Film Theory: Is Thanos Worthy of Thor's Hammer? (Avengers Endgame)

spoiler warning for the

avengers

and the game, leave

thanos

, you're done, we're tired of your memes, they're almost dead, I mean, they're on Facebook now, okay, if this universe can't appreciate memes from the Thanos and I's car starts a new one that I didn't expect anything to happen. uh, i hoped i was

worthy

of mjolnir and could just summon it. Wait, I get a text message. Stop calling me. I won't help you. fight, I thought I made it clear last Thursday awkward hello internet, welcome to

film

theory

, we are not America's ass, but we are YouTube's ass, so there is no denying that the

endgame

of the Avengers was filled with many instantly iconic scenes, the ant that tony took... man

thor

fat taco sequence, but in a movie full of incredible moments none, none were as exciting as seeing Captain America use mjolnir to fight Thanos, just paints the scene since we don't have full access to the footage yet, Thor is attacking Thanos with Stormbreaker. when the tables suddenly turn,

thanos

is pressing the ax closer and closer to chris hemsworth's chiseled body or i guess the beer belly body in this movie when out of nowhere thanos is hit by the

hammer

, he steps back to see the butt of the Mr.

America wielding the most powerful weapon in Asgard and all the lightning powers that come with it, ah, it's so good even though we can't show it since the home version hasn't been released yet. Just talking about it with our little animations here still makes me excited for this scene, but after getting it I hyped it up and then got curious as to who else could wield mjolnir. After all, mjolnir is a weapon that judges a person's worth, so who else in this massive cast of characters could make the cut if Hawkeye was trading his bow? Could Black Widow have finally found herself? a decent weapon other than a gun or maybe just Thanos could have wielded the

hammer

himself by looking at Steve and Thor's actions in these movies and when they can or can't lift the hammer we can start to piece together where the threshold is located of dignity of Mjolnir. and from there, judge whether anyone else would pass the test.

The best place to start when it comes to defining courage is, of course, the original Thor from 2011. As the movie begins, Odin boasts to Thor and Loki about how he heroically defeated the frost giants. and then he makes the most idiotic move ever when he berates Thor for wanting to do the same thing. A wise king never seeks war, but he must always be prepared for it. A wise king also apparently hides his warlike past behind centuries of propaganda, but no. Don't worry, that won't be important for another two movies, at least fast forward a few thousand years from that opening scene and Thor is about to be crowned king of Asgard.

Thor makes three vows during the ceremony in which he swears to protect the nine kingdoms. preserve the peace and finally put aside all selfish ambitions for the good of the kingdom so that it already begins to outline the criteria with which we could end up working during the attack of the coronation ice giants. Thor is furious because his coronation was interrupted and he swears revenge on the frost giants. You are a vain and cruel boy. You are an old man and a fool, thus breaking his oath to defend the nine kingdoms. Odin doesn't take it so well.

Realize what you have done. What you've started I was protecting my heart, it's pretty obvious why Thor would be considered un

worthy

here and he spends most of the rest of the movie on Earth, it's only after Thor recognizes that violence isn't always the answer and He chooses to willingly sacrifice his life. For the safety of the land, Mjolnir suddenly deems Thor worthy of Thor once again, the hammer flies towards Thor in his final moments and he is back in fighting shape, which is a bit of a strange message, but it's well, it tells us two important things here in the eyes of odin, sorry in the The dignity of Eye of Odin requires that you only use violence as a last resort and it also requires that you be willing to sacrifice your life for the greater good.

Captain America's story actually supports both of these qualifications and no one can doubt that Steve's intentions are pure throughout his

film

s, he is fighting in World War II to stop a force of evil and ultimately, protect people and at the end of the first avenger, he has also made the ultimate sacrifice, he gives his life to protect others, that's why even to the extent possible mjolnir considered steve worthy of ultron, look towards back in the hammer lifting scene from that movie, it's one of the best moments in this entire franchise, not only is it hilarious but it's also a pure distillation of each of these various characters Tony is trying to outsmart each other.

