Man, Thor is so cool. But isn't he kind of overpowered? I mean, it seems like he's never met a problem he couldn't hammer until it went away. Hasn't he ever... struggled? Well, my sweet little sailor on the seas of myth-o history, The answer is: No, not really. But this one time, kind of, a little bit from a certain point of view. Our story begins with Thor and Loki travelling to visit the confusingly named Jotun king Útgarða-Loki (no relation to regular Loki) for unspecified reasons. But not before a quick side trip where they grab dinner with a local peasant family. Unsuprisingly, the family's not super well equipped to feed Thor but luckily Thor always keeps an emergency snack on his person for just such an occasion. By which I mean he slaughters one of his chariot pulling goats for the peasants, but tells him to save the bones and wrap them in the skin overnight. Since it'll let him bring the goat back to life in the morning. Which kind of implies he does this a lot (that's got to be rough on the goat). They share a hearty meal, but the peasants' son Þjálfi cracks open one of the goat bones for that tasty marrow. You know, I never saw the appeal. It's just like goop. Blood-producing goop. That feels like the ickiest part of the animal - Okay, never mind. Point is the bone is broken, so the next day when Thor resurrects the goat, it's acquired a suddenly limp. Thor is pretty cranky, but as payment for the goat, the peasant offers him his children Þjálfi and Röskva as his servants. And Thor seems to consider this a decent trade so he mellows out and they move on. So Thor and Loki (plus these two random kids) continue on their way Resting for the night in a weird cave-like building they find in the middle of the woods. But when the Sun rises and they head outside, they find the biggest giant they've ever seen sleeping nearby This giant is named Skrymer, (which they learn when he wakes up) greets them and asked them what they were doing inside his empty glove. That's a big dude So they have breakfast together and Skrymer offers to carry their food for them and when they rest for the night, he tells Thor he can take whatever food he wants from his bag. This is pretty nice of him But somehow the bag is tied way too tightly to the point that not even Thor can open it. Thor is already pretty hangry so he doesn't take this very well and wallops the sleeping Skrymer in the head. Instead of the anticipated outcome (aka Skrymer dying), he wakes up asks if a leaf landed on his head and goes back to sleep. That's already a pretty sizable blow to the ego, but to make things worse, Skrymer snores like a continental subduction and Thor tries hitting him two more times throughout the night with just as little effect. One very sleepless night later, Skrymer tells the gang they should probably turn back and abandon their journey to see Útgarða-Loki, but if they're determined to visit him, they definitely shouldn't brag about their abilities. Because not only is Útgarða-Loki even bigger and stronger than Skrymer, so are all of his thanes and they definitely won't be impressed. With that Skrymer leaves and the gang continues to Útgarða-Loki because Odin didn't raise no quitter, but he definitely raised a fool or two. So the gang arrives at the fortress of Útgarða-Loki which is unsurprisingly really, really big to accommodate the really big Giants that live there. Continuing the humiliation conga line, Thor finds the massive gate is too heavy for him to open, but on the plus side they are comparatively small enough to fit between the bars So they get in and approach the truly enormous Útgarða-Loki, Útgarða-Loki is unimpressed (as Skrymer suggested he would be), and tells the gang that he doesn't let just anyone stay at his fortress, all his visitors need to be very exceptional in at least one way. So if they want to stay, they're gonna need to prove themselves. So Loki steps up all like Loki (obnoxious, posh accent): You want exception? Well, no one can eat faster than me! Red: And Útgarða-Loki is like Útgarða-Loki: Unorthodox display of hubris, but very well. Red: and brings out the also confusingly named, Logi (not to be confused with either of the Loki's in this story), and sets up a big trough full of meat for the two of them to go at. Loki and Logi demolished the trough with terrifying efficiency and meet in the middle, but where Loki effectively ate all the meat off the bones on his side, Logi ate the meat, the bones, AND THE TROUGH Logi - 1, Loki - 0. So next up Þjálfi says he's the fastest runner he knows and Útgarða-Loki is like Útgarða-Loki: Challenge accepted. Red: And calls up this guy Hugi. Hugi and Þjálfi race, but Hugi keeps beating him