This page contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!
While Ragnarök itself can be heart wrenching, the perseverance and dedication of both its combatants and its audience can also be downright inspirational:
- In general, the way that most of the humans in the afterlife have put aside any grudges or animosities they might have had against one another in life in order to support the Einherjar can be pretty inspiring. This is especially so for the direct supporters of the Einherjar, many of whom tend be former rivals who, without any more need for conflict or ambition, can instead reflect on how much they respect their peers for their skills and bravery. Some highlights include:
- The Three Kingdoms generals (Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu) acknowledging Lü Bu's strength and motivating him to continue fighting against Thor.
- Cain and Abel who seem to have returned to simply being bickering siblings while supporting their father.
- Tesla's fellow scientists, most notably Thomas Edison himself who has nothing but awe and reverence for the man whose science he declares the greatest in human history.
- When Kojiro was starting to lose heart, he heard the cheering from his past opponents, all of those that have bested him. This gave him his Heroic Second Wind that allowed him to take on Poseidon and give humanity it's first win.
- Heracles hugging Jack. Heracles was probably one of the few people who feels sadness for Jack and held no anger toward him. It had such an impact on Jack himself that he came to regret killing Heracles.
- During his introduction much ado is made of Adam's hatred for the gods, how if any mortal deserves to hate them it's Adam. But during the fight Zeus remarks that he doesn't sense a hint of anger coming from Adam, questioning why he's fighting if not to avenge himself on the gods. Adam's response?Adam: Everybody's always asking me that question and it seems now you are too. Is it hatred? Or revenge? Why does it matter? That's irrelevant. Is there any man alive who needs a reason to protect his very own children?
- The entire relationship between Thrud and Raiden, where she doesn't find herself to be beautiful, but he is immediately infatuated with her and her appearance, but especially the end of the 5th Fight: Raiden is about to die and asks Thrud to undo the Volund so she wouldn't die with him. She refuses because she promised herself that she would never let go of the man she loves. They embrace each other and decide to die together.
- Raiden, to Thrud: Damn, how much better a lady can I get than you?
- Zerofuku, despite being overwhelmed by grief, anger, and all of the misfortune he'd absorbed, still loved humans enough to split himself into seven pieces so that he wouldn't hurt them.
- The people whose misery was taken away by Zerofuku finally showing gratitude to him after his death, including the boy whose life he saved and grew up to be a Jerkass in his backstory. Even the bird that Zero put back to its nest when it was a hatchling comes down to mourn him despite how Zero scared him off when he reached his breaking point at seeing his efforts to bring happiness to humans were in vain, proving the bird kept loving him even after that.
- Hades’ love for his brothers, as flawed as they are. He fought an entire army in Helheim to help his brothers above win the war against the Giants, he saved Adamas’ life when Poseidon killed him by getting Beelzebub to remake him into the god Adamantine, and his entire motivation for entering Ragnarok is to get revenge for the death of his brother Poseidon. The man deeply loves his family and as the eldest, he is willing to do anything to protect his siblings.
- Another heartwarming Hades moment occurs in a flashback to the Gigantomachy, the battle that took place when Gaia led the giants in an invasion of Helheim. While the rest of the Greek gods fought with the giants in Olympus Palace, Hades fought off the Titans alone before his family ever knew they had invaded to begin with. When Poseidon goes to check on his elder brother later and finds him half-collapsed in front of a pile of Titan corpses, Hades just says it was his duty as the eldest to protect his siblings. Even the cold Poseidon is touched/impressed enough by this to call Hades his "brother" for what was apparently the first time ever.
- Despite the tournament's losers suffering a Deader than Dead fate after their respective rounds, Chapter 76 reveals that Brunhilde keeps holograms of the eight fighters who'd lost to that point in the manga in her room as reminders of what each one represented (justice for Heracles, dignity for Hades, etc.)... even Poseidon, who nobody but his servant Proteus and Hades had much good to say about. It's a small token, but it is touching to see that disappeared souls get their memorial.
