Can the Lady of Death learn mercy as the Lord of Thunder would one day learn Worth?
Last time on What If…?, we
saw what would have happened had Asgard fallen in Ragnarok. The Tesseract would
have survived but split into pieces connecting a lake in Mohawk lands to a
world infused with the Space Stone’s energy. Mohawk and other native peoples
disappeared into the lake’s waters for years before the lake was deemed cursed.
Some time later, Kahhori, a young Mohawk and her brother Wahta discovered the
lake just as a group of Conquistadors attacked their village. Kahhori is
transported to the other world, where she meets a tribe of Mohawk and befriends
them, particularly this one guy named Atahraks. She’s enchanted by the world
she sees but refuses to accept she’s trapped there. For you see, the portal
back to Earth lies just out of reach. She gains powers from being in and eating
the food of the Space Mohawks. Eventually, the Conquistadors find the lake and
a squad of them fall through to Sky World. Kahhori defeats them all single
handedly before forcing the portal low enough for her to walk through. She asks
the other Mohawk to join her but they’re hesitant. She runs off at high speed
alone. She faces off against the Conquistadors, overpowering a lot of them, but
is eventually driven to her knees by cannon fire. The rest of the empowered
Mohawk arrive to help her, and they drive the colonizers back. Wahta dubs them
the Thunder People. Later, they teleport to the heart of Queen Isabella’s court
and basically tell her they will have peace, or the Spanish will see what it’s
like to be invaded. She begrudgingly agrees. Just before the credits roll,
Strange Supreme portals in and says he’s been looking for her.
Ep 16: What if Hela Found the Ten Rings?
We begin with a brief history of
the MCU’s version of Norse Myth. Short version, Odin lead a war against the
other eight planets aka Realms of the World tree to unite them under Asgard.
His best soldier, commander, and executioner in that campaign was his first-born
child, Hela, Goddess of Death wielding Mjolnir. Odin hoped to create peace
under him, but Hela wanted more. For her hubris, she was stripped of her powers
and banished her to Hell. That’s how it went in the main timeline. In this one,
Odin decided to bust out the ‘banish to Earth and give them the chance to EARN
their power.” He shatters Mjolnir when it is thrown at him, and then announces
that no God should rule over death without appreciation for life. He takes her
helmet and banishes her to Earth. She enchants her helmet, saying if the wearer
knows mercy, they shall be granted the power of Hela and hurls it after her.
Hela crash lands in ancient China, as does her crown. Her crown is discovered
by Xu Wenwu and his army.
As rain falls on the battlefield,
Hela arrives and orders they hand over her crown. Wenwu says that he’s the only
one that gives orders around here. Hela isn’t impressed by Wenwu or the Ten
Rings at first. She attempts her go to intimidation tactic of summoning her
crown, but when it doesn’t come to her that kind of kills the vibe. Wenwu
orders her taken, Hela tries to summon blades, but they also don’t come. She’s
hit in the mouth and disgusted to learn she can bleed. She feigns weakness,
distracting the guards long enough to get a few hits in. Hela takes on many
troops before Wenwu realizes that she’s stronger than a human woman should be
and binds her with his rings. She notes those are not of this realm, and Wenwu
points out she isn’t either. She says that if she had her crown, he would be
the one kneeling, and Wenwu tells her to show him. She goes to her crown, smug
in her upcoming victory, but is shocked when the crown remains rooted in place.
She begs her father to please not do this to her as Wenwu and his army watches
impassively. When she can’t move it, she’s taken to his palace.
The two have dinner and it looks
like Wenwu might be smitten with her. He proposes an alliance, as he realizes
that she is a fighter like him. Hela says that her father saw that in her and
nurtured that in her but cast her aside when she grew too ambitious and she’s
certain he will too. He says he won’t for he is not her father. She seems to at
least ponder it. He believes that he is protecting the world with his power and
that with her he’ll be able to protect more than before. They look like they’re
about to kiss, when Hela grabs him and bashes his head against the table until
he passes out. She tries to steal the rings but they won’t come off his body
before the guards arrive. She runs from the palace and finds the creature
Trevor would one day name Morris in Shang-Chi. The little headless
creature shows her the way to a horse and they escape. Hela says that they’ll
travel to Norse country, as the Asgard are worshipped there and raise an army.
Not a great plan but her options are few. They travel across the country until
they reach the Bamboo maze. Hela is intrigued but warns Morris it’s his ass if
this doesn’t pan out.
They enter the maze and things go
well until the bamboo begins closing behind them. She races through the forces
and into the village of Ta Lo. She’s immediately attacked by Jiaya, Ta Lo’s
guardian. As she drops, back in Asgard, Heimdal notices that she’s disappeared
from his sight.
Hela awakens in time to see some
phoenixes fly by. When she gets up, she’s surrounded by Ta Loians, with Jiaya
saying she’s speaking for the village elders. Morris told them who she was. She
admits she’s shocked to learn magic like there’s still exists on Midgard, to
which Jiaya says they’re in a boarder world that protects Earth from beings of
the underworld, like her. Hela claims her only beef is with Odin, and maybe
Wenwu, but that’s kind of the same beef. Also, doesn’t care for future stepmom
Frigga. Three beefs. She asks if any of them would be willing to take up arms
for her, and when they say nothing, she asks if maybe one of these underworld
creatures is looking for work. Jiaya says that you can’t banish darkness with
more darkness, only light. Hela is unimpressed with the proverb but is willing
to learn from them. When one of the elders ask why they’d do that, she points
out that she’s a goddess of death, so what better means of meeting their
mandate of protecting Earth than to make her one of theirs. Jiayi tells her to
look to the sun, when it reaches it’s zenith, her training will begin. When an
elder asks if this is a good idea, Jiaya says that they have methods to ensure
she doesn’t betray them. The white dragon flies across the sky, and Hela says
that the message has been received.
