Was It All In Magne’s Head?

Ragnarok ended with its season 3 finale, and one controversial twist cast the plot of Netflix’s drama in a new light. The Norwegian fantasy show proved a success for Netflix but garnered negative reviews from critics. Critics complained the story of a teen who realizes he is the reincarnation of Thor, was uneven, unconvincing, and predictable. However, Ragnarok’s season 3 finale proved much more controversial and divisive than even those early critical write-ups could have predicted.

In Ragnarok season 3, Magne spends most of his time battling both the corrupt industrialists, the Jutuls, and his brother Laurits. Magne managed to broker an uneasy truce with the Jutuls and returned to a normal life. Magne alienates his love interest, Signy, with his attempts to take down the Jutuls, but he passes his exams and succeeds in graduating from high school. Then, Ragnarok’s controversial season 3 finale hit viewers with a twist that was somehow simultaneously predictable and wildly unexpected.

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Netflix’s Ragnarok Finale Reveals The Show Was All In Magne’s Head

The Third Season Played Into The “It Was All A Dream” Trope

Ragnarok’s season 3 finale ends with Magne sitting at his graduation when the mother of all supernatural battles begins. Jens is shot by Hod with a bow and arrow and Laurits sends a trio of giants to battle the gods as the crowd of teens and parents looks on, unfazed. Ragnarok then reveals a massive twist ending that re-contextualizes the entire preceding story: it is all in Magne’s head. Viewers predicted this possibility since season 1, but it remains a divisive way to end the show.

Hod Didn’t Really Shoot Jens With An Arrow

Hod Shooting Jens Was An Early Sign Of The Ragnarok Twist

Magne sees Hod playing with a bow and arrow during his graduation. This is strange, since Hod was the child who caught an arrow in the face during an earlier battle. However, things take a turn for the surreal when Magne watches in horror as Hod shoots Jens with his arrow, but no one around him reacts to the incident. As Magne envisions a massive ensuing battle between gods and giants, it becomes clear that all of Ragnarok’s supernatural events are only taking place in his head.

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The Real Meaning Of Ragnarok’s Magne & Thor Comic Book Twist

The Show Was About Magne’s Fantasizing

If Magne has been imagining he was the reincarnation of Thor all along, it would be reasonable for viewers to assume that none of Ragnarok’s events ever happened. However, the Ragnarok season 3 finale made it clear that Magne’s high school life is real and that the acts of sabotage that he commits to stop the Jutuls from polluting his hometown are not imaginary. This becomes clear during the scene in the season 3 finale where Laurits prepares to move out.

As Laurits and Jens pack their things, Magne looks back over long-forgotten Thor comic books from his childhood. Magne revisiting these comics and finding a toy version of Thor’s hammer heavily implies he has been using the comics to formulate the imaginary elements of the series. Magne wasn’t imagining himself as a superhero while doing nothing. Rather, he has been filtering his real-life experiences through the heightened lens of a comic book reality.

Ragnarok’s coming-of-age story takes place in reality, but the environmentalist antics of Magne and his friends are the only part of his heroic adventure that actually happened.

Why Magne Stopped Imagining Ragnarok’s Fantasy World

Magne No Longer Needed The Crutch His Imagined World Provided

As he graduates from high school, Magne realizes he no longer needs the comforting fantasies of his childhood. He moves on from the world of his imagination and grounds himself in reality, as the final Ragnarok episode’s opening prophecy obliquely predicted he would. This is signified by Magne getting rid of his old comic books, a move that proves he no longer needs to use them as a coping mechanism to make sense of the morally ambiguous realities of adult life.

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Ragnarok Contains A Smart Metaphorical Reference To Thor’s Hammer

The Ragnarok season 3 finale begins with a prophecy stating that Thor has only “Nine steps left to step in this world.” This turns out to be true in a metaphorical sense, as Magne apologizes to Signy, is rebuffed, and later reconciles with her. He takes nine literal steps toward his love interest and drops the rose he received for graduation, a metaphorical stand-in for Thor’s hammer.

After all of Ragnarok’s MCU nods and references, the show drops its fantasy elements for this sweet moment. As they embrace, Magne faces reality and leaves behind his imaginary adventures once and for all.

Why Ragnarok’s Series Finale Is So Divisive

Many Viewers Felt The Netflix Show Cheated Them With Its Twist

Any sort of “It was all a dream,” “It was all in their head,” or “None of it was real” series finale finds itself subject to controversy. This twist was an especially divisive way to end Ragnarök because some events, like Isolde’s death, did happen. This means there isn’t a clear division between the show’s reality and its fantasy. The closing scene confirms that Isolde did exist and died, confusing the story. The teases of Ragnarok season 3’s story aside, the show contradicts its message with this twist.

Back in Ragnarok’s season 1 finale, Magne is diagnosed with schizophrenia by a Jutul-affiliated psychiatrist and accused of making up his alter-ego. Magne needed to stand up for himself and beat these accusations, but the series finale confused this message when the show proved he was delusional all along. It now seems as if the show’s villains were in the right, and whether Magne always knew he was imagining things or did need to receive treatment for hallucinations was left frustratingly open-ended.

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The Real Meaning Of Ragnarok’s Ending

The Netflix Show Is About The End Of Childhood

As divisive as Ragnarok’s ending is, the show’s final outing did at least have a solid message. The image of Magne putting down his rose — and, by extension, his imaginary hammer — signified the idea that the end of childhood is a death of sorts wherein one loses their connection to their younger self’s boundless imagination to face the responsibility inherent in the world of adult life. Thus, the hero of Ragnarok needed to leave the world in his mind behind by symbolically killing off his alter-ego Thor.

Ragnarok

The Norwegian streaming series Ragnarok reimagines Norse mythology as a coming-of-age drama set in the fictional town of Edda, where the teenager Magne (David Stakston) and his brother Laurits (Jonas Strand Gravli) find out they are the reincarnations of the gods Thor and Loki. Together they face the Jutul family and prepare for what seems to be an oncoming Ragnarok.

Cast

Jonas Strand Gravli , Theresa Frostad Eggesbø , Gísli Örn Garðarsson , Herman Tømmeraas , Henriette Steenstrup , David Stakston , Emma Bones , Synnøve Macody Lund

Release Date

January 31, 2020

Seasons

2

Network

Netflix