History Headscratchers / ThorTheDarkWorld

* Someone took the time to closely analyze the angle and depth of the wound based on what we can see of the weapon and the impalement itself, and compared it with Frigga's death, and their conclusion was that yes, Loki's wound (being in the front stomach) was survivable where Frigga's wound (being in the back lungs) was not.

** Because Odin had plans for Thor. Remember, stripping him from his powers wasn't a punishment per se; it was a SecretTestOfCharacter. Either Thor wised up and became the man his father wanted him to be or someone worthy would take the mantle instead. Meanwhile Loki was just a criminal being punished for his crimes, and thus deserved to be imprisoned. And from the looks of it Odin doesn't go around willy nilly depowering every prisoner that falls in his magic jail. If he had, then the prison riot started by Kurse would have lasted about 10 seconds, max.[[/folder]]

** 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.

** 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 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.

** This sadly I think has more to do with different writers and directors than the first Thor film. In the first film, Odin was TheGoodKing and a ReasonableAuthorityFigure. For some reason a lot of people noticed he became a major jerk. It may be due to his life's work falling apart, the treachery of his son, and finally the loss of his wife. All of that plus the stress of knowing he is still expected to rule for years to come would take its toll on a guy. At the same time, I don't think this changes views on the Dark Elves. WorldOfGod does not matter in this case because there is no proof of that in the film or that Asgaridans use that type of weapon. There are also the facts of Malekith dropping his own fleet on his own people and trying to destroy the entire universe.

** Odin had decreed that Loki would never see Frigga again. But Frigga obviously interpreted it as "I can't see him... in person" to not actully feel like she was betraying her husband's wishes.

* Why was Asgard so ineffectual against the Dark Elves? Thousands of years ago Bor was able to defeat them at the height of their power including numerous ships and thousands of troops. In the movie, Malekith and his forces had spend all the time inbetween in suspended animation without developing new technologies or magics. Why then was Asgard unable to detect their ship or have so much trouble with them? Had the long peace made Asgard complacent? They were so unused to taking the fight to their enemies they were not really prepared for an attack on Asgard? Did Malekith's ship have some sort of cloaking device and weapons that the rest of his forces lacked?

** 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.

** 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.

* Seriously, where on earth was SHIELD? Darcy mentions trying to contact them, but not being able to. But Sevig is a former SHIELD researcher, who crazy or not did work with a highly dangerous technology. And they know Jane Foster is important to Thor, and they would at least send someone to talk to Darcy and Ian after Thor shows up and takes off with her. Not to mention that random gravity anomalies and stuff disappearing into thin air is the sort of thing they'd at least send an agent to investigate.

** Still seems odd they weren't monitoring Sevig, or Jane at all, considering their respective connections to certain Asgardians.

** And isn't SHIELD based in America? The entire events of the movie take place in England. On a regular plane, that's an eight hour flight at least. So by the time they mobilise people to send out and properly assess the situation before sending their helicarriers, it would have been wrapped up. There's an episode of ''Agents of SHIELD'' showing them cleaning up after the destruction, so they clearly got there too late to help in the battle.

** 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]]

** 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). ]]

** And even if he doesn't, Odin is still (as far as Thor knows) fit to be king. Meanwhile the other realms are, to put it mildly, going to hell in a handbasket after eons of relative peace, with an unknown alien force making a play for Earth, the Dark elves returning after being gone for thousands of years, the Infinity Stones making a sudden reappearance, Earth going into a new age of superpowered beings and super science, etc. Thor's talents, as he himself says, are needed elsewhere at the moment and he cannot protect all the realms if he's focused on ruling Asgard.

** One must remember that Thor is still a Norse god and as such dying in battle is actually the best way to go out. Thor saw The Son of Coul, a warrior, face off in single combat against a vastly superior enemy and not flinch. Sure he was defeated pretty handily but there is no shame in going out fighting against an enemy that completely outclasses you. As far as Thor is concerned dying in such a manner is how every warrior should want to die. The attack on New York on the other hand targeted civilians and not warriors. The attack on Jotunheim did not allow the Jotuns to fight back, robbing them of a good death for them. I have a feeling Thor would have thoguht very differently about the invasion if Loki had attacked military targets instead of a city.

'''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...\\

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

* 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!

** 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.

** 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.

* According to Odin, Malekith sacrificed his own people during their LastStand. But the scene doesn't show or hint on Malekith doing ANYTHING, especially after losing the Aether. We're shown the Asgardians slaughtering the Dark Elves, and then the Dark Elves' ships crashing down, and his lines after that are too ambiguous to prove he actively caused the ships to crash instead of just taking advantage of the situation to retreat. Are we supposed to assume he can telepathically make an entire fleet, piloted by his own people, just shut down and crash(Or that his entire species was in those ships? Sure, the Dark World doesn't seem to have any buildings, but still...)? Or is that a hint that [[WrittenByTheWinners Odin's history lesson is inaccurate and biased]]? Aside from him, no one says anything about Malekith commiting genocide, not even his own men, and Malekith and Kursed's lines on the Dark World, plus Odin then later stating, gleefully, that his father actively slaughtered all the Dark Elves, [[FridgeHorror imply Bor and the Asgardians shut down those ships and put the blame on Malekith when writing the history]]. This, plus WordOfGod that the Dark Elves' realm is a wasteland because the Asgardians used toxic gas to try and kill the Dark Elves, Eccleston's comments on Malekith having lost his family, and Odin's rampant Jerkassery through the movie implies there's more to that story.

