Funny / Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

This is Rick Riordan. Frequent bouts of hilarity are to be expected.

The Sword of Summer

• During the intense escape through Boston, Randolph asks Magnus about what he know about Norse Mythology:
  Magnus: Weren't there a couple of movies about Thor?
  Randolph: (shakes head in disgust) Those movies... ridiculously inaccurate.
  • A little earlier, Randolph is rambling about the Norse exploration of America:
    Randolph: Suffice it to say, the Norse explored North America [...] almost five hundred years before Christopher Columbus. Scholars agree on that.
    Magnus: That's a relief. I hate it when scholars disagree.
• Blitz and Hearth charging into battle wielding a Make Way for Ducklings sign and a pink plastic Cupid's bow.
• In response to Magnus snarking about the tree in the Valhalla dining hall having a name (Laeradr), Sam simply replies that "Most important things have names." (frowns at Magnus) "Who are you again?"
• During Magnus' first war game, he sees one guy get stabbed through the chest and as he looks down at his wound he gives an "are you kidding me?" look before dying.
  • In fact, all of the activities planned out for the Einherjar has a normal sounding activity, but with the promise of death thrown into the mix.
• Magnus trying to barter with Ran: "You don't want my soul. It's really small. I don't use it much. I doubt it even works anymore."
• The Call-Back to the previous series when trying to think of a standby form for Surmrbrandr:
  Magnus: I dunno. Something pocket-size and innocuous. A pen, maybe?
  Narration: The sword pulsed, almost like it was laughing. I imagined it saying, A pen sword. That is the stupidest idea I've ever heard.
• The It Makes Sense in Context Chapter Titles, as usual:
  • Hearthstone Passes Out More Than Jason Grace (Even Though I Have No Idea Who That Is)
  • My Years of Playing Bassmaster 2000 Finally Pay Off
  • Thou Shalt Not Poop on the Head of Art
  • I Lose A Bet (For reference, this is the chapter where Magnus bets Annabeth that his life is weirder than hers.)
• When Magnus goes to a bar in Nidavellir, he's not weirded out as much by the the dwarves' customs, but because Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" and "I Know Places" are playing.
  • Then there's what Magnus said after mulling over it.
    Magnus: I had the sudden image of Taylor Swift's mom and Freya having a girls' night out in Nidavellir.
• A communication gap due to Hearth's use of sign language often leads to misunderstandings. For example:
  • Hearth thinks Magnus is saying "I love you" to a giant when he is actually trying tell him that his daughters are passed-out drunk. This is given a Call-Back when Hearthstone has an emotional moment with the group and does the same sign.
    Magnus: He signed to us, and this time I think he actually meant I love you and not the giantesses are drunk.
  • Thor doesn't understand that Hearthstone is dissing him.
    Hearthstone: I hate this god.
    Thor: Exactly, Mr. Elf! I gave you the opportunity to prove your mettle. You’re quite welcome!
  • In the second book, he continues the trend by not understanding fellow god Vidar, "the Silent One."
    Mallory: Shouldn't you Aesir be doing something productive now, like... Oh, finding Loki and tying him up again?
    Vidar: The girl is right. Time is wasting.
    Thor: Listen to brave Vidar, girl, Loki's capture can wait for another day.
• Magnus's revulsion to the fact that Dwarves evolved from maggots.
  My friend evolved from a- Nope. I can't say it.
  • Made funnier/squickier when you realize that, as a homeless kid, he's probably had intimate experience with maggots at one time or another.
• Magnus' response to the in-universe Values Dissonance surrounding Sam's engagement.
  Magnus: Come on. You're smart. You're tough. You're an honest-to-Frigg Valkyrie. And I can't believe I'm finding reasons to support your arranged marriage...
• What do you get when you take a talking sword with no face and introduce it to a deaf elf that understands people by reading lips? Hilarity of course.
  Hearth: Your sword is floating.
  Jack: Your elf is deaf.
  • Right after that:
    Hearth: Is it talking? I don't read sword lips.
    Jack: What is he saying? I don't read elf hands.
• Thor once challenged Jesus to a fight. Just take a moment to imagine how that went down.
  • Unfortunately, Jesus did not turn up. Thor is still mad about it, to the point the staff at Hotel Valhalla don't use A.D for years to avoid reminding the Thunder God about him.
• While Magnus is definitely a Deadpan Snarker at his finest, even he knows when to shut up when he meets Hel for the first time. The goddess makes note of this and wonders whether or not he'll actually try to make some witty comment about her name.
• Magnus' sarcasm is everywhere, and much like Percy, chances are he either says or thinks of something hilariously deadpan or is so disillusioned by the absolute weirdness going on around him at least once per page he becomes numb to the whole thing. Case in point:
  Big Boy/Utgard-Loki: (after turning from a pigeon into an eagle while talking to Magnus) I'll confess I'm not really an eagle.
  Magnus: I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
• Apparently Frey looks more like movie-Thor than Thor. (It certainly makes him much easier to visualize: just picture Chris Hemsworth!)
• Odin is all about acquiring wisdom through sacrifice. He cut out an eye for a drink from Mimir's well. He hung himself and pierced his side with a spear to learn the runes. He stood in a blizzard to get the latest iPhone.

