Chapter 5001: Advance on York, Advance (Thirty-Seven)

Sif rolled over again, lying on her back on the bed, staring at the ceiling and sinking into memory. It was clearly only a few hundred years ago, yet she already found some of it hard to recall. The Four Warriors of Asgard, Thor, and Loki had grown up together; one could say they were the people who understood each other best.

The Four Warriors of Asgard had also witnessed the entirety of Odin's education of the two princes, but much of the time they were participants themselves. The troubles Thor and Loki stirred up and the achievements they earned all had a share of theirs in them, so they had never stepped outside that perspective to examine the All-Father's level of parenting.

After Hela arrived, she also always stayed with Loki; Thor and Sif had not participated deeply in her upbringing. Besides, Hela was unlike ordinary children. The unique evolutionary talent of the Ragnarok made her the most talented genius in the entire universe; she mastered anything instantly. The traces left by family education on her were not many.

And now, Sif was pregnant. Although there was still a long time before the child's birth, they were also about to truly become parents, so they had no choice but to think about a problem: education.

Just how does one be a good parent? This is an eternal question for all races with normal reproductive capacity, and there has never been a definitive answer. Those seemingly impeccable standard answers — tolerance and love, balancing leniency and strictness, judging each matter on its merits — are all too general.

People's parenting methods usually still come from the precepts and example of the previous generation. Although many people realize their own parents did wrong and decide not to pass those mistakes down, wanting to end generational trauma with themselves, in reality it is not easy.

Because sometimes education cares less about right and wrong than about measure. When a child does the right thing, the key is not praise, but the way and degree of praise. When a child does the wrong thing, discipline is of course necessary, but the method and force of discipline are what matter most.

Education often reveals its true quality in these details. Unfortunately, simply grasping the general direction of right and wrong, missing no chance to praise and letting no chance to discipline slip by, is already very difficult for ordinary people. Those who can do these things already count as good parents. To go further and refine the details requires not merely valuing education, but improving one's own ability and character.

You must be someone who is inherently very good at grasping measure, who can solve problems through social interaction — a superbly socialized person — to have a chance of perfectly mastering the measure when educating a child.

If your own socialization is not that good, you will feel lost in education. If you cannot perfectly handle every problem when a colleague or superior makes a mistake, leaving everyone satisfied, then naturally you will not be able to produce a solution that satisfies yourself, the child, and other family members when the child errs. This is not a lack of emphasis on education; it is a limit of ability.

Put this way, there are no perfect educators in the world, because no one can satisfy everyone, and no one has an obligation to satisfy everyone. Then how to become a good parent in the eyes of oneself, the child, and others — perhaps Thor's evaluation of Odin is the best answer.

"We only feel he did his best" — this may be the highest praise for parents. It means, on one hand, they understand parents are independent people too; as long as they are human they have joys and sorrows, selfish impulses and loss of control. They keenly perceive their parents' difficulties and decide to tolerate and understand.

On the other hand, they see their parents' efforts and believe they did the best within their capacity. At the very least, they felt their parents' love for them.

Both aspects represent that the child can fully empathize with the parents. Whether it is the places they did poorly or the places they did well, the child sees and accepts them all. For education, this is already the best outcome.

And the facts bear this out. When Sif began to think about her own methods of parenting, she only then discovered how well Odin had handled things back then. And when she saw the Thor and Loki of this universe, she became even more certain that her loyalty to and following of the All-Father was not wrong. Odin was not only a wise ruler, but also a good father.

Sif remembered very clearly that in every pre-battle mobilization and every post-battle summary, the "heir" Odin spoke of always referred to Thor. He called him "Asgard's future," "the inheritor of the Aesir's glory," "the next king."

On these occasions, Thor was forever the protagonist and star. Odin repeatedly mentioned him before all the generals, praised him, kept him forever at the center of the crowd, the most dazzling one.

As for Loki, one could not say his treatment was bad, merely that the level of treatment was about the same as the Four Warriors of Asgard. If he did well, Odin would commend him; if he did poorly, his status as prince spared him some punishments, but he was indeed marginalized — at the very least, ignored.

It looked very unfair. Odin poured everything into Thor. From the time Thor learned to walk, he kept him by his side, teaching him how to wage war, how to arrange strategy and tactics, how to issue orders, how to inspire morale. Afterwards he also spared no effort in boosting him, bringing him to within a single step of the throne.

