Downshift

Just to be consistent, you're saying that Odin's enchantment on Mjolnir, "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor", was always meant to be completely arbitrary meaningless?

I honestly think the Blues can take down Boston.

Yeah, building up some bad karma in this run.

Shit, we canceled Netflix.

Suns pick 6th? Why do we have this lottery again?

I'd honestly be OK if the Blues beat us because they also have never won the Cup before. Carolina's not getting past Boston. And fuck Boston.

I have confidence that Curry can continue to step up in KD's absence.

I just hate everything about this. He's the most unrealistic, unrelatable Gary Stu character in all of the MCU. Even his story's ending in the MCU is an impossibly perfect storybook ending. But you guys are convincing me even more that Thor >> Cap. Maybe Thor finally comes around in his character arc in Guardians 3.0 or Thor 4 or something, but I still contend that it shouldn't have been dragged out for like 4-5 movies.

Dat Curry, man. Durant who?

This is from someone who by his own admission was never a Thor fan in the first place, and just liked that the character went though a ton of adversity to mix up his story line. Conversely, I've never been a Cap fan would loved to have seen him go through all that adversity to add some actual depth and believable humanity to his character... who actually is human as opposed to a god.

No, that's only the first few steps of the process. I would have expected to see the final parts of the process after three entire movies. And that's from a normal, average, boring, relatable everyman, not the Norse God of Thunder.

Man, I almost forgot I was waiting for this

Seemed like a long gap between "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and "Captain Marvel" also. Waiting for Endgame probably made that seem longer though...

See, since I'm not as into the comics and never saw much Hulk in any animated shows, I never really got the vibe that Hulk is the strongest Avenger. He didn't seem much stronger than Thor in The Avengers, lost to Iron Man in Age of Ultron, lost to Thor in Ragnarok, then lost to Thanos in glorious fashion. I was really hoping to see something at a little akin to World Breaker Hulk before this was over.

He was still the least effective of the main four powered Avengers in the final act of the movie. We'll have to wait until Gunn is finished with Suicide Squad to find out if any of that took.

"Just please... please let me do something good... let me do something right...." I miss the Thor that gets a hunch on what a prophecy probably means and then, without asking or consulting anyone, orders his evil brother to literally end the world.

This is the same excuse I heard at work. "Cap is just perfect, because reasons. Just because of because." It's like he's made out of plot armor, all the way to his hollow core. Fucking disgusting. Yeah... no. I'd agree with this if I hadn't just illustrated that this has now been three straight movies with no progress... and counting. Tony's loss to Cap in Civil War and to Thanos in Infinity War and then his little rant when he got back is a pitstop, or a "little humility". Thor was objectively less of a spoiled rich kid than Tony, not to point out the more obvious indicator here... why does Thor need to learn more humility than anyone else if he was the only one worthy Mjolnir? You're not a Norse God of Thunder, bruh. Then again... neither is Thor apparently. He was literally whining, begging and crying to the team to let him put on the Gauntlet and reverse the Snap after he bot back with Mjolnir. The Thor of old would have just taken matters into his own hands like he did in Age of Ultron when he activated Vision no explanation and without even asking anyone.

Sharks allowed a Game 7... ?

So I've been wondering... how much of Asgard was actually wiped out? It seems like genocide at this point, more so than other races Thanos decimated. First the Dark Elves invade and make quick work of the palace guards. Then Hela shows up and literally kills ever last soldier (the distress signal the Guardians pick up in Infinity War says they are mostly families, no soldiers). Then Thanos does his thing and manually slaughters half of who's left on the ship that escaped Ragnarok. THEN the Snap happens, and unless Thanos remembered not to kill half of the half he spared, he dusted half of those survivors. At the end of Ragnarok they say Asgard isn't a place it's a People, but there seemed to only be hundreds left in New Asgard. But seems like at least 10% got wiped out by the Elves and Hela, 50% of that got slaughtered by Thanos and his crew, and 50% of those got dusted in the Snap. So it seems like less than 25% of their population is left. Man, Marvel really hates Asgard don't they? As far as Thor's arc, I talked to a Captain America fan about it today and basically asked them if they'd be OK if the character reactions were swapped. Thor was the one who actually took his quest with Rocket and Groot to forge Stormbreaker to heart, was extra motivated by the loss to Thanos to better himself so he could actually lead New Asgard when they needed him most and actually landed a few blows on Thanos in the final battle. ...If Cap was the one who let himself go, stopped grooming and going out in public, developed a drinking or gambling problem, was either passed out or incoherently rambling during the Avengers plan meetings, was of no use in his Quantum Time Heist mission, and then was out of shape and useless in the final battle. Even after receiving multiple pep talks from Natasha, Banner and Stark only to have none of it take before the credits rolled. They said no, it would be out of character for him. He's Steve Rogers. "Just because", etc. I honestly don't see the difference in why Cap is immune to this type of breakdown when Thor isn't. Thor's had to earn his stripes multiple times over thus far in the MCU but seems to be the only one who's still back at square one. Maybe they did this so he could start the next MCU Phase as part of the Asguardians of the Galaxy back at square one... but it doesn't change the fact that he's back at square one after 10+ years. This might be what bothers me most. +pep talk from Banner +pep talk from Rocket +pep talk from Mom +"still worthy" of Mjolnir = nothing Plus, even if they do plan on waiting to expanding on these until Guardians vol 3, we have to wait until when, 2022? Enough about Thor though, y'all just haters. We know how Iron Man and Captain America's stories end, but what do you think will happen with Banner? I imagine he's going to stay as Professor Hulk, but I'm thinking if that arm never heals they might use that as an excuse to have him retire and only be used as a consultant on gamma radiation stuff. Betty Ross hasn't been seen in a decade, his most recent love interest in Black Widow is gone, Thor left him behind, and his research buddy in Stark is also gone. Otherwise he's probably the strongest Earth-based Avenger left. The MCU has never seemed to know what to do with Hulk, so idk...

