I suspect it was because to most fans, Thor, the God of Thunder is expected to be a model of physical awesomeness. Under ideal circumstances, when Thor is out smashing giants or fighting aliens, it’s easy for him to remain in fighting trim. Alas, Thor, formerly of Asgard, the once-king of a vanished kingdom isn’t out slaying giants or destroying alien despots. Instead, he’s hiding in New Asgard, drinking beer, eating pizza and playing Fortnite with his friends.
Worse, I’m sad to report, Thor is no more a god than you or I. The word ‘god’ gets used to describe Asgardians, but it was the consideration of a Viking almost a thousand years ago watching Thor in battle, with capabilities, magic and phenomenal durability no Human could match. The word ‘god’ does seem a likely appellation. I have explained all of this in a previous essay, but I will say it again because it bears repeating: Thor and all of his kin are not gods.
The Asgardians are a species who utilized a technology so advanced it resembled what we might call magic and were never Human, though they appeared to be. The Asgardians are not gods. Nor are they supernatural beings, though they might appear to be. They are born, live and die, as mortal as you or I. They are, however, significantly more durable than any normal Human. They are aliens whose technology is so advanced we cannot hope to understand it from where Humans exist today. Humanity encountering them five thousand years ago called them gods because of their superhuman capacities.
For the record: When real aliens come to Earth, they are UNLIKELY to resemble humanity, because they were born on another planet which has a different ecosystem with correspondingly different underlying genetics. However, Thor was created in the minds of Humans, so the Asgardians appear to be Human in stories and legends and will continue to appear Human into modern lore.
Like most of the fiction of the time period, the Asgardians are aliens which look like Humans because writers in the 1960s wanted the Asgardians to seem Human, a conceit which has plagued deities (and extra-terrestrials) in fiction for millennia. The underlying truth of their physiology remains beyond our capacity to know. For the sake of the stories we are to assume:
As to Thor getting fat is from his sitting at home, eating pizza, playing Fortnite, and drinking a small nation’s worth of beer whenever he was able? Should he have been able to get drunk? Or fat?
But the combination still wasn’t strong enough to assuage the God of Thunder’s feelings of inadequacy and personal loss. In the last five to seven years, Thor had engaged in a host of losses, deep personal failures which undermined his psychological well-being.
Losing so much, so relatively quickly, to an enemy he didn’t know existed a decade ago, resulted in a state of post-traumatic stress disorder the likes of which even his mighty shoulders, for a time, were unable to bear. Drinking himself into a stupor, hiding in his home with friends who have understood his struggle and his loss, seemed like a perfectly Human thing to do. Thor’s state of mind and body seemed about right for the Asgardian who was bred from birth to prevent the disasters which befell Asgard. He feels he failed his people and has fallen into a deep depression.
Could he get drunk on Human liquors? Only the strongest have any chance of giving him anything beyond a mild buzz. What they lack in quality, he could try to make up with quantity. After all, quantity is a quality all it’s own.
Could he get fat? Yes, if he ate the worst foods, without doing anything Thor-like at all for YEARS at a time? Yes, it happened to Volstagg, who was, in his youth, quite a looker. It could happen to anyone. Even Odin appeared to have a bit of bulk on him after five thousand years.
Thor has put on a great deal of weight, as he has come to grips with the challenges of Thanos and what he did to the Universe. Nevertheless, Thor rallied with some help from his friends, the Avengers, and has returned to the Universe renewed for the struggle, where ever it may be. It may be difficult to remember that the Asgardians boasted a degree of diversity among their population and being fat was just one more way of being Asgardian.
Nuff Said!
This essay first appeared on Quora as an answer to: Thor had a beer belly in Avengers: Endgame, how is this possible? Isn’t he literally a god?
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Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California.
Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram.
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