Yes, I'm dedicating an entire chapter to "Author's Notes". I spent over a year writing this thing, and it's nearly 100,000 words long, so…yeah. Deal with it. ;P
Before I say anything else, I first want to thank everyone who has Favorited, subscribed to, and given high-praise reviews of this story - you're all the main reason I was driven to continue writing, and I hope you're happy with the result. I also feel obligated to give credit to the bands Sum 41, Avenged Sevenfold, and Blind Guardian for the songs "Walking Disaster", "Nightmare", and "Battlefield", respectively; listening to the lyrics of those three songs rarely failed to put me in a mood to continue writing, which was especially important here at the end, after the "evil cliffhanger" in chapter 28, when (at the worst possible time) I was getting tired of writing and wanted to take a break. I know it was a long wait, but without those songs, it would have been a LOT longer, so if you can, check them out! ;)
Next, I'd like to make some notes regarding the history of this story for those who haven't been with me since the very beginning. Many of you have probably noticed that the first chapter was unnecessarily long and could easily have been split into multiple chapters; the reason I published it all at once was, I was not originally planning on publishing the entire story - I just wanted to put up something to express my take on the movie. The REASON I was hesitant to publish the whole thing was mainly Larcy, which I know was cringe-worthy at times - believe it or not, when I imagined this story in my head, it was a lot worse than what I ended up writing. The reason I finally decided to continue the story was the appearance of the movie "The Avengers", in which Loki was not only A villain, but the ONLY villain. It always makes me so furious when people hate on Loki, for reasons I make clear in this story; I figured, since the movie makers were continuing to support the "Loki is evil" portrayal, I was obligated to continue supporting the "Loki is misunderstood" portrayal in turn. I will also note that I have not actually SEEN "The Avengers", nor will I ever do so - it infuriates me too much. Still, you can thank that movie for the completion of this story, so I suppose it served a good purpose in the end.
Thirdly, I want to strongly advise that anyone who enjoyed this story NOT look up the original Norse myths - the night I did that was an extremely depressing one. It was mainly depressing because of Loki's ultimate fate, but some other things I learned clashed strongly with some of the things in either the movie or my story; some of the problems I found between the movie (or my writing) and the myths are as follows:
~In the myths, Sif was actually an earth goddess - not to mention Thor's WIFE - while in the movie (and, presumably, the comic series) Sif was portrayed as a warrior and Thor's battle companion.
~The Jotunheim portrayed in the movie was basically Niflheim, in that it contained only Frost Giants and was cold and dark and such.
~In the original myths, Laufey was actually a FEMALE, the MOTHER of Loki, and weak at that - not a ruler of Jotunheim.
~Odin's eight-legged horse - which he rode when he rescued Thor, Loki, and their friends from Jotunheim in the movie - was actually, in the original myths, a creature that Loki had given birth to himself.
~I accidentally predicted the beautiful female Frost Giant, Skadi. Granted, in Norse mythology, she married an Asgardian, and in some myths later divorced her first husband and married Odin, so she wasn't much like my Enchessa, but as I've mentioned, a lot of the characters of myth were given entirely new identities for the sake of this storyline. I'd already given Enchessa a name, though, so I had to put Skadi in the story another way.
~In the myths, the banquet hall of Odin on Asgard WAS Valhalla, while, when Thor said something about Volstagg thinking he'd DIED and gone to Valhalla (instead of actually being there), it was implied that that was not the case in the movie.
Another other problem I had with the movie was, the beginning said that the war between Asgard and Jotunheim over Earth happened in nine-hundred-something A.D.; the problem with that is, the myths about Loki and Thor were made at that time, which would be impossible if they had been newborns (or completely unborn) back then. So I say the war happened sometime in B.C. Deal with it. ;D
I also think it's worth noting that, in the entire movie, the word "love" (or one of its derivatives) was only said out loud four times: One time was by Odin, as an adjective (describing the "loved ones" Thor had betrayed); the other three times - all the times it was used as a verb (as in, "TO love") - it was said by Loki. Intentional or not, I feel like that says a lot about who values what.
Finally, I've received reviews more recently asking what actually happened at the end. There's a reason I wanted to leave as much to the imagination as possible, which is that I didn't feel like I could describe it outright effectively. Apparently, though, I was too vague, so let me clarify: Loki forgives Odin for being a jerk, recognizing that he made the same mistakes himself pretty much, and asks Yardaff and Enchessa to bear witness as he conjures a Jotun Royal Decree that Odin and his people are no longer to be considered enemies of Jotunheim etc. Odin then, out of gratitude, uses his mighty powers to turn Darcy, Jane, and Erik all into Asgardians, giving them the powers and longevity that come with the race. Jane, being thus able to use magic herself, starts combining her human expertise with her new Asgardian abilities to rebuild the Bifrost. Enchessa realizes what a jerk she was and repents, and she marries Yardaff and they live happily ever after because she's not so stuck-up anymore; the kings of Jotunheim and Asgard thus sharing brotherhood with a common person (Loki) and all misunderstandings having been cleared, the two realms enter a friendship/alliance. And, obviously, Darcy and Loki get their happily-ever-after, too - that was the part I was most nervous to write, as, again, I know the Larcy bits in this story got cringe-worthy and I really didn't write them well. I've improved as a writer since I finished this, but I think I'll leave it as-is.
Anyway, thank you all very much for making this my most popular fanfic to date - I cannot express in words how pleased I am that so many people understood what I was trying to say with this story. And always remember: There are no evil people, only evil deeds, and understanding the motives behind those deeds can lead to entirely different perceptions of them.
Take care! :D