Did Loki get a bum rap?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki
On one hand Loki's murder of Balder was unforgivable.
http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/loki/.
On the other Loki kept on saving Asgard's bacon, often at great cost to himself.
In the MCU, arguably most of Thor and Loki's problems are due to Odin's bad parenting.
In Mythological history, even though it was agreed Odin was stronger, Thor was the most popular god by far because he was "a god of the people." a protector and generally benevolent force of nature and fertility.
With my anarchist sympathies, I'm beginning to sympathize with Loki a lot, although I'd still rather have Thor come to life as in my previous thread, because of Loki's mean streak-usually a justified mean streak, but a mean streak nevertheless.

My favorite Loki story is when the kick ass giantess Skadi threatened to destroy Asgard unless someone made her laugh,
Loki volunteered by spilling his intestines out all over her.

Busted his guts in order to make her bust her gut?

That IS an interesting story.





Will have to brush up on my Norse mythology in order to really weigh in.

But they say that every system of mythology has to have a "trickster" character. A rogue who stirs up trouble.

In most mythologies the role is given to an animal- usually the cleverest animal known to the local culture. The native Americans of the Rocky mountain West cast the Coyote as the trickster in their stories. The Indians of the Pacific north west coast cast the raven in the role. In ancient Greece Aesop cast the red fox as the trickster in his fables.

Later mythologies would cast humanlike characters in that role. The Norse had Loki, and the ancient Hebrews had the Devil.

I've never heard that version of that story, and old norse myth is a former obsession of mine. In every instance I've read, Loki tied his balls to a goat's beard and had a tug-o'-war, for maximum lols.

Also, there's one story that is basically a long string of Loki calling the gods on their being just as s**t as he is. It's pretty funny. Despite not being a god himself, Loki is basically the Asgard court jester with a mean streak.

I think I might have read a cleaned up version of the story, It's focus was more on Skadi than on Loki.
I defer to the Norse mythology experts/fans on that one.

I find it funny that self-disembowlement is somehow more "okay" than anything involving testicles, but oh well..

This is also the story where she gets to pick her husband from among the aesir, but she had to choose based on how their feet looked, yes? Also, sea gods apparently have nice feet...

I think it's inaccurate to refer to him as just a "trickster", and wholly inaccurate to paint him as a satan figure.

Loki's position is to upset the status quo, whether it is good or bad.

He is a god of change.

He only killed baldr because they forced his hand by trying to make sure nobody could kill baldr.

I think it entirely accurate to call him a trickster. It's less accurate to call him a god. He's neither aesir nor vanir, and all sources give his mother as a jotun, and either don't mention a father, or mention a jotun father. Granted, he's "blood-brother" (that is, they slit their wrists and mixed) with Odin, something that saved his hide more than once. Granted, what is and isn't a god in norse myth is a bit fluid, and seeing as he is the father of the godess of the underworld...gah, this stuff is confusing. Even contemporary sources are a bit iffy on that issue.

I agree, his role is to be a spanner in the works, whatever the works may be. Depending on the story, he can be an evil trickster, or your slightly nuts bro who's fun at parties. He's definitely not a satan figure, his goal is never antagonism (that is, he's not siding with the opposition, he's just messing with both sides) or corruption, He's basically a mythological internet troll, stirring things up to see what happens.

Also, while he's responsible for Baldr's death, it's more accurate to say he arranged for him to die, rather than killing him himself.

He also arranged for himself to be caught.

Probably because he knew he could run forever.

Moved to Random discussion

I think Loki has a pretty great reputation, there's loads of great fiction dedicated to him (my favourite one is a famous novel where his presence is a surprise - those who have read it will probably know what I'm talking about, and I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't), and the MCU version has many fans.