by ridiculously wide margins. Though Útgarða-Loki does admit Þjálfi's the best runner they've had in a while. Hugi - 1, Þjálfi - 0 Röskva I guess doesn't want to participate in this hamar-skapt measuring contest. So next up is Thor who says he'd like to participate in a contest of drinking. On brand, I like it So Útgarða-Loki pulls out a big drinking horn and tells Thor that most of his thanes can finish it in one drink, the rest take two, and nobody's pathetic enough to need three. So Thor takes the biggest swig he can manage and barely makes a dent Two hardy swigs later the levels visibly lowered, but he's nowhere near finished Thor - 0, Drinking Horn - 1. And Útgarða-Loki asks if he wants to try something else instead, so Útgarða-Loki's like Útgarða-Loki: Well I never would have suggested this to the Mighty Thor if he hadn't just proved himself to be a COLOSSAL WUSS. But how would you like to try picking up my cat? Red: So Thor tries to pick up the cute kitty, but it does that cat thing where it goes all liquid, it just stretches and stretches. So by the time Thor's got it all the way over his head, only one of its paws is off the ground. Thor - 0, Cat - 1. So by now Thor has had a really trying day He's hungry. He's cranky. He's embarrassed, and he really wants to fight something. So for his final challenge He asks to wrestle someone, and the bad day gets worse when Útgarða-Loki brings out a diminutive old lady as a sparring partner and takes a dive into terrible territory when she kicks his ass. Thor - 0, Grandma - 1. So Útgarða-Loki stops the match and offers the gang hospitality, even though they lost every challenge I guess their sheer protagonist-y gumption impressed him, or maybe it's just regular pity They eat, drink, party, and sleep and the next day Útgarða-Loki escorts them outside the fortress to see them off and privately says Útgarða-Loki: Look guys, I'm gonna level with you You're never coming back here because I seriously underestimated you and you nearly ruined everything. Red: So basically Útgarða-Loki is a huge prankster and powerful illusionist who just kind of wanted to just screw with them by giving them impossible tasks they were guaranteed to fail at. Which is a pretty classic fairy tale format. But Thor is so freaking powerful that he kept nearly killing him or destroying very important parts of the planet in his efforts to succeed. The trouble started when Scrymer found them in the woods. Perhaps unsurprisingly Skrymer was Útgarða-Loki in disguise and he casts some illusions on Thor so when he tried to hit him in the head, he was hitting nearby mountains instead. Incidentally leaving huge squared off valleys wherever he swung. Already pretty unsettling for the trickster. The ravenous Logi that managed to outeat Loki was actually a raging wildfire And the speedster that beat Þjálfi at a footrace was the personification of thought Both obviously unbeatable in their respective fields. The drinking horn Thor failed to empty was actually connected to the ocean which is clearly undrinkable but through his valiant efforts to get drunk he managed to lower the world's water level several feet. This is the first time Útgarða-Loki was like Útgarða-Loki: Oh balls, I might be in over my head Red: That cat he couldn't pick up was his legendary enemy, Jörmungandr the Midgard serpent. And the fact that he managed to dislodge even one paw was very, VERY dangerous for the integrity of the world overall. And the old woman who beat his ass was old age. And the fact he managed to fight her even a little was pants-browningly freaky for Útgarða-Loki. So with that cat out of the bag, Útgarða-Loki tells them to never come back because Thor is just way too OP. And if they try he'll protect his castle with more illusions and make it totally unfindable. Thor reacts by pulling out Mjölnir to beat some catharsis out of him, at which point Útgarða-Loki and the castle both vanish. And that's the story of how Thor had a very embarrassing long weekend full of failure and disappointment, but somehow came out of it cooler and more validated in the eyes of both himself and the world. (Singing) 'Cuz he had a bad day You taking one down You sing a sad song just to turn it around You say you don't know You tell me don't lie You work at a smile and you go for a ride. You had a bad day the camera don't lie You're coming back down and you really don't mind You had a bad day~ You had a bad day~
Man overly scarastic productions are the best
They just used Weird flex but ok
Ah thanks for letting me know. For some reason it just showed and stayed as a still capture for me
In case anybody wants it: link to the original video
https://youtu.be/o9I5bYOJlvI