Feb 26, 2025
Loki as the giantess Thokk:
"If Balder has no haters, then I am dead!"
seen from China
seen from Ireland
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Canada
seen from Taiwan
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
Loki as the giantess Thokk:
"If Balder has no haters, then I am dead!"
Did Loki kill Balder?
Yes! (The bastard!!)
Yes! (and I support her wrongs!)
No (he was framed! *insert rant about versions where he didn't kill Balder*)
No (some other reason. Tell me in the tags.)
Yes! It was an accident.
Yes! And she did nothing wrong!
The most Loki-like thing about me is that I genuinely don't care for Balder.
Thor + Balder=Marvel!Thor (3/3)
I have not watched TLAT and don't plan to do so. So I won't take that into consideration. Also, note I have read a small percentage of Thor comics and have a preference for those that have Loki on them (especially if Loki isn't "just evil").
Marvel!Thor's Similarities to Balder:
In the MCU, Loki kills him and he comes back to life. In the comics, Marvel!Thor and Marvel!Loki have a Cain and Abel dynamic. In the mythology, Balder dies when Loki hands a mistletoe arrow to the blind god Hodr (and Balder's twin brother) to shoot at the "indestructible" Balder in a game where everyone was throwing things at Balder for the lulz.
All of Asgard loves him and acts like he's perfect. In the MCU, Thor's friends are loyal to him no matter what he did. They are ready to try to unbanish him right away despite Thor nearly starting a war. In a large portion of the comics, it gets quite annoying how often and constantly Thor is being praised. I find myself eye-rolling so often. In the mythology, Balder is "the fairest of the Gods" and everyone loves him, and Frigga goes around making everyone and even fucking plants and rocks swear oaths to never harm Balder. Of course, she forgets a sprig of mistletoe. When Balder dies, they try to bring him back by making everything cry for him, but the giantess Thokk (believed to be Loki in disguise) refuses.
Considered to have been influenced by Jesus. Balder dies and comes back after Ragnarok to the new world. It's believed the Christian Snorri altered Balder for his purposes. The Thor (2011) movie was originally approached by writer Mike Protosevich with the intention of turning an Old Testament God into a new Testament God. MCU!Thor dies protecting a town and comes back to life after proving himself worthy (Fun fact, it was originally going to be set in the Middle Ages not 2011 NM but for budget reasons this was changed).
Not as hot-headed or bloodthirsty as myth!Thor. I consider Marvel!Thor to be an amalgam of myth!Balder and myth!Thor personality-wise.
Marvel!Thor is often compared to the sun despite being a storm god, and Balder is the god of Light. Thor's sunny disposition came from myth!Balder. It's my belief that had Balder a cooler/less Jesus-like title than "God of Light", Marvel would have Balder comics and not Thor comics.
MCU-specific: Frigga is his biological mother. In neither comics or mythology is Frigga Thor's mother. She's Balder's mother. And the closest thing to a Balder in the MCU is Thor.
Prophetic dreams of bad things to come. In AoU, MCU!Thor dreams of Asgard's ruin. In the Norse myths, Balder dreams of his own death, which prompts Frigga to seek oaths from EVERYTHING that they won't harm Balder (making him invincible) but forgets a sprig of mistletoe for being "too young".
An example of the convenient narrative bullshit I consider to be "Balder-like" in Marvel Thor (on par with "everything cried for Balder except evil Loki"):
Marvel!Thor's Similarities to Thor (They were basically added to make the Marvel amalgam "edgier" and "manlier"):
Hammer. The main difference is that in the myths the ability to lift the hammer is due to some gloves and a belt Thor outfits himself with. It has nothing to do with whatever Odin considers "worthy."
War-mongerer tendencies- In Thor 1 MCU!Thor nearly starts a war over an insult and kills some Jotuns along the way. In the myths, Myth!Thor's favorite past time was smashing things into puree with Mjolnir, especially Jotnar (mass murder was his favorite hobby). The comics are weird, and there's so many runs I feel weird making a broad generalization. But most of them have problematic elements because they'll portray Asgard as always good if they were written before a certain year/decade.
Uses physical violence for intimidation. In the beginning of TR, Thor threatened to bash Loki's skull in after finding out Loki survived. The comics show him casually manhandling or beating the shit out of Loki for a variety of reasons(sometimes warranted, sometimes not). In the myths, Thor is sicced after Jotnar and Loki on various occassions, and it ends up badly for the the Jotnar and Loki.
Anger management issues. See above examples.
Reacts very badly to insult. In the MCU, he nearly starts a war over being called "princess." In the mythology, he is rather pissed off about having to wear a dress and pretend to be Freyja.
Myth!Thor and Marvel!Thor differences:
Thor is respected/feared in the myths but he's not as charismatic as the Marvel version. He's not the one even the fucking rocks cried for to bring back from Hel. That's a Balder trait added onto Thor. Whereas in the comics, even Marvel!Balder is whining about how he's not as strong/perfect as Marvel!Thor.
Myth!Thor is crueler. Marvel softened him up (and it was pretty clear they would have picked Balder had he a cooler title).
Obligatory Thor is a red-head in the mythology.
