During Avengers: Infinity War, a subplot of the film was Thor’s quest to assemble a new weapon in order to kill Thanos. This showed us the famous birthplace of Mjolnir along with the Dwarf King Eitri, now without his hands, thanks to Thanos cutting them off. An early “leak” speculated that either from time travel or other means, we may see Mjolnir appear during the film. The last time we saw Mjolnir was during Thor: Ragnarok, as Hela destroyed the enchanted hammer iconic to Thor’s character.
It would be interesting to see if Thor at one-point wields two weapons or if another character that could use a power-boost such as Captain America gains the hammer for a final battle-type scenario. Captain America was teased to be worthy during Avengers: Age of Ultron, so the Russo Brothers wouldn’t be taking such a moment out of nowhere.
However, with Thor’s character, he appears rather unstable based on the brief moment we see of him in the Avengers: Endgame trailer. When you see Thor in the trailer, he’s not dressed or carrying himself in any way like a King. You can argue he’s likely not the King of much, at the moment, unless Avengers: Endgame surprises us with a New Asgard with many survivors from Thanos’ attack. In the trailer, he looks like a prisoner in a containment unit similar to the containment modules from Agents of SHIELD.
Getting back to the focus of the video, if Thor becomes absorbed with thoughts of violence and revenge against Thanos it would make him unworthy. If we go back to the first Thor film, we see his character as an impulsive attention-seeking individual thinking of himself. However, the aspect of Thor that made him unworthy was his recklessness and excessive pride. Overall overcoming ego has been a theme in the Thor films for Thor & arguably Loki’s character too. This quality of Thor returned after he received Stormbreaker, in the form of him losing focus in the heat of the moment.
As Director Joe Russo explained, “I would argue that the fan base could be equally upset with Thor [as they are with Star-Lord], who chose to throw that ax into Thanos’ chest and not his head, because he wanted to tell Thanos that he got his revenge…Had [Thor] gone for a kill shot, that snap would not have happened. These are choices that characters who are feeling immense pain make and hopefully, the audience can learn to empathize with those characters because they can grow through stories.”
It wouldn’t be shocking to see if maybe Thor is a shell of himself in Avengers: Endgame, feeling responsible for Thanos being able to conduct the snap. It’s also possible that he’s a bit unhinged, as Thor has dealt with a lot over his films. His brother died twice, his mother died, his father died, he learned he had a half-sister just to have to kill her, he fought in battles risking his life all over the 9 Realms, his home was destroyed, he was imprisoned, his people were potentially brought to the endangered status by Thanos, & any other stress from the weight of his duties as the peacekeeper & future King of Asgard.
Maybe a reason he looks to be in a containment module is that he is as he’s a very powerful being that may be unhinged. In the scenario where Mjolnir was to come back, it’s likely that Thor’s actions (like the first Thor movie) or even Thor’s internal guilt would render him unworthy under Odin’s enchantment. With Stormbreaker, Thor likely wouldn’t need to wield Mjolnir anyways but it still would be an interesting arc for Thor to learn to let the baggage of his failures go and maybe just learn from them as his father did. This could help start a new journey for the character in a future film (hopefully new Thor trilogy).
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