History Headscratchers / ThorTheDarkWorld

** The Asgardians weren't outmatched they were just caught by surprise. In the opening the Asgardians are the ones on the offensive and are mostly handing the Dark Elves their pale posteriors. Even [[spoiler: old timey Kurse]] gets brought down by just four guys who happen to know what to watch out for. The Asgardians are normally more than a match for the Dark Elves but here they were just plain unprepared. Even the best army can lose a fight if they get sucker punched in the middle of their barracks. The stealth technology on Malekith's ships also probably wasn't standard hardware.

** Odin knows that to use the Aether as a universe destroying super weapon the realms need to be aligned. This is happening relatively soon and doesn't last very long. He only needs to worry about protecting the Aether until the alignment alignment is over after that its just your run of the mill doomsday weapon not a Universe destroyer. It makes perfect sense to lock down Asgard and put all his best warriors as the last line of defense, in the palace, until the alignment ends.

** I took it as Frigga wanted him to answer for what he'd done. What's better, a dead Malekith and no answers either on the Aether or his attack on Asgard or how the Dark Elves survived, or a captured enemy leader that Odin would be able to interrogate? Moreover, she'd actually succeeded until Kurse showed up and there was no accounting for that.

** Actually, yes, they do bleed. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it close-up during the scrap on Jotunheim in Thor 1 where Sif stabs a jotun, and there's a spurt of what looks like blue blood when she extracts her sword.

* Whenever Loki's crimes in Avengers are brought up it's only mentioned that him bringing the Chitari to earth led to several humans dying in the attack on New York. and him screwing with Selvig's head. Well how come Thor never brings up Coulson? The other deaths during the battle in the city were as a result of Loki's actions so he's indirectly to blame for that, but Coulson was personally killed by Loki just to be a dick to Thor. Granted Loki probably killed a few guys in Germany and maybe elsewhere so he likely did directly kill some others, but you'd think Thor would specifically point out that Loki personally killed a friend of his right in front of him just to piss him off when he's going on about how he can't trust him. And yes Coulson ended up surviving, but Thor shouldn't know that, as he hasn't been to Earth since Avengers, nor has he seemed to have kept in contact with Captain America or any of them (If they even know Coulson survived).

* Mjolnir's destroyed ''trucks'' that had the audacity to try to lift it off the ground. How in Hel does Jane's coat-hanger manage to do the job?

** I once saw someone descibe Mjolnir as "Not heavy, just stubborn" Its isnt any actual physical weight that holds it in place, just its inability to be relocated by anyone who isnt worthy.

** Kurse is a Dark Elf, a race that seems to be on par with the Asgardians in physical abilities. Your typical Asgardian is probably approximately as strong as an Extremis enhanced human or an Iron Man suit, with people like Thor, Odin, and Heimdall being significantly stronger. On top of that, Kurse is basically running on the Dark Elf version of Extremis, complete with fire hands and greater strength. Unlike the other Dark Elves, Kurse had his stone surgically implanted in his torso, whereas the ones in Bor's time just crushed them in hand, so it makes sense that he's getting a bigger boost. Plus it's consistent with the comics, where Kurse has a history of smacking Thor down with or without Mjolnir. Kurse is physically the strongest MCU character right now, and it makes perfect sense why.

** While certain deleted scenes, like Malekith remembering his family in the ruins of the Dark World, imply some rather [[WouldHurtAChild nasty]] [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide things]] about Asgardians, it's still unlikely that Bor destroyed those ships. In fact, Malekith probably didn't need to either. It seems easy to blame him, but unless he's telekinetic on a truly massive scale, there just wasn't time for him to cut power to all of those ships. Given the apparent Dark Elf fondness for [[SuicideAttack Suicide Attacks]], the ship captains probably [[TakingYouWithMe decided to crash their ships independently]]. Another deleted scene shows that Malekith doesn't wear a mask (which contains life support, according to the writers and the labels on the props over at Disney) because he [[ThanatosGambit doesn't plan to survive his scheme to restore darkness himself]], so it wouldn't make sense for him to sacrifice his people to save himself ("Our survival will be your legacy"?). The real question is whether the Dark Elves throw themselves into kamikaze runs because [[SecretlyDying they're dying]] [[YourDaysAreNumbered anyway]], or if they're dying out because of their MartyrdomCulture. Maybe a mix of both? Either way, they're pretty tragic villains without shoving even more of the fault onto Bor. He did enough already.

