated over learning that his whole life had been a lie, that he was actually adopted and was in fact the abanboned son of Asgard’s enemy, one of those horrible monsters that he had heard so much about in bedtime stories and Thor had been so excited about slaying since they were children. He only ever sought to be Thor’s equal–for years he was made to feel inferior, to feel like he was living in the shade of Thor’s greatness, because of Odin’s blatant favouritism towards Thor and also as a result of growing up in a society with a culture that honoured warriors and scorned magic users like him–but then he just found out that from the onset he was never meant to be Thor’s equal in the way he believed he had the right to be.)

Odin: Told him his birth right was to die as a child, punished him by condemning him to life imprisonment and would have sentenced him to death if not for Frigga

Odin in Thor: Ragnarok :

“I love you, my sons”