Thor: Ragnarok - 8 Lessons It Can Learn From Its Predecessors

6. Expand On Thor's Relationships

The father-son and sibling rivalry dynamics helped form the emotional core of the original film, contextualizing Thor, Odin, and Loki enough to get us through to the end and, ultimately, pave the way for Loki's motivations in The Avengers. Even though Thor's friends had to sit out in the character development department, it all at least made sense with so much ground to cover right off the bat. With those dynamics already firmly in place by the time it rolled around, the sequel had every opportunity to emphasize how everyone else around Thor felt about him on a much deeper level. Unfortunately, it squandered it, forcing Sif and the Warriors Three to sit out, Heimdall to be side-lined, and even Odin from doing more than just being salty the entire time. Despite knowing these characters his entire life, it feels like Thor is closer to some of his fellow Avengers - or even Dr. Selvig - than any of them. Everyone knows by now that the Hulk will be joining in and that, obviously, Loki will continue to pose a problem, but their inclusion, particularly the former's, shouldn't come at the expense of fleshing out characters who've been around since the beginning and deserve more. At the least, some of these characters could thoroughly benefit from Marvel dusting off their One-Shots to give them their own chance to shine.