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Fridge / What If…? (2021)

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    Season 1 

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Fridge Brilliance

    General 
  • The characters who appear in the opening are the characters whose variants appear the most often in the season. Variants of T’Challa, Carol Danvers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers appear in four episodes and variants of Tony Stark appear in five episodes.
  • Uatu filling his traditional role as an all-seeing narrator for this series seems to make Stan Lee's role as the Watcher Informant redundant, even if it was meant to be an in-universe explanation for his Creator Cameos. But the Informant was only active in one universe. Now that there is an infinite number, the actual Watchers need to get involved in observing.

    Episode 1: What If… Captain Carter Became the First Avenger? 
  • Why did Red Skull summon an unnamed Eldritch Abomination as HYDRA's champion, rather than bring Hive back from Maveth? Because Schmidt wanted a "champion" that would presumably be under his control. HYDRA's dogma teaches that Hive was their god, and that upon his return, HYDRA would serve him. For Schmidt, who already had a raging god complex, submitting to a master would be unacceptable. Therefore, he summoned what he thought was a more easily controlled monster.
    • Lending credence to this theory is that, in the main timeline, Gideon Malick implied that Schmidt co-opted HYDRA for his own benefit, and was not a true believer in Hive. Of course this version of Schmidt would refuse to summon him. He lacked faith.
    • Furthermore, a key character point of Schmidt is that he desires the power of the gods, not the gods themselves. Even if he was aware of Hive, he would've looked for artifacts related to Hive rather than Hive himself, meaning Hive would've remained stranded anyways.
  • HYDRA retaining the use of SS uniforms and standard Wehrmacht equipment throughout the war can easily be explained for two reasons: the Tesseract was discovered much later in this timeline (around mid-1943, rather than in early 1942 in the main timeline), and Dr. Zola and the Tesseract were both captured by Captain Carter before Zola could research and use the Tesseract to power his own weapon designs.
  • In contrast to Captain America: The First Avenger, HYDRA's soldiers still largely look the same throughout the episode as their regular German Army and Waffen-SS counterparts, save for the HYDRA logos on their left shoulders. In contrast to their Sacred Timeline counterparts who secretly broke off from the Nazis as early as 1943 (reflected with their Mid-Season Upgrade both in uniforms and equipment), Schmidt in this timeline only broke away from the Nazis in 1945, when it became clear that the Nazi regime was close to collapsing. Their uniforms and equipment remaining unchanged reflects that as well, with them only introducing their own weapon designs (in this case, a custom automatic rifle) just as the Howling Commandos and Captain Carter storm Castle Der Krake.
  • Why didn't Howard provide Peggy with a HYDRA Stomper analogue in the main timeline? Because he lacked the Tesseract to power it, as he was "limited by the technology of his time" as per his own statements in Iron Man 2 and as such he would not have had a suitable power source to make it work even if he had built it. He has the idea of Iron Man in his head, but only being provided with the Tesseract itself allows him to make it a reality some seventy-odd years before Tony does.
    • Something that nicely brings this full circle is that tie-in materials to Iron Man 2 establish the new element Howard Stark discovered and Tony synthesizes for his new arc reactor is the same stuff the Tesseract is made out of.
  • Colonel Flynn claiming credit for the actions of Peggy, Howard, and Steve when he was on the phone with the President was a lot more helpful than it seemed, since it convinced the government that a commanding officer had things under control and that they didn't need to intervene, thus giving the three of them some breathing room to act on their own.
    • And even if said superior was ragingly incompetent, Howard and Peggy would have gotten in immense trouble for insubordination if said superior hadn't covered for them.
  • Why was the HYDRA Stomper locked up instead of being repurposed? Because it was built for Steve's specific build—it's likely that HYDRA had no one who could fit inside it!
    • This could also explain why they took Steve prisoner instead of just killing him. They needed him alive until they were able to figure out the suit.
      • That, and Schmidt may very well still have held a degree of villainous respect towards Rogers. Not as much as in the prime timeline, but coming face to face with the man behind the war machine that has wrecked his plans time and again alongside Captain Carter would've warranted at least some measure of evil gloating to Rogers on Schmidt's part.
    • The suit would also have been tailored to Steve's disability (the fact that the injuries he suffered caused him to need a cane to walk), meaning that HYDRA wouldn't just have to find someone physically similar in size to Steve to pilot the suit, but also figure out how it accommodates and works with his disability. Given the Nazis' belief in the inferiority of the disabled, HYDRA's research might not just have been hamstrung by physical constraints such as lack of time or test pilots, but by how Nazi ideology would have made it inconceivable to imagine that a frail, disabled man could be a hero, or that Stark might try to accommodate a disability instead of seeing it as a form of failure—for the researchers to recognize all of the above, they would have to begin by questioning Nazi ideology, a daunting task in and of itself.
  • Doubling as a Genius Bonus, Howard's line, "Hedy Lamarr and I spent a weekend together, but she wasn't teaching me German!" on the surface suggests that Howard and Hedy were sharing a romantic weekend. But if you know Hedy Lamarr's less well-known work on radio frequency hopping, it's possible she was actually teaching Howard electrical engineering that weekend (or vice versa).
  • Despite Colonel Phillips being killed earlier in this timeline (as he died peacefully long after the war was over in the Sacred Timeline), as well as Peggy becoming The First Avenger, Nick Fury and Clint Barton are still present when Peggy jumps out of the portal created by the Tesseract in 2012. It's very likely that, since he was left behind in this timeline instead of Peggy, Steve and Bucky (as he also never became The Winter Soldier in this timeline, either) took Peggy's and Phillips' respective places as S.H.I.E.L.D's co-founders. Agent Rogers, anyone?
  • Peggy seems to be a lot stronger and more physically capable as a Super-Soldier than Steve was (she was able to easily flip a speeding car right over her when it was coming right at her, something Steve would struggle to match even with the serum). This makes sense when you remember that Peggy wasn't just a trained soldier but lacked any of the health problems Steve had. Her baseline strength was a great deal higher than Steve's was so she would get a lot more out of the serum than he did, given that it magnifies everything rather than tops out at a certain level.
    • The difference between Steve and Peggy's professions is also highlighted in the way they fight. Steve, a frail civilian frequently involved in scraps that he'd lose (and therefore not knowing how to truly fight), preferred to block/counter attacks before beating his opponents down - on the other hand, Peggy was a trained solder pre-serum and so she goes on the offensive first more often than not, while still blocking/countering attacks as necessary.
      • This goes even further with her offense. As a woman, even though she's more well built than many of her contemporaries, she still would be found wanting in the size and strength department against many opposing soldiers. As such, her offense incorporated a lot of holds and forceful attacks at joints to help disable them. Once she received the serum she still initially fought this way…and proceeded to completely annihilate the limbs of most of her foes on her first time out with her newfound strength. A combination of her prior experience, and her lack of restraint as she doesn't carry any reluctance of hurting others made her a demon on the battlefield. She notably makes small modifications to her fighting style after her first outing to avoid crippling enemy soldiers unnecessarily.
    • It would also add another reason to Philips pushing for Hodge to receive the serum. If the serum didn't work on Steve, they'd have put all that effort into a physical weakling who couldn't do much of anything. If it failed on Hodge they'd still have a soldier who could fight, and if it worked he'd be more powerful than Steve with the serum.
  • This episode is commonly criticized for not diverging much plot wise from The First Avenger, hitting almost all the beats of the movie, but that may be the point. This episode shows what would happen if one of the heroes was replaced by a character who wasn't very different. Peggy is quite similar to Steve personality-wise. The real divergence to the plot of The First Avenger is Peggy getting the Tesseract before Red Skull. This episode may very well be a warmup to the crazily different situations that will be shown in following episodes. The second episode can be considered a foil to this episode by showing what would happen if a hero was replaced with another who was very different in personality.
    • This is supported by how the next time we see Peggy in episode 9, she is going on the same exact mission as Steve did in the beginning of The Winter Soldier and how she has nearly the same exact dynamic Steve had with Natasha Romanoff with her Universe’s Natasha Romanoff.

