Summary
The final season of Ragnarok fails to capitalize on its potential once again, providing a disappointing conclusion to the story and a frustrating send-off for the characters.
This review of the Netflix series Ragnarok Season 3 does not contain spoilers.
Ragnarok has always been an odd show for Netflix, a Norwegian YA drama about Norse Gods and monsters that has always seemed hesitant to indulge in its more fantastical elements.
Season 2 was an improvement on the first, but similarly flawed, burdened by some perplexing character decisions and a non-ending that fans hoped would be rectified in this, the third and presumably final outing.
Those hoping to see a conclusion to the story will, on some level, be satisfied. But the last brisk batch of six episodes is arguably the weakest of the three, lacking the initial mystery of the first and the escalation of the second.
Ragnarok always felt like it had the potential to turn the YA fantasy-drama on its head at some point, whenever it finally leaned into its more outlandish elements instead of its torpid cliches. Ultimately, though, it settles into being the exact kind of show it previously seemed determined to eventually subvert.
Ragnarok Season 3 review and plot summary
As all mythological Norse stories necessarily must be, Ragnarok is about an age-old battle between Gods and Giants, with the former symbolized primarily by Magne, a dyslexic teenage stand-in for Thor, and his androgynous brother Laurits, who is Loki, and the latter being the various members of the Jutul family.
This conflict has always been an excuse for the usual coming-of-age shenanigans. How does a socially awkward young man deal with the fact he’s really the God of Thunder? What does it mean for one’s confusing sexual identity to be quietly integral to their very mythical being? What is power, and who should wield it?
Classic questions, then, the kind all pantheons and mythologies are built on because they’re compelling and essentially unanswerable. But Ragnarok Season 3 dedicates much of its runtime, and most of the shape of its core conflict, to Magne’s internal strife, as his personality morphs according to the extent of his newly discovered power.
This, then, is one of those very frustratingly written stories that hinge on established characters making woeful decisions. Magne’s behavior changes radically. He becomes ensorcelled by Saxa, one of the Jutuls, who manipulates him into sowing discord among his allies. The arc is predictable and contrived.
David Stakson, as Magne, handles the radical changes fairly well, but his performance efforts will be small consolation to the audience who find the script’s demands of his character deeply annoying. As ever, Jonas Strand Gravli as Laurits is the clear stand-out, still delivering the most complex and nuanced performance as a troubled young man trying to find his place.
What has always worked about Ragnarok on some level continues to work here. The six episodes are light and nippy, providing an easy binge, and the actors, young and old, are committed to getting the most out of their roles. It’s the script that burdens this final season with an overuse of cliches and frustratingly little payoff.
Is Ragnarok Season 3 good or bad?
Ragnarok Season 3 provides a lackluster conclusion to the series by confusing its mythological metaphors for ambiguous cop-outs and trying to build an overarching theme of peace and understanding that feels at odds with previous events and characterization.
The idea, I think, is to blur the line between heroes and villains, and to provide a hopeful climax to the show’s longstanding climate-crisis undertones, but it breaks some essential storytelling rules along the way and can’t help but feel hollow and toothless in its commentary.
Is Ragnarok Season 3 worth watching?
Those looking for a conclusion to the saga will find one here – however, the bigger question is whether they’ll be satisfied by it, and it’s very unlikely that they will.
Loki fans will feel especially disappointed by his arc, though it’s symptomatic of many wider problems that blight the whole thing.
It’s hard not to recommend this season as the conclusion to two prior seasons which people seemed to very much enjoy. But it’s easy to lament how it all shakes out, so mileage may very much vary.
What did you think of Ragnarok Season 3? Comment below.
You can watch this series with a subscription to Netflix.
I really.disagree. I was looking for a certain “type” of ending, similar to Season 1 and from the build up of Season 2. But how this all ended, just made sense. You make comments like the show”always seemed hesitant to indulge in its more fantastical elements.”. Which when we get to the ending, it’s obvious why.
Good show everyone. I’m a MCU/DCEU fan for the most part as well as a fan of drama/mind bending shows as well and I enjoyed this series.
It was just RUBBISH!! Magne was forgetting who he was, which is not him, as he is not such a character. He is struggling to get back the hammer even though he could have just held his hands in the air to retrieve it. And the stupid everything is in his head ideology completely nullified the fact that there’s no reason for this show, as we all know that it was a myth. Even If so can’t conclude the fact that isolde and vidar was all having natural deaths!!! And the sea serpent was like a ghost looks scary but didn’t even see it properly!!! Overall a useless season, regretting extremely that I washed 5 hours for this.
Totally disagree. Great original content and ending. Made it all even sweeter. U got glimpses of wat had/was gonna happen. For me it was 10/10. But haters will hate
I am a writer and i can tell you what happened here. They ran away with the money!! Simple as that. 3 seasons on Netflix = $$$$$$$$ Expensive special effects and costumes Hmmmmm means less pocketed profits. I was looking forward to Magne getting that primal Thor Look they teased in earlier episodes. The kool warrior. Not going to happen…costs money. I dreamed about a battle field with the Serpent and all the cast looking kooler as the creatures that they really are….LOL…CGI and live action….The talks didn’t go well about budgeting away an ending shows last profits. What ever you have in your imagination is what should have taken place…only with a better production company willing to spend for the vision. So if your wondering why Loke has a large romantic boy friend saga and is being pumped up as the Best Lead in the series. Thats the diversion to hope that Thor is really just a confused mental kid struggling to find himself in the real world Lol…Well gotta say pretty great and creative idea to SAVE MONEY on an ending 3 episode money maker. Hey i like what they have done. Its classy and has dignity for all that are involved. But i know why……
what an unbelievably disappointing ending! I am glad I skipped to the final episode and avoided wasting 6 hours on that abysmal season 3.
