[Warning--Spoiler Alert]
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) destroys not only Asgard but also the tone of Marvel movies. At times the humor bordered on the campy. At first I almost couldn't take the movie seriously as part of the Marvel franchise. As the movie progressed, the reason for the campy humor became apparent--comic relief from the inconceivable--the destruction of Asgard. Asgard represented an entire civilization and culture dating back to the beginnings of time: a culture whose influence had reached across galaxies to become one of Earth's major mythologies. The campy humor also masked probably the most serious message yet delivered by a Marvel movie--people are more important than geographical places and even the highest and most revered of peoples can be reduced to refugee status. A line in various forms noticeably repeated by Odin and by Thor in the end is: "Asgard is not a place. It never was...Asgard is where our people stand." How will Asgardians be received by the people of Earth? Will they be welcomed? Or will they be received with distrust, suspicion, and signs reading, "Send them back"? Even at the beginnings of Western civilization, the Greeks practiced Xenia (from the Greek for "hospitality" Dictionary.com). You never knew if you were entertaining a god. Literally, when the Asgardians arrive, Thor will be the god among them searching for a new home. Why has our civilization regressed? What has driven us back to the edge of uncivilized behavior? Fear and Greed. The fear we will lose what we consider to be our rightful inheritance and place in this one particular world. What if that is stripped from us? What do we have left? Honor and dignity. Even though fictional, the Asgardians at the end of the movie show how to move forward with grace.
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