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Odin - Blog Posts
Can i just say how iconic thor and Loki's acting skills are, like the scene in dark world where they destroy the aether, and it rlly makes u beleive loki betrayed thor like *chefs kiss*
Oh also get help
Get help is absolutely iconic
Reparenting Loki
I want to talk about a dynamic in the Loki/Mobius relationship (in the Loki TV-series) that I've seen touched on but not really discussed in depth.
Note to Lokius-lovers: nothing I say here in any way precludes a healthy romantic relationship. They're both consenting adults, after all, and this wasn't a formal therapist-client relationship.
There's a technique in therapy called "reparenting". The idea is that trauma and behaviors caused by bad parenting can be addressed to some extent if the therapist assumes the role of a "good parent".
I think we can all agree that the "All-Father" was crap as an actual father. Odin knew that Loki took after him even more than Thor did, but many of those shared traits were things that he tried to hide from everyone, while Thor better represented the image he wanted to project. The result was a cruel favoritism, which was picked up by Thor and the rest of the Asgardians. Frigga's love and support wasn't enough to counteract that cruelty, particularly in a strongly patriarchal society like Asgard.
Side note (because I'm that kind of geek): there were so many similarities between Odin and Loki (Odin's friend and blood-brother rather than his son) in the old Norse myths that some scholars have suggested that Loki was at one point simply an aspect of Odin. There's also evidence that the stories as they came down to us were manipulated by the Christians who committed them to writing to shoehorn Loki into something more like the Christian Devil.
Anyway, getting back to our guys... Within the context of the TVA, Mobius represented an authority figure to Loki, who had a long history of rebelling against (or betraying) authority for obvious reasons.
I think the first turning point in the relationship for Loki was:
Loki: I am smart!
Mobius: I know. Loki is rarely left speechless, but his only response to Mobius's simple affirmation was a very un-Loki-like "Okay..." He didn't know how to respond because he wasn't used to that kind of thing, particularly from someone who had power over him. It happened again with:
Loki: A villain.
Mobius: That's not how I see it.
The dynamic between these two people throughout Season 1 was like that. Mobius's genuine love (whether you read it as romantic, platonic, fatherly, brotherly, or a mix of any or all of these) for and non-judgmental acceptance of Loki was apparent from the start, but of course Loki's experiences during his very long lifetime made it nearly impossible for him to trust that until Mobius's actions convinced him that it was real. Learning to trust Mobius also allowed Loki to see himself in a new light.
For his part, Mobius consistently modeled what a good father would have been: loving and accepting, yes, but still able to apply "tough love" when that was warranted. Mobius didn't put Loki into the bad-memory loop to punish him because he was angry (though he was angry, or at least a bit hurt and disappointed). He was just trying to force Loki to acknowledge a truth about himself so that they could move forward — and it worked!
Mobius's instincts and experience as an actual father to two boys, one reasonably well-behaved and the other a mischievous troublemaker, served him well in this, even if he didn't consciously remember his life on the timeline.
Mobius all but confirmed this when he said:
Mobius: I see a scared little boy, shivering in the cold...
It's also significant that when Loki brought this up later, he called it "patronizing", which we usually use to mean "condescending", but can also mean "supporting" and has its root in the Latin word "pater" (father).
I see the hug in episode 1-5 as a sign that the reparenting had taken hold, and that Loki, while not completely healed (it would take a lot more than that!), was at least in a place where he could trust someone, accept love/friendship, and think beyond his own wants and needs.
By Season 2, the relationship between the two men was evolving into one of equals, but even then Loki still occasionally looked to Mobius for guidance. Mobius's approval had become important to him. When Loki witnessed the firm but compassionate way in which Don dealt with two boys who were so like himself and Thor (despite being a stressed-out single dad rather than a god-king with tremendous resources at his disposal), he had to have seen that this was at the core of who Mobius was. Moreover, Loki — and any viewers who had similarly survived a traumatic childhood full of emotional abuse and neglect — probably guessed that Don himself was a survivor who was determined to see to it that his boys would never have to deal with that. If that was the case, then Mobius didn't just see his own son in Loki. He saw himself and couldn't help but empathize.