    Episode 2: What If… T'Challa Became a Star-Lord? 
  • T'Challa ends up every bit the legendary outlaw that Sacred Timeline Peter Quill wishes he was. Why? Because even when he’s lightyears away from his kingdom, he’s still noble to his core.
    • This can be put down to him reforming the Ravagers to be nobler. As outlaws, they would have to keep a low profile to avoid the law bearing down on them. But as heroes? They don't have to worry about the Nova Corps trying to bring them in, so they can afford to be flashy about their deeds. And if it got out that T'Challa was the one that reformed them and was functioning as the intergalactic Robin Hood, it's easy to see how his name and face would become known across the galaxy.
      • There's also Yondu's reasons for why he would approve of this despite it being his looser morals that made his branch of the Ravagers so loathsome to start with. He knew T'Challa wasn't Quill but never undid the mistake. If Ego found out about Yondu deliberately skipping out on their deal he would not be happy to put it nicely. But a very good and very public reputation meant that Ego couldn't just outright kill him without drawing attention to himself that he does not need, given his plans.
    • Also worth mentioning: Peter Quill was the son of a single mom who struggled with cancer. T'Challa was the son of royals and had been groomed from birth to be a wise, caring leader. Peter was a kid from midwest America who was abducted immediately after a traumatic event, while T'Challa was an African prince who saw his abduction as a marvelous opportunity. Aside from having different temperaments, they were raised in radically different environments and thus had differing viewpoints and ideologies.
  • It's a very small difference, but you can immediately tell that the Star Lord we see at the beginning is not Peter Quill, simply because T'Challa walks through the temple on Morag, whereas Quill dances through it!
    • When we cut to the Dairy Queen at the end of the episode, we see the janitor dancing to music on his Walkman, subtly showing the audience that it's Quill.
  • Kraglin and Taserface grabbing T'Challa by accident makes even more sense when you remember that Wakanda is cloaked. They wouldn't have seen the place and, mixed with the cosmic energy they detected, figured T'Challa was the source.
    • The whole bit about cosmic energy makes even more sense when you remember Quill didn't seem to have any powers until he met Ego and that Kraglin knows about Yondu's dealing with Ego. He probably figured that if now was the time to get the kid then he must have unlocked his cosmic powers, which is what Ego was looking for in his children.
      • This also would have been a good reason to keep T'Challa around and not correct the mix up. Yondu was haunted when he found out about what Ego did with his children and sought penance by keeping Quill away from him. His men making an understandable screw up that allows him to leave Quill on Earth while giving himself some protection that's not even really a lie if Ego comes looking for answers suits him just fine.
  • How did T'Challa end up with the name "Star Lord" even though that was an Affectionate Nickname Peter's mother gave him? There are a couple possibilities:
    • It's something people came up with on their own (seeing him as a "lord of the stars" or something similar). It's even possible that his story—being a prince who travels amongst the stars—spread from community to community and simply evolved from there.
    • It's something he came up with as a child that sounded cool. "Star Lord" could've been something he heard of from outside Wakanda—for example, "Starlord" was the name of a short-lived sister publication to the long-running 2000 AD in the late 70s.
    • Could also simply be a corruption of his real name. It's not much of a stretch for someone to have misheard T'Challa, thinking he said Star Lord and he liked it so much he adopted it as his nickname.
  • Thanos's laid back personality can come off as rather disconcerting given how he was in both Infinity War and Endgame. However, it's worth noting that Sacred Timeline Thanos did gain this rather tranquil mindset in the main universe after accomplishing his goal at the end of Infinity War. So, it makes sense that he would return to this state given that he abandoned his Mad Titan persona.
  • The fact that the Nebula of the Sacred Timeline eventually starts decorating her scalp with gold-coloured plates makes a lot more sense once this episode reveals that absent the extensive cybernetic modifications Nebula would have golden blonde hair.
  • Peter Quill keeping his old Walkman from The '80s seems kinda strange at first, given that he would have access to many better music players in 2008. However, there are multiple ways to explain why:
    • Quill is very much a Momma's Boy, and that Meredith not only got Quill that Walkman as a child, but also made mixtapes for him to play on it. Him getting rid of it for something more modern would be unthinkable in his eyes.
    • Perhaps he has multiple media players and just brought the one with the most sentimental value to play while working night shift.
    • Most likely, he has various copies of the songs his mom gave him, since in Vol. 2, Rocket asks Kraglin if they had any of Quill's music to play over the ship's speaker.
    • It's also not uncommon for some people to prefer using older formats out of nostalgia.
  • The Russos have said that Thanos's quest to "balance" the universe is nothing more than him simply wanting to selfishly validate himself; so even when talked out of his original plans and reformed, he still tries to argue the merits of his original plan to validate himself.
  • At first, it seems strange that Mjolnir would be amongst the Collector's arsenal of weaponry taken from fallen warriors since Only the Chosen May Wield, but given that this episode took place in 2008, which is 2 years before the events of Thor's first film where Odin gave the hammer its worthiness enchantment, it makes sense that Mjolnir was part of the arsenal because the enchantment likely hasn't been applied yet.
  • Nebula being the only one of Thanos's children willing to still associate with Thanos in this timeline makes sense after one takes into account that she's the one child of Thanos who had always wanted his approval. Meaning that when Thanos makes his turn to heroism, Gamora doesn't care because she still wants nothing to do with him, while the Order would be disgusted with him for giving up on his idea of galactic conquest after indoctrinating him to their cause. Meanwhile Nebula, despite how much she hates him, still craves his love and approval, so she would at the very least still associate with him even after everyone else abandons him.
  • This episode's title is foreshadowing for what will happen in episode 9. The episode's title is What If T'Challa Became A Star-Lord. The title foreshadows that T'Challa doesn't become the Star-Lord of the Universe or that he isn't the only Star-Lord and that Peter will become a Star-Lord too.
  • There's some Irony about T'Challa's life here. It may be what Peter thinks he'd have, but it's not the life he'd want if he was Star-Lord. Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot, Mantis? They're free and happy here too, but they aren't on T'Challa's team. Just as T'Challa has his family in the Ravagers, Peter had his in the Guardians.

    Episode 3: What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes? 
  • Rhodey is most likely still out there, so Fury could most likely recruit him to fight Loki. Ditto for Emil Blonsky, who was originally considered for the Avengers before Banner and wasn't there for the Culver University fight.
    • Additionally, the likes of Black Panther and Falcon are out there, and given that HYDRA has never liked the concept of anyone but themselves ruling, it's entirely possible they may find a way to bring the Winter Soldier into the fight, either by pulling an Enemy Mine with the loyal side of SHIELD or coming up with a contrived reason to bring him out into the open. Furthermore, Sif demonstrated that she still has her moral compass pointed in the right direction, lending the possibility that she could turn on Loki, meaning that the Avengers could still form, just with a different lineup led by Steve.
  • Loki arrives on Earth on Wednesday (Wotan's Day, aka Odin's Day), presumably on the orders of Odin, avenges Thor on Thursday (Thor's Day), and finally he takes over Earth on Friday (Frigga's Day).
  • Loki responds to Fury's "pound of flesh" comment by demanding the whole corpse. As an Asgardian unfamiliar with Midgard culture, it's little wonder the Shakespeare reference was lost on him.
    • It also doubles as fridge humor, when one considers that Loki's actor, Tom Hiddleston, is an accomplished Shakespearean actor.
    • Also a literal Mythology Gag, since in Norse myth Loki weaseled out of giving Brok his head in a manner very similar to how Antonio got out of losing his pound of flesh to Shylock. So Loki demanding the entire corpse was also the God of Mischief negotiating for the death of the perpetrator without allowing a tricky way out of it.
  • The previous episodes up to this point have made it clear that their timeline divergences stem from small alterations based on a whim, such as Peggy Carter deciding to stay and watch the serum injection process up close instead of in the viewing booth, or Yondu deciding to send his underlings to pick up Ego's kid on Earth instead of doing it himself. In this episode, the alteration is Hope van Dyne joining SHIELD in the past. However, joining such an organization would be a rather big responsibility, certainly not just a whimsical decision. No, what was likely the small alteration in this timeline is Hank Pym's decision to tell Hope how her mother "died" much earlier than he did in the sacred timeline, which would very much likely inspire her to join SHIELD in the first place.
    • Also, in the previous two episodes they specifically identify early in the episode the divergent point, the change that sends us off on the new timeline, this episode deliberately doesn't because the divergent is all about Hope, which would defeat the purpose of the episode being a mystery.

    Episode 4: What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? 
  • This episode explains why in Avengers: Endgame Hulk couldn't bring back Black Widow at the end of the movie. Her death is an Absolute Point in that timeline and can't be brought back despite using all the Infinity Stones.
  • This episode introduces the concept of "Absolute Points" which is an unchangeable, unmovable point that leads to a specific chain of events happening, no matter how different many other details may be. This may explain the In Spite of a Nail examples found across the multiverse, such as S.H.I.E.L.D. existing in the "Captain Carter" timeline despite one of its founders being dead and the other lost in another dimension for 70 years.
  • A matter of debate is why Christine's death is an Absolute Point in this timeline, when that was not the case for the Sacred Timeline version of her. Thing is, in the Sacred Timeline, Strange did lose Christine because of the accident: he pushed her away in anger and depression at losing his hands and killed any chance of them getting back together. The manner of how he loses her is different between versions, but it seems to always occur in some fashion.
    • Or Absolute Points vary from one timeline to the next: perhaps in this universe, Christine's death is an Absolute Point, while in the Sacred Timeline, Strange injuring his hands is an Absolute Point. This could act as further justification for why ST Strange doesn't use magic, or even the Eye of Agamotto, to repair his injured hands—he might be aware that doing so would damage the fabric of reality irreparably, and being a little more emotionally stable and cautious than Strange Supreme, he wouldn't take that risk needlessly.
    • It's more of the nature of the incident: Stephen Strange had to lose something very important to him, to drive him to find the Ancient One and become the Sorcerer Supreme. In the Sacred Timeline it was his hands, the source of his skills and pride. In this timeline it was Christine, the one person he loved above all else.
    • It's also a concept brought up in The Time Machine (2002). In that film, Dr. Hartdegen creates the time machine to save the woman he loves from dying, and much like Strange here, finds that his attempts to use it for that purpose are doomed to failure. Finally, it's revealed why: because he invented the time machine to save her, if he successfully saves her he has no reason to invent the time machine, therefore he cannot save her so she still dies, so he invents the time machine to save her. It's a variation on a Grandfather Paradox. Christine and Strange's hands are different because the only way to "fix" Christine's death is via time manipulation, which brings in all the complications that entails. Strange using magic to fix his hands requires only knowing enough magic to accomplish that task, but that means still learning magic and going through all the attendent character development.
    • This is confirmed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Despite the infinite number of universes in existence, there exist no universe where Strange and Christine are together. Most of the time, their different personalities are simply incompatible, leading to their inevitable breakup. This is the one universe where they manage to work it out, and it's of course the one where Christine is fated to die.
  • Why during the scene with Strange learning time magic did the Ancient One and Wong show up instead of Mordo and Wong? Because the ST Strange sought out the mystic arts to heal his hands and was only experimenting with the magic out of curiosity, while Strange Supreme specifically wanted to bring back Christine with it. With her powers of foresight, it would be best guessed the Ancient One was there to stop Strange from probing further.
    • Crosses into Fridge Horror, every single person who warned Strange gave vague premonitions and basically told him to stop because they knew better than him. What did Mordo do? Angrily point out all the paradoxes that could've occurred if Strange had proceeded down his path ("Temporal manipulations can create branches in time. Unstable dimensional openings. Spatial paradoxes! Time loops! You wanna get stuck reliving the same moment over and over forever, or never having existed at all?"). Strange's universe may have been saved if someone had just told him outright what would happen and led to follow a different path to his quest.
  • Why did Stephen survive the accident with just some bruises instead of breaking his hands? Because it was an entirely different accident. In the ST, Stephen's accident involved only civilian cars; in this episode, there was a truck involved, and Stephen also avoided a first collision before getting hit by a second car. Stephen talking with Christine, while still distracting him, wasn't as bad as ST Stephen at the phone, so he was more alert. With different vehicles involved and the accident, most surely, happening in another location (either way ahead or before the ST accident's one), the crash was also different, with Christine being the one who received most of the impact's force.
  • Why does Strange Supreme only show remorse for his actions near the end of the episode, in spite of knowing his actions are awful and could lead to terrible things? Because he had just absorbed his Good counterpart, who understands what Supreme's actions have led to and what the consequences are. The Split-Personality Merge allows Strange to understand and feel the weight of his actions that he couldn't feel before, which allows him to have his My God, What Have I Done? moment.
  • This episode also demonstrates why Strange did not use the Time Stone to defeat Thanos in the battle on Titan, instead setting up his Batman Gambit to defeat him later. Thanos' initial victory in uniting the stones and snapping must have been such a fixed point, but his subsequent defeat was not. This is what Strange saw when he examined those 14,000,605 futures and only found a single option. There literally was no way to defeat Thanos once he had four of the stones. The only way was to defeat him was after he had destroyed the stones.
  • Christine's survival in the Sacred Timeline leads to two scenes that set up Doctor Strange's learning he can't fix everything: the scene where she saves his life and the scene where they fail to save the Ancient One. Because Strange Supreme still had his hands he likely performed the surgery, while ST Strange's hands were broken, leading to him requiring others to try and save the Ancient One. Strange Supreme was deprived of this character growing moment where he learned he can't fix everything, causing him to fall deeper into the saving Christine rabbit hole.
  • The Watcher has claimed many times that his job is to observe alternative realities and to never interact or interfere in the events of any reality, yet by the end of the episode, he speaks to Strange. This is because this reality is about to die in a few seconds, so his presence being noted by one person is inconsequential at this point anyway.
    • It was also an apocalypse. As shown in Loki, changes tend not to propagate and become Nexus events in apocalypses, since changes need to spread. And with Christine already fading away and Strange Supreme having no one else to talk to, there is no way for a change to propagate.
  • The Watcher makes it clear in this episode that one of the reasons he does not interfere in universes is because he doesn’t want his actions in them to negatively affect others. Come Episode 9, we see just how important the Downer Ending of this episode was: if Strange never absorbed all the beings needed to become a Physical God, he never would have been able to assist as well as he did, if at all, against Infinity Ultron, leaving the latter free to destroy countless other universes.

