Recap / What If…? S2E4 "What If... Iron Man Crashed Into the Grandmaster?"

"What If... Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster?"

Alternate take on: The Avengers and Thor: Ragnarok

"The Guardians of the Multiverse. Heroes plucked from across different realities to protect the fate of all of them. But you don't know her story. From the daughter of a mad Titan to the champion of a multiversal war, Gamora's path to becoming the hero of her story... began in someone else's."

— Uatu

In a universe where Tony Stark misses the portal leading back home by a hair's breadth, the genius, billionaire, philanthropist playboy ends up crossing the galaxy to Sakaar. There, he meets the Grandmaster, the host of a series of deadly Grand Prix races, and a few unwilling competitors who want to escape the host's iron grip on their lives. Determined to help his new friends, Tony forms a plan to do so and give all of Sakaar a better life. But the task may be easier said than done, with the Grandmaster having a few tricks up his sleeve and the daughter of Thanos determined to exact revenge on Tony for upending her father's plans.

"What If... Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster?" contains examples of:

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Valkyrie is much less surly than she is in Thor: Ragnarok, and she needs far less convincing to help Tony than she did to help Thor. Furthermore, she's not shown to be kidnapping people to enslave them as the Grandmaster's gladiators. This might be the result of Tony finding her a few years before Thor did in the Sacred Timeline, meaning she hasn't been wallowing in her own depression for quite as long.
• Adapted Out: Miek isn't present with Korg in this episode, despite being part of Those Two Guys with him on Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok.
• Analogy Backfire: Tony poetically describes Valkyrie's alcoholism as a "demon in a bottle"; an offended Valkyrie thinks he's referring to a brand of liquor called "Demon in a Bottle", which she thinks is garbage compared to her favored Demon Rum.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Valkyrie causing the Grandmaster to melt is met with a joyous uproar from the crowd, who practically appoint her to be his replacement on the spot.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: The Grandmaster tosses Tony and Gamora into a cell with one double bed, because he sensed a "spark" between them when Gamora tried to murder Stark with a large cannon. They aren't actually attracted to each other at all, though they do become friends by the end of the episode.
• The Big Race: Tony challenges the Grandmaster to one to determine the rulership of Sakaar.
• Blatant Lies:
  • The Grandmaster claims to be celebrating his 21st birthday and that he doesn't look a day over 18.
  • Tony's "Not So Different" Remark to Valkyrie is prefaced by an insistence that he's not drawing from personal experience.
• Bread and Circuses: It's made clear that the standard of living on Sakaar is abhorrent, with starvation apparently being so commonplace that even rotted vegetation needs to be saved. The Grandmaster throws lavish blood sports to keep the population's mind off of their suffering and squalor, but given how loudly they cheer his downfall, it clearly wasn't working very well.
• Break Them by Talking: Tony convinces Gamora to do a Heel–Face Turn by talking to her over the cars' intercoms and convincing her that she does not have to be Daddy's Little Villain.
• Cardboard Prison: The cell the Grandmaster throws Tony and Gamora (and Korg) into proves laughably easy to escape. Tony hacks the lock with his bracelet, and Gamora discovers that the glass window is breakable.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: The Grandmaster tries to win the race by getting a head start over the other contestants, controlling the race's terrain, and summoning beasts in the track, but he still loses to Tony's ingenuity and unpredictability. Even after losing the race, he tries to get Topaz to vaporize Tony with a melt stick but this attempt is thwarted by Valkyrie and backfires on him when the melt stick hits him instead.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Initially only interested in getting back to Earth, Tony quickly decides that the Grandmaster needs to be overthrown for the sake of Sakaar's people. He also goes out of his way to redeem Gamora, despite her having done nothing but try to kill him from the moment they met. And once he has defeated the Grandmaster, Tony chooses to help Gamora take down Thanos rather than immediately returning to Earth.
• Continuity Nod: As in The Avengers (2012), Tony's chest reactor proves a handy deterrent to other forms of energy attempting to incapacitate him, in this case a Sakaaran shock implant rather than the scepter's mind control.
• Cool Car: Stuck on Sakaar, Tony works with Valkyrie and Korg to build a new Iron Man suit, which is big and bulky and can also split into pieces and reassemble itself into a TRON-esque high-performance race car with light wheels, rear thrusters, and a super nitro setting that activates when Tony adjusts his arc reactor.
• Cruel Elephant: Snuffy, a former champion of the Grandmaster, is an elephant-like creature that was released to attack the racers during the Sakaar Grand Prix until Gamora kills him. This also applies to the other creatures like Snuffy that the Grandmaster uses to cheat in the race for control of Sakaar.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: While Tony is still involved with killing Thanos in this universe, Gamora is the one to directly do the deed, using the Grandmaster's melting stick rather than the completed Infinity Gauntlet.
