Wotan Wagner

Wotan, portrayed by Bjørn Sundquist.

> Do you know what a strange town this is?
>
> Wotan to Magne during their first meeting.

**Wotan Wagner** (portrayed by Bjørn Sundquist) is a recurring character in the Netflix Original Series *Ragnarok*.

He is the reincarnation of Odin, the King of the Gods, and he and Magne lead the other Gods in the fight against the giants who are destroying the world.

He is also Magne's new father figure in the series.

## Biography

Wagner is a mysterious old man, who rides an electric wheelchair and wears an eye patch on his face. In general, he is seen alongside Wenche. It becomes apparent that he is slightly senile and stuck in a nursing home, with no apparent family or other connections.

### In the series

#### Season 1

Wotan makes his first appearance early in the first episode . While driving on his scooter in front of the Seier's car, the scooter appears to stall. Magne Seier gets out of his car to assist him.

Throughout the rest of the first series Wagner plays a minor role in the events as they unfold.

#### Season 2

After Wenche is killed, she passes on her necklace to Wagner, telling him to lead and guide the rest of the Gods. Wagner initially does nothing with the necklace, and appears to have no idea what is going on until he eventually puts it on before it can be snatched by another resident of the nursing home. Immediately, this awakens his godly reincarnation, Odin. Wagner summons Magne to him and reveals himself as Odin, promising to help him in the fight against the giants. From this moment Wagner assumes command of the fight, as the King of the Gods.

## Relationships

* Gods
* Allies

### Odin

Deemed supreme among the Æsir, Odin has been hailed as the Allfather with incredible mastery over sacred wisdom, war, poetry, and magic. Norse mythology chronicles Odin's great thirst for knowledge, which culminated in him hanging from the Yggdrasil or the World Tree for nine whole days. In Ragnarok, Odin is reincarnated within the body of Wotan Wagner, an elderly man who is seen riding an electric wheelchair through seasons 1 and 2. Wotan's true identity is only revealed after Wenche's death, although visual cues foreshadow this development, such as his eye patch and the fact that Odin is referred to as Wotan in other Germanic tongues. Also, as Wenche is positioned as the seer who tells Odin about Völuspá or Seer's Prophecy concerning Ragnarok, her death forces Odin to assume a more direct role in the events that haunt Edda. While Wotan is willing to assist Magne in his mission to forge Thor's hammer, Mjölnir and destroy the Giants once and for all, he is insistent in following the old ways just like his past incarnation did, which usually involved extreme violence and necessary deaths in order to bring about a new beginning. Although Odin explains that the old ways cannot be interpreted against modern moralistic standards, Magne emphasizes the fact that they do live in the modern world, adaptation and change being necessary tenets of their immediate reality. For the same reason and apparently aware of Laurits' true identity as Loki reincarnated along with the seminal role he will come to play in triggering Ragnarok as per the Völuspá, he rejects his assistance despite the latter's interest given his status as Magne's half-brother. Even so, little did Wotan knew that in stark contrast of how his past self did, Laurits finds himself torn between both sides and the decision to side with the Giants being uneasy one...

### Magne Seier

In the first season, Magne and Wotan had only a passing friendship. But, as of the second season, they now have a "father/son" relationship. Seeing as how they are the reincarnations of Thor and Odin. After the passing of Wenche, Magne has turned to Wotan for help and guidance. When Magne went to see Iman and Wotan at the old-folks' home, Wotan greeted him by welcoming him and calling him his "son". Because Wotan received the magic necklace from Wenche and put it on, Wotan was inhabited with the spirit of Odin, and he recognized Magne as his son, Thor.

### Iman Reza

Iman and Wotan are both friends and reincarnated deities. She is the reincarnation of Freyja, Goddess of Love.

