He's mine
Valkyrie is the heavy-drinking battle-hardened Asgardian warrior from the Marvel Cinematic
Universe despite only appearing in three films so far she's always stood out to me
as a unique character with a lot of untapped potential that unfortunately seems to go unnoticed
instead of playing the role of the fun police or the only sane person on the team Valkyrie
has fun she banters with the characters and isn't immune to slapstick instead of learning a lesson
of self-acceptance and discovering that she was already perfect Valkyrie learns a much harsher
lesson about overcoming trauma when she tried to escape her banishment he sent the Valkyrie
in to fight her back I only survived because look I already faced her once back when I believed in
the throne and it cost me everything this was all present during her introduction to the franchise
so you can imagine my disappointment seeing that it never truly gets explored in her following
appearances which is a shame because honestly Valkyrie would be an interesting character to
explore how a traumatic experience broke her heroic spirit causing her to shut down and do evil
things for money sure she overcomes the initial pain of isolation but we never see Valkyrie face
the consequences of her actions nor do we have any idea about whether or not she regrets any of it
so let's veer this valiant Valkyrie from a vapid and vacant vessel to a vigorous veteran of value
Jayniac
I can't turn away anymore so if I'm gonna die well
it may as well be driving my sword through the heart of that murderous hag good
in order to make some adjustments to Valkyrie's story we first need to analyze what's already
been established the last thing we'd want to do is deviate from the pre-existing narrative
right being a powerful Asgardian already gives her an edge in combat but being a Valkyrie gives her
a lot more than just sheer strength when looking closely at how Valkyrie fights it becomes
quite noticeable that a lot of her hits rely on precision rather than force always going for the
vitals instead of just hitting things hard this sits as a perfect contrast to Thor's much more
destructive and aggressive fighting style not only does this reflect their different personalities
but it also reflects their strategies too often Thor's plan involves well just being mighty and I
mean can you blame him yeah but I mean this Thanos we're talking about he's the toughest there is
well he's never fought me yeah he has he's never fought me twice so it comes as no surprise that
in most situations Valkyrie plays the role of strategist and even if her plan isn't the best one
she's quick to adapt to whatever is suggested by her teammates pair all of this with her piloting
skills focused mindset and encyclopedic knowledge of Asgard and it's easy to see why Thor appointed
her the king of new Asgard instead of say Lady Sif even more interesting is why Valkyrie would
agree to take the position to begin with I'm not getting dragged into another one of Odin's family
squabbles that's what's wrong with Asgard the throne the secrets the whole golden sham I agree
after going to battle with her fellow Valkyrie all of whom met their end at the hand of Hela Valkyrie
rejected Asgard realizing that at any given moment she'd be expected to fight and potentially lose
her life even if it was the fault of her king she is the sole survivor of a conflict that wasn't her
own so she shuts down and finds refuge on Sakaar a planet ripe with trash and violence there
she lives a new life as Scrapper 142 acquiring contenders for The Grandmaster's gladiator death
matches her most notable acquisitions being Hulk and Thor what's the problem well it's all against
their will for years Valkyrie's been capturing people and forcing them to fight for their lives
and work unpaid labor all so she can get paid so she can buy drinks so she can forget about her
past and it's a never-ending cycle for her that is until she meets Thor who calls her out for her
actions sure she's experienced loss and is coping with her trauma but none of that justifies what
she's doing having once been a victim of battle it's sad to see Valkyrie sending people to battle
when this is brought up by Thor and later Loki she's always brought to a stunning silence
during her introduction she says that no one can leave Sakaar but once she decides that she wants
to defeat Hela once and for all she already has a plan which means she could have left at any time
but chose not to Thor says just enough to help Valkyrie face her trauma head-on so she can do
her best to overcome it so how come when the roles are reversed and Thor is going through a traumatic
experience we don't get to see Valkyrie do the same for him it's a gigantic oversight because it
just makes sense we see her taking care of Asgard while he struggles which shows that she clearly
does care but instead of having hulk talk Thor out of hiding why not have Valkyrie do it it'd be the
perfect role reversal her calling him out with all his heroic talk when they first met and showing
that she understands how hard it is to have lost and survived and that it doesn't mean they should
give up and stop fighting it could really solidify the bond between the two of them speaking of which
Valkyrie seems to get along with everyone pretty well and this is especially noticeable once she
becomes king she says she'll be making changes and everyone adjusts to those changes pretty well
except her I love being king I love my people but it's all meetings and raven mail in meetings it
could have been raven mail I miss fighting I miss my sisters she misses the battle and is eager to
fight again preferably with a companion of which we never see Valkyrie's relationship status and
how she feels about dating is left pretty ambiguous in some aspects the most we get
out of it is the conversation she has with Korg I don't know if I want that again is that because
you lost your girlfriend in battle never forgave yourself and now you just try to find answers in
the bottom of a bottle yeah and this scene right here I guess Val is in the process of accepting
