Chapter 5002: Advance on York, Advance (Thirty-Eight)

You have to understand, Loki wasn't just suppressing his brother, trying to vie for the heir's position, pulling some petty tricks. He was directly trying to snatch the throne from Odin's hands, which is why it counts as treason. But even so, Odin didn't do anything to him. The only time he died was accidentally caused by Thor.

The funniest part is, Loki's biological father Laufey rebelled precisely because he opposed Odin's rule. His dad rebelled on the outside, he rebelled on the inside, and Odin just turned a blind eye to it all.

From this you can see, this universe's Odin's level as Emperor can truly be said to be unprecedented and never to be repeated.

And this differential treatment caused both their personalities to become twisted. The eldest son who inherited the family business thought every day, does my dad look down on me, is he deliberately making things hard for me, and then started giving up on himself, developing that mentality of "I'd rather destroy myself than not get revenge on you."

And the younger son would think, my dad completely ignores me, I have to stir up some trouble to make them pay attention to me. So he started causing trouble every day, even wishing he could set Asgard on fire with a single torch, just to fight for his parents' attention.

The two brothers' relationship wasn't much better either. Although Thor killing Loki was an accident, if it were the Central Universe's Thor, you could remove his brain, throw it into a black hole, and he still wouldn't lay a finger on Loki purely out of bodily instinct.

Not to mention, this universe's Loki even directly piloted the Destroyer, beat Thor's physical body to a pulp, and even triggered Ragnarok intending to wipe out all the gods in one fell swoop — fundamentally, they both harbor grievances that cannot be smoothed over.

This is exactly "no comparison, no hurt." Sif thought, if you let this universe's Thor and Loki evaluate Odin, they absolutely could not calmly say "we only feel he did his best." They definitely have a mountain of incomprehension and complaints.

So often, surface fairness actually ruins everything, while seemingly uneven favoritism can bring better results.

Sif began to think more deeply about why this would be.

Then she discovered that her universe's All-Father actually couldn't be called biased, but rather cultivated according to different sons' different innate conditions.

You can't demand a Frost Giant who already had congenital defects and was abandoned by his biological father because of them to compete in martial prowess with the Aesir. It's like forcing a cripple to race against a normal person, or a tortoise to compete in speed with a cheetah. The consequence of doing this, besides destroying Loki's confidence, has no other possibility.

If Odin had thrown Loki into the center of the battlefield to kill his way out like he cultivated Thor, he'd probably have lost his little life. Or if he took Loki raiding like he took Thor raiding, wouldn't he have been hacked to death by random blades?

You have to know, in Asgard where martial prowess is supreme, it wasn't a few words of praise and commendation from Odin that could make everyone submit to Thor. Ultimately, you still have to see the real chapter under your hands. It was because Thor of every age bracket won against his opponents on the training grounds that those generals followed Odin in praising him, rather than jumping out to question it.

If this were swapped for Loki, how could he possibly beat same-age Aesir? Even with magic buffs, they can make countless mistakes, he can only make one mistake. Once someone gets in close, wouldn't he just get beaten black and blue?

So, Loki couldn't walk Thor's path, so Odin couldn't let him walk that path, could only let him follow Frigga to learn magic, compensate for his physical deficiencies as much as possible, at least have a specialty, at least have a point worthy of praise.

Conversely, this universe's Loki, Sif thought, his inexplicable inferiority complex probably stems from Odin adopting a one-size-fits-all education model for the two brothers, then calling it "fairness."

Thor fights people, Odin makes Loki fight people. Thor raids, he makes Loki raid. Thor learns something, Loki learns that something. Then because of the difference in innate conditions, Loki can never beat Thor — how could he not develop an inferiority complex?

And inferiority complex is always a bottomless slippery slope. Starting from inferiority about ability, gradually developing into inferiority about personality, then gradually beginning to loathe everything one possesses, even differences in appearance like black hair.

The so-called "when a person gets popular everyone they meet is nice" — when someone performs well and is popular, every single trait on them gets lavishly praised. People will say "look how amazing he is, good character, strong ability, even his appearance is this perfect." When such words spread enough, the one being compared naturally becomes nothing at all. Even hair color which originally had no comparative value gets trampled on.

Over time, even the person themselves starts to self-doubt, whether even something as natural and meaningless as hair color is actually the Creator's favor, and thus even such trivial details must be hated.

This universe's Odin's surface fairness is what's truly unfair to Loki. If you swapped their positions, if Asgard were a magic civilization where everything was judged by magic level, Thor would fall into the exact same predicament. This fundamentally isn't fairness.

And what Sif thinks Odin did best was, when Loki wasn't good at a certain field, Odin would choose to cover for Loki, adopt a strategy of "do less, make fewer mistakes," simply not letting him set foot in it. Can't beat others? Don't go to the training grounds. Can't raid? Don't go to the battlefield. This meant the most radical questioning Loki faced was at most "you're not an Asgardian warrior," rather than comprehensive negation.

