#and also if anti-jotun prejudice used to be far far less but has been built up to 'monsterhood' DURING loki's lifetime... goddddd

[tyrannuspitch]

thinking about odin losing his eye.

the thing is, it's heavily implied that he lost it in the fight with laufey. it's an open wound in that scene, and it's surrounded by gouges that look forceful, not like a willing sacrifice on odin's part... but it's still not an entirely typical battle wound. it's easy to see how an eye might be damaged in the course of battle; it's harder to see how an eye socket might end up fully empty while its owner still stands.

it could be that laufey was trying to get to kill odin by getting to his brain through his eye, but he didn't manage it, and the eye was just scooped out when he pulled whatever pointed weapon he used back.

but it could also be that, at some point, laufey had odin pinned down, and he chose to do something painful and punitive rather than finishing him off straight away. (and even that he comes close to recreating this in the climax of t1.)

which, to me, seems to imply that odin and laufey's hatred is a very bitter and personal one... and also that there might be an old bond buried underneath it. laufey had the chance to kill odin, and he didn't make sure to take it... and later, odin has laufey pinned, and he doesn't choose to kill him either.

this moment also has multiple echoes among odin's children: loki (allegedly) gouges out a man's eye on an altar in the avengers, in a moment where he is notably imitating both laufey and odin, and representing their similarities. hela gouges out thor's eye in ragnarok, and hela is representative of many of odin's forgotten crimes, which could suggest that this was an asgardian move first (and would certainly make sense with their association with ravens!)

so perhaps:

laufey chose to take odin's eye specifically because odin had done that to others himself; it's a symbol of vengeance, hypocrisy, and symmetry.

at least a little of the love in loki and thor's love-hate relationship is also an echo of their fathers.

we could even take this further, and say that the sacrifice in the loss of the eye could even be the death of odin's relationship with laufey... and perhaps taking in laufey's unwanted child was partly a reaction to that loss.

hmmmmm