Mjolnir with technology. Hawkeye is a little lost in this world of magic and the superhero banner plays everything as a joke the whole time the hammer refuses to move but when Steve tries to pick it up we see it move every time. very slightly, but it moves back, I think most of us wrote off that scene as Captain America was almost worthy of lifting the hammer, but he didn't get there, however, looking back on the scene now that the ending of the game has happened, the truth is clear. Captain America was able to lift the hammer the entire time, he just played it like he couldn't so as not to stand out above the rest, as director Anthony Russo himself confirms a quote in our heads.

He could handle it, he didn't know it. until that moment in Ultron when he tried to lift him, but Cap's sense of character and humility and out of deference to Thor's ego, Cap at that moment upon realizing that he can move the hammer decides not to finish the date, that is why Thor calls Thor at the end of the game. like we suspected something else was going on but couldn't be 100 sure until it actually happened and in hindsight it actually puts an even more interesting spin on this moment from the first avenger you don't give up on, could you have the power of the gods, choosing not to pursue the power of the tesseract in that first movie is a big reason why Steve is actually able to access the power of the gods when Ultron and the

endgame

arrive and this is in the first movie.

Gosh, I'm really impressed by little details like this, it's really impressive anyway, the moral here is that power is given to those who don't seek it. Being worthy since Ultron may also explain another key moment in The Remember What Odin Says franchise. Whoever holds this hammer, if worthy, will possess the power, so really Cap from the moment he touches the hammer is working with Thor's power, so maybe this is how a normal human like Steve Rogers could hold it. Going back to Thanos's completely stoned gauntlet at the end of Infinity War is just a thought and yes, I know that movie's co-writer Christopher Marcus said it was because Thanos was flabbergasted at Steve's nerve to think he could hold off a titan. , but that's a bit silly, it was totally Odin's power, which is my personal canon now anyway, this all brings us to the main question of the day, who else could pass Mjolnir's test at the end of the game?

Surprisingly it's more than you think, let's start with the obvious tony the tony stark who appears in the endgame is a far cry from the tony stark who couldn't lift the hammer in the age of ultron at the time he was arrogant and selfish But his overconfidence is something he greatly loses in the wake of Ultron's destruction of Sokovia. Just as Thor's time on Earth taught him humility, Sokovia taught Tony that others were suffering because to his actions and that he needed to be more responsible, but even at the end of that movie he still wasn't worthy because he was Selfish, it wouldn't be until Infinity War that Tony would really overcome that other barrier.

He jumped aboard Thanos' ship. Was he the one who gave up what he loved, pepper shakers, for the good of the Earth? He did not anticipate returning home from that trip. Yes, he backs away. a bit early in the endgame, but by the time of the snap he's back very solidly in the worthy column sacrificing a perfect life with his family for the greater good, which honestly makes his sacrifice that much more unfortunate since, as we saw at the end. From Thor, Mjolnir's power can actually bring back life to those on the brink of death, so instead of that long, tearful goodbye with Peter and Pepper, they should have given him the hammer and revived him, but they didn't. and now it's dead in motion.

About Natasha Romanov, aka Black Widow, when she is first given the opportunity to try to lift Mjolnir during the Ultron scene, she turns it down stating that that's not a question she should answer well, maybe not you, Natasha But now we all do, it's true that Natasha has a checkered past of murder. and murder, I read about it in my lecture, but when you really look at her behavior throughout the mcu, she has done nothing but selfless acts her entire life in an attempt to atone for her mistakes and even those past mistakes. They weren't really their fault to begin with. she was forced to do it several times, as she says herself in the endgame, I had nothing and then I got this job, this family, I was better for it her commitment to self-sacrifice for the greater good is ingrained in her character.

In Winter Soldier, she exposes Alexander Pierce's evil plans knowing that in the process he will also expose her own crimes, which will then force her to go back into hiding. She then signs the Sokovia Accords because she believes heroes should be more responsible, but then helps Captain America on his own personal quest to find justice, which causes her to have to adopt fugitive status again, so basically in the civil war is taking place the worst of both worlds, all in pursuit of helping others, even in it. normal missions she is willing to give her life five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, but the winter soldier was there, he was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me, as for The other half of the dignity, the black widow does not actively choose to fight and even warns those who are more worthy than her not to enter into battle.