** The whole event only lasted for at least a few hours at most. Besides I think shield would be busy doing something else in CaptainAmerica:TheWinterSoldier.

*** What does this have to do with the topic? The Asgardians already have the strength of twenty men or more. Their shields could block Dark Elf weaponry. From the sounds of it, the staff is not an uncommon weapon. So why does this matter?
**** It matters because a Berserker Staff is an AmplifierArtifact. They make the Asgardians stronger too, and have the same rage inducing effects. So they're not standard issue, but in a total war they would have been.

**** It matters because a Berserker Staff is an AmplifierArtifact. They Asgardians stronger too, and have the same rage inducing effects. So they're not standard issue, but in a total war they would have been.

** What does this have to do with the topic? The Asgardians already have the strength of twenty men or more. Their shields could block Dark Elf weaponry. From the sounds of it, the staff is not an uncommon weapon. So why does this matter?

** I once saw someone descibe Mjolnir as "Not heavy, just stubborn" Its isnt any actual physical weight that holds it in place, just its inability to be relocated by anyone who isnt worthy

** Thor can be injured, we see plenty of that, such as the normal "you've just been punched really hard or been bludgeoned with something, so you're gonna have a few cuts on your face" bleeding that you see him with during the final fight of this movie. Loki also shivs him back during their scrap on Stark Tower in ''Avengers'', and that doesn't seem to slow him down too much. On the other hand, Hulk punched him across Grand Central Station, and that didn't slow him down much either. He was also pretty keen on getting out of that giant cage Loki dropped him out of the Helicarrier in, so it's reasonable that he was uncertain about making it through the landing alive or not critically injured. Bottom line is [[Film/Predator if it bleeds, you can kill it.]]

** No, it does not hint anything. What did Bor gain by dropping Dark Elf ships upon his own army? He was winning the battle and had the Aether. It makes no sense for him to do shut down the ships and if he could it would make sense to do so before the battle. Malekith knew the battle was lost and he had to cover his escape. "There deaths will be our salvation" or whatever he said indicates he did do so to cover his escape. The look Algrim gives Malekith indicates this was Malekith's doing since Algrim looks like this was too much of a desperate move even for him. And it is easy to think all the Dark Elves were there. Odin stated "after an eternity of war" indicating that either wars with the Dark Elves were frequent or the war had been raging long even by Asgardian standards. Given the displayed hatred and threat the Dark Elves posed to the universe it would not surprise me if other races in the nine worlds hunted them down to eliminate the threat for good. Malekith and his closest followers are fanatics who think anything justifies their actions and they will make up for it later. WordOfGod and Eccleston's comments are not canon. If you have an interview to the claim the Asgardians used toxic gas please post a link since I have not heard this anywhere else from anyone else. Odin is a bigger jerk because his life's work is falling apart, Loki turned evil, Thor does not want the throne and is in love with a short-lived human, and his queen is killed. I would say Odin has plenty of reasons to be pissed off about.

** Thor's plan was likely to fail and was far too risky. If the Aether could have been destroyed by a lighting bolt Bor would have done so instead of hiding it. Thor's plan put the whole universe at risk by taking the Aether from the safety of Asgard and risking leting it easily fall into Malekith's hand which is exactly what happened. Odin may have been wanting the Aesther to stay in Asgard for the wrong reasons, but tactical it was the right thing to do. Odin was full of grief, but not crazy. Yeah, the original post addressed it and was throughout refuted. Your pulling stuff up out of thin air.
** There is the possibility that he hadn't usurped the throne and just took Odin's form for giggles and to talk to Thor and would then flee. Not... horribly likely, but he could've done it ForTheEvulz. But yeah, the idea that he might be legitimately on the throne is hilariously nonsensical.

* We see that the Dark Elf attack ships can rotate to navigate through tight corners. How does the cockpit of the ship stay level and upright despite all this rotation?

