#comics!sif

A whole issue was Sif & Volstagg fawning over how good of a guy and warrior Thor is (as they battled) and telling tales, and Balder lamenting how he is not as good of a king as Thor and bleh bleh.

The things that annoy me the most is how convinced Asgardians (and the narrative) are about brute force of the perfect chosen one being the most honorable and ideal way to get things done and win. I dislike that they've played this straight for decades, when any look at history would show how important strategy is.

Here Sif's talking shit about Loki's involvement in a rescue plan because he didn't use brute force and equate any form of strategy to "treachery".

And they're so sure Thor could have rescued them without Loki's involvement for strategy...

Sif mentions how Loki totally deserved to be tortured for all eternity and how Thor's too much of a softie for helping him escape eternal torture Odin sentenced Loki with. And the whole "imagined blood" taunt is very shitty.

You mean "Ultimate Thor"? I went on a huge rant on that comic run.

I generally despise "Evil from Birth" narratives. Or the "we were right to torture you" kind of punitive justice. So that would be most of the Thor comics.The thing is, I don't think I hate comics!Loki, I like comics!Loki out of spite. Because the writers didn't want me to like him, but the narrative gave me bad vibes.

CW: Transphobic dogwhistles

I'm torn on Lady Loki because I find Loki interesting during that run (I love the interactions with Dr. Doom) and therefore don't hate them, but I FUCKING HATE that they wrote Loki stealing Sif's body. I hate how it's "justified" by dudebros and pseudo-feminists with "it's an allegory for rape" as if there hadn't been any rape in Thor comics before. The whole body thief thing is actually a transphobic dogwhistle in the same way that Silence of the Lamb's Buffalo Bill was: "A man wearing a woman's body/skin to seduce and manipulate other men." Can we get that retconned into Loki just shapeshifting rather than stealing Sif's body?

NVM, I KNOW WHICH RUN/DEPICTION I FUCKING HATE AS MUCH AS ULTIMATE THOR! It's Thor: Son of Asgard!!

CW: Sexual assault, magical roofies, Karnilla being a pedo, Loki being a creep, Amora and Sif also being creeps

I hate when Loki's written as "the creepy nerd lusting over the popular hot girl" (comics!Sif) or abusive/rapey husband (comics!Sigyn). Which is a bunch of comic runs. Like so:

I think the writing on "Son of Asgard" is terrible/cheesy(they have a chapter called "The Warriors Teen" *eyeroll*) and it's full of rapey plots. Loki is rapey (with Sif and colludes with Amora). Amora is rapey (with Thor). Karnilla is rapey (with Loki). Even Sif is rapey! (with Thor).

The plot is stupid. They go on some mindless quests as glorified poachers because Odin told them to do so, and relish in torturing and killing a poor dragon that was just minding its own business, among other things. Sif and Balder whine about Thor not giving them a say on agreeing to the quest despite following him over there. Fucking jackasses. Meanwhile Loki is doing stupid magic bullshit to impede on their quest from afar, justifying Sif's suspicions and hatred of Loki that would otherwise seem unjustified and ridiculous. IDK I hate when they justify over-the-top suspicion of "Loki told the dragon where we were" rather than "We were actively seeking the dragon for its scales because we're poachers." It's also used to justify over-the-top punishments for Loki with evil monologues and thought bubbles or lazily written magic bullshit. It also makes Asgard seem incredibly incompetent and stupid.

My thoughts exactly, Thor:

I also dislike how Sif is written. She's "masculine" but in the ways cishet men would find "hot". A scantily clad warrior with the supermodel physique constantly contorting in weird ways. Her personality revolves around her obsession with Thor and her suspicion/hatred of Loki. It's a crime to write a warrior woman so heterosexually. They made her go off about how she wishes to be gifted with a JEWEL from the shitty sand place. So, they all get swallowed by the sand (and Loki too because he was a dumbass and materialized in the location). They escape by not feeling anything because there's weird baby crystal things that seek emotions. Loki is captured by Karnilla restrained by a bunch of creepy hands in creepy places, and Karnilla kisses a teenage Loki. Loki absorbs her magic through the kiss and escapes.

Loki refuses to help Karnilla out of love for Odin. I'll admit this is kinda cute and can't believe they actually gave him a redeemable trait:

Thor just won't give up on those damned quests. It's ridiculous! Priorities!

Ridiculously, Karnilla antagonizes Thor by turning a whole lake into sand. An adult woman beefing with a bunch of teen poachers. He takes some sand from the lake and goes back to Asgard to find it under attack. Thor and co save the day, only for Thor to be shot with an arrow by Karnilla. Karnilla and Odin fight. Odin takes pity on her and spares her. Thor is saved by "the power of love" aka Sif's tears.

