Loki, the adopted son of Odin, brother of Thor, the god of Mischief. This is pretty much what we know of him. We also know that Loki is the rightful heir to the throne of Jotunheim, (Jötunheimr). Loki is the biological son of the Giant King, Laufey. Let’s put a pin in that.
When we first meet Loki, he is anxious with anticipation over the announcement of who will take the throne of Asgard when Odin moves on. To his disappointment, his brother Thor gets the honor. Loki doesn’t know or understand why because his brother doesn’t even want to be king. But what Odin says goes.
Loki goes to great lengths throughout the Thor series to gain power, control, and kingship. He leaves Asgard to try to conquer Midgard (Earth) by sending the destroyer. We see him again in the first Avengers hunting for the tesseract (later known to be to give to Thanos), and engaging the Chitaurian army. After his capture, he leaves the Asgardian prison to help Thor defeat the dark elves only to fake his death. He then returns to Asgard and banishes Odin, only to assume his identity as king. Even on Sakaar, he is plotting the rulers demise and his own ascent to power. When that doesn’t pan out, he attempts to take over the “Revolution” from Corg in order to gain power. He returns to Asgard in the middle of battle declaring “Your savior is here!”.
In fact, he would eventually be their savior by putting Surtur’s crown into the eternal flame. But, he would still never be king. Step back and think about this, Loki, in fact was a rightful King, just not of Asgard. He was genetically, biologically, and by all rules of aristocracy, a King. However on Asgard, he was the god of mischief. The son who would never be king.
Imagine this inexplicabe desire to be something. You yearn for it and everything in you says it should be yours. I imagine that is how Loki felt. I am built to be something other than what I have become, but no one else sees me that way.
So answer this, What’s in a name? When we are given our name at birth, do you think our parents consider whether or not we would live up to it? Let’s think about this, Michael Jordan Jr., Lebron James Jr. and if women did this, Serena Williams Jr. When Lebron James gave his son his name, he didn’t know the shoes he would have to fill later on. He wasn’t aware of the weight that name would bear as he started to embark on his own life, or when he god-forbid picked up a basketball. Michael Jordan Jr., doesn’t play professional basketball, and most doubt he ever will. What if the fictitious Serena Jr. picked up a tennis racket.
Now back to Loki, stripped of his own biological heritage, his home conquered and stripped by Odin and his Asgardian army, no longer the son of the giant king, heir to the throne of Jotunheim, but the god of mischief. Is that who he was, or is that who he became? What if we started putting King and Queen in front of our names? What if we became Lady Jane Smith of the Houston House of Smiths? Yeah its a lot to say, but if you grow up hearing that over and over, you know your place in succession to the “throne”, your name, and where you come from. Imagine leaving home in adulthood having lived your entire life knowing where you came from, understanding who you are, and having some idea of the great potential you possessed. Where could that have taken you?
Now imagine believing one thing and finding out that it just isn’t true. Imagine growing into adulthood believing your are Loki, son of Odin the king of Asgard and discovering you are actually Loki, son of Laufey, the Giant King of Jotunheim. You’ve never even met this person of lived in that realm. Loki grew up believing he was an equal contender for something great only to find out he never stood a chance at it. Loki, the god of mischief. The name he ultimately lived up to and died with. Never having claim to what was rightfully his.
This is what happens when one “people” believe themselves to be superior to another. They make decisions and do things that strip the other group of “people” from everything they know causing the first generation to fear and submit to the aforementioned “people”, but eventually leading to a generation later on that is confused, flailing, and failing to adjust to the status quo, desiring more than what they have been “gifted”, and rebelling in order to find their way.
What have you been stripped of by those who are supposed to love you? What have you been called that you want to rebel against? Who do you feel yourself to be that others refuse to see? How did you get there?
