Let’s start with the first moment all of Odin’s children in one place. Loki, the God of Mischief, who is supposed to be dead, but isn’t. Thor, the God of Thunder, trying to save his home but doesn’t have all the information he needs to fulfill the prophecy the way it was intended. Hela, the Goddess of Death, just back from eternal exile where she had to wait for her father to die in order to return.
What we have to keep in mind is that these are adult children who have lost their mother, and now in the time of their father’s passing are together as a threesome for the first time. Thor and Loki have grown up together as brothers, however, in the last few years discovered they were adopted brothers and not blood brothers . Now they have discovered just before Odin transitions that they have an older sister, likely much older since all record of her was removed from Asgard’s history. Hela, we can assume knows nothing of her little brothers, considering she just got arrived after an eternity of banishment. So I think it pointless to say there is a lot to unpack here.
Let’s walk through the present. What do you we know up to this point?
Thor has been searching the “realms” for infinity stones and hasn’t found one. He has this recurring dream that his home, “Asgard” is going to be destroyed. He has conquered the monster, Surtur, that he believes will be the cause of said destruction and returns to Asgard. Upon his arrival, he discovers that his father is in fact his “dead” brother Loki. Loki has exiled his father to a senior living community on earth, and is pretending to be him. He is also forcing the people to reenact his faked death and resurrect a statue in his “honor”. Thor has to go to earth and meet Dr. Strange, in order to find out where his father is. He gets there just in time to learn that he is dying and that upon his death, the Goddess of death, his sister will be released from her exile. Also, that taking Surtur’s crown did nothing to stop the prophecy of Asgard’s doom. What a waste of time, right? Thor, the chosen one, the first-born son, and up until now, the rightful heir to the throne. He isn’t really the smartest of the bunch, but he is loyal, and just wants to make his father proud. Now his father is gone and he standing there with the brother that tried to destroy Earth, twice, died, and is now alive, and robbed him of the time he might have had left with his father if he hadn’t exiled him to another planet. He is orphaned now, with his adopted brother, the God of Mischief that has pretty much tormented him all of his life.
Loki is not Asgardian, he was the adopted son of Friga and Odin, the actual son of the Frost Giant King, from the planet Jotunheim. Loki technically should be blue, but somehow he isn’t. Loki just found out that he was adopted by Odin after his real dad left him to die in a temple. At this point he has known for about 6 movie years that he is adopted. Not all that long considering he was likely not even 30 years old in earth years (not Asgardian years, because I don’t know how old that will be). Loki grew up believing that one day he could be King of Asgard. However, because Thor was technically older, (they are the same age though), it was given to him. Loki, disappointed, isn’t oblivious to the favor Thor has always received despite being the least intelligent of the two. But his biggest quarrel with the decision, Thor doesn’t even want to be King. Ungrateful, and a little unworthy. Can you see why Loki is now looking at his adopted family a little sideways? The looked over, adopted brother that should be dead, or a blue frost giant king.
Before either of these two gets to process this however, Hela arrives. The goddess of Death. At this point, all we know is that Hela is Odin’s oldest daughter. She helped him conquer the realms as his executioner. She helped him execute his “vision” and a few million people too. He groomed her and taught her everything he knew about war, and destruction. She became powerful and we come to learn, that she was the first to wield the hammer Thor came to love so much. Hela is returning to a world that doesn’t even know she exists, let a lone existed. Asgard was built through her conquests, the life the Asgardians knew, she was directly responsible for. At some point though, Odin decided that the truth was too dark, too bloody, and too gruesome to share. He buried all the evidence of his destruction of other realms. He literally built a city of gold on top of the tombs of the warriors that he once led into battle. He covered up the palace with depictions of peace treaties, and peaceful garden parties, and just to make sure that the parts of him that brought him shame never came to light, he banished his first-born child, his daughter, his executioner, from Asgard until he died. As if that wasn’t enough, we can’t forget, Hela draws her strength from Asgard. Her father banishes her from the once place that gives her strength, for an eternity. What had she done? She had become the very thing Odin created her to be. At some point though, he wanted different and instead of accepting what was, he explored the what ifs, and erased parts of an entire realm’s history. He changed the things he could and created this fictional world that came crashing down on the heads of his offspring. Good thing he’s dead… talk about an awkward moment.
Don’t you dare sit there and act like you don’t have family drama. No, you weren’t robbed of ruling an entire realm of people, but you have your own family stuff as well, we all do. What have you kept from your kids, or your parents in the name of “protection”? You see the thing about family secrets, they always come out. Whether they are told in a protective environment to be handled in the best way possible, or blurted out in anger, they come out. We always do things in what we consider to be best for the other person, but why isn’t honesty first on that list. Imagine you hide the truth from your loved one, to make their life better, but when you die. They either never find out and live the “lie” you created, the life you chose for them, or their life falls apart with the loss of you, and the loss of the life you created for them because it no longer exists. Sounds selfish and controlling doesn’t it. Don’t worry, your are dead at this point.
We have to learn to be honest with the people we love about our feelings, about our pasts, about the futures we desire. Scratch that, we need to first be honest with ourselves, then give our loved ones the same respect.
Here we have three kids, raised by the same parents, living with three different versions of their own history. We’ll explore Hela and Thor in depth simply because they are the two biological children of the King of Asgard and Queen Friga (who isn’t at fault but complicit in the lies). They are the two rightful heirs to the throne of Asgard, and yet, have two very different paths to it. Loki’s story however, is just as important. He wanted the throne as much as his sister, maybe even more, but it was never his to have and it shaped him, and ultimately, his rightful title, got him killed (infinty war). I want to mention and make sure that you haven’t forgotten about one major character in this story, Valkyrie. She, while not an heir, and not a child of Odin, was also impacted by Odin’s family drama. We’ll get into that later.
Talk about parent’s leaving their children with a legacy. What are you leaving your kids with? What are you giving them right now, today? What are you teaching them? Have you thought about what you want them to become? Do you even know what that would take? Normally this would be where I would try to leave you with answers to all of those questions, but I want to leave you with those questions. Think about what you are giving your kids emotionally. Ignore the financial and material things. Don’t list out the decisions you’ve made about their education. What are you giving them? How are you shaping them? How are you treating them? Most of all what are you teaching them about the people they came from? The people I am talking about, YOU! One last question, when you die and leave them here alone, what will you leave them to clean up?