    Episode 5: What If… Zombies?! 
  • How did the virus manage to get into Thanos's forces? Easy, Thanos has a ton of close-range mooks, namely the Outriders. All it would take would be for one Outrider to get infected and immediately begin spreading it to the rest. Before long there'd be so many infected Outriders that not even Thanos himself could avoid taking a single blow… which is just enough to infect someone.
    • It's also possible he sent Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive to get the Mind Stone like in the Sacred Timeline and they got infected. Then when he arrived in Wakanda, they managed to get the drop on him and infect him, especially because Episode 2 shows that the Black Order are able to give him pause.
  • Why does Vision bring Zombie Wanda to Camp Lehigh? Besides the place having supplies and possibly equipment he could use to find a way to cure the zombies, it's also not too far from Westview, New Jersey, where he wanted to settle down with Wanda.
  • Why is Happy Hogan the first member of the survivor Dwindling Party to be infected? Because he is the most bumbling and least effective of the group! As seen in Iron Man 2, Happy barely manages to defeat just one of Justin Hammer's henchmen in the same amount of time it takes Black Widow to clean out the rest. However, as he is taken by surprise here, no one can help him and he is effortlessly infected.
  • Why does Spidey rarely wear his mask in this episode? Because keeping a Secret Identity doesn't matter in a zombie apocalypse anymore. Plus, showing his face would make it more likely for other survivors they might encounter to trust him.
    • It also makes it obvious that he's not become a zombie, which would otherwise be hard to tell due to his full-body costume. Less risk of getting the Bill Murray treatment from his own allies.

    Episode 6: What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark? 
  • Killmonger is an extremely successful manipulator this episode, with a lot more subtlety and cleverness than his Sacred Timeline counterpart. Why? That's answered when he visits the Ancestral Plane— instead of seeing his father, he sees T'Challa— and he arrives as an adult; in short, where canon Killmonger is a Psychopathic Manchild, this Killmonger is a more refined form of evil. He got over his dad's death… But not the lust for revenge. To drive this home, his meeting is with T'Challa, a blood relation he'd murdered himself, rather than his dead father. He's crossed the line and he knows it.
    • In fact, this might be the pivotal nail that alters the timeline. A more mature Killmonger would be more aware of the events happening around him, and he would then realize that people won't want war unless they are given a tangible reason to, like what happened in 9/11 or Pearl Harbor. Thus, he would engineer a False Flag Operation to provoke the isolationist Wakanda into war, specifically towards the United States. And who better to start a war than an arms manufacturer who believes the best weapons are the ones you fire only once? So of course, Killmonger would begin observing Tony's activities, waiting for the right opportunity to win his trust and climb his way into Tony's inner circle.
    • What supports the idea that he knows he crossed the line is that he has nothing to say back when T’Challa says that Killmonger’s stolen power will get the best of him eventually.
    • What supports that Killmonger is more mature is the fact he was willing to work with Tony Stark, even if it was to manipulate him to get what he needs. In the Sacred Timeline, there’s a good chance Killmonger would’ve never thought of working together with a white person, telling by how he can’t resist arguing with a white museum guide just because she’s the same color as his oppressors.
  • That still leaves the question of why he's more mature- but the episode gives some subtle hints at the true nail: T'Chaka was not the one to kill N'Jobu. Without the Panther claw marks to tell him who was responsible, Erik did not grow up blaming Wakanda, and was able to properly process his grief. This is why he does not kill T'Chaka despite having multiple chances later in the episode. Given the guilty look on T'Chaka's face when Erik mentions getting revenge, T'Chaka was still responsible; but it's likely he ordered someone else to do the actual killing.
    • Erik said his father was killed in gang violence, suggesting that T'Chaka had nothing to do with N'Jobu's death this time, or he simply shot him/had him shot rather than leaving something as bizarre as claw marks on the body, letting Erik simply think it was just gang violence.
    • It's also possible that the 1992 events played out exactly the same as in the Sacred Timeline, but Killmonger decided to take a different route in his quest for revenge by buddying up with Stark instead of Klaue, and lied about gang violence story he told Stark to keep his cards close. It would certainly explain why he had no qualms murdering his cousin.
    • What supports this is that what drives Killmonger to want personal revenge is that he believes T'Chaka murdered his father. In the Sacred Timeline, T'Chaka didn't intend to kill N'Jobu and only killed him accidentally out of reflex when N'Jobu tried to pull a gun on Zuri for selling him out to T'Chaka, and was only going to imprison N'Jobu for trying to start a rebellion. If N'Jobu was killed by gang violence, Killmonger still has a good reason to want revenge but not revenge personally against T'Chaka. Killmonger would want revenge against Wakandan royalty for putting his father in a situation where he could get killed by gang violence and he would blame the royalty for the state that Africans are in, just like in the Sacred Timeline. What also supports this is that Zuri is nowhere to be seen or heard in this episode. It's possible that he and N'Jobu were both killed by gang violence.
      • It's possible that instead of confronting N'Jobu in his apartment, T'Chaka and Zuri confronted him in the middle of a deal, causing escalation that led to both N'Jobu and Zuri dying in the resulting shootout. This would have been atributed to gang violence, with Killmonger later looking deeper and discovering the Wakandan interference in the deal going wrong, insuring that he would still have a grudge against the royal family.
  • Why didn't Killmonger challenge T'Chaka for the throne or kill him there to avenge his father's death. Well, Killmonger by this point had already murdered T'Challa for his False Flag Operation, depriving the elder T'Chaka of a son and an immediate heir, as Shuri is too young at the time. He already made his revenge on T'Chaka by making him feel what he felt when he lost someone he loved. And because he's more emotionally mature, Killmonger would realize it would be better to manipulate T'Chaka into embracing N'Jobu's stance, legitimatizing Killmonger's imperialistic agenda and his right to the throne. It didn't matter if T'Chaka still rules as king. N'Jobu's ideology ultimately won Wakanda's heart and soul.
  • Pepper had a rather blasé reaction to the 10-year-old princess of Wakanda waiting for her in her office. It's possible Pepper was so defeated and over everything by that point, she simply thought "Well this is different, but it's not like today can get any worse…" and was only curious how Shuri managed it.
  • Related to a point above, of course Erik would win his way over to Tony's side by mentioning how his father was killed in gang violence. If things played out the same way as it was in the sacred timeline, then Tony's parents would've also been killed by Bucky in a manner not unlike gang violence (car crash, choked, and shot).
  • It seems unnecessary and over-the-top for Killmonger to reactivate the Liberator drones to fight the Wakandan armies after his plan of using the Wakandan force shields works out perfectly, but it has multiple purposes that all benefit him.
    • 1) Trapping the drones inside the shields cuts off all military communications, ensuring that the U.S. would not discover that Killmonger has committed treason by "defecting" to Wakanda.
    • 2) A perfectly flawless plan would have been suspicious, so secretly reactivating the drones and then claiming that it's Stark's secret backup plan would make Killmonger's intel more "believable" since he didn't get all the details.
    • 3) An active drone army is the best chance for Killmonger to personally take charge and defend the Wakandans as a warrior rather than a mere intel strategist. This will not only make Killmonger appear truly patriotic, but also make him appear worthy for T'Chaka to pass the mantle of Black Panther to him after the death of T'Challa.
    • It also seems to be a backup plan of Killmonger's. Note when he activates the drones: after T'Chaka tells Killmonger that no matter what he does with his life, he'll always have a home in Wakanda. Killmonger replies that he needs more, then activates the drones. If stopping the army was enough to have the King embrace him as prince, great. If not, Killmonger would need a way to earn yet more goodwill, so activates the drones so he can charge into battle and be a war hero. After fighting for his country and people, then T'Chaka sees fit to crown him prince and bestow the mantle of Black Panther.
  • Rhodey, T'Challa and Tony's deaths could have been potentially avoided. They are murdered by Killmonger partially because he suggested Tony to get Vibranium to power their drones. Rhodes was used as a military connection and T'Challa came to retrieve the stolen Vibranium. Vibranium isn't needed to power Tony's drones. Miniaturized arc reactors would have done the trick. They could power things as powerful as the first few Iron Man armors using other metals as material. Vibranium was only needed for Tony's personal arc reactor so he wouldn't get poisoned by his arc reactor's material. Vibranium was not necessary for Iron Man armors that weren't powered by his personal arc reactor. If Tony never set up the deal with Klaue, Killmonger wouldn't have gotten the chance to kill Rhodes and T'Challa at the same time and Tony wouldn't have tried to kill Killmonger in revenge and get killed in return by the latter. While Killmonger partially set up the deal with Klaue so that he can kill T'Challa and set up a war between the US and Wakanda, meaning Killmonger would still try to find an opportunity to kill T'Challa and set up the war even without the deal, their deaths are more consequences of Tony never miniaturizing arc reactors.
  • Why does Tony have JARVIS survey Killmonger? Because Killmonger showed him his Vibranium ring. Not only does Killmonger have a piece of the rarest metal on Earth, it’s not also in a small quantity but also in the shape of something personal. Getting a good hookup of it on some places on the globe is not a good excuse when Killmonger got so little of it and those hookups are so rare that one would need to go to the black market to get it, especially when it probably costs a lot and especially if Killmonger is just a Navy SEAL, who aren’t millionaires even if he is a well known one. This would also make it obvious to Tony that Killmonger most likely has black market connections. If Tony Stark is anywhere near as paranoid as his Sacred Timeline counterpart, he would be suspicious of Killmonger in that moment, even if he was ready to get some Vibranium to help Killmonger make his drones out of gratitude for saving his life.
  • The trailers make it looks like Killmonger will either be a hero, an antihero or turn into one of the above. Out of context scenes like Killmonger fighting with the Wakandan army, forming an alliance with Shuri, and fighting with the Guardians of The Multiverse make it look like Killmonger will be a hero or will not be the same character from the Sacred Timeline. Because that’s what Killmonger wants you to believe. Like in the series, he wants people to believe that he is a hero while he fulfills his secret agenda.
  • Aside from his Black Panther suit, which only looks different because Shuri hasn’t made nanotech suits yet and just looks like a version of T’Challa’s first suit, large chance because it’s based on it, Killmonger’s design is not different than his Sacred Timeline’s unlike the other Guardians of the Multiverse. His suit is still spotted like a leopard’s. One could say a leopard never changes its spots.