[[folder:The Dark Elf invasion of Asgard]]

* How many Dark Elf craft entered Asgard? Three clearly make it past Heimdall. Of these three, one gets blown out of the sky by a flying boat, another gets destroyed by the defense shields, and the one with Malekith gets past the shields and into the palace. We then see Malekith and Kurse escape on another Dark Elf ship to escape to the mothership after killing Frigga. It's obviously not the one Malekith arrived in, since that's the one Loki and Thor pilot later. So did their escape craft arrive off-camera while the battle was going on inside the palace?

*** The Aether was made up for the movies, actually. In the comics Malekith is associated with the Casket of Ancient Winters, which had already shown up in the previous movie as being a Jotun device instead.

* Besides, what other Thor villain wants to plunge the world into darkness?

*** It's a bit of AllThereInTheManual, as it is more properly addressed in the tie-in comic.

*** Plus Shield did that because Loki was the enemy and Loki knew about Thor's feelings for her, so there was worry he'd deliberately target her to spite Thor. Once Loki was defeated and sent back to Asgard, Jane would be safe, as Thor has no other foes aware of their connection (or at this point, any other foes at all)

*** Not every Asgardian has shown up yet. Balder, Amora, Skunge, etc. And not every Asgardian has the same relationship as in Norse Mythology either. Or even the comics, where Freya is married to Odin instead of Frigga, for example.
*** Or for that matter Frigga and Freya are one and the same in the comic books.
*** True, but Tyr was specifically stated to be in this movie.
*** And if they are introduced later, there is still the question of why none of them is a possible heir to the throne. The information we have up to now would make them non-existant rather than not-yet-introduced.
*** I suspect that his role was eventually supplanted by Bor. Its even possible that the rumors of Tyr were based on a mishearing of Bor's role.
*** Except Tyr is even listed in the credits. It's possible his scenes were cut.
*** Actually, he is still in the movie. The Asgardian who seems to be the head of the guard is played Clive Russell. [[http://imgur.com/V9Jkg2R He can be seen here in this behind the scenes shot, stood to the right of Odin.]]
*** In an interview, Clive Russell (Tyr) talked about filming a scene with Benicio del Toro (The Collector), but in the actual film, Sif and Volstagg were in that scene instead. It is possible that his role was reduced as a punishment for giving spoilery interviews, and the scene with del Toro was replaced for the same reason.

*** That may have been Odin's reasoning but I still found the smile unsettling. After all the Jotuns and Dark Elves were ultimately trying to do the same thing which was conquer the nine realms and xenoform them to their tastes. The Dark Elves just went about it in a different way.
*** I can't really agree with this. The Jotuns were engaged in fairly normal, if ruthlessly brutal, conquest and expansionism. The Dark Elves were seeking to basically end all life in the entire universe. That is a huge difference.
*** I am guessing Odin's smile was more displaying pride for his old man than for the death of the Dark Elves, specially as King Bor's victory over the Dark Elves saved all of existance.
*** Remember back in the beginning of the first film? Thor thought all Jotuns were horrible monsters that should be killed because of his fathers tales of the war, even though that wasn't actually the case? Odin probably heard similer stories about the Dark Elves from Bor and thus felt it was a great thing that they were wiped out.

*** It was set from the first film Odin could be a major Jerk, with deciding the best way to deal with family issues is banishing his son from the world(And no, just because it helped Thor's CharacterDevelopment, it isn't a "good, sensible action", and the road to hell is paved with good intentions, just look at SHIELD). Saying that WordOfGod doesn't matter is completely nonsense; ChristopherEccleston stated in that [[ExecutiveMeddling lots of backstory and expositions got cut from the movie]], but that doesn't make them non-canon. We're also being told the story from Odin's perspective (That is, what his father told him), which might be just as accurate as [[ConsummateLiar Loki]] telling the truth about anything. Read the last entry below on Malekith killing his own people.

*** Asgardian's powers are natural, and they enhance them with weaponry and the like. Odin just took Thor's natural power and tied it to Mjolnir so that anyone who can pick it up will get those powers. Even before this enchantment, Mjolnir could only be lifted by the worthy, it's just a part of what Mjolnir is. Odin, being the one who crafted Mjolnir in the first place, of course has a say in who is and is not worthy. So he tied Thor's power to Mjolnir, then declared Thor currently unworthy. Maybe he could have done the same to Loki, but he didn't have any dying stars handy with which to forge another unliftable weapon. Making it so that anyone who picks up whatever random item he has at hand gets all of Loki's powers is just begging for trouble. Easier just to lock him up in a prison he obvious cannot escape from without assistance.
*** ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' implies that even Asgardian commoners have superhuman strength.
*** Well, that's not clear. The Berserker wasn't exiled, he left of his own free will, so it's not clear if he's naturally superhuman, or if he just kept whatever powers/magic items make him superhuman.