Don wasn't perfect. His frustration with his younger son was very evident, but Loki, observing, could see the love that lay under it. He may even have thought of times when Odin was driven to anger by Loki's actions and realized that the anger didn't necessarily mean that Odin didn't really love him. Learning to forgive what can be forgiven is another aspect of recovering from childhood trauma.
It's worth remembering that Mobius knew Loki in much the same way we do. We got to see the things that Loki never let anybody see: the fear, the vulnerability, the pain, the longing, and the sadness. (Doesn't hurt that TH can turn a simple reaction shot into a freakin' soliloquy!) The difference is that, while we only get to see the highlights (and lowlights) of Loki's life, Mobius had access to all of it and he had centuries to study it.
Mobius literally knew Loki better than anyone else in (or out) of the multiverse. How could he not love him? And for Loki, knowing that somebody who knew him that well genuinely cared so much for him (same with Sylvie, who understood him in ways that only another Loki could and vice-versa) had to have shaken him to his core and made him rethink a lot of things. The fact that it was Mobius to whom Loki turned in episode 2.6 when he thought he might have to kill Sylvie shows how much he still looked up to Mobius in many ways.
This was a show about redemption, yes, but also about healing from childhood trauma. They did an amazing job with it.
Odin and Frey: drawings by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones and the stained glass they inspired by Brian James Waugh and Lux Fournier
Odin: Can you come collect your freak of a man please. Odin: He's doing things. Sigyn: No I set him loose on purpose. Sigyn: He needs enrichment.
Odin 🤝 a Roomba
Not cleaning up messes made while wandering.
Sanctuary and Loki's "adoption"
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before now, but… Odin said he found Loki in the temple in Jotunheimr. Of course that didn’t fit very well with his claim of Loki being abandoned there, buutt…
What if the Jotun had some concept like the old Christian “Sanctuary”, in which holy places were refuges where even the bitterest enemy could not touch you or force you out? (Not without risking their soul, as the lore had it.) Even when babies were abandoned to sanctuary it was specifically so they would not die, so that they would be kept safe until a home was found for them.
If that’s the case, then the explanation for Loki being there could have been totally different from what Odin claimed: he could have been put there in hopes of keeping him safe. In the midst of an attack by bitter foes like the Aesir such a move would make perfect sense, the only flaw being the assumption that the Aesir would know and respect the sanctuary.
If that was true, then the best case scenario for Odin is that he found baby Loki and just didn’t know Jotun custom enough to understand why the infant was there. It would show a woeful lack of knowledge of their enemies’ customs, but sadly it’s not very farfetched that he might be so ignorant of their culture, considering the blatant contempt many Asgardians exhibited toward frost giants.
Unfortunately it’s more likely he did know (witness the fact that he knew whose child Loki was) and simply took the child anyway.
So if the Jotun rules are anything like the old church rules - which they’d pretty well have to be just to make the sanctuary concept work - then going in the temple and taking Loki out of it was one of the vilest things Odin could do. Even on the scale of war crimes it would be, well, monstrous.
Yet we’re supposed to believe that Loki is the monster in the House of Odin?
Hela: Father I want to keep fighting because that's all you taught me.
Odin: No. How dare you have so little regard for life exactly like me? Imprisoned and forgotten.
Thor: Father I tried to kill all the monsters just the way you taught me.
Odin: No. How dare you put Asgardian lives in danger and glorify war exactly like me? Banished and stripped of your power.
Loki: Father I could have killed all the monsters without endangering Asgardian lives to prove my loyalty to you!
Odin: No. How dare you think that's what I wanted when I raised you with racism against your own people? Rejected and driven to suicide.
Hela, Thor and Loki:
*slaps roof of train* this bad boy can fit so much cosmic horror in it
[ID: A digital drawing of Odin from The Bifrost Incident. She is an old woman with long, braided white hair, wearing a green-grey coat decorated with golden nordic patterns, standing with her back to the viewer in the corridor of a train. The train’s walls are brown with intricate golden patterns, the carpet is red, also decorated with the same pattern. All around the picture are cracks with bright, multicoloured matter flowing out of them.]