Hela Odinsdottir is a villainous character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the main antagonist of Thor: Ragnarok. Based on both the Marvel Comics character and the Goddess of Death from Norse mythology, she is the daughter of Odin who had been cast out of Asgard long ago and banished to Hel. Only upon Odin's death would Hela return and take her place on Asgard's throne, but decided it was not enough to rule only Nine Realms and sought to conquer the universe. She was portrayed by Cate Blanchett.
History[]
Eons ago, Hela, as the firstborn of Odin and Frigga, led the Einherjar as they waged war across the Nine Realms during an age of ruthless expansion. Eventually, however, Odin came to believe that ruling through violence was not the right path and instead chose to unite the Nine Realms in peace. This wasn't enough for Hela and she rebelled against her father, her ambition reaching far beyond Yggdrassil and out to the farthest corners of the universe. She fought against Odin and was defeated, but Odin realised that Hela was far too powerful for him to kill, and so he banished her to Hel. Odin's very life-force served as the lock to Hela's prison, so it would only be upon the Allfather's death that the Goddess of Death would be set free.
In 2017, Thor and Loki found Odin in Norway on Earth where he had been exiled to after Loki had seized Asgard's throne. They tried to get him to return to Asgard with them, but the Allfather revealed that he was dying and that is death would herald the return of Hela. Moments later, Odin perished and disappeared as motes of golden light on the wind. At that moment, a dark portal appeared on the cliff where Thor and Loki stood through which Hela emerged. Hela introduced herself to her brothers before demanding that they kneel, but Thor and Loki stood their ground. Thor threw his hammer Mjolnir at Hela, but to his shock, she was able to catch it, hold it, and ultimately crush it with one hand.
Loki called upon Volstagg to open the Bifrost and return them to Asgard in the hope of escaping Hela's fury, though Thor protested against this. The Bifrost opened, but Hela pursued her brothers through the pillar of rainbow light. Loki threw his dagger at her, only for Hela to catch it and throw it back at him. She then grabbed Loki and threw him out of the pillar of light before catching up to Thor and doing the same to him. Believing her brothers to be dead, Hela traveled on to Asgard, appearing in Heimdall's observatory where Volstagg, Fandral and Skurge stood stunned at her appearance. Before they could ask who she was and what had happened to Thor and Loki, Hela conjured and threw several Necroswords at Volstagg and Fandral, killing them both. Since Skurge hadn't attacked her and was kneeling before her in fear, Hela offered him the chance to serve her, which Skurge accepted.
As Hela advanced on Asgard, she was stopped by Hogun and the Einherjar. Offended that no one seemed to recognise who she was, Hela fought back, killing Hogun and his entire army all by herself. She then walked through the field of corpses she hade made towards the Asgardian Palace where she slaughtered the palace guards before taking her throne.
Having just massacred the entire Asgardian army, Hela decided that she needed to rebuild her forces if she were to go about conquering the universe. After destroying the murals and tapestries decorating the palace which depicted her father as a benevolent leader, she then broke into the crypt beneath the palace where the bodies of thousands of Berserkers and the body of the great wolf Fenris had been laid to rest. Using a piece of the Eternal Flame, Hela resurrected the Berserkers to be her personal army, naming Skurge as her Executioner and general of her forces.
Discovering the disappearance of Hofund, Hela set about punishing the people of Asgard with her Berserkers until Heimdall had finally surrendered the sword. With the Asgardians gathered before her, Hela ordered Skurge to give them all one final chance before she chose one woman at random from within the crowd of terrified innocents for Skurge to then execute with his Bloodaxe, while Hela and Fenris watched all this terror unfolding before them with delight.
Hela's plan eventually worked as one of the men in the crowd finally stepped forward and confessed to the sword's location in order to save the woman. Hela and her Executioner then located the hidden stronghold where Heimdall and the remaining Asgardians opposed to her rule were hiding out. Hela proceeded to use her Necroswords to destroy the doorway to the stronghold, only to discover that they had fled shortly before her arrival having sensed her coming.
While Hela and Skurge searched for the fleeing Asgardians, they saw a spacecraft land upon the Bifrost Bridge. Thor had returned, accompanied by Valkyrie and Bruce Banner who had escaped the junk planet of Sakaar. Thor returned to the palace where he sat on the throne, banging the sceptre Gungir on the ground to summon Hela to him. Hela and Thor then discussed Odin and his many faults, with Hela noting how Odin covered up every problem, he would cast it out, continuing that he had told them both they were worthy. Hela then claimed that Thor had never known his father had his best, noting that during their subjugation of the Nine Realms, Hela and Odin had drowned entire civilizations in blood before he chose to rule in peace. Thor accepted Hela's rage but insisted that she could not rule.
Hela and Thor then fought inside the palace, with Thor using Gungir as his weapon in place of Mjolnir. Though Thor fought valiantly, Hela proved to be the superior warrior and her indestructibility made her impossible for Thor to defeat. Cornering the God of Thunder on a balcony and gouging out his right eye, Hela gloated over her brother's imminent death, reminding him that she was the Goddess of Death. During this moment, Thor experienced a vision of Odin, who reassured his son that he had the power to stop Hela and protect Asgard. His power came not from Mjolnir but Asgard itself, and that Asgard was not merely a place, but its people. Reassured, Thor summoned a tremendous bolt of lightning that struck the palace. He then rode the lightning down towards the Bifrost Bridge where Loki had arrived aboard the Statesman with a group of former Sakaarian gladiators who were now amid a heated battle against Hela's Berserkers.
Death[]
Thor, Valkyrie and Hulk fought against Hela and her remaining Berserkers while Loki snuck past them to raid the palace vault. Inside the vault was the Eternal Flame and the Crown of Surtur, which Thor had taken after defeating Surtur on Muspelheim. Thor had told Loki of his visions of Ragnarok and how he would supposedly bring it about himself, realising at last that he was meant to bring it about and that Ragnarok didn't necessarily mean Asgard's end, but its rebirth. As long as its people survived, Asgard would survive, and so Thor, Hulk and Valkyrie kept Hela busy while Loki took Surtur's Crown and placed it over the Eternal Flame. This, in turn, revived Surtur in his true, gargantuan form.
Hela's battle with Thor and his friends was interrupted when Surtur suddenly erupted from the palace and began destroying everything around him. Hela turned in surprise, leaving her back to her enemies. Valkyrie then thrust her Dragonfang through Hela's back and Thor conjured a lightning bolt that blasted her and shattered the Rainbow Bridge, sending the Goddess of Death falling into the sea below. With Hela briefly out of the picture, Thor and his friends boarded the Statesman and took off.
Hela would emerge once more to fight Surtur, throwing every Necrosword she had at him but causing no damage. Unfazed by Hela's attacks, Surtur raised his Twilight Sword and thrust it into the ground, into the core of Asgard itself. At the same time, Hela had been impaled by the colossal blade. Surtur's blade continued down into the core of Asgard, causing the planetoid to be destroyed in the massive explosion, obliterating whatever was left of Hela.