I don't think I'm the only one who was perplexed by the way everyone in Ragnarok apparently forgot that Gungnir can open the Bifrost just as easily as Hofund. Odin used it that way in the first movie and so did Loki when he was legitimate interim king of Asgard. But I thought about it, and I came up with a way it makes sense and also makes Hela a more interesting character (at least to me). Enjoy!

Hela had only been imprisoned in Niflheim for two thousand years—not nearly long enough for all of Asgard to have forgotten her. There were plenty still living who should remember her firsthand. And yet now she stepped over the corpses of Einherjar who had reacted to her declaration of heirship by aiming their weapons at her.

It wasn't until she saw the new murals above the throne room that she realized. Odin had stricken her entirely from their history, including the minds of his subjects, and it was an enchantment that ran deeper even than her imprisonment, remaining in effect after his death. Her lips twisted in a snarl as she flung her blades up into the ceiling to reveal the true history. The one she had helped build. Perhaps he'd done it for shame, perhaps because he thought to weaken her power. It mattered not. She would start with this Skurge, but soon she would make all of Asgard know her as Odinsdottir and Queen, and all the cosmos would soon follow.

X

Another unwelcome surprise came after she had raised Fenris and her legions of skeletal warriors, when she at last took her seat upon Hlidskjalf and held Gungnir in her hand. The throne and scepter of Odin, Bor, and Buri were now hers, their great power hers to command. With Gungnir she would bring Asgard to heel, open the Bifrost to her armies, and begin her conquest.

Or so she had expected. Yet Hlidskjalf showed her no images of her domain, and Gungnir seemed naught but a common spear beneath her fingers. Like the people who clamored in rebellion outside the palace gates, the very relics that ought to have been her birthright did not recognize her. A nagging suspicion arose in the back of her mind. Perhaps she had not succeeded in eliminating her competition. But that should not have mattered. She was the firstborn. The throne was hers. She felt grooves upon the spear's shaft and saw that runes had been etched into it since the last time she saw it.

The King of Asgard is the guardian of the Nine Realms. He vows to preserves the peace. He casts aside selfish ambition. He serves only the good of the Realms.

A familiar fury rose in her like a cresting wave. How could Father have grown so weak? How could he have forsaken the legacy of his forebears and bound the throne to such pitiful oaths? A voice very like Father's whispered in her ear. They will never kneel to you. Unworthy. Disowned. Disinherited. Monster.

So be it. She would simply have to take what should have been hers by force, and if Gungnir would not obey her, then she would open the Bifrost with Hofund.

…Except that Hofund was nowhere to be found.

X

The people, the ones with the audacity to hide from her, were almost within her grasp. She had chased them out of their sanctuary, and Fenris would devour any who tried to reach the Observatory. There was nowhere for them to run. Soon they would choose whether to kneel or die like the others and Hofund would be hers.

Before she could pursue them further, the unmistakable sound of Gungnir striking the ground reverberated through the cavern, and she felt the pull of its summons. Someone was wielding it. Asgard had recognized her new ruler, and that ruler was not Hela. If Skurge hadn't been there, she would have screamed her frustration until it brought the walls down.

She sent Skurge and her army after the people and went alone to the palace, where she found her brother sitting straight-backed upon Hlidskjalf, Gungnir in hand. His hair was shorn and his armor was a disgrace, yet he sat there, immediately accepted as the rightful king.

She was going to kill him, and she was going to take her time doing it. She hoped Father was watching.

Okay so this wasn't just about filling the plot hole of everyone forgetting that Gungnir can operate the Bifrost; I also wanted to deal with the whole "she draws her strength from Asgard just as you do" thing. If that were true, then destroying Asgard should have rendered Thor powerless, just like killing Ego left Peter a normal human in GotG Vol. 2. But maybe it's more complex than that. The power can come from Asgard, the place, but it also comes from the love of the people. My headcanon is that Odin made sure Hela could never have the latter by wiping her from everyone's memories and from all the records, so she was stuck getting her power from the land like some oldschool vampire who has to lug around a bunch of dirt from home. (It was probably partly shame that he couldn't persuade his daughter that Asgard should stop conquering and start protecting, but it was also extremely pragmatic as a way to limit her power.) When Surtur destroys Asgard, he destroys Hela with it because her power comes only from the place. Thor's power is not bound to something so limiting. He is respected across Yggdrasil for his heroism, and unless that changes, he'll remain the God of Thunder as long as he lives.

Also, I couldn't figure out a way to incorporate this into the fic, but it's also my headcanon that Odin has been nerfing Thor his entire life. It can't be a coincidence that his hands started electrifying as soon as Odin dies. I think the experience with Hela left Odin deeply fearful that any other child of his would go down the same path if they had full rein of their powers, and pre-character development Thor wouldn't have exactly eased those fears. Which also explains why Odin reacted the way he did to Thor's assault on Jotunheim. Thor just gave him major Hela flashbacks. And why he said "No, Loki." Even the kid who isn't his blood has world-ending tendencies, and he feels like he's cursed to watch his children repeat his own mistakes no matter how he raises them. (I'm not saying he didn't have some serious parenting fails, I just don't like it when people reduce him to a one-dimensional hypocrite and abusive father or something. He's a much more interesting character than that.)