    Episode 7: What If… Thor Were an Only Child? 
  • If the prologue is anything to go by, Laufey may really be a loving father to baby Loki and most likely made amends with Odin upon being reunited with his son, which explains why Thor isn't warmongering and violently prejudiced against the Frost Giants like he was at the start of the first Thor movie. He's only known peace his whole life in this timeline, so of course he'd just be an irresponsible partygoer at worst here.
  • Captain Marvel bringing Thor a tablet loaded with articles and informational podcasts helped keep up his charade, but at the same time, the contents are all likely to be varying levels of dry and educational, and Frigga will likely expect Thor to read/listen to everything. So while she was being helpful, she was also indirectly getting a bit of revenge.
  • Odin assuming that Loki's small size was because he was a runt and was abandoned makes sense. He was at war with the Frost Giants and knew very little if anything about their life cycle so he would have had no idea that Loki was the appropriate size for his kind.
    • While unknown for the MCU, in some versions of Norse Mythology, "Giants" don't mean the same thing as "large in size" and others show them as Voluntary Shapeshifters that allow them to change their size at will. Loki could actually grow to his proper size at any time and its only a matter of his mindset.note 
  • Of course Brock Rumlow would want to use a nuke on Thor and Captain Marvel besides for comedic reasons. Both of them are potential threats to HYDRA.
  • Thor was telling the truth about the party that caused a star to be destroyed was held on a planet that was already dying. One point supporting this is the fact that Thor seems to prefer holding his parties on places Heimdall won't bother to look at, thus he threw one of them on a planet that was dying. The other is the fact that he's still worthy of Mjolnir in this timeline. If he caused the death of a planet, Mjolnir probably wouldn't deem him worthy.
  • The partygoers instantly trying to bail on Thor makes perfect sense when you realize the company Thor keeps in this reality:
    • Loki may be comparatively nicer here, but he’s still the God of Mischief. Causing tons of damage and throwing Thor under the bus would still be in his nature.
    • The Ravagers are thugs whose code is to steal everything from everyone. They're more than happy to party and be destructive with no consequences. Naturally, they’re powerless against an angry goddess, which is the main reason they’re cowed into staying.
    • Frigga may not have known Valkyrie, but Odin would be asking questions about why one of his soldiers never returned to Asgard when it was believed they all died in the battle against Hela.
    • The Grandmaster, who (along with Topaz) is the only guest to actually leave, never took Thor seriously in the Sacred Timeline. As an Elder of the Universe, what’s a goddess’s fury to him?
  • Thor's opening remarks about how nigh-omniscient Heimdall can't watch everything, so won't deign to notice what's happening on Earth, seem like just a passing diss at Midgard. But it's also foreshadowing how, at the end, even the nigh-omniscient Watcher hadn't noticed the oncoming threat of Infinity Ultron.
  • The Dark Elves aren't seen at Thor's party, despite every other group from the Nine Realms being present. Why? Not only do the Dark Elves hate all other races, they were in suspended animation until the next Convergence, which won't be for another couple years.

    Episode 8: What If… Ultron Won? 
  • Arnim Zola in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is shown to be uncharacteristically Not Afraid to Die for HYDRA despite the fact he sold out the Red Skull to save his own hide in Captain America: The First Avenger and uploaded his mind into a computer just to cheat death in the first place. This episode reveals why: Zola had created several copies of his artificial mind and distributed them across the globe to help HYDRA. It didn't matter if his computer body was destroyed by Pierce's missile; he always has a backup copy to activate in its place. This is also how Black Widow manages to get Zola to cooperate with her: By revealing that he is the last copy left in the world, causing the HYDRA scientist to cave into her demands easily.
  • The fact that Zola created several copies of his mind to begin with fits well with HYDRA's philosophy: Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.
  • It's likely that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 took place later in this timeline during Age of Ultron instead of a few months after the first film, given the presence of Ego and the Guardians being on the Sovereign's planet by the time Ultron attacked.
  • Ultron's being so much more adept at using the Infinity Stones makes a lot of sense when considering that previous wielders of the stones needed a conduit/buffer (such as the gauntlets) in order to hold and use them all safely, and even then, the stones are so powerful that they'll at best horribly maim the wielder. Ultron, by contrast, has no such limit. Because as an inorganic machine, he’s nonperishable (i.e., less likely to be overwhelmed and consumed by the Stones’ power). Also, by fusing the Stones onto his new chassis, Ultron shows that, unlike Thanos, Hulk, and Tony, he does not require the use of a gauntlet, because he is the gauntlet. 
  • Captain Marvel's quip about The Terminator not needing a sequel makes sense given that she left Earth in 1989, two years before the actual sequel was released.
  • This episode, like episode 6 can be also be seen as “What If… [Insert Bad Guy] Was Smarter?” In this episode, the divergence from the Sacred Timeline is Ultron successfully uploading himself into Vision’s body. But what leads to this divergence? If you notice, both Wanda and Pietro are not present in that scene. In the Sacred Timeline, Wanda diverts the plan when she reads Ultron’s mind through Vision’s body, learns that Ultron is planning a mass extinction, and promptly frees Helen Cho from her brainwashing to stop Ultron from uploading into Vision’s body at 42% completion. So why are they not there? Because Ultron either killed them or didn’t recruit them at all for his plan. Ultron in this episode seems less childish and more mature than his Sacred Timeline counterpart. A smarter Ultron would realize that Wanda and Pietro are unstable super-powered people who could derail his plan, so he either never recruited them or killed them when he realized they could derail his plan. In a sense, the episode can also be seen as what if the Maximoffs didn’t stop Ultron from uploading himself into Vision’s body.
  • Despite what Natasha thinks, she is likely not the last living organic being in the universe. Janet van Dyne could still be stuck in the Quantum Realm, since Hank Pym was most definitely among those killed by Infinity Ultron before Scott Lang could be able to help him find a way to save her.
  • Why didn't Ultron simply kill all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers? It's been established that using the Gems on such a grand scale—killing trillions of people (or more) across the entire universe—would take a massive physical toll on the wielder, and it's implied they can't just undo the damage to themselves afterwards. Ultron most likely learned this through analysis of the Gems and concluded that focusing on one planet at a time would be far less taxing on his system. Sure, it would be a much slower process, but it's not like he had any reason to rush.
    • Also, given that Ultron can destroy a whole solar system like in his fight with Carol and a galaxy like in his fight with Uatu if he feels like it, it’s possible that he wants to take his time doing this because he has his Sacred Timeline counterpart’s hatred of humanity.
    • This is likely the same reason he doesn't attempt something like the Snap in episode 9. While he doesn't have to worry about the physical toll, he's still a machine that runs on electricity. As a machine, he likely has to worry about short-circuiting himself from the power, especially if he can't just jump to another body, something Thanos, a very physically powerful person doesn't have to worry about.
    • Another reason could be that he didn't "earn" the stones. Instead, he just killed Thanos and stole the five he had on him. Since he didn't come upon the Infinity Stones the way you're "supposed" to, he probably didn't think he'd be worthy enough to perform a Snap.
  • Uatu's insinuation that Ultron can't compute the power of Uatu's will insults Ultron on two levels. For one, Uatu insults Ultron's ego by insinuating that Ultron isn't smart enough or powerful in will to calculate the power of Uatu's will. For two, by using the word compute, Uatu is essentially using Ultron's language, computer language to insult him and dismiss him as a robot, something Ultron from the Sacred Timeline would really not like.
  • In Episode 1, Uatu appears as a Celestial Body, with no real details, but as the episodes progress he gets more and more details, eventually taking on the form of a humanoid-fleshy looking guy. This represents him gradually growing more and more personally engaged in events, until he gets to the point where he finds himself actually part of events.
  • Ultron sounding more like a Soft-Spoken Sadist seems to just be a result of him being portrayed by Ross Marquand instead of James Spader. However, earlier in the episode, Ultron's voice in his original body sounds much closer to Spader's take. That's because Ultron went the opposite way of eventually gaining a baritone in the Sacred Timeline when he makes a Vibranium body for himself. Case in point, when Ultron begins losing his cool in the next episode, he begins using his usual verbal tics again.
  • Despite his power, Ego the Living Planet is destroyed with ease from the inside-out. However, this makes sense—at the center of the planet is Ego's core, which in the Sacred Timeline was destroyed by an ordinary bomb powered by space batteries (which then chain-reacted all throughout). Since Ultron's power originated at the core, Ego was already dying/realizing that he's dying before we even saw the cracks; it was already too late for him to do anything.

