Just a couple of hot-headed fools

[nrgburst]

One of the awesome things that the MCU allows for is the capacity to focus on the relationship between two seemingly mismatched Avengers outside of an Avengers film. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we were able to see Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov grow, bond and understand each other despite initially having little in common. They’ve done this successfully again with two more dynamics in Thor: Ragnarok: that between both Thor&the Hulk and Thor&Bruce Banner. In fact, despite this being a Thor titled film, both the Hulk and Banner got far more character development than they’ve seen onscreen since the original Avengers- especially the Hulk.

What a difference getting more than a consistently violent and brief tenure onscreen makes! See Hulk bathe! See Hulk eat! See Hulk joke! See Hulk demonstrate that he, too, thinks and feels and remembers, and can “for once in [his] life, [not] smash”. His speech is still limited, but it’s enough to express that he wants to stay on Sakaar-- and knows “Earth hate Hulk”. He also feels the same way about Banner that Banner does about him: “No Banner! Only Hulk!” He’s finally won the tug of war over their body for more than a couple of hours, and he’s thrived. He’s a success, constantly winning the Contest of Champions, with huge crowds rooting for him both in and out of the arena. (In delightful contrast, our hero Thor was resounding boo-ed when he entered the arena.) He’s made at least one friend in Valkyrie/Scrapper 142, and I’d argue that he makes another with Thor.

He doesn’t seem to recall Thor at all when he’s presented with him in the arena, despite all of Thor’s rambling on. One can understand why- he’d previously shared just two one-on-one scenes with Thor in The Avengers- one fighting against him, and then one where they fight together against the Chitauri for 5 seconds that ends with this:

But after the arena fight in Ragnarok, they talk, which is obviously as much of a revelation for Thor as it is the audience. Hulk tells Thor that he arrived on the Quinjet and shows him where is it, they bicker competitively like old friends and then Hulk pulls a Loki-style practical joke on Thor, getting him to run into the force field before declaring, “Thor home.” Later, Hulk notes, “Thor sad,” which is more accurate than Thor wants to admit. They argue, (“You’re not even listening! You’re a bad friend!” “You bad friend!”) and then make up and apologize to each other, giving emotional ground and concessions that they’ve never made with the rest of their “friend[s] from work”. In fact, Hulk demonstrates a newfound ability to listen to reason and be persuaded: he gets Valkyrie to come to his room on Thor’s behalf, uses the word “please” (albeit belatedly), and when Thor tells him “for once in your life, don’t smash,” he grumbles about losing his chance to fight “big monster” but gives in and gives Thor and Valkyrie a lift to the ship when she insists they need to go.

This isn’t a Hulk who constantly needs a lullaby because his usefulness is outweighed by the danger he poses. This is a Hulk who can function with others, who might just be fine in a “pressurized metal container” on its way to Earth, whereas Banner didn’t even trust himself to be on the Helicarrier in The Avengers.

Thing is, Banner has a stake in this too: his own. And he only appears in the latter half of Ragnarok, bewildered and horrified to discover that not only is he on an alien planet, the tables have turned: Hulk has repressed him for two years. (Interestingly, the longest Banner had gone without a Hulk incident was a year, according to The Avengers.) Thor is delighted to finally get Banner out of Hulk, although he’s perturbed to discover that Banner isn’t any more amenable to his plans than the Hulk was. Banner calls him out for being selfish and “gross” and instead of bulldozing over his objections, Thor concedes yet again, agreeing that Banner won’t have to fight and actively protecting him from harm/Hulk triggering. Instead, Thor switches tacks, using tech talk to entice Bruce to come on an adventure through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge with him and Valkyrie. I don’t think Bruce ever saw Thor as anything but brawns with little brain- his science chats are always only with Tony. However, as we saw in Thor when Thor's trying to explain the Bifrost to Jane, Thor understands the science just fine- he just doesn't know how to explain it because human scientific understanding and tech are lagging behind. However, in a space environment, Thor also knows exactly what kind of ship they’re going to need to traverse a wormhole. It’s a deft way to use context to re-frame the way they see each other, and it’ll be a pleasure to see how both relationships continue in the MCU, with Avengers: Infinity War coming up in a few short months.

(GIFs are also made by me. I think they make a neat little visual parallel/contrast.)

Comments

[lynnenne]

I agree with all your thoughts. Bringing Hulk/Banner into this movie was genius. The friendship Thor develops with both of them is one of the best things about the film.

[nrgburst]

It worked so beautifully! The kind of unexpected depths it's hard to get in a movie with a huge ensemble cast like Avengers (and Civil War).

[dhampyresa]

I didn't even notice the fistbump vs high-five in the movie! It's so cute.

[nrgburst]

Yeah, GIFmakers are usually pretty good at catching visual parallels. If they revisit it in IW I will be super happy! :D