Many parents, when their child doesn't do well in an area they're not good at and gets mocked and feels sad, their approach is to make the child keep doing it while criticizing them for "psychological fragility," telling them "don't care about others' gazes," or "just do it well and it'll be fine, right?"

Little do they know, the destruction of confidence never destroys just one aspect. The slippery slope of inferiority makes the personality continuously collapse, until comprehensive self-negation, then hitting rock bottom and rebounding, resorting to any means to gain a sense of existence and worthiness.

Such people without a sense of worthiness will repeatedly verify whether a certain thing or a certain person still stays by their side. What comes with it is endless desire for control. In the end, not only do they not end intergenerational trauma, they exacerbate it and once again become those kinds of parents.

Sif constantly warned herself in her heart, must not become that kind of parent like this universe's Odin — the main reason they can hold a bowl of water level is because they're preparing to use force to splash the whole bowl out.

And this universe's Thor and Loki were indeed both splashed out. Thor's emotional life is a mess, Loki is destitute, basically has nothing left. There are many more cracks between the two brothers, whether they can be mended remains unknown.

Even though Sif dislikes Loki, she still feels regret over this. So she turned back to look at Thor and said:

"Do you think they still have a chance?"

This topic jump is a bit too big, but Thor quickly reacted to who she was talking about. He thought for a moment and said:

"It's really hard to imagine Loki turning into such a rude little brat, but I can only make him have manners, the rest depends on his brother."

"The problem is whether his brother is reliable." Sif sighed, "I always feel Thor's problems might be even bigger than Loki's. His romance with Ms. Foster is more about fighting for a chance to catch his breath. Even his interactions with Earth might just be to rebel against Odin."

"Now, he possesses the entire Nine Realms, he's become even freer, it's precisely the time to show his governing ability. But does he really have this ability? The ability to handle Asgard and Earth well, his own relationship with Loki well?"

"This is very difficult," Thor said, "but it's his necessary path. I'd like to give him some words of experience, but he's obviously still stuck at step one."

Sif made a "willing to hear the details" expression.

"He hasn't figured out yet that right now is the window period for him to establish good relations with the Revival Alliance. Obviously, the multiverse visitors and Grayson's wedding are the most critical link in the Revival Alliance's plan to elevate this universe's status, absolutely no mishaps allowed.

"But the seafood incident has already proven someone wants to pull tricks behind the scenes. The Revival Alliance is already busy enough, they have to ensure the main process doesn't go wrong, their control over these trivial details isn't enough — this is a good opportunity for Thor."

"The seafood incident isn't a main link in the process, meddling in this matter carries no interventionism risk, but seafood poisoning could very likely trigger serious consequences, like guests giving bad reviews, or causing mutant dissatisfaction. If resolved, it counts as a major merit. For Thor, it's an excellent opportunity to display his wisdom and foresight."

"But he looks completely uninterested in this matter." Thor shook his head and said, "Or maybe he hasn't even discovered this matter, putting his attention on some other place."

"He might have gone to find Loki." Sif said.

"But Loki can't possibly have anything to do with this matter." Thor said, "Before, he was locked up by this universe's Thor the whole time, Thor should know best that he can't be related to any recent events, so there's no need to pay attention to him now."

"Perhaps he feels he can't keep locking Loki up anymore." Sif said thoughtfully, "Before their relationship might not have been that good, but now Thor feels he controls everything, so he's willing to act a little more merciful..."

"Not a good time," Thor said, "He wants to use Loki to display his tolerance and magnanimity, but can't actually fully control him. Unwilling to be ruthless, yet still harboring resentment inside. This causes him to constantly waver, doing the wrong thing at the wrong time."

"In your view, what should be done?" Sif asked.

"Either keep him locked up, focus on resolving Earth's matters. Wait until everything is handled properly, when Loki can't stir up any waves anymore, then release him. Make him completely submit, and also vent this anger. Or let go of past grievances, genuinely and thoroughly forgive Loki, then calmly talk with him. This way no matter what Loki still wants to do, at least one's own conscience is clear."

"You lean toward the latter?" Sif asked.

"That's what I did." Thor let out a light sigh, "Loki has had moments of going too far too, like the matter of getting me thrown to Earth — although it was mainly Odin's will, he wasn't entirely innocent either, I know this in my heart."

"But you chose to forgive him."

"Because I didn't want to lose him." Thor propped his head with his hand and said, "If I became Asgard's new king, my reproach would have power, that would be too heavy for Loki. If I don't want to lose him, I can only forgive him."

"I think so too." Sif said, "I was angry for a long time about him stealing my hair, but after I became Queen of the Gods, I realized, if I insisted on treating this matter as some fault of his to pursue responsibility, the responsibility I pursued, which is the price he paid, might be far more than he should pay."

"This is why power is also a shackle." Thor said, "When you stand at a certain position, you must maintain restraint, even concession. Personal emotions may lead to injustice, letting a thousand-li dike collapse from an ant's nest."

"I hope this universe's Thor can realize this point." Sif said, "Even if it might also require paying some price."