    Episode 9: What If… The Watcher Broke his Oath? 
  • The title is itself fridge brilliance, because what 'what if…' question could burn more than this one?
  • Strange Supreme's really terrible toast may be funny to laugh at, but it actually makes sense if you look at it from the perspective of him trying to share the mistakes he made in his own timeline in a subtle way. And considering he’s spent so long in a pocket dimension of his own making, Strange probably has forgotten how to properly make speeches. Which if you think about it, Stephen is doing the last thing Christine suggested him to do before her death, wing his acceptance speech.
  • This episode finally explains why the Watcher was interested in these specific timelines even before becoming aware of Ultron's threat. He might not have actual future vision (Ultron was able to catch him off guard), but maybe he subconsciously knew he'll need something from those worlds eventually.
  • It may seem weird at first why the Watcher decided to recruit Killmonger to join the team, even though he's the only one who's an outright villain compared to the other heroes, and indeed Killmonger ended up betraying the team once Infinity Ultron has been dealt with. However, Killmonger and Arnim Zola - now in Vision's body - end up fighting each other for the Infinity Stones, which allows Strange Supreme to trap them in a time bubble and teleport them to the bubble universe where he could keep a watchful eye on them for all eternity, which is the outcome the Watcher was expecting all along: he deliberately picked Killmonger so that it will lead to a chain of events which remove both him and Zola as possible threats to the multiverse, and allowing the universe where Killmonger comes from to get its own happy ending as well.
    • The Watcher’s selection of Killmonger is one of the reasons why he didn’t choose Tony Stark and instead chose Gamora. Putting Tony in the same room as the guy who killed another version of him would be a recipe for disaster no matter what happened.
  • The Watcher choosing these members in his plan to defeat Infinity Ultron makes perfect sense with the hindsight of the outcome:
    • Captain Carter is the only one strong and skilled enough to grab Ultron's head and ensure Natasha's arrow will strike at his eye. Additionally, her relationship with her Black Widow convinces Natasha that these multi-universal visitors are friends.
    • Star-Lord T'Challa is an expert thief, so of course he would be perfect to steal an Infinity Stone from Ultron.
    • Doctor Strange Supreme not only convinces Uatu to break his oath, but he's also powerful enough to protect his team from Ultron's power and can go toe to toe with the mad AI. In the end, he traps the villains and the Infinity Stones in a pocket orb, and watches over them in his destroyed universe to prevent them from harming the multiverse further. And as The Atoner, he can be trusted with this task, unlike other Strange-variants who might've acquired similar power levels, but for less well-intentioned motives than love.
    • Prince Killmonger is needed because the only way to defeat Ultron is to upload Zola's mind into his body, which would only replace Ultron with Zola. Zola is still a potential multiversal threat if left unchecked with the Infinity Stones, so the best way to neutralize Zola is to have another power-hungry villain to fight over the stones. Not to mention, it directly removes the terror of Killmonger from his universe, and allow a chance for Wakanda and the US to stop their war and rebuild. Prince Killmonger's also smart and patient enough to know that biding his time until the main threat is defeated is the right move, making his betrayal predictable, as well as ensuring he'll be actually helpful in the fight against Infinity Ultron.
    • Party Thor is known for throwing huge, widely known galactic parties in remote locations, so naturally he would easily attract Infinity Ultron to a planet devoid of any life for the Guardians of the Multiverse to fight without fear.
    • Gamora is not only an experienced, powerful warrior who had slain Thanos, she also has the perfect Red Herring method to defeat Ultron and get rid of the Infinity Stones. Uatu doesn't want to tell the Guardians the real way to defeat Ultron because many would object to the idea of uploading the virus mind of another supervillain into Ultron. Thus, he ensures that the heroes would recognize on their own that Zola is the only way to kill Ultron, not the Infinity Crusher.
    • Black Widow, of course, has the Zola Arrow and thus the means to put an end to Ultron for good.
      • Black Widow wasn't part of the initial group because she's the one that would have immediately seen what Killmonger was up to. Strange, Carter, Thor, and T'Challa are all good by nature. Gamora has experience with that kind of evil, and she was wary of Killmonger. Nat is the only one with the red in her ledger and subterfuge training to know Killmonger was going to backstab them as soon as they met.
      • Additionally, Ultron would've become savvy about the USB arrow that she was going to shoot into him and prevent the arrow from being destroyed.
  • The Watcher sits out of the battle until the end because he wants to make it seem like the Guardians of the Multiverse was a ragtag team that stumbled with each other so that Ultron would underestimate them and gloat about the infinity stones because it would be something that the Watcher would've known.
  • There's a Tear Jerker reason that zombie Scarlet Witch briefly faltered against Ultron - for a second there she recognized Vision.
    • In addition, she may have recognized him as her brother’s killer.
  • Ironically, Prince Killmonger's patience, politeness and intellectual nature that led him to prevail in his debut is exactly what screws him over here. If the Sacred Timeline Killmonger had gotten his hands on the Stones, he would've acted instantly and achieved his goals; here, however, Killmonger considers it more beneficial to try and talk down the Guardians, giving Zola time to rise and Strange Supreme time to trap him. Whereas Sacred Timeline Killmonger lost due to his rage, spite and vengeful nature… this one lost because he overestimated his silver tongue.
  • When Strange Supreme volunteers to watch over Zola and Killmonger, he says that he has "nothing but time." More than just stating that he has nothing else to do in his pocket universe, he's also hinting that he himself has an infinity stone of his own, the time stone.
  • Why do the Guardians decide to steal the Soul Stone of all the Stones? Because the Soul Stone has no ill effects on anyone who holds it. Hawkeye, a regular human, can hold it with no ill effect to his body. Star Lord T’Challa, a regular human and the Guardian who will steal a Stone, would need to steal a Stone that would not physically cripple him the minute he touches it. The Power Stone would cripple T’Challa and kill him nearly instantaneously, the Reality Stone would cause T’Challa to be frozen in a trance if it functions the same way the Aether did when Jane touched it, allowing Ultron to steal it back, and if the Space Stone is hot to the touch like the Tesseract was to Nick Fury, the Space Stone will burn T’Challa on contact. It can be assumed the Time Stone has an ill effect too when a normal human touches it because Strange held it indirectly in Infinity War presumably using Magic. The Guardians can’t steal Ultron’s Mind Stone either, even if it will probably kill Ultron, because they’d need to pry open his faceplate, something T’Challa wouldn’t be able to do. Also, holding open his faceplate is already a hard task as shown when Peggy holds it open. Additionally, trying to steal the Mind Stone would tip off Ultron to the Guardians’ plan and he would counter accordingly and make it harder for them to steal his Stones. A Stone among many missing on his chest plate would be less noticeable to Ultron.
  • Why does Ultron not just use the Reality Stone to transmute the Guardians or something similar? The Infinity Stones in this verse can't directly affect anything not native to their own reality. Even the Time Bubble he creates at the climax is far more limited in both scale and effectiveness than anything Strange has ever done with it, meaning he's likely more slowing them by affecting the surrounding universe than them directly.
    • This could explain the meaning behind the first attack he uses on the Guardians. He uses the Soul, Reality and Power Stones to destroy the mountain the Guardians are on. He likely used the Soul Stone to track their Souls to use the other two Stones directly on them but found he couldn’t directly transmute them, couldn’t directly target their Soul or do anything to their Soul. So he likely settled for putting a target of sorts on the mountain using the Reality Stone and then destroy it using the Power Stone or give extra power to the Reality Stone using the Power Stone so the Reality Stone can destroy the mountain that it can’t usually destroy because it’s from a different Universe then the Stone.
      • Or maybe he just used the Stones on his own body to give himself really powerful weaponry.
  • Uatu's plan to exploit Killmonger makes even more sense when you realize he can't circumvent the Stone's limits like Ultron could. The Stones can't affect Killmonger directly, as he's not from their universe (which may be exactly why they don't kill him), so if he ever took them out of their own universe, he could only use them to power weapons, not enhance himself or affect the universe around him. While still dangerous, this makes him beating Zola for the Stones a potential plan b, given Killmonger would be less dangerous than Zola or Ultron could be with them by their sheer mechanics.
  • Killmonger's role in this episode is foreshadowed by episode 8 and episode 6 by his similarities to Ultron. Ultron and Killmonger are both treated similarly in this series. Their variants are smarter and more mature than their Sacred Timeline counterparts and actually accomplish their goals as a result. Both Ultron and Killmonger also hate a person or an establishment for just watching and not doing anything as others suffer despite also not having benign intentions. For Ultron, it's Uatu and for Killmonger, it's the Wakandan royal family. Both also have some connection to a variant of Tony Stark and both kill their variants of Stark to further their goals. Both are tech savvy and use their tech savviness to further their goals. Ultron and Killmonger both gain or get armor made from Vibranium. Killmonger even creates a replica of Ultron's Vibranium armor when he steals the Infinity Stones. Ultron and Killmonger both fulfill their goal or part of their goal but don’t feel as accomplished as they thought they would. For Ultron, he eliminated all life in his Universe and suffers an existential crisis when he realizes he now has no purpose and is alone and for Killmonger, he succeeded in getting into Wakandan royalty and starting a war between Wakanda and the US, but is clearly bothered by his cousin’s warning. Finally, Ultron and Killmonger both suffer a karmic end. Ultron gets overwritten by an AI and Killmonger is punished for trying to take power he didn't earn, as his Universe's version of T'Challa warned him would happen. Even before Uatu recruits Killmonger, Killmonger was going to be punished by both the Wakandan and the American government for taking the power of Wakandan royalty and starting a war between Wakanda and the US. Ultimately, both are defeated because they bit off more than they can chew. For Ultron, it's trying to destroy all Universes in the Multiverse when there is at least one being in the Multiverse who can oppose him and for Killmonger, it's trying to take and use the Infinity Stones for the same reason as with Ultron. They're from different universes but are basically the same villain.
  • Killmonger is more skilled in hand-to-hand combat as the Black Panther then and doesn’t use weapons like his Sacred Timeline counterpart. That’s because Killmonger has had more time to become used to his new powers and got training in how to fight as the Black Panther by T’Chaka.
