(Thor enters his “plane” in Thor Ragnarok to prepare for his battle against Hela and Surtur for Asgard)
Plane artificial intelligence: Please state your key code voice command for access.
Thor (Smiling sheepishly): Strongest Avenger.
Plane AI: Access denied.
Thor (Visibly confused): STRONGEST…AVENGER!!
Plane AI: Access denied.
Thor (Suddenly remembering that Tony Stark is the engineer of the plane and the specific code name he gave him at The avengers’ battle against the Chitauri in London with exasperation): Ah, Stark! … Point break.
Plane AI: Access granted … welcome home Thor.
Now for those who aren’t fans of superhero comics, movies and series this monologue at the beginning of this blog piece can be flabbergasting so let me give a brief synopsis before I delve deeply into what I am trying to accrue from this piece.
The name of the said movie is Thor: Ragnarok. It is based upon a prophecy that the Land of Asgard, one of the nine realms under the custodianship of King Odin will be destroyed in an apocalyptic event known as Ragnarok. Thor, the son of Odin and heir to the throne has been off Asgard for a while, most recently battling the war against robot terrorism in Sokovia (Avengers : The age of Ultron). He comes back to his father disappearing suddenly and an Asgard ruled by his brother, Loki, who is a very devious man and even in this controversy has magically changed his appearance to look like his father Odin to fool the people of Asgard. As a result, Asgard is in a state of confusion to the point that even the honor of the guard, Valkeryie is now an alcoholic due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder probably due to her history and encounters in her millenia of battling the realms for conquest and dominion. Thus Thor begins the journey of straightening out the kingdom which leads him to finding his father, King Odin at a cliff in Norway. Problem is, he is dying and as such, Thor has to assume the throne prematurely. All should be straightforward until two people show up, Hela (Thor and Loki’s imprisoned elder sister who is bloodthirsty and hungry for revenge against their father) and Surtur (The one prophesied to be the one to start Ragnarok) show up. Thor, realising how outmatched he is against these two foes, undergoes a crisis of identity even as he prepares to fight them for the safety of Asgard. Thus, leading us to the starting monologue. Long story short, Thor vanquishes Surtur, Surtur destroyed the land of Asgard together with Hela but it doesn’t matter as Thor realises Asgard is not a place but a people. He then carries his people on a battleship on his way to Norway, where his father died so that he can start a new asgardian people there.
All that jibber jabber aside, there are some specific take home points that I would love us to take a closer introspection on that will guide the entire blog;
i)Thor’s initial reaction to the fact he needed a pass code to be able to use the Battle plane and his assumption that he knew what it was and his confusion and exasperation when he found out that he was actually wrong about it.
ii)Why did Tony Stark use of all names, point break?? So many cool names, yet he chose one that sounds like what a kindergartener would call Thor when he sees him. Wauu.
iii)A conversation that I haven’t mentioned in the synopsis but is in the movie and will be a very core compass of the trajectory of this blog. It is a statement that Odin told Thor. That his ability to create and direct thunder and lightning is not dependent on the hammer but on him( A statement that rings true as he fights Hela while being able to produce lightning without his hammer that Hela Broke…Guess when-Just 5 minutes after Odin died; an LOL moment if you ask me).
iv)Thor’s identity crisis, his journey, the lessons whereabout, the outcome and what it means for him.
Let’s now get out of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), roll up our mental sleeves and get into the GRU (God Realistic Universe).
To be continued…
With love,
Paul Adero Omondi.
Level V MBChB,
MSCU POIEMA writers club.