I'm just hoping they don't give her a tragic backstory to make her "more relatable". She's an evil fairy sorceress, keep her that way!

I'm relating to her now! As an evil fairy sorceress! Let evil be evil.

I'm just hoping they don't give her a tragic backstory to make her "more relatable".

As long as you are prepared for possible disappointment, because this seems very likely.

Yeah, I don't see any way that doesn't happen. It's Disney, and it exists in a post-Wicked world.

I know, I know, but I still have that tiny spark of hope. She's evil! She has awesome minions, not a tragic backstory, dammit!

What if her tragic backstory is that when she was younger, her minions weren't awesome enough, and she had to become an evil fairy sorceress to attract sufficiently awesome minions?

So I saw Thor 2 yesterday. I kind of get where Sean is coming from: some of the decision-making was a bit of a stretch.

For instance: Why did Odin insist on not removing Jane from Asgard? He's portrayed as a wise man in the first movie, but that decision, even influenced by his anger and grief, makes no sense.

Also, Jane and Erik's realization of what Malekith was doing just... well, it was kind of pulled out of a hat. How could they know exactly what he was going to do, and where? All of the dialogue there was just complete gobbledygook. Felt like the end of the first Star Trek reboot movie.

I also noticed a bit of an editing screwup in the big final fight scene. In one clip, Jane runs off down the stairs and Erik runs after her, shouting, "Jane, no!" or something like that, as if she's come up with an idea that's dangerous and wants to pursue it. In the next clip, Thor shows up and Jane and Erik approach him as if they had nothing else on their minds. It's a bit odd, as if something had been edited out there late in the process.

That said, I disagree with you, Sean, about Darcy and Ian. I do think that it's ludicrous for saving someone's life to mean you get to kiss them, but in this instance the instigator of the kissing was clearly Darcy. As shown by the way that she was bending him over when the others arrived. I thought that was a nice twist on the trope. And, really, they needed to give Darcy something to do, after all...

I'm a bit confused about Loki's switcheroo with Odin. I was sure Loki wasn't going to die, but it occurs to me to wonder if he had one of those things the Cursed was using. Also, what did he do with Odin? He wouldn't have killed his mother, but he seems to have no such warm feelings for his father. If he killed him, would no one notice? That seems unlikely.

Also, I found it unlikely that Thor never tried to recover his body. It's the sort of thing Thor would do: go to great lengths to bring Loki's body back to Asgard to be burned at sea like Frigga and the other warriors. True, they had little time, but there was that sequence where he and Jane got back to Earth through the anomaly and then to Asgard: he could have gone for the body then.

All that said, I rather enjoyed it: loved Cap's cameo, the bits of humor, seeing a lot more of Asgard, Heimdall being awesome, Sif being awesome, Frigga being tough, and Jane having something to do.

I will wonder how Asgard will react to having Loki on the throne, and how long it will be before anyone realizes it...

See, I'm really wondering if Loki is going to maintain the Odin ruse to rule Asgard. After all, he's LOKI. Tony was right in Avengers: Loki is a diva who wants people to know that HE is ruling Asgard, and pretending to be Odin won't give him that recognition.

Now, it's possible that, since Thor turned down the throne to go play with the Avengers, and is therefore not currently in Asgard, Loki might announce to all of Asgard the horrible tragedy that Odin is dead/ailing/missing (whatever fits with whatever ruse he wants to pull) and that Thor turned down the throne, so he, Loki, will have to rule.

But then I don't see how that happens, when a fair handful of Asgardian folks (certainly Sif, Volstagg, and Fandral [and possibly even Hogun]) know that Loki was busted out of his cell and, as far as they know, died in the fight with the Cursed. So if he just shows up on the throne as Loki, that's not going to work out. Or if he DOES, that means he has to imprison a lot of people, and I actually don't think he would do that.

So either he just impersonated Odin for that conversation with Thor to ensure that Thor was giving up his right to the throne and was heading off to Midgard, or he killed Odin/imprisoned him somewhere secret and is going to rule Asgard in the guise of Odin. I see the first as more likely than the second. Plus, if Loki killed Odin, I can't see something THAT monumental, in terms of the mythos, happening offscreen.

But then I'm left wondering, well, what IS going to happen?

I don't think Odin can be dead, because Heimdall has the ability to see everything/everyone. The only person he can't see is Loki (disguised as Odin or not), so Odin must be around somewhere. Maybe taking a leak and Loki took advantage of it.

My guess is that Odin is imprisoned somewhere, and that this situation will be a large part of the plot of Thor 3. Maybe he has found a way to dull Heimdall's sense of where Odin is?

Well, Heimdall could be imprisoned, too. Because I don't remember seeing him after the scene where he tells Odin "I committed treason." I assumed that Odin imprisoned him, which Loki would be wise to continue; that way even if Heimdall can see what shenanigans are afoot with Odin, it's not like he can tell anyone about it.

But yeah, like I said above, killing Odin, or anything major with Odin would never happen offscreen. It's too huge.