History YMMV / NorseMythology

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Surtur. Probably the UrExample.

* MisaimedFandom: Unfortunately, due to the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]] deification of all things blond and blue-eyed, a disproportionate number of the "fans" of Norse mythology you'll find these days are Wotanists, a neo-nazi white supremacist sect who wish to return the lighter-skinned "to their ancestral religion." [[DidNotDoTheResearch How these nutters would react to the fact that Norse mythology is heavily connected to other Proto-Indo-European religions]], with such concepts as a world tree and serpent being observed as far as India and Persia.

* HilariousInHindsight: Loki is a jotun, or troll. During the the age of the Internet, the term "{{troll}}" took on a whole new meaning: a person who sows chaos and discord (sometimes ForGreatJustice, sometimes ForTheLulz), which is Loki's raison d'être. But wait, it gets ''better:'' trolls are known for "flaming" others, and guess what color Loki's hair is? Here's a hint: one of his kennings is "Flame-Hair." Bow before your god, all ye Internet trolls.
** One of Thor's kennings is "Troll-Basher." What do administrators use to get rid of pesky trolls? The banhammer, of course!

* HilariousInHindsight: Loki is a jotun, or in other words, a [[AllTrollsAreDifferent troll]]. Nowadays, the term "troll" has taken on [[InternetTroll another meaning]], which describes Loki just as well.

* MemeticMutation: {{Jesus}} promised the end of all wicked people. Odin promised the end of all ice giants. [[YouFailLogicForever I don't see many ice giants around.]]

* MemeticBadass: Thor

* UnfortunateImplications: Helheim is ruled by a woman, and it's pretty much accepted that women end up there by default unless they actually die fighting in battle.
** ''Anyone'' who isn't a soldier/warrior who dies in battle and isn't enough of a dick to merit going to Niflheim goes to Hel.

** [[LightIsNotGood Worse than that]]. The valkyries, [[SadlyMythtaken universally depicted]] nowadays as [[HotAmazon hot amazon babes]] on [[CoolHorse winged horses]] just there to lovingly lift up the spirits of the fallen and take them to Valhalla. Well, some sources describe them as far more than just beautiful {{UsefulNotes/Psychopomp}}s for the heroic dead. They helped ''make'' your heroes dead. A random arrow deflected in flight hits a chink in your armor. A broken lace on your boot makes you stumble and gives your enemy the opening to strike you down. [[GreyAndGrayMorality Etcetera]]. All the work of the Valkyries, invisibly flitting here and there on the battlefield to screw over the finest of warriors so that Odin would have the best of the best on his side come Ragnarok. It was how the Norse answered the question [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth "why do the good die young while jerk-asses live forever?"]] It was also why the original steeds of the valkyries weren't beautiful winged horses, they were [[BeautyEqualsGoodness dark and hoary wolves]].

* UnfortunateImplications: Hell is ruled by a woman, and it's pretty much accepted that women end up there by default unless they actually die fighting in battle.
** That's Helheim, not "Hell," and it's not a particularly bad place to be.

* HilariousInHindsight: Loki is a jotun, or in other words, a [[AllTrollsAreDifferent troll]]. Nowadays, the term "troll" has taken on [[InternetTroll another meaning]], which fits Loki perfectly.

** He might also have been broken down after seeing the giants, who he was related to, being exterminated.
** Hell, by the time Ragnarok rolls around it's hard not to be on his side. After all, it's due to the other gods punishing him for things that weren't really that bad/he shared the blame for with others/he had nothing to do with at all that his children were taken away from him and tortured, not to mention ending up in a cave ''with a snake dripping venom into his eyeballs '''tied up with the guts of his own son.''''' And as if that wasn't horrible enough, they made his completely innocent and harmless wife sit there trying to catch the venom with a cup.

* UnfortunateImplications: Hell is ruled by a woman, and it's pretty much accepted that women end up there by default.

* UnfortunateImplications: Hell is ruled by a woman.

** He might also have been broken down after seeing the giants, who he was related to, being exterminted.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Vithar avenges Odin by jumping into Fenrir's mouth and ''ripping its jaws apart with his barehands''.

* CharacterDerailment: In many versions of the stories Loki randomly goes from "sneaky trickster and friend of Thor" to "bastard who murders Baldur just for kicks, and then signs on with the giants to bring about the end of the world." This is due in large part to [[HijackedByJesus Christian rewrites]], which saw a Trickster god of fire and made him analogous to Satan.
** He never did mean to kill Balder, it was meant to be a hilarious joke that backfired catastrophically.
** BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: He was punished ''severely'' for his role in Balder's death. Not coincidentally, his escape from his imprisonment is among the first events of Ragnarok.
** In some modern retellings of the myths, the killing of Balder is treated as Loki's MoralEventHorizon and usually signifies the beginning of the end. From thereon, the tone gets [[CerebusSyndrome noticeably darker]] and everything moves towards Ragnarok.
** Further, in some tellings he began to grow noticeably more evil after a group of Dwarves sewed his mouth shut in return for one of his tricks and the gods, including his traveling-companion Thor and his HeterosexualLifePartner Odin ''laughed at it.''

** DidNotDoTheResearch and HijackedByJesus, as in the actual saga, it isn't Loki that refuses to weep for Baldur, but an unnamed old woman. It also doesn't fit with the other stories involving Loki where he has a very keen interest in getting out of trouble once he gets himself into it.