This week on the podcast, we barrel headfirst into the mythology dump. It’s minutes 31–35 of Thor: The Dark World, where Odin dusts off the Book of Yggdrasil and delivers a firehose of exposition like a cosmic prof with tenure. Jane gets an MRI in the Soul Forge (no copay required), Odin does his best impression of your friend’s judgmental dad, and we finally learn that the Aether is a gooey, parasitic relic born of darkness, which feels right.
Matthew and Pete wrestle with the theological implications of Odin’s prophecy game, the epistemology of unreliable narrators, and whether Malekith invented the Aether or just slapped a label on a pre-existing cosmic fluid like some sort of interstellar influencer with a fancy new collab. There’s an unexpectedly sincere defense of exposition! There’s analogies! There’s goat metaphors! And there’s the haunting realization that the dark elves are both mythological horrors and also… spaceship guys? Pick a lane, Malekith.
Oh, and in a rare MCU crossover moment, we remember that the Book of Yggdrasil was last seen by none other than Johann “Red Skull” Schmidt, which means this movie might—might—actually be playing 4D chess with canon. Probably not. But maybe. Maybe?
If you want to hear these conversations unfold in real-time, join the Marvel Movie Minute community at trustory.fm/join, where members get early access, invitations to live stream recordings, and other bonus content.
Film Sundries
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- Original Material
- Season 8 Music by Martin Puehringer
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