Thor Ragnarok is an outstanding piece of work and we all loved it. It was the boldest Marvel movie till now, and a very unique approach by the makers of the movie which allowed it to be great fun. There were a lot of expectations with this movie and so far it has delivered in almost all aspects. There were a lot of theories circling around the movie and most of them have come true but the movie stayed quiet about one major aspect which all the fans were expecting to be touched in this movie.
It is inspired by Jack Kirby’s Ragnarok comic wherein Asgard is burned to the ground and rebuilt from the ashes. The plot revolves around Thor’s struggle to stop goddess of death from destroying his home planet. The critics have heaped massive praise on Taika Waititi direction style and the fun elements introduced in the movie.
Thor Ragnarok is on a record-breaking spree and getting an amazing response from Marvel fans in particular and comic-book lovers in general. It is the funniest Marvel movie ever and best Thor movie for sure. The movie has opened to a massive opening weekend and has raked in over $170 million already. The first reactions from the audience are very positive and everything from visual effects to storytelling is just impeccable. The movie is sitting on 93% on Rotten Tomatoes at present.
Apart from the usual cast including Chris Hemsworth (Thor, God of Thunder), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Anthony Hopkins (Odin) and Idris Elba (Heimdall), the movie also features two-time Oscar award winner Cate Blanchett as the powerful new villain Hela (leader of Doomeo i.e Asgardian Hell); Jeff Goldblum as the eccentric grandmaster who is an elder of the universe, he is sometimes called as “Inter-galactic Cosmic Pleasure-seeker”, he possessed the mind-gem until Thanos took it away from him; Tessa Thomson as the classic hero Valkyrie who may play Thor’s love interest; Karl Urban as Skurge who is a powerful warrior and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/ Hulk.
Although there were many aspects borrowed from comics, for instance, Hela’s powers are taken from Aaron’s character Gorr aka God Butcher. On the other hand, there were major differences between movie and comics. In the comics, Thor’s power is tied to his hammer Mjolnir. In fact, in Marvel comic titled The Mighty Thor # 12, the history of God of Thunder was rewritten only to show how special Mjolnir really is.
Many many years ago, when Odin met the powerful cosmic force known as God Tempest, he used dark magic to trap it inside Uru which he forged into the hammer. In fact, the hammer is so powerful that anyone who is worthy can lift it and become Thor. Lately in comics, Jane Foster has become female Thor. But in the movie, Thor discovered that the real power lies within and Mjolnir was just the conduit.
The movie was a comedy run throughout, but still, it was full of unexpected twists and turns. Still, the movie solved a lot of things that were expected before its release. We believed that it would tie into Infinity War somehow, and it did. We believed that Odin might die in this one, and he did.
But, the major reveal that people wanted from this movie was in 6th and the final Infinity Stone to make its appearance. We know Thor went on his own mission to discover the truth about Infinity stones but clearly, that didn’t go well as he was shown to be a prisoner of Surtur in the first scene. It was never explained how he reached there in the first place. He said that he only found death and destruction during his journey and then he gave up and somehow turned his attention to stop prophecy of Ragnarok. The Infinity stones are never discussed in the rest of the film.
There have been a number of theories going around about the possession of the 6th Infinity Stone. One theory suggested that Odin has the last Infinity Stone, i.e. the Soul Gem. Another theory suggested that Hela would in fact retrieve it from the remains of Mjolnir. But, the biggest one was the ‘T.H.A.N.O.S’ theory which suggests the initials of the whereabouts of every Infinity Stone would spell THANOS. So, far we have:
- T — The Tesseract, a.k.a. the Space Stone
- H — As yet unused
- A — The Aether, a.k.a. the Reality Stone
- N — The Necklace of Doctor Strange, a.k.a. the Time Stone
- O — The Orb, a.k.a. the Power Stone
- S — Loki’s Scepter, a.k.a. the Mind Stone.
Now, according to this particular theory, all the fans expected the sixth Infinity Stone to be with Heimdall, or Hela to aquire it somehow, since their names starts with ‘H’. But, Thor: Ragnarok did not even touch this subject and left it for Infinity War to reveal.
There has always been a strong indication that the Soul Stone is attached to Heimdall. Since, the original Thor movies had teased that Asgard was a realm where magic and science were one and the same thing, but Heimdall’s ability to see “every soul” in the Nine Realms always seemed odd. His trademark power effect in the MCU also has always been orange, which traditionally is the colour of the Soul Stone. And, our first hint for Thor: Ragnarok was Thor’s vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron which hinted at a future in which Hela had triumphed and Heimdall had been blinded.
Now, a blinded Heimdall might mean that he can no more see the every soul in this Universe and the Soul Stone which he was believed to possess has been taken away from him. This had led most fans to believe that the Soul Stone will play a major role in Ragnarok and Hela, the Goddess of Death, would follow a traditional role which was to rule the souls damned to Hel and Niflheim. So, according to this, theory, Hela would have taken the Soul Stone from Heimdall, blinded him and used its power to ravage Asgard.
Sometimes, fan theories turn out to be true in the movies and this one did prove most of the theories that were circling around were in fact except the major one about the final Infinity Stone. So does it mean that Heimdall does not possess it after all, and the whereabouts of the last Infinity Stone are somewhere we do not expect? Or was Marvel just stalling for this movie and would reveal the stone in Infinity War from Heimdall only?
Recently, the controversy broke regarding the fact that there are actually 2 Infinity Gauntlets that exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When Avengers: Age of Ultron came out, at the end of the movie, we saw the Infinity Gauntlet rising in a vault and Thanos appears and wields the Gauntlet from that vault saying, “Fine, I’ll do it myself” referring to him taking the charge against the Avengers by collecting all the Infinity Stones.
How can there be an Infinity Gauntlet full of all the Infinity Stones studded in it in the first Thor movie within Odin’s Vault or another one in the possession of Thanos. Well, then people thought that Thanos was wielding the same Infinity Gauntlet in Age of Ultron and somehow, he might have reached Odin’s Vault and the Gauntlet has been missing ever since without anyone noticing it. But, this theory is not feasible as that Gauntlet had all the stones studded in it and the Gauntlet Thanos took out had none. Also, when you notice properly, Thanos takes out the Gauntlet with his left hand and the one in Odin’s Vault was for a right hand.
Thor: Ragnarok successfully took the easter-egg and turned it on its head. Also, the president of Marvel, Kevin Feige has confirmed that yes there are indeed 2 different Infinity Gauntlets and the one which is at Asgard with the stones on it did not have the real Infinity Gems, they were just decorative stones to make the Gauntlet look full. So basically, the Infinity gauntlet that Thanos is the real one. So, all he has to do is collect the Infinity gems, he already has “Black Order” i.e a group of ruthless mercenaries he picked up from Black Quadrant, assemble the gauntlet and use it for death and destruction. The only missing gem is “Soul gem”.
It was confirmed that the sixth Infinity Stone would not appear in ‘Black Panther’ as well, so we have to wait for Infinity War to come out to see who/what possesses the Soul Gem. Would Infinity War break the T.H.A.N.O.S theory and reveal it in some mystical object like the ‘Eternal Flame’, or the popular theory is still alive and is just being stalled for Infinity War?
Here’s the official synopsis of the movie:
“Imprisoned on the other side of the universe, the mighty Thor finds himself in a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against the Hulk, his former ally and fellow Avenger. Thor’s quest for survival leads him in a race against time to prevent the all-powerful Hela from destroying his home world and the Asgardian civilization”.
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