My point is, the movie and Thor's own plot would have been better and more believable had they chosen to develop his character in Infinity War or even Ragnarok, rather than drag it out through Endgame. Hell, even if he didn't come around until the end of Endgame when they were making the glove to undo the Snap, but he was still an immature drunk idiot even then. This isn't real life, these aren't real emotions in response to pain and loss. It's fiction and the screenwriters chose to make him and only him react this way out of literally all the other characters and I'm saying it was a bad choice. Have none of them spiral out, or have more of them do it. Despite Clint going on 5 year killing spree to cope with his grief, he goes back to being a completely competent and useful Avenger again; successfully testing the quantum time GPS almost as soon as he gets back. It actually doesn't make sense if you look at Thor in the MCU. We watched pretty much every movie he was in last week (even Dark World), and he's pretty much the same person underneath until Endgame when fat Thor comes out of left field as almost an entirely new character no one's ever seen before.

Here's the thing with all that. This was the character arc in The Dark World; seemingly losing both his mother and brother (and Jane). It was the character arc in Ragnarok; losing his father, his Hammer, his eye, the warriors three, and his entire army to Hela and his entire homeworld to Ragnarok. It was the character arc in Infinity War, losing half his ship and half his people to Thanos, losing Loki for real this time, losing Heimdall, the first battle with Thanos, all the Dwarves at Nidavellir, then the second fight against Thanos, allowing the Snap. That's THREE movies where his entire character arc is loss, death and failed redemption. For every step the character takes forward, Marvel knocks him two steps back. They legit showed him solemn and crying in Infinity War, lamenting over everything he'd lost, and that still wasn't enough? Also, for as much as Thor lost, I'd argue that Steve Rogers lost even more. He legit lost his entire world and every single person he ever knew other than Bucky. But Cap is Marvel's perfect boyscout Gary Stu. So even after he tells Nat before facing Thanos on his Garden planet, "I know this is going to work. Because I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't."... five years after it doesn't work he's still just being Cap, functionally unfazed, staying clean shaven, hosting support groups with Joe Russo and giving everyone positive pep talks. It's the most scripted, unrealistic character development ever. With Thor, they went too far in the opposite direction. It might have been fine if at least some of the other Avengers reacted even slightly in the same way, but the only one you could say did was Clint, but even he turned into a badass (Ronin?) rather than just letting himself waste away alone in that remote farmhouse. Why was that? Clint lost his actual begotten immediate family all at once. Why didn't he turn to drinking and Fortnite when Thor did? Because it's not a guaranteed reaction for everyone. It's just one of many and was pretty out of character. Tony felt just as much guilt but was able to mentally rebound, break off, isolate and raise a family like Clint had. Nat was shaken and sad, but still functional as she took over The Avengers. Rocket, Nebula and Rhodes went off to do missions abroad and in space. Okoye definitely wasn't a dysfunctional mess. Even Banner productively dealt with his "double loss" as he called it, that he said was worse for him by merging his mind with the Hulk's physique. Other than Cap (he sucks, come at me wab), those were all interesting ways you'd expect to see Heroes deal with this type of loss and defeat. Out of all the Avengers, Thor is one of the last ones that should react that way. Tony's supposed to be the one with the drinking problem, and Banner already tried to kill himself when he got low. I wouldn't have been shocked if Cap did that instead, finally breaking after putting up that optimistic facade for so long. The other thing is that these plot arcs are meant to lead to a character growth climax. You see Cap wield Mjolnir, proving he's finally somehow become even more perfect and worthy of an actual God's divine weapon. Banner redeems his loss and validates his usefulness to the team by using the stones to undo the Snap. Tony makes the actual ultimate sacrifice to kill the Big Bad once and for all, coming full circle from the selfish, narcissistic playboy we wet in 2008, and even from earlier in Endgame when he tells Cap he's not going to sacrifice what he's gained to get back what they lost. Thor was on track for something similar. They showed him at his lowest in New Asgard, but then he get another pep talk from Rocket as he's having his drunken panic attack, and then the big one when he finally gets a reunion with his dead mom and talks to her for long enough to tell her the entire Thanos story. Then he gets Mjolnir back and discovers he's still worthy (you need a bigger confidence booster than that?). Then he gets his rematch against Thanos, with both his weapons (one of which over powered the Infinity Gauntlet with all 6 stones)... and gets pounded into four different rocks, knocks out Iron Man, and watches Cap wield his hammer better than he could. Then he decides that he's not a leader (after all the lectures he gave Loki) and fully abandons the people he was supposedly so broken up about losing to Thanos. All the pep talks and events that happened to Thor in Endgame amounted to nothing. That's the definition of anti-climactic. Maybe his story isn't over and he'll somehow fit in with the Guardians even though he's supposed to be like 10x stronger than them, but having three movies in a row where he just loses and gets broken down was just a slap in the face to Thor fans. Although I do get it if you don't think so due to not being a Thor fan. I don't like Hulk and don't really get why so many people hated his story in Endgame.