Salvaging Skurge - One Small Change to Thor Ragnarok
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
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Behold! My change!
Thor Ragnarok was a blast but there was one bit of the movie that always bugged me, Skurge the Executioner. So in this video I try to write a Skurge worthy of both Thor Ragnarok and the wonderful Karl Urban.
Also in this video's Nebula Plus segment, I decide once and for all which Karl Urban would win if they all fought.
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"Literally hug the axe. Kiss it."
I can imagine Jeff Goldblum say this perfectly.
That feels so in-character that it's scary.
Alternative title: “A Better Execution.”
OOoh that's good
Come on man, you were so close to keeping up the alliteration. Consider "An Excellent Execution"
Ahahaha. I I got that reference.
@@NandovMovies i can actually here the forehead slap you gave yourself after realising that this is a far superior title.
HAAAAAAAAAAAA
i feel like skurge explaining asgard's dark history and hela destroying the mural to reveal the one underneath should happen at the same time, so as he's explaining we get to see those visuals
True
Have her explain it to the warriors 3 right before she kills them in the throne room as this scene plays out.
Can we just talk about how Skurge's armour just has a big ol' hole right in the middle of it? That armour isn't protection so much as it is directions on where to stab
"Come on Skurge. It's good armor. What's gonna happen? Somebody throwing big old spears at everyone's chest? Get real."
It could be purely decorative.
I actually do remember a comic someone made about Skurge and Topaz swapping jobs, with Skurge and Grandmaster happily partying and Topaz eagerly melt-sticking people for Hela
Oooohhh do you remember the comics' name?
Ooooh I've never seen that but it is also a great idea
“Behold… My stuff” might be my favorite line in the movie.
Now make One Small Change™ to my life so I can finally be happy.
You were never born there fixed it
@@n00bboy43 Not to nitpick, not unlike Nando's Podcast Mostly Nitpicking, if I wasn't born, I still wouldn't be happy.
If I could make one small change to your life, it would be this. You could go to the Grandmaster's tentacle party.
@@NandovMovies what about Samuel Sterns as the Leader of the planet Sakaar?
You got a cool hat for your birthday 3 years ago
14:46 If it happens in sacar this dialogue could be even cooler since time passes differently there, his family could've been killed days ago for him, but thor just got there.
Ooooh that's a wild idea
@@NandovMovies Eh, make it a few months to a handful of years. Enough time to settle in as The Executioner for the One Small Change™, but the tragedy is still fresh.
@@NandovMovies I know right! Thanks!
@@pedrotalons1422 Maybe the way time moves, Skurge has been there for so long that he's done thousands of years of executing but also can still remember and feel getting sent away from Jotunheim like it was yesterday.
@@NandovMovies That would get very inceptiony! I like it!!! It would add a lot to the weirdness of sacar!!
This is the first of Nando’s changes to the MCU that I can’t get behind sadly...
Skurge is the first signal that something is wrong in Asgard. Heimdall has abandoned his post - very out of character - and been replaced by someone of questionable morals, using the Bifrost to accumulate stuff and impress the babes. Having the Warriors Three manning the Bifrost would not provide the same beat, as they are Thor’s trusted friends.
Skurge does have character development: he starts a loudmouth who is revealed to us to actually be a bit of a coward when he doesn’t stand up to Hela. Then he regains his honour, sides with the morally right characters and makes the ultimate sacrifice to allow the innocent Asgardians to escape.
It is a shame we probably won’t get Keith Urban in a bigger MCU role, but Skurge was a great character with an interesting subplot.
Why hasn't Marvel hired Nando as a consultant yet?
If not as a writer, he can at least audit/approve the scripts!
Cowards!