• Dirty Old Man: The Grandmaster is up to his usual tricks, immediately fawning over Tony's appearance when they meet, locking Tony and Gamora up together with the implied hope that they'll have sex (with Korg there to watch, no less), winking flirtatiously at a statue of himself, and even sounding lasciviously interested in being absorbed by a sponge after he's been reduced to a still-living puddle of goo.
• Dramatic Irony: Tony, railing against Thanos's indirect attack on Earth, asks Gamora if she knows what it's like to see her planet destroyed because of a madman's whims. Gamora, who, unknown to Tony, was adopted by the madman whose whim decimated her planet, is visibly affected by Stark's words.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Tony, much to his chagrin, is dubbed "Mr. Metal Mojo Man" by the Grandmaster.
• Everyone Has Standards: Tony is horrified at the racing conditions on the Grandmaster's racetrack, outright calling them barbaric. In fact, he goes from just wanting to escape the Grandmaster's clutches to deciding to defeat him and free Sakaar once and for all.
• Famed In-Story: By the time Tony reaches Sakaar, the Avengers' victory over the Chitauri is known throughout the universe.
• Foreign Queasine: Tony is unimpressed by the beverage selection on Sakaar and his final attempt has him complain that he just wants one drink that doesn't taste like a urinal.
• Foregone Conclusion: Due to the episode's nature as an unintentional prequel to the Season One finale (it was supposed to air in that season but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed its completion), the audience already knows that Tony and Gamora will survive, and that Thanos won't.
• Gargle Blaster: Tony takes a shot of the "top shelf, gold label" Demon Rum with Valkyrie, unaware that her Asgardian constitution lets her drink far higher proof than his lowly mortal body can handle. He gasps before faceplanting on the bar.
• Harmless Liquefaction: Unlike everyone else, the Grandmaster survives being hit by the melt stick (possibly confirming that he shares his comic counterpart's immortality), but is reduced to a talking puddle instead.
• Heel–Face Turn: Gamora starts out as Thanos's devoutly loyal attack dog, but with Tony's encouragement, comes to redefine herself, going from "Daughter of Thanos" to "Slayer of Thanos".
• Heel Realization: When Tony is about to kill Gamora after he learns Thanos was responsible for what happened in New York, he hears the Grandmaster’s announcement saying that Tony is not the hero they thought he was. After Tony hears that, he decides to spare Gamora, and liberate the planet from the Grandmaster's tyrannical rule.
• I'm Melting!: Topaz's uncreatively named melt stick causes whoever touches the orb on the tip to melt into goo, regardless of its composition. The Grandmaster even says "I'm melting" when it touches him. Curiously, the Grandmaster is still alive in this state.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • When Topaz describes the people of Sakaar as "starving", the Grandmaster chimes in by calling them "peckish".
  • While being electrocuted by the Grandmaster, who calls her a "moppet of Thanos", Gamora reminds him that it's "Daughter of Thanos".
• Irony: Gamora, challenged to redefine herself after identifying as a "murderess", starts doing just that... by murdering Thanos.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Grandmaster tried to have Tony vaporized with the melt stick, only to have the melt stick accidentally vaporize him instead.
• Major Injury Underreaction:
  • The Grandmaster actually enjoys melting. After surviving the experience, his only issue is a desire to be "absorbed" by something, or at least scooped into a bucket.
  • When Gamora strikes him with the melt stick, Thanos just looks up at her with an almost bored expression as it starts working.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Gamora finally states her own name rather referring to herself as "Daughter of Thanos" to signify her Heel–Face Turn.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One of the names the Grandmaster comes up with for Tony is "Mojo" - Mojo is actually a recurring X-Men villain from an alternate dimension, who incidentally organizes deadly games for his captives just like the Grandmaster.
  • Tony describes Valkyrie's alcoholism as a "Demon in a Bottle", which is the title of the comic storyline in which Tony famously confronted his own alcoholism. (The MCU avoided adapting the storyline due to Robert Downey Jr.'s past issues with addiction and desire to avoid re-entering that mindset).
  • The Grandmaster seeing a spark between Gamora and Tony is probably a reference to the time when they hooked up in Bendis' run of Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Narnia Time: As in Thor: Ragnarok, Sakaar's time system is such that what felt to Tony like an immediate trip from Earth space to Sakaar was several days on Sakaar.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Among the many problems Sakaar has, the Grandmaster gives a brief mention to a lake that "turned to blood".
  • The Grandmaster once used Korg as a paperweight, something Korg hated, since he regards paper as his mortal enemy.
• Not Quite Dead: Despite liquifying from Topaz's melt stick, The Stinger reveals that the Grandmaster is still alive, though he's been reduced to a talking puddle.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Tony, absolutely not drawing on his own life experience, sympathizes with Valkyrie's desire to crawl into a bottle to escape your mistakes and her thrill-seeking to compensate for feelings of emptiness.
