"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Relationship Spotlight: Valkyrie & Thor (The Avengers)



I don’t really want to use this post to be hard on Jane, but the pairing between her and Thor always fell just short of working for me.  While I do think she was dropped rather unceremoniously in Ragnarok, I can’t deny feeling the instant spark – not overtly romantic at this point, but still electric – between Thor and Valkyrie (Thor-Valykrie-related spoilers.)

After spending two movies on the things that come with a human-Asgardian romance – the fascination/misunderstandings involved in being from different worlds, the awe of a human meeting a “god,” the mortal/immortal issue – it’s nice to see Valkyrie and Thor on more equal footing from the get-go (and I swear that’s the last time I’ll reference Jane.)  As a fellow Asgardian, albeit one who’s been away from Asgard for a long time, Valkyrie’s strength and battle skills are comparable to Thor’s, and they were both raised in the same culture.  They also both have experience traveling to other planets (although not necessarily the same planets – by the time Thor arrives on Sekarr, Valkyrie already knows the lay of the land quite well.)  This allows them to skip a lot of the steps that go on between Thor and humans with no knowledge of Asgard.

And so, they can get right on with it.  We learn that Valkyrie’s past service as one of Odin’s warriors, and her rough experiences therein, have made her wary of the royal famil.  When Thor tries to enlist her help in fighting for Asgard, she balks at the idea of giving any more of herself for the sake of the monarchs’ conflicts.  This means Thor needs to find a different way to reach her, appealing to the part of her that wants vengeance for her sisters slain in battle so many years ago, to again confront Hela (the reason she left Asgard in the first place.)  It provides a good means of getting to know Valkyrie a little better, and it also forces Thor to think beyond “I’m the son of Odin” being a good enough reason to get someone to do what he says.

Because this is Ragnarok, these two also bring the comedy together (given what Ragnarok actually is in Norse mythology, that makes this a really weird statement to make, but it’s true all the same.)  Thor’s often-misplaced cockiness goes well with Valkyrie’s dry self-assurance, and they spar verbally with one another almost as well as they trade physical blows.  Because Valkyrie captures Thor on Sekarr and gives him to the Grandmaster, she has the upper hand in a lot of their early interactions, a position that Thor doesn’t often find himself in.  So, it’s fun to watch him brashly try to assert control and her blithely shut him down.  At the same time, though, the power differential isn’t completely one-sided.  Valkyrie may be a badass warrior who gets the jump on Thor early on, but she has her own issues, too, and while they’re rooted in the trauma of war, stuff like her tendency to drown her memories in booze lead to some amusing moments where she gets a swing and a miss on the “badass warrior” front.

While I imagine the plan is to go for some sort of Thor-Valkyrie romance down the line (during the Infinity War(!!!) stuff?  Will there even be time?  Beats me,) and you can see tiny hints of it in their interactions, I really like the comrades-in-arms way they ultimately fight together.  Both are strong and skilled in combat, and in the major fight scenes, they’re equally able to go off and do their own thing, addressing separate parts of the issue, and come together to face a foe in tandem.  It’s just a really refreshing, kind of egalitarian dynamic.  I like that Valkyrie doesn’t need Thor coming to her “rescue,” and by the same turn, he doesn’t need to be emasculated for her to be strong.  I think I’d really enjoy a romance between them that maintains that dynamic of them having each other’s backs as equals.

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