#mcu!asgard

[lokiinmediasideblog]

I love how in the MCU, the usual interpretation is that Loki's origins well super well-guarded. But in my oneshot I went like, "Akshually, everyone suspects something is fishy about Loki because he looks so much like Laufey and they've made up their own unsavory theories about it." BAM! Ridiculously heavy-handed foreshadowing! xD

[lokiinmediasideblog]

MCU!Odin's throne is a phallic symbol. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

I think it's a shame the Loki series either:

Didn't come out in the 2010s.

Has to deal with Disney/Marvel execs.

I am rather lenient in how I judge this show for the following reasons:

The short 6 episode format.

The infamous Marvel/Disney executive meddling that EVEN DIRECTORS FEAR... I feel bad for Kate Herron just thinking about this...

JM being found guilty of DV after S2 was done filming (and multiple women coming forward + his ridiculous publicity stunts).

Despite those 3 HORRIFIC challenges mentioned above, the TVA managed to have interesting religious/cult trauma coding (and well conversion therapy too). I think if it had come out *ba-dum-tss* in the 2010s, the metaphors would have been appreciated more (because we had even less shit back then). But I ALSO think people have a right to be disappointed because it's not the 2010s anymore, and that's just crumbs nowadays.

If it existed in the 2010s, it would probably have been allowed more episodes to actually flesh characters (not even TVA!Loki is fleshed out). So that's a shame. I think of it as a show that should have been made in another time because it'd have done much better.

If Marvel didn't shy away from "Are we the baddies?" They could have also extended the cult trauma coding and theme more to Asgard, but I know that's never happening.... There's an unintentional (?) interesting theme with MCU!Loki being passed around cults (both TVA!Loki and Sacred Timeline MCU!Loki). I wish it had been explored more...

I'd have killed for some meta exploration of Loki being an ideal Comics Code Authority/ Hays code era villain. Despite the hasty retcons done to Asgard to erase the queerphobia and misogyny (as recent as the late 2000s and early 2010s), Loki's depiction by the narrative was clearly influenced by queerphobic tropes and was often villainized for not being "man enough." I wish something more overt of this nature had been done.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

I can't find it, but I remember seeing this theory about the Thor (2011) film that Asgardians are always wearing some very simple gray clothes but embellish it with illusions (e.g. the gray shirt and sweatpants Thor ends up with after being banished). Now I don't think it's cannon at this point, and there's a lot of lore inconsistency regarding MCU!Asgard, but it was a fun theory.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

Kinda hilarious how our go-to rationalizations for why Asgardians are the way they are is to compare them to older generations (e.g. your grandparents, your parents that don't understand the concept of resetting the modem, etcetera).

Technically this makes sense because they live so long and thus started out life way before [insert older relative or ancestor here].

[lokiinmediasideblog]

my hc to why asgard still looks pseudo-medieval despite being technologically centuries ahead of earth it's because their culture is deeply traditionalistic, like why some modern US buildings are modelled after Roman architecture.

Fair point. And I wonder if they reject some technological advances and use tech sparingly to seem "tough" and not become "soft" . Kinda like those grandpas that brag about how they had to walk through storms and deserts to get to school. I do think it'd be hilarious if they had electricity before Thor came into existence though.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

I realized I described Heimdall's "gift" as a job-imposed Sensory Processing Disorder on steroids.

Imagine working hard, being promoted, and now having to do mass surveillance for your king by subjecting yourself to sensory hell.

I also feel like no one ever explores the implication that Asgard is a surveillance state. But the surveillance is at the discretion of ONE INDIVIDUAL.

I believe Odin didn't want to burden himself with the "gift" , being king and already being burdened by Odinsleep, and as such requires someone else to take on the burden. That someone is Asgard's gatekeeper.

[originaljediinjeans]

Also, Odin kept those warriors and Fenris in the burial chamber under the treasury--out if sight, out of mind, yes, but they were still there when Hela wanted to use them. I think Odin still wanted to honor the Asgardian practices of that generation, and show respect to the warriors who had fought at his and Hela’s side. After he kicked out Hela, he killed the dog (do they have euthanization on Asgard?) and laid it to rest with Hela’s soldiers, perhaps to keep and to hide the memory of a daughter he still loved just a little bit. So he didn’t completely hide up that aspect of his empire-building, when if he had wanted to make sure no one remembered him as a bad guy he probably should have burned all those suckers. With the Eternal Flame still in his treasure chamber, I think Odin was still open to the possibility of using them if the need arose. AKA if Thor had not gone through with his plan of getting Jane and the Aether off of Asgard in The Dark World, and all of the living Asgardian military had been destroyed, Odin would have summoned the zombies to finish off the Svarthaelfheim--not that those zombies would have stood a chance. 

Odin should have guessed what would happen when Hela got loose after he died--I think he was anticipating it--but you think he would have done something to keep her from getting loose permanently. But I have the impression that Hela was so powerful that Odin’s own formidable magic could barely contain her. Maybe Odin was counting on Sutur somehow turning up to end Hela--but that was a huge risk, counting on his sons or someone else to have the crown of Sutur on hand to bring about Ragnarok and finish Hela. 

It’s kind of sad, too, that the price of imprisoning his own daughter was her being able to break out as soon as he died and the only way to stop her permanently was destroying his own homeworld, and that at the price of Hela murdering his subjects and then the rest being homeless--to say nothing of Thanos and the Snap immediately afterward. Considering Odin was under a Loki mind-spell for most of his time on earth and being cut off from contact with Asgard I don’t think he was that aware of Thanos being ready to strike as soon as Asgard was fallen. If he had been aware of Thanos, he would have at least moved the Tesseract off-world. *sigh*