Podcast

Tuesday, January 05, 2021

31 Days of Believe Care Invest, Superhero Week: Thor

Thor is about to be made king of Asgard when frost giants from Jotenheim attack. Thor leads a forbidden raid on Jotunheim but has to be saved by his father Odin, who strips him of his powers and hammer and banishes him to Earth. He is found by two scientists and an intern who try to figure out who he is. 

Why Thor might be hard to invest in: He might be too much of an arrogant asshole to be likeable, until his humiliation.  

Believe
  • We don’t really fall in love with him until he throws his coffee mug against the ground in a New Mexico diner and shouts “Another!” as it shatters. That’s the moment that we realize his default personality trait is delightful. We’re suddenly looking forward to eight movies with this guy.
  • This is not a generic fantasy world. It’s genuinely odd.
  • He’s got a false philosophy: “When I’m king, I’ll hunt the giants down and slay them all.” It’s in conflict with the oath he must swear: “Do you swear to cast aside all selfish ambition?”
  • There’s a joke about him not having a secret identity as Don Blake in this version. This will be a simpler version without some of the silliness of the comics. You might think he’d be more relatable if he occasionally transformed into a human, but I think part of the genius of this movie is that all it said on the poster was: “Thor: The God of Thunder” It’s a wild concept and they’re telling us that the price of admission is that we just have to accept it.
  • He has friends, he has history, he’s got a unique way of talking.
Care
  • He’s hard to care about at first until he endures a big, outsized humiliation, as his father banishes him to Earth: “That’s pride and vanity talking, not leadership. You’ve forgotten everything I’ve taught you, about a warrior’s patience. You’re a vain, greedy, cruel boy. I was a fool to think you were ready. You have betrayed the express command of your king through your arrogance and stupidity. You are unworthy. I cast you out.” He has his powers, cape and hammer ripped away from him and he’s sucked into a portal to earth.
  • Once on Earth, it’s established that he can be knocked out by being tasered and by giving a shot. He’s not all powerful.
Invest
  • He swings a big-ass hammer around. He’s the only superhero who has that weapon.
  • He can fight giants and almost defeat them.
Strength/flaw: Brave / Arrogant

2 comments:

Harvey Jerkwater said...

I'm not quite sure why the coffee cup moment is where his character clicks, but yeah, it totally is.

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