Issue #4: Gian's Reflections on Thor (2011)

After finishing the first 3 Marvel films, I found that my re-watching of Thor (2011, Directed by Kenneth Branaugh) gave me fresh perspective on the film. I had remembered Thor as a very fun film. And of course, it is. Thor enters the Asgardian throne room for his coronation strutting, joking, playing, a boy who would be king. He revels in all his power. And his brashness ends up cracking the peace between Asgard and the Frost Giants. This causes Odin to strip Thor of his powers and to banish him.

 

Yet instead of seeing this as a film about Thor’s redemption, I was much more fascinated by Loki’s story this time around. Loki in the comics was always a trickster causing problems. Tom Hiddleston’s outstanding performance of the role made Loki a highly popular character. But I think that popularity really bloomed with Avengers rather than with Thor. In Thor, Loki is just a bad guy. He feels he should be the ruler of Asgard instead of his muscle-bound brother. I know when I first watched the film, I didn’t feel much sympathy for Loki. I read him as a stereotypical villain.

 

Yet rethinking the journey of the MCU, I know see how complex Loki was right from the beginning. Before the ill-fated battle on the Frost Giant’s homeworld of Jotunheim begins, Loki actually counsels Thor to stay calm:

 

“Thor, look around you. We’re outnumbered,” Loki says.

“Know your place, brother,” Thor replies gruffly.

 

Thor, hyped up for battle, of course ignores his brother and launches into a fight that threatens to start a war. Only Odin is able to bring calm back to the situation.

 

Of course, we see Loki manipulate situations as the film progresses. We learn he is a traitor who let the Frost Giants into Asgard to spoil Thor’s coronation day. We see him using the Frost Giants to steal the powerful Teserach. We also see him kill Frost Giants he is supposedly working with. It’s hard to know what Loki’s real motivations are because he is always playing games within games. And in this first film, that constant manipulation and treachery makes Loki hard to root for most of the time.

 

In fact, when Loki discovers the truth of his birth, that he is really the son of the Frost Giant Laufey and not the son of Odin, he reacts so angrily to the discovery that it’s hard to feel sympathy for him. He has been aggrieved, but his anger undercuts our feelings for him:

 

Loki: “The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?”

Odin: “No. In the aftermath of the battle I went into the temple and I found a baby. Small for a Giant's offspring, abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son.”

Loki: “Laufey's son?”

Odin: “Yes.”

Loki: “Why? You were knee-deep in Jotun blood. Why would you take me?”

Odin: “You were an innocent child.”

Loki: “No. You took me for a purpose. What was it?... TELL ME!”

Odin: “I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day. Bring about an alliance, bring about permanent peace...through you.”

Loki: “What?”

Odin: “But those plans no longer matter.”

Loki: “So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?”

Odin: “Why do you twist my words?”

Loki: “You could have told me what I was from the beginning! Why didn't you?”

Odin: “You're my son... I wanted only to protect you from the truth...”

Loki: “What, because I...I...I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?”

Odin: “No! No!”

Loki: “You know, it all makes sense now, why you favored Thor all these years, because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!”

 

Loki has the right to be angry; Odin has kept the truth of his birth from him. But he rejects Odin’s sense of compassion for the abandoned baby Loki, for the son he has raised and loved. Loki feels only the throne matters. But Odin wants him to understand that he does belong in Asgard.

 

Yet even this look into Loki’s inner being is hard to trust. We can never be totally sure what Loki’s true motivations are. He is the greatest of tricksters, and so he is constantly tricking us as film viewers. Just when we think we understand him, Loki deals another ace from up his sleeve. He tells the Frost Giants he will let them into Asgard so they can kill Odin who has fallen into the Odin-sleep. Then, at the last moment, he double crosses the Frost Giant assassins and kills them instead. He then uses the foiled assassination attempt as a justification to destroy the Frost Giant’s homeworld of Jotunheim. Loki plans to unleash the bifrost (an energy force which we see as the Rainbow bridge) to destroy the world. When Thor asks why he is doing all of this, Loki replies, “To prove to father that I am a worthy son. When he awakes, I will have saved his life, and destroyed that race of monsters.” Thor calls Loki’s plan madness and the two struggle. Thor manages to stop Loki by destroying the Rainbow bridge, cutting them off from Earth and the other worlds of the realm.

 

Near the end of their struggle, Loki says, “I never wanted the throne! I only ever wanted to be your equal!” I think re-watching Thor now, I see this as Loki’s true motivation. Marvel’s strength is redemption stories. For all the bad things Loki does, even telling Thor the awful lie that their father has died, Loki’s real problem is that he never believes he is a worthy brother to Thor. Thus, the journey Loki must take is one in which he finds his own self-worth. Rather than only being a trickster, Loki must come to understand that he is every bit the hero his brother is. He learns this over the course of many films, to make the right choices and to accept who he is. When we finally see Loki rise from villain to hero, we know, as he comes to understand, that he has as much claim to the title of Odinson as his mighty brother Thor.