Thor: Ragnarok. Although Thor is not the most naturally comedy-oriented character in Marvel Comics, Thor: Love and Thunder's comedy finished carving his spot as an especially lighthearted MCU hero. After Taika Waititi turned the Shakespearean God of Thunder from Phases 1 and 2 into a laid-back joker in Thor: Ragnarok, Thor felt the weight of his constant defeats in Avengers: Infinity War and coped with them through humor, food, and alcohol in Avengers: Endgame. But after such a dynamic character arc, it's jarring to see Thor go back to his wisecracking days in Thor: Love and Thunder.
In Thor: Love and Thunder, Thor clumsily destroys an alien temple and fails to give a speech to his own people, Thor: Love and Thunder prioritize humor, but Taika Waititi's over reliance on gags in Thor: Love and Thunder was already established in Ragnarok.
Why Love & Thunder's Comedy Is Divisive When Ragnarok's Wasn't
While both Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder are full-blown comedic takes on the God of Thunder, only Thor: Ragnarok fully respects the line between the story and the humor. Thor's journey from careless king to tragic hero in Thor: Ragnarok is clear, and although humorous, each part of the story keeps the stakes high. Thor's helplessness in Sakaar is as believable as his final display of power at the Bifrost, and Thor's failure to stop Hela in time clearly made Asgard's tragic destruction an unavoidable result. Similarly, every character struggles with their own objective and takes their personal quest seriously despite adding comic relief throughout the movie — even Skurge, whose goal is mere self-preservation.
Thor: Love and Thunder, on the contrary, sacrifices the stakes for the sake of humor. Thor, Valkyrie, and Korg either crack jokes or make clumsy mistakes in the midst of an alien attack and a mass child kidnapping, as if Gorr's arrival was just another fun, harmless adventure. The movie's internal logic also falls apart behind its lighthearted fun: Gorr's values stop making sense when he decides to ask a higher power for help, and Thor's ability to grant others his own power retroactively puts into question all his previous MCU appearances. Yes, Eternity's introduction and the Asgardian children's fight against Gorr are both exciting moments, but the plot suffers as a result.
Why Thor Now Has To Leave The Comedy Behind
Thor has already gone through a complex character arc from Kenneth Branagh's Thor until Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder. If Thor still has a long MCU future ahead of him, his personality can't remain stagnant. Thor already has been an arrogant prince, a dutiful Avenger, a tragic king, and a fun goofball, so it's time for a new twist that fits the hero he has become after so many tragedies and so few victories. Besides, Thor's use of humor to cope with his losses can only be so effective. By this point, Thor is wise enough to gather the best from all his experiences and move forward as a multidimensional hero. Since Thor: Love and Thunder leaves Thor's future open-ended, a future appearance can't simply repeat his Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder gimmick and bid him farewell without any further personal evolution.
