#my christmas gift to myself is trying to stop cringe culture-ing myself

[esepoimipullula]

So, one of the (many, many) things I mean when I say I’m a Norse-obsessed nerd who gets way too excited whenever Norse mythology or Vikings are involved or even just mentioned in Disney Duckverse & Mouseverse comics or cartoons is that I love the DT2017 episode The Rumble for Ragnarok! to bits.

Asgard! Valhalla! Male and female dead heroes in Valhalla! Norse-inspired architecture! Impending Ragnarok! Vikings being crazy about wrestling, which is actually kind of weirdly fitting if you consider glima! Vikings having a sense of honor! Vikings hating overly greedy people! Beakley picking “the Shieldmaiden” as her stage name, and her costume having a winged helmet because it’s supposed to be over-the-top and kind of ridiculous and we clearly see nobody else in Valhalla wears anything like that! The person on the writing team who apparently has my same taste in mythical figures and, instead of whipping up Odin and Thor (whom I do love, too, but come on... you can’t always use them!) as usual, went, “Hey, guys, you know what would be cool? If Loki’s kids were loved and appreciated and had lots of admirers and weren’t cast away or tortured or killed!”...

Ahem.

Anyway, right after watching the episode, I already had my own headcanons about Jormungand and Hecka and Fenrir being siblings like in the myths. And about Fenrir really being the Biggest Wolf Ever but also able to transform into the Regular Wolf form we see in the episode and another, unseen Anthropomorphic Wolf form, yet preferring the Regular Wolf one during matches because the crowd loves the whole “good boy” schtick and it’s also useful to trick opponents into underestimating him. And about attitudes towards Ragnarok actually having shifted only fairly recently (for Norse standards) and Jormungand being really a pretty decent guy, just way too addicted to the crowds’ cheers and praise after millenia of being considered a monster and a harbinger of unspeakable doom, making him even more insecure and prone to get in over his head and lose control than Dewey and...

Ahem. So, anyway, some time after watching the episode, just for fun, I tried my hand at making my duck-ified versions of Loki, Angrboda, and Sigyn, to round out the family. Unfortunately I can’t draw, so I used the Ducktales: All Ducked Out game, which means my options in terms of body type, clothing, and everything else where pretty limited. So, basically, I just shrugged and went, “you know what? Since now Ragnarok is seen as a good thing but keeps getting thwarted, Loki has been freed and told to keep himself constantly available just in case the time for him to lead the Jotnar against the gods finally comes, though of course he’s still not welcome in Asgard. Which is fine for him, because he and Sigyn are running around Midgard looking for their sons, who have just been turned into regular, non-talking wolves and cast out in some area well-known for traditional wolf-hunting or something because this is Disney and also an embarrassingly self-indulgent AU. Angrboda helps them on their search, because I hate Sigyn vs Angrboda stuff and because I ship all three of them together, but generally she hangs out in Jotunheim and then she always watches her kids’ matches in Valhalla if she can make it, which means she’s the only one who still keeps to Norse style instead of adapting to Midgard fashions or mixing the two together.”

You know, normal things a normal person thinks about.

Anyway, here they are:

Loki:

He’s meant to be some kind of hawk as a call-back to him borrowing Freyja's and Frigg’s falcon-cloacks on at least two separate occasions... though I’m sure it doesn’t come across that well. I would have liked to go for longer hair, but there weren’t that many styles available and I liked the two different colors thing this one had going on. If you pretend the second color is less pinkish and more reddish, it gives a kind of fiery effect --- and yeah, I know the fire association is actually pretty thin and likely more of a later thing, but it’s a popular thing and personally, I like it.

No, he’s not “Norse Satan.” He’s more like an ambiguously moral trickster who causes as much trouble as he fixes, is responsibile for the gods having a lot of cool stuff, is (equally or almost equally ambiguously moral) Odin’s blood-brother and Thor’s friend but eventually fucks up both relationships, and at one point fucks everything up so very, very, very badly that it starts the chain of events leading to Ragnarok.

Sigyn:

A regular duck, to go with my long-standing headcanon that she’s a bit of a plain Jane but Loki and Angrboda love her because of her wit, passion, and unexpected chaos-loving side. I like to think her necklace was gifted to her by Loki when they were courting, and is the one flashy thing she’s always comfortable wearing no matter the occasion.

No, there is absolutely nothing in the myths about her being forced or tricked into marrying Loki or him abusing her. Sure, she is not happy with some of his actions and their consequences for both of them, but she voluntarily sticks with him and protects him from having acidic venom constantly poured all over him.

Angrboda:

A big, strong, tough jotun woman! I’ve already explained about her sticking to her Norse roots, so I’ll just say that I didn’t have any ideas about what kind of bird I should make her. I actually kinda wanted to make her a dognose or something to emphasize how WEIRD her offspring with Loki is, but... whatever, guess she’s a duck, lol.

No, she is never named as Loki’s first or second wife, and she’s never connected to Sigyn in any text so there’s nothing about the two being rivals or hating each other. So I’m completely free to imagine she’s both Loki’s and Sigyn’s girlfriend. :)