You know what's about to happen. Do you really want to punch your way out of this? And as I mentioned before, she is a weapon created by other people, she did not choose this life, this life chose her and she is trying to make the most of it and all of this, of course, culminates in her moment of final sacrifice for the soul stone at the end of the game, so the black widow would be worthy of holding it. mjolnir yes, one hundred percent yes, she has more than redeemed herself and would be seen as absolutely worthy in Hammer's eyes.

She was probably worthy already in the Age of Ultron. However, the brilliant part here is that she is not worthy of her by her own standards. The choice for her not to lift the hammer on Ultron showed that outward signs of dignity don't matter to her, it's more about how she feels about her own character, which again is sad since if she had tried to lift the hammer and would have had succeeded, she would have seen that she is not as irredeemable as she thought. I had this dream that seems normal at the time, but when you wake up, it is true, but I was an avenger, I was more than just the murderer they made me and that's it again.

What makes these movies so amazing and with such a strong emotional theme that adds another level of insult to injury is the fact that if she hadn't sacrificed herself for the soul stone, her plus mjolnir would have been much more useful in that final battle against Thanos than Hawkeye. I mean, Hawkeye just runs with the gauntlet and then hands it to the evil nebula. Good job, man, and since your killing spree is ronin at the beginning of the movie, there's no chance Clint is passing the test in the meantime, black widow and a god. Hammer add her to that girl power grab my friends talking about girl power what about another strong woman from the series during an interview with buzzfeed brazil a few months ago, Brie Larson claimed that Captain Marvel was definitely worthy of Mjolnir?

Do you think Captain Marvel? He is definitely able to lift the taurus hammer, are you sure about that? Bree. I think you may be confusing strength with courage. Sure at the end of Captain Marvel she's doing her best to roam the cosmos protecting the defenseless, but Captain Marvel hasn't shown up. To be selfless, she arrogantly believes that everyone, including Thanos himself, is no match for her because you didn't have me before, if she doesn't see that there is a threat in the first place, then it's not much of a sacrifice for her. She enters the battle, right?

And that's actually my problem with this character. So far there's nothing at stake in a fight she doesn't care about winning, but that's not all. She also tends to resort to violence very quickly. She clearly harbors a personal grudge. against him she believes at the end of captain marvel challengingopenly to ronan the accuser during the final space battle his hit first ask questions later method won't buy him any quality time so no bree i have to disagree talking about strength and sacrifice we can quickly take out the hulk and lose before Thanos didn't make Hulk humble in the slightest, it made him more arrogant than ever, let's just say Green agrees, this isn't really disqualifying on its own, but you know what Hulk's motto is. is not really the phrase of someone who is going to be used in diplomacy first, even when he breaks down using the gauntlet and ends the game he still thinks everything will be fine, he specifically says that it's like I was made for this, which indicates that his best guess is that he would survive not much sacrifice not much pacifist not so worthy in the eyes of Odin which brings us to the grand finale the third and final snapper perhaps the most interesting name to consider on this list Thanos himself you may remember the last year when I made the outrageous claim that Thanos was right, so is it possible that Thanos is really worthy?

I mean, sure they treat him like the villain of these movies, but in principle his mission seems solid, even if he's a little wrong. He goes from planet to planet eliminating half of all life to help those that remain. He doesn't want what happened. Having your home planet succeed anyone else's is a noble mission in your mind, and from what we've seen about how the hammer works, dignity isn't about being right or wrong, it's about intention, how pure is your desire to help based on What we see can be a strong argument for him meeting our two criteria: first, self-sacrifice in pursuit of his noble mission.

Thanos is shown to be willing to make difficult sacrifices for what he perceives as the greater good. He sacrifices the greatest love of him. Gamora's daughter of the cliff, we see him seriously injured after using the infinity stones not just once but twice, weakening him so much that he smoothly finished off at the beginning of the endgame in a way that is repeatedly making the ultimate sacrifice of his own life as well as the lives of his loved ones simply to achieve this goal of helping other people the way only he knows how to do. A single clip sums this up best.

