I think they went too humorous with him.
When I watched it the first time I was very split down the middle. Moreso because they doubled down on the humour and also weakened him incredibly so. I mean how can Thor and Stormbreaker break through all usage of the infinity stones with Thanos at the height of his power and bury it in his chest at the end of Infinity War to being thrown around and unable to hold his own against and Infinity stone-less Thanos not at the height of his power (wielding both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker)?
I was disappointed initially. But then again I was split with Ragnarok. They made him have too much humour there as well. But they also made him badass.
Thor has always been humerous, look back to Dark World and the first. He's been my favourite character and the first Thor's were some of my favourite MCU. It's like they put a crowbar into his humerous character traits and bust it wide open.
But then again it does fit in with his arc. He isn't a king of Asgard. He uses humour first out of ignorance and then as a shield. I won't hammer (lol) home the points others have made about how much he has lost. But the conclusion I have is that he looked really badass and interesting at the end of the film and had an interesting ride going from clearly the most powerful Avenger from Infinity War carrying on from Ragnarok. Why is Captain Marvel such a weak and boring character? Well aside from a bad personality, she's the most powerful, she luckily got struck by photon power and now can do anything, how is she going to be reduced and built back up going forward? Same was how would Thor continue being interesting if he was as powered from Infinity War, he wouldn't. He'd just be a comical quipping powerhouse which really sin't that interesting. I quite enjoyed seeing his downward spiral and I think it only works because of how the film opens.
He's brooding, pretty much Thor straight from Infinity Wars' ending. Pissed, angry, got the badass look. Then he has a chance for redemption, he clearly places the sole blame of everyone dying on his hands for not going for the head. He rectifies that mistake straight away and it accomplishes nothing. Imagine being told you're worthy, a king, a God, the greatest warrior etc. losing everything you have and losing everything outside of yourself on top of that. I think the approach was interesting and warranted and deserved, and why is he weak at the end of EG? Well I'm telling myself because he's out of shape and hasn't fought for 5 whole years in a fat body, it's possible.
Now if they keep Thor like this for the next couple of films it will be a disservice. He's only now started to rectify his path as this Thor and as he said at the end of the film, he's going to stop being what people says he should be and just be who he actually is. How they handled Thor was fine, and interesting and unique.
How they handled the people around reacting to him? Poor. The only character that they handled well with him was Hulk. I don't think it was fat shaming, more on the line of tough love and reverse humour of him going from the God hunk proclaming he's the strongest avenger to not being the hunk and being broken and weakened. But, as always with Marvel, they use humour to dislodge any form of darkness or serious subject matter, and I think that is what makes Thor seem like a gag, the reactions of others to him as opposed to himself. Sure, the quips being said to him fit the snark of the characters, but they're sort of said with a malice with lack of compassion.
anecdotal I know, but I don't think it served to underscore any dramatic consequences. If anything I think it undermined them.
