Spoilers What If...? discussion thread

Yup. In CIVIL WAR it’s confirmed that he was at least already Black Panther prior to taking his father’s place as king.

 

A fun take, but it felt a bit incoherent and jumping all over the place.
I mostly enjoyed what Tony would have been like had he not nearly died. The ending was incredibly abrupt. It just fell flat for me really.

 

What Civil War established is axiomatic, but it doesn't specify how long he had been BP. This episode takes place 8 years before that movie, after all. So it's not a trivial question whether he became BP that long before T'Chaka died.

 

I quite enjoyed this week, I just wish there had been a more definitive ending.

It was fun seeing Tony carry on being a dick to people as he had no life-altering moment.

 

I didn't think he was so much being a worst dick as much as his alcoholism was getting worst. I notice he almost always had a drink in his hand.

 

I don't think I see the open-ended conclusions of these episodes as a negative. The conceit here is that we're seeing real alternate universes, and that means that in each one (Dark Strange excepted), there would be more than one story to tell. The idea is that we're getting samples of continuing sagas just as open-ended as the main MCU -- pilot episodes, as it were. If they give the sense that the story will continue after we turn away, that it's a whole evolving reality beyond the part we glimpse, then they've succeeded at what they're meant to do.

After all, the title of the show is a question, not an answer. It's inviting us to wonder and speculate.

 

The episode was a bit uninteresting for me. I wonder like last weeks episode if this will be picked up on later. Maybe the new Black Panther is plucked from his universe for a team up.

 

A coworker and I are huge MCU fans, we discus movies and shows a lot. We both felt that the live altering event WASN'T him nearly dying, not so much. He did decide in this episode that too many young people were dying in senseless wars. No, the live altering thing wasn't an event, it was a person. Jensen. I want a What If where it wasn't Jensen in the cave with him but some ruthless doctor filled with hate. Now THAT would make an for an interesting twist on what Tony could become. Still with shrapnel in his heart, and an chestpiece. But not learning about understanding and compassion. But about revenge and hatred.

 

Err, do you mean Ho Yinsen?

 

Ho what!?

 

I don't know if you're joking or not.

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Ho_Yinsen_(Earth-199999)
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Ho_Yinsen_(Earth-616)

 

Are you having trouble understanding me, Jerome?

 

RE: Episode 6

I actually don’t think we need to see any more of this universe because the episode doesn’t need to explain why Killmonger’s plan is not only going to fail but it is going to be an epic tire fire akin to the one in the Simpsons' Springfield.

Killmonger has started World War 3 and while it’s entirely possible Wakanda could beat the United States, it’s not going to go down easily. Especially with Ross likely to break out every single deranged thing in SHIELD’s vaults from Abominations to Hydra experiments.

We also note that Killmonger’s arguments are nonsensical as his claimed desire is to help the oppressed black man but he kills Rhodey and will undoubtedly kill many-many more black Americans while also making Wakanda a pariah state. Plenty of Wakandans will also ask why they're abandoning centuries of not-empire building to do empire building since they'll have to garrison these places as well. After all, does Killmonger really think he’ll be able to annex the United States and the rest of the world won’t realize they’re next?

He's a great tactician but an idiot strategist, which is interesting social commentary since Killmonger is American imperialism made manifest. He just doesn't identify as American.

 

I do deeply and humbly apologize for not looking up the spelling while I was making that post while cooking dinner. Yes ofcourse I mean Yinsen, who else was in the cave with him that taught Tony a few lessons on being a good human?
Everyone knew who I ment, no need to correct things like that.

I'm more interested in your thoughts about the possible 'What If' I theorized than an unnecessary spelling correction.

 

^ It was potentially confusing to English speakers because "J" is pronounced differently in English than in the continental Germanic languages, so "Jensen" wouldn't read like a homonym for "Yinsen."

It would be tedious to actually count all the individual scars. But from a cursory glance, in the movie it looks like he has more scars, more densely packed together. In the cartoon there's more space between them.
What If screenshot: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/watch-tony-stark-erik-killmonger-150000336.html
Movie screenshot: https://www.insider.com/black-panther-michael-b-jordan-killmonger-makeup-transformation-2018-2

So in the next ten years he must fill in the spaces between the scars with a lot more kill scars.

Of course, it's possible that the animated version is a simplified/stylized visual that is actually meant to represent the exact same "look" as in the movie. In that case, it should be pointed out that we only see his upper body uncovered. Once that area is full, he would undoubtedly extend the scarring to his legs (if he didn't start there already).

Kor

 

More importantly, "Jensen" is a surname of Scandinavian origin, while Ho Yinsen is Chinese in the comics, and in the MCU is an Afghani played by an Iranian-American actor (albeit still inexplicably with a Chinese name, and a mispronounced one IIRC). So it's a bit more than just a spelling issue.

 

True, but I believe Mage is a native Dutch speaker (in which "J" sounds like English "Y"). So it's certainly an understandable slip, especially when he's making the post while simultaneously cooking dinner as he stated.

Kor

 

I don't see why the reasons for it matter. Everyone makes mistakes. There's no need to get defensive about it. It's just something that needs to be fixed, that's all. Like someone's fly being open. Telling someone their fly is open isn't a personal attack or a judgment, it's just letting them know there's something they need to fix. It doesn't matter why it's open, it just matters that it gets fixed.

 

Most spelling mistakes on the internet very much do NOT need to be fixed, because they're off-the-cuff comments on the internet, not English class essays. Granted, in this specific case, for an American like me, it was genuinely a bit confusing and I was wondering a moment if there was some minor character named Jensen I'd forgotten...

 

I like the last episode, it wasn't quite as good as some of the others but I still liked it.
Tony and Killmonger were an interesting pairing, as Killmonger rescuing him kept Tony from becoming a better person.
Was Ramonda a general in the movie? That really caught me off guard, I don't remember there being any indication in the movie that she was involved with the military.
It was interesting seeing Killmonger manipulating everyone a bit more successfully than he did in the movie.