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In Avengers movie, Thor attacked Captain America with Mjolnir. If Captain America didn't have a Vibranium shield, he could have died. Here, Thor tried to kill a noble man whose only crime was that he tried to stop an unnecessary fight.

How could Thor remain worthy to wield Mjolnir after that?

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    he doesn't just drop the hammer every time he has a bad thought, or does something stupid.
    – Himarm
    Apr 22 '15 at 17:00
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    His worthiness is entirely dependent on Odin's definition. If Odin thinks he is worthy fighting the Avengers to retrieve Loki and the Tesseract, then he is fine.
    – Jack B Nimble
    Apr 22 '15 at 17:09
  • I think he most definitely would have died
    – bburk707
    Apr 22 '15 at 17:09
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    @JackBNimble that is a worthy answer
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    Apr 22 '15 at 17:15
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    @Pureferret - now we know what Odin's userid is
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Apr 22 '15 at 19:35
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Because fighting (in this case, the act of fighting Captain America) does not make a god of war and thunder unworthy. At the moment he is attacking Captain America and Iron Man, he believes them to be thralls of Loki which would make them his enemy.

  • It could also be said he was not sure if attacking Cap would kill him, seeing how he and Iron Man had been fighting for two minutes before that and Iron Man was still dishing out the pain. Watch the fight.

  • The bulk of the battle is between Iron Man and Thor. Cap shows up only in the last few seconds of the battle relatively speaking. Thor's actions with Captain America were foolhardy but battle-worthy and thus NOT outside of the ideas of worthiness for a god of battle. We have seen Thor foolhardy before (when he faces the frost giants without permission, but Mjolnir did not drop to the ground, unable to be lifted. Odin deems Thor unworthy, directly and casts him out of Asgard.)

  • After the energy distribution of Cap's shield causes everyone to pause and once Thor realizes Cap and Iron Man are potential allies, he realizes he might be making a mistake and stops fighting. What MIGHT have make him unworthy in that moment would be to continue to fight or to use less than heroic fighting techniques. Thor relishes up front combat and does not take the battle between he and Iron Man personally. It's all in a day's work when you're the premiere Asgardian god of battle.

  • Nor does the use of Mjolnir get subjected to moment to moment analysis by Odin. Thor has engaged in numerous struggles whose merits have been questionable but it usually requires something quite egregious for the hammer to reject him outright. The Odinson's recent unworthiness is somewhat different than the usual method of "worthiness loss."

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  • Normally, when Thor is deemed unworthy, it is with the direct intervention of Odin that the hammer is stripped from him. And that usually looks more like this:

enter image description here

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    Geeez, I really need to read those Thor comics one day. That picture reminds you that the "old man" is quite a force in and of himself. ;-)
    – DevSolar
    Apr 23 '15 at 9:37
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    Odin and his father Bor are very scary individuals. As powerful as we see Thor portrayed, Odin is still by far more powerful in every way.
    – Thaddeus Howze
    Apr 23 '15 at 23:23
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His worthiness is entirely dependent on Odin's definition. If Odin thinks he is worthy fighting the Avengers to retrieve Loki and the Tesseract, then he is fine.

If he does something stupid, like rekindling a war between Asgard and the Jotunheim, then he is unworthy.

Thor did seem to question his own worthiness after the events on the Helicarrier. The bickering and infighting of the Avengers which allowed Loki to escape. But he was still able to wield the hammer.

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Probably because Cap was perceived a dangerous foe that had to be beat, presumably a friend of Loki from Thor's point of view. Thor at that point didn't necessarily to try kill him for evil reasons, like for fun or what have you, he was fighting a "villain that was trying to help Loki.". Meaning he wasn't committing a evil act, just a ignorant one.

I.E. He is still worthy, because attempting to kill Cap wasn't a evil act, he was fighting to stop him from helping Loki, even though that wasn't the case.

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    How did Captain America look like a friend of Loki?
    – Time Lord
    Apr 22 '15 at 17:13
  • Him and Iron Man were transporting Loki. Or from Thor's point of view, traveling with their companions. Ironman attacked Thor, further pushing him into the belief Ironman was an enemy, then Cap showed up to help Ironman. This in turn made Cap look like a enemy also.
    – Clyde
    Apr 22 '15 at 17:15
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    Also, Thor likely knew that Loki had mind-control abilities from his staff, so the default assumption would be that anyone near Loki was under his control.
    – Nerrolken
    Apr 22 '15 at 17:16
  • Plus... funny outfits.
    – Omegacron
    Apr 22 '15 at 18:50
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    Mjölnir doesn't subtract points for stupid.
    – Yakk
    Apr 22 '15 at 20:00
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The Hammer is empowered by the will of Odin so only Odin can strip Thor of it's powers. Thor's combat with Captain America although confused was one warrior to another and not devoid of honorable intentions.

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