I was re-watching The Avengers movie on TV the other night (for the umpteenth time) and was struck yet again by the scene where Loki speaks an ugly truth about all the Avenger superheroes.
"You lie and kill
in the service of liars and killers.
You pretend to be separate,
to have your own code,
something that makes up
for the horrors,
but they are part of you and
they will never go away."
He says this to the Black Widow but the film makes it clear that it applies to all the Avengers, who are each shown on the screen while Loki delivers these lines. An extended shot of Captain America coincides with the concluding words about the durability of horrors.
The God of Lies is sometimes the only one who will give voice to a hard but profound truth.
Marvel has been criticized for using Thor's emotional pain as comedic relief in Endgame. And certainly, when the transformed Thor is first shown on screen -- drunk, fat, wasting his life playing video games with his enabler "friends" -- the audience's first reaction is to laugh.
But none of the Marvel characters meeting Thor react with humour or laughter. They are all disturbed, even horrified, by his transformation because they understand that what they are really seeing is Thor's emotional pain and suffering. And then the audience finally takes their cue from that, realizes that more is going on here than just a joke at Thor's expense, and see him with new eyes too.
Thor has lost everything in his life. His entire family and closest friends are all dead, Asgard is destroyed, what's left of his people are in exile, half of all life in the universe has been snapped out of existence, and it's all because of his failure to kill Thanos with a head strike. A stupid, rookie, tactical error unworthy of the Greatest Warrior in the Nine Realms.
I think Chris Hemsworth has given the performance of a lifetime in portraying depressed and despairing Thor. Hopefully, it will educate people as well to recognize the signs of emotional pain in others. And, I suspect, his performance will resonate with many viewers whose own lives and early promise did not turn out as anticipated when they were young.
When Thor goes back in time to Asgard, has a panic attack and cries in front of Rocket and then his mother, we see him at his lowest and most vulnerable point. His mother gives him the encouragement he needs to move beyond his pain and defeat.
Thor finds the courage to rise again, thanks to his mother's guidance -- "Everyone fails at who they're supposed to be, Thor. The measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are. . . . Now you go and be the man you're meant to be."
And then, when Mjolnir returns to his hand, Thor (and the audience) learn the most valuable lesson of all --
