Does Thor Deserve DEATH!? | Marvel

foreign ER An Almighty holy weapon built to harness a power of fear by the gods themselves forged by ancient Dwarven blacksmiths in the heart of another worldly star crafted from the metals of a moon that's existed since the beginning of time fueled by the imprisoned remnants of a universe shaking horror that nearly drove entire pantheons to Extinction and Enchanted by the all-father of Asgard Odin himself for nearly a thousand years this physical manifestation of divine justice has been used by Thor the God of Thunder to strike down evil and also probably nails hello I'm Tyler this is the imaginary axis and the room we're in right now might exist outside of time and space but most people consider a thousand years to be pretty long gonna be honest Thor's looking good for a guy who not only predates Shakespeare but the historical figures Shakespeare's plays were based on needless to say the God of Thunder has seen a lot in his millennia-long Crusade against the forces that threaten Asgard so much in fact that even his own Godly memory can't keep track of it all there are mortal women I know I've loved and man I've stood by in battle who I'm ashamed to say I can no longer recall Thor's been alive for so long that he can't remember the first woman he kissed the first dragon he tamed or the side of his own father smiling and it's hard to hold it against the big guy when he's basically been living the Viking Life for longer than the entire Viking era send anybody through that many battles and certain struggles probably start blending together but there was one struggle one trial across the proud deities endless lifespan that put Thor up against an enemy he can't Target an adversary so vicious so sadistic that even to this day the God of Thunder swears he'll remember every ounce of suffering that he was force fed under this barbarian's hand until the end of time his name was Gore the god butcher and for those of you who aren't in the know that title was far from an exaggeration Gore is one of the most dangerous enemies Thor's ever faced Not only was he strong and deadly but there was sort of a twisted spiteful brutality to the way he dealt with anyone unfortunate enough to end up in his crosshairs the god butcher wasn't your typical comic book supervillain of the month with the new scheme for the hero to foil each issue just so he could disappear swear revenge and try something different next time instead Gore offered a single performance and a brief Encore all focused around one philosophy that nearly reshaped the entire Marvel Multiverse and continues to live rent free in Thor's head to this very day he believed that all gods deserve to die all of them and he wasn't confused or psychotic or hyperbolic or misanthropic or omnicidal or megalomaniacal or harboring any secondary agenda he just argued that they were vain selfish creatures with incalculable power that brought far more harm into the world than good and the scary part was Thor kind of agreed with him he agreed with him so much that he almost let Gore murder him he built this giant super weapon that was about to kill off every God and every reality across all creation from the beginning of time to its end and Thor just barely managed to stop it before it detonated but right before delivering the final blow he hesitated wondering if maybe Gore had a point let's back up a bit this is the reason Thor knows he'll always remember his encounter with the god butcher no matter how long he lives sure he was ruthless and crafty and Powerful Thor's literally generated enough energy to out muscle a small Multiverse before and this guy fought three of him at once including one that was powerful enough to trade blows with Galactus but the real impact Gore left was in the strength of his arguments he hurt Thor's confidence so much that several stories later in a battle against Nick Fury the God of Thunder actually dropped his hammer and couldn't pick it up for months because he became unworthy after Nick whispered three simple words into his ear Gore was right so what exactly did the gods do to deserve all this doubt I mean yeah there are good gods and bad Gods like any other species in the Multiverse No One's Gonna blame Gore for going after hella Apophis kakia ravana or Niar lavateep but why bring the fight to Thor or Hercules for that matter or yeah I don't know this guy for instance not every God is an imminent threat to humanity some of them hardly interact with the world at all what did any of these people do to deserve the death sentence well fortunately Gore tells us it will be a better world without gods without you you know what I know that gods have never created or cared for anything except themselves and he tells us all you've ever brought this universe is misery Gods didn't create mankind but someday if they're not stuffed they will end it two omnipotent Brothers squabbling with each other while all of existence Withers around them this is exactly why I've always despised your kind and boy does he tell us where were you when we needed our gods each of these bones represents a life that you failed