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Death (Earth-199999)

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In the end, all roads lead to me.

—Death[source]

History

Origin[]

Death is one of the Abstract Entities that has existed since the dawn of time, and often takes the form of a woman when she appears in front of other beings.[5] She represents and controls the natural order of things, the cycle of life, growth and decay of all living things.[6]

Death is known to various cultures in the universe. On Morag she was depicted on a carving in the Temple of the Power Stone alongside Entropy, Eternity and Infinity surrounding the Infinity Stones.[5][7] On Earth, due to her powers over life and death, the witches reverently referred to her as the "original green witch"[1] and as "The Green Witch",[2][6] and Death accepted and embraced these titles.[2] At some point, at least on Earth, she started to call herself "Rio Vidal".[4]

Agatha Harkness[]

During the 17th or 18th century on Earth, Death met a powerful witch Agatha Harkness and they fell in love. In 1750 Agatha became pregnant, but the child was terminally ill and was going to die during birth, so Death came to take him to the afterlife. Agatha begged Death to not do it, and promised that she would hate her forever if she took him away.[8] Due to their relationship, Death hadn't wanted to hurt Agatha and take the child away, but it was her job and she had no choice.[2] All she could do was give the child more time, so she postponed his death and left, not telling Agatha how much time she would have.[8]

Six years later, Death returned for the child, Nicholas Scratch. She came for him in the middle of the night and allowed him to give goodbye kiss to his sleeping mother before silently taking him away.[8]

Agatha vehemently hated Death for taking Nicky away,[8] and the accident also hurt Death and she considered Agatha to be her only scar ever since.[2] Their love turned into hatred and eventually they became bitter enemies.[4]

At some point Agatha obtained the powerful magical book the Darkhold and used its dark magic to hide from Death for many years.[4]

Westview[]

Death (Earth-199999) from Agatha All Along Season 1 1 002

Agent Rio Vidal

In 2023, Agatha was depowered and trapped in the illusion spell by the Scarlet Witch.[9] In 2024, the Scarlet Witch sacrificed herself to destroy the Darkhold, but even so Death was still unable to find Agatha. Only in 2026 had she finally discovered Agatha, still living in the Westview under the spell. The illusion transformed into crime drama-inspired narrative with Agatha believing that she was a detective Agnes O'Connor in Westview Police.[4]

One day "Agnes" was seemingly called to the crime scene in the middle of the forest, where a body of unknown woman was discovered. Death infiltrated the illusion in order to wake Agatha from it. The spell presented her as the FBI Agent Rio Vidal who joined "Agnes"'s investigation. Vidal pinpointed that the corpse "magically" appeared in the middle of the forest and also asked if "Agnes" remembers why she stayed in the Westview of why she hates Rio so much. "Agnes" struggled to remember but wasn't able to and was then distracted by a noise upstairs made by mysterious teen.[4]

Agatha Harkness (Earth-199999) and Death (Earth-199999) from Agatha All Along Season 1 1 001

Reunion with Agatha Harkness

Teen managed to break illusion for a moment with a spell, so "Agnes" went to morgue to examine the corpse again, and discovered that the name "W. Maximoff" appeared on its toe tag. Agent Vidal when appeared again and confronted "Agnes", saying that there are two Janes Does in this case; she found the name of one of them, so now she should remember the name of the other one — herself. "Agnes" felt confused and started to remove her clothing, discovering new outfit under each layer each of which was the outfit she wore in the past when she lived in the Westview anomaly. Removing the last one, she saw a name "A. Harkness" appear on the toe tag and it finally broke Scarlet Witch's spell completely.[4]

Almost immediately after Agatha was freed from spell Rio barged into house and tried to kill her. Agatha managed to convince her to stop and wait until she got magic back. Rio agreed, but revealed what she already told the Salem Seven where they can find Agatha. Learning this, Harkness wanted to quickly run away, but mysterious teen convinced her to help him enter the Witches' Road, using the threat of Salem Seven's upcoming attack to force Agatha to agree, since she desperately needed to regain her powers in order to survive their attack.[4]

Witches' Road[]

Agatha Harkness (Earth-199999) and Death (Earth-199999) from Agatha All Along Season 1 4 001

Joining the Witches' Road

Agatha gathered the coven and they entered the Witches' Road. After the first trial their supposed green witch Sharon Davis died and they needed another one, so they performed the summoning ritual. The spell took the path of least resistance and summoned the closest green witch — Death. She rose from Sharon's grave grotesquely contorted much to the coven horror and then introduced herself as Rio, The Green Witch. Agatha was infuriated, but had no choice but continue with the trials.[2]

Rio helped the coven to finish the second trial, but told Agatha that she was growing impatient and wants to cause some damage. Agatha called for a truce until they finish the Road and she would get her powers, while Rio would get the bodies of other witches. After the trial, Rio noticed Agatha's motherly care for mysterious teen and told her that he wasn't her son Nicholas.[2]

Agatha Harkness' Coven (Earth-199999) from Agatha All Along Season 1 5 003

Third Trial

Unknowingly to the Coven, when they summoned Rio to the Road, they left the door open. The Salem Seven managed to use it to follow them to the Road in order to kill Agatha. To escape from them, "Teen" suggested to use the brooms and others reluctantly agreed. The Coven managed to reach the third trial, during which they summoned the ghost who turned out to be Agatha's mother Evanora Harkness. To finish the trial, they had to punish Agatha. Rio eagerly suggested to slit her throat, but when Evanora demanded them to leave Agatha with her, Rio adamantly refused. Evanora possessed Agatha to stop her from leaving, Alice Wu-Gulliver tried to help and used magic on Agatha to banish Evanora's ghost. Inadvertently it activated Agatha's power and she absorbed all of Alice's magic and killed her.[10]

