Thor: Ragnarok vs. the Real Ragnarök

[used_songs]

I'm back with more from Tor on Thor. :)

One of my favorite series on Tor is Medieval Matters. The author published Thor: Ragnarok vs. the Real Ragnarök which breaks down some of the differences between myth and MCU. I had forgotten a lot of what I once knew about Norse mythology, so I found the article interesting, especially when thinking about why the film makers made the choices they did with regard to how they handled the myths.

It's definitely a light-hearted analysis, and I think you might enjoy it:

And, truthfully, it’s hard not to be delighted with how much they did manage to sneak in, including Bruce Banner wearing Tony Stark’s t-shirt featuring Duran Duran’s hit album Rio … whose second single was “Hungry Like the Wolf.”

That’s seriously clever foreshadowing, filmmakers.

Now, if y’all could somehow incorporate having part of Thanos’ ship in Infinity War be made with the fingernails of dead men, that’d be super.

Comments

[lazaefair]

*raises hand* Add me to the ranks of nerdling children who got started on Norse mythology early on. This was a very enjoyable article - I especially like how he gave his son a chance to show off his shiny Norse knowledge.

I did, as I read down the list, start to realize - and find kind of funny - that Thor: Ragnarok is essentially the exact reverse of so much of Western media. Namely, this time around it's a member of a historically marginalized people appropriating Western European-originated mythology the way colonizers normally appropriate the cultures of the colonized. (Though, I guess the comics did it first. Plus I got no particular beef with the Norse people, so this wasn't an excessively gleeful realization.)

But then I thought it would be super funny if someone did this with the Christian Armageddon. The Left Behind series really needs to die in a fire, and what better way to do it than through the lens of some weird punk indigenous director with a massive chip on their shoulder.

[used_songs]

I especially like how he gave his son a chance to show off his shiny Norse knowledge.

Me, too. Especially when it became apparent that they both ALSO like the MCU and comics. I'm imagining the conversations in that house!

That's an interesting point. I feel like anyone who did this with any kind of overt call-backs to Christianity would get so much crap, especially in the US. I'm thinking of every pop song ever that could be construed as slightly critical of mainstream Christianity and the hysterical reactions we have seen to that (Dear God, Losing My Religion). But I would love to see it. If we are plundering mythology for our comics and movie story lines, all mythologies should be fair game.

[lazaefair]

If we are plundering mythology for our comics and movie story lines, all mythologies should be fair game.

Hear, fuckin' HEAR.

Disney would never alienate such a large, wealthy, loud demographic, so yeah, we're not going to ever see Christianity be given the same treatment. But man. It's nice to imagine what Taika Waititi could do with that entire psychedelic mushroom-induced gospel.

[snickfic]

To be fair, Christian mythology gets adapted with massive alterations on a pretty regular basis. Supernatural, Sleepy Hollow, and Good Omens all have Christian-ish apocalypses, none of which bear much resemblance to the book of Revelation. And that's not even getting into Catholicpunk, like Constantine and some of Mike Mignola's stuff.

[lazaefair]

Fair point. I still don't think it's quite the same - the creative works you mention are still made by people who are more-or-less insiders steeped in background Christian-dominant culture. They're still recognizably part of a contiguous tradition of Christian apocalypse storytelling, drawing from tropes/myths/characters that have been passed down for centuries.

The closest thing I can think of to what I'm envisioning is what a lot of Japanese animes do with Christian imagery. The thing where genuine outsiders who don't know and don't care about the history or significance of literally anything take your religion/mythology/culture and slice them up willy-nilly solely for the cool aesthetic. And their massive audiences uncritically accept the absurd and meaningless result as an accurate portrayal of Christianity.

[lynnenne]

At least we have satire? The Simpsons did a hilarious "Left Behind" send-up back in the day.

[lazaefair]

Oh man, I definitely have to find it, then. I was raised conservative Christian and read that terrible series of books unironically (though even then I recognized the writing was at best mediocre) and participated in any number of bible study discussions about the Rapture, etc. I'm glad somebody in America recognized how dumb the whole thing was at the time.

[dhampyresa]

Thank you for the link! And omg I had picked up on the shirt but not that it was foreshadowing!

[used_songs]

Me neither. After I read the article I was retroactively so impressed!