*** He didn't enchant it because it was unthinkable to him that Odin, the All Father, could ever be defeated or otherwise tricked into having him give it up to anyone other than someone he choose to succeed him.

*** Also, I suspect the answer is yes, most ranged weapons are relatively ineffective against Asgardians, between their natural durability and armor. Certainly human firearms were useless even on Loki, let alone Thor, and Chitauri energy weapons, even the heavier ones, weren't all that effective on Iron Man, let alone the more durable Thor. Against the typical space opera energy blasters, Asgardian doctrine is probably "block/parry the heavy artillery, ignore the small arms, close to melee and slice up everyone with superior strength." Its just that the Dark Elves are a people who use black holes as hand grenades; their energy rifles are probably of proportionate advancement. We never got the opportunity to see a benchmark, but I wouldn't be shocked if one hit from them would slag an Iron Man armor.

*** Yes. That was exactly my point.

*** I have to strongly disagree with this. If the Dark Elves had such an advantage technologically then there would have been no need for Malekith to have sacrificed his own people. Bor would never have been in a position to exterminate them. Malekith could have still conquered Asgard and either forced Bor to tell him where it was or create a new one. Instead, he took a desperate act for survival.

*** The Asgardians weren't outmatched they were just caught by surprise. In the opening the Asgardians are the ones on the offensive and are mostly handing the Dark Elves their pale posteriors. Even [[spoiler: old timey Kurse]] gets brought down by just four guys who happen to know what to watch out for. The Asgardians are normally more than a match for the Dark Elves but here they were just plain unprepared. Even the best army can lose a fight if they get sucker punched in the middle of their barracks. The stealth technology on Malekith's ships also probably wasn't standard hardware.
*** Noone thought that anything but the strongest magics (Loki) could hide from Heimdall so the Asgardians were caught completely with their pants down. In addition the attack was directly on the Palace so the Elves weren't fighting the Asgardian Army they were fighting Palace Guards. Considering the King and Crown Prince are the strongest Warriors in Asgard there really isn't a need to have your very best soldiers on guard duty. In addition Asgard has been cleaning up the Nine Realms insurgency so it is likely the bulk of Asgard's army is out on Peacekeeping missions. So you have the best the Elves have to offer and all the escaped prisoners against 2 huge heavy hitters in Odin and Thor, Sif and the Warriors two, and a bunch of mooks, I'm guessing largely containing noble children who aren't strong enough to be real warriors but given a job so they can put on a nice suit and act like big shots. Even then the attack was repelled.

* What does this have to do with the topic? The Asgardians already have the strength of twenty men or more. Their shields could block Dark Elf weaponry. From the sounds of it, the staff is not an uncommon weapon. So why does this matter?
* The Dark Elves weren't exactly at the height of their power in Bor's day, having been poisoned and weakened, but they still managed to fight him off well enough that the war stretched on for a long time as Odin mentioned. What we saw at the beginning of the film was just the decisive final battle, and in he end when Bor looks across the field you can see that quite a lot of his warriors died in the process. As for why the Dark Elves seem to be more effective - you may have noticed that they tend to favour [[SuicideAttack suicidal tactics]], from their shock troops using [[DeadlyUpgrade power ups]] that are [[CastFromLifespan ultimately fatal]] to [[TakingYouWithMe intentionally crashing their ships into their targets]] and even Malekith's own ThanatosGambit to restore darkness on the slim chance that maybe a few of his people would actually be able to survive in the end. An army that's concerned with Not Dying is probably going to be somewhat less effective against an enemy who [[MartyrdomCulture like to sacrifice themselves]] for [[DoNotGoGentle their race or cause as a whole]] and who are [[YourDaysAreNumbered already slowly dying anyways]] or [[TheLastDance will be if their plan doesn't succeed]] and [[ApocalypseHow don't have a home to return to or very much to live for anymore]]. Unfortunately a lot of the scenes that establish the Dark Elves' motives [[ExecutiveMeddling were cut]] from the final version of the film, so we're just left with a bunch of confusingly suicidal elves who appear to want darkness for no apparent reason. But basically, their [[SelfDestructiveCharge desperation]] and [[TheUnfettered willingness to make huge sacrifices to achieve their goals]] is what makes them more dangerous and effective against the Asgardians.

