The surprising transformation and redemption of Thor in the MCU

This is the second in a series of my musings of the full character arcs of the MCU’s “Big 3.” Let us talk about Thor now, shall we?

Thor – “god” of blunder.
*MCU SPOILERS WARNING!*

On the surface, whether that surface has multiple pairs of rock-hard abs or looks more like “melted ice cream,” the MCU version of Thor is more like every one of us (adopted) sons (and daughters) of the real “One Above All” – God/Yahweh – than we first might think.

Okay sure, other than the yet-to-be-see-in-the-MCU X-men’s Storm, Mortal Kombat’s Raiden, or perhaps Detective Pikachu, no one else is walking around with awesome lightning powers like the MCU’s Thor. No one else on Earth has weapon(s) forged by a giant Peter Dinklage in the heart of a dying star. And not one of us has a super strength and flight combo due to a magically enhanced hammer (except a well-hidden MCU Beta Ray Bill and our new favorite retiree, Captain America).

But I’m not talking about Thor’s power-set; I’m talking about Thor’s “unpowered” set…his character growth.

Thor started out in his on-screen origin story in 2011’s Thor as this headstrong, rip and roar into battle “young” 1500-year-old gun that courted war, wanted to get his revenge on and conquer the Frost Giants of Jotunheim in a battle(s) that would have probably rivaled Westeros vs. the Night Walkers in epic-ness. Yet Thor grew throughout that self-titled movie.

While on Earth – or “Midgard” as Asgardians call it – a brazen, hateful, vain and vengeful Thor learns humility and the merits of self-sacrifice by having his powers stripped of him by his Allfather Odin. Odin casts him out of Asgard and he later learns he was no longer worthy to possess Mjolnir (the hammer his Allfather enchanted and also tossed down to Earth), and reassume his powers. He was no longer worthy because he finally realized how being so full of pride and vanity effected his son-ship and the possibility of him being a good leader.

It is obvious that Odin purposefully did these things, including sending the hammer Mjolnir to Earth, to test him. Odin wanted to see if Thor could grow beyond his sinful ways to again become worthy to possess the aforementioned mighty powers of Thor.

Although the way Odin did this in what looked like a very harsh way, our God does test us sinners in real life, albeit in a much more loving way (unless of course you’re Job, then you get that major test through “tough love”).

To me, the origin story arc of Thor harkens back to the book of Sirach, specifically Chapter 2, Verse 5 which states, “For in fire gold is tested, and the chosen, in the crucible of humiliation.”

In warmongering and wanting to react through his immediate hateful feelings rather than the sound logic/reason of a peaceful and/or loving heart, Thor, being “impetuous in time of adversity” {Sir. 2:2}, was being simultaneously humbled and “tested by fire,” being made lowly and dwelling among the mortals of Earth. Unlike Jesus Christ who willing lowered himself to become man in order to die for our sins out of his and God the Father’s complete, unconditional and unmerited love for us {Phil. 2: 5-11}, Thor is sent unwillingly to Earth because he needed to prove himself worthy to become a better leader and king of Asgard.

How often might some of us feel we need to prove ourselves to someone else: to our earthly parents? Relatives? Boss(es) at work? Friends? In all reality, we don’t. All we need to do is our best in doing what Christ Jesus asked of us when he said, “love one another as I have loved you” {John 13: 34-35}. All we need do is utilize everything God gives us along the way to willfully accept his grace – things like daily prayer, reading holy scripture, frequent Reconciliation and reception of the Holy Eucharist, and lesser devotions – to live life through Christ in HIS way, not our way.

By the end of the first Thor movie, it is while combating the gigantic, metal, As-vault-guard known as “The Destroyer,” that Thor sacrifices himself to save his friends/the town of Puente Antiguo, New Mexico (“Home of the Vikings”) from Loki. In other words, it is only by self-sacrifice that Thor proves himself worthy again of his hammer/powers.

In first Avengers, Thor, like all of us, is pretty peeved at Loki for trying to take over “Midgard.” For the most part Thor is torn between hoping his murderous brother will change and knowing he must do the right thing and stop him. My favorite Thor line in the movie illustrates this by oozing Joss Whedon-y goodness: Thor: “Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother.” Black Widow: “He killed 80 people in two days.”
Thor: “…he’s adopted.”

Thor spends most of Thor 2: The Dark World in mopey-“I really miss Jane Foster”-mode, and he doesn’t really grow much out of that throughout the whole movie, yet even so, he still is heroic in the sense that he can push back his feelings back long enough to clean up the messes Loki made across the other Nine Realms of Yggdrasil (i.e. the rest of the known MCU). In Thor 2, he fights Malekith and the other dark elves to prevent Malekith from using “The Aether” – which turns out to be the Infinity Stone of Reality – to plunge the universe into literal eternal darkness. Thor saves the day but without much character growth throughout, other than learning not to trust Loki.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor begins looking for answers. He realizes with the Mind Stone turning out to be inside Loki’s scepter – the one Loki used in Avengers that turned Hawkeye and Doc Selvig into, to quote Nick Fury, “his own personal flying monkeys” – this whole time, Thor surmises there must be something/someone behind the appearance of these Infinity Stones.
In other words, like any other adult who learns to get over themselves, in Age of Ultron Thor begins seeking truth. The problem is, he does this without the help of his Allfather and seeks out other, magical mediums. I equate this to some people who look for answers in the occult rather than from God himself. Bad Thor! Bad!!

