I just saw it, with your concerns about Frigga firmly in mind (to the extent that I hoped the rumours were untrue, because I really love Frigga and I hated the idea of the movie fridging her). And actually, I think Frigga's death gets a lot more dignity and centrality to the film than Loki's. We get to see more of her than we ever did in THOR, what we do see of her is stone-cold awesome, and although she doesn't get to give a dying speech, she is definitely not just discarded and dismissed so the plot can go on, IMO. And the thing is, I've tried to think of how the movie could have found any other credible way to get Thor to seek out Loki, or any way to motivate Loki to help Thor, and I can't. Much as I wish it weren't so, there is nobody else who could have died in Frigga's stead and achieved the same effect (certainly not Odin, who Loki has every reason to despise
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I'm glad to hear that; thank you! I'd been told by someone else that the movie quickly and, in her opinion, jarringly moved on to humorous scenes after Frigga's death; thanks for the alternate perspective. And yeah, I fully expect her to be amazing when onscreen. ^^
I think at this point I've read so much meta about the whole fridging phenomenon, and, to a larger extent, the kill-character-to-induce-feels-and/or-advance-plot phenomenon, that I automatically approach instances with disillusioned suspicion. The thing is, I could think of realistic alternatives. For example, what if Frigga, instead of dying, had disappeared, leaving Thor convinced that she'd been kidnapped, because honestly, what does he know about anything she's been up to as Queen of Asgard? Wouldn't that have given Loki a reason to take part in the subsequent hunt for her? And she needn't actually have been kidnapped; there are eons of Nine-Realms political intrigue situations that she could have involved herself in, perhaps falling into danger because of them but
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Personally I'm mostly annoyed that Odin wasn't the one to die instead of Frigga. But if Frigga had merely been kidnapped and then rescued by Thor and Loki working together instead of dying, an important scene at the end of the movie would have been impossible. You might still decide it wasn't worth it to make that particular resolution possible, but Frigga's death does serve an important plot purpose and isn't just a source of Man Pain
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Agreed. I knew Odin wasn't going to die because the franchise has too much invested in the father-son drama and because it would have locked Thor into kingship, which they probably wouldn't want for plot mobility reasons; Frigga was expendable, and the obviousness is another of my buttons here. But... hmm. Good to know.
I'm not talking about the technicalities of the deaths, I'm talking about how character death is used as a narrative device here. For Frigga, an older maternal figure, early and permanent death which isn't about her but about the effects it has on her male relatives. For Loki, a bad-boy heartthrob with a massive fan following, a momentary and impermanent bit of audience-reaction-lure drama which, given what you've said, turns out to have been his plan all along.
<3! I'm not sure when I'll see it, but other friend reactions are coming back positive as well, and I will look forward to it more now.
Oh dude, I had a LOT of concerns about Frigga' s death but they handled it so much better than I thought they would. She gets a badass fight scene, and she dies defending another woman (Jane) from certain death. She is defiant to the end and never gives in to what Malekith demands of her. Odin is devastated and does stupid things because of it while Loki and Thor pick themselves up and band together, putting together this crazy plan involving all of their friends to get out of Asgard in order to stop the elves, to save Jane and to get vengeance for their mom. I know it's a fridging but Loki's entire motivation is Frigga and there are wonderful character moments where they talk about her and what she meant to them. There's a gorgeous funeral with almost all the asgardians present; I cried very hard.I don't want to spoil too much, but during this adventure Loki does some great stuff with Jane, too
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Everyone sounds so positive about this movie -- way more than I expected. I'm looking forward to the fight scene a lot, but ugh, my feels. ;; Couldn't we have a vengeance arc and then get her back?
The spoiler gifs have started to pop up on tumblr. Augh, some of that dialog is so very not okay. ;;
If you see any good Frigga fic, could you shunt it my way?
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I think at this point I've read so much meta about the whole fridging phenomenon, and, to a larger extent, the kill-character-to-induce-feels-and/or-advance-plot phenomenon, that I automatically approach instances with disillusioned suspicion. The thing is, I could think of realistic alternatives. For example, what if Frigga, instead of dying, had disappeared, leaving Thor convinced that she'd been kidnapped, because honestly, what does he know about anything she's been up to as Queen of Asgard? Wouldn't that have given Loki a reason to take part in the subsequent hunt for her? And she needn't actually have been kidnapped; there are eons of Nine-Realms political intrigue situations that she could have involved herself in, perhaps falling into danger because of them but ( ... )
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I'm not talking about the technicalities of the deaths, I'm talking about how character death is used as a narrative device here. For Frigga, an older maternal figure, early and permanent death which isn't about her but about the effects it has on her male relatives. For Loki, a bad-boy heartthrob with a massive fan following, a momentary and impermanent bit of audience-reaction-lure drama which, given what you've said, turns out to have been his plan all along.
<3! I'm not sure when I'll see it, but other friend reactions are coming back positive as well, and I will look forward to it more now.
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The spoiler gifs have started to pop up on tumblr. Augh, some of that dialog is so very not okay. ;;
If you see any good Frigga fic, could you shunt it my way?
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