*** Cap 2 is set a year after the events of Thor 2
*** Still leaves the "dude, it occurs over a couple hours" part.
*** Still seems odd they weren't monitoring Sevig, or Jane at all, considering their respective connections to certain Asgardians.
*** Selvig was probably cut loose after he decided that pants were hampering his concentration.
*** Who says they ''weren't'' monitoring them? Just that as ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' shows, the monitoring tends to be very low-key unless they think the person is a threat or in immediate danger. And as already stated, the events happened so quickly that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't have much time to react. (Plus they probably figured, quite rightly, that Thor and the Scientists Three could handle the problem better than S.H.I.E.L.D. could on that short notice, since Thor & Co. are fully trained in the issues and S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't.)

*** Probably just a mistaken impression - a result of the movie using 'contamination' that looked a little too similar to its elf make-up. I don't see it myself.

*** The fight takes a grand total of maybe 10 minutes. Heimdall is probably imprisoned, and he seems to be the only one who can see what's going on from Asgard. The amount of time it would take him to convince someone to release him and muster troops would've seen the battle over before anyone touched down. Remember that Thor and Loki left a ''lot'' of confusion in their wake when they left.
*** It has been shown that the Asgardians very in strength wildly. You have people like Thor, who defeated the Destroyer in single combat and fought the Hulk to basically a stand still, and Odin who took out an entire room of dark Elves with a wave of Gungir. On the other end of the spectrum you have the guards who were easily mowed down by Dark Elf guns. The only Asgardians shown to be anywhere near Thor and Odin's level are Sif and the Warriors Three all of whom are indesposed. Sending lower tier Asgardians against someone as strong as Aether infused Malekith would just be a distraction for Thor[[/folder]]

*** I took it as Frigga wanted him to answer for what he'd done. What's better, a dead Malekith and no answers either on the Aether or his attack on Asgard or how the Dark Elves survived, or a captured enemy leader that Odin would be able to interrogate? Moreover, she'd actually succeeded until Kurse showed up and there was no accounting for that.

*** This is just speculation, but. . . the scene on the ship earlier has both Thor and Loki noting that they were doing stuff just like they once did, as brothers together off an adventure. Its possible that Loki got into the spirit of the role more than he perhaps even intended, and for a bit started acting as not the bitter villainous Loki of the present, but the roguish hero Loki of the past. And that Loki was the kind of person who would push a bystander out of the way.
*** Why not? because it almost killed him. Loki saved Jane, but had Thor not intervened he would have been sucked into the black hole grenade.

*** Right. It's a great PetTheDog moment for him, along with his genuine sadness over Frigga's death. Never have I liked a villain as much as I like Loki.
*** Although I'm sure he constructed a more twisted rationale once he'd thought it over consciously, it does seem like an instinctive response: the fact that he was ''locked helplessly in a cell'' when his foster-mother could have been saved by his actions may have led to a subconscious 'Woman in peril! Me save!' reflex.

*** Or here's a reason more in line with Loki's scheming. He wanted Jane to survive so Thor would go back to Earth with her and spend time there, and not be hanging around Asgard [[spoiler:and noticing Loki switched with Odin.]]

