#Actually now that I think about it it might be bc Loki's genderfluidity was what was focused on in AoA to kind of tie in with the themes of | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lo-lynx · 4 years

Text

Laurits/Loki as a queer character in Netflix’s Ragnarok

Spoilers for season one of Netflix’s show Ragnarok!

I binged the first season of the Netflix show Ragnarok yesterday, and felt compelled to write something about it. This is somewhat hastely written, so I apologise if the arguments are not as well thought out as they could be, but I wanted to write something. So here we go:

In the Netflix show Ragnarok we meet the two brothers Magne and Laurits as they move to the Norwegian town of Edda with their mother (Ragnarok 2020a). The audience and the characters soon realise that this town is not quite normal, and something mysterious is afoot… It becomes clear that Magne has been bestowed with some sort of magical powers and has been put in the role of Thor in the battle between Norse gods and giants. However, it is less clear what role Laurits is supposed to play. In this text I will claim that he is the Loki to Magne’s Thor, and that is especially interesting in regards to the queerness of his character.

So, first of all, why do I think Laurits is Loki? I think the first point that should be made here is his and Magne’s physical descriptions.

Here we see Laurits sitting furthest to the left, with a green jacket, and Magne sitting to the right of him (with blue jeans and a red t-shirt). Magne and Laurits very much look like how one would imagine Thor and Loki, especially a contemporary audience who has seen the Marvel version of them:

But even beyond Laurits’ looks and brotherly relation to the Thor character, there are parallels between Loki and Laurits. There is his slightly deceptive and trickster like nature, such as when he plays pranks on Magne (for instance by messing up his essay for class when he was supposed to look over the spelling) (Ragnarok 2020a, 22 min). Then there’s also his affinity with the Jutul family, who are actually giants (the name seems to be a play on the old Norse word for giants, jǫtunn). The Loki of Norse myth is often associated with giants as well and might be giant or half-giant (Hume 2019). In the series it is also hinted at several times that Laurits has some sort of magical connection to the giants, for instance at the school dance (Ragnarok 2002b, 31 min). It is also hinted at that the father of the Jutul family, Vidar, has had an affair with Laurits’ mother Turid previously (for example: Ragnarok 2002b, 11:30 min). This makes me wonder if Laurits’ parents are in fact Turid and Vidar, making him half giant… If that is the case, he would have a sort of double cultural heritage, that of humans and that of giants.

Another cultural aspect that is interesting to look at is the parallels between the Loki of myth and the culture of the indigenous Sámi people in northern Scandinavia and Russia (Laidoner 2012). For one, the land of the giants seems to somewhat resemble the description of the Sámi peoples land, in regards to geographical location (north, on the borderlands). Similar to how Sámi was (and are) seen as “other” by Scandinavian people, so were the jǫtunn seen by the æsir (the gods). Laidoner also sees parallels between Loki and historical Sámi shamanism (noadi). She writes:

Loki’s potential links to the cultural world of the Sámi might perhaps first and foremost lie in his combination of being both a jǫtunn and (possibly) an áss and the fact that he seems to lack a home and a clear cultural background (…). This certainly makes him a very untrustworthy outsider among the æsir who, irrespective of the fact that their own ancestry goes back to the jǫtnar, frequently show hostility towards them. Loki’s jǫtunn background, and the possible connection between the Sámi and the jǫtnar whose headquarters seem to have been placed in an area that corresponded to the Sámi territories, allow us to place the focus of the following discussion on Loki’s potential affiliation with Sámi culture, where ideas of symbolic soul travels, cosmic oppositions and ambiguity seem to form a natural part of human existence, something most clearly reflected in the noaidi-tradition. It is difficult to overlook the fact that many dualistic ideas of the same kind are also embodied in the Loki figure. Besides being borderline jǫtunn and áss, a curious relic of Loki’s possible connection to the Sámi-world can perhaps be found in his everpresent duality. This duality is shown in several contrasting qualities, such as existing in both male and female form and being a father and a mother, representing aspects of both good and evil (to the extent that such clear distinctions existed in pre-Christian times), being a causer and resolver of problems, a thief and a bringer of valuable objects, all of which again seems to be in accordance with the functions of a noaidi. (Laidoner 2012, 69)