to save oh mighty thaw honestly sometimes it's hard to find a moment when Gore isn't explaining his deep burning hatred for everything holy but if you don't pay close attention it can be easy to miss the heart of his reasoning notice how half of Gore's complaints focus on the gods being tyrants or abusive while the other half focus on them never being around one minute they're dangerous the next they're dangerously useless seems like a contradiction right well it's not it's actually a peek into the deeper philosophy that underpins Gore's entire argument the same philosophy that ultimately sentences Thor and every other benevolent God to death right alongside their less amicable counterparts to put it in ethical terms Gore's what you'd call a utilitarian in my travels I have learned that there are two kinds of Gods those who do harm and those who do nothing at all I have yet to decide which I find more worthy of my wrath ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with moral principles how we Define right and wrong a utilitarian is somebody who believes it has to do with how effectively your actions benefit the majority stop me if you've heard this one before a trolley is barreling down the road toward five people tied to the tracks on the ground ahead you can't do anything to stop the vehicle but there's a lever nearby that you could pull which would cause the trolley to switch rails setting it on an alternate path that only has one person tied to the tracks sure by pulling that lever you'd technically be sentencing an innocent man to death he'd have been fine if you never came along that trolley wasn't even on his Railway but a utilitarian would argue that it's still the right thing to do sacrificing one person to ensure the lives of five reduces the amount of overall suffering it's like a math problem utilitarianism doesn't judge you based on the action of pulling the lever it judges you based on that action's consequences you're aiming to preserve as much utility as possible otherwise known as happiness or well-being and nobody's treated with any special priority even if you were the one tied to that alternate track pulling the lever in sacrificing yourself would still be the right thing to do if you could reach it but what does all this say about people who choose not to pull the lever someone who comes across this problem understands what's happening and knows he can do something about it but chooses to just sit back and watch five people get demolished by a trolley instead doesn't he share at least some responsibility for the extra casualties what if there wasn't another person tied to the opposite track at all and he still chose to do nothing this is what Gore sees when he's talking about the gods yes the bad gods are bad the dangerous gods are dangerous and the tyrannical gods are tyrannical but are the good ones any better the gods who lead their men into battle because they get a throw from it the ones who spend all day in the banquet halls or throne room playing sports writing poems sleeping some might answer the occasional prayer or swoop in to save a village every now and then but reality is filled to the brim with suffering constantly it's nothing but pure chaos out there people are tortured lonely starving to death lives lost dreams crushed families broken entire planets annihilated like clockwork tragedy and Terror Reign across the cosmos leaving us to drift like specks among the vicious tides of an ambivalent universe and the only people with enough power to do anything about it usually can't be bothered they sit back and socialize among themselves in Utopias Untouched by the suffering a utilitarian might consider that kind of behavior pretty evil but that behavior is not just common it's the standard Western cultures today tend to have this idea that a God's job is to have Humanities back even when you feel alone and defeated a proper God is supposed to be there for you it's just hard to tell sometimes because humans have a limited perspective when the gods aren't answering prayers there's a reason for it but that's actually a relatively judeo-christian mindset it comes from the Bible where mankind is depicted as God's single favorite creation and God himself is invested in the relationship he has with each individual historically speaking that level of interest in the survival and development of man isn't inherent in every deity's main agenda the ancient Norse would sometimes call Odin the ruler of treachery yeah that's Thor's dad for you he overcame a lot of obstacles with less than honest behavior and just because you believed in him didn't mean you were always happy with him he was known to start wars among the peaceful because he enjoyed the frenzy of battle he spent a lot of time helping Outlaws because he considered bravery and strength more important than Justice or social cohesion and some even say he saw to it that his favorite Warriors would die in action every so often because he was raising an Army in Valhalla and he could only recruit people to that afterlife if they died in battle these were probably ways for the early Nordic people to understand