An ASK for Illwynd - Loki meta
And... I add myself to the Loki meta ask thing, hoping to also charm you into a ramble about this "subject" I never, but never, get to wallow in, when with friends, sitting in a pub or relaxing on the couch, because nobody else is into it, nobody has the common knowledge or the feels, nobody sees the inner value and the mysterious symbolic charge in Loki's story and character. So it's forever shut up, because it would be boring to no end for others, and WEIRD.
I wonder if you would like to discuss this specific aspect of Loki headcanon I have, and in any case your opinion about it, however short, would be very important to me.
I might be wrong, but the element of prejudice laden ethnicity is never really explored in Jotunn Loki fics. I mean, the accent is always on Loki's exotic looks, and their challenging or alluring effects, and/or the implied concept of the Jotnar being considered monsters, or savages at best.
And then there are splendid world-built stories, for example about the ways, traditions or politics in Jotunheim. Wonderful stories in which the Jotnar are described for example as being prudes, or very liberated, or extremely ritualistic. Which is delightful.
BUT. What I would be interested to discuss is Loki as always being characterized as the one with excessive feelings, one who "has in his nature" to care too much, to hide suspicious depths of ultimately inconvenient sensitivity, and to be prone to vile outbursts.
Well, he doesn't just warrior his way about things, doesn't he? He has to add drama, and complex, complex! meanings to things, which go waay back into visceral memories and thoughts that are just... too deep for average old social interaction.
And although he's corageus, mightily capable and determined, he's the one who cries, who bears grudges, who gets peeved about trifling details, the one who is imagining things, "slights"". He's "duplicitous, moody, much too changeable, difficult".
His distinctive interventions (nobody else can perform) are frequently needed, but considered homey and tricky ways to get through, immediately overlooked and belittled: nothing to tell glory tales about. But that, let's say, falls into the "overlooking ways marked as feminine" attitude.
What I have in mind is the Loki you can't trust, whose violence is unpredictable, whose personality is not easily fathomable and vaguely demonic, or simply whose feelings are always in the way.
Think of him as the archetypal Italian, or Latino, or the savage from the wilderness of Pilgrims memory authors like Hawthorne wrote about.
Something about CULTURE CLASH and Asgardian culture being paternalistic at best.
I wish I could have it in me to write that fic, but I'm afraid I really don't have the skill, or simply the time to do it justice.
Could you? Would you? : )
Do you know of any fics developing this aspect?
Or would you just give a word of opinion about it?
In any case, thank you for reading. And for being the author of all those precious stories.