Honestly, probably because they've already heard and turned down ideas like his lol. *Nothing* against Nando, but even he points out that his insights are easy to do after the fact and aren't subject to approval by the studio. My guess is that the flaws in Marvel's scripts have little to do with a lack of creativity or talent on the writing end, but with editorial decisions made after the fact. Marvel doesn't hire Nandos as consultants, they hire consultants to shave the rough edges off of the work of the world's Nandos so it appeals as broadly as possible. Nando's ideas would get filtered through the same system, and a new Nando would rise on YT to tweak them haha.
Because we pay for the product, not the product's creation.
@@Music34897 well said
The tweaked conversation between Thor and Odin feels too similar to T’Challas conversation with T’Chaka at the end of Black Panther (which came out 3 months after Ragnarok) if Thor is angry at Odin
I thought about that and that's why this Thor is more disappointed in Odin. Maybe deep down he always knew something had to be up but he never questioned it. This is the moment where he accepts it and figured out how to move on.
I think the key difference is the ideologies the father-son conversations are tackling though. T'Chaka's Wakanda was isolationist to a fault, going out of its way and doing everything it could to ensure the secret that was the country never got out. This rewrite of the Thor and Odin conversation is holding Odin to the flame for an opposite but equally dangerous method of leading a realm: imperialistic conquest. Alongside the differences in tone Nando mentioned above, they tackle different skews of the same issue. I actually think this parallel would've been really interesting to see in films that came out so near to each other, especially since the MCU tends to, well, shy away from taking much of a stand on the social issues they bring up, Black Panther being something of an outlier.
I’m more annoyed that The Warriors Three died rather unceremoniously. I think the fact that he was Loki‘s choice for manning the bifrost indicates the sort of person he is, although I will admit some more backstory on his character would have been helpful.
This man would have made an EXCELLENT Wolverine. You've seen Billy Butcher. He's got the squared face shape and rage-mode face!
I've always had Richard Armitage as my ideal cast, but this comes really fucking close
Yes! He can still do it!
I think he'd make a better Kraven the Hunter.
Too tall.
@@jflack6 Idk, perhaps. That blue chick from Captain Marvel is being recast as a different character in a future movie so...
"He Stood Alone at Gjallerbru" is honestly one of the best moments in Thor comics history and the movie version felt so unearned. I feel like he should've been taken more seriously, and it would've worked best if he was an enemy or outcast of Asgard in a similar way as M'Baku is in Wakanda for it to have some of the impact.
My personal headcanon for Loki's play is that the actors are actually playing their MCU counterparts; one day as Odin, Loki decides to put on a play about himself, and (as seen in the Loki series) having experienced some of MIdgardian culture, decides to send out a casting call to actors on Earth, and all the cast members that we see in the play, are the actual MCU versions of the actors playing them (ie "Loki" is played by MCU Matt Damon, who in turn is played by Matt Damon, etc, etc)
Personally, I'd want to keep Skurge alive if they ever want to have Amora the Enchantress in the MCU.
100% agree. I would've loved to have him enact the sacrifice and appear to have died, but then exile himself from Asgard for his betrayal and then spit him out elsewhere for Enchantress' later appearance.
@@fewntug3760 I honestly have a feeling that Skurge will make a cameo appearance in Thor: Love and Thunder. Like maybe at some point in the film Thor goes to the underworld for some reason and there he will run into Skurge again and it'll be just a fun interaction were he introduces himself to Thor and Thor will be like 'uh do I remember you'? I sincerely think that'll happen given that Taika Watiti is directing it again.
Hela is not the law... Skurge IS THE *LAWW!!!*
YOU BETRAYED THE LAW!
@@MinuteLeech2 LAAAWWWWW!!!
Nando is the law.
although i interpreted skurge's arc in the movie as "self-preserving coward steps up and dies a hero," i do like this rewrite. my only thing tho is that it feels a lot like erik stevens/killmonger in Black Panther, but maybe that sort of character arc is much more common than i thought previously.
What I’d change around from this is make Skurge formerly the executioner of the Asgardian empire instead of being a victim of it. He knows what Asgard did because he was right there too, and in his time as Grandmasters executioner he has realized the flaws.
