
So many posts, I should be moderator
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In hopes that Inev will continue his awesome description of the Mjolnir, I'll add some of my own thoughts to the mix.
When I watched Revolutions again recently, I was struck by the fact that Neo is continuously stripped of things throughout the movie as he makes his way toward his confrontation with Smith. By the time he fights Smith, all that's left is to strip him of his life by joining with him.
I've always thought that Trinity's death was symbolic of the Christ figure laying down his divinity so that he might experience a mortal death. As Brian Takle points out in his essay, Neo and Trinity are like two halves of the same person. Trinity is so named because she represents the divine aspect of the hero. It is this divinity (symbolized by Neo's love for her) that separates him from the previous Ones who merely maintained the status quo with their general agape love for the masses. But Neo has divine eros love for Trinity, and because of that he will accomplish something special. Neo and Trinity had not been able to let go of each other throughout the trilogy, but now was the time for sacrifice. The most important point where Trinity was needed was when Neo was in the Architect's chamber so that he would choose her over humanity. But when it came time to face Deus ex Machina, Neo had to go alone, without his divinity.
But before even that could occur, Neo had to lay down his warlike nature in preparation for his message of peace. To me this was symbolized by the separating of the ships the Logos and the Mjolnir. The Logos heads in one direction on its mission of peace, and the Mjolnir heads in the other direction on its mission of war. It's as if Neo/Thor is throwing the Mjolnir one last time and not expecting to get it back. As he throws the Mjolnir, he throws off his warlike nature along with it.
Jormungand is an example of the world serpent Ouroboros, which symbolizes the cycles of life and death, beginning and end. It is the perfect symbol of the cycles of the Matrix. This is why Paul Chadwick used Ouroboros as the name of the corporation that bought Metacortex (Matrix) which had been previously owned by Wadsworth (Merovingian). The static Matrix that used to be ruled over by the Merovingian now has repeating cycles. But the creator of those cycles (the Oracle) wants to see an end to them. And even though Neo does bring an end to the cycles, the poisonous sting of Smith (as Inev already compared to the bite of Jormungand) was Neo's undoing.
But it was not the heroic action of a Thor-like hero that slayed Jormungand with a mighty blow from a magical weapon and ended the cycles. Instead, it was the sacrifice of a Christ-like messiah that accomplished that. But as Hex pointed out earlier, the actions of the Mjolnir were necessary even though it was merely delaying the inevitable. So as Neo shed his warlike nature in a final release of Mjolnir, he took on the Christ-like nature of the Logos and prepared to shed his divinity and then give his life.
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