*** Perhaps the illusion was as simple as the sword [[spoiler: that impales loki]] is much much shorter, i.e. a dagger. Loki needed to distract Kurse [[spoiler: until the grenade went off]], Kruse isn’t shown to react to pain so might ignore something as small as a dagger, but a sword requires pulling out before carrying on fighting. Loki might not have foreseen the Kruse [[spoiler: trying to stab him before removing the sword/dagger, but used the opportunity to fake his death anyway as the dagger didn’t reach to stab loki (or just stabbed him a little bit, non fatally). ]]

*** Actually, yes, they do bleed. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it close-up during the scrap on Jotunheim in Thor 1 where Sif stabs a jotun, and there's a spurt of what looks like blue blood when she extracts her sword.
*** On a second note, from the same scene, note that Fandral suffers impalement in about the same place as Loki does. Fandral survives, conscious, much longer than it takes for [[spoiler: Loki to appear to die]]. Frankly, comic continuity/canon is about as applicable here as Myth/NorseMythology--as in, at the writers' discretion, and can be directly contradicted.
*** Fandral's wound is through the shoulder. Loki's is in the center of his chest. Very different spots.

*** They talked about converting the universe to one of dark matter, so I assume its not simply a matter of no visible light, but the substance and, to some extent, the laws of physics being different.

-->'''Thor:''' So, Heimdall, what's going on with my mortal friends from Midgard?
-->'''Heimdall:''' Let's see... Jane Foster is taking a shower. She looks so hot...
-->'''Thor:''' Stop stalking my girl, dude! What about the others?
-->'''Heimdall:''' Let's see... Selvig is receiving medical treatment... Darcy is seeking fans that would support a petition to revive the "Daria" animated series... Iron Man is buying a giant toy for his girlfriend... the Black Widow is plotting the assasination of Hugo Chávez... Captain America is running for president... Hawkeye is training as a ninja... Hulk is dancing in the Brazilian carnival... Nick Fury is playing Galaga...
-->'''Thor:''' Great!
-->'''Heimdall:''' ...and the son of Coul is organizing a covert team of spy agents.
-->'''Thor:''' Say Whaaaaaaaat?!

*** The episode didn't really touch on it after all, but in any case, the kids probably took off when Darcy called the police, and if they didn't the police surely sent them home to their parents or otherwise made sure they were safe and under adult supervision.

Odin remarks to Thor on how he once said that there would never be a wiser king than him. This is referring back to the exchange between them at the end of the first movie. Problem is, [[spoiler: Odin is really Loki, who wasn't around to hear that]]. So how did he know Thor had said that?
* It's Loki. Predicting what people do or say is one of his many skills, and while Black Widow was able to trick him on that, Thor and Odin are rather predictable in actions and even words. Assuming he knew Thor at least stepped down from being king for the time being after the first film, he just correctly guessed that Thor said that to Odin at some point because it was a very "Thor" thing to say.
* Why do we assume that the time he said it at the end of the last movie was the only time he ever said it?

Seriously, those cops that went to the warehouse must be the worst cops ever. First, they were called because someone vanished for 5 hours. Said person returns, and they start accusing her of invading private property, even though the place was clearly abandoned, without so much as "are you okay, what happened, were you kidnapped or stuck somewhere?", never mind the fact of the now-worldwide famous Avengers is standing right there! One of them manhandles her like some crook and then and everything blows up in an energy blast. They start labelling her as dangerous, while not having any freaking idea of what's going on, and try to detain(with no more than a batton, and the one doing it must be the most wimpy fucking police officer EVER) and "call reinforcements" on FREAKING THOR! The guy who fought of an alien army with a freaking hammer! What are they going to do, [[CallBack taser him]]?! It's a mix of BadCopIncompetentCop, LawfulStupid, SkewedPriorities and SuicidalOverconfidence!
* Actually, even if a building is visibly abandoned, in most cases it still belongs to someone, and you can't get inside any more than if was in use.
*** It's still a case of SkewedPriorities! Someone's gone missing, and a famous scientist at that, who was detecting a physical anomaly(I'm not sure if Darcy did tell them, but since it's apparently sacred ground for them, they would or should have asked why a famous physicist was looking around)! And that doesn't excuse any of the other issues! This isn't Hitman, [[AllCrimesAreEqual where you're allowed to shoot people if they step into a place without knowing if it's restricted area or not]]! How do they even know it's restricted area? They aren't personal security, they were called in by Darcy! Who the hell cares about the abandoned warehouse when there's someone gone missing?! First you find the person, then you ask if she's okay, where she went AND THEN you might want to ask why she was poking around, no need to treat it as a case of terrorism! Common sense, people!

