How Love and Thunder Does Thor's Character Arc Justice

gamerant.com:

This article features spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder.The most recent movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder, is now in theaters. And after three years of being absent from the big screen, Thor has finally taken the next step on his hero’s journey.

Thor’s last film appearance in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame was controversial among fans of the character — not just because of some rather tasteless jokes about his newly gained weight, but because of how it arguably erases all of his development in Thor: Ragnarok. Thor goes from accepting his responsibility as king of Asgard to passing that duty over to Valkyrie; he realizes that he doesn’t need Mjolnir to be a hero, only to replace it with Stormbreaker. But now that Thor is back in the hands of director Taika Waititi, his character arc has once again been taken in a bold new direction that shows why he’s one of the MCU’s greatest heroes.

Thor: How Eternity Was Changed From The Comics

He may hide it well behind his charming smile and goofball personality, but Thor has endured more suffering and trauma than just about any other character we’ve seen in the MCU. As he points out to Rocket Raccoon in one of the most emotional scenes in Avengers: Infinity War, Thor lost his father Odin, his hammer Mjolnir, his homeworld of Asgard, his best friend Heimdall, and his brother Loki all in the span of a few days. That kind of pain would be enough to break anyone — even a thunder god. Even so, Thor keeps fighting.

Yet as heroes so often do — just ask Spider-Man — Thor blames himself for failing to save his people from Thanos, and takes the responsibility of stopping him squarely onto his shoulders. So when he once again fails to stop Thanos from using the completed