Tag: thor’s characterization

I came into the fandom because of Thor: Ragnarok, mainly because I love Valkyrie. I thought Thor’s character was sort of off-putting. How is his characterization different in the other movies?

Hi Anon, are you here to join the club of racists (apparently) who don’t understand why we’re supposed to like Taika Waititi’s interpretation of Thor? Welcome!

Honestly, I think the best thing you can do is to watch the other movies if you haven’t. In the first movie, Thor starts out as an arrogant warrior who loves to fight and thinks violence is the solution to every problem, but his father strips him of his powers and banishes him to Earth to learn humility. Aside from the arrogance and eagerness to fight, he’s very loyal to his friends and he has a gallantry about him… well, he’s representative of an ancient warrior culture, really. He loves to fight and feast and flirt; he’s a bit bombastic, but has a sense of chivalry; he picks on little bro Loki sometimes, he can be a bit of a jock/bully, but he loves and trusts Loki (more than he should) and isn’t willing to give up on him even when he’s descended into madness and is doing horrible things.

Thor tells the story of Thor’s maturation into a more patient and self-sacrificing person, and he continues that process of maturation through the other movies we see him in: The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. He’s still a little too ready to solve problems by hitting things in The Avengers, still a little arrogant and Homeric-warrior-bro (he’s Achilles, basically), but he’s getting better, learning how to be more of a team player. In TDW and AOU he becomes progressively more serious and thoughtful, largely because terrible things keep happening in his life… he still has a sly sense of humor, and he spends much of AOU subtly trolling the human Avengers, but he’s also become very canny and perceptive.

Ragnarok just gave him a complete personality makeover with almost no regard for the way he’d been portrayed before. He was never that inarticulate – the Asgardians used to speak in an elevated, slightly archaic register, the way they do in the comics – and he was never as… mean as he is in Ragnarok. I mean, he’s a bit of a douche in Thor, but the point was that he got better.

rynfinity replied to your post “fuckyeahrichardiii replied to your post “You know, it wasn’t until I…”

there were definitely cool things about the movie but – even though my one irl fandom friend warned me to consider it one long crackfic – i, too, was really put off by the characterization. i applaud those who have been able to resolve the stories internally into a cohesive arc, but i cannot.

i found thor pretty unlikeable too… the part where he was basically telling the hulk and banner what they wanted to hear, rather than being a real friend, really bothered me. it was (to me) like taking “he’s adopted” thor and putting him on a huge pedestal.

and i’m so glad to hear people saying these things. for the longest time i felt very lonely in my relative disenthusiasm.

You’re not the first person who’s said that, @rynfinity – that you thought you were the only one (at least within your fan subcommunity) who wasn’t thrilled with the movie. I think it’s sad that Tumblr fandom is such that smart, thoughtful people feel afraid to express unpopular opinions because they think they’ll get angry backlash or ostracism. We should be allowed to disagree, even about major issues, and not fear losing our place in the community.

If I’ve contributed nothing else to this fandom, I’m glad I’ve been able to serve as the one who sticks their neck out and expresses the unpopular opinion first, allowing other people to realize that they’re not alone.

As to resolving the movies into a cohesive arc… I’m taking the broad events of Ragnarok as canon, but sticking with the old characterization of Thor. Including the slightly archaic speech patterns.