Why 'Thor: Ragnarok' Villain Hela Might Actually Make Women Root Against The God Of Thunder

Spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok ahead. Cate Blanchett's latest performance just might make you want to root for a killer. As Hela, the villain in Thor: Ragnarok, Blanchett defeats a hoard of hundreds, all well-meaning Asgardian warriors, in one of her first scenes. The men are protecting Thor's home after Hela banishes him and takes the throne, but they don't last long. The scene is violent, quick, and entirely devastating, with one final brave warrior standing up to this ruthless villain only to be viciously impaled on a spike she conjures from the ether. And yet, in that awful, violent moment, I somehow kind of wanted to be Hela. Worse, I was actually rooting for her and her wave of destruction. And I'm fairly certain I'm not alone.

For all the years of super villains in the realms of nerdom (Magneto, The Joker, The Green Goblin, Lex Luthor, Kylo Ren, and of course, the one and only Darth Vader), there's yet to be a female super villain who feels as exciting as Hela. In the X-Men films, Mystique winds up being a more sexuality-laden sidekick than anything else (despite Jennifer Lawrence's best efforts in Days of Future Past), much like Margot Robbie's insultingly batty Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. Catwoman hasn't fared well onscreen since Michelle Pfeiffer played her in Batman Returns, and even that classic iteration ended up being something of a lovesick stereotype rather than a badass. Then there's Marion Cotillard's Talia Al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises, who was nowhere near the dastardly villain we'd all hoped would close out Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Sure, Guardians of the Galaxy Vo. 1 & 2 have Nebula, but she's a homesick kitten compared to Hela.

Sure, female villains existed before. But were they ever the sole threat to the hero and everyone he holds dear? Did they ever control the situation through their own might and power the way so many male supervillains have? Talia has her henchman Bane do most of the menacing in The Dark Knight Rises; Mystique, Catwoman, and Harley are sidekicks in every sense of the word; and Nebula is a secondary conflict reserved mostly for Zoe Saldana's Gamora, rather than the entire crew. Hela, on the other hand, is so powerful, that were she not imprisoned by her own father's magic, she would have been running the entire world since before Thor could walk. She owns everything she touches, and while she does get herself a few henchmen, not once does she sit back and let them do the fighting — they're simply the chilling amuse-bouche to her devilish main course.

For years, nerdy women of the world have been subsisting on fumes in a desert of so-so female villains, so it's no wonder that seeing Blanchett's Hela take center stage in the best Thor movie (and one of the best Marvel movies) in the franchise has some of us rooting for the wrong team.