Minute Forty-Two: From Odin’s Reasoning to Odin’s Collapse
In the forty-second minute of Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film Thor…
- Odin lays out his reasoning as to why he took Loki from Jotunheim, but does it make sense as a way to unite the kingdoms? And why does he say it no longer matters?
- Perhaps he shouldn’t have disguised him all these years?
- Has Odin never realized that this maybe wasn’t the best way forward? Or had he been lying so long that he got past the point of figuring out how to talk to him?
- We certainly feel that Odin’s twisting his own words.
- When Odin brought Loki back, did he have to send Frigga off Asgard for nine months with the baby then have her come back, acting as if she delivered him?
- Can Heimdall see past Odin’s spell? Does he know Loki is a Jotun?
- But the biggest issue is the fact that Loki isn’t big, and when the Casket reveals his true nature that he doesn’t also change size. What’s up with that? We know that Odin says he was small for a frost giant, but does that mean he’s Asgardian sized? According to What If…?, he’s definitely taller.
- All told, though, Odin is gaslighting Loki a bit.
- As Loki continues to develop his villainy, Austin points out the charming villain lineage he shares in Shakespeare’s works.
Loki pushes Odin into the Odinsleep after not buying into Odin’s reasoning.
- It’s interesting to us that with everything going on, it’s this fight with Loki that pushes Odin to fall into the Odinsleep.
- Marvel created the Odinsleep in the comics as something Odin needs to do every few millennia to restore his Odinforce.
- It’s a little similar to the trance that Odin would go into in Norse mythology, but it’s different enough to bother people who study Norse mythology.
- Loki’s anger doesn’t abate when Odin falls, perhaps because his fallibility and weakness feels to Loki like another power play, albeit not one in his control.
- And to that end, perhaps that’s why it takes Loki so long to look at Odin on the ground before he does anything (in the next minute).
- Austin points out how so many of Shakespeare’s stories could take place in high school settings, and how the heightened emotions in this film feel that way as well.
It’s a heavy minute with Loki not buying Odin’s reasoning then pushing him into the Odinsleep. Tune in!
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