Karnilla takes Loki hostage:

Balder tries to sacrifice himself for Loki. Karnilla is conveniently weirded out by such a selfless act and vanishes. Odin makes a sword out of the shit they got from the quests, and hands it over to Balder for his brave sacrifice.

Frigga damn... "only son"...

Volstagg is sexist to Sif and Sif is fatphobic to Volstagg... damn these comics have a fatphobia problem among other things...

Sif beats his ass. Then challenges Thor who pulls her by the hair and wins (for a warrior, Sif is dressed in very inconvenient ways). Everyone is like "yes Thor, you beat the ONE GIRL" and Sif gets angry and broods.

We cut to Loki's schemes and hate of Sif:

My thoughts exactly, Amora. The cishet writers fumbled on writing these two (Sif and Loki). They should have been GNC queer besties.

When people tell me Loki was not queer-coded before the whole bodytheft subplot:

Amora and Loki plot against Sif because Amora wants Thor for herself and Loki wants Thor out of the way. Thor attempts to console Sif. They're about to kiss when Amora interrupts them, calls Sif a slut, and Sif bitchslaps her.

Thor breaks up the fight and tells Sif there was no need to bitchslap Amora. Sif gets angry and leaves. The next day, there's a new female student in the warrior training class, Brunhilde. Sif remarks that "She had to be blonde." Lol.

They show Sif's backstory as a former blonde. Loki cut her hair out of jealousy that she was in love with Thor. He regretted it and got her replacement hair. However, the hair turned from blonde to black and "marred" her beauty.. Thanks, I hate it and it makes me uncomfortable... Sif is insecure of her black hair and jealous of the other blonde girls at schools.

Brunhilde wonders if Thor has his own special weapon because Balder got one in the previous issue. Thor says not yet, but one day he will when he's worthy. Sif takes offense because she's jealous of Brunhilde and bitchslaps her like she did Amora. A very male-gazey fight ensues, and Sif gets yanked by the hair once again. Sif just cut your damn hair. Sif gets in trouble for starting shit and gets told to use the facilities at the sorcery school to keep them from fighting again. Amora shows up and plays with Sif's insecurities, but seriously, she has a point in Sif resorting to violence way too often and easily. And I am being made uncomfortable by "dark hair and deeper tan on a woman=masculine" in this comic.

Sif and Loki conspire to magically roofie Thor with a magic mirror.

Sif gets the mirror.

Amora petrifies Sif (so that she watches), and steals the magic mirror from her, using it to make Thor fall in love with her. Loki very creepily frees Sif from her spell and confesses she wanted to see Sif's heart broken because he hates how Sif can "See through him." I thought he was going to do much worse because it looks bad, the way he holds Sif, when I first read this.

Sif goes straight to attacking Amora in a male gazey fight again, and Thor breaks up the fight and shames her for starting shit so often. Brunhilde finds the bag that held the mirror, and asks Sif about it. Sif confesses she wanted to use the mirror on Thor because she was jealous of Brumhilde.

Loki and Amora can't return the mirror without the pouch. Loki is about to be like "Lol nothing ties me to this crime." But Brunhilde and Sif catch them and tell them they have the bag. They say they'll give them the bag if they revert the spell. Brunhilde breaks the mirror, Thor is no longer under the spell and is hurt because he expected that from Amora but not from Sif. Frigga tells Sif that the mirror doesn't count and Thor still has his kiss virginity intact. Sif apologizes to Thor and they kiss.

Then Thor's trying to lift Mjolnir, and lifts it a little off the ground. Thor goes see the Norns to see what stands between his faith. I don't get it. Comes back to Asgard under attack and Sif being kidnapped by Storm Giants. Thor lifts the hammer with the power of love and goes to rescue Sif.

The cover for the next issue makes Thor look like an anime boy:

Thor collapses a bridge some giants were on, and they fall. He yeets himself with the hammer into the castle.

Thor kills a bunch of giants, and the comic makes a callback to Sif's introduction where Thor saves her from Hela. Here, the giant struck a bargain with Hela to gain immortality, exchanging Sif for it.

He finds Hela, who is pissed Thor's escaped from her grasp before.

This reminds me of Thor Ragnarok:

Hela may not be Odin's daughter here, but this has Thor Ragnarok vibes:

This echoes Sif's first appearance where Thor offers his own life in exchange for hers.

Hela warns Thor that they'll meet again. Sif and Thor kiss and fly away.

Because I promised I'd elaborate on that last post. This is part 1/3.

Marvel’s Sif similarities to Sif are quite few and mostly based around Loki cutting her hair. Sif is very gender conforming in the original mythology, unlike her MCU counterpart.

The few similarities are:

1. Loki cuts her hair.

-In the myths, Sif has long blonde hair like wheat fields (she is a harvest goddess). Loki cuts it while she slept, bringing Thor’s wrath upon him. Under threat, Loki is forced to replace her hair and does so by procuring magic golden hair from the dwarves.