Heimdal goes to Odin and tells him
that he can no longer see Hela. Odin asks if she’s been killed. Heimdal says
that there’s one guy on Earth right now that might have been able to do it.
Upon learning this, Odin thinks that if Midgard has a weapon that can kill a
God, their age of peace might be short lived.
In Ta Lo, Hela begins her training.
She initially thinks she’s going to be taught to do air bending techniques, but
Jiaya says that Hela already knows how to fight, so her training will be about
cultivating her inner world. So, she’ll be sitting on a rock and practicing her
breathing. She’s also shown Zhe Zhi, the art of making infinite possibilities
with blankness. Aka Origami. She’s able to make a slightly ripped up flower
from her piece of paper. When they get to the folding laundry part of the lesson,
Jiaya uses her power to attack Hela with laundry to make her talk about her
desires. She wants Ta Lo’s techniques to be able to beat Wenwu to steal his
rings so she can use the rings to overthrow her father and then conquer the
universe. And Jiaya then asks the simple question, what happens after that.
Hela has a flashback to her childhood, when her wolf (I at least don’t think
he’s her brother in this continuity) Fenris is chained by her father. He tells
her that Fenris isn’t a threat to him, yet, but a real leader tames his enemies
before they can be a threat. Jiaya in the present asks what she hopes to find
at the end of her conquests. Hela throws off the fabric with a punch and
realizes that what she wants is freedom. Freedom from control. Jiaya then says
she’s ready to begin.
We get a training montage of Hela
learning Ta Lo’s techniques. How the breath in her lungs, folds in paper and
all that jazz flow into their techniques. She seems to have mastered the air
bending techniques, just before she sees a Bifrost portal in the distance. Hela
outfits herself with Ta Lo weapons as Jiaya finds her. She tells Jiaya that she
can’t stand by while Odin terrorizes the countryside in her name, or allow him
to get the ten rings. Jiaya warns her that she’ll walk this path alone.
We cut to Wenwu’s palace as it’s
beset by Asgardian soldiers. Wenwu and Hela hold off the lesser soldiers as
Odin walks up. Odin says that he feared the worst when she disappeared from
Heimdal’s sight and that he came here to avenge her. She asks if he’s not
really here for the rings, to which he does say that the Ten Rings are too
powerful to be in such ‘primitive’ hands. He offers her a place at his side
again, but she refuses. She says that she won’t follow him again. He points out
that without her crown, she’s powerless, but Hela says she’s still not alone.
She tells Wenwu that they need to separate Odin from his spear, Gungnir, if
they’re to defeat him. Using her new Ta Lo skills and the Ten Rings they’re
able to separate him from Gungnir. Odin says he should have sealed her away
when he had the chance. Hela tells him he should have gone with his first
instinct like he taught her. They best Odin, knocking him to the ground. Hela
offers end this, to spare him, but Odin grabs her by the throat and asks when
she ever past on the chance to end a life. She says it’s like he said that a
God of death should respect life. Her crown returns to her, and her increased
power is enough to defeat Odin. Odin surrenders his throne to her and says that
while he sent her to Earth to grow stronger, she in fact eclipsed him. Hela
will take up his seat, but she says with it, she’ll dismantle his empire and
bring peace to the cosmos. The end shows Hela astride Fenris and Wenwu running
on his rings leading an Asgard Army to Gamora’s home world to face off against
Thanos.
This episode is a lot like the What
If T’Challa became Star-Lord, in that the episode suggests this alt timeline is
objectively better with the change. Like, so if Hela got the same “banished but
with a way out if you experience personal growth” option as her half-brother
Thor did in the main timeline, she’d be a better monarch than her dad, build a
bigger empire but a benevolent one and save the Universe from Thanos? Like…
shouldn’t there be knock on wood negatives to this change as well? Even the
T’Challa episode had the implied moral that if Peter wasn’t Star-Lord, that
left him open to Ego and too weak to fight him off if he came calling. This
just seems to suggest that All-Mother Hela was the better path than All-Father
Odin, no caveats or anything. Hell, at least suggest that her beating Thanos
meant that Tiamut had a chance to Emerge without being hindered, thus
destroying Earth which would have been a bummer. Also, this felt like another
episode that could have been longer. We basically sped run through Hela’s
redemptive story arc without a chance to breathe. Do I believe a lot of her
issues tie back into how she was raised? Yep. Still don’t believe she got over
that trauma or herself after one flashback and realization what she wanted
wasn’t what she needed. But I will say it’s funny to me that without the
thousands of years locked away in Hela the realm in isolation, Hela is
basically only slightly angrier than normal Loki. Guess it’s Thor that isn’t
that much like Dad, which is weird when you think about it. The voice cast was
once again top notch. Kate Blanchet did well with this more comedic version of
her Hela character. Jeff Bergman as Odin, Feodor Chin as Xu Wenwu, and Lauren
Tom as Jiaya were all good sub ins for their live action counterparts. Lauren
Tom is the one I’m least shocked by, as she’s played just about every animated
Asian woman you’ve heard of over the last 20 years. Like, seriously, google her
and you’ll see she’s been in something you’ve watched. I will say, while I
question the overall message, I do like the idea that a Hela that found inner
peace was significantly more powerful than the one that embraced causing pain.
That’s a message that could always use more examples, “Be strong enough to be
gentle,” as Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) quotes his inspiration for Optimus’
voice, Larry Cullen said. So yeah, an okay episode that I have some issues with
on a storytelling level. Next time, we find out why Peggy Carter got sent to
the 1600s.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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