On some level, I think a lot of the issue stems from introducing Scourge without his usual ally, Amoura the Enchantress. He sort of plays a more hesitant version of his typical role in their dynamic in Ragnarok, but because Hela's able to mop the floor with all of Asgard at once, there isn't a genuine need for brute muscle like Amoura needs as a more cloak and dagger character who's somewhat weak in close quarters compared to her opponents.
I almost suspect the next Thor movie to have Amoura as either the BBEG or minor antagonist who ressurect and brainwashes scourge.
I want Amora in a movie so badly
Beating up an invisible man? That sounds like it'd be hard.
Nando: No actually, super easy, barely an inconvenience
You’re so right about the themes being disconnected between Asgard and Sakaar. So much so in fact that I rewatched this movie about a week ago, and I had genuinely completely forgotten pretty much all the Asgard stuff in this movie, and remembered only the Sakaar parts
I think it would be better if Skurge was Hela’s right hand man back in the day when Hela and Odin used to rule. Not only Hela was banished, Skurge was too. But he wasn't for long time. So he came back and serve under Odin or he was mind-washed. But when Hela came back he switches sides.
Love this. "maybe Asgard isn't worth saving" is a MUCH more interesting theme than "Asgard is a people"
Instead of Asgard isn’t worth saving, maybe Odin should say,”That place isn’t worth saving,” or, “MY Asgard doesn’t deserve to be saved.” Since saying that Asgard itself isn’t worth saving is weird after the whole, it’s a people not a place
Yeah I forgot about that but I'd need to change that line too.
@@NandovMovies actually Odin thinking “asgard” as a kingdom isnt worth saving, having Skurge repeat it and Valkeryie be the one to vocalize “Asgard” is the people and the new ideals that carry on and the rest of Nando’s small change would be very dope
@kalamari Maybe "My Asgard doesn't deserved to be saved. But you, my son, can make an Asgard worth saving" and at the end of the movie...
Loki: "So now what do we do, brother?"
Thor: "We make a new Asgard. One that is worthy of of our people."
I do kinda like the idea of Hela thinking out loud to herself constantly as a side effect of being in solitary confinement for so long.
Ok, now I have a scene in my head for a Loki cameo: "Are you saying that *MY* crime was that *HELA* missed my vitals, and the hunk of Asgard I was on survived the explosion?"
Why does Hela look more like a Female Loki than the one we got in Loki?!?
Man in that family photo, Freya looks like a prisoner.
#ReleaseTheTentacleCut
The fact he wasn’t an evil warlord with a huge reputation doesn’t change the significance of him deciding to do the right thing. If anything it makes it more believable and easy to empathise with him. You can see him get roped into this situation, struggling and conflicted all the while, having to put an axe to his own people. He’s not a bad dude, he’s just a guy who’s made some bad decisions.
When he decides to step up it’s believable, he’s proving to himself he isn’t a coward and a nobody. We have Karl Urban dual wielding machine guns, that’s plenty reason enough to have him in the movie. I think they could have done more with Fenrir.
I actually agree. The point of Skurge's redemption wasn't that he was a bad person doing bad things, but an average person letting evil rise unchallenged. He's overcome his self preservation instinct in order to live up to his own ideals. I do agree that he could stand to have more to do in the movie though.
This has got to be the BEST sales pitch for Nebula i've ever seen.
I think the whole violent origin of Asgard could have been such a great callback to Thor's first movie and his exile for being so war hungry. That would explain so well why Odin was so angry and punished Thor so harshly there: he saw an echo of his old self, he saw an echo of Hela, and he was NOT going to have that again. He was not just angry, he was frightened at seeing the past repeat itself
I named em "Des" and "Troy"! Cause when you put em together......they destroy!!!
No Heimdahl could of told Thor all this through there connection. He's able to see through his eyes for God's sake. He's likely old enough to remember Hela too.
Also, the cool part about Heimdahl is he could prolly show Thor Odin and Hela when they were Conquering.
