Thor Ragnarok: Revealing the Double Consciousness of the Chaos G-d

Let’s talk about Thor Ragnarok, objectively the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thor trilogy and probably the closest we are ever going to get to a Planet Hulk movie.

Quick recap for anyone who hasn’t seen it:

We meet back up with Thor, who after escaping hell (literally) finds his brother masquerading as Odin, drinking and putting on plays to validate his own supposed heroics. He calls Loki out immediately ruining his fun and drags him away to find the real Odin. They return to Earth finding their father with a little help from Dr. Strange, only for Odin to tell that he’s dying and that when he does his evil daughter, that he never told the two of them about, will come to reclaim Asgard. He dies like a minute later, then Hela appears breaks Mjolnir and reveals Asgard’s imperialist past, before banishing her brothers. They end up on the Grandmaster’s planet and Thor gets captured for the gladiatorial rings there, while Loki consorts with the Grandmaster. Thor is forced to face off against Hulk, who has apparently been the jolly green giant for three years now. Long story short Thor, Loki, Hulk/Bruce, the other gladiators, and this really cool Valkyrie chick escape the Grandmaster's planet and then proceed to a boss battle with Hela in which they blow up Asgard (after getting all plot relevant characters off world) to prevent Hela from establishing a tyrannical govt.

What makes it worth discussing:

While the movie merits praise based on its comedic aspects alone, what really elevates the film is the subversive postcolonial critique it makes within the overall context of the Thor trilogy. Prior to the big reveal of Asgard's Imperialist past as shown by the shattered murals, the Asgardian peoples are indisputably the heroes of the narrative, justified in war by their superior moral status. They are quite literally depicted as the saviors of humanity in the first film, when they defeat the Jotun preventing an ice age on Midgard (aka Earth). The halo-esc discs drawn behind the head of Odin in the remade murals certainly attest to this idea.

History Rewritten in Art; the mural before misconceptions are quite literally shattered.

So when Hela reveals the reality of Asgardian rule and subjugation, the attempts of the Jotun to create a new Jontunheim on Midgard using the Casket of Ancient Winters (think Arc of the Covenant religious significance levels), takes on the aspect of a peoples searching for a way to ensure their own cultural identity continues on even if it means abandoning their ancestral home (an action mirrored by the Asgardians in the newest film). King Laufrey (King of the Jotun) isn't a monster in this context, but a revolutionary put down by a tyrannical ruler. 

A Totalitarian Reality of War and Enslavement

His struggle is silenced by the rewritten history of an empire and the very objective of his last ditch effort towards freedom is spat on as his son last of the royal bloodline is raised by the enemy who subjugated his people. 

Reading Loki as a Colonized Subject:

Colonialist ideology was instilled in Loki early, even as a baby he attempted to mimic the culture in which he was being raised, shifting his appearance magically to appear Asgardian. 

Baby Loki shape-shifting to match his oppressors

For all he knew he was Asgardian, his adopted family had allowed him to live under this misconception and had raised him as if he was such. Maybe he didn't fit all the respected personality traits associated with his culture, but this was his family. He was Asgardian, until of course he wasn't.  

Loki's True Parentage is Revealed

In the above scene from the first Thor movie, he accuses Odin of seeing him as just "another stolen relic", tears in his eyes as the entirety of his worldview is shattered just as thoroughly as the murals will later be. It is in this moment that Loki begins to embody the ideal of Double Consciousness. He is inextricably caught between two cultures, the one he grew up in and the one he was born into, yet he belongs to neither: too much the Asgardian to ever hold standing among the Jotun and too Jotun to ever sit on the throne of Asgard.

Unable to reconcile with this reality, Loki becomes 'unhomed'. He leaves Asgard and denounces his relationship to Odin and Frigga, finalizing his separation in the physical not just psychological realm.

His ensuing character arc follows the story of him rebelling and returning as he attempts to come to terms with the aspects of himself he never before had the luxury to explore and how they fit into the framework of who he once was. The way he goes about this isn't always for the best (referring of course to the disaster in New York), but it is the psychological alienation from the self which ultimately drives his at times incredibly violent and self indulgent actions. 

Conclusion:

Thor Ragnarok in revealing the Imperialist past of Asgard, allows one a unique glimpse into the characterization of Loki as not a villain, but a man inextricably caught between two cultures, whose at time erratic behavior can perhaps be attributed to an unstable sense of self. His title of Chaos G-d a referencing not only to the unrest he acts upon the world, but the unrest within.