MCU: 10 Real World Issues Addressed In Marvel Films

Despite being a laugh a minute, Thor Ragnarok provided some very real insight into how conquering nations are able to make themselves look like heroes in order to hide a bloody past. It's an unsurprising insight, considering the director Taika Waititi's finger on the pulse of social and cultural awareness mixed with side-splitting humour.

Hela and her return to power after Odin's death is literally Asgard's bloody history coming back to take it over, and her presence reveals what made Asgard so "great" in the first place - mass murder and bloody warmongering.

This reflects many real-world nations, where a flourishing society often finds itself succeeding on the merit of the people it subjugated or killed to get where it is. Imperialism is what divided first world countries from third world ones, and also apparently what turned Asgard into a beautiful, sprawling golden city while other worlds have mostly just manifested as frozen wastelands or war zones.

Though not the focal point of the story, it is this that provides a powerful undercurrent to Ragnarok's story, and the significance of destroying Asgard in the end. The mural of Odin's greatness hiding bloodshed underneath says it all, really.