  • Related to Captain Carter's home universe (similar to Episode 1): why exactly might it be that Peggy and Natasha (and by extension the STRIKE team) have a way warmer relationship than Steve and Natasha had during this timeline (despite presumably undergoing much of the same fights)? We must remember that Captain Carter's return to Earth was the incident relating to the reactivation of the Tesseract—not the arrival of Loki (and thus, the Chitauri Invasion). We also remember that the Tesseract was left behind when she went against the Lovecraft Lite monster, not lost out at sea much like Captain America originally. This meant that SHIELD has control of the Tesseract this whole time, so (despite the HYDRA infiltration likely still occurring) the organization was not as paranoid, secretive or at least could afford to be a less Cloak and Dagger operation than it was in the Sacred Timeline—which should do wonders for team/organizational morale.
    • Or, if you prefer Occam's Razor at play: Natasha and Peggy's camaraderie may be more mutual admiration and understanding. After all, out of the STRIKE Team, they are the only women shown and they precisely seem to have worked more frequently because of this. (Presumably, if Natasha has the same background as shown in Black Widow, she also sees in Peggy a more palatable version of her adoptive father Red Guardian, but also combined the quasi-Affirmative-Action Legacy similar to her adoptive mother Melina). Having a fellow Lady of War on the team (in fact, THE Lady of War SHIELD owes its existence to) should be great positive reinforcement. Compare this to the original Winter Soldier storyline, where Natasha's basically saddled with The Smurfette Principle within the STRIKE Team (plus Steve's own internal issues), which made any friendly banter still-pretty distant up until they went on the run.
  • As pointed out elsewhere, Peggy seems to have taken to the future much better than Steve did in the sacred timeline. It's likely that the advances made by the feminist movement and greater opportunities available to women, which were probably given a significant boost by her own heroics during the war, mean that for Peggy, the modern age is just better for her than it was for Steve; less casual sexism, greater freedom in terms of how she can dress and style herself, and probably huge amounts of admiration from women that she inspired along the way.
  • Why was it okay for Uatu to transplant Natasha to the Dead Avengers Universe? Because that Universe's Natasha has not become an Avenger yet and as such, not a public hero, and as such, her death would not be publicized, especially because she is not only a secret agent, but also a former Red Room assassin. Also, Natasha is a master of stealth and espionage. If need be, she can operate behind the scenes. If Uatu can't interact with a Universe in a way that will directly change it, this change will not directly change the Universe's timeline.
  • Natasha responding to Loki's claims of hearing she'd died with "Same," isn't just a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner. Her universe diverged at Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was Thor's next appearance after Thor: The Dark World. Loki was dead as of the events of the latter film, at least as far as Thor knew at the time. It's entirely possible that the other Avengers learned of the events of The Dark World from Thor, which would've included Loki's supposed death.
  • Another reason why Uatu would choose to recruit Gamora over Tony Stark in their Universe is that having Tony Stark fight Infinity Ultron would definitely affect Tony's Universe. This is evidenced by Tony's first scene having him discussing wanting to put a suit of armor around the galaxy in case another bad guy comes. Bringing someone as paranoid as Tony Stark would directly interfere with his universe because doing so would directly affect Tony's decision about building a suit of armor around the galaxy. Given he would be facing a version of an AI he created, Tony would either feel an even greater need to put a suit of armor around the galaxy or realize that it's not a good idea. It may be imperative to that Universe that Tony Stark keeps being preoccupied with the idea, the same way it was imperative in the Sacred Timeline for Tony to be driven by this idea until he realized, moments before his death, that it wasn't necessary.
    • In that same scene, Tony is discussing the idea as Gamora melts the Infinity Gauntlet and he is clearly tempted to use the Infinity Stones for his desire. Fighting a version of Ultron could further tempt Tony to do use them. On the other hand, someone like Gamora would not be tempted. Also, showing someone like Tony Stark the Multiverse may make him more paranoid and more willing to extend his protection over everything. Supporting this idea is that the people Uatu chose to form the Guardians of The Multiverse, with the exception of Killmonger, who Uatu was planning to not return to his home Universe, don't have that grand ambition like Stark and will not act on their newfound awareness of the Multiverse.
  • Why do we not see the consequence of Uatu intervening in the Multiverse. Because this is something the Watcher will not be able to watch because it is his own action. Uatu can watch the past, present, and future of a timeline, he can't watch his own. There's a good chance a future season or a future MCU entry will show the consequence of his interference. It is especially fitting that this episode is the season finale because the future is up to interpretation for the time being.
  • Most people struggle to use even one stone effectively thanks to the power backlash from their activation, yet Killmonger is able to use five at once with no problem. Thing is, Infinity Stones only work on things native to their own universe, and have little to no direct effect on things from other universes. It's likely that this applies to the backlash too, which would exempt Killmonger from the complications of trying to use the stones. So while he probably wouldn't be empowering his own body any time soon, anything he can still accomplish with them is something he can spam without worrying about frying himself in the process. The only thing he would have to worry about is frying Ultron's armor if he tries something drastic like the Snap and if he has no replacement Vibranium from Ultron. Ultron is never shown to have visibly fried his armor like how Thanos fried the Infinity Gauntlet and how the Iron Gauntlet got fried for the Snaps done with them because he never attempted anything like the Snap and he has extra Vibranium to replenish his armor.
  • Strange Supreme can be seen as a foil to Killmonger and Ultron. All three of their central episodes can be seen as villain episodes and they all happen because of a similar act of fate, them all being slightly different people than they are in the Sacred Timeline. For Killmonger and Ultron, it's being smarter and more mature in their approach to villainy. For Strange, it's him being a nicer person from the start, which allows him to maintain his relationship with Christine and bring her with him on the fateful night to his award ceremony. The difference between him and them is that he properly reflected on his actions after seeing the consequences of his actions. Killmonger and Ultron both don't. Killmonger is almost about to be apprehended for his crimes against the American and the Wakandan government for stealing power he didn't earn, but instead of realizing his folly, he attempts to steal power he didn't earn again to repeat his actions. Ultron finds himself alone and purposeless twice for destroying all life on Earth and then all life in the Universe, but instead of realizing his mistake and rethinking his approach when he finds out about other Universes, he chooses to repeat his actions again by trying to "save" the other Universe by committing omnicide in them too. As such, Strange is able to redeem himself and not be subjected to an even worse fate than he was already in.
  • The Watcher may look a bit like an asshole for rescuing Killmonger from being captured by Pepper, Shuri and the Dora Milaje, just to trap him forever in a pocket dimension with Zola once he served his purpose in the battle against Ultron, but after all, it's Killmonger's Just Desserts! He also rescued Tony Stark from being killed by the Ten Rings and got rid of him once Tony outlived his usefulness.
  • Assuming that Zola and Killmonger aren't frozen in time and are still fighting for the Infinity Stones, unaware that they have been locked inside a pocket dimension by Strange Supreme and the Watcher, they could possibly put their differences aside and team up to escape. However, that's unlikely given their beliefs about race: Zola is a former Nazi scientist who believes that the Aryan race is superior and Killmonger is an African American who wants to liberate black people. Chances of these two collaborating are close to zero.
  • Of course Arnim Zola can destroy Ultron. For all his power, Ultron is an AI made by humans. Arnim Zola is a human mind, infinitely more complex than the most advanced computer could ever be.
    • Zola converting the body housing Ultron for his own and reconfiguring it so that it had a screen face on the tummy also make sense if you consider that he did have plans for that very concept in Captain America: The First Avenger in a case of Freeze-Frame Bonus. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume he also copied the blueprints of HYDRA's weapons and machines into his Brain Uploading process.
    Episode 13: What If... Iron Man Crashed Into the Grandmaster? 
  • The recap page notes under Rule of Symbolism, how Gamora only identifies herself by name after her Heel–Face Turn, previously identifying herself only as daughter of Thanos. While extremely unlikely to be a direct homage, this does echo the novelisation of the Iron Man in which, outside of dialogue, Tony is exclusively referred to as Stark until Yinsen's death, the moment he truly turned from the Merchant of Death into Iron Man.
  • This episode is the 13th episode of What If..., 13 is typically an unlucky number, so it is ironic that Tony, who has been the unluckiest character in the show, having been killed off in almost every episode to feature him, finally gets his big win here.
    Episode 14: What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper? 
  • Wasp being part of the founding Avengers and Widow having more successfully offed Dreykov can be explained by Peggy’s influence as a female war hero pushing forward the Women’s Lib movement, making women genuinely more aspirational.
    • In a similar fashion, Hulk’s absence from the Chitauri invasion could be because since he was specifically trying to recreate the serum that created Captain America. Since the experiment that created Captain Carter was likely dismissed as a failure by her sexist superiors and covered up, Banner wouldn’t have been pressured to recreate the serum, thus preventing the existence of the Hulk.
  • Peggy's inferred dislike of Tony Stark likely has another level to the tensions between Steve and Tony on the sacred timeline; given that in the real world the former is inspired from the latter, Peggy is no doubt reminded of the HYDRA Stomper, and inherently Steve, every time she looks at the Iron Man armour, with the very essence of the suit being a Trauma Button for her, which would naturally lead to a dislike of the suit, that could easily spill over to the man who both built and uses it.
  • Peggy losing Steve after finally getting through to him seems like rubbing salt in the wound, until one remembers that in Endgame, Steve went back in time to live with Peggy and take The Slow Path back. If this universe goes through similar events, Peggy might choose to do the same after the war against Thanos, preventing his 'death' when assaulting the last HYDRA base (even if history still sees it as such) and otherwise staying off the grid. In effect, this knowledge gives the episode's ending a distant "Ray of Hope" Ending vibe, even despite her magically being kidnapped out of nowhere.
    Episode 15: What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World? 
  • Kahhori's abilities (as well as that of her fellows from the Sky Realm) seem to primarily be a form of super speed, telekinesis, and later portal generation. Abilities that are perfect to inherit from the Space Stone, aka the Tesseract. All involve a form of moving things (or in the case of blocking bullets, stopping things from moving. Doubles the Fridge when you realize they seem similar (if not identical) to CaptainMarvel's abilities, which were also inherited from the same source.
     Episode 17: What If... The Avengers Assembled in 1602? 
  • Of course Steve refers to Thanos as a "monster from the skies" - even though his memory of the events has been restored, his vocabulary is still that of someone from the 17th century. Even if his vocabulary was restored, everyone else (except Peggy) doesn't have the word "alien" in their vocabulary.