** 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.

** I think it's something akin to those in-car cams that I've seen installed in some NASCAR racecars at the Daytona 500, where the camera is on a rig that is always level with the surface of earth even when the car is going through the steeply banked turns.

* Okay, so Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy showed us that even touching an Infinity Stone can literally rip someone to shreds and that a group of people all sharing its energy can only hold it for a little before they are consumed. If this is so, then how the everloving ''heck'' can Jane get away with having the Aether running in her veins for days with only dark eyes and occasional fainting spells? Is the Aether not as strong as Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy's Infinity Stone? Is Jane stronger than she looks?

** It is ambiguous and there is evidence for both. The after-credits scene in the first film mentioned alternate dimensions and the whole Convergence implies that as well. Yet, Yggdrasil is depicted as some cosmic cloud in the same universe and the Marauders able to attack the different realms means either some pirates got interdimensionl technology or the realms are all in the same universe.
** The MCU Wiki states that the "realms" are just planets connected by Bifrost/Yggdrasil - sorta like metro stations within a bigger city. It's uncertain whether the Wiki is corrent in its assertion, but it would explain why Marauders can travel between the realms without Bifrost, and there could be something specific about Yggdrasil's nature that makes Convergence so dangerous. The "world tree" is probably some sort of natural or Asgard-engineered reality warp that encompasses those nine worlds and somehow bends reality to make "practical" distance between them shorter and allow shortcuts like the one Loki knows of. The Convergence could simply mean the reality warp being in its peak condition - melding the worlds instead of just providing shortcuts - so Yggdrasil's capability to mess up the rest of the universe could be at its peak as well.

*** This is the Met we're talking about here. Overreacting to "terrorism" is a new thing but they have been defending property over people for over a hundred years.

*** Which is exactly what didn't happen in Guardians of the Galaxy.

*** Thor is not stupid, and never has been, even in the myths (for instance, tricking a dwarf who came asking to marry Thor's daughter into staying put all night, thus turning to stone when the sun came up.) At his worst, Thor merely typifies WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer, because he rarely ''needs'' to think through a problem beyond "introduce hammer to face." When he does, however, he can come up with some surprisingly clever solutions.

*** The "gem" or whatever was only "implanted" to get it through Asgard security. Once Algrim was in his cell, he pulled it out and crushed it in his hand, same as the other Kursed. My WildMassGuessing is that, when Malekith told Algrim he "would be the last Kursed," he was referring to the fact that this was the last stone they had, and couldn't make any more (possibly because it was an Aether-powered weapon, like Red Skull's Tesseract blasters.) So it may have been substantially more powerful than the others, resulting in a substantially more powerful Kursed. Or that Algrim was already much more fearsome than the average Dark Elf, so the gem increased his power by substantially more.

*** And when you did, it would be green. Because that's how Loki rolls.

** Or he was hedging his bets, just in case [[spoiler: Odin saw through his scheme when he came back to report his own death disguised as the guard. Had his illusion been penetrated, he could've claimed that he'd honestly ''wanted'' to make amends, but just couldn't believe Thor or Odin would ever forgive him. So (he'd claim) he faked his death to test them both, seeing whether a HeroicSacrifice and/or a "dying" declaration of remorse would earn back their respect and affection]].

** Or he was hedging his bets, just in case Odin saw through his scheme when he came back to report his own death disguised as the guard. Had his illusion been penetrated, he could've claimed that he'd honestly ''wanted'' to make amends, but just couldn't believe Thor or Odin would ever forgive him. So, he faked his death to test them both, seeing whether a HeroicSacrifice and/or a "dying" declaration of remorse would earn back their respect and affection.

** In ''Film/TheAvengers,'' Tony Stark points out Loki is a prima donna that like to put up a show with him as the star. If Jane dies Thor will be distraught more about her than Loki. Loki being the attention whore that he is won't have that.

* While Loki [[spoiler: is dying]], he repeatedly says "I'm sorry" to Thor. What is he sorry for? Considering that [[spoiler: the death was all just an act]] it's tempting to chalk it up to just another empty lie to gain Thor's sympathy, but I have a hard time seeing why it would even be worth it to stay in good favor with Thor at this point considering that Loki could [[spoiler: usurp the throne]] with or without Thor's love. Was it a preemptive apology for [[spoiler: taking the throne]]? Or for the events of ''Film/TheAvengers''? Or was it because Loki [[spoiler: blames himself for Frigga's death]]?

** If he had a legitimate right to sit the throne at the moment (such as Odin entering the Odinsleep), he wouldn't need to bother with an illusion. Furthermore, he was almost certainly removed from the line of succession after the events of ''Film/TheAvengers'', when he was imprisoned.

** 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)