Though we see a much less serious/light-hearted version of the character in the third installment, Thor: Ragnarok, it makes sense to me how they changed up the character. We can see Thor is actually maturing as he goes through each movie. In Ragnarok, even though he still has a bit of a temper, Thor learns to take his lumps with a grain of salt. When being captured in Muspelheim –a cross between a less fiery version real-life Hell (or “Gehenna”) and The Lord of the Rings’ Mines of Moria – by the MCU’s demon Surtur, Thor takes learning that 1) Surtur is still alive, 2) the end his world (“Ragnarok”) is coming, and that 3) it’s not really Odin on the throne of Asgard, all in stride. Thor goes back to Asgard to confront false-Odin/Loki and learns that Loki put Odin somewhere on Earth. When they find Odin, Thor learns he has a sister named Hela and still hardly flinches; then finally at the death of his father Odin when he is ready to lash out at Loki, he stops because he realizes Hela poses a much greater threat than Loki’s antics. A shock-shock here and a Hulk-Hulk there and back to Asgard we go to watch Thor power-up and defeat his elder sister, causing the end of the Asgardian homeworld in the process.

So not only does Thor’s quest for knowledge ultimately lead him back to his Father, but Thor powers-up by realizing, through his Father’s guidance, that he had a version of his Father’s power inside him – called the “Odinforce” in the comics – the whole time. Totally relatable if you’re a Baptized and/or Confirmed Catholic seeking the answers to life from God. Who needs the Odinforce when you have the Holy Spirit and his gifts of Wisdom, Knowledge, Piety, Counsel, Fortitude and (Holy) Fear of the Lord?

Enter Thanos’s huge warship, Sanctuary II.

In one fell swoop and just as we are into the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos and his Black Order/other minions wipe out half of the people of Asgard…yep, the ones who barely survived their monarchy’s war and just saw their planet explode. Thor sees one of his best friend’s, Heimdall, and his newly reconciled brother, Loki, die at the hands of Thanos. He meets The Guardians of the Galaxy and goes off to forge the (ultimately) Thanos-killing Stormbreaker axe. In “not going for the head” the first time in Wakanda, Thor just misses the snap-stopping opportunity to save the universe.

In Avengers: Endgame he gets a chance to redeem himself and kills Thanos, but still much later after the snap was already done and half of the life of the entire universe turned to dust. Now here is where some people didn’t like the turn they gave Thor but, having been there myself at some points in life, I thought it was brilliant.

Five years after beheading Thanos, Thor has lost his mother (died in Thor 2: The Dark World), his “old flame” Jane Foster (broke up off-screen sometime before Raganrok), his best friends (died in Ragnarok/Infinity War), his father (died early in Ragnarok), and blames himself for not killing Thanos before “The Snappening” (when Thanos kills half of all life with a snap of the Infinity Gauntlet).

After all this, Thor is noticeably fat, more drunk than usual, and moping around his lighthouse apartment on New Asgard/Norway like “The Dude” from The Big Lebowsky. During Endgame’s “time heist,” Thor and Rocket Raccoon travel in time-space to Asgard in the Thor 2 era to retrieve the Reality stone. His exchange with his mother Frigga before she is to die that day at the hands of Malekith is both heart-warming and heart breaking, but she helps him realize it is okay that he failed and he should work on himself rather than try to live by other’s expectations of him. After the most epic battle ever against Thanos, the Black Order redux and what looks like all of his collective forces, Thanos ultimately loses with a snap from Iron Man’s Infinity stone clad fingers.

Towards the end of Endgame, Thor has none of his original close friends left alive, has lost a couple of the original MCU Avengers, and he hands his rule of New Asgard to the last of the Valkyries (a woman he met on planet Sakaar during Thor: Ragnarok). It seems as though Thor is off for future adventures with his new pals from Infinity War, The Guardians, coining them the “AsGuardians of the Galaxy.”

All in all, Thor goes from a vengeful, proud, warmonger to someone who is humbled, sacrifices himself for his friends and learns at different points that being a good leader is about serving the people, not doing things your way. He develops a sense of duty to do his Allfather’s will throughout Thor 2, even at the expense of his own feelings for Jane Foster. He fights with the other Avengers and later Lady Sif & The Warriors 3 to cleanup his brother Loki’s messes. He goes through family drama in Ragnarok and comes out the other end unscathed (except for losing his eye and briefly gaining an eyepatch). He loses everyone including half of the population of New Asgard; and he breaks, wallowing in self-pity that he didn’t take out Thanos sooner, blaming himself for the deaths of trillions.

He screws up massively and somewhat regularly. His character fluctuates, reacting to what is happening around him instead of thinking things through that well before taking action. He gets mad at his friends for their shortcomings but ultimately is one of the first people to throw himself in front of the fires at the first sign of danger to protect them (and everyone).

In a lot of ways, Thor may be like us. Well maybe not you but definitely me.

We’re human. Not all of us handle things like deaths of your parent(s) or losing friends very well.  Some of us – like me and Thor – get fatter and shut ourselves into Lebowski-like holes to hide from the pain.

In all reality though, if you do like Thor does in Thor 2 and Ragnarok and you seek your heavenly Father’s counsel and will for you, you’ll probably come out the other end of your personal trials much better than me and my fellow chubby buddy, Thor.

Just be sure not to “find yourself” in the ways the world wants but seek the truth (Christ’s message), and the help (sanctifying grace) of God, and you’ll be alright. Remember: When you hit rock bottom there’s nowhere left to go but up! Godspeed and Excelsior!