Yeah, if anyone was wasted, it was Heimdahl.
19:16 dude the way you say "the executioner" and a lot of the one liners in these videos are amazing and make me wish that they were in the original film to begin with
#releasethetentaclecut.
Let's get it trending!
I agree on this one. Although there's a risk this new Hela character could possibly end up like Malekith.
5:01 that’s true, I mean we learn a bit about the Asgardian that pops up in Agents of SHIELD, but not really Skurge except he really wants to be somebody.
Scourge's arc is not an arc of villain to hero. The point is that he never was a villain... he was merely a coward.
exactly
"Arc" not "ark". An ark is a ship/vessel of some kind, usually with connotations of salvation and/or religious purpose.
Fyi.
@@SkaiCyan brainfart, corrected, thanks
@@btearspell No worries, I thought you were ESL, but it turns out it was even more minor.
My only problem with this is that it takes away most of Hela's scenes. Which, in reality, isn't so much a problem with your rewrite as it is with the movie's script, having a lot of Hela's scenes be exposition; but it is a result of the change nontheless.
Other than that though, amazing rewrite as always, keep up Nando!
Yeah we could give her more to do with Heimdall maybe. Have her bit where she tries to find him play out over a few scenes.
Hela is such a great part of the movie, too. This vision is unnecessarily dour and grim, and would lose a lot of the humor. I dunno I trust the kiwi here, this cut, I mean, we already had the last Jedi, and a lot of people hated it
I'm not familiar with Skurge in the comics but talking about the actor, I saw Karl Urban in The Boys and Dredd after I saw Ragnarok and then I felt kinda bad for him playing such a role in MCU. He really can play a much bigger character like Wolverine in the MCU (Hugh Jackman is my Wolverine too) as I really think he can get the demeanor and the look almost right.
I love this, all gold. The only thing I would add is maybe have either volstagg or fandral actually know who hela is & bargains for their lives. That would give hela someone to talk to and give those characters more depth... instead of just immediately x-forcing them
Yeah maybe as a plan to get close to her so they can do a sneak attack that ultimately fails. That would be a fun line. Fandral makes a move and Hela stabs him.
"You didn't think I knew you were going to try to kill me? I'm the Goddess of Death. I could smell it on you the minute we met."
As he dies "Why did you keep me alive?"
"You don't know how lonely I've been. I wanted someone to talk to."
oh that's gold
I’ve been waiting for this video for years! Thank you!
o_O * starts taking notes*
*My thoughts about Marvel/Disney/Sony MCU writers whenever a new Nando video drops*
Love the way the revised Thor/Odin talk at the end mirrors Black Panther.
I’m not completely convinced that Skurge is coming back, but let’s just say that the ground is being laid for characters who died in an apocalypse having a shot at a second chance.
I don’t know if you saw this in the original text, but I always felt Skurge was meant to be there as a ‘centrist’ commentary, who, through passivity and self preservation, keeps on the side that would benefit him, no matter the morality of that decision. Even seeing his people suffer at Helas hands, he stays on her side because it’s the safest non-choice. His final moments are a redemption in that he allowed his people to suffer/finally makes a choice in the positive.
"I'm the executioner" is such a badass payoff that it's a crime against humanity that this isn't in the movie
Love your channel. Keep up the great work
Thanks Baron
Love your comment. Keep up the great work.
They should have made Karl Urban as Tyr
Yoo that would have been sick!
Or even as Kraven and Batman
17:40 Ooh, a Black Panther Spirit realm moment! Yes, I like this addition.
I teared up just watching this. Well done!!!!
I think Gorr will let Thor know about his father’s sins in Love and Thunder
I figured Skurge was there so Hela had someone to talk to.
Wait a minute…
“Times moves differently at Sakaar “
“Time moves differently in the Quantum Realm”
“Time moves differently at the TVA”
Maybe Sakaar is part of the TVA is in The Quantum Realm Theory.
