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In Thor: Ragnarok movie, we see Thor was controlled using some electric current machine and was paralyzed by it. While he was shown a god of Thunder, how can he be paralyzed by a small amount of electricity?

Also I have same query about Hela. If she is goddess of death, how can she die? She may be weakened by destroying Asgard, as her power source is that. Can anyone clarify this.

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    "God" (extended to their powers effects/controls, lifespan, etc.) interpretation is different under each cultures and in each story. Nothing says that the God of Death can not die in DC.
    – Larme
    Commented Nov 6, 2017 at 12:48
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    Who said that thing on his neck worked on electricity? If you see how it affected them, they had 'tendrils' of darker material on their faces etc - it looked more than just 'electric'.
    – iandotkelly
    Commented Nov 6, 2017 at 20:39
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    By ability to control and throw a baseball at something with great force does not render me immune if one strikes me. Commented Nov 16, 2017 at 16:57
  • @PoloHoleSet Hahaha...but what if you are baseball yourself? Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 9:06
  • Thor himself is source of Thunder as shown in movie later. Same Hela continuously creates weapons from her body. How can a weapon kill another weapon? Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 9:08

4 Answers 4

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Thor's growth as a character in this movie centers around the idea of control and ownership. We are told that Mjolnir was created for Thor as a way to harness and focus his powers, but as soon as he loses it he loses access to his powers because he was dependent on his hammer for his powers. But it isn't as if he cannot use his powers, as is exemplified by managing to harness them during his battle with Hulk. But in that case, his emotional state allowed him to use his powers and he didn't actually figure out how to use them until his fight with Hela at the end of the movie.

It is entirely possible that he could have used his powers to fry the device and escape, but because he did not understand how to use his power he could not do it. It's not until he comes to the realization that his powers and Asgard are the same that he understands how to harness them: it isn't the things you have that give you power, it is your own ability. Thor does not need Mjolnir to use his power, just as the people of Asgard do not need a city to be The People of Asgard.

In a way, the stun device was purely symbolic of Thor's impotence.

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    Thor's hammer was essentially training wheels
    – pojo-guy
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 18:13
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Thor is the God of Thunder, not of electricity.

His powers are not the command of electricity, but the command of thunder/lightning.

Just because he has some control over lightning (i.e commanding it not to transfer the electrical properties that cause harm to his person, albeit likely subconsciously), this does not mean his power has the transitive property of all electricity.

Just because someone can command, say a Dog; this doesn't mean they have mastery of ALL dogs.

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    When he was fighting with Hulk and his body consumes Thunder, why the machine was not stopped then? was his thunder lower power than machine's electricity? Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 15:00
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While the device attached to Thor's neck might sound electric, it actually behaves in a manner much more similar to the paralysing device used by Obadiah Stane in the first Iron Man film.

It's quite likely that such a device might not paralyse a physically superior being such as an Asgardian or an Ice Giant, but could cause them enough pain to pass out.

Either way, there's really no evidence that the device just causes an electric shock anyway.

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ViggNash's excellent answer addresses perfectly the case of Thor's powers.

As for Hela, we don't know the exact extent of her powers. She is called the Goddess of Death, but she is not depicted as a ruler of the Underworld who can decide who can live and who has to die. All we know is that she is a ruthless, merciless, relentless killer. Goddess of Death may be more a title than a real power over death.

Anyway, it is well-known that, in comics, death is not a permanent thing. And this applies to the MCU, as the resurrection of Agent Coulson showed us. Since in our non-comic world, death is the universal constant that all living forms must eventually face, we can infer that nothing is absolute in comics: nothing is unkillable, nothing is unbreakable, no knowledge is unreachable,...

In our specific case, note that Hela is killed by Surtur, whose function is precisely Ragnarok, the destruction of Asgard. It is not far-reached to assume that Surtur has the power to destroy the Asgardians as well.

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