Even if separating them is as necessary as they say, who thought it was a good idea to give ONE of a SET to a guy called THE COLLECTOR? That's just asking for trouble. Surely there's *somewhere* else they could've stored it. On Vanaheim, maybe, or with the Nova Corps, or even with SHIELD. None of those are optimal, I guess, but they're better than the freaking Collector.
* But the Aether was thought lost, and nobody had seen the Tesseract in a very long time either. The Infinity Stones were scattered for eons and their return was totally unexpected. They are likely assuming the other stones won't be appearing anytime in the near future, so even if the Collector wants the others he'll never be able to find any but the Tesseract which they have under lock and key. The Collectors vault is secure and by his reputation he'd be content with just having it, and not try to do anything with it. SHIELD will probably never be trusted with something like that again, because Fury tried to make weapons out of the last one (and Thor himself personally took the Tesseract from SHIELD in the first place at the end of the Avengers.) Any other place would seemingly be understaffed or not secure enough. He would trust Hogan with it in Vanaheim but Vanaheim is just hut villages apparantly, so it would basically be out in the open. He'd trust the Avengers but they seem to have gone their seperate ways so it would just sit in Stark Tower with only Iron Man guarding it, not enough protection against a Loki level threat. Even SHIELD with all their resources and guards failed to stop Loki from waltzing into their secret underground facility, killing half the personnel and brainwashing the rest, and walking out with it. Heck they couldn't even keep Coulson's team of normal yet skilled humans from getting into the Guest House. They wouldn't be able to protect it from the high threat villains who would be looking for those things. The Collector was the only one who could protect it, and was knowledgable and smart enough to know NOT to mess around with it.

What physical (not emotional or psychological) weaknesses of Thor's were made clear in Thor, Avengers, and/or Thor 2? Can Thor die? Can he be injured? If so, how? And where? Not on Earth? Just on Asgard? Elsewhere?
* Realms do not matter regarding Thor's strength. Whether he's on Earth or Asgard his strength level is the same. As for MCU Thor, he can be injured, and presumably killed by characters near his power tier, such as other top level Asgardians, The Hulk (and probably Abomination too), Maleketh when powered by the Aether, galactic beings like Thanos etc. Hulk drew blood in Avengers, and Loki managed to injure him so he's not totally invincible. Standard human weapons are useless against him, but Asgardian weapons should work (ex:The Professor in Agents of SHIELD who had a combat knife bend harmlessly against his bare hand, but was impaled by the Berserker staff). Infinity Gem derived weapons might also work as Loki's staff also hurt him. He'd have to be hit several times and he'd be really hard to kill but it's possible. However nothing standard on Earth can really pose a threat to him.
* [[YouCantFightFate Thor is not invincible]]. One day he shall fight Jörmungandr, kill her, and then go back nine steps and die as well.

*** While certain deleted scenes, like Malekith remembering his family in the ruins of the Dark World, imply some rather [[WouldHurtAChild nasty]] [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide things]] about Asgardians, it's still unlikely that Bor destroyed those ships. In fact, Malekith probably didn't need to either. It seems easy to blame him, but unless he's telekinetic on a truly massive scale, there just wasn't time for him to cut power to all of those ships. Given the apparent Dark Elf fondness for [[SuicideAttack Suicide Attacks]], the ship captains probably [[TakingYouWithMe decided to crash their ships independently]]. Another deleted scene shows that Malekith doesn't wear a mask (which contains life support, according to the writers and the labels on the props over at Disney) because he [[ThanatosGambit doesn't plan to survive his scheme to restore darkness himself]], so it wouldn't make sense for him to sacrifice his people to save himself ("Our survival will be your legacy"?). The real question is whether the Dark Elves throw themselves into kamikaze runs because [[SecretlyDying they're dying]] [[YourDaysAreNumbered anyway]], or if they're dying out because of their MartyrdomCulture. Maybe a mix of both? Either way, they're pretty tragic villains without shoving even more of the fault onto Bor. He did enough already.

