Thor defeated fire giant Surtur quite easily at the beginning of Thor: Ragnarok, yet he couldn't beat his sister, Hela. Here's what happened.
Thor: Ragnarok opens with Thor being held captive by Surtur, who he quickly defeats – but later on in the movie, Thor needed Surtur to best his sister, Hela, and he'll certainly struggle against Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder without help. In over 10 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has explored many places not only on Earth but in other planets and realms. One of the heroes who has taken viewers to other parts of the universe is Thor, who has explored some of the Nine Realms as well as different planets in his solo movies.
In his third solo adventure, Thor: Ragnarok, the God of Thunder visited new planets and realms and came across never-before-seen threats. The movie’s main villain was Hela (Cate Blanchet), Thor’s older sister and goddess of death, who Odin banished from Asgard and imprisoned in Hel after she massacred many Asgardians and attacked him. Hela was no easy opponent, but before she was set free (which happened once Odin passed away), Thor had to defeat a seemingly bigger threat: Surtur, but he actually got rid of him quite easily.
Thor Only Beat Surtur Because The Giant Wasn’t Near His Power Source
Surtur was a fire giant and ruler of Muspelheim, one of the Nine Realms. The source of his power was the Eternal Flame, which was kept in Odin’s Vault as the Allfather defeated him a long time ago and banished his entire race to Muspelheim. Odin’s purpose with Surtur’s defeat was to prevent Ragnarök, the event that would destroy Asgard. A prophecy stated that Ragnarök would take place when Surtur, empowered by the Eternal Flame, unleashed his rage upon Asgard. Without the Eternal Flame, Surtur was not as powerful as he used to be, so by the time he imprisoned Thor, he wasn’t that big of a threat.
Surtur himself explains this at the beginning of Thor: Ragnarok, saying he was far weaker without the Eternal Flame, which he needed to restore his full power. Surtur did look quite weak, and he struggled to get up and approach Thor with a sword. Once it was time to fight, Surtur couldn’t even fight back, and Thor ended up defeating him and taking his crown with him. Now, Hela turned out to be too powerful, and as Odin’s true heir, she was tied to Asgard. Thor realized he was not going to be able to defeat her, and in an interesting turn of events, he ended up restoring Surtur’s power by having Loki drop the crown in the Eternal Flame. This unleashed Ragnarök, which was the only way to defeat Hela as Asgard was her power source.
The key to Surtur’s defeat at the beginning of Thor: Ragnarok is in his speech, which many viewers tend to forget as the scene is meant to be humorous thanks to Thor mocking Surtur’s very serious words. Ultimately, Hela wasn’t more powerful than Surtur, but the timing was on Thor’s side when he was imprisoned in Muspelheim, and as much as he tried to protect his homeworld, Asgard had to be destroyed in order to save its people and defeat Hela.
Gorr The God Butcher Is Thor's Most Terrifying Enemy Yet
Hela and Surtur pose one level of problem for Thor, but Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher represents a calamitous raising of the stakes for Odinsson and all of New Asgard. Hela is one of the most powerful beings in the MCU and could have gone toe-to-toe with the likes of a pre-infinity-stones Thanos and come out the other side victorious. The only reason Hela wasn't an existential threat to the entire multiverse was her Asgard fixation. While Hela was powerful enough to have fought her way to the top of the MCU protagonist charts, she was more interested in her grudge against Odin and company. This was ultimately her downfall, as it played right into the Ragnarok prophecy which led to her and Asgard's destruction at the hands of Surtur. If she'd let it go and decided to conquer the wider universe right off the bat, Avengers: Endgame might have been very different.
Gorr the God Butcher, the protagonist of the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, has no such fixations holding him back. What's more, his famed weapon, the Necrosword, might be one of Hela's own obsidian blades. While the origins of the weapon haven't been revealed, the trailers for Thor's fourth solo movie show Gorr is using it to cause some serious, moon-disintegrating, god-slaying catastrophes. Hela drew her power from Asgard and her proximity to it and was driven by a family feud. Gorr the God Butcher doesn't have the same limitations. He and his deity-ending weapon are just as dangerous whether you're fighting him on Asgard, Knowhere, Xandar, The Quantum Realm, Dormammu's Dark Dimension, or Earth.
Gorr is an idealist; a grief-driven fanatic armed with a potentially world-breaking weapon. Unlike Hela, whose short-term ambitions are pretty Asgard-centric, Gorr doesn't begin with animosity towards Thor specifically. As his name suggests, Gorr has a murderous bone to pick with every God, regardless of their pantheon. Considering he's known as the God Butcher and not the God Nuisance, it's a safe bet the MCU Gorr and All-Black the Necrosword are just as skilled in deicide as their comic-book counterparts. Since Thor: Love and Thunder will have more than one Thor, with Jane Foster taking up the mantle, and both might be needed to take him down, it's clear that Gorr is a threat beyond anything the Asgardians of the MCU have faced before, including Hela.
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