Thor: My brother Loki is adopted. He comes from another realm called Jotunheim.
Avengers: So how does the adoption process work on Asgard? Even here it takes years to complete all the background checks and paperwork. I imagine there it probably takes literal centuries.
Thor: … There was no paperwork. My father found him while invading his native realm and since he was unattended, possibly because he had been abandoned to die or possibly because of the invading army, my father took him in the hopes he would prove useful.
Avengers: …. That’s not adoption.
Thor: …yes it is
Thor: so anyway back to the story of how Loki overreacted and made a big deal out of it when he found out 🙄💁♂️
Legitimately my pet peeve to end all pet peeves how Marvel, as well as every article ever written about him, continually refers to Loki as Thor’s adopted/step/half-brother instead of a kidnapping victim, which is what he is.
#i just…#not that trauma as a result of finding out you were adopted after years of not knowing#isn’t a thing or isn’t valid#it definitely is#but just framing what happened to loki as him having been ‘adopted’#so grotesquely minimizes what was actually done#he was stolen from his homeland to be a political pawn#and literally whitewashed by his kidnapper#robbed of his native culture and heritage#and raised to despise the race he secretly belonged to#that’s a lot more than just ‘i’m upset because it turns out i’m not biologically related to the people who raised me’#that’s something marvel has never truly grappled with#and at this point i doubt they ever will (tags via @nikkoliferous)
Yeah. It’s also why for all they want to villain code Loki for things he didn’t do like trying to “steal” the throne (when?? literally when did this happen?) - or things that aren’t actually evil - like trying to stop a warmonger from taking the throne (aka exactly thor’s motivation in TR) - they never really address Loki’s attempted genocide because even though that was a horrible act, addressing it creates a problem since all the hero characters had similar attitudes. Actually Loki didn’t want to fight the Jotuns and tried to avert a war; only after he became suicidal and had breakdown because he discovered his heritage, did he try to kill them. Thor was literally laughing and having a great time murdering Jotnar. As were his friends. Branding Loki evil for this would mean acknowledging that Asgardian society was evil for those attitudes too. I mean literally if not for a twist of fate Loki could have been one of the Jotnar that Thor thoughtlessly murdered while laughing with exhilaration. But that never really gets addressed.
Also remember Odin always planned to tell Loki the truther eventually because he wanted to use him to “unite” the kingdoms whatever that means. So he let Thor talk about how he was going to wipe out all the frost giants, knowing his son was a frost giant and fully intending to one day share that truth with him. He probably figured the resulting wave of self hatred and doubt when Loki learned the truth would both ensure that his loyalties remained to Asgard and that he would be even more obedient and desperate to prove himself. (And btw Frigga went right along with it).
In addition to all this great parenting, I’d just like to point out that Odin’s plan from the moment he found Loki was to raise him Asgardian, and then once the time came, since Loki would technically be the legitimate heir to Jotunheim, he could rule that realm while Thor ruled Asgard (“Only one of you can ascend the throne, but both of you were born to be kings”). That was literally Odin’s plan all along.
Like… from the very first time he held this child- the son of his enemy, who was?? maybe abandoned?? maybe not? how the hell would Odin have known?- he came up with a plot to:
1. kidnap him
2. trick him into thinking he was Asgardian and expose him to excessive anti-jotun propaganda thus indoctrinating him to the Asgardian imperialist mindset
3. groom him to strive for things that would benefit said imperialist regime (genocide, race supremacy, interventionist ideals)
4. once he was old enough, implant him on the throne of Asgard’s enemy nation as a puppet king and figurehead for the Asgardian Empire.
Like what the absolute fuck?? We all knew it was a dastardly situation to begin with, but when you actually lay it all out and see it for what it is, you realise that Odin legit 100% premeditatedly kidnapped and brainwashed Loki to use as a weapon against his own people. That’s not a headcanon, that’s what happened in the movie. And tbh?? It’s super hard to believe that Odin actually cared about Loki after all that.
I mean, I think he did love him (at least a little bit, in a twisted unhealthy way), but man. This is just. A lot.
Excellent additions. Also given that Odin did absolutely nothing to try to combat the severe violent anti-Jotun attitudes in Asgardian society at large (or even in his own household - Thor didn’t start talking about wiping them all out from childhood without outside influences) despite the fact that he knew of Loki’s true heritage, it seems likely that Odin agrees with those views and sees Loki as an inferior being fit only to be used as a tool, rather than as a person. Either that or he just felt that promoting these kinds of attitudes would make Loki more pliant and eager to prove himself once the truth was revealed, decrease the chance that Loki would feel loyalty to the other Jotnar, and decrease the chance that Loki could ever be accepted on the throne (thus ensuring he was not a threat to Thor). Either way. It’s horrific.
