Hemsworth publicly agreeing with the direction they took doesnāt make it better, more respectful, or more realistic.
Iāve seen people downplay their trauma, make light of their depression, rely on jokes to try to get by. Hell, Iāve been that person.
None of this is the problem, itās how the rest of the production treats Thor that is the problem. Rocket putting his hand over his face and grimacing when Thor gets into a ramble, Thor being pushed to the side when his presentation falls apart because he starts to break down instead of any of that being addressed or anyone trying to help Thor they just move on, when Thor starts to have a panic attack Rocket slaps him.Ā
When Stark had a panic attack he rushed out of the diner, thinking heād been poisoned or was under attack and they showed the seriousness of it and how utterly painful it is.Ā
Thor gets a couple big melodramatic gasps, waves his hands infront of him says he thinks heās having a panic attack and Rocket slaps him, gives him the big man up speech, Thor agrees, then when Rocket turns around, Thor is gone because he ran away. Thatās played for laughs, Hemsworth was hamming up the panic attack, and the subversion of theĀ āman up speechā moment is that Thor runs away and leaves Rocket to do things himself. This isnāt played out like āsee Thorās ptsd was really serious!ā itās moreĀ āhaha thor scampered away when Rocket wasnāt lookingā. Then his mom tells him heās still wonderful and he doesnāt have to follow whatever destiny his father laid out for him and has the only real affirming moment in the movie for Thorā¦. and then heās told to eat a salad.
I havenāt seen anyone being pissed that Thor is depressed, has PTSD, and tries to downplay it because he doesnāt know how to cope, or is pissed that Thor is fat.
I actually think this direction for Thor himself isnāt terrible, but the problem is that the movie itself doesnāt take him fully seriously. No character wants to actually deal with Thor, everyone wants to push him aside, everyone thinks heās being gross and they cringe at his behaviour. No one talks to him, to comfort him, to take a moment to address what he is actually going through.
And yeah Endgame was pretty full of stuff, itās not like Iron Man 2 where they can just focus on the titular character, it was an ensemble. So maybe if they wanted to give Thor this story they should have left it for when they had time to explore it. Instead of just brushing it aside, playing it for laughs, never exploring it from Thorās perspective, and making everyone including his mother cringe at him.