History Headscratchers / WhatIf2021

* Why does Tony not have any Iron Man armor? The Forerunner came from Film/AvengersInfinityWar?

* Why is Happy Hogan the Freak? Is this universe also being the “Saved Christmas” universe, but why would the writers do two episodes in the same season that focus on the same universe?

* If the gem in the scepter is the Time Stone, where’s Doctor Strange?

* Why does Tony not have any Iron Man armor? The Forerunner came from Film/AvengersInfinityWar. The only explanation this troper can think of is that it’s too anachronistic, but then there’s…
* How are the Yellowjackets and Scott shrinking? This troper believes the {{sizeshifting}} tech is more advanced than a normal Arc Reactor.
* Who are these Yellowjackets? Yes, this troper has seen Film/AntMan1.

* Why is Happy Hogan the Freak? The only explanation this troper can think of is this universe also being the “Saved Christmas” universe, but why would the writers do two episodes in the same season that focus on the same universe?

* Why does Tony not have any Iron Man armor? The Forerunner came from Film/InfinityWar. The only explanation this troper can think of is that it’s too anachronistic, but then there’s…

* If the effect of the Forerunner’s TimeTravel is affecting characters who were in space at the time (Red Skull, Iron Man), then where are the Guardians of the Galaxy?

[[folder:What if the Avengers assembled in 1692]]

[[folder What if the Avengers assembled in 1692]]

[[/folder]]

** [[Main/WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist answer]]: Vision's [=CGI=] model already existed and had the cape, Ultron in the Vision body just reuses it. [[RuleOfCool Also it looks badass]].

*** It also could've been a symbolic empty casket

** When Uatu says he can't fix what Strange has done, is it because it's actually beyond his power to do so, or because he's choosing to stick to his code of non-intervention?

* Why reinvent the US Military to wage a war on a third-world agrarian country? The general makes clear that nobody knew Wakanda was secretly a hyper-advanced nation state. Even after assuming control over Stark Industries, building and testing a legion of autonomous vibranium drones would realistically take ages and cost untold billions. Even if the military plans on building the drones anyway, why go through all that trouble to mobilize an untested weapon in a war that, if military intelligence held, the US was bound to win anyway?

[[folder:Episode 1: What If... Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?]]* It's implied that one choice is what it took to make Peggy become Captain Carter: Peggy chose to stay down stairs in the lab with Steve. But why did Heinz Kruger, the assassin, also follow Peggy's lead? It was his decision on when and where to do the bombing (that caused the change in timeline), but why would Peggy staying down stairs influence this decision? What's more, in the original universe, Kruger destroys the research after Steve's transformation so he could see whether the process was a success, but in this universe, he does this before Steve could be transformed. What if maybe the transformation wasn't a success and the drop was ultimately useless?

[[folder:Episode 2: What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?]]

[[folder:Episode 3: What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?]]

[[folder:Episode 4: What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?]]

*** Given that Strange was still a rookie at the time, it's possible that, had TAO let anything slip about what she believed he would do, Wong and Mordo wouldn't have trusted Strange to help them fight Dormammu, dooming the world to his rule. Admittedly all this achieved was swapping one apocalypse for another...

[[folder:Episode 5: What If... Zombies?!]]

*** The Avengers have already responded quickly and made better preparations for other menaces, and in less time. The only Doylist explanation is that they had to grasp the idiot ball so there could be an episode. The Watsonian... Each one of the avengers was holding an idiot ball?

** Most likely it's a case of SeriesContinuityError, or the divergence happens much earlier when Camp Lehigh was not destroyed (although that raises a host of other headscratchers on its own...)

** On that note, can zombie Thanos still use the gauntlet? If so, what would he do with it? Would he still wipe out half of all life, or have his priorities changed? I suppose he could just keep creating people and eating them...

* Spider-Man's goofy orientation video specified that you should wear long sleeves and other protective gear to avoid getting bitten. So... why did no one do that? Happy, in particular, was wearing short sleeves.

* I get Spider-Man retaining his optimism and humor in the face of the apocalypse. But... putting a goofy orientation video together, for potential survivors who would already be well aware of the situation?

[[folder:Episode 6: What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?]]

** In ''Civil War'', T'Challa says "The Black Panther has been the protector of Wakanda for generations. A mantle, passed from warrior to warrior. And now, because your friend murdered my father... I also wear the mantle of king." This suggests that T'Chaka had already given up the mantle of Black Panther to T'Challa, while he remained king. A deleted scene in 'Black Panther'' makes this explicit. To quote the scene, "He told me he was too old to carry the mantle of Panther. He would pass it to me and just be king."

* After seeing Killmonger betray and murder his allies once already, wouldn't Klaue have had the sense to... not work with him?

[[folder:Episode 7: What If... Thor Were an Only Child?]]

[[folder:Episode 8: What If... Ultron Won?]]

*** The REAL problem was that Uatu was holding the IdiotBall in this episode. He's so wrapped up in his non-interference directive that he failed to realize an important pair of points: that once Ultron realized his existence and penetrated the barrier to confront him ''directly'' - ''the non-interference directive no longer applies''. Also, since he is singularly responsible for Ultron's discovery of the Multiverse - he is no longer a '' 'Watcher' '', but an ''active participant in the events''. He has a responsibility to clean up his own messes... '' [[UsefulNotes/MalcolmX 'by any means necessary.]]'' '

-->'''Uatu:''' The Avengers were Earth's best hope! But now they are all down... soon, even Thor! I had hoped that the Silver Surfer would see the goodness in man, but he seems more intent to carry out his master's will than ever! Even Iron man has failed me -- he will '''not''' return with the Ultimate Nullifier! Then, my course is all too clear! There is only '''one''' way to avoid '''Earth's total destruction! I must do what '''no''' watcher before me has '''ever''' done!

[[folder:Episode 9: What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?]]

[[folder:Episode 1: What If... Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?]]

* It's implied that one choice is what it took to make Peggy become Captain Carter: Peggy chose to stay down stairs in the lab with Steve. But why did Heinz Kruger, the assassin, also follow Peggy's lead? It was his decision on when and where to do the bombing (that caused the change in timeline), but why would Peggy staying down stairs influence this decision? What's more, in the original universe, Kruger destroys the research after Steve's transformation so he could see whether the process was a success, but in this universe, he does this before Steve could be transformed. What if maybe the transformation wasn't a success and the drop was ultimately useless?

* Precisely how old is Kraglin supposed to be? In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Kraglin is a peer to Peter, coming off like a resentful older sibling. Xandarians being relatively similar to humans, assuming he's roughly the same age as Creator/SeanGunn, he would've been about 14 in 1988. But when they pick up T'Challa, both he and Taserface (played in the film by an actor younger than Gunn ''and'' Chris Pratt) are fully grown adults and do not appear to age at all in the 20 year span of the episode. (Or, you know, WritersCannotDoMath.)

** In ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'', after Scott’s house arrest ended, it seems at least a week passed before the Snap given that Scott was able to spend time with his family, he and his friends secured a deal at work, Hank and Janet were able to have their getaway vacation, and they were able to set up their Quantum Realm excursion. As for Clint, he would likely have had more charges against him than Scott, since while they both would have been charged for the airport fight, Clint would have received additional charges for breaking Wanda out of the Avengers Compound and illegally transporting her and Scott over international borders. Not to mention they probably weren’t sentenced on the same day.

** In ''Black Panther'', it be was mentioned that he served in Afghanistan.

what was erik doing in afganistan?