MCU: 10 Things That Don't Make Sense About The Thor Trilogy (original) (raw)
The Thor trilogy has had the most interesting progression of all the MCU origin stories. While many characters got origin movies, only three of the original Avengers teammates got origin trilogies to kick off the franchise. These three heroes were Captain America, Iron Man, and, of course, Thor. Captain America’s movies are largely well-liked across the board; Iron Man’s movies dip and jump in quality throughout.
Thor, however, was notoriously not the most popular of the MCU movies and did not receive a warm welcome. Thor: The Dark World got an even worse reception, but Thor: Ragnarok is now considered one of the MCU’s best movies. With such a wildly fluctuating reputation, the Thor trilogy certainly features its fair share of plot-related missteps.
10 Thor Has Had A Lot Of Time To Grow Up
In Avengers: Infinity War, Thor mentions to Rocket Raccoon that he is 1,500 years old. If this is in fact, true, he was 1,493 years old when first introduced in Thor. Even accounting for the fact that Asgardians must age at a different rate, and thus mature later than humans, Thor has had more than enough time to become a capable king.
Instead, audiences are introduced to a man who is 1,493 years old and still acts as immature as a fourteen-year-old. The entire reason that Odin casts Thor out of Asgard until he is worthy to return is to prepare him for his role as king. His coronation was interrupted. It’s strange that nobody thought to truly train Thor to be king before this.
9 Odin Can Wield Thor’s Hammer
When Odin casts Thor out of Asgard, he grasps Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, and places an enchantment on it. This enchantment will only allow those who are worthy to hold Thor’s hammer. The exact wording that Odin uses is: “Whosoever holds this hammer, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” Despite this, Odin is the one holding this weapon, and Odin is the one placing the enchantment.
Audiences are shown time and time again that Odin keeps many secrets and that he is not deemed a great king, even by himself as time passes. While it wouldn’t make sense to audiences watching for the first time if Odin couldn’t lift the hammer, it would only make logical sense.
8 Thor Destroys The Indestructible Destroyer
As Loki seeks the approval of his adoptive father, Odin, he enlists an automaton to assist him in his quest. Because Thor prevents an obstacle on Loki’s path to acceptance, Loki orders this automaton, which holds the title of the Destroyer, to seek Thor out on Earth — also known as Midgard — and kill him.
This plan, in theory, should work because the Destroyer is established to be an essentially indestructible machine. However, once Thor regains his abilities and wields Mjölnir again, he is able to absolutely obliterate that Destroyer. Thor’s sacrifice is a great character moment for him, but it doesn’t make much sense that even Thor and Mjölnir would be able to just destroy the Destroyer like that.
7 Loki Survives Time And Time Again
One of the running jokes in the Thor trilogy — and arguably in the MCU as a whole — is that Loki just can’t seem to die. Time and time again, Loki has a dramatic death scene, only to return to the MCU in the next movie, or even in the same film he died in. This happened for the first time in the first Thor. Loki, apparently, commits suicide by releasing his grip on his brother and father after Odin rejects him.
However, Loki appears again at the end of the movie, still alive somehow, in a post-credits scene. In Thor: The Dark World, Loki dies again, only to appear again at the end of the movie to audiences. Thor finds out Loki lived once again in Thor: Ragnarok. Unfortunately, Loki has died once and for all in the MCU. Of course, he has his own show, Loki, coming out soon on Disney+.
6 Some Dark Elves Escaped Somehow
The Thor movies tell audiences that many, many eons ago, Odin’s father, Bor, fought with Malekith, the Dark Elf. Because of Malekith’s extreme power, Bor was forced to punish the Dark Elven warriors who sought to unleash an all-powerful weapon called the Aether on the Nine Realms. However, Malekith and a bunch of other Dark Elves managed to escape.
They were the specific ones who needed to be punished, and they escaped into suspended animation after the battle. They get awoken when the Aether is released into Jane Foster so many supposed eons later, but the fact remains that they never should have been able to survive this long anyways.
5 Jane Foster Isn’t Instantly Obliterated By The Aether
In the climax of Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill grabs the Power Stone with his bare hand and almost instantly disintegrates. It takes Gamora, Drax, and Rocket all sharing the power of the Power Stone with Star-Lord to wield the stone for even a second. The movie makes it exceedingly clear that mortal humans cannot wield the Infinity Stones.
However, Dr. Jane Foster is somehow possessed by the Aether and does not instantly disintegrate at all. Even if the argument is made that the Aether, or the Reality Stone, has a different power level than the Power Stone, she has still absorbed an entire Infinity Stone. The fact that she is able to survive for any discernible length of time after ingesting the Stone’s energy is absolutely nonsensical.
4 The Reality Stone Gets Left With The Collector
Thanos has been collecting the Infinity Stones slowly throughout the MCU. The characters are aware of the power of the Infinity Stones; in fact, the reason that Volstagg and Sif, two members of Thor’s team (Lady Sif and the Warriors Three), take the Aether to the Collector in the first place is to keep it far away from the Tesseract.
Because the Tesseract contained the Space Stone, and was already on Asgard, they wanted the Reality Stone to be far from it. However, they leave this item with the obvious and unreliable Collector. This is a very clear place to leave an important item, and the Collection is similarly very clearly not to be trusted. It seems downright foolish for this to be the place the Reality Stone gets left.
3 Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, Sam Neill, And Charlotte Nicdao Are In Asgard
Loki took over Asgard after the events of Thor: The Dark World. In his adoptive father’s guise and using his own magic, Loki appears as Odin and rules Asgard without Thor realizing for some time. He even has a statue dedicated to himself (as Loki), and actors reenact his own death scene. The actors that audiences saw reenacting this scene were familiar to them, though they weren’t Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. Instead, Chris’ brother, Luke Hemsworth, played the actor playing Thor.
In addition, Charlotte Nicdao played the actor playing Sif, Sam Neill played the actor playing Odin, and Matt Damon played the actor playing Loki. As this situation is never actually explained, fans have no choice but to assume these are the real Luke, Charlotte, Sam, and Matt, taken from Midgard to Asgard by Loki to be his own personal performers.
2 Hela Is Able To Hold And Destroy Mjölnir
Much like Odin inexplicably being able to wield Mjölnir, Thor and Loki’s older sister and Odin’s eldest child, Hela, is able to hold back the hammer as well. She is depicted in Thor: Ragnarok as capable of stopping Mjölnir with her bare hand mid-air. Hela then went on to disintegrate the tool with her power.
The assumption, of course, is that people like Odin and Hela are so powerful that they can wield the hammer no matter what. However, Loki has comparable power and he can be pinned by the hammer. He’s arguably not as bad as Hela, so it seems strange that she could hold the hammer and Loki couldn’t.
1 A Recording Of Natasha Brings Bruce Back
One of the most foolish relationships in the entire MCU is the one between Natasha Romanoff, also known as the Black Widow, and Bruce Banner, who becomes the Incredible Hulk. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the two of them were written into a clumsy almost-relationship. Of course, this had to be dealt with in some way in the ensuing movies, or it wouldn’t just be sloppy, it would be downright bad writing.
Taika Waititi dealt with the dynamic as best as he could manage. In Thor: Ragnarok, after years of the Hulk being in control, the only thing that was able to pull Bruce back into his own body and mind was a recording from Natasha.
NEXT: Thor: 5 DC Villains That Should Be Able To Beat Him (& Why They Can't)