a lot of the brutality and disorder that made up their world at the time the gods weren't there to protect them they were just there a diverse race of higher beings with their own struggles relationships values and interests who kept the universe functioning the way it did and some could be appealed to by humans if they knew what they were doing but it wasn't a necessity and it wasn't guaranteed that they'd listen there's even a pretty famous Icelandic Legend from the 10th Century that focuses on its main character realizing the gods are undependable and it's better for man to rely on his own virtues instead this is how a lot of ancient societies saw reality and that's the reality Thor comes from so when you look at Gore's argument against the gods it's easy to see why it would strike a chord with him Thor was originally banished to Earth in the first place as part of a lesson in humility having his divinity Stripped Away and his power sealed inside a hammer gave him an appreciation for The Human Condition Thor is one of the only Gods who understands the struggles associated with mortality and he's also one of the only Gods loaning out his talents as a part-time superhero that perspective made him realize just how much Humanity needed him and how selfish he was for not doing more you know who else has history with an ambivalent Pantheon Gore yeah it shouldn't really surprise anyone at this point considering his targets and the motive behind his outrage but the god butcher wasn't born a god butcher he started out among peers as part of this semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer Lifestyle on a planet plagued by rough terrain frequent earthquakes and a harsh Sun that never sat his tribe organized most of their Traditions around his shared religion but food was still hard to come by Predators were hard to kill and you were lucky to live till the age of 30. Gore's people traveled from cave to Cave between sandstorms licking lime off the bottom of rocks for nutrition the guy had to watch his mother die his children die his pregnant wife die his last son literally passed away in his arms due to heat exhaustion and Gore didn't have enough water in his body to cry you could forgive him for doubting that is God's ever existed you might even go a step further and forgive him for flying into a blind rage the moment he realized they definitely did two Gods crash landed in his backyard injured from some kind of wild battle and as soon as Gore came across the scene he noticed a mysterious sword piercing one of their flesh so he used it to stab them both to death the weapon gave him Cosmic abilities thousands of them including the power to kill the unkillable it elevated him to a level even beyond the gods and he took that opportunity to harness his Decades of Abandonment for the sole purpose of making Heaven pay which leaves us with our last big mystery after testimony from Thor Gore mythology philosophy and even the man Nick Fury himself we finally have to answer the one question that's been on every God's mind since Thor saved them from certain Doom was Gore right if he'd been a Lesser God Thor might have accepted that Gore had won and more so that Gore deserved to win that gods were cruel and jealous creatures that it was time for their age to pass what if they really are better off without us Thor wandered in fear what if a Godless age is what they deserve what if Gore isn't a Madman at all Gods help us what if he's wrong I've read through Gore's file a dozen times at this point and no matter how I analyze this man's life I cannot come up with a reasonable interpretation where he's the good guy convincing though he may sound Gore's case against the gods just always falls apart the moment consistent standards are applied he claims the gods are jealous Petty and arrogant creatures okay but compared to what humans are jealous Petty arrogant creatures Gore is a jealous Petty arrogant creature Gods aren't even close to the most consistently malevolent faction in all of Marvel and it's not like Gore is evaluating each God for good character before killing them anyway he was just slaughtering Gods indiscriminately by his own admission there are trillions of them and that bomb he made was going to wipe out every God in the infinite Multiverse call me skeptical but I don't think Gore had the data to verify that these are Universal character traits shared by every God ever born there's basically a 100 chance that he was going to catch a lot of innocent deities in that explosion all right but he also said Humanity would be better off without the gods didn't he no they objectively wouldn't they'd be better off without some Gods sure but again Gore wasn't only butchering the openly evil ones or the ones who didn't care about collateral damage he was killing all of them that includes every God who's never seen Immortal before every random deity managing a bakery in Asgard every Almighty who only answers prayers when it's convenient for them occasionally helping humanity is still helping Humanity there is this one scene where he insists that even harmless gods are dangerous because religion