"Ragnarok": A Clueless Thor, a Gay Loki, and a Lot of Beefcake

 

I started watching the first episode of the Norwegian "old gods reborn" series Ragnarok when it first dropped on Netflix, but stopped right away.  I don't remember why -- no doubt something about the Girl of His Dreams.  When the second season dropped, I started skimming through the first episode out of curiosity, and this scene popped out. 

Why can't I run into half-naked men on my morning jog?  

So I went back and watched from the beginning.

Scene 1: Muscle Guy and Hippie fight.  Hippie lets out zaps of lightning that knock them both unconscious (so he's Thor?).  Modern-day equivalents of Odin, Frigga, and a kissing couple notice.

Some time later, Hippie, aka Magne (David Stakson), awakens and approaches Muscle Guy, who wakes up.  "You thought this was over, but it isn't.  We'll kill you before the New Moon."

Magne runs out into the woods and yells at a bird: "Have you abandoned me?"  Suddenly a ball of light turns into an old woman, who tells him "You are the Chosen One."  The old woman turns into a young woman, who tells him: "You need friends, other gods."  

"How do I find them?" Magne asks.  But everything vanishes.

Scene 2: Muscle Guy goes home and has a "War Council" with two women: "Magne/Thor doesn't have his hammer yet, but he can zap lightning with his bare hands.  He's close to invincible.  I challenged him to a fight at Ginnugagap at the New Moon.  Wait -- where's Fjor?"

"He just went out to kill her.  He'll be right back." 

Scene 3: Teenagers hanging out.  Androgynous redhead Mr. Lauritz (Jonas Strand Gravli) approaches, and they compliment him on his speech crushing the Jutul Family (no doubt the Muscle Guy clan).  Magne rushes up, all distraught, and asked if anyone has seen the old woman from his vision; she works as a cashier at the supermarket.  They haven't.

Scene 4: Cute Guy, probably Fjor (Herman Tømmeraas), the one assigned to "kill her," returns to Muscle Guy's house.  But he didn't kill her.  In fact, he's in love with her, and he's leaving the clan. He grabs an axe and a duffel bag.

Muscle Guy tries to reason with him.  "I signed us all up to fight Magne at the New Moon.  Can't you wait until then?"  But Cute Guy won't budge: "I renounce my heritage.  I'm not a giant anymore!" Ok, the giants vs. the gods.

Scene 5: Dad cooking waffles for his young adult daughter.  Cute Guy enters: "I left the Giants for good."  Daughter hugs him.

Scene 6:  Magne tells androgynous Lauritz, apparently his brother, that Ragnarok, the Apocalyptic battle between gods and giants, is going to happen here in Norway.  "And by the way, I'm Thor."  He demonstrates his super-strength by bending an aluminum baseball bat.  "And, by the way, you're a god. too."  Lauritz thinks he's bonkers.  What did they spend Season 1 doing, if not acknowledging their Norse godhood?

Scene 7: Lauritz eating cereal and watching tv, a story about Jutul Industries being investigated for crimes against the environment (uh-oh, Muscle Guy is in trouble!). Mom comes in and yells at him for eating, when they'll all have breakfast together later.  It's Dad's birthday.  She brought bread.  No cake?

Up in his room, Magne is getting more muscular by the second.  He bulges out of his sweater.  "Wait -- where did these biceps come from?"  Plus he can short-circuit all the electricity by flexing.

He goes downstairs to comment on Lauritz wearing makeup.  Mom thinks it's great that he's "experimenting with gender and sexuality."  She sits them down to have custard buns, which they hate, but they have to eat them because Dad liked them. Yuck!  My Dad loved chipped beef on toast, but I'm not planning to eat it in his memory.

Scene 8: At the cemetery.  They visit Dad's grave, and also the grave of the young woman from Magne's vision, Isolde. 

Mom: "The boys have grown big.  You would be proud of them."

Lauritz: "I don't think he would be proud of me."  For being femme, you mean?

Mom: "Of course he would. You're smart and funny, and you look very pretty in women's clothes."

Magne tries to talk him into acknowledging his godhood and joining him in the battle with Muscle Guy and his clan.

Eric, a middle aged redhead, tells Magne that he can come back to school. Apparently he was expelled after a Thor-lighting mishap.  Magne interrogates him on his knowledge of Norse mythology.

