Odin's A+ Parenting - Blog Posts

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:

Hi! I found your post describing how Odin abused Thor differently than Loki, and my goodness, everything you mentioned is spot on! I especially found your analysis about the brothers’ mindsets after being pitted against each other since they were kids so detailed and fascinating (what is LWML by the way? It sounds interesting). There was an Avengers Assemble episode or two that touches upon their forced rivalry. In them, Thor is upset about how they had to compete, and he struggles with insecurity about his academic performance despite being the stronger and favored brother (Odin actually pulled him out of school to go on advanced quests, which sounds cool at the surface level but really isn’t).

Odin’s behavior in the MCU reminds me so much of how he treats Thor in the comics, particularly the Journey Into Mystery comics from 1963 and the Thor comic run from 1966. I’ve probably squeaked about it here before, so apologies if I have. Also, feel free to not continue reading if you would prefer not to see comic spoilers or triggering topics. :)

In these comics, Odin absolutely does not tolerate any disobedience or perceived “threats” to his orders to the point of irrationality. I think the examples that stuck out the most to me the most are Journey Into Mystery #125-127, where Thor tells Jane that he is Donald Blake. Odin pretty much throws a hissy fit over that and forces everyone in Asgard to fight and try to kill him. Then when Thor escapes that, the jerk goes and tells his magician/vizier to halve Thor’s powers (because he “loves” Thor so much that he can’t bring himself to do it himself, ugh) while Thor’s in the middle of a fight with Hercules. At least it backfires, but Thor comes back to save Odin’s sorry butt (and nearly dies again!) despite being hurt by him. Odin shows remorse whenever he pulls nonsense like that, but he keeps doing similar stuff over and over again despite apologizing.

Another comic that was very upsetting was a brief narration in King Thor #4 that mentions how Odin got mad at baby Thor because he was crying about a storm (as you read on, it explains that Thor was causing the storm and implies that maybe something else made him cry). So what does he do? Put the poor little thing outside in the storm for a while and forbid everyone to comfort or help him! Thor is seemingly traumatized by this ordeal because when Odin goes to get him, he’s soaking wet but dry-eyed. I couldn’t help but compare that to Laufey abandoning baby Loki in the first Thor movie.

At least Thor calls out some of Odin’s awful parenting in the newer comics, like in Thor (2018). But he still is very forgiving of him.

Anyway, that’s my little rant that your analysis spawned. Odin’s A+ Parenting is far from being a new concept, and I find it to be great fanfic inspiration. :)

Thank you! Glad you liked my thoughts on the topic.

LWML is Loki: Where Mischief Lies book, it's supposed to be MCU-based but is as canon as any book about a popular movie franchise can be. It's from Loki's pov and he is being manipulated by literally (and I mean LITERALLY) everyone in the book while struggling with the choice between being who he wants to be (a decent person and a beloved political figure, not necessarily a king, but at least a prince) vs giving up and being who he is perceived to be (aka almost everyone treats him like a potential threat & not good enough, and there is sort of a "prophecy" of him becoming the god of evil), and because of that the book gives us a lot of odinsfam dynamic.

Thank you so much for all of this information, that's new to me, I don't read many old comics. I knew that comic book Odin was a horrendous straight-up abusive father, because, as you said, in the newer issues Thor mentions it on multiple occasions, but I never knew what exactly did this mf do, and the story about the storm made me tear up a little bit.

I think that while I do agree with the op of the post I responded to that Thor putting Odin on a pedestal and brushing off his abusive behavior as Loki's "imagined slights" is incredibly unfair towards Loki, I just have to point out that it seems like if MCU Thor recognizes Odin for who he was, he will break. Because that would mean Thor is the favorite child of a monster. That Thor spend centuries proud of and afraid of losing the approval and love of someone cruel. That he should've stood up for Loki. TDW mentions that Frigga was distant towards Thor and he took pride in the fact that his father loved him, if he had to recognize that the love was conditional and abusive, he would have nothing left. He was defined worthy by Odin's spell. He was named heir by Odin. He was fighting battles defending Odin's name. And if Odin's a monster, what does it say about Thor?