Of Gods of Mischief

So my weekend wasn't all about writing (4400 words, a little behind still, but yey!), face-upping (used up the can of sealant, so didn't finish) and trying to beat Rayman challenges (damn those Ubisoft servers for not working properly!). On Friday we had a date-night with Valentine and went to get dinner and see Thor the Dark World. Not so much Valentine's thing, but very much mine. I have a soft spot for superheromovies in general, especially if the enemy is cute (yes, I'm using the term very loosely here, no need to drag the Joker into this again). And Loki is ever so cute! And cool. If you haven't seen these Marvel movies yet, go and see them. I'm not responsible for any spoilers after the break.


Loki has always been one of my favourite gods. My second favourite, in fact, and has been a great influence on my very favourite one who gave the name to this blog. And it never ceases to amuse me if people use that name of me... But, sidetracking. Loki.

Technically he isn't really even a god. He's a giant, but is so close friends with the Æsir, that he is often counted as one, as at least a demigod. Why he was friends with them for so long beats me though :D He is cunning, mischievous and has seemingly no regrets about his little pranks. My favourite story about this is about Baldr, Thor's younger brother who was loved so much that their mother Frigg asked everyone to promise that they would not harm him. Loki went arond this command by luring a blind god to shoot Baldr with an arrow of mistletoe (the only being not made that promise, since it was deemed too young). And when he could undo this horrbile thing, as Hel promised to release Baldr if everyone wept for him, Loki did no such thing, instead he transformed himself into another giant, who then took the blame for not weeping for Baldr. A classic tale of Loki doing what ever he pleases and the Æsir being none the wiser who had tricked them.

One of my first encounters in popular culture with this norse trickster was in a comic Valhalla. It portrayed Loki as a sly god with black hair and a goatee who constantly put the oafish Thor in bad light and just generally had a laugh on everyone's expense. Not as brutal as the true myths, since it was a comic for the kids, but still very much like the real thing. This image of Loki stayed with me for quite a while, altough the Loki in Valhalla was a lot older than I personally like to picture him to be. But it was mainly about the sneering trickster outplaying the mighty thundergod that everyone was supposed to think of as superior. (Oh, the story was actually about a human boy and his sister who went to Asgård to be Thor's servants as a penance for being tricked by Loki to eat the leg of one of Thor's goats, but who cares about the kids? ;) )

The next time I really came across Loki (being interested in 'pagan' religions, I had read about the legends, but no major study into it) was finding the anime Matantei Loki Ragnarok. This one had Loki  banished from Asgård by Odin and trapped in the body of a young child. I've said it often, but that is one kid I wouldn't mind having myself :) The show didn't really follow any of the viking stories, but it had a funny anime twist to all the characters. The show also briefly showed Loki in his adult form (well, more like seventeen or something), as a very pretty blond boy, which is still the only blond Loki I've encountered. The kid version had slightly more orangy, meaning redder, hair which is always a plus for me. Actually this Loki looks exactly like an anime Fyrd would, when the hair is shopped bright red (which I have done). Still, I have to point out that Fyrd doesn't derive from this Loki. Fyrd is a mix of Loki's legend/attitude and Ford Prefect's looks and name, if you hadn't put the pieces together yet.

Matantei Loki did give me some stolen ideas for 'my own' Loki though. The show clearly had Loki involved with many of the Æsir ladies, and actually didn't much mention Loki's actual wife and the mother of his children. Freya was an obvious choice for a romance choice, but they also hinted that Loki had had an affair with the Norn Skuld. Skuld+Loki is still my favourite pairing.

Then there was this one Swedish X-mas show with the viking gods, and some teenager light novel series which started out promising with both Loki and Hel, but then turned to other less interesting pantheons.

I've come across so many Lokis :D And then I did the one-off freeform RPG game, with the central characters being Loki's children. Some elements took inspiration from Matantei Loki, namely Loki's affair with Freya and the Norns, as well as the flashy Freyr. However, 'my' Loki looked more like that first Loki from Valhalla. Like a rockstar Gary Grant with the goatee. And he was mean, selfish and irresponsible. Just as the Loki of legends. He only appeared in the RPG for a short time and his appearance in the sequel wasn't much longer, but damn that guy was fun :D

And then. There came Marvel's Loki.