Fridge Horror

    Episode 1: What If… Captain Carter Became the First Avenger? 
  • In the Sacred Timeline, besides turning Steve into a total Hunk, another positive side effect that he gained from the Super-Soldier Serum combined with the Vita Rays is a much healthier body that absolves him of all of the illnesses that disqualified him from serving previously. Given that Peggy took his place in this timeline instead, leaving Steve as the sickly short man that he was before, it seems unlikely that he survived into the 21st century like Peggy did, as not only does Steve's various conditions shorten his lifespan, but it's very unlikely that, even with Howard's technology, he'd actually make it to be the 106-year-old super soldier that he is now.
  • Despite how differently things play out in this timeline, S.H.I.E.L.D. is still very much active as of 2012, with Fury and Hawkeye being present when Peggy exits the portal exactly where Loki would in The Avengers (2012). With that in mind, despite Zola being captured earlier than intended in this timeline, does he still go through with corrupting S.H.I.E.L.D. from within just as he did in Captain America: The Winter Soldier? While Bucky was fortunately spared the trouble this time around, what's to stop Zola from turning someone else that was close to Peggy into the Winter Soldier instead? Or what if he still makes a Winter Soldier regardless and everything that HYDRA achieved throughout history still happens?

    Episode 2: What If… T'Challa Became a Star-Lord? 
  • Why does Ego seem to act more malicious and seem downright angry when he confronts Peter unlike in the Sacred Timeline where he acts cordial and fatherly to Peter? It's very possible this is because Peter didn’t prove himself to be a good battery by not being put in a situation where he'd have to hold an Infinity Stone, showing he has the power to not be destroyed by it in seconds. Ego probably wanted to get on Peter's good graces as a result. Also, what's to say Ego didn't act the same way around his other children who didn't prove themselves beforehand, especially when Peter is the child of a woman he actually loved?
    • This is confirmed in episode 9 where Ego forcefully turns Peter into a battery, showing he had no intention of asking his child nicely.
  • As mentioned above, the Collector has in his collection Captain America's shield, Mjolnir, and the Necroswords. Given how ruthless and borderline insane the Collector is, it's probably best not to speculate how he obtained them.
    • How did he manage to steal the Necroswords from Hela?! Worse, there's only one known way to get to Hela in the first place, meaning the Collector cheated death. A guy that obsessed with getting what he wants not fearing death is the last thing the galaxy needs.
      • Hel is just a planet that Odin banished Hela to. It's always possible for the Collector to find the planet and to kill Hela and take her crown.
      • The Collector doesn't have to find Hel to get to Hela, he just has to kill Odin. Thor probably died trying to defend or avenge his father. The only thing that can disprove this is that Gungnir, Odin's spear, is not among his collection.
    • There's a good chance the Collector killed Thor before Odin put the enchantment on Mjolnir, or else that would mean the Collector is worthy, which is in itself is a terrifying prospect. What supports this is that this episode takes place in 2008, before the events of Thor. There's a good chance the more boisterous Thor challenged the Collector to prove himself and was killed.
    • Steve was likely part of the Collector's collection.
      • The episode takes place in 2008. Steve was either found and unfrozen earlier or he was found by the Collector while still frozen and taken.
      • The Collector is far more muscular and taller than his Sacred Timeline counterpart. There's a good chance he managed to recreate the Super-Soldier serum from him and used it on himself.
    • Loki's daggers are among his collection. Large chance is, Loki died fighting the Collector alongside Thor.
  • After discovering that Yondu lied to him, T'Challa likely returned home to visit, but it's clear that his heart belongs to the cosmos. What will happen with Wakanda when T'Chaka dies at the UN as in Captain America: Civil War?
    • There's the chance that, after T'Challa disappeared, T'Chaka decided to bring his nephew, N'Jadaka, back to Wakanda, not wanting to lose any more of his family. So N'Jadaka could take the mantle of the Black Panther after T'Chaka retires.
    • Alternatively: T'Chaka simply handed Wakanda over to Shuri, who was likely raised as the crown princess in her older brother's absence.
    • The events of Civil War won't happen in this universe. Zemo bombed the Vienna conference as part of his retribution for the destruction of Sokovia in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tony Stark created Ultron in response to Loki's invasion of New York in TheAvengers. Loki invaded New York on behalf of Thanos - whom T'Challa talked out of his plan at some point before this episode. Also, Loki is likely dead or in hiding, given that the Collector has Thor's hammer, Hela's gear, and the Dark Elf dagger from Thor: The Dark World.
  • The Black Order works for The Collector in this alternate universe. If Nebula's association with Thanos is anything to go by, they were likely adopted by the Mad Titan like in the original universe. So why are they working for The Collector here? Plain and simple: Thanos slaughtered their families before taking them under his care, yet they still followed him due to believing in his mission to bring balance to the universe. After Thanos saw the error of his ways thanks to T'Challa, the Black Order likely defected from him out of anger that their parents were ultimately killed for nothing. One must wonder why, unlike them, Nebula still considers Thanos her father.

    Episode 3: What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes? 
  • This timeline is so far the most immediately dire, with Tony, Thor, Bruce, Clint, and Natasha all dead before they were able to form the Avengers, leaving only Steve and an early appearance from Carol Danvers to stave off Loki's invasion. Even if the two are able to repel Loki and save Earth, the timeline remains doomed for several reasons:
    • The events of Age of Ultron and subsequently Civil War will largely not happen without Tony being alive to possess the Mind Stone and build Ultron. While Sokovia might be saved and Zemo won't turn to villainy, which means T'Challa's father might live, Vision won't exist, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff will never get out of their predicament, and who knows how Wakanda with T'Chaka in charge will deal with Killmonger.
    • Scott Lang never gets the chance to make up for his crimes, and with Hope dead, Janet still missing, and Hank a criminal, Pym Particles will likely be forgotten. The events of Ant-Man and the Wasp will also not happen.
      • Even worse, as Janet will remain trapped in the Quantum Realm, she will likely contract the Quantum Virus and be zombified as seen in the show's fifth episode, which reveals that had Hank taken some more time to rescue her, she would have been infected by a zombie virus. Yeah, if Janet has no way to leave the Quantum Realm, at least the Earth is safe from suffering the zombie plague, but if no one manages to find a way to kill or cure her, she will likely stay for eternity in the Quantum Realm.
    • Spider-Man will not be mentored by Tony and likely stay a small-time hero in New York, assuming that he still lives to become one, given the possibility that he would have died in Vanko’s attack without Tony there to save him.
    • And this all leaves Earth and the Guardians of the Galaxy woefully underprepared to deal with Thanos and his forces come Infinity War, and may result in half of the universe dying and staying dead. However, Thanos may hit a serious snag going up against Asgard at full military might, especially with Odin presumably still alive. Though it is possible that without Vision existing and without Thor being around to take the Tesseract back to Asgard, Earth might be able to destroy two of the stones (as it's likely Captain Marvel could do it), preventing Thanos from snapping half the universe. But it still leaves them unprepared for his invasion, which means half of Earth's population could be doomed anyway, and their deaths would not be as painless.
      • On the other hand, with the world under Loki's reign, what's to say that S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, Ten Rings, AIM, and other formerly competing factions wouldn't combine forces against the Asgardians, with Pietro, Wanda, Ivan, Abomination, Rhodey, Spider-Man (if he has his powers), the Winter Soldier, and a mess of other heroes and villains forming a different Avengers team to go after Loki?
    • Once Yelena Belova is freed from her mind control by Oksana, she will not have the option to send Natasha the vials with Red Dust, so she will likely be recaptured and brainwashed again, Red Guardian will likely stay behind bars for the rest of his days and General Dreykov will be allowed to continue his plan to take over the world with his Black Widows.
      • Even worse, as she was killed long before she could reunite with Yelena and her "family", Natasha Romanoff likely died with the guilt of having killed Antonia Dreykov along with her father, and will never discover that Antonia survived and became Taskmaster, who in turn, will likely stay brainwashed and serving her despicable father.
      • On the other hand, the new Natasha in the 'verse presumably had the same history with the Red Room as this Natasha did, and she likely never learned the truth about the Dreykov family in her own timeline given where it diverges. Her being in the King Loki timeline now may be a chance to reclaim some lost closure on multiple fronts.
  • With Tony dead, there is a good chance that the Stark Expo will STILL go on, as a memorial to Tony Stark via his "friend", Justin Hammer. Cue the massive death toll when Whiplash (presumed dead, but secretly still at large) takes over the Hammerbots as a final "Screw You" to the Stark (Howard and Tony) legacy. Among the casualties:
    • More than likely a very young Peter Parker, whom Tony will not be there to save. Same with Pepper Potts.
    • James "Rhodey" Rhodes, who will not override the code on his hacked War Machine armor.
    • If he goes to Hammerbot HQ, Happy Hogan will die without having Black Widow take out Justin Hammer's goons first.
      • This of course assumes they'd be in attendance, even as angry at him as they were when he died, Rhodey, Pepper and Happy would likely be in mourning, and may choose not to attend the Expo, even Peter may have decided not to attend so soon after the death of Tony.
      • Also, canonically the Stark Expo occurs before the Culver university fight (a report on Hulk's rampage plays in the background of Tony and Fury's last meeting), if Vanko had still attacked you'd think there'd have been at least a minor reference to it, presumably with Tony, and by extension the Stark Family dead, Vanko decided not to attack the expo.
  • How would Odin and Frigga let Loki use the Asgardian army to take over the Earth? They might be grief-stricken and allow Loki to take the Earth in vengeance for Thor. Remember how Odin was like in Thor: The Dark World following Frigga’s death…
  • Tony dies shortly after Rhodey takes the Mark 2 armor, which is specifically coded for Tony's brainwaves. It's been shown in multiple continuities (including the MCU) that using an Iron Man suit not coded for you can have serious long-term consequences. And with the man who designed the suits dead, there's a short list of people smart enough to fix it.
    • Except the movie pretty much establishes that if Tony wanted to prevent Rhodey from taking and using it, he easily could have. So the suit was designed for Rhodey to safely use. Getting someone else to maintain the suit however, well JARVIS would be able to help.
  • In this Alternate Universe, the Hulk is apparently killed by General Ross and his men and Betty Ross witnesses this. Unless Nick Fury informed her that it was all Hank Pym's doing, it's highly possible that Betty blamed Thaddeus for this, so their relationship may be permanently damaged and they will never reconcile.