*** For one, its Loki who has proven himself to be a treacherous sob. Second, it makes no sense for Odin to suddenly have a "change of heart" and risk giving Loki the power that comes with the throne and I doubt Asgard or the other realms would take too kindly to someone of Loki's disposition ruling. Loki is more unfit to rule than Odin or Thor. He is still a convicted war criminal who attempted genocide and "noble action" did not change his underlying instability. Odin did not nearly kill off most of Asgard with his "blind stupidity." His plan was the best because Thor's plan failed resulting in Malekith getting the Aether and nearly destroying the universe. Malekith only had a dozen or so soldiers left so I doubt it would have been as bloody a battle as Thor predicted. So people "assume" Loki usurped the throne because there are plenty of facts that do support that assumption. Loki's treacherous, power-hungry nature, the highly unlikely event of Odin giving up the throne to Loki, no scene with Thor being told "hey, your brother is alive" and Loki pretending to be Odin.
*** Uh, Odin specifically says he'll fight to the last man, woman and child, and he says it BEFORE Thor's plan fails. He's gone completely off the deep end at that point. Maybe it would be crazy to trust Loki with that, but Odin IS crazy. Loki may have also told Thor was alive after the camera stops rolling. As for him pretending to be Odin.. the original posts thoroughly addressed that.
*** Thor's plan was likely to fail and was far too risky. If the Aether could have been destroyed by a lighting bolt Bor would have done so instead of hiding it. Thor's plan put the whole universe at risk by taking the Aether from the safety of Asgard and risking leting it easily fall into Malekith's hand which is exactly what happened. Odin may have been wanting the Aesther to stay in Asgard for the wrong reasons, but tactical it was the right thing to do. Odin was full of grief, but not crazy. Yeah, the original post addressed it and was throughout refuted. Your pulling stuff up out of thin air.

* This is bothering me too! I don't even know how they let that slip, it's so obviously a mistake.

*** On a second note, from the same scene, note that Fandral suffers impalement in about the same place as Loki does. Fandral survives, conscious, much longer than it takes for [[spoiler: Loki to appear to die]]. Frankly, comic continuity/canon is about as applicable here as NorseMythology--as in, at the writers' discretion, and can be directly contradicted.

This is bothering me too! I don't even know how they let that slip, it's so obviously a mistake.

** No, Thor's banishment was entirely appropriate. This was not a mere family issue. Thor committed TREASON by defying Odin and nearly started a war. So yes, a severe punishment was entirely appropriate. And WordOfGod often doesn't matter because all too often it is contradicted by what the actual canon of a story. So yes they are non-canon. And we have no reason to doubt Odin's word considering the moment Malekith returns he is once again trying to destroy the entire universe and expresses nothing but contempt for other beings.

*** While certain deleted scenes, like Malekith remembering his family in the ruins of the Dark World, imply some rather [[WouldHurtAChild nasty]] [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide things]] about Asgardians, it's still unlikely that Bor destroyed those ships. In fact, Malekith probably didn't need to either. It seems easy to blame him, but unless he's telepathic on a truly massive scale, there just wasn't time for him to cut power to all of those ships. Given the apparent Dark Elf fondness for [[SuicideAttack Suicide Attacks]], the ship captains probably [[TakingYouWithMe decided to crash their ships independently]]. Another deleted scene shows that Malekith doesn't wear a mask (which contains life support, according to the writers and the labels on the props over at Disney) because he [[ThanatosGambit doesn't plan to survive his scheme to restore darkness himself]], so it wouldn't make sense for him to sacrifice his people to save himself ("Our survival will be your legacy"?). The real question is whether the Dark Elves throw themselves into kamikaze runs because [[SecretlyDying they're dying]] [[YourDaysAreNumbered anyway]], or if they're dying out because of their MartyrdomCulture. Maybe a mix of both? Either way, they're pretty tragic villains without shoving even more of the fault onto Bor. He did enough already.

** Although they've been OutOfFocus for a long time, this is ''exactly'' the kind of loose end that ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' takes care of in the comics universe. Although Damage Control aren't worthy of a movie per se, they'd be a hilarious cameo in ''Age of Ultron.''
--> '''DC representative:''' Mr. Odinsen, I have a bill here for transplanting a Jotunheim basilisk to an uninhabited islet in the Azores. Sign here?
--> '''Thor:''' Bill Malekith for it. Oh, damn... Send it to Malekith's next of kin. ''Damn.'' Fine, how much is the bill?

** As for the creature, it will surely become an urban myth, like the Loch Ness monster, and anyone claiming to have seen it will be treated as a hopeless nutcase.