Loki, by contrast, was always the ignored one. He rarely learned warcraft, instead spending vast amounts of time following Frigga to learn magic, reading many bards' miscellaneous records, studying Asgard's aesthetics and arts. On campaign he mostly did not go to the front lines. Even when Thor brought him along, it was at most scouting intelligence or running messages.

In this respect, the difference in their treatment was heaven and earth. So Sif was not entirely unable to understand why Loki had a petty temper, often liked to oppose his brother, and took pleasure when his brother embarrassed himself — it might just be a compensatory psychology.

But now standing from the perspective of expectant parents, Sif could already somewhat understand why Odin did this. It is still that saying: there is only one throne. Asgard can have only one All-Father. The Nine Realms can have only one master. This is an unchangeable fact.

Under this premise, Odin had more than sufficient reason to choose Thor — or rather, he could not choose Loki either. Leaving aside primogeniture, the most basic quality of an heir is physical health. In a militaristic civilization, physical constitution is an even more important standard. Loki's innate physical constitution determined he could not even touch the threshold of heirship. The only one who could be cultivated was Thor.

Based on the above facts, Odin made the wisest decision: go all out to cultivate Thor, and let Loki become marginalized.

Many parents think well enough in the earlier stages, but when it comes to this step they fall into a common pitfall: "The eldest is already inheriting the family business, so I must compensate the younger son extra in other aspects." Then they begin to spoil the younger son who cannot inherit the family business.

Odin completely avoided this mistake. Loki was closer to Frigga purely because Odin did not bring him to battlefields much. He spent more time at home, learned magic with Frigga, and their long time together made them closer — not because each parent favored a different child, with the father biased toward the eldest and the mother biased toward the younger.

In fact, both Odin and Frigga valued Thor more. They spent vast time and energy cultivating him into a qualified heir. As for Loki, there was some neglect. Ordinary care and concern existed, but beyond that there was no special treatment.

And this not only did not cause the family to fall apart due to favoritism, it actually shaped a situation that could be called expected: the one in this family who favored Loki the most was Thor.

Odin did not bring Loki to the battlefield, so Thor brought him every day. Even when Loki caused trouble for him, he did not care. Asgardians disliked Loki; Thor did not care about that either. He just hung out with his little brother every day. Asgard's only Second Prince faction was the Crown Prince.

Until she came to this universe, Sif only then discovered that if Odin had not made that wise decision, things might well have rushed in another direction, until they plunged into the abyss.

Look at this universe. First, Odin's approach to Thor was mostly suppression and control. Not to mention other things, the way Odin interfered in Thor's love life left Thor not a shred of face.

A relationship between a long-lived species and a short-lived species indeed has many problems. Foster may indeed not be a good choice for queen. But there were ten thousand better, more dignified ways to resolve this, rather than making a spectacle known to all, acting in a rage, and even descending to the absurd step of finding a third party to sabotage their relationship.

Sif also did not understand: even if marrying a human woman would indeed shake Thor's prestige, what good did it do his reputation to make such a spectacle known to all, letting the entire Nine Realms know Thor was an incompetent who could not handle his own emotional problems?

Retreating ten thousand steps: humans live at most a hundred years. As long as Odin lived through those hundred years without abdicating, without giving the throne to Thor, and without letting Foster into Asgard — just letting the two date on Earth — once Foster died, would that trouble not be gone?

This was fundamentally not a decision made from interest. It was purely Odin's control freak nature acting up. He just wanted Thor to walk the perfect heir path he had set. The moment Thor deviated even slightly, he could not stand it and had to bend him back. In the end it inevitably turned into "How can you defy me for her" — that kind of unreasonable tantrum — and even the denigrating mindset of "A son who doesn't listen to me is better off not existing."

As for Loki, whether from compensatory psychology or because he did not value him and thus let things drift, Loki poked a hole in the sky and Odin did not care. He neither restrained nor educated him; he just let him run wild.

And he displayed a superficial fairness, like "the throne goes to the capable," completely ignoring reality — Loki's race, physical condition, working style, and other issues. For Loki's multiple rebellions and betrayals, he did not even lift his hand high; he simply let them go.

That's right. While Thor was busy struggling with Odin over his love life, Loki rebelled multiple times. Odin had to divert energy to deal with him, but it was only slight suppression. Let alone stripping his prince title or exiling him — he didn't even confine him. He just let Loki go out and play again. At that time Loki could be called the luckiest rebel in the entire universe.