Did it cost you everything? As for avoiding violence as a first resort, yes, one could argue. that he also does this in the endgame, he sits and waits until all the other heroes attack him, he doesn't seek violence, he lets it come to him on an even larger scale, though he just sits on his floating space throne and waits. . Literally the entire series only chooses to intervene to fight when it's clear that no one else will be able to help him accomplish his mission, but perhaps the biggest point in his favor is that once he achieves the elimination of half of all life he stops from the which we see on gamora's home planet and on earth, thanos only pursues violence to the extent that it is necessary for the task he sets out to do, he could have killed more people at all, but he doesn't, at least not He does until he continues to fight back, where did that bring you back to me?

It seems like even the film's editors knew this was the case considering that in the promotional materials for Infinity War, Thanos says that fun is not something one considers when balancing the universe. but this puts a smile on my face, which would seem to indicate that he enjoys this process a bit, but the line was cut from the final release of the film for being a titan at war. Thanos is surprisingly secretive and again this can't be It's quite a stretch when he gains control of all the infinity stones, he has the power of the universe in his hand, he still doesn't use the stones for personal gain, he doesn't use them to kill unnecessarily, he uses them once to help everyone. and then he uses them again to destroy them so that no one can undo his actions.

Even the choice for him to use the stone to fulfill his mission is a point in his favor, look at how he describes it with the six stones he could. he just snaps his fingers, everyone would cease to exist and that's what I call mercy, it's a clean way to kill, it's not violent or painful, as he says, it's a merciful way to do it, he's clearly thought it through for everyone's best interest. , all those who live as well as all those who will die, so is Thanos really worthy of wielding mjolnir? While there is a great case for Thanos, there is one final consideration: he is helping people who are not seeking help for themselves, surely his goals may be noble. and yes, he may single-handedly commit as much violence as necessary to accomplish that mission, but he is also imposing his will on others without his consent, they didn't ask for help, and yet Thanos breaks into his planet. to tell them openly what they should do. that has to do with extreme actions of violence is that the definition of worthy no, no, it is not, this would be the deciding factor at least it would be the deciding factor for most people, but remember that we are not concerned about the majority of people, but by a person. in this particular franchise odin odin is the one who casts the spell on mjolnir and all this time we have been asking what is worthy in odin's eyes it is easy to forget that odin himself like thanos was a conqueror odin subjugated the nine kingdoms because he also thought which was an act that served the greater good according to hella and

thor

ragnarok, he massacred untold numbers of people to achieve this goal.

Has no one been taught our history? I was his weapon in the conquest that built the empire of Asgard one by one. One of the kingdoms became ours, it was only after he finished his task that he decided to become a peaceful king. Thanos Quest actually falls into the same territory. Be violent and hateful as you take control, but stand down and let those who remain be peaceful afterwards. It's all over, as Thanos himself says that the hardest decisions require the strongest wills, something Odin would be inclined to agree with, so Thanos is worthy of mjolnir.

I would have to say that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yes, he is worthy by most people's definition of worthy. I would say no, but based on the evidence we see in all these movies, as well as the morals of Odin, the man who made the incantation in the first place, Thanos is within the limits of worthiness, he should be able to lift Mjolnir, such maybe for that. he is able to stop Stormbreaker in the final cutscene of the game, maybe that's why it doesn't end the way it should have ended as proposed with Thor throwing the hammer at him and just immobilizing him permanently, it actually opens up a lot of really interesting things.

Avenues, but he is now dead without realizing that he was worthy in the first place, just like Natasha and Tony Man, if only people had stopped and asked themselves this question before entering into a climactic final battle . Hindsight is 20 20. Which is useful in Marvel. cinematic universe considering you have a time stone that turns things back in time, so bring back Thanos, black widow and Tony and let them wield the power of Thor. A three-way hammer battle royal would be cool if you can make that happen. Disney, that's what will make me subscribe to your new Disney Plus subscription service, but hey, that's just a

theory

, a film theory and it cuts you off.