In Defense of Endgame's Thor

Yes, the last 4 posts have been comic book related, I promise this'll be the last one...maybe, but I just had to discuss this.

*Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame*

So, one of the more debated elements of Avengers: Endgame was the portrayal of Thor. Some of the critiques against him are that it mocks depression, others say it trivializes obesity, even some who say it completely undoes Thor’s character arc from Thor: Ragnarok (That last group apparently has no idea how a character arc works). These are issues that I can definitely see the arguments for but in fact I find Thor’s depiction in the film to be the most unique and complex. For those of you who haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame and for some reason read spoilers on line like a madman, let me explain. At the beginning of the film The Avengers ambush Thanos, discover the stones have been destroyed so Thor kills him in a fit of rage. Cut to 5 years later where Thor is now an obese, alcoholic loner wasting away his life like The Big Lebowski (As so referenced in the film). He submissively rejoins the team in one more attempt to save everyone, still behaving like the chill alcoholic until their time travel adventures results in him reuniting with his mother the day of her death, they have a deep conversation that reignites Thor’s fighting spirit, they return to fight Thanos, they win and the film ends with Thor joining the Guardians of the Galaxy, leaving Asgard in the rule of Valkyrie.

Now the main criticism against Thor’s arc is that it belittles the effects of depression, mostly by making multiple jokes at the expense of Thor and his obesity and his alcoholism, and while true, there are a number of jokes against him, there are also just as many moments that show it’s truly a constant burden on Thor’s shoulders. Even the mere mention of Thanos’ name turns him into blubbering mess. Thor lost more than any of the other characters because of Thanos, Infinity War opens with the death of half his people (After half his people already died due to Ragnarok) including his trusted friend Heimdall and brother Loki. Even within Infinity War you begin to see him crack, take his conversation with Rocket where he buries down his emotions and disguises it with a desire for vengeance and big smile on his face as if none of this affects him:

“I’m 1500 years old. I've killed twice as many enemies as that. And every one of them would have rather killed me than not succeeded. I'm only alive because fate wants me alive. Thanos is just the latest of a long line of bastards, and he'll be the latest to feel my vengeance - fate wills it so. Well, if I'm wrong, then... what more could I lose?”

Thor has always been one to deny his emotions and use coping mechanisms. Then cut to the end of the film where he is the last one to fight Thanos, and he fails yet again, the last line of defence and he let his arrogance get in the way. Also another half of Asgardians are killed yet again. All of this comes to the boiling point of Thor finally giving up, with no fight left and he’s failed every step of the way, even getting revenge brought him nothing, the fact that Thor ended up where he did should be no surprise to anyone. As for the tone of how they portray him? Well, they gave us two serious Thor movies and people didn’t care, the one where they make jokes out of everything is the one Thor everyone likes so that’s the tone they went with, but again, it never undermines the severity of his situation.

The peak of this is when he gets to have a conversation with his mother, where his arc not just in this film but the entire franchise is summed up “Stop being who you’re supposed to be and be who you are”. From his first appearance to now Thor has been expected to be a leader, to be noble, respectable and mighty, but that’s not who he is or has ever been. He’s a fighter who protects people but doesn’t lead them, so once the stones are gathered again he literally begs the other Avengers to let him be the one to do is, he’s the one who failed before, he has to save everyone now, he has to know he’s worthy of being a hero. He’s not though, he’s not the only hero, he’s part of a team, he needs to know the weight of the universe doesn’t have to be on his shoulders and can let others take the reigns. Take the moment when Captain America finally lifts Mjolnir, in Age of Ultron Thor was devastated at even the idea someone else could lift his hammer, but here he sees that image of Steve Rogers wielding his power and he looks on in pride. Thor plays his part in taking down Thanos, but he’s not the one to take him down and he doesn’t have to be. The end of the film is Thor passing over the right to rule to Valkyrie – a natural born leader – and he becomes a teammate of the Guardians, saving the galaxy and telling jokes along the way, y’know, the thing he’s best at.

Even the obesity thing, if they magically did away with his weight once his emotional arc was complete then I can understand the problems with it more so, but through the end of the film he maintains the weight and it doesn’t affect his fighting in anyway, he’s still the god of thunder, a super powerful badass gone full Viking mode and the lightning even being nice enough to braid his hair for him. He’s the admirable, brutal fighter with a cool hairdo and the best dad bod this side of Jotunheim…wait am I attracted to Viking Thor?

To steal a line from Dani Fernandez’s article on how Endgame reflects failure and her description of Thor “I relate to feeling regret. I relate to feeling like I have no control. I relate to being scared to try again. Trying again means you can get hurt again. Why give us hope when it can be taken away? But trying again also means things can get better.” This was a Thor who embraced his emotions and his failures more than any other, he experiences loss constantly and hits his true rock bottom, but it allows him to face his true self once again, instead of being what he supposed to be, he embraced what he is. None of this is “erasing” Thor’s character arc from prior films, but is completing his decade long arc from the franchise, taking his desires vs his needs, what he desires to be is a team leader, what he needs to be is a team player.

Link to Dani’s full article: https://www.playboy.com/read/avengers-endgame-mental-health-failure

Thor in Endgame has one of the most complex arcs in the film that pays tribute to everything that came before it. It pays off a story set up from the first Thor film, calls back to Thor: The Dark World by focusing on his relationship with his mother, stays true to the tone of Thor: Ragnarok and sees him embrace the hardest failure that he tries so hard to cover up, either with comedy, with anger and with alcohol before finally able to embrace his place in life, as a team member, not a team leader. Leaving Asgard in better hands and helping people to the best of his own abilities, not anyone else’s.

-Danny