-In the comics, Sif was originally blonde. Loki cuts her hair for a variety of reasons/circumstances depending on the comic run/series. Loki is then forced to replace her hair, but he refuses to pay the dwarves. So to spite him, the dwarves curse the magical golden hair to turn permanently black upon placement. Dark hair is played as a tragedy that would have marred Sif’s beauty, and Thor is portrayed as such a good person to still be infatuated with Sif! (*ugh* thanks I hate it).

-In the MCU, according to the composer Natalie Holt (so take it with a grain of salt as it’s technically an “outside source”), Loki slept with Sif and then cut her hair as a prank. Her hair didn’t change colors and Loki did not replace it but Sif got her vengeance by kicking Loki in the crotch. Notice that Thor had no part in demanding restitution from Loki, unlike the other two occasions mentioned above.

2. Sif is important to Thor.

-In the myths, Sif is Thor’s wife. Thor threatens Loki to get them to replace Sif’s hair.

-In the comics, Sif is Thor’s childhood sweetheart and lover but not the endgame love interest. She’s also in his close group of warrior friends. Thor threatens Loki to replace Sif’s hair.

-In the MCU, she is one of Thor’s close friends. There seemed to be no romantic overtones. This is the one time Loki is not threatened into replacing her hair.

Brief overview on Skadi: Skadi is the Goddess of Winter, Vengeance, Hunting, and Skiing. Her origin is speculated to be associated with the Sámi people (Davidson, 1993). Skadi’s name is associated with “scathe” and “injury.” She is speculated to be associated with Loki’s punishment. There’s a theory she is associated with Ullr, another god of skiing and may be a female counterpart to him. Another theory states that she might have been a male deity at first (Davidson, 1993). Her father, Thiazi, threatened Loki into making an oath to get Idunn and her golden apples for him. The whole scheme resulted in Loki having to rescue Idunn, and Thiazi being killed by the Aesir upon her rescue by burning him with a massive bonfire as he chased Loki and Idunn. A furious Skadi seeks revenge upon the Aesir. The Aesir decide to give her some recompense for her father’s slaying which include (I)Thiazi’s eyes being yeeted into the sky and turned to stars. (II) Allowing her to pick a husband from amongst the Aesir (with stipulations ). (III) Skadi asks to be made to laugh. The last task falls to Loki, naturally.

Skadi's rather unusual in the following ways:

-Skadi is given an unusual amount of authority to placate her for Thiazi’s death despite being a Jotnar and a woman. A furious Skadi seeks revenge upon the Aesir, armored for battle. The Aesir decide to give her some recompense for her father’s slaying rather than just siccing Thor on her like they usually do (it's mentioned they didn't want to spill blood within Asgard, so I guess she got lucky?).

-One of the restitutions is that Skadi is allowed to pick a husband from the Aesir with stipulations. She wants Balder, the fairest of the Gods (who's already married). But, she can only select her potential husband by looking at their feet. She picks the nicest feet thinking they most be Balder's but they're actually the sea god Njord's sand-exfoliated feet from walking on the beach. They eventually divorce.

-Someone will make Skadi laugh. Loki was tasked with this and the way Loki accomplished this was through his own emasculation.

-Compare her agency to the other goddesses who generally find themselves in danger of being traded away to giants in exchange for goods and services despite being warriors and sorceresses themselves (*poor Freyja*). She's not the only warrior goddess, as Freyja is a war deity in charge of the Valkyries, but she is never in danger of being traded away.

-She is one of two Jotnar women that married into the Vanir. But Gerdr has little agency or dialogue within the Poetic Edda compared to Skadi.

Marvel!Sif's similarities with Skadi:

-Skadi is the most masculine goddess of the Norse pantheon role-wise and authority-wise as mentioned previously. Marvel's Sif is GNC by Asgard's standards as a shield maiden.

-Mutual dislike with Loki:

(i) Loki caused her father’s (Thiazi) death indirectly though the Aesir were the ones that killed him. Loki achieves making her laugh through his own emasculation.

(ii) In Marvel it's because Loki cut Sif's hair.

(iii) Skadi places the serpent that drips venom upon a bound Loki.

-Loki is humiliated in some way involving his genitals to make up for the affronts Loki committed.

(i) In the myths, Loki is tasked with making Skadi laugh and ties his genitals to a goat’s beard and play a game of tug-of-war to make Skadi laugh. The rope breaks, he falls upon Skadi’s lap, and she laughs her ass off.

(ii) In the MCU, Loki was kicked in the crotch by an angry Sif after he cut her hair. While MCU!Sif is more benign to MCU!Loki than Skadi is to Loki, it is interesting that she was used by the TVA to punish MCU!Loki through a Time Loop of beatings. Don't get mad at me, but the realization came from making "Can't believe Mobius gave Loki CBT #FunWithAcronyms" jokes and realizing the myths also had Loki making up for his trespasses through CBT. Don't google it if you don't know what it is.

