A Question of Verisimilitude (possible spoilers)

[SpiderWill]

I love the movie and think of the recent Marvel Universe movies that it is the best, but the world of Asgard has got me thinking about things like that.

Despite how amazing Asgard looked, it looked rather small for a race that has existed for thousands of years. It very literally looks like an island and an island of relatively peaceful citizens.

When Thor is convincing the Warriors 3 and Sif to go attack the Frost Giants he speaks of having gone into battle with them before... Who would they have fought?

Would their be battles within the realm of Asgard or would battles only be between warring realms. If it's the latter, why did the potential war with the Frost Giants seems so unusual?

I haven't read the Thor comics so I don't know if this is an accurate potrayal of how things are there. The biggest reason I'm curious is how it will be developed in Thor sequels.

 

[Nave 'Torment']

I think Corpulent would be better equipped to answer that I just started reading Thor comics shortly before the movie came out.

But from my understanding:
Asgard, first off, didn't seem like an island to me. It was more like a 'city in skies', the population itself was undoubtedly a lot more than we've seen. The reason I'm saying this is because Asgard on its own is shown to be something grand and powerful, and rather vast I might add. These are beings who are, according to the inner-logic of the film/comic book, worshiped AS gods by men and women of Earth (and possibly the other realms as well).

When Thor was talking to Sif and the Warriors three about their past-adventures, I think it is implied that they broke the 'forbidden rules' more than once. So the answer is that the 'glorious battles' could've been within Asgard as well as on other realms (this is more likely), in other words, it's both! They could've fought their way into any one of the nine realms, and it seems evident that Thor himself has visited Earth in the past. Perhaps it was a rite of passage of some sort. The reason why the Frost Giants from Jotunheim is such a big deal is because they were arguably the greatest foes the Asgardians ever faced in battle. That 'Last Great War' nearly had both sides defeated. I was thinking of the Cold War to be honest (no pun intended); so despite there being a truce, with Thor just waltzing in there Mjolnir-a-swingin' would not really be the political thing to do. A war with Jotunheim was therefore a much more grave matter than a war with any of the other realms.

One thing I came out believing after the film ended was that Branagh does try to portray a strangely sympathetic side towards these barbaric monsters. Sure they are evil, but it seems that had the Asgardians not have won the 'Last Great War', and if the Jotuns did, then it would've been the Jotuns who would be dominating all the nine realms. Odin says something about how after defeating the Jotuns they had become the keepers of peace throughout the realms, in other words, Asgard's influence became a hegemony and they prospered, while the Jotuns failed.

If another great war occurred, then given the state of things in Asgard (Odin's increasing weakness), the Asgardians might have failed - resulting in an age of barbarism not only for the people of Asgard, but also throughout the universe (the Jotuns did seem hostile). For the Asgardians on the other hand, it might have meant losing their hegemony over the Nine Realms. I don't think any of the beings in the other realms cared for that.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons why Thor's actions at the very end means so much for Asgard - by destroying the bifrost something like this would never happen again, Asgard's influence, whether for good or bad, ultimately did give them an advantage over the other realms. By destroying that link Thor has given, for the first time, a true peace to the universe - one where there is no need for dependence or worship, no need for superiority. Who knows, maybe Branagh did get away with a political theme in there some where, subtle, but there?