Sucks how weak the MCU made Skurge, in the comics Skurge is just as strong as Thor (without Mjolnier), and with his axe he can create portals, summon and control lightning, fire, magic, energy blasts, and magma from the freaking sun, freeze things, cut through ANYTHING (including magic and illusions) and so much more, but in the MCU he's just another Asgardian with guns. Although, I do love the casting, Karl Urban looks just like Skurge!
I gope they bring him back . i kbow he died but he should be brought back
@@tobiaslawrence8928 with Amora
#releasethetentaclecut
Quick question. What inspires you to come up with your video ideas. Like are you constantly reviewing Marvel movies to come up with rewrites or do you just pick a movie and look for something in that movie to rewrite? Anyway, I love your channel and the content you make!
It's a great question. Sometimes it's super obvious. Like maybe immediately after seeing Black Widow I'll have one. But a lot of the times, the movies just sit with me for a while. I think this probably came from Loki putting Thor back into my head.
I'm so sad they included Skurge but not Amora. Not to mention they made the biggest, scariest guy in Asgard into another wise cracking hero who's just like every other Asgardian. This man could have been a main villain of a Thor movie and should have been
Yeah because I thought that it would have build up the Masters of evil
Nando: "Have Skurge take the place of Topaz, maybe"
Me: How DARE you.
I love your dialogue for Jeff Goldblum; just perfect.
Hmmm ha well yes uh hmmmmm well then
I think you're right that the two plotlines needed to interact more but I think that bridge should have been Heimdall. I always got the impression that he was much, much older than anyone except Odin, which means that he would have been around for the conquest, and perhaps he even had some kind of connection to Hela. Maybe he was even the angel on Odin's shoulder who turned him against Hela. During the scene where he talks to Thor about Hela and Asgard, Thor should be more interested in *why* Hela is the way she is and what her motivations are. Then with some inkling of Asgard's darkness he can ask Valkyrie, who would have been part of the original internal coup that removed Hela and the other imperialists from power. (I also think the undead army should have been regular Asgardians similarly banished/imprisoned who sided with Hela against a reformed Odin).
9:52 Odin kept out some very important information about his kingdom, particularly his family and would put him in a bad light? No, that can’t be. Say it isn’t so.
I love Karl Urban so much.
One small change to this video:
Nando doesn't call Meek a character. He is part of the scenery
I’ve been waiting for a One Small Change video.
I always like these midway through after one specific point sells me on your change. No different here, I’m sold on this. Great concepts as always!
I always felt there was a missed opportunity with Skurg. Where instead of running after Thor, he arrived at that scene riding the Vespa. Hearing the little putt putt of the Vespa pull up in the middle of the 10 scene and having him start to announce store would have been infinitely more funny than him running into the scene.
Was watching it yesterdat and i was just admiring Skurge's armor the whole time.
This comment section is probably the first time I've seen people complain about this movie, and insist upon the quality of the first two Thor movies
Interesting to see a seldom seen viewpoint
I personally loathe Ragnarok and think that the first Thor is the best of the trilogy. I adore Taika Waititi as much as the next person, but I think he was the worst possible choice for a movie that should have been about the most heavy-metal version of the battle of the Apocalypse.
Funny how the people that went on about how 'boring' serious Thor was are now the ones wanting that tone and that character back.
This is way way way better. Well done.