While other members of the coven left the trial, Rio stayed behind and guided Alice's soul to the afterlife.[6] Rio hadn't rejoined the coven on the fourth trial, but revealed her true identity to another coven member, Lilia Calderu. During the trial Lilia told others about Rio being Death. She then sacrificed herself to save the rest of the coven and killed the Salem Seven in the process, allowing Rio to collect all eight of their souls.[1]

Rio was quite happy to get so many bodies, but told Agatha that she had figured out her intention to divert Rio's attention with all those bodies from "Teen", but it was of no use, as she already knows that he is Billy Maximoff, the son of the Scarlet Witch. He broke the natural order of things by stealing a second life for himself, and she couldn't let him do it again by also resurrecting his brother Tommy Maximoff. She had to take him away, unfortunately, his power made him effectively immortal; if Rio tried to kill him, he would just transfer his soul to another body and she wouldn't even know where he is. The only way for Rio to take Billy to the afterlife was for him to willingly die. Agatha proposed the deal — she would convince Billy to willingly die, and in exchange Death would never come to Agatha again and when Agatha would eventually die, Death wouldn't take her away. Death agreed and left the Witches' Road.[6]

Cheating Death[]

The coven finished the last trial and the Witches' Road. Jennifer Kale regained her powers, Billy managed to transfer Tommy's soul into new body, but Agatha hadn't gained her wish and was still powerless. Rio waited for her at the exit, but since Agatha hadn't delivered Billy, Rio decided to kill Agatha instead. To thank Agatha for her help with finding Tommy's soul, Billy interfered in the fight and telekinetically pushed Death away. He then attacked Agatha to let her absorb his magic and repower herself, but asked her to not take everything. Agatha absorbed a lot, but eventually pushed Billy away to broke their connection. Unfortunately, even repowered she was still no match for Death. Death offered them a deal — one of them would die and she would let the other one leave. Agatha agreed, but it was actually just a trick to force Billy to agree, so she would fulfill the condition of her previous deal with Death. Billy indeed agreed, but before Death could take him, Agatha absorbed some of Death's power and immediately died from it. In result she managed to fulfill conditions of both deals — she convinced Billy to give up, so Death now wouldn't take Agatha away after her death, but Agatha also died, so Death was unable to take Billy as well. Death kept her word and allowed Billy to leave.[6]

Attributes

Powers

Death Embodiment: Death is the personification of the natural order of things, the cycle of life, growth and decay of all living things.[6]

  • Immortality and Invulnerability: Death exists since the dawn of time.[5] She can't be harmed by any mortal. Even Agatha Harkness, one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) witch who had absorbed the power of countless witches over the centuries and owned the copy of the Darkhold was unable to defeat Death and could only hide from her.[4] Even fighting together Agatha and Billy Maximoff were unable to cause any harm to Death.[6]
  • Soul Manipulation: Her primary function is to meet and guide souls of the recently deceased into the afterlife. The only known exception to her power is Billy Maximoff, who could automatically transfer his soul into the new body when it dies; the only way Rio can take Billy's soul to the afterlife is if he willingly die and agree to go with her.[6] Even Death herself can't break the rules and not take the soul of a person who is going to die, even if she doesn't wants to take it.[2]
  • Biological Manipulation: Death can postpone person's death for a few years, as she did for Nicholas Scratch, the son of her lover Agatha Harkness.[8] But it was an unique special treatment that she gave to Agatha due to their relationship; she never did it before or after.[6]
    • Decay Inducement: She almost instantly decomposed Agatha's body after her death.[6]
    • Plant Manipulation: Death can control the plants, force them to quickly grow and move according to her will.[6]
    • Healing: She is able to instantly heal wounds of others.[4]
  • Power Absorption Immunity: Her powers can't be absorbed by another being; anyone who tries would immediately die.[6]
  • Telepathy: Death was able to telepathically infiltrate the mind of Agatha who was under the effect of illusion spell.[4] She can also send her own thoughts into the mind of another person to communicate with them as she did when she telepathically told Billy Maximoff that he can leave after their battle ended.[6]
  • Telekinesis: Death was able to hurl people and objects around with just waves of her hand.[6]
  • Weather Manipulation: Death was able to cause storms around the Westview.[6]
  • Space Manipulation: Death was able to easily cut dimensional walls between real world and the Witches' Road and exit out of it.[6]
  • Magic: As an abstract entity, Death wields immense magical power, drawing from the mystical forces of the universe to achieve extraordinary feats

Abilities

  • Combat Skills[4]

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Notes

Trivia

  • In an interview, Josh Brolin revealed that Death was Thanos' original motivation for the Snap in the MCU. He stated that following the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos' relationship with Death would be explored and it would be portrayed as a woman in the MCU. However, the Russo brothers ended up removing Death from Avengers: Infinity War, because they felt the time needed to introduce her would be better spent focusing on just Thanos and the already large cast in the film.[11][12]

See Also

Links and References

References

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