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During Thor: Ragnarok, there are a few instances where Thor is clearly on the ropes in a fight. On the occasions this happens, Thor appears to see Odin as he was in Norway at the beginning of the movie and even holds a conversation with him in one instance. However, Odin has "moved on" by this time.

It seems clear that these experiences are similar to various flashback-type scenes in the way that they take almost no time at all in the movie's actual timeline despite Thor appearing to experience them for several seconds or even a minute or two. Are these experiences with Odin just a mental imagination of Thor's and he's essentially mentally hyping himself back up? If not, and these are "real" conversations with "real" Odin, then how are these occurring?

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  • I've made a little edit for you with regards to our policies on [tag hierarchies]. If you weren't already aware of the policy, I recommend you have a quick look at that to re-align a little with our tagging conventions :). (Note: the tagging conventions should be visible in all tag-wiki excerpts)
    – Edlothiad
    Mar 23, 2018 at 6:45
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    I suspect they communicate via an ODN line. Mar 23, 2018 at 9:58
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    @PaulD.Waite Those Asgardian Starfleet officers do great work. How did they run the line from Thor's brain to Valhalla? Anyways, nice pun. To complete the big 2 sci-fi franchises, I wondered if Odin was a Jedi and Odinforce-ghosted into Thor's brain. Probably not too far off from the actual answer I suspect, actually.
    – Ellesedil
    Mar 23, 2018 at 13:32
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    @Ellesedil 😁 That sounds about right — I believe Thor’s cells have the highest concentration of Midgardi-chlorians that Heimdall ever saw in a life form. Mar 23, 2018 at 13:41
  • Godly version of "timey-wimey stuff"
    – RDFozz
    Mar 23, 2018 at 15:26

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In the comic series Odin spent quite some time in limbo or as a ghost. In both cases he had a limited connection to the living. I think that in the movie we see the second case. As said on the fandom wiki here even though he went to Valhalla, his spirit remained with Thor and the Asgardians (I think he simply stayed on the borders of Valhalla, so he could watch them and interact with them) to share his wisdom. The connection in itself is a little similar to the one shared between Thor and Heimdall (when Thor sees through his eyes). Considering that apparently Odin could see the world through his raven's eyes, we can assume that he altered his powers to what we see in the movie.

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