Did Thor’s Friends Really Have to Die to Give Him Nothing to Fight For?
Thor has had quite a successful run in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’s played a major role in the Avengers films.
He’s also been featured in some excellent films in which he was the star. While critics panned Thor: The Dark World, both Thor and Thor: Ragnarok were almost universally beloved.
These films give the MCU an opportunity to explore some of the lesser-known but important characters for Thor. Some fans believe that a few of Thor’s friends who died in the films may have been ushered out a bit too harshly.
Thor’s support system
The Avengers films don’t focus on Thor’s backstory as much (Loki excluded), but the Thor films do. They include supporting characters from the comics such as:
- Odin and Frigga, his mother and father
- Sif, Thor’s former love interest, friend, and ally
- The Warriors Three, Thor’s friends who help him in battle
These characters serve Thor’s story, helping move it forward and providing assistance to him when needed. For the average moviegoer, they may not have much significance. But for hardcore Thor fans, they’re important. They have rich histories from the comic books that leave them with a lot of potential for compelling storylines showcased in the movies. Even if they never get a stand-alone film to themselves, there’s plenty they can do in a Thor movie.
The fate of Thor’s friends in the MCU
Frigga dies in Thor: The Dark World while Odin perishes in Thor: Ragnarok. Sif survived, but the Warriors Three were not so lucky. In Thor: Ragnarok, they are dispatched rather easily by Cate Blanchett’s Hela. Their death serves two major purposes in the overarching MCU story:
- It shows just how powerful Hela really is. These great warriors were all defeated easily by her, leading the viewer to understand she’ll be quite a match for Thor.
- In Thor’s larger story, their death underlines how Thor has lost just about all of his friends and family. Following Thanos’s decimation of the Asgardian refugee ship, he has almost nothing left.
The death of Thor’s friends certainly makes Thor’s story much more interesting, as he no longer has his well-developed support system. But did they really have to die?
Did Thor’s friends really have to die to give him nothing to fight for?
A recent Reddit thread discussed Jaime Alexander, the actor who played Sif, on her way to film Thor: Love and Thunder. This would represent her return to the franchise after sitting out Thor: Ragnarok. The discussion turned to how Thor’s supporting characters had been treated.
Some fans argued that the Warriors Three were dealt a tough hand by the creative team of Thor: Ragnarok. One argued that killing them was a hasty move:
“I just feel like when you’re writing a hundred-million dollar blockbuster movie that’s part of a massive interconnected universe, you should always be conservative about killing your characters. It easily could have been some other high-ranking Asgardian soldier manning the Bifrost when Hela invades, allowing the Warriors Three to get on the Statesman and survive.”
The argument for killing those characters would be that it enriched Thor’s character arc. In Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, it made him much more battle-hardened and scarred. But here’s the issue: Thor had more than enough losses to go around.
After watching his mother, father, and brother all die in these films, on top of many of the Asgardians, were more deaths needed? Combine that with the fact that Thor never so much as acknowledges his friends’ deaths. It just seemed like a wasted opportunity.
The good news is that as the MCU embraces the concept of multiverses, the trio may return. If Loki can make a comeback, so can this group.
