Attention! Contains SPOILERS for the movie “Thor: Love and Thunder”.
The insufficient use of “Thor: Love and Thunder” by Valkyrie Tessa Thompson highlights the constant neglect of the KVM of its significance for its world and for viewers who see themselves in the character. In “Love and Thunder,” Valkyrie first appeared on screen after “Avengers: Finale” in 2019. Having received the mantle of the King of the New Asgard from the God of Thunder himself, Valkyrie got together with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman in the Taika Waititi film “Love and Thunder” with a mission to rescue the children of the New Asgard kidnapped by Christian. Gorr Beila, the butcher god. While Thor and Jane revived their lost love, Valkyrie and Kronan Korg, who were voiced by Waititi, followed them and suffered injuries that prevented them from participating in the final battle of the film. Unfortunately, “Thor: Love and Thunder” failed to capitalize on Valkyrie’s rich backstory and deprives her of meaningful development in the future.
An Asgardian warrior turned king, Valkyrie made her MCU debut in 2017 in the movie Thor: Ragnarok, in which she encountered the Thunder God on the planet Sakaar. Alone and drunk, she served as a picker after losing all her sisters, including her lover, during a battle with the goddess of death Hela (Cate Blanchett). Valkyrie later joined Thor and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to defeat Hela (Cate Blanchett), who had recently conquered Asgard. Thanks to the Doomsday event known as Ragnarok, Hela met her demise, although Asgard died with her. Valkyrie survived Thanos’ snap and took part in the decisive battle against Thanos in Avengers: Finale. Although the character’s real name Thompson was not pronounced on screen, her comic book counterpart is widely known as Valkyrie Brunhilda.
In Valkyrie’s three appearances in the MCU, there was no screen time to properly develop her character. While “Ragnarok” established part of her backstory and laid an intriguing foundation for her future, Valkyrie’s limited involvement in “Finale” and “Love and Thunder” hardly advanced her storyline or further fleshed out her character. In addition, the MCU only hesitantly included Valkyrie’s bisexuality in her portrayal. Thus, a solo project dedicated to Valkyrie remains the only solution for the MCU that allows you to realize the full potential of the character.
How the MCU has Failed Valkyrie so Far
Despite the fact that she is as layered as Thor or Loki, Valkyrie did not see her subtleties in sufficient detail. To date, she appears only in projects that revolve around others, such as Thor or the main figures of the Avengers. In addition, in Waititi’s films “Ragnarok” and “Love and Thunder”, Valkyrie was mainly used as a comedic assistant to Thor, and not as a specific character with his own arch. Valkyrie’s appearance in Ragnarok put her on the path of choosing to live with the pain of her past rather than run away from it, but the MCU did not spend any of Valkyrie’s subsequent appearances exploring this personal struggle. Despite the fact that in the movie “Thor: Love and Thunder” it was slightly emphasized that Valkyrie missed fighting after becoming king — which explains why she sought to accompany Thor, Jane and Korg to the City of the Almighty and the Kingdom of Shadows — in the end, the film did not pay attention to her adaptation to the life of the ruler as a man who only knew the battlefield.
Similarly, Tessa Thompson created Valkyrie as a charismatic but deeply armed personality, but unfortunately she wasn’t given much attention to demonstrate the complexity of her character. Outside of the MCU, the actor’s impressive range of roles falls on projects such as Westworld, Little Woods, Dear White People and Creed films. Tessa Thompson’s ability to play multidimensional characters combining depth, seriousness and humor has never been questioned, so the MCU squanders her talent by limiting her character’s capabilities. Instead of capitalizing on the rich comic lore of the Valkyrie as a people, or covering in more detail the Valkyrie King’s quest for the reign of the New Asgard, the MCU has fixated on every relevant project on the story of Thor, who underestimates the world he comes from and his vast world. an array of characters.
KVM groped LGBTQ+-representation of Valkyrie in “Thor 4”
Since Valkyrie appears in the MCU exclusively as a minor character, a reliable representation of her bisexuality and concretization of her personality in other ways is a difficult task. Although Love and Thunder confirmed Valkyrie’s bisexuality with moments like Korg mentioning his dead girlfriend, Valkyrie telling Thor they were on “the same team” and Valkyrie kissing the hand of one of Zeus’ virgins, the film just reached a minimum. when it comes to representing LGBTQ+, and it shouldn’t be praised, given that the MCU doesn’t mention Valkyrie’s sexuality at all in her first two appearances.