So, as we can see, Loki crosses borders between both cultures and genders, and both of these aspects make him seem untrustworthy. We can also see a parallel here to how indigenous people have been seen and are seen still today. Now, to return to Laurits, we can see some of these aspects here. Laurits move between different worlds, from the luxury of the Jutuls and the popular kids at school, to his rather less glamorous home-life. As I mentioned above, I also think there’s a possibility of him being half Jutul. But he also most definitely plays with gender borders.

I have previously written on this blog about characters moving between genders, for instance regarding Varys in ASOIAF/GoT and Alex in the “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard” series by Rick Riordan. As mentioned in the latter text, in that story Loki is presented as genderfluid for similar reasons as I outlined above with his changing of sex/gender. In the analysis of Varys, I wrote about how he was perceived as a transgressor of both borders of gender and ethnicity, with being a eunuch from “the East”. (I there relied on texts about the historical eunuchs in for instance Ancient Greece (Llewyn-Jones 2002; Nikoloutsos 2008)). Similar to what Laidoner writes about Loki, one can see that the fluidity of Varys is connected to his movement between different gender expressions as well as cultures. Here I want to briefly touch on some more theoretical background that might be useful when understanding the crossing of borders with gender and ethnicity. Emma Bond writes about the experiences of trans people who also crosses borders of nations, and how they are seen as transgressors in double ways (2018, 71). She further writes that those who permanently inhabit this liminal space between borders, this site is often experienced as a place of alienation and violence (2018, 97). So, throughout these different examples we can see that people who cross borders of gender and ethnicity are seen as suspicious, and perhaps doubly queer (in the sense of non-conformity to norms of sex/gender/sexuality, which is of course also bound up with norms of ethnicity).

In the show, Laurits is seen crossing gender borders several times. One clear example is during the school dance, where he shows up with eyeliner, skinny jeans, and his mother’s old shirt (Ragnarok 2020b, 22:30 min). At the same dance it becomes clear that he has somewhat of a crush on the popular boy Fjor Jotul (who might be his half-brother if my theory is correct… but I’m also not sure if the Jutul family is actually related in the way they claim…) (Ragnarok 2020b, 24:36 min). This is of course also a break with gender norms, that dictate that men should be attracted to women. Then in the last episode of season one Laurits shows up to the school’s celebration of the national day dressed as the school’s headmistress Ran Jutul to mock and criticise her (Ragnarok 2020c, 31:40 min). Here he cross-dresses, perhaps in a similar way as the mythological Loki has done at times. He also plays the role of the trickster very well. Throughout the season it has been somewhat unclear on whose side he is on, but here at the end he helps the “good guys” (mainly his brother), but of course in a mocking manner. This illuminates the dualistic nature of Loki that Laidoner describes (2012).

Overall, Laurits can be seen as portraying several aspects of Loki. He is a trickster, but also a somewhat fluid character in regards to his heritage/culture and gender/sexuality. He moves between different spaces, inhabiting the liminal space between borders of good/evil, feminine/masculine, etc. This portrayal of a queer character is very interesting, and I hope in the event that the show is renewed for a second season it will explore this further. I should however mention the risk of showing a queer character as a deceiver, this could of course play into stereotypes about queer and/or trans characters. This is something that I write about in the previously mentioned text about Alex from the Magnus Chase novels. But I also think this can be portrayed well and interestingly if the audience is shown a contrast between how Laurits is perceived and who he is. A similar element was most definitely present with Magne in season one. So overall, this portrayal of a queer Laurits/Loki is quite interesting and promising.

References

Bond, Emma. 2018. Writing Migration through the Body. Springer: Cham

Hume, Kathryn. 2019. “Loki and Odin: Old Gods Repurposed by Neil Gaiman, A. S. Byatt, and Klas Östergren.” Studies in the Novel, (51)2: 237-308.

