Meta: What does 'worth' mean in the MCU?

[rescueironman]

I'm slowly in the process of transferring some of my meta from Tumblr onto here. This one comes from a discussion that falsecaterpillar and I had about what it means to be worthy enough to lift Mjolnir? 

She said:

I get such a warm feeling when I think to myself “Tony wasn’t worthy enough to lift Mjolnir so he ended up creating someone who is.” It’s so representative of who Tony is as a person. Always about progress. Pushing for betterment. He wants to be left in the dust – just like he told Dr. Helen Cho (”That’s the plan”) just like he told Peter (”I wanted you to be better”). 

My interpretation of that moment was as follows:

Have you considered that the “worth” could also mean self worth?

 

Hear me out: In Thor, when Odin cast Thor out, he said he wasn’t worthy to lift Mjolnir. When Thor broke into that Shield facility and failed to lift the hammer, I think he was still feeling guilty at his actions.

 

He realised that his hotheadedness undid centuries of peace between the Aesir and the Jotuns, and he personally disappointed his father. When Loki sent the Destroyer to New Mexico, Thor offered himself up to atone for his mistakes. He probably thought all of his actions ultimately led to that moment and he accepted his pending death - and in doing so, he cleared the guilt festering at his conscience. And boom, his powers were restored because he suddenly felt worthy again.

 

When you fast forward to Age of Ultron, every Avenger who tried to lift the hammer carried with them personal guilt.

 

Tony - his guilt over the destruction Stark Industries-made weapons sowed on innocent lives, the deaths of Yinsen and the American soldiers, his inability to save Obadiah etc.

 

Steve - his guilt over not being able to save Bucky in the 1940s and then having to watch what Hydra did to his best friend for decades.

 

Rhodey - he was an Air Force pilot who had been in combat situations before. He probably had lingering guilt over lives he couldn’t save, lives that were lost unnecessarily.

 

Bruce - his guilt over all the innocent lives that perished under the Hulk’s rampage.

 

Clint - though we don’t have much of his backstory, apart from the secret family that was shoe-horned into the narrative, he worked for Shield. He had to have done something dubious in his past over which he still bore some guilt.

 

Widow didn’t even bother trying.

 

The point is that all of the Avengers still harboured guilt they hadn’t made peace with - and, as a result, they each thought themselves unworthy (subconsciously). Hence, why none of them could lift the hammer*.

 

Vision, meanwhile, was just born and he was an android. He processed guilt and worthiness in a different way than the Avengers. Hence, why he could lift it.

 

*Even Loki tried to lift the hammer in Thor but couldn’t because he bore the guilt of betraying Asgard.

 

I know this is probably a reach on many levels but I’ve always wondered about what exactly it meant to be worthy enough to lift Mjolnir.

Comments

[falsecaterpillar]

I agree with you entirely, because the best judge of one's character is honestly themselves--especially when the only alternative is to suggest there's some higher power or that Mjolnir itself has some sort of intelligence.

Which makes me wonder...

Could Thanos wield Mjolnnir? He thinks his cause his pure and worthy. He sees himself as a noble warrior.