Lazy-Eye as Moonrise Kingdom's Odin.
There's a tricky exchange in Moonrise Kingdom where precocious Lazy-Eye asks Scout Master Ward what he actually does for a living in order to undermine his authority by questioning his credentials, though it takes 1950s-raised straight-laced Ward a few lines to figure that out. Ward at first responds by saying he teaches math as a profession:
Lazy-Eye's one-eyed-ness could just be a another quirky detail scripted by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola to help distinguish between matching uniformed Khaki Scout characters, yet the way the above dialogue plays out parallels how Odin aids by prompting certain saga characters to re-define themselves through action, like Hrólfr Kraki, Hadingus, and Sigurðr.
Specifically this sudden change of self-definition prompts Ward to become greater than he was and achieve heroic action, where through the course of the movie he recovers & sincerely counsels Sam, saves the life of his Khaki jarl Commander Pierce, leads the whole scout Hullaballoo gathered at Fort Lebanon out of a deadly storm into shelter, wins the devotion of beautiful retro-techcore switchboard operator Becky, and by these deeds goes from field-stripped outlaw to regain his Scout Master rank & status.
By now in this blog feed you may have noticed I keep coming back to Moonrise Kingdom, again & again. Perhaps there's a bit of sophistry in affixing the Heathen Worldview onto the film's structure, and yet the fact that there's this much in the film to be discerned has to make you admit the subcontext's either actually there in the first place, or even woven throughout by a subtly divine influence undetected by its authors, which in this instance is possibly a goading scout proxy of Odin, a god of inspiration.
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Lazy-Eye: What's your real job, sir?
Scout Master Ward: I'm a math teacher.
Lazy-Eye: What grade?
Scout Master Ward: Eighth.
Lazy-Eye: Do you need a PhD for that?
Scout Master Ward: Lazy-Eye, no, but you know what? We're actually in the middle of something here, in case you didn't notice. One of our scouts is missing and that's a crisis. Anybody else? [...]
Scout Master Ward [turns to Lazy-Eye]: I'm gonna change my answer, in fact. This is real my job. Scout master, Troop 55.
Lazy-Eye's one-eyed-ness could just be a another quirky detail scripted by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola to help distinguish between matching uniformed Khaki Scout characters, yet the way the above dialogue plays out parallels how Odin aids by prompting certain saga characters to re-define themselves through action, like Hrólfr Kraki, Hadingus, and Sigurðr.
Specifically this sudden change of self-definition prompts Ward to become greater than he was and achieve heroic action, where through the course of the movie he recovers & sincerely counsels Sam, saves the life of his Khaki jarl Commander Pierce, leads the whole scout Hullaballoo gathered at Fort Lebanon out of a deadly storm into shelter, wins the devotion of beautiful retro-techcore switchboard operator Becky, and by these deeds goes from field-stripped outlaw to regain his Scout Master rank & status.
By now in this blog feed you may have noticed I keep coming back to Moonrise Kingdom, again & again. Perhaps there's a bit of sophistry in affixing the Heathen Worldview onto the film's structure, and yet the fact that there's this much in the film to be discerned has to make you admit the subcontext's either actually there in the first place, or even woven throughout by a subtly divine influence undetected by its authors, which in this instance is possibly a goading scout proxy of Odin, a god of inspiration.
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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology, field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.
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