thorkizilla:

thorkizilla:

HEADCANON TIME:  In the MCU it’s long been impossible for Loki to be Hela’s father (and it’s not true in the comics, either), we can handwave a lot away by, oh, comics like to do that thing where Asgardian magical villains like to wear green because, hey, that’s true.

BUT WHAT IF SOMETHING ELSE?

Things we know:
– Approximately a thousand years ago is when Odin battled against Jotunheim and brought baby Loki home, after he was abandoned.  Thor never knew that Loki was adopted, so he was young enough that he doesn’t remember this, which would also put his birth at about a thousand years ago.  (Give or take a bit.)
– Hela and Odin’s conquering ways were at some point between 5,000 years ago (the last Convergence when Bor was still king) and 1,000 years ago (when Odin went to war against Jotunheim for their invasion of Midgard), her banishment likely closer to the 1,000 years ago point.

– Hela said, when talking to Thor, about Odin’s change of heart, “And then, one day, he decided to become a benevolent king, foster peace, to protect life.  To have… you.“

– Laufey was shown in the mural as an important peace treaty, the only one we know.  Most likely a reference to the first movie (because this movie was all about references to previous movies) but bear with me.
– Laufey’s talk with Loki has a strong undercurrent of him waiting to see where this goes, that he says it was his decision to leave baby Loki out on the rock, but he is very clearly trying to play along with this to see what he can get out of it. I don’t trust anything he says in that conversation.
– Odin is the one who says that the baby he found was Laufey’s son, but we don’t know how he knows this.

What if one of the realms that Hela conquered last was Jotunheim, brutally savaging their civilization and so Odin felt responsible, that it was important to make a peace treaty with them, even after they invaded the far weaker Midgard, because of what Hela had done to them.

Hela, while there, took a war prize of their king, whether because she was in the mood or as a way to humiliate him because he was weak and she wanted to show that.  And became pregnant with a half-Jotunn baby, maybe she wanted to see where this would go, what kind of monster she could birth, like her beloved Fenris, maybe one who had magical powers like her.

But the baby only half as strong because he was also half of this pathetic race, so she left the baby out in the cold, let Laufey do what he would or wouldn’t with it.

Instead, Odin found the baby, who recognized the touch of an As, who shifted to As form that looked just like his mother’s form.

It was no surprise to fate then, though no one else knew, that the baby would grow up with inky black hair and a talent for magic and favored black and green, along with a fondness for chaos and mischief.

You’re spot on that Odin loses the eye during that fight with Jotunheim–when we see him on Midgard, during the Jotnar’s attack on Earth, he still has both eyes:

But by the end of the preface, when he finally defeats Laufey, he’s obviously lost the eye very recently:

How does Hela know about the missing eye, since he clearly had it at this point? It’s possible that she simply saw him missing it from the murals she destroyed, she doesn’t mention it until after she’s seen those.  (We’ll set aside however much she may or may not have been able to see from afar while she was imprisoned.)

Going back to rewatch the opening, Odin says this:

With the last great war ended, we withdrew from the other worlds, and returned home, to the realm eternal… Asgard.

In the movie he almost assuredly means withdrawing specifically from Jotunheim and Midgard, but Ragnarok is a movie that is very, very aware of the movies that came before it, there are dozens of references back to them, so what if it’s recontextualizing this to mean that this is “the last great war” in the sense that this is where Odin started to become a better ruler?

Hela says, 

“And then, one day, he decided to become a benevolent king, foster peace, to protect life.  To have… you.“ to Thor… and the war with Jotunheim would have been when Thor was too young to remember it.

What if this was the point where they split?  Jotunheim had to be stopped, they were invading a vulnerable realm that couldn’t fight back against them, they were slaughtering humans.  And what if this was where Hela wanted to keep going, wanted to crush Jotunheim but also Midgard?  And Odin was tired of war, was tired of blood and death, wanted to protect these people who needed help, wanted to foster peace and life?  And Hela refused, so she’s out there somewhere with the Jotnar or she’s freshly banished or even imprisoned by this point (the war likely lasted several years, if it was a “great war”) and her disdain for the Casket of Ancient Winters being “weak” is because the Frost Giants lost, even when she lent her aid to them.

Toss in that she had an “alliance” with Laufey (or some other Frost Giant), didn’t want the baby and so left it behind, Odin picks it up and maybe realizes he’s Hela’s or maybe has no idea at all that he’s picking up his grandson, only sees a baby that reminds him of his lost daughter and vows to do better by this child, to raise him better and love him and protect him and guide him to something better, along with Thor.