  • While Tony's initial comparison between himself and Gamora is unintentional and pure Dramatic Irony, Tony later zeroes in on Gamora's issues with Thanos, comparing them to his own problems with Howard, using this comparison, and his own efforts to do better, to appeal to her better nature.
• One-Hit Kill: The Grandmaster's Melt Stick is emphasized a lot more here. Gamora gets her hands on it and takes out a group of guards with a single tap each.
• Only Sane Employee: Topaz. She's far more reserved and seemingly aware than the Grandmaster, and she recognizes that the Grandmaster has no logical incentive for putting Sakaar's rulership on the line in The Big Race. But the Grandmaster ignores her, even calling a "Logical Linda".
• Patricide: The episode ends with Gamora jabbing a melt stick into Thanos, who starts gradually dissolving. Though considering the Grandmaster somehow was still alive after getting melted, it's possible that Gamora didn't so much as kill Thanos as she did reduce him to a state that renders his threat to the universe moot.
• Point of Divergence: After nuking the Chitauri Command Center, Tony falls just a little slower, causing the portal to collapse on top of him, dumping him on Sakaar.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Tony tells Gamora his father was a far cry from Atticus Finch, the protagonist from To Kill a Mockingbird. Gamora responds with a confused "Who?" since the book obviously only exists on Earth.
• Prequel: Not by design, but due to being delayed until after the Season 1 finale that was supposed to follow up on Gamora’s plot thread, this episode serves as this in the series.
• Previously on…: The episode begins with a recap of Gamora's membership in the Guardians of the Multiverse before telling her story prior to that.
• Produce Pelting: Played with. When Valkyrie is eliminated from the race, the Grandmaster has the audience throw tin cans and chinchillas at her. The Grandmaster reveals to Tony that they used to throw rotten food, but during the recent famine leaving people starving it became unnecessary.
• Revenge: Thanos, angered by the destruction of the Chitauri army he lent to Loki, sends Gamora to kill Tony after Stark ends up on Sakaar.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The citizens of Sakaar throw chinchillas at drivers who disappoint them. Korg ends up adopting a particularly cuddly one with an adorable smile.
• Rule of Symbolism: Gamora initially doesn't provide her name, only identifying herself as a "Daughter of Thanos", showing that at this stage in her life, she's nothing but her adoptive father's attack dog. Telling Tony her name cements her Heel–Face Turn, setting Gamora up to be identified as "Gamora, Slayer of Thanos" when the Watcher comes to call.
• Rule of Three: Tony tries the alcoholic beverage on Skaar three times and spits them out each time he tastes it.
• Sarcasm Failure: Korg's kookiness proves to be too much for the legendary wit of Tony Stark, who is left gaping in silence at some of Korg's remarks.
• Shout-Out:
  • With Tony as the protagonist, endless references are a given: he calls the Grandmaster The Wizard of Oz, compares the Grandmaster's ruling style to both Dr. Moreau and The Hunger Games, calls Gamora "Oscar the Grouch" and "Lady Grinch", calls himself "Spartacus" during the climactic chariot race, and unfavorably compares his father to Atticus Finch.
  • During the first race, Valkyrie avoids the racer taking out the competition by improvising a jump using a flipped over car as a ramp, as Lightning McQueen did.
  • The Grandmaster's elephant master champion is named Snuffy, like the elephant-like creature on Sesame Street, Snuffleupagus. (Maybe Sesame Street is broadcast on Sakaar?)
  • The car that Gamora is forced to race bears a striking resemblance to the Incredible, Mr. Incredible's car from The Incredibles.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Because of their combined efforts in assassinating Thanos, Tony no longer has to sacrifice himself to stop him and Gamora doesn't have to be sacrificed for Thanos to get the Soul Stone anymore.
• The Stinger: After the credits, it's revealed that the Grandmaster wasn't actually killed by the melt stick, but is still alive as a mere puddle.
• Team Power Walk: Tony, Valkyrie, and Korg do one as they walk out to start the final race. Enforced, as Korg asks them all to walk in slow motion.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Iron Man is usually killed or at least sidelined in this show. This episode marks a big outright win for a Tony Stark in the multiverse outside of the Sacred Timeline.
• Transforming Mecha: Tony makes himself a Hulkbuster-sized suit of armor from local tech that is able to transform into a race car.
• Trojan Prisoner: Gamora brings Tony to Thanos at the end of the episode, but only so he'll allow them close enough so Gamora can kill him with a melt stick.
• Truer to the Text: The Grandmaster being seemingly unable to turn down Tony's challenge (despite accepting being completely illogical) is one of his comicbook counterpart's main traits.
• Unknown Rival: Tony initially has no idea who Thanos is or why the Mad Titan would want him dead, though the animosity becomes mutual instantly once Gamora reveals why Thanos sent her after Tony.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Tony, seeing parallels between Gamora's daddy issues and his own, makes an effort to convince her that she can be more than a murderess and a Daughter of Thanos. The lesson ends up sinking in, and the two of them team up to assassinate Thanos.

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"It's not the punches thrown, but the people that change the outcome of the battle. It's connection. It's love, friendship. It's knowing someone has your back in a fight."