I totally agree. I think they were trying to pacify the climate change people- and totally forgot where they were going. I yelled at the tv I was so upset. Terrible. I started over from the first episode so all would be fresh in my mind- I wasted DAYS of my life that I wosh I could get back. Aweful ending. Just horrible. A waste of time. ???
This series had so much potential. The producers and screen writers seem more interested in pleasing the LGBT+ and climate crowds than actually telling a story. I have no ill feelings towards those groups but they are >1% of the population and almost 75% of the story characters. It is that in your face that in my opinion detracts from the story line.
Season 3 was a huge disappointment! Watch it if you must for closure, but don’t expect it to do justice for any of the characters.
6/10. Wasn’t rubbish like some are saying here, but I did honestly expect more. That said I didn’t hate it. I’d say more of my thoughts but I’ll leave it at that.
Disappointing ending. I was hoping to see an actual fight, not some meaningless flashbacks. If the fight would have started in the last minutes after peace then also it would have made sense, but sadly the writers went extra soft.
Season 3 is a disgrace, and they made us waiting for the season for nothing, huge disappointment.
Season 3 was a train wreck. The first episode had potential but then many of the the remaining episodes focused on Thor’s dependency on Mjolnir. It was like a thinly veiled YA plot “Magne gets a drug addiction.” This was only mildly annoying compared to what the writers did to Fjor. Fjor had a complete change of character at the end: from a power-mad giant who was out feeding hikers to Little O and lording his power over enslaved Saxa “Kneel in front of me” and Laurits (remember the choking him out scene?) to “Hey, let’s all be friends and Saxa can run the company and I’ll hook up with my secretary. Peace Out!” And the very last episode with Harry being a goof-ball comedy foil was off-putting. The actors all did an excellent job with what they had, but the plot was a mess and the radical change in the personalities of Magne and Fjor made it look like a completely different show.
I’m very pleased with the ending of Season 3. I certainly wasn’t understanding the weaving of the “Fates” (the writers) fabric throughout each season until we reached the very end. This is a story about the undying devotion and unconditional love of the MOTHER through the long mental-health crisis of her son. The signs were there. She’s the only character that stayed, and kept her son grounded throughout the entire story. She was the tether to reality. Wasn’t it a little odd that she never once even intimated a belief or was ever even remotely involved or drawn into her son’s fantasy world? She simply wouldn’t validate his world for him and patiently (while experiencing her own frustrations as she lived her own life) waited and supported while he found his true self.
I was never expecting a Marvel Comic Endgame here. But the final scene of everyone in a state of “real human beings, all getting along, enjoying each other’s company and sharing a real moment of friendship and support with one another?” Well, that’s a pretty fantastical ending in this day and age, for certain.
Yes it was rubbish in comparison to the first two seasons…..total waste of my time….and worst made the first 2 seasons obsolete…….never have been this let down by a show before…I mean there are plenty with no endings…..or open endings….which I would have preferred!
For those commenting on how clever it was…..no it was not….explain all the murders then or the fact a young boy was speared with an arrow??? Mental health my arse!!
While it’d be really cool to have an all out massive Gods vs. Giants battle, I felt the show ended well. Very very unexpected but it’s one of those refreshing happy endings.
A disappointing end. The arc with magne and saxa was half baked, lacked depth. The midserpent felt like they didn’t have the budget to do the CGI. The ending was an understandable twist but the imaginary battle was almost like they have to have a battle somewhere rather than going with the flow is the script. Episode 6 was unnecessary. I rather they put some depth into the last bit of the story without episode 6
5/10 overall but the last episode was more like a 2/10. I just feel like they were too lazy to write a proper ending. I would have been ok with the mental thing if they would have at least ended with an epic battle.
It’s like people here have already pointed out, they took the money and ran.
Watch it if you need closer, but skip the last episode and leave the rest to your emagination.
Overall I’m disappointed at the ending and way too much LGBT stuff that has nothing to do with the story.
It was poor and left as many unanswered questions as answered. Here’s magne a boy who couldn’t make friends , hooking up with a rainbow of diverse people as friends but only if the myth story was reality. That’s just one, felt like the writers couldn’t get their real ending and settled on some half baked finale
It’s like watching all the terminator movies and on the last movie scene somebody wake up and it was just a bad dream.
waste of a season. Went so woke they didn’t even battle at the end. I had to puke from all the communist ideologies sprinkled in. Literally progressed to progressive liberal lunatics’. This is just a Propaganda series. Use words like climate change to scare people into actions that don’t help the world. Clean energy isn’t a thing. Well it is but no one talks about it. Nuclear) like I said this is propaganda not a tv series. Became unwatchable the last season. Sad state of writing these days. All a bunch of commies. watching less tv and movies because who wants to be subjected to propaganda all the time especially one that has killed over 100million people in the last 100 years.
I waited for months for this season and boy was I disappointed. Loki looking through a dumpster to feed his serpent when the big lake is brimming with fish. Magne comes across as a silly boy with a new toy. the giants come across as weak. Let’s use some imagery from the Bible, “for in that day there were giants in the earth, men of great renown. What I was looking, beings of super strength and intelligence. What we ended with was just another modern day piece of junk that conforms to a slavish ideology
Seasons 1 and 2 kept me watching. Season 3…. WTF?!?! Was this career suicide for the makers? The worst ending and Season possible. Kept watching to see something happen. Well something did happen, now flush it like the piece it turned out to be.