Who cast the final stone, who threw the crushing blow, someone has to take the fall*

[stubbleupdate]

Nothing says Father's Day quite like fighting your own grandfather because your brother tricked you into it.

This is 10 pages from the 40 page story of Thor #600 written by JMS and drawn by Olivier Coipel


Loki (in the body of a woman, but still referring to himself as half-brother to Thor and son of Odin) finds Bor, father of Odin Borson and grandfather of Thor Odinson, long thought lost and returns him to Midgard



Bor's culture shock attracts a lot of attention, including that of Jane Foster (as Loki had planned), who calls Donald Blake.

Thor arrives and thinking that Bor is an Asgardian who has arrived later, confused after Ragnarok, begins by reasoning with him.


Loki's magic has Bor seeing and hearing Thor as a monster. They fight and Bor senses the Odinforce in Thor, recognising it as belonging to his missing son. Bor assumes that this monster has killed his son and taken the Odinforce for himself.

There is more fighting. Thor recognises that he might have to kill Bor, but to help avoid that scenario he calls out "AVENGERS. ASSEMBLE". his plea echoes around Manhattan until it reaches the ears of the man in the big office at Avengers Tower - Norman Osborn. The Dark Avengers turn up, fight Bor and Thor and are dispatched relatively quickly. Thor throws the Iron Patriot out of the city so he can get on with the serious business of beating Bor into submission.




By this point, King Balder and Loki are in Asgard and know that Thor is fighting a confused Bor. They go "with all reasonable speed" (Loki's words) to Midgard to stop Thor killing Bor








And as Thor has killed the king of Asgard, Balder is railroaded by Loki into banishing him from Asgard forever, for to do otherwise would see "the law fail and the very heart of Asgard be made false"

*A point if you recognised this without looking it up

Comments

[icon_uk]

Technically, if Balder is King, and as sole ruler of Asgard, the law is his to amend as he sees fit, and allow for mitigation, but that's narrative necessity to you (Would ANY Asgardian think Thor slew Bor out of any malevolent intent and object to the law being adjusted to compensate?)

[stubbleupdate]

But the law must be equal to all

[nyadnar17]

Considering how many times Loki has been pardons/reinstated and considering that ever king of Asgard becomes king by killing/allowing the death of their father....

[icon_uk]

And the law must be flexible to unexpected circumstances, or changed situations.

Plus Balder is absolute monarch, he can make the law be anything he wants it to be, one of the perks of absolute power.

[stubbleupdate]

Remember, this Balder lacks confidence in his own authority. He is a king of Asgard abroad, and Asgard in Broxton is not really Asgard.

A good way to keep Asgard alive is to follow the traditions and laws that make Asgard Asgard.

And though Loki is the God of Lies, he doesn't tell any lies here. Thor DID kill the king of Asgard and the penalty for the king of Asgard IS death.

It's just another trap that Loki sets for Thor

As tumblr user roseapprentice says
In the movie Thor, Loki likes to hang people by their own dickishness. He sets traps, but he sets them carefully so that people have to step into them in some asking-for-it manner before they spring. Let’s review:

- Loki tells the Frost Giants how to sneak into Asgard and steal the casket, knowing the Destroyer will kill them. Only works if the Frost Giants are willing to break a thousand-year peace.
- That theft is in turn a trap for Thor to make him reveal that he would be a warlike and sucky king. Only works if Thor would actually be a warlike and sucky king.
- I suspect that in addition to messing with Thor more, the trip to Jotunheim was in part a trap for Heimdall to see if he would agree to let Thor through. It didn’t spring properly because Odin seems to have a blind spot about Heimdall’s rebellious tendencies, but I think it’s fair to say the gatekeeper stepped square into it regardless of the lack of short-term consequences.
- Possibly the most literal form of this is Loki’s habit of having a clone stand somewhere and watching people charge through it to their own doom.
- Loki convinces the king of Jotunheim to walk straight into Asgard with minimal backup, opening himself up for easy assassination. Only works if Laufey is also willing to commit regicide.

This all seems to go out the window when Sif and the Warriors Three betray him, and which point Loki is like, Screw carefully laying plans and then standing back, I’m just gonna blow everything up. This is part of why I suspect that that was the point at which Loki really cracked.

This whole pattern is also a lot of why I buy the “The invasion was a trap for the Chitauri” theory. Because getting people to charge full steam ahead into their own downfall is how Loki gets shit done.

Loki puts Balder in a trap by giving him the rules of Asgard and waiting for him to follow them rather than use his own initiative (which he doesn't have faith in)

[locuatico]

yes and no. at this point, Balder is fearing a civil war. if people feel like the king is doing what he wants instead of what Asgard needs, well...the worst will happen.

[bruinsfan]

At this point, wasn't Thor technically the king, Balder only recently having been revealed as Odin's son? (Though since everyone knew he was Frigga's son, it seems to me he would have been viewed as Odin's stepson and second in line of succession after Thor anyway—his claim to the throne would have more legitimacy than Loki's.)

[tugrul]

Here, Balder is king already. It's true that he had only recently been revealed king though.

What do you mean by Odin's stepson? Odin is his biological father. So Angela is his full sister. Which, I think, sadly hasn't been touched on.

[bruinsfan]

They made a point that Odin had hidden Balder's paternity to try and avoid prophecies about his death starting off Ragnarok. Everyone knew he was Frigga's son, but were led to believe that his father was someone other than Odin.

Obviously been a while ...

[charlottesmtms.livejournal.com]

Damn, I miss that poor bugger ... :-(

Also ...

[charlottesmtms.livejournal.com]

The artwork wasn't done *soley* by Coipel ... I want to say that Djurdjevic did some of these panels (specifically, the ones where Bor is hallucinating)