The Hammer of Thor

• In The Hammer of Thor, Magnus is so jaded by the All Myths Are True world he now knows he lives in, as well as his family's tendency to attract attention from the various pantheons, that he states he would be completely unsurprised if he found out that the Aztec gods were living in Houston and he and Annabeth had a second cousin who's a granddaughter of Quetzalcoatl.
  • And then he would fling himself, screaming, into Ginnungagap.
  • Hilariously enough, Rick Riordan might actually decide to write a series about Aztec Mythology. That, or Chinese Mythology. Or given the "Rick Riordan Presents" line...
• T.J. looking at a ferret Alex comments that they once made some tasty ferret stew back int he day. Alex immediately shifts into her human form and threatens to tie T.J.'s bayonet around his neck if he thinks about cooking her.
• Halfborn sees Magnus staring at Alex and tells him there's no reason to be ashamed of liking an argr, to which Magnus blushes and fumblingly denies.
• On the Bifrost bridge, Alex is so bored that he decides to just lay down and make some rainbow angels.
  • He also tells Magnus that Sam needed a male chaperone and then gestured to himself.
• At Randolph's mansion, Magnus gets so flustered being around Alex that he hastily searches the bookshelves looking for clues, and to make it seem like he was actually doing something.
• Magnus is staring at the Loki mark Alex has on her neck and she takes this as a sign of him being too nervous to grab her. Once she does wrap Magnus' arms around her waist and tells him she's not fragile Magnus starts stuttering. This ends with Alex telling him to shut up and he replies, "Shutting up now."
• Blitz saying that for his magic bag, he'd need the hair of a son of Frey. Magnus is immediately terrified at this and Alex laughs at his expense. Blitz then adds that he'd also need the blood of a shapeshifter. Alex is no longer laughing.
• Blitz tells Magnus and Alex the password for the bag, in order to get it to expand. The password is "password".
• "I NEED TO PEE!" That is all.
  • "I HAVE FINISHED PEEING!"
• As the elf police start treating Magnus roughly, Magnus tells them that he's the son of Frey. The two are immediately polite and gentle with Magnus, quickly apologizing for their rudeness. Since being the son of Frey in Valhalla is often met with jokes or confusion, and the elves on Alfheim have been pretty rude and stuffy thus far, Magnus has absolutely zero regrets in relishing over their deference for what it's worth.
• Jack sees the golden daggers among Andvari's treasure hoard and squees over how cute they are.
• Sif talking to the group and proudly saying that Thor called her his "trophy wife". Magnus and the others decide against telling her what a trophy wife actually is, but think with her gold hair that can be turned into trophies, she's not entirely wrong.
• After Sif gives Alex a makeover, Magnus is so stunned he can barely speak, and Alex teases him a bit.
• Alex pretends to be Sam as they meet the giants, but unfortunately, Alex is so nervous she momentarily brays like a donkey. Later on, when they go to meet Loki and Thrynga glares down at her, she squawks like a parrot.
• Zombie Democracy. They insist on voting on everything.
• Both times Magnus attempts to covertly contact Thor by getting up close to the goat Otis's face and whispering to him, Otis remarks, "You have beautiful eyes."
• Magnus talks to Alex who is making Sif a gift as thanks for the wedding dress, and Magnus asks if he was making the goddess a trophy. Alex gives him a small smirk.
  • Also, before Magnus leaves, he teases Alex a bit, quickly shutting the door as Alex chucks a piece of pottery after him and it smashes against the door.

