Favorite Characters: Elsa Bloodstone (Werewolf by Night)

*Some spoilers.*

My biggest takeaway from Werewolf by Night was Jack himself, and I’m 100% ready for more MCU content for him in any form—Midnight Sons would be awesome, because I’d love to see how Jack interacts with Marc and Steven (and Jake?) However, beyond any future team-ups or ensemble pieces, I also want more Werewolf by Night specifically, and Elsa is a big part of that.

The daughter and once-heir of the famed Ulysses Bloodstone, Elsa estranged herself from her renowned monster-hunting father. Because time is at a premium in the TV special, the details of the characters’ backgrounds are more suggested than fleshed out, but we get little hints here and there of how Elsa didn’t jibe with the rest of her family.

But regardless of what happened in the past, Elsa still very much considers herself the rightful heir of the Bloodstone after her father passes. When Verussa arranges a contest between a group of monster hunters to decide who will get the stone next, Elsa is affronted at there being a contest at all, along with not being invited to participate. Despite her rejection of her family and upbringing, there’s definitely some of that entitled rich girl still in there.

Even though she expects the Bloodstone by birthright, though, Elsa has the skills to back up her famous name. She takes out other hunters during the competition, and her intimate knowledge of Bloodstone Manor gives her a home court advantage—for instance, when Jack shuts the two of them in the family mausoleum, unaware that the door often gets stuck, Elsa recalls which of her departed relatives had expected to be resurrected and was therefore buried with tools they could use to escape.

A lot of Elsa’s character is a balancing act: how much of her reflects where she came from, how much reflects what she’s made of herself. And as the shit really goes down, Elsa reveals that she is cut from a different cloth than her family. The Bloodstone means more to her than any obsessive zeal for monster hunting, so she agrees to help Jack rescue Man-Thing/Ted in exchange for her prize. And despite her ingrained feelings against monsters, she ultimately aligns with Jack after he’s exposed as a werewolf. When Verussa forces him to turn, Elsa doesn’t join in on the efforts to kill him. Rather, she holds to the steps Jack takes to remember her in his werewolf form, placing a bit of trust in someone other than herself at an extremely critical moment.

Now that Elsa has claimed the Bloodstone and the manor house, Verussa and her lackeys having been mauled to death after they effed around and found out, it’s unclear where she’s going to take her family name and resources next. But one thing I think we can safely say is that it’ll be somewhere they haven’t gone before.