Asgard and the Universe

[Archaeis]

Regarding MCU and aliens and magic, etc. Is there a difference between the 9 Realms and regular space? Are the Asgardians, Frost Giants, and I guess the Dark Elves regular aliens or from another dimension in which magic exists? The fact that Malaketh could travel to Asgard by ship makes it seem like it's accessible from regular space, but then the talk about the realms orbiting and aligning with each other ...?

[Mrja84]

In the MCU, who knows? We've seen them use portals, but that could easily be done to traverse great distances instead of just dimensions.

So I don't think in any of the movies they have stated Asgard is X distance away. So I think it just has not been established. But I would venture same universe and not in another dimension

[thekillman]

The fact that Malaketh could travel to Asgard by ship makes it seem like it's accessible from regular space, but then the talk about the realms orbiting and aligning with each other ...?

I would say that the alignment and orbit happens on a far greater scale than just the earth orbiting the sun. Notice that in "thor", ygdrassil (the world tree) is implied to be a wormhole network of some kinds. Therefore, the alignment makes these natural gateways (e.g. how they got from Asgard to The Dark World) stronger and thus the whole interspersing.

The TLDR version is:

the Marvel Universe is a swiss cheese of wormholes and the alignment makes them so strong they open powerful windows like in "the dark world".

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

In the second Thor movie Thor said the realms of Yggdrasil are orbiting Earth.. so they might share a dimension that is separate to our own.. They would be able to travel by ship between Asgard or Svartalfheim but need a portal to get to Earth.

Or they could all be in regular space orbiting around Earth in the way Earth orbits the sun (only much, much further away). The portals are needed to travel over the huge distances between the realms.. In the first Thor movie Thor said Yggdrasil was visible in the images taken by the Hubble telescope..

So maybe a bit of both

[Archaeis]

Well, I've been watching through AoS for the first time and they seem to keep using "other planets" and "space" almost interchangeably with "other dimensions"

Kind of confusing.

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

Indeed..

Asgard isn't even a planet It's more like Discworld.. only without the Elephants and the Turtle..