Thor's hammer in myths was given to him by Loki who made a wager with some dwarves to restore Sif's hair and bring gifts to the Aesir/Vanir. Lifting it is also not dependent on worthiness, but on a powerbelt and some gloves. In Marvel, the hammer usually existed before Thor and Loki (unless it's a Norse-inspired run like Loki (2010)).
Thor's biological mother isn't Frigga in the mythology or comics, but she is in the MCU.
Myth!Thor in a nutshell^^^
Lazy Citations
This may not be as thorough because I don't have the energy to go through all the comics.
Previous parts of this post series:
This is part (2/3) of a series. This is the most obvious "equation" out of the three, being that all Norse myth adaptations have an Odin an
I will always wonder why out of all the Norse deities, Thor was chosen as Loki's foil for Marvel (which had a lot of influence on other depictions). Thor and Loki had to be changed a lot from the mythological counterpart to work as foils.
There are foil candidates in the mythology that require less changes such as:
Heimdall-Kismesis (and arguably my favorite). They die by each other's hand during Ragnarok. They fight as seals. They are known to have beef with each other as one is the all-seeing gatekeeper of the realm, and the other one is the god of shiftiness. And they are very different in that one is entropy and the other is enthalpy. Heimdall also has rather unique abilities such as very enhanced senses, and he was born from 9 mothers. Unique abilities are common in superhero narratives, just saying. And athough I often see it attributed to Loki in adaptations, it's actually Heimdall who suggests Thor dress up as a bride. Loki's just happy to be a bridesmaid and happily joins in. They both like to troll Thor.
Odin-There's whatever the "Blood Brothers" bond would have entailed. I've seen it interpreted in many ways from Loki being a friend, adoptive child, adoptive little brother, and even Loki being his sugar baby/side piece. I lied, I can see why he was not chosen. They probably wanted someone more evenly matched in power dynamic than King-of-Gods/Jester-Henchman and a younger hero for a demographic consisting of children. Odin has a lot of power over Loki in the myths and had him imprisoned in a very horrendous way. Myth!Odin is also a bit too much like Loki (shady) and is a bit GNC himself and basically gets away with it because he's the Allfather and unlike Loki has more power. But it works in the "Two sides of the same coin" frenemies/abusive relationship sort of deal.
Baldr (arguably the most similar to Thor comics)-Loki's destined to cause his death. My ridiculous and admittedly unfounded theory is that they substituted Thor for him because "God of Thunder" sounded cooler than "God of Light." Also, is it me or does "God of Light" sound too Jesus-like and Marvel might have wanted to avoid that? Marvel comics Thor actually shared multiple traits with Balder (esp. in early versions). The comics do have a depiction of Baldr and his moniker is "Balder the Brave" (avoiding the "God of Light" title) and he's a very bland character. They also like to make it a point to show how Thor is better because he's stronger and braver bleh bleh. The traits they have in common is that myth!Balder and Marvel!Thor are beloved by ALL of Asgard (except maybe Loki), myth!Balder is practically indestructible (except for mistletoe) and Thor was so Gary Stu-ish and "the strongest" to the point of eyeroll. Also, the reason Marvel!Thor and has parallels with Jesus is because they meshed myth!Balder (whom Snorri tried to posit as a Jesus-like figure with his resurrection and such) with myth!Thor to make Marvel!Thor.
Hypothetical Norse Mythology movie casting choices
IF someone were to make a hypothetical norse mythology movie which involves Gods that'd all be dead or old if they didn't have access to Idunn's apples that grant them back their youth, which age casting dynamics would you prefer?
Which age casting dynamics would you prefer?
Everyone looks youngish.
Old Odin, Loki, younger Thor, Balder, Heimdall.
Everyone's middle-aged just because.
The ages are kinda random because it depends on last apple consumption.
Everyone's youngish except Odin because it was part of the sacrifice for wisdom.
Other (specify in tags and why)
In the book I am reading, Balder tries to get Thor to hurt him to showcase his newfound invulnerability, by saying that Loki was right about Thor having fat tits.
How fid balder gp from thr favorite and beloved one in norse mythology. To being just that dude who keeps saying hes Thor's brother but thors like "no ur not" xD
It's so ironic indeed, because Balder is "beloved by all" and practically the Gary Stu of Norse Mythology (it's also why I don't care for his original mythological counterpart, sorry guys).
And it's so strange that technically, Loki got the short end of the stick from Marvel (being portrayed as a ghoulish villain that always fails for decades), but even that Marvelization and demonization gave Loki the most interesting dynamic with Thor, the Norse figure Marvel decided to make the protagonist (I personally consider Marvel's Thor to be a mix of myth!Balder and myth!Thor because in comics written prior to 2010, Thor's very Gary Stu-ish). Balder in the comics is a less hot-headed and weaker version of Thor with a yandere sorceress, Karnilla, obsessed with him.
I think Loki will always or usually end up being an interesting character due to their ambiguous nature in the myths and the large role they play in the mythology, no matter how much different he is in the depiction (Marvel's Loki, to me started out as a mix of myth!Loki, the Devil of Abrahamic religions, and myth!Odin because myth!Loki's magic was just shapeshifting themself and others).
It's a question of whether demonization is better than being overlooked and forgotten.