Been bingeing your videos
Im gonna subscribe
Nice!
love the content
love the comment
I agree with a lot of the points you bring up about the original film, but I think your solution makes Valkyrie redundant having him there on Sakar as well and having essentially the same arc. Two changes I would make that I think address your issues: *ONE:* Have Odin confess to Thor and Loki about Asgard's dark past as he's telling them about Hela right before he dies. *TWO:* With Skurge, have him *also* locked up with Hela. He was always her right-hand man.(similar to the comics where he was always at the Enchantress's side) He killed many in the old campaigns, but he's a soldier, not evil since this was Odin's orders at the time. Show that Hela did what she did for "the realm"(and herself since she draws power from Asgard) while Skurge was doing it for the people. (and at the time, he was loved for it) However, with the new paradigm shift, he begins to see that the people no longer want the old warring ways and killing his own people was not what he signed up for. Hela and Skurge then represent the theme of the movie "Asgard is not a place, it's a people" - Hela was fighting for the place, Skurge had been fighting for the people. And now that the people want peace, he flips on Hela, aligning with the people which leads to his death. It also gives him an arc that mirrors Valkyrie's where she starts out disillusioned and he starts out a believer,(in Hela and the old ways) but they end up in the same place because of "the people." Well, just my two cents - this was a fun video! 😁👍
i didn't know how badly i needed this take to be the real story.
Scourge just needed to witness those two ladies he was trying to impress earlier doing their best to protect him, and be impressed by them. I think we were meant to see Asgard and its people through him and ultimately he was meant to chose the people of Asgard over power or a title.
You just made the movie 100% better than it already was.
I was skeptical at first but it is perfect as always!
a slight little change i might suggest to Skurge's origin: Skurge was taken a baby and became part of Odin/Hela's rampage through the 9 realms, when he became disillusioned after all the families he killed, after finding out about his true origins and how his people have been treated and how he'd been doing that to his own people, he left and ended up as the Grand Master's executioner, the rest of the story lines up with Nando, but i would put in a longer scene of Skurge wasting the undead army with the twin m16s
I do like that Hela forces a somewhat guilty feeling Asgardian to be complicit in her brutality though
Nando, your version of Thor Ragnarok blew my mind. Kind of bummed out that it's not canon. Still love the movie as it is, though.
Aw thanks
Great stuff. Keep it up.
Thanks
That's a brilliant change!!
Skurge is one of my favourite characters in this movie
This does actually sound better
YES!! THANK YOU!
12:32 the beauty of this script - you can totally hear Jeff Goldblum deliver those lines
Skurge joined halla to save his skin and felt bad for doing so. (Not dying with his comrades) so in the end he sacrificed himself( dying to save his remaining comrades) in atonement for his weakness. He was minor but it was effective.
you could have valkyrie telling him about Hela and odin's empire. I would have made Skurge a radical who knows about odin's secret past and wants to make asgard a empire again, but get disillusion of the notion, once he gets to know hela
Me at beginning when he says "Skurge": Hah, please....
Me at end listening to why he said "Skurge": OH MY GOSH, TOTALLY RIGHT
I've been waiting on a skurge video for so long! Ragnarok was a great movie, but they did this man dirty.
Best one yet!!!!!!
Skurge is also one of the issues in the otherwise fun movie. He hasn't really betrayed Asgard, so his death doesn't carry much of redemption.
Just a personal thing, but I'd love if he got thrown somewhere into space and he eventually find his way into Stallone's Stakar Ogord's Ravager crew. Two Judge Dredds would be awesome!
Skurge had only 1 toy 2 years after the movie came out
Very well written character dialogue, especially for Jeff
I like your version!
I agree that Skurge was probably there pretty much only for the Gjallarbru moment, but I feel like it didn't do that justice (honestly I feel like it'd be something difficult to do well in any movie, since a big part of why it works in the comics is that it had more time to establish the character, initially as just a big dumb sidekick of the Enchantress, then slowly redeeming him at least to a more grey area; maybe could work in like a hypothetical prestige-TV version of Thor), so I support this change.
I think that focusing on the imperialism of Asgard would make the movie more of a mess tonally since it is such a heavy topic and the focus on it would overall take away from the movie but the changes to skurge are great love the video
I never even fully realised that Skurge died... like I remember the scene but it's true how insignificant it felt
I think it's supposed to be one of the Warriors Three, and the powers that be wouldn't allow their heel turn, so they brought skurge in to have that arc and vindictively killed them off out of spite.