that she might be better off single who knows what I do know however is how we can fix this
with everything we know about Valkyrie the easiest way to explore her character would be by having
her past catch up with her both in relation to her dying comrades and her horrible actions on Sakaar
how you might ask well since agents of shield and more recently She-Hulk have given us a
few examples of rogue Asgardians running around causing havoc on earth as the king of new Asgard
Valkyrie could be held accountable for it after hearing accusations of her being a negligent king
and conspiracies of her encouraging an Asgardian uprising Valkyrie tells the public that she will
single-handedly stop all the rogue as guardians in an attempt to restore her positive image while
also getting herself back on the battlefield she gears up in her classic Valkyrie armor
grabs Zeus' thunderbolt and as she charges it to travel the camera zooms in and boom theme song
keeping with the hard rock and metal themes of the recent Thor films I think Valkyrie could use
something similar but different for her theme song I'm thinking Layla by Derek and the Dominos
if you have a better idea let me know in the comments anyway the theme song's visuals should
be a montage of images of her stopping different Asgardians from different parts of the world
in the same art style as Odin's throne showing the audience that she's been at it for a while
we cut back to the show and Val's just returning to new Asgard with her most recent rogue Asgardian
she's called a traitor for arresting them but Val pretends not to care
she's told by her royal guards that there have been reports of another rogue
in hell's kitchen Valkyrie sighs exclaiming that she may have bitten off more than she can chew
but persists nonetheless she arrives at the scene of the crime where she has a run-in with
Ghost Rider wait you're not his guardian Valkyrie ponders out loud the two fights
ultimately ending with Ghost Rider having Valkyrie chained up in flames he pulls her closer
and uses the penance stare forcing her to mentally relive every atrocity she committed on Sakaar
while also showing the audience what kind of person she was before Thor showed up Valkyrie
blacks out and when she comes too the whole street is set ablaze people surround her taking pictures
of what they assume was her fault unable to assess the situation properly she uses thunderbolt to
return to new Asgard sad that her sentimental armor is burnt Valkyrie being a strategist
hatches a plan to go undercover through hell's kitchen to figure out what might be going on so
she dons a leather biker jacket blue jean shorts and some high boots but since she's not completely
accustomed to earth's fashion she still adds a few Asgardian touches as well as a retractable spear
she even puts her hair in pigtails paying a nice homage to her comic book design pretty
cool huh to make a long story short Valkyrie meets Ghost Rider again and though she's eager
for round two he explains to her that there's been a misunderstanding he came to hell's kitchen to
fight a fire demon that's been traveling through different forms of hell knowing that the people
of hell's kitchen think the fires were her fault Valkyrie vows to slay this demon to regain favor
for new Asgard the two team up and while they track down the demon they have some good back and
forth dialogue about consequences the afterlife and purpose leaning into the show's central theme
of redemption it'd work well for these characters too because they'd both understand what it's like
to make deals with horrible people and just for fun have Valkyrie tease Ghost Rider about his
method of transportation anyway they find the demon and surprise surprise it knows Valkyrie
the demon tells her he traveled many realms searching for whichever hell she ended up
in just so he could end her after sending his offspring to death in the battle arena on Sakaar
Ghost Rider asks if she knows who he's talking about and she doesn't answer the two defeat the
demon in an epic fight and Valkyrie asks Ghost Rider can sins be forgiven to which he responds
with can't say I've never tried Valkyrie walks away telling him she needs to return to new Asgard
and says oh and thank you for what your bike Valkyrie pulls the throttle the bike ignites
on flames and she teleports away with thunderbolt Valkyrie goes home and reflects on things knowing
that she now has to deal with rogue Asgardians and Sakaraans I'm thinking 8 episodes 30 minutes each
hard focus on Valkyrie's character and how she can redeem herself from her previous actions
give it a nice hard rock soundtrack sprinkle some comic book Asgardians here and there
end the series with better a bill showing up and that is how to fix Valkyrie
Valkyrie is definitely one of my favorite MCU heroes not so much because of what she is but
rather what she could be and the more I see her the more I hope that she gets a little more to do
and maybe a bit more focus I'm all about character writing so nothing hurts me more than seeing a
really cool character not given much to do I mean the least she could do is follow me on my
social medias but especially twitch if you want to see me live stream seriously I live stream
every single week people have asked me where I've been just go over there and if you like hearing
my voice be sure to check out the Jr. & Marcus Talk podcast where my best friend and I talk
about whatever's on our mind sorry for the brief hiatus we will be back at the end of the month
God willing and I have a merch store go ahead and check it out with the link that's on screen right
now hopefully I'll be able to update it at the end of this year or the beginning of next year so what
do you want me to talk about next I'm not talking about kid shows anymore guys I'm done that's why I
left don't ask me okay let me know in the comments down below until then I'll leave you with this
what are you doing no I'm sorry I thought there was a squeeze yeah it was like a good
luck squeeze right it wasn't like a kiss me squeeze so embarrassing that's okay