Spoilers What If...? discussion thread

Well, there was that tentacled fella'...

 

Well. As others have said, that was *dark*.

Or otherwise change something in the past? Absolutely.

That went through my mind several times. You all are pretty smart and came up with good possibilities. The one that makes the most sense to me is that the "nexus event" was their breakup so that in the movie Christine wasn't going to the event.

Well, yes but it reminded me so much of Groundhog Day, I may have snickered. A little.

Sadly, I agree. I still hope we'll get some better writing for Dr. Palmer somewhere along the line.

As Dark Strange argued with Dr. Strange, I found myself yelling at him, "but what would Christine think of what you're doing?" Which is a sign I'm really engaged. I'm glad they actually had her react with horror.

I *still* can't help but think this will tie-in to No Way Home somehow.

 

I was waiting for Strange to be the one who dies so that Christine may live and become the sorcerer, but that wasn't the story they were telling.

 

So I was thinking last night about how the time travel worked here and in relation to the wider MCU, but after going ten rounds about the difference between time travel and time manipulation it occurred to me this story has a WAY more fundamental problem at its core.

Strange has the time stone. Christine died in a simple car crash, so getting access to her remains should be very simple. There is no logical reason whatsoever why he couldn't have *always* saved her just by doing the same thing Thanos did to Vision. No time travel of any kind required.

 

Probably my least favourite so far, maybe because I'm not a huge Dr Strange fan, also as @The Nth Doctor says their non Doctor who language for fixed points felt clunky. It was interesting that Strange could communicate with the Watcher, and I liked the cape fight. It was very melancholy at the end.

Nice they got Rachel McAdams back, another example of Marvel hiring great female actors for nothing parts. Thankfully that seems to be being corrected with Portman at least, hopefully they'll do the same with McAdams. She is in Dr Strange 2 I note.

 

I don’t think she is in Dr Strange 2, unless they changed that

 

Is this show actually integral to the rest of the MCU or is it really just a “What If” in that it’s wholly self contained and just a separate sandbox for writers to have fun with?

That’s why I’m not too concerned about it contradicting rules laid out in MCU live action properties. Until something from this show has an impact on the MCU, I’m assuming it’s its own thing.

 

Marvel’s press release would disagree.

 

That’s interesting. The original report said she wasn’t in it. The new director must have changed things

 

It's explicitly connected to the MCU, but the impression its trying to give so far is that its not at all integral to it. However, given the fact that the next two MCU movies are confirmed to deal with 'the multiverse', it's entirely possible that impression could be deceiving.

 

I was thinking that as well. I am glad they didn't go that way. It would have been to predictable. I am also just glad they let the universe die. Pretty bold move to go so dark in a MCU story. They even tried to ethic wash some of the sins Wanda did in WandaVison in terms of her torture of a whole town.

 

Whatever they do with McAdams I hope it's more interesting than just giving her powers to fight crime. That would be so boring and played out. I think they should use the Multi verse as a means of showing different versions of her. Some she is good and others weird and eccentric and others evil. Of course you can do some MCU comedy moments. Like in one universe she is married to Wong and they are a couple who lives in the suburbs.

 

Maybe, based on the rumors about a future episode (see my post about the remaining footage from the two trailers for more info). Or at least for the rest of the show.

The jury is still out for the greater MCU but I personally think that the events of Loki created the existence of this show and, in turn, this show will lead into The Multiverse of Madness. The question is how directly this show will connect to that film.

 

IIRC, there was an interview with the showrunner saying that the show was originally developed independently, but then they had conversations with Feige about how it could fit in with the larger continuity. So I think it is likely to have some connection to the greater whole, at least peripherally. But I don't think it's the sort of thing like WandaVision or TF&tWS where the entire purpose of the series is to set up the pieces on the board for a future movie.

 

Interesting analogy, given that there are at least two North Poles...


dJE

 

Sounds reasonable. Basically a “take it or leave it” deal.

 

Not really, because the magnetic poles are designated in relation to the true geographic poles. (Also, the so-called "magnetic north" pole is actually a magnetic south pole, because it's what the north pole of a compass needle is attracted to.) The magnetic poles rove further north and south all the time, but true north is absolute, and cannot be north of itself.

Which is the point of the analogy, hairsplitting aside. A single time cannot come after itself, and thus cannot be "replaced" with a different version of itself. It looks to the time traveler as if the event is happening more than once at different subjective times, but to an omniscient outside observer, the event happens a single time but the time traveler's worldline loops back to intersect it more than once. The problem with most time travel fiction is that it assumes the traveler's subjective perception is binding on the rest of the universe. Which is very solipsistic.

 

I honestly can't remember how true north is defined, to know what makes it "truer" than magnetic north.

But yeah, hairsplitting aside, I'm with ya

djE

 

Interesting episode. I liked how Strange was able to sense the Watcher or whatever he's called.

Kor

 

Is the Hydra Stomper from the comics? I assumed it was original.

Also, -has- the series’s Watcher actually used the name Uatu at any point?