2x07 What If... Hela Found the Ten Rings?

[7.8/10] So hey, hot take on my part, but Cate Blanchett is good at acting!

I’m joking, but I’m genuinely impressed what What If was able to get the actress to come back for a one-off appearance in the animated series. Maybe it’s because she gets to be the lead in this one, and I kind of love that.

The basics of this one is a Hela-focused remix of the original Thor film. What’s interesting is that even in Ragnarok, you get the sense that Hela was done dirty by Odin. So doin ga What If where she gets the chance to better herself and become a hero, much like Thor did, is a sideways way of rectifying that. And the idea that she needs to learn mercy rather than humility to regain her powers gives her a nice growth arc like the God of Thunder got.

The decision to mix her up with the world of Shang-Chi is a bit more a mixed bag. I like her dynamic with Wenwu. There’s something amusing about the enemies-to-lovers vibe between the two of them, especially with Wenwu being enamored with her general warriors’ bent, when it’s that same bent that makes her a bit, shall we say, combative with him. If it was just the two of them having Beatrice/Benedick chemistry together in Wenwu’s lands, I’d be on board.

And the truth is that I don’t mind her adventures with Jiayi in Ta Lo, but they’re just so so so very stock. Some of this is just replaying the standard Kung Fu movie beats, with the neophyte having to learn discipline and some flavor of inner peace before they can master the martial arts badassery. (No less a landmark film than Kung Fu Panda, of all things, riffs on the same tropes.) And there’s also a certain Eat Pray Love vibe (or, more charitably, Kill Bill) to the white (or at least white-coded) character going to a foreign land to learn their spiritual ways that's a bit uncomfortable. All of it feels like old hat.

But you know what? Blanchet elevates a lot of it, and so does the animation. I love Blanchett’s arch sensibilities getting to be brought to the fore in a more heroic, or at least antihero style character. Hela getting to banter and patter with her caustic wit is a treat unto itself, and boosts pretty much every scene Hela is in. Her sly remarks and taunts are particularly fun, and Blanchett brings a real joie de vivre to them.

And I’ll be honest, most of the action scenes in What If tend to leave me zoning out, but this one caught my attention. The beauty of the flowers zooming around Jiayi and Hela’s moves, and other objects dancing on the wind as they harness their abilities, looks stunning with the cel-shaded aesthetic. And the three way fight with Hela and Wenu taking on Odin is the visual peak of the show for me. There’s both a more discernible flow to the fisticuffs than we’ve seen previously, and a true sense of epicness with Hela’s abilities, Wenwu’s rings, and Odin’s staff all going up against one another.

The clear goal to separate Odin from his weapon, and the key to winning the battle being Hela showing mercy, rather than slaying her enemy, gives the fight stakes and meaning beyond the pure combat. And i also like the episode’s acknowledgement that what Odin did wrong by his daughter, taught her to be a weapon, kept her on a chain so that she wouldn’t topple him, and was poised to imprison or discard her when the skills he’d cultivated in her were no longer useful of convenient for him. There’s a lot that went unsaid or underexplored about their relationship in Ragnarok, and I’m glad to see What If processing all of that here. Vindicating Hela to some degree, showing what she could have been and become with the right help, and the freedom she could have attained if her father didn’t stand in her way, makes the project worthwhile beyond its imagery, tropes, and general fun.

All-in-all, this is one of my favorites of the season, with a top notch actor on board to carry the load, and a remix that not only gives us a different protagonist, but casts multiple characters and films in a different, fascinating light.

This episode has such good bones but i think some of the execution needed shaping. As someone who was raised on Odin's A+ Parenting fics Odin being a fuck ass dad who built Hela up as an executioner only to discard her when she became inconvenient is such a good story thread to expand on.

I only wish this story had a bit more room to expand on hela's relationship to war and imperialism. I think her time with the ten rings could have better touched on what they are in relationship to conquest and war and the story could have contrasted what they do with what hela did for asgard.

I also loved seeing her time in Ta Lo with Jiayi (i'm a sucker for training montages with sapphic undertones) but again i wish there was more room to see her shift in perspective. Though I will say the moment she says what she wants most is freedom from her dad's control fucks so hard.

But I think the biggest change I would have made to episode was to make Odin a straight up villain . make him tossing hela out not him trying to teach her a lesson about the sanctity of life but just pure cruelty because he feared her threatening his position. And then have her kill him in the end cause that would be neat.(or at least if Hela showing mercy needs to be a big part of her character Id rather she didn't join up with him on a decolonization crusade)