is bad for mental health or relationships or something but practically none of the studies on that subject agree with him most of them say the opposite Faith tends to be associated with higher levels of happiness and optimism higher Social functioning fewer self-destructive Tendencies even longer life spans and higher quality of life overall religion is so consistently useful in dealing with mental health problems like anxiety and depression that recovery programs often encourage partaking in religious or pseudo-religious activities Gore's best argument by far has always been the utilitarian angle accusing even the harmless gods of implicit Evil by refusing to rid the world of suffering but even then Gore doesn't take any time to investigate the circumstances surrounding their situation did you know the gods have a parliament it was built billions of years ago after the first Great War of the Gods it's a place where every major Pantheon meets to sign treaties swear covenants and establish boundaries gods have agreed upon territories law enforcement trade systems Intergalactic politics maybe the gods haven't eliminated suffering because it isn't as easy as wading your hand and making it happen maybe there are complexities about the universe that you haven't encountered and obstacles that even the gods can't just ignore maybe none of the Gods knew you were trapped on a desert planet or maybe they did and when one of them came crashing Through Your Atmosphere with a sword in his chest you should have taken a moment to consider that perhaps the magic god-slaying sword had something to do with why the gods haven't been answering your prayers lately maybe you were just the victim of somebody butchering your gods and you picked up where he left off but every excuse aside the truth is Gore needed help maybe the gods could have helped him but didn't is Gore entitled to their help some would say the fact that nobody is entitled to anybody's help is part of what makes charity a virtue if Thor decided to hang up his hammer travel back to Asgard and start a family would that really be so different from a fireman or a police officer deciding that they want to do something else with their life there's a very strict utilitarian interpretation that says not helping people when you have the power to help them is evil always period Thor fireman doesn't matter but I know Gore doesn't believe in that philosophy because when he found a magic sword in the sand capable of cosmic Miracles he didn't use it to feed his starving tribe or lower the scorching sun or bring water to the desert he abandoned his people to go on a genocidal Rampage if Gore were judging the gods with strict utilitarianism then the first person he'd need to turn that sword on is himself life is tough for all of us man God and everything in between when you suffer it's proof that you're living but you can either look for someone to blame like Gore picking up his sword for the first time or you can look for an opportunity to grow like Thor picking up his hammer everybody has their own struggles you know what most people don't do they don't go slaughtering everybody else for the crime of not being there to rescue them Gore's mother didn't live to be 30 years old she wandered from one dried up cave to the next with her husband dying of sun exposure and her only child constantly starving she did her best and she thought the entire experience was a miracle because she had the opportunity to fall in love to raise her son Gore lived for over 3000 years hated every minute of it I know which one I'd rather be next time you find yourself trapped in a difficult place try to remember that blessings are in the eye of the beholder and do what you can I can't promise that the experience will be easy or brief but the one thing you can control is yourself and that's all you need to see the world in a way that doesn't destroy your life in the long run Gore was wrong but you don't have to be [Music] you know while we're on the subject if you like not being wrong and using philosophy to unravel the truth behind comic book Gods we made a video digging into the hidden lore behind DC's Unholy super villain Dark Side a while back or if Marvel is more your thing and you like science we also went into detail about exactly how powerful Galactus can become you know that Cosmic giant an older version of Thor was fighting near the beginning of this video highly recommend that episode as well and for those of you wondering if you can expect more imaginary access in the future well I want to say yes but somebody sort of rigged this God bomb to blow up the entire internet instead of everything Godly and I don't think I can defuse it myself unless you hit the Subscribe button before the video ends please do something you're our only hope oh wait I guess I could just end the video before it explodes right

Channel: The Imaginary Axis

Views: 191,104

Keywords: marvel, thor, gorr, mcu, love and thunder, ragnarok, norse, mythology, odin, asgard, mjolnir, imaginary axis

Id: lMwWD4gZM7I

Length: 20min 45sec (1245 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 21 2023