-Skadi's name is associated with the word "scathe" and "injury." She is believed to have an association with punishing Loki, as Skadi places the serpent that drips burning venom upon bound Loki (Lindow, 2001). By having the TVA USE Sif to punish Loki, they made MCU!Sif associated with punishing Loki.

-Skadi and Loki are mirrors in some ways in terms of their gender nonconformity. Skadi exercises an unusual amount of agency for a goddess, to the point where it's theorized Skadi might have originally been a male deity (Davidson, 1993). Whereas Loki is often portrayed as losing status due to activities that are considered "emasculating." Loki is also speculated to be associated with the Sámi people (Laidoner, 2012). It is also speculated the way Loki makes her laugh is based on a castration ritual (Lindow, 2001).

Davidson, D.H.E., & Davidson, H.E. (1993). The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203408506

Laidoner, Triin. (2012) The Flying Noaidi of the North: Sámi Tradition Reflected in the Figure Loki Laufeyjarson in Old Norse Mythology. SCRIPTA ISLANDICA.

Lindow, J. (2001). Norse mythology a guide to the gods, heroes, rituals, and beliefs. Oxford University Press.

“Lady Loki” is NOT Loki being genderfluid. The name is a mixture of “Lady Sif” (because Sif’s title is “Lady” like “Lord”) and “Loki” because Loki stole Sif’s body after Ragnarok ensued, and trapped her in a dying old lady’s body. Loki first shows up possessing Sif’s body in Thor Vol. 3 # 5 back in 2007. Loki continued to use male pronouns in Sif’s body, but just gets misgendered by everyone else. And as much as I love aspects of Loki’s characterization in that era, having that plotline in this political climate would be awful, incredibly damaging, and way more problematic than anything the Loki show gets accused of. I need people to know what the fuck they’re talking about before they refer to wanting "Lady Loki" in the Loki show because this is what you're talking about.

I will be open and say I am not a fan of much of the majority of Thor comics. They are fucking annoying and read like some Gary Stu male fantasy because they’re always going off about how Thor is the fucking best and his plot armor makes him the only and best choice to be Asgard’s ruler despite there being other characters with similar qualities in Asgard but Thor’s “just better”. The misogyny is off the charts in these with all the ridiculously and impractically scantily clad “warrior” women that all want to fuck Thor and have little personality past that. I also loathe the “Loki’s just evil” crap. My fascination with them is more like gawking and wanting to be pissed off. Plus, I find pre-reincarnation Marvel comics!Loki to be a fascinating study of a Comics Code Authority/Hayes code era villain (and I kinda root for him because the narrative annoys me). He’s up there with all the Disney villains despite not originally being Disney.

In those pre-reincarnation comics that often piss me off, Loki is meant to evoke disgust and to “disturb” through his failure to be the epitome of manliness. Marvel has tried to distance themselves from that once they had their “Are we the baddies?” epiphany by retconning Asgard to be more progressive. It kinda annoys me because panels exist where they’re being queerphobic to Loki. To me, it’d feel more organic if Asgard was shown going through societal change rather than “We have always been progressive, what the fuck are you talking about?” But that's just me.

I remember when Loki was about to come out as bisexual in the comics on 2013 after becoming very popular largely due to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki (Young Avengers #13 where he flirts with Prodigy, followed by Agent of Asgard revealing he's a genderfluid shapeshifter in 2014), queer organizations expressed concern over the whole “queer-coded villain á la Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.” If you are not familiar with Buffalo Bill, he is the main antagonist from Thomas Harris’s very copagandic and transphobic book, Silence of The Lambs, the book with Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins who plays MCU!Odin lol) where he’s like “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. T-sss-tsss-tss.”

Buffalo Bill is said to not be a “real transgender”, whatever the fuck that means especially with all the policing around bodily autonomy, and some statistic about how transgenders are the least likely to be violent is shoehorned in, but everything about the character ends up being a queerphobic trope. The “difference” is that Jame Gumb “thinks” he wants to be a woman but doesn’t actually want to be (the transphobia in this book is off the charts).

I am glad Loki has gotten redemption arcs of sorts, because a lot of the tropes employed on comics!Loki just pissed me off. And I am glad MCU!Loki never went through the transphobic possession storyline in the name of being "comics-accurate".

The easiest way to represent genderfluidity in the MCU with a casting choice that predates Loki's coming out in comics would be through dialogue in the magic-less TVA. Have Loki say that her pronouns are she/her while looking the same because people can't shapeshift in real life.

Here you can see it's stuck to his helmet.

I know in modern comics it's a bunch of strings actually. So it does not apply to those.