Dear Norse mythology and game enthusiasts, it’s time to talk about Norse mythology in conjunction with the modern games, movies and shows of today.
One of these happens to be one of the most underrated games out there, many years before its sequel came out – Age of Mythology.
For some people, The-Studio-who-must-not-be-named does a good job of introducing Norse mythology by having Thor as a popular movie character played by actor Chris Hemsworth. The nine realms are shown to be inextricably linked on top of each other, yet wholly separate, kept apart by either intra-space barriers in reality or plot armor (I’m sure they thought of something while doing all the VFX). Thor often travels through a tunnel of “Bifrost” – described as a burning rainbow bridge that transports people between realms.
This is more or less comparable with many other games, such as God of War and God of War – Ragnarok, where the realms can be traversed in the space-between-spaces or “anti-space”.
I also quite liked the series, Ragnarok, which kind of high-schoolizes the legendary war of the Aesir and the Jotnar (The Gods and the Giants).
Age of Mythology however, didn’t get into the cliche subjects of inter-dimensional travel. It went deep, right to dwarven smiths (somehow universally recognized and accepted as the best smiths today), horned horn blowers who fired up armies in battle(Einhenjars), frost, fire and regular giants, heroes who gained Godly favor by entering combat, Valkyries, naval warfare, Godly weapons and monsters galore.
In today’s times, Loki is seen as a lovable anti-hero, but his true origins are more shrouded in trickery and deceit. Half of Norse mythology seems to exist because Loki did some stuff he shouldn’t have been doing and then the rest of Norse civilization dealt with the multiple resulting fallouts. Marvel portrays Loki as as human(ish) chameleon with super strength and athleticism, but the reality is that Loki is an absolutely devilish shapeshifter and could shapeshift into your pet dog, convince you that you had to leave your home, and lock you out while you run in confusion.
Loki has shapeshifted into a horse and a horsefly.
Today’s movies and games have a long way to go.