Thor gets mischaracterized a lot. So much so that a small part of me cringes whenever I see most of his portrayals. Even Marvel seems to flip around on his character in the movies but this is Marvel movies we are talking about and canon gets tossed around like a Chef’s salad often enough so..ANYWAY.
Admittedly, this alone could be my own interpretation but hey, I’ve spent two years trying to understand thsi character, and no I’m not talking about canon so much as I’m taling about how he’s often percevied. And lets be honest, that perception is not exactly positive.
Exhibit A, if you will.
Mythologically, Thor has changed over the years. Original Scandinavian mythology changed based on who wsa telling the story. And if you have ever tried to follow mythology canon, I pity you as it is utterly non-existant.
One of so so many versions.
So taking canon aside, what then is the point of my little essay? It’s because Thor is often reduced to the character of a brick wall. That being, he’s a mindless brute who fails helplessly in Midgard and can’t work simple devices like a toaster. When the polar opposite is true. Now I am not about to claim that Thor is some kind of genius here either, but he’s certainly a lot smarter than people want to give him credit for. Odin didn’t exactly do him any favours either. Training and raising him to be a war hungry brute and then dismissing him for that same exact reason.
A+ Parentling, All Father. (Imgur)
Again, well fucking done Odin. You can be assocaited with a few words. Hypocrite seems to be the best one. But I digress.
When we see Thor in Midgard..well..we get.
Sensless rambling.
Non-existant manners
A hilarious lack of understanding.
Apparently, these traits are enough to get him qualified under the ‘stupid’ blanket, when yet none of these choices make him dumb. They make him entitled but he was raised that way. He was raised to think he was the shit. He’s spoiled rotten, of course h’s going to apply that to Midgard, because it’s what he knows.
And no, this isn’t the best way to show intelligence, but the point is that he is. He knows well enough what he’s supposed to do. He knows about space, mythology and legends, He knows how to communicate on Midgard, he knows how to lead, and except for when his emotions are excaping him. he is a decent leader and a decent ruler.
There is a lot more to Thor than this. Thor not only learns his lesson, he learns it quickly and quickly enough to set things right He’s observant, and becomes more than aware of the fact that idol-worshipping Odin growing up probably wasn’t the best idea, If nothing else, Thor actually learns how utterly twisted he is.
He’s also worthy enough to lift Mjolnir in the first place. Which even the eptiome of all that is good Captain America can’t do. There has to be a reaon for that. And said reason isn’t. “wage endless war’ because if it was, Odin wouldn’t have cast Thor out for doing that.
Heck, just look at Mjolnir’s inscription:
“Whosoever holds this hammer, shall possess the power of Thor.”
That alone should make anyone aware that you need to have a very specific set of skills to hold the hammer in the first place. So far, Thor is shown to be one, and that has to be over more than just brute strength. Because strength alone doesn’t detrmine worthiness. Something even freaking Odin points out.
But! I hear you cry, Thor has to LEARN that worthiness!
Yes, yes he does, that is my point.
Stupid people don’t learn.
The ability to grow and mature is a sign alone of intelligence. Thor presents this multiple times. After all he learns to ignore the lessons that were once presented by his father, and discover what truly needs to be followed.
He learns that:
Brute Strength Isn’t Everything
How to Adapt to Midgardian Policies
How to Get Through to Loki (at even his darkest fucking moments)
What the True Meaning of Power Is
And many many more.
To characterize Thor as little more than the sreaming brute does him a disservice and negates his character. It doesn’t take into account thatl, like Loki he too had to understand that the very lessons he was taught for thousands of years were wrong and to move beyond them.
But why is it easy to forget that Thor learns things?
BECAUSE IT WAS FREAKING EDITED OUT OF THE MOVIE
You see this? This is a man who has been learning. A man who learned that this:
Isn’t the way to behave and makes up for it. And in three freaking days. He negates lessons and privilage drilled into his head for hundreds of years and makes up for it in DAYS.
He’s not just a brute that throws a hammer. He isn’t just your spoiled prince. He’s intelligent, quiick learning, forgiving and as multi-layered as any other character.
//I agree with all of this save one small nitpick: I don’t think Thor has QUITE reached the point, in film canon alone, where he understands Loki and has reached him psychologically and emotionally. I think he is ON THE CUSP of this.
I believe that the fact that he can see through Loki’s illusions is both literally and metaphorically significant. The place in The Dark World, when Loki tried to present Thor with a composed veil of illusion right after Frigga’s death, and Thor knew it was an illusion, and called Loki out on it, and Loki PERMITTED THOR TO SEE HIS REAL STATE OF TOTAL GRIEVING DISHEVELMENT, this was a major turning point in their relationship. And it showed Thor had learned better how to really see, acknowledge, observe his little brother.
I believe that the fact that Thor used strategic deceit to escape an Asgard under Dark Elf seige also proved that Thor had learned from Loki, who even was genuinely pleased, and confessed himself “impressed.”
I finally believe that when Thor kept Loki’s “dying” wish and told “Odin” that Loki had died heroically and would make a better king than Thor, and Loki HEARD this, it was a major step toward reaching Loki, and mending their sibling bond.
But I still think Thor has not quite reached Loki, in that he has not been willing to admit that Loki’s awful circumstances are not ENTIRELY Loki’s fault (”who put me there?!” “You know damn well who!”), which for Loki is a major point of frustration. Loki in film canon hasn’t bothered to tell Thor about Thanos, or how he was ill used in Thanos’s custody, because he doesn’t believe Thor will really listen. And as of right now, he might be right. Because Thor will have to overcome the test of learning that Loki killed their father, and Thor will likely see the secret ascension to the throne as selfish and opportunistic. This will probably cause a whole new rift between them in Ragnarok.
tl;dr your character analysis of Thor is super on-point and awesome and you know I agree. I’m just still worried that Thor’s character will be abused by the canon writing staff, to be less understanding and compassionate than he has been. But he’s VERY CLOSE to reaching Loki. You know our rp’s go way past that point.
icyxmischief 