Hello, Internet!

Welcome to Film Theory!

So there's no denying that Avengers Endgame was full of a lot of instantly iconic scenes.

Tony snapped, the Ant-Man Taco Sequence, Fat Thor.

But in a movie full of awesome moments, none. Not one was as thrilling as watching Captain America using Mjolnir to fight Thanos.

Just paint the scene. Thor is attacking Thanos with Stormbreaker when the tables suddenly turn.

Thanos is pressing the axe closer and closer into Chris Hemsworth's chiseled bod. Or I guess beer-bellied bod in this movie.

When out of nowhere, Thanos is knocked away by the hammer. Pull back to see Mr. America's ass wielding Asgard's mightiest weapon and all the lightning powers that come with it.

Ah, it is so good! But after getting me hyped, it then got me curious. Who else could wield Mjolnir?

Mjolnir is, after all, a weapon that judges a person's worthiness, so who else in this enormous cast of characters could make the cut?

Should Hawkeye be trading in his bow?

Could Black Widow have finally found herself a decent weapon other than gun?

Or maybe, just maybe, Thanos could have wielded the hammer for himself.

By looking at Steve and Thor's actions across these movies, and when they can or can't lift the hammer,

we can start piecing together where Molnir's threshold of worthiness lies, and from there,

judge whether anyone else would pass the test. The best place to start when it comes to

defining worthiness is, of course, the original Thor from 2011. When the movie begins,

Odin is bragging to Thor and Loki about how he heroically defeated the Frost Giants, and then pulls the greatest jerk move of all when he reprimands Thor for wanting to do the same thing.

A wise king never seeks out war, but he must always be ready for it.

A wise king also apparently hides his war-mongering past behind centuries of propaganda, but don't worry, that won't become important for another two movies at least.

Flash forward a few thousand years from that opening scene, and Thor is about to be crowned King of Asgard.

Thor makes three vows during the ceremony. He swears to guard the nine realms, to preserve the peace, and finally to cast aside all selfish ambitions for the good of the realm. So that already starts to outline the criteria that we might end up working with. During the coronation, Frost Giants attack. Thor throws himself a hisy fit that his coronation was interrupted and swears vengeance on the Frost Giants.

...