### Harry

Harry is both Wotan's friend, and a reincarnated deity. He is the reincarnation of Týr, God of War.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Immortality:** Because he is the reincarnation of Odin, Wagner is immortal he can never die and never age.
* **Farsight:** On a number of occasions Wagner is able to perceive events happening far away from him or in the past. For example, Wagner is aware that Magne prayed to a God he didn't believe in asking for his powers to be removed, even though this was a private prayer heard by no-one. Wagner explains that his blind eye is all seeing, which is reflective of his past life where Odin sacrificed it for knowledge.

**Powers nor yet develpped:**

* **Clairvoyance:** Odin can gain direct visual information about an object, person, location, or physical event through means other than the user's physical sight and allows them to act when they are unable to use their eyes and may be able to 'see' spiritual/psychic beings.
* **Absolute intelligence:** Odin has intelligence that is significantly above the standard genius-level intellect; possessing exceptional intellectual capabilities, mental capacity and concentration, mental calculations, memorization, perception, deduction, analyzation, cognition and competence, wit and ingenuity, prowess and knowledge, calculations, reading skills, learning capacity, thought process, intuition, and awareness, inventive capabilities, creativity, originality, etc., typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of new advances in a domain of knowledge. Enhanced intelligence is between 155 and 201 IQ, beyond that it would be considered supernatural intelligence.
* **Absolute wisdom:** Odin possesses great wisdom: a deep understanding and realization of concepts, common sense, people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements, and actions while keeping these understandings. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions (the "passions") so that universal principles, reasons, and knowledge prevail to determine one's actions. Wisdom is also the comprehension of what is truly combined with optimum judgement as to what action to take. Great wisdom and understanding may be a quality of the user regardless of age and experience.
* **Hunting Intuition:** Odin possesses extraordinary talent and instinct in/for hunting all things. They can track anything under any conditions, sense the weaknesses of their prey and exploit them and finally kill or capture their prey.
* **Insanity inducement:** Odin can cause madness in a person or group of people that have no mental illness, depending of the users will victims may go slightly loopy or lose total grip of reality becoming delusional, lose control over themselves, paranoid, catatonic or hostile.
* **Magic:**
* **Necromancy:**
	+ **Death Inducement:**
	+ **Reanimation:**
* **Nigh Omniscience:**
* **Precognition:**
* **Predator Instinct:**
* **Shapeshifting:**
* **War Manipulation:**
	+ **War Inducement:**
* **Indomitable Will:** Odin has immense willpower and determination, capable of sacrificing his own eye to obtain more knowledge.
* **Blessing:** An appropriate ability for a God, Odin is able to bestow blessings onto people.

## Episodes

Season 1
* "New Boy"
* "Jutulheim"

Season 2
* "Brothers in Arms"
* "What Happened to the Nice, Old Lady?"
* "Power to the People"
* "God Is God, Though All Men Death Had Tasted"
* "Know Yourself"
* "All You Need Is Love"

## Trivia

* It's *very* heavily implied he's actually Odin, taking a mortal guise to witness the events in Edda unfold and perhaps nudge them in a direction of his choosing. This is exactly how Odin operated often in Norse myths.
	+ Odin is called "Wotan" in the other Germanic languages besides Old Norse, foreshadowing his true nature.
	+ The irrefutable proof that the character is Odin is given by the company of Wenche and the lack of one of his eyes. Odin was known for his thirst for knowledge, to the point of exchanging one of his eyes for more wisdom. The God, in fact, is always portrayed without one eye. Wenche's company also acts as proof of Odin's presence in the series, because she represents the seer (who tells Odin the prophecy about Ragnarok) and his crows Hugin and Munin, often portrayed with him.
		- Such assumption later revealed to be true, albeit not in the way one expected to be: Odin DID perished during the Ragnarok before eventually reincarnates into his current identity Wotan, though he didn't realize it until he inherited Wence's necklace.

## Tropes

* Angel Unaware: He's actually Odin, but most of the first two seasons is spent with him being unaware of this. Once Wenche passes her necklace on to him, he becomes a fully realized Odin, offering Magne his full support in the coming fight.

* Meaningful Name: Odin is called "Wotan" in the other Germanic languages besides Old Norse.