Laidoner, Triin. “The Flying Noaidi of the North: Sámi Tradition Reflected in the Figure Loki Laufeyjarson in Old Norse Mythology.” Scripta Islandica 63 (2012): 59–91.

Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd. 2002. “Eunuchs and the royal harem in Achaemenid Persia (559-331 BC)”, in Eunuchs in antiquity and beyond, ed. Tougher, Shaun, 19-50. Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales.

Nikoloutsos, Konstantinos P. 2008. ”The Alexander Bromance: Male Desire and Gender Fluidity in Oliver Stone’s Historical Epic.” Helios, (35)2: 223-251

Ragnarok. 2020a. New Boy. [TV-show] Netflix, 31st of January.

Ragnarok. 2020b. 541 Meters. [TV-show] Netflix, 31st of January.

Ragnarok. 2020c. Yes, we love this country. [TV-show] Netflix, 31st of January.

#ragnarok #ragnarok netflix #ragnarok 2020 #HOW DO I TAG THIS SO PPL DONT THINK I MEAN MARVEL #feminism #queer

856 notes · View notes

lixbf · 3 years

Note

I say this as someone who was very dissatisfied with the other shows…Loki’s finale gave me everything I wanted 😭😭😭😭 I’m satisfied 😭 I’m interested as to why you weren’t

idk how to put all this but after a certain point it really felt like this wasn't loki's series but a series that simply had a (weird version of 2012) loki in it. i'm just generally kinda annoyed by how they especially handled loki being bi and genderfluid bc at this point their "confirmation" is basically non-existent and loki might as well be cishet.

plus that entire sylvie x loki thing?? so weird and out of character imo. like loki isn't as narcissistic as everyone seems to think, loki legit doesn't like himself or think he's worthy of love for the most part. so why tf would he suddenly start running after the only female version of himself like some dumb schoolboy in love? and even if we ignore that part, theyre literally the same person??? just from different timelines???? if that's all cool then why didnt we see ravonna make out with her school teacher-self?

all his character development was pushed into the first episode and after that we're supposed to think that now he's kinda on the level of post-ragnarok loki but even less interested in being king/ruler??? for loki that entire "trying to rule earth/nyc" thing happened less than a week ago, he wouldn't change all his motivations that fast. that entire "oh no i'd never want this throne" thing was annoying like thats his main motivation in every single mcu film???

sylvie and loki were so weirdly characterized imo. where is all of loki's ability to be cunning and scheming? why does he now trust basically everyone?? sylvie isn't really a fleshed out character either, she's just the terrifyingly strong woman in a group of men. like that's not good representation especially if thats basically all that she is allowed to be

a lot of the show just seems like build-up to the next few mcu movies to me... and a lot of timeline stuff (i.e. loki ending up at a "different" tva even though he was sent there before the timeline even split that much) feels weird and it doesn't make sense imo

and it's really dissatisfying to have loki build that relationship/friendship with mobius (and hunter b-15 to a certaib degree) just to... not have them remember him?? even if you dotn ship mobius and loki it's just. disappointing to have him lose his first actual friend like that after just seeing them hug the episode before that

there's a lot of questions still unanswered and many things that wouldve been nice to see and yeah i saw that season 2 thing but ugh. what was sylvie's nexus event? why tf does mobius like jetskis that much? where does that part in the trailer where loki wears his 2012 clothes come from? why the hell do all the lokis seem so shocked at the idea that any version of them could ever be a woman? why is an alligator acceptable tho? why did loki seemingly fall in love with sylvie after only knowing her for like 12 hours and proceeded to make every single one of his motivations be about her?

kang the conqueror was a pretty cool character tho he really owned that entire last episode lol