Scene 9: The car won't start, so Magne and Lauritz have to push it to the garage, where Dishonest Mechanic (Benjamin Helstad) is yelling at someone.  He says it will cost 20,000 kroner ($2,000)  to fix -- extremely bloated!  Magne stares, thinking he might be another god.

Scene 10: As Muscle Guy watches news stories about the environmental investigation at his company, the other giants gather Old Norse weapons.   He worries that they are too girly to fight well.

Later, Muscle Guy and one of the female giants meet with the Environmental Agency investigators, including the extremely cute Morton (Herman Sabado). Maybe he'll be one of the gods and join the team?

Scene 11: At the grocery store, Mom encounters Wenche, the old woman from Magne's vision, who apparently has the habit of saying crazy things.  This time she has a message for Magne: go to the bridge and recite from the ancient prophecy, and you'll meet a god. 

Meanwhile, Magne researches Thor online.  Lauritz makes a double entendre about his "big hammer," but still doesn't want to join the battle.  

Mom comes in with news that they're broke.  No meat in the tacos, no vacation this year.  She delivers Wenche's message; Magne rushes out.

Scene 12; The bridge. Magne waits, reciting the old prophecy to random people, who rush on, thinking he's crazy.  Could it be the tall Viking bodybuilder?  No.  What about the drunk guy with the eyepatch, who's in the wheelchair?  Obviously Odin in disguise, but no.  But his Assistant knows the old prophecy. 

Back in Magne's room.  The Assistant received a similar message from Wenche at the grocery store, but she doesn't know anything about gods and giants.  Magne gives her the intel.  

Assistant is surprisingly open to the idea, probably because she wants to get Magne naked.  He tells her to focus.

Scene 13: Lauritz stops at a burger joint, and flirts with the cashier, Jens (Vebjørn Enger).  They grin at each other. 

Back home, he tells Mom that he's found a new boyfriend -- very quickly. He's invited to the party tonight.

They hear bumping and think that Magne and the Assistant are having sex, but actually he's demonstrating his super-strength.  Her superpower: she can get anyone to do what she wants just by looking at them. So why does she work as a nursing home attendant?

Scene 14: The party.  The girl from Scene 5 and her giant boyfriend Fjor are there!  Magne draws her aside and angrily demands,  "What are you doing with that no-good, evil, low-down giant..I mean,  jerk?"  "He left his family.  He's trying to be good." 

Later, Magne sits around, depressed because the girl is dating Fjor (maybe they were an item?).  Assistant consoles him: "You should get with that other girl over there instead."  Since you're now buffed, you can probably get whoever you want.

Scene 15: After the party.  Lauritz is depressed because his new boyfriend Jens didn't show up (not to worry, he appears in five more episodes).  "I'm a freak.  No one will ever love me."  Mom explains: "There may be a reason you feel different.  I should have told you this long ago."  What?  Is he intersexed?

To build suspense, we cut to Magne and Assistant at the gas station.  Assistant uses her super-persuasion power to get Dishonest Mechanic to forge a new hammer for Magne/Thor.

Cut to Mom visiting Muscle Guy.  Surprise! She knows all about the gods and giants 17 years ago, when she was working in Giant Land, they both got drunk, and...."  Oh, Lauritz is Muscle Guy's son, so half-giant.  That's why he feels like a freak, not because he's femme and gay.   "I'm telling you now because Lauritz is in a bad place."

Scene 16: Night.  Magne is coming home.  Suddenly he sees Lauritz and Muscle Guy being all chummy.  They hug. No one has told him that Lauritz is Muscle Guy's son; as far as he knows, the two are dating. He said he met someone! Fraternizing with the enemy!  Grrrr....

So is the gay/androgynous/trans person going to turn into a villain?  Or die in Episode 2?  I hear that there was a queer character in the first season who died right away.  

I'm not sticking around to find out.  

Muscle Guy, leader of the giants, is never named during the episode, but I think he is Vidar, played by Gísli Örn Garðarsson. who may be this nude and hung-to-his-knees person.

source http://everydayheterosexism.blogspot.com/2021/05/ragnarok-clueless-thor-gay-loki-and-lot.html