Copying and pasting my feelings about Odin from another comment I made:
I kind of hate Odin anyway for being turned into this mystical Jesus figure by post-Christian conversion authors. His isn't supposed to be benevolent, they're all supposed to be non-benevolent. They're the gods of a culture who pretty much lived from season to season and who thought dying in battle was the best way to go. 'Kind' isn't an option.
Which is to say, yes, he shouldn't be the kindly old man, the Viking culture in which he was a part of has no room for that. Though it is worth mentioning that Odin may be a relic of a Proto-Indo-European deity who was a wandering wise man figure, and as people settled he became more sedentary and benevolent. Interestingly, he does have two brothers, Vili and Ve, who have values which makes it ridiculously easy to retconn the three of them into the Christian trinity. (The whole Christianity!Odin is that he was made more into the Christian God, with either his hanging from Yggdrasil or Baldur becoming a Jesus parable, with Loki, Hel and Helheim being linked to the Devil and Hell. Which I forever hate Christianity for, because Hel's a nice girl, except for the whole zombies at Ragnarok thing.)
There are also theories about how Odin and Loki were originally two sides of the same god. Which I don't find hard to believe. They are dicks of equal measure and then there is that whole blood brothers thing. (I mostly forget about that, mostly because I summarise the relevant Eddas in my head as "The tales of Loki and Odin being horrible and Thor being dumb", even though it probably should be more "The tales of Loki being a dick to Thor who is not the brightest candle in the room while Odin laughs at the two of them back in the halls of Asgard" because there are more recorded tales of Thor and Loki going adventuring than whatever prompted the blood brothers thing.)
I am having far too much fun with crossing over Thor and Doctor Who. It fits wonderfully unless you like the comics.
no subject
Which is to say, yes, he shouldn't be the kindly old man, the Viking culture in which he was a part of has no room for that. Though it is worth mentioning that Odin may be a relic of a Proto-Indo-European deity who was a wandering wise man figure, and as people settled he became more sedentary and benevolent. Interestingly, he does have two brothers, Vili and Ve, who have values which makes it ridiculously easy to retconn the three of them into the Christian trinity. (The whole Christianity!Odin is that he was made more into the Christian God, with either his hanging from Yggdrasil or Baldur becoming a Jesus parable, with Loki, Hel and Helheim being linked to the Devil and Hell. Which I forever hate Christianity for, because Hel's a nice girl, except for the whole zombies at Ragnarok thing.)
There are also theories about how Odin and Loki were originally two sides of the same god. Which I don't find hard to believe. They are dicks of equal measure and then there is that whole blood brothers thing. (I mostly forget about that, mostly because I summarise the relevant Eddas in my head as "The tales of Loki and Odin being horrible and Thor being dumb", even though it probably should be more "The tales of Loki being a dick to Thor who is not the brightest candle in the room while Odin laughs at the two of them back in the halls of Asgard" because there are more recorded tales of Thor and Loki going adventuring than whatever prompted the blood brothers thing.)
I am having far too much fun with crossing over Thor and Doctor Who. It fits wonderfully unless you like the comics.