Thor: Ragnarok is the God of Thunder's third standalone film, but its job is to also set up the the most epic team-up in Marvel Cinematic Universe history: Infinity War.
This piece will discuss takeaways from Thor: Ragnarok and will contain a lot of spoilers.
Thor spent the film’s entirety trying to save Asgard. But after the God of Thunder spoke to his father Odin in a field in Norway (thanks to Doctor Strange), he was reminded Asgard is less of a place and more of a people. He ultimately failed to save his physical home due to his evil sister Hela, but with the help of Loki, Hulk, Valkyrie and Heimdall got most of the remaining Asgardians aboard a spaceship on course to Earth.
But if you weren’t paying close attention during that final sequence of events (and in the end credits scene), you may have missed an important implication. Loki went into Odin’s trophy room vault to place the Crown of Surtur on The Eternal Flame to call on Surtur in hopes to save Asgard from Hela. In doing so, Loki passed the Tesseract, which houses the Space Stone. He returns to the large arc ship safe and sound.
But their safe journey to the Norwegian site where Odin died takes a sad turn in the mid-credits scene. Thanos’ much much larger ship, the Sanctuary II vessel, is seen hovering near the Asgardians. Why? Well, probably because Loki has the Space Stone. If fans recall from The Avengers, Loki spoke to The Other, a Thanos affiliate, who told him to retrieve the Tesseract. Obviously, he failed to so in The Avengers . But if Loki is still the terrible brother and person we think he is, he appears to be fulfilling that deal with Thanos now.
The Space Stone is very important to the Infinity Gauntlet. It would allow Thanos to teleport himself and the Black Order to attack pretty much wherever he wants. Let’s just say the Space Stone makes Thanos a lot more scary. But there’s also more bad news. An Infinity Gauntlet was shown in Odin’s vault back in 2011’s Thor, which provided fans a glimmer of hope the MCU had an even larger unsolved mystery at hand (continuity errors aside) after we saw Thanos with the gauntlet in the Avengers: Age of Ultron post credits. Nope, according to Hela, that second gauntlet is fake.
But there are also some good news in the resolution of Thor. The God of Thunder is more powerful, more confident, and more ready for battle than ever before. Hela (who we learn was the original wielder of the Mjolnir) destroyed his beloved hammer. In turn, Thor’s true powers were revealed — brought out when he was forced to battle Hulk in the Grandmaster’s “Contest of Champions” on Sakaar. When Thor’s eyes (or should we say, eye) glow blue and lightning streaks ravel around his body, you are in trouble.
We can only hope Thor’s new power capacity is enough to hold of Thanos and keep the Asgardians safe when Thanos presumably destroys their ship in search of the Space Stone. If you were one of the lucky attendees of San Diego Comic Con’s Marvel panel, you know Avengers: Infinity War opens with Thor flying through space and landing on the window of the Guardians of the Galaxy’s spaceship. While we know Thor will live, how the Asgardians will get to Earth if Thanos destroys their only means of transportation remains to be seen.
Are you happy with the way Thor and Loki set up Avengers: Infinity War? Let us know in the comments.