Mind you, if it wasn't clear before, I was a Loki fan. I loved the story, knew the story amd cared about the character. And when I first saw posters and trailers of the new Thor film, I hated it. I refused to go see it. My Loki wasn't some idiot buff in a horned helmet! My Loki was the smart one, the Silvertongue, the one playing from the shadows. I was particularly pissed that Loki was supposed to be Thor's brother in the movie when he actually wasn't even an Asa, but a giant!

It was only after the film was playing in Cmore film channels that I finally watched it. And I was complaining about the bloody brothers thing all through the first part of the film, until it was revealed that Loki was in fact an ice giant, and adopted. And then I just loved it. True, it's still not anywhere near truthful to the myths, but it didn't need to be, it was a superhero film. Like I could love an anime adaptation, I could also embrace this twist on the tale. Because it was a very interesting one, and brouht out an all new Loki for me.

In the beginning of the movie, Loki is Thor's brother, son of Odin. All know that he's the clever one, the Silvertongue. Where as Thor works with brute force, Loki plots and uses illusions and magic. And when Odin is giving away the throne to the oafish Thor, Loki is trapped by jealous. This jealousy is actually the carrying force of his character all through the movie, and continued in Avengers. But no matter how far he takes it and how mad it has made him (in Avengers), I can still empathise with him.

He is so misunderstood. He cares about those around him, but the culture around him doesn't reinforce that, because everyone else is settling things with violence. An example of this is when Loki gives away Thor's plan to raid Jotunheimn, so that Odin can come to stop them. But although Thor is reprimanded for his actions, Loki gains no praise either. He does the right thing, but it's not rewarded, or even noticed.

And then when he finds out about the truth of his childhood, he feels betrayed, a natural response. He then goes on to blaim everything on his identity as an ice giant, as it seems like the logical reason for him to be so different from others. Loki says it all in his line where he accuses Odin of keeping him as a trophy of the victory over the ice giants. The misery on his face is just so... Moving.

So now things get interesting. Loki's not an Asa, and knows it. But more than ever, he now starts acting like one, while hiding his heritage from everyone else. Loki begins to take the more violent approach to things. And being Loki, when he wants to do damage, he does serious damage. He is more manipulative, making Thor think he's responsible for Odin's coma (bad move for Loki, since it is the thing that pushes Thor to grow up, but it's something very Loki-like), works on all sides of the conflict (love that!) and just very straightforwardly deletes all obstacles between him and the throne that he now sees as a solid measure to prove his worth. And when after all his efforts (nevermind misguided) Odin denies him, it breaks him. And that look on his face... :'(

Avengers had Loki move on from mere jealousy and angst about not being what he thought he was and evolve into pure hatred and madness. The first Loki was a relatively innocent prankster compared to the maniac that came back from the void. It wasn't really disclosed just what happened to Loki while he was gone, but he comes back determined, power-hungry and doesn't give a shit about any individual puny mortal. He has shunned his adoptive family, constantly reminding Thor that they are not brothers and Odin is not his father. And in additionto all his superior power (compared to humans), he is still a mastermind, playing the game a few moves (if not the game) ahead of the Avengers. But the heroes got to win and Loki captured.

With Thor 2, I read of an interview with Hiddleston, where he said that he'd come back to play Loki if he had some other purpose this time. The character needed to evolve. And he did. And it was scripted quite nicely.

Loki had been imprisoned for life, which seemed to suit him, as it put a physical wall between himself and the rest of Asgård. It made it easier for him to separate himself from them otherwise as well. There is a lot of Loki denying his adoptive parents, rebelling against Odin and resenting Thor. But they do show his softer side with interaction with Frigga. One would so much like to belive that here Loki shows how he really feels, but of course with a trickster, you can never be sure. Except that he will try to win, at all cost. The ending was a bit predictable, but nonetheless an awwww moment.

So now I'm all Loki-high again. I need to go see some fanpages and Tom Hiddleston interviews, they always break me out of these fantasyrealms I get stuck in. Hiddleston does a great job acting my second favourite god, I love how expressive he is, with very little effort. He makes these perfect Loki puppy eyes! But Hiddleston himself does not push any buttons for me (except if I only concentrate on the voice. He has a great voice. One of his Loki's best qualities, in addition to the puppy eyes). It's all about thr Trickster for me. But I'm just quirky like that. If I was single in Arkham, I'd also do Joker. 'Nuff said.