#loki pulling that entire 'i know what youre going through' thing was so annoying to me too like wtf no you dont #i will admit that sylvie kissing loki only to betray him was in character for a loki but 🤢🤢 it was still disgusting #they couldve done so much more and explored loki's characters and his identity so much more but noooo #personally I'm really disappointed by how they made him say/imply that he's bi but then never actually showed that part of him #like if he can fall in love with the female version of him then let him flirt with boastful loki or classic loki too!!#anyways this is way too long lol #loki spoilers #long post #anon #asks

1 note · View note

transpeterman · 7 years

Note

yes please do a hc list about peter coming out as trans

LONG POST WHOOPS LMAO

NED, MAY, BEN-Peter always gravitated toward boyish clothes and kept his hair as short as possible-he was never really adverse to ‘girly’ things and actually enjoyed playing with dolls and things like that-but the older he got the less he connected with girls his age-he really didn’t connect with anyone because they just didn’t get him-but then he met Ned in 7th grade-and he and Ned would sometimes just talk about random things while they built lego sets or while they were waiting for a movie to load-and Ned’s just like “I think I’m gay”-and Peter almost chokes on his take out because it was such a random thing but he’s kinda like “cool dude”-and later Peter’s like “so, anyone catching your eye?” and Ned did not sign up for this-Ned tells Peter about his crush on whatever boy they have gym with-but peters thinking about what Ned said -he knew gay people existed he just never thought it was relevant to him-so he looks some stuff up the next day and he reads about “bisexual” and “pansexual”-he’s not too focused on all that though because he saw “trans*” and that’s what really caught his eye-and a few months later he tells Ned that he might be trans and Ned’s just-such a good bro?-he talks to him about names and pronouns and all of Ned’s texts are like “that’s great!!” And “I’m happy for you!!” And really nice-and Ned asks if he’s told May and Ben-but Peter waits another month even though he asks for a new, much shorter haircut and some new clothes-(that he loves)-when he tells May and Ben they’re both really chill and kinda like “I knew”-and Peter’s like ??? How could you know??-but they raised this boy they both had an inkling and wanted to make sure he knew they loved him no matter what-Peter may or may not cry-like a lot because he’s so relieved-they ask if he’s going to change his name and when he tells them he’s picked Peter they think it’s great -and maybe Ben starts crying a little when Peter says his middle name is “Benjamin”—–TONY-when tony was checking peters files and records he notices the name changes from “Karen” to “Peter”-at first it seems like a mistake but a little further digging tells him there was a birth certificate change -pretty recently in fact-and Tony’s honestly pretty surprised there’s another trans superhero and immediately feels drawn to this kid-well “superhero” being used lightly since he seems to be taking down muggers and drug dealers-tony doesn’t approach the subject with Peter but he does build a binder into peters suit-one he engineered to allow the ribs to expand and lungs to reach full capacity while it is worn-he also starts putting together an account to pay for testosterone and surgery if Peter ever wants it after he comes out to tony-a few months after the whole airport fight Peter gets pretty badly injured-like 'stabbed in the side’ injured-and the suit alerts tony and when tony goes to pick him up Peter’s like “lmao no I’m good”-because he would have to take off the suit and he doesn’t have his binder with him just a sports bra and he wouldn’t want tony to see him in his binder anyway-but tony makes him come with him and he lets Peter change in the bathroom -Peter has to take off his shirt so that the surgeon can treat his wound and peters really afraid of what mr. Stark will say when he sees that Peter’s wearing a sports bra but tony just hisses at the stab wound-because it’s pretty deep and gross-and painful looking-and Peter feels another weight lifted off his shoulder-because it’s one less person who might judge him or underestimate him or misgender him—CLINT, SAM, STEVE, AND BUCKY-so Clint Sam and Bucky all got involved in a prank war-Steve was briefly involved but ducked out when someone welded his shield to bucky’s arm-that “someone” turned out to be peter -thus Peter got involved in the prank war-so like peter was staying at the compound for a few weeks while some bad dudes where being watched-and