Thor's size

[Joerg]

Obviously, Thor can change his size. Yet when talking with Durkon and Minrah, he appears human-sized (or maybe even a little larger) instead of dwarf-sized. I'm wondering why. I don't think it's simply thoughtlessly, since he explicitly changes his size and seems to care about how he treats the dwarfs. Is it because he wants to appear more godly / impressive? So would he appear giant-sized when he talks with humans? He doesn't really seem the type. Or is he aware of the fourth wall and wants to avoid confusing the readers? Is that more important to him than in-comic behavior? Could there be other reasons?

BTW, if it is relevant, I would expect dwarfs to imagine their gods to their scale. That is, they should imagine their gods smaller than humans imagine their gods.

[hroþila]

Yes, he said he wanted to appear "relatable, but still awe-inspiring".

[Benjamin Vazque]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1135.html

[Joerg]

Oh, indeed. :smallredface:. Thanks!

[Roland Itiative]

His size of choice seems a little taller than a human still, if you compare head sizes (I imagine dwarves who are used to dealing with humans wouldn't find a human-sized deity particularly awe-inspiring). Humans and dwarves have heads of roughly the same size, the difference comes mostly from the length of the legs and arms.

Which also brings another point, that Thor was just changing his size, not his overall body shape. He has a human body shape, if he downsized himself to be as tall as a dwarf, he would look actually look very small in comparison. The dwarves are probably used to portraying their deities as human-sized, because they have human proportions.

[Albion]

I just think of it as like Northern Pantheon deities, much like Norse/Nordic Gods, Æsir, are these quite tall superhumans. But not giants. So that's what the body shape and proportions of Thor & co are also like. Tall humans, that is when they're not in godly proportion but on the same scale, which Thor is in the latest comic. These aren't "dwarf Gods" in that very sense, that they would have dwarf body form and other racial stuff. I do realize OotS theology isn't real-world mythology, but this is just so easy to go with, I think it's the natural way to take it. This doesn't exactly mean dwarves are worshipping human shapes, either. That would somehow be all wrong. No, they are quite a different breed, something grander (I mean in addition of being Gods). :smallconfused: I hope my thought came across

[snowblizz]

BTW, if it is relevant, I would expect dwarfs to imagine their gods to their scale. That is, they should imagine their gods smaller than humans imagine their gods.


The dwarves are probably used to portraying their deities as human-sized, because they have human proportions.


These aren't "dwarf Gods" in that very sense, that they would have dwarf body form and other racial stuff.
I was about to make this exact point. The initial question misses the fundamental point that Thor *is*, and that's rather unrelated to the mortals as a whole. The gods are not products of what the mortals races think or imagine. Nor are they very race bound. There's no Dwarf gods or Human gods, there is the Northern Pantheon. Both Lizardfolk and humans share the Western pantheon. Within these you get some "specialization" the dwarfs may have taken to Thor and Odin, and probably don't care for Loki much, but it's not much different from actual cases where regions or groups would pick a favourite from several available options.

[Chronos]

The gods are not products of what the mortals races think or imagine.
Are you sure? Two comics ago, Thor said that he was literally made out of ideas.

[snowblizz]

Are you sure? Two comics ago, Thor said that he was literally made out of ideas.

Made out of ideas, but not the mortal's ideas. And especially not the mortals on this one instance of billions of worlds.

"Gods in our image" requires mortals to have some power over the gods. This is not the case in OOTS.

I don't think Thor would appear as Thor to Soda, Caffe Late or Pizza Slice but I am also sure whatever form Thor took wouldn't be based on the conditements thoughts on the matter.

[GloatingSwine]

BTW, if it is relevant, I would expect dwarfs to imagine their gods to their scale. That is, they should imagine their gods smaller than humans imagine their gods.

The gods of the northern pantheon aren't exclusively dwarven gods. I mean the last two comics have pointed out that they have existed in worlds where the concept of "dwarf" was either completely different or nonexistent.

The ideas the gods embody are universal and relatively generic, not specific personalisations.

[Riftwolf]

Plus, if Thor was a Giant Dwarf, he'd look like a palette swapped Fire Giant, which his followers would object to (Tha's nah Thor! Ye've dipp'd Surtr in peroxide!)

[dtilque]

Off-hand, I'd say XXT/XL. If you're buying him a shirt, that is.


Seriously, Thor's statue in the temple is actually larger than his current size and larger than humans, although much smaller than when first seen in the current arc. There's an excellent image of the statue on p 14 of OoPCs and partial views in various strips. I would say the statue can be considered the canonical image of Thor to dwarfs.

[Joerg]

The gods of the northern pantheon aren't exclusively dwarven gods. I mean the last two comics have pointed out that they have existed in worlds where the concept of "dwarf" was either completely different or nonexistent.

The ideas the gods embody are universal and relatively generic, not specific personalisations.

In which way is that relevant to how dwarves imagine how the gods look like?

At least, as long as the gods don't show themselves to the dwarves in a specific form, of course. But then, imagination becomes irrelevant. My thought was more that a god who can change his appearance might choose a form which matches the imagination of his followers. Not Thor now (there are already statues and pictures etc), but maybe the first time. It seems a bit biased towards humans that the gods always appear human-like.