The Ship of The Dead

• Apparently Percy's sword, Riptide, is a she, and Jack proceeds to flirt and name drop.
  • While flatly denying that he ever thought that a pen sword was a stupid idea.
• Magnus slightly cursing his uncle for not leaving anymore chocolate at this mansion after he died.
• Alex looking through Randolph's book collection and remarking that it's a bit heavy on dead white guys. Magnus points out that he (Magnus) is a dead white guy.
• Alex leaving Randolph's mansion as a flamingo.
• Magnus returning to hotel Valhalla via Forever 21. He wonders if it's because the store was remade, or it was a joke from Odin.
• Frey gifts Magnus with a ship that's default form is a handkerchief. Only problem? It's color of the carton of "I Can't Believe it's not Butter!", and his friends waste no time in teasing Magnus about it and even dubbing the ship the "Yellow Banana".
• Blitzen and Hearthstone notice Magnus, and just as Blitzen was about to say Magnus' name, Magnus quickly covers it up by running towards his two friends, pretending that they were beautiful specimens he'd never seen before.
  • Alex saying that he couldn't eat Blitzen or Hearthstone, because he had a green-haired diet.
• Magnus saying he wanted to find the Mead of Kevin, when the word is actually "Kvasir". He makes note of Alex joining Sam in the face-palming club.
• Magnus misses his long hair, but can't bring himself to stop Alex from chopping it because it made her look so happy.
• Magnus stabs dragon Mr. Alderman in the chest with Jack, and admits that he felt no guilt in leaving Jack behind as he scrambled for his life to get out of the hole in order to avoid the acid of the dragon's blood.
  • Jack is later fuming at this and complains about how hard it would be for him to get clean.
• While the dragon's heart supposedly carried heavy repercussions for the one who consumed it, so far the only thing it's done for Magnus was hear the thoughts of animals. Then again, he did only lick some of its grease, rather than eat the whole thing; who knows what other abilities he could have gained if he had?
• T.J. declares that once they head into York, he was going to thank the English for not supporting the Confederacy. He holds up to his promise, much to the passerby's confusion and irritation as he shakes their hands.
• T.J, as a son of Tyr, literally cannot refuse a personal challenge, so when the giant asks who would challenge him, T.J. immediately screams his acceptance, then grimaces and looks like he's thinking, "Thanks, Dad."
  • This comes back again when T.J. and Tyr finally meet. Tyr tells him to take his hand, but T.J. is too flabbergasted to think. Tyr then challenges T.J. to take his hand, which he immediately accepts.
• As Alex rents a studio to make her clay soldier, Magnus isn't much help and she tells him that he should have done more pottery classes with her, and his reaction is slightly disgruntled.
  • The group listens to music while they work, but earlier T.J. and Alex fought over what to listen to. T.J. wanted something old whereas Alex wanted to listen to some anime music. They end up with the happy compromise that is Duran Duran, "for reasons [Magnus] cannot fathom."
• Alex naming her clay soldier "Pottery Barn" at Magnus' suggestion.
  • Also the poor clay soldier's confused expression when Alex declared that they were going to destroy the giants clay soldier as if thinking, "Wait. I am?"
• Alex looks like she's coming to greet Magnus or give him a hug, but just takes the sunglasses off his head, claiming it finally completed her outfit. It's particularly funny since there are heavy implications that Alex is into Magnus throughout the whole book, and just doesn't want to admit it.
• Magnus trying to wake up his friends when they arrive near Loki's ship. He has to splash water on Halfborn's face twice, Blitzen talks about ducks, and Hearth signs "I am not here" while his head is plunged under the blankets.
• Sam teases Magnus a bit after telling him he should go talk to Alex, especially after their kiss. Magnus is left a stuttering mess.
• After Magnus takes a sip of the mead, his friends ask if he felt more poetic. His answer is something he'd usually say, leaving one of his friends to sigh, "We're gonna die."
• Blitzen's ducks make a return, this time used to pummel giants. Many of whom agree with Magnus during the flyting duel that they - plus Blitzen's automatically-tightening neckties - are the stuff of jotun nightmares.
• How do they capture Loki? In a walnut shell.
  • After they get back on their ship, Magnus wonders if Mallory was tempted to throw it overboard since she was the one in charge of holding Loki's prison.
  • Also Magnus continuously referring to the walnut-encasing-Loki as an "evil walnut".
• As Magnus falls from Loki's ship, he proceeds to forget about everything Percy had taught him at the beginning of the story.
• While Magnus' speech for his friends was heartwarming, he did forget one thing...Jack.
  • Magnus immediately regrets it when Jack angrily brings it up, asking how Alex was his hidden weapon. The poor boy is forced to make big promises to Jack in order to protect himself.
  • The sword later brags to Frey about how his son was going to have songs and poetry written about him. Frey's reaction seems to have some mild amusement.
• One of the later chapters is simply titled "If You Understand What Happens in This Chapter, Please Tell Me, Because I Have No Clue". Either Magnus has officially given up on trying to decipher the world he lives in, or Riordan himself has no idea what he just wrote.

Meta

• Many fans made jokes about Magnus and Magnus Bane's names due to the obvious similarity before the first book's release.
  • Even more so when both of their love interests are named Alex.

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