Spoilers What If...? discussion thread

Very Hellboy at the end but in all enjoyable. Hope they do a sequal/continuation to this one.

 

Do the thing, Jarvis!

 

I love how everyone was reminded of Hellboy, which uses Elder Gods from Lovecraft, given that, as @Turtletrekker pointed out, that thing could be Marvel's version of same.

 

...except that one doofus who was reminded of Pirates of the Caribbean...

 

I can see the Hellboy but I definitely got a Stargirl vibe for a moment when she was riding STRIPE, er the Hydra Stomper.

 

Can I have a Captain Carter live action TV Series and/or Movie please. (or Agent Cater season 3 )
Enjoyed it a lot even though it was quite short, it did capture the "First Avenger plot" quite well.

Happy we'll be getting another What If Captain Carter episode in season 2.

 

Karen Gillan tweeted Nebula's new look for What If...?

 

She must aim with the other eye.

 

Nah, it's Anime hair. Doesn't effect anything, just looks cool.

 

Bad news everyone. The Youtubers didn't like it. They made her stronger than Rogers so I guess the cartoon won't make it. Which is a shame because I thought it was awesome. I could see this show lasting years and years. I already want to see the live action version and it would also be away of bringing Steve Rogers back in away that doesn't end main Steve Rogers happy ending.

 

I don't know. At least here the tentacles were a logical extension of the plot. Unlike in Picard where they were the most random WTF moment in the entire Trek franchise.

 

News to me, 'cuz that's sure not what I've been seeing on the various reaction channels.They're all raving about it.

 

I love Hayley Atwell and loved Agent Carter, so you can imagine how I reacted to this first episode.

It was so much fun, it's just a shame these episodes aren't a bit longer. Just loved her kicking ass and taking names.

 

One review I read said that most of them are in the 40-minute range, so this one may have been atypically short.

 

That's good news then.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next one where Black Panther is Starlord.

 

Very Veronica Lake

 

I quite enjoyed this one but I do find it hard to believe that Thanos becomes a good guy because of T’Challa being Star Lord.
Seeing Nebula with blond hair was funny. Made her look like a blue Seven of Nine.

 

"What If...T'Challa became Star-Lord?" was a phenomenal tribute to Chadwick Boseman. I love the ripple effects on the galaxy because of this course change of destiny, from Yondu and the Ravagers becoming galactic Robin Hoods to Thanos becoming a good guy (but still with dreams of "random" cosmic genocide!) to The Collector filling in the power vacuum in the wake of Thanos' change of heart, complete with the Black Order becoming his brute squad. Seeing a (mostly) non-cyborgified Nebula not wrecked with anguish was also wonderful to behold, especially her flirtation relationship with "Cha Cha."

Unfortunately, there was an unintended wrinkle in those ripples: Ego fetches Peter Quill, who did not have the experiences of being a Guardian of the Galaxy, meaning he probably won't even resist the idea of becoming Ego's vessel for realizing Thanos' dream. But, as Uatu said, that's a story for another time...and hopefully we'll see it this season or the next!

While I expected to see cameos from Howard the Duck and Ego and even the Black Order, I had not expected to see Korath, Carina, or Okoye, all with their original actors. I loved how Korath of this reality is Star-Lord's biggest fan but I especially loved how T'Challa inspired Carina to rebel against her slave master and unleash unholy hell on him (without destroying herself in the process this time). Now we know Drax only had a cameo in this story, which helps mitigate Dave Bautista's absence, but on the other hand, Danai Gurira returned for only one line,

In contrast to the Captain Carter story, I particular like how the diverging universe only had one real factor: Yondu outsourcing the search for Peter Quill. Because he gave the mission to Kraglin and Taserface, those two dumb idiots came back with the wrong kid ("All humans look the same!"). This was a much simpler set-up than the Captain Carter divergence, but like I said before, I'm not trying to harp on that too much. I just love how much the galaxy changed so much because of two bumbling fools.

And yet, my favorite joke was "We steal from the rich and give to the poor, just like that earthling folk hero of yours, right? Robin Leach." I practically died hearing Yondu say that!

 

I definitely liked it more than the first episode... It certainly showed the branching/changes a lot more than the first episode which more or less played out pretty close to Steve being Captain America just with Peggy instead.

It doesn't hurt that Chadwick Boseman's T'challa even in animated form just oozes charisma and actually makes you think "Yea... I can even accept he managed to pull off these changes to the universe by his mere presence out in the galaxy"

I did read that Chadwick Boseman was in two other episodes, but details as to the content is not revealed so it may not be revisiting this Star-Lord character, but could simply be different iterations of T'challa.

 

This was much better than I expected. Taking T'Challa away from Wakanda and sticking him into Guardians seemed like a really random idea and I couldn't anticipate what the point would be, but it paid off really well. Instead of a bumbling loser "Star-Lord" who finds himself forced into an ill-fitting heroic role by circumstance, you have a true hero inhabiting the role from the get-go, and he's able to do vastly more good with the power it gives him. And I'm glad that he was able to reconnect with Wakanda at the end.

And yes, it is an improvement on the first episode, not just rehashing the familiar beats with a different character, but really living up to the show's professed premise that the ripples from one small variation can change everything. And it differs from what I gather was a common tendency of the What If...? comic to have the alternate timelines turn out much worse. This is a much more utopian universe, despite that cliffhanger at the end. (It just underlines how blinkered the TVA and He Who Remains were in their insistence on allowing only a single "Sacred Timeline" to exist. Seems to me they picked the wrong one.)

Korath was the real revelation here. I never imagined he could be such a fun character, and Djimon Hounsou showed an unexpected flair for comedy. It was also nice to see Carina given a second chance after she was so poorly served in the original version.

I am curious as to how T'Challa's disappearanced changed things so much that both Cap's shield and Mjolnir ended up in the Collector's possession prior to 2014 (assuming the opening scene took place around the same time in both realities). It's not like Wakanda had any notable interaction with the rest of the world back then. Or maybe it's just that Thanos's reform left a power vacuum that the Collector filled, and he attacked Earth and Asgard to obtain those trophies.

I can buy it. Thanos was motivated by a desire to end scarcity and got too caught up in the wrong way of doing it. But T'Challa comes from a country that's solved the scarcity and poverty problems of the rest of the world, so it stands to reason that he could've shown Thanos a better option for distributing resources. And as we see, Thanos still isn't entirely convinced his plan was wrong. The time might come when he decides to go ahead with it after all.