while peters showering Clint and Sam decide to take all the clothes out of Peter’s room-and they go into his drawer and they see these weird like,, tank top things-and crop top things? They almost seem like undershirts but the material is stiff-they’re confused but they don’t really think much of it-so they take baskets of peter’s clothes down to the communal area and into the kitchen-they set them down on some of the chairs and sit down to have breakfast-and Peter’s really thankful he brought his binder and a pair of boxers into the bathroom with him-he asks Friday if Tony’s awake but he literally just fell asleep so Peter’s not waking him up for this-he asks Friday to tell whichever fucker took his clothes that he’s going to web them to the ceiling if they don’t bring them up to his room-Friday responds with the very eloquent message “eat my entire ass, parker”-so Peter knows Clint is involved-and also that he’s not getting his clothes back unless he goes down to get them-so he decides “fuck it”-he also may be shaking the entire time and Friday asks if tony should be notified of a problem-but Peter just fuckin goes for it -he may not make eye contact with anyone once he’s in the kitchen and he can hear Clint and Sam snickering-but he also feels Steve and Bucky’s eyes on him-and then clint asks what he’s wearing and sam’s like “why do you have so many of those shirt things?”-and Peter’s just like “tony insisted I have one in each color”-and steve’s like “one what?”-so Peter tells them it’s a binder and that he’s scheduled for top surgery in a few months but for now he uses chest binders-and he just kinda grabs his clothes and goes to the elevator really fast because he’s definitely shaking really hard now because he didn’t want them to know yet-especially Bucky and Steve bc they’re old and he doesn’t really know how they’ll react-(he doesn’t have to worry tho, it’s not even a month later that Steve and Bucky are loudly outraged by the trans bathroom bill)-Peter doesn’t come out of his room the rest of the day and goes on patrol at night-the next day he goes down to breakfast -Clint comes in and just says “dude quit finishing the goddamn cereal”-and sam starts being dramatic like “come ON, man, you ALWAYS-”-and Peter’s just really glad to have such amazing teammates (read: friends)—BRUCE, NATASHA, THOR-so Peter never actually came out to Bruce-Bruce has had to treat Peter on multiple occasions for injuries and has actually run a few tests to see how testosterone was interacting with peters DNA-spoiler: he actually engineered a strain of testosterone that Peter now takes because it reacts better to him-he also does Peter’s t shots every once in a while because needles scare Peter a little-one time Thor walked in on Bruce injecting Peter-and Thor is like “why are you stabbing the spider child”-and Bruce tells him it’s medicine for Peter-and Thor gets concerned Bc like-peters sick?? And nobody told him?-and Peter explains that he’s trans-and Thor explains that asguard is much less structured in terms of gender and sexuality-and that Loki is genderfluid-and peter honestly loves Thor like holy shit what a chill dude-and Natasha knew after a few interactions with him -because she’s incredibly observant-Peter knew that she knew -she obviously did even though she never brought it up-Peter doesn’t know that she secretly keeps tabs on how long he binds and if he takes breaks-and she definitely doesn’t like what why would you suggest that-she never does that-ever—WANDA, VISION-so because Wanda is a telepath and Vision is an android they both knew something was up w Peter-Wanda and vision do research together and get Educated™-sometimes wanda helps people when they have nightmares-and she hears Peter having one -and she wakes him up and asks if she can give him better thoughts for when he goes back to sleep-so she ends up poking around in his mind to find the memory that caused the nightmare-she finds a memory of being trapped under a collapsed building -which is disturbing enough but she also finds the feelings of dysphoria, fear, self loathing, and more-because Peter still does have really bad days sometimes-and it’s all pretty intense so she gives him really good thoughts -and a long tight hug-like super long-peter doesn’t mind at all-he really loves his efficient team/dysfunctional family

#i can expand on any of these or maybe touch on the school aspect if anyone wants?#spiderman headcanon #spiderman homecoming #spiderman #spider-man #anon #ask #trans peter headcanons #trans spider man #trans peter #trans peter parker #trans Peter Parker headcanon #headcanon list #sm:hc #sm:h #long post #headcanon lists

3K notes · View notes