Asgard's bloody history refuses to stay buried in 'Thor: Ragnarok'
Asgard is a realm removed from Midgard (or as we know it, Earth), but make no mistake: Thor: Ragnarok is as much about us as it is about them.
Specifically, it's about the bloody history of colonialism, and that history's refusal to stay buried, no matter how eager we are to whitewash our sins.
In Thor: Ragnarok, we learn exactly how Asgard came to be the wealthy and powerful kingdom it is today. The answer isn't pretty. Before Odin was known as a wise and benevolent ruler, he was known as a bloodthirsty conquerer, tearing through nations with his daughter, Hela, at his side.
Odin is proud of his power and riches, but ashamed of how he got them
But, Hela explains, her appetite for destruction eventually outmatched his. Odin turned on her, locking her away and essentially writing her out of the history books. He has her literally painted over in the palace mural, replaced by prettier pictures of peace and prosperity. As Hela bitterly remarks, Odin is proud of his power and riches, but ashamed of how he got them.
Centuries later, younger Asgardians like Thor seem to have only the faintest idea of their land's ugly past. Thor is aware that his father was once a fearsome warrior (it's explicitly mentioned and demonstrated in his earlier movies), but apparently hasn't spent much time thinking about whom his father was fighting, or why.
As for Hela, he doesn't even realize that she exists.
Not that it matters. By burying Hela instead of properly reckoning with her, Odin has ensured that she will, someday, be someone else's problem – and that that someone else will be woefully unprepared to deal with her when that day comes.
Sound familiar? The story of Asgard has echoes all around our own world: the "free world" built on the subjugation and slaughter of others; the sanitization of our past and current misdeeds; the younger generation raised on patriotic half-truths. Hela serves as a terrifying reminder that the past has a way of catching up to the present, no matter how desperately you'd like to erase old sins.
Hela serves as a terrifying reminder that the past has a way of catching up to the present
In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is the one who rises to the occasion of facing down Asgard's ugly past. He doesn't have to – Hela's already thrown him off-planet, and the simplest and safest thing for him to do would be to stay out of her path – but he feels a duty to protect his people from his sister. Emphasis on "his people": Thor takes to heart that Asgard is a people, not a place or a thing.
His priority throughout the final battle is Asgard's population, not its land or its gold or its reputation. In other words, he prioritizes people over patriotism.
By the end, Thor has abandoned the physical realm of Asgard entirely, leaving Hela and Surtur to tear it apart. He and the other surviving Asgardians are huddled together on a spaceship, refugees hoping to make a new home on Midgard.
Thor's not the only one who has some key decisions to make in Ragnarok. Hela's right-hand man is Skurge, who goes along with her rule not out of some great passion for her cause, but because it just seems like the easy thing to do. When it becomes clear that the tides are turning, he boards the refugee ship with the other Asgardians.
Skurge is the undecided voter of Asgard, and he finally steps up
Then, at the last minute, he does something genuinely heroic: He sacrifices himself to ensure that the ship can get to safety, laying waste to Hela's forces with two machine guns he picked up on a lark in Texas. (They're named Des and Troy, because when he puts them together, they destroy. Thor: Ragnarok may have weighty thoughts on its mind, but it's never one to pass up a good joke.)
With Skurge, Ragnarok shows us that great evil can be enabled by ordinary indifference, that "hero" and "villain" are not fixed states, that it's never too late to do the right thing, and that even nobodies must decide how to wield whatever power they have. He's the rare Marvel character who isn't easily categorized as "good" or "bad." He's the undecided voter of Asgard, and he finally steps up.
Meanwhile, back on Sakaar, the Grandmaster has his own problems to deal with. Thor and Hulk's escape has sparked a rebellion led by Korg (with an assist from the Revengers). Whereas Hela is overtly destructive and dominant, the Grandmaster is a more ingratiating figure.
He's introduced via a video that reassures his contenders they've been found by someone who loves them. Never mind that the Grandmaster holding people captive and forcing them to fight to the death – he fancies himself a benevolent caretaker. In a jab at the modern prison system, the Grandmaster shudders at the word "slaves" and prefers the euphemism "prisoners with jobs." The message is clear: he's the same old oppressive bullshit, repackaged to look brighter and gentler.
Key to all of Thor: Ragnarok's themes are who's telling this story. Taika Waititi is the franchise's first non-white director, and one of its few non-American directors. That unusual-for-Marvel perspective may have something to do with his decision to turn this superhero smash-'em-up into a reflection on the horrors of colonialism. Others more qualified than I am to discuss it have taken also note of Ragnarok's uniquely Kiwi and uniquely Maori sensibility.
While Thor: Ragnarok still centers around a white guy, it's got a meatier role than ever before for Heimdall, leader of the Asgardian resistance and protector of its people in Thor's absence during Hela's reign. The film introduces Valkyrie as a former hero of Asgard who steps up again in its time of need, hinting at the trauma she endured in between. Plus, of course, there's Korg, voiced and mo-capped by Waititi himself in a distinct New Zealand accent. This is a story about oppression that actually makes room for non-white people, unlike so many of the others that hit our theaters.
And, yes, Thor: Ragnarok does all this while delivering jokes about Shake Weights and Hulk dick and introducing something called the Devil's Anus to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's fizzy and funny and fun in a way that Thor's earlier movies haven't been. But don't mistake its silliness for lack of depth.
Just as there's more to Thor than his Point Break persona, there's a lot more to Ragnarok than its gags.
Topics Comics
