The matured warrior — Avengers: Doomsday Thor teaser reaction

“But now fate has given me something I never sought. A child. A life untouched by the storm.” -Thor

The second teaser for Avengers: Doomsday starts off with more nature imagery. The first featuring Steve Rogers took place on a dirt road and a house hidden in the forest. This one features Thor kneeling in the woods, making a needed plea to the All-Father.

From Thor’s prayer to Odin, we learn a lot and can assume a lot about his arc in the movie. Like Thor’s solo films and Infinity War, family and home are again the main themes for Thor’s journey.

In Infinity War, Thor was stripped of his remaining family — his brother Loki — and rendered without a home as Thanos decimated most of the remaining Asgardians. He was a king left without a royal court. A ruler left without a people, whom Thor: Ragnarok determined were a person’s true home. As such, he seeked revenge on Thanos in Infinity War and became depressed amid these losses in Endgame.

In this movie, Thor begs the All-Father for strength against this last foe–assumed to be Victor Von Doom–so he can return home to Gorr’s child Love, who is now his adopted daughter. Family and home are very much the central themes for Thor again. But it’s different from before.

Thor’s character arc has fully completed. He seeks strength not for revenge or to return home and boast. He isn’t the braggadocious battle-hungry warrior hoping to enter Valhalla. No, he seeks to be a father who can instill stillness, and he’s fighting to preserve that very opportunity. Thor has gotten over those losses of family, because he moved on and found a new family to look after: his daughter. And he is fighting to protect her and the life he can build for her. The warrior has matured.

The tone is a lot more serious compared to Love & Thunder, which is good because I find Love & Thunder to hold a lot of mature introspective themes that its lax tone sometimes underwhelms. Among a more serious tone, these themes featuring the relationship between Thor and Love can be given higher justice.

"I assure you brother, the sun will shine on us again.” -Loki

Despite the serious tone in his dialogue that would invoke a gray feeling, the sun shines brightly as Thor kneels in the forest. In spite of wielding Stormbreaker–a vicious axe–Thor is warmth. Thor’s new goals reflect a warrior who seeks blood in the battlefield so the sun can shine on those away from it.

And somewhere, I imagine Loki is smiling at this sentiment from his older brother.