    Episode 4: What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? 
  • This episode also shows the consequences in a damaged reality that can be brought on in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
  • Christine Palmer's death is an Absolute Point in time, something that must and will happen in order for Strange to become Sorcerer Supreme and defeat Dormammu. This episode is dedicated to showing a Doctor Strange trying to overcome it, which results in the destruction of his universe. The thing is… Palmer doesn't die in the Sacred Timeline, and yet Strange becomes Sorcerer Supreme anyway. This shows that Absolute Points aren't immutable, but this bears a horrifying implication: that "He Who Remains" and the TVA are powerful and efficient enough to subvert Absolute Points. This itself results in a more horrifying implication that Kang the Conqueror's existence and the Multiversal War is even more absolute than an Absolute Point.
  • The reason no one has successfully undone an Absolute Point in time? The moment someone actually succeeds, the resulting Reality-Breaking Paradox destroys their universe. The only realities that exist are the ones where no one does it. Sometimes a Dangerous Forbidden Technique is forbidden for a reason.
    • Given that horrifying revelation, how exactly did Cagliostro discover how to break an Absolute Point? Did he just happen to witness it being done or did somehow manage to figure it out for himself? Either way it is terrifying that he found it out. And regardless of how he found the knowledge how did he know it would work?
  • The Ancient One described Strange as being the best of them in Avengers: Endgame. This episode shows how right she is but in a horrific twist. Taking her words that nothing is impossible to heart, and with his sheer determination, Strange Supreme succeeds at resurrecting Christine. And then pays for it by dooming all of his reality.

    Episode 5: What If… Zombies?! 
  • Most likely a moot point, but Janet's infection means that Ghost will never be cured of her affliction, even if she avoids being infected.
    • Even worse than that: with all of the world gone, would Ghost even want to be cured of her affliction?
    • As if that wasn't enough, Bill Foster, Ghost's parental figure, was right outside the lab when Hank went through the Quantum Tunnel, meaning he was at ground zero and was either killed or infected when the outbreak started.
  • Wong, Strange and Tony as Zombies easily make quick and fast work of Maw and Obsidian, which is interesting parallel to how they fought them in the Sacred Timeline version of Infinity War. The reason they won in this timeline but not in the other, is down to the fact that they've lost all sense of morals and now fight viciously. And that is horrifying in itself that they have become so vicious.
  • This episode takes place when Bruce Banner returns in Infinity War. Meaning that Thor is more than likely to be on his way back to Earth soon. And he'll have Stormbreaker, which doesn't have the worthiness enchantment like Mjolnir did, meaning that unlike the comic version of the storyline, being willing to devour innocent people will not stop him from using it, assuming he's a casualty of the zombies.
  • On the bright side, Thanos being reduced to a mindless brain-eating zombie probably means that he forgot his crusade to balance the universe, and will not go after the mind stone or try to kill half the universe. Yay! But, on the other side… we have a mindless brain-eating zombie with complete and absolute power over space, time, power, souls and REALITY. Perhaps the snap was not the worst-case scenario after all?
    • And worse: the heroes will try, with the mind stone, to cure the zombie apocalypse. But if they manage to do that, zombie Thanos will be back to normal and will resume his original plan. The world will be in a worldwide post-war scenario: the zombies that were shot, dismembered or otherwise killed during all this will likely stay dead, as well as people that were eaten, and even those zombies that come back to normal would likely have huge injuries. And it is that world the one who would suffer the snap before they even knew what was happening.
    • Plus, if the Mad Titan wasn't able to save himself from the undead, then what chance do characters who are already offworld when the zombie apocalypse began like the aforementioned Thor, the Guardians of the Galaxy or Captain Marvel have?
    • If Thor or Captain Marvel, both of whom regularly traverse the cosmos, succumb to the virus, then it would only be a matter of time for the infection to overrun galaxies.
    • In the original Marvel Zombies comic book, the zombie virus was referred to as the Hunger Gospel and actively wanted to be spread. Many of the undead heroes in that series were actively eager to spread the zombie plague due to this. While the virus is obviously different, if Thanos does remember what the Infinity Stones can do, his ultimate endgoal for using them could very well be warped to make a universe of the undead, or even worse, double the population in order to have more food for the zombies.
  • The caped Spider-Man is listed as Zombie Hunter Spidey. Young Peter Parker will have to run from and evade his zombified childhood heroes. Iron Man, Captain America, Dr. Strange, Wong, The Wasp, Hawkeye, Falcon, and Scarlet Witch as zombies were shown onscreen, but Peter's reactions to other zombified superheroes off-screen is best left to the imagination.
    • More horrifyingly, Peter is almost certainly in his teens and the mere fact that he still has the typical maturity of a boy in his mid-teens indicate a very grim thing about his life in the zombie apocalypse— he did not even get to live a full life, meaning that he did not get to grow up before the world ended.
  • The showdown in the train where Bucky is fighting the zombified Captain America, which is no doubt hard enough for Bucky because he's fighting his zombified childhood friend, but the fact that Zombie Cap clearly retains the fighting abilities and shield-mastery that Steve demonstrated indicates that the zombies being fought are far more dangerous than the average shambler.
  • Zombie Scarlet Witch is still capable of loving Vision… meaning that she's also capable of feeling the desire of revenge against whoever she blames for his death. The fact that she chooses to fight Bucky and Hulk instead of trying to eat them further emphasizes this, and more specifically shows that she blames nearby living humans/living superhumans for Vision's demise.
  • It's shown that Vision is slowly cutting off pieces of T'Challa to feed Zombie Wanda. Scott Lang has been reduced to a head in a jar. What if Vision separated Scott's head before de-zombifying him, rather than only finding his head, and used that to feed Wanda for a while?
  • In the final trailer for Eternals, Ajak states that the Celestials commanded them to never interfere with Earth unless the Deviants were involved. Unless the Eternals were able to survive by escaping Earth, it seems that Alien Non-Interference Clause may have been their undoing.
  • When Thanos used the completed Infinity Gauntlet in Infinity War, it came at the cost of severely crippling his arm, and weakened him enough to be easily curbstomped by the remaining Avengers. Zombie Thanos, being who he is, likely isn't able to feel any pain or lose anything that isn't already gone. So not only could Zombie Thanos perform a snap, he probably has the endurance to do it multiple times in a row without feeling the drawbacks!
  • Much like what was presented in the Marvel Zombies comics, with Thanos having the Infinity Gauntlet and is capable of space flight with his ship, not only is all of the universe in danger, but that means multiple alternate realities, including some presented in the What If series are screwed. There's nothing stopping Zombie Thanos and the virus from continuing to spread through multiple realities. That means that not even the MCU proper is safe either.
    • In addition to the above, did the TVA know about this universe? Did they not send anyone to prune it (which might be a Mercy Kill) because of the danger of the zombies getting ahold of their timeline hopping technology?

    Episode 6: What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark? 
  • Erik rescuing Tony before he spends any time in the cave means that Yinsen will be reduced to a doctor for terrorists until the day he outlives his usefulness, instead of having a Dying Moment of Awesome and having the relief that he helped build something that will bring pain to his captors.
  • With Tony's death and the outbreak of war between America and Wakanda, it is very likely that this universe will be much bleaker than the prime timeline's MCU. To wit…
    • Tony's death means that the Avengers Initiative lacks Stark's great mind and the power of Iron Man, meaning that a Chitauri invasion will likely not be repulsed as Tony won't be there to "turn the enemy back or turn them to ash" as Steve commanded him to do in The Avengers, and the nuclear missile won't be redirected into the portal and New York and the Avengers by extension will be nuked off the map.
    • Aldrich Killian and Ivan Vanko will have their plans go unhindered due to Tony's lack of interference in this timeline since he's dead.
      • Ivan Vanko's plans only came to be because Tony became Iron Man. But he's still a very knowledgeable criminal, raising some other bad possibilities - maybe in this reality, he's the one who figures out how to miniaturize the Arc Reactor and build armor powered by it. And unlike Tony, he will sell this tech to morally questionable highest bidders.
    • While Ultron likely won't be created, assuming the Avengers even survive long enough to reach 2015 and the Battle of New York doesn't end with Loki winning because the Chitauri either overwhelmed the city or New York wasn't nuked, the Mind Stone would still be on Earth somewhere, and ripe for the taking when Thanos inevitably shows up.
    • And, of course, when Thanos inevitably appears, Tony's death means time-travel won't be discovered and the Snap will succeed and be permanent, meaning that the Age of Iron Man's inability to come to fruition in this timeline will inevitably end with half the universe dying and staying dead, all because Killmonger intervened before Tony could acquire the character-changing experience that made Iron Man and the rest of the prime timeline MCU possible.
      • If it gets to the point there still might be a chance there could be a different Avengers team capable of stopping the first Snap.

    Episode 7: What If… Thor Were an Only Child? 
  • Just how many people died during this party? The Frost Giants set a Ferris wheel spinning, amongst other things.
  • Infinity Ultron brought the Infinity Stones out of his own universe; according to the Ancient One, there could be grave consequences to his home universe…if there was anything remaining before he left…
  • Loki is shown to have grown to a regular Frost Giant size due to growing up on Jotunheim, implying that his smallness as an infant is normal and that being raised on Asgard in the Sacred Timeline actually stunted his growth. In fact, it wouldn't be out of the question to assume that the magic that made him look Asgardian had the unintentional side effect of making him small or grow at the same rate as a natural Asgardian would.
  • While Thor has somehow established peace with several unlikely societies in the MCU cosmic chapter, there's one notable glaring omission - the Kree. The fact that Captain Marvel is no different in this timeline heavily implies they're just as bad as they were in the sacred timeline.
    • We can surmise that any cosmic character that isn’t in the party, the Marauders, Malekith, Hela, Ego and Thanos, are still bad guys.
  • An alternative reading of Party Thor's cosmic neighborhood being more amiable to him: how much of this (especially considering Loki's being a Fair-Weather Friend) might actually be reflective of Asgard's potential political weakness? Consider perhaps that the very reason the cosmic neighborhood is humoring Party Thor is that they are underestimating him and think they might be able to influence/weaken Asgard when he ascends. (This, after all, was the same fear in William Shakespeare's Henry IV, wherein the rambunctious Prince Hal inspired no confidence up until he turned himself around. Then again, that was exactly the kind of image manipulation Hal/Henry V was banking on.)
  • Everyone at Thor's party is scared of Frigga. From the Frost Giants, to the Ravagers to the Skrulls to Surtur. They're scared enough to clean up a planet-wide party when she is "not happy". What has she been up to in this timeline to merit such infamy?

    Episode 8: What If… Ultron Won? 
  • If this universe's Zola had made backup copies of himself despite the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier happening, then it is very likely he did the same in the Sacred Timeline as well. And if even a single copy of Zola's consciousness survives after HYDRA's downfall and demise, then it's very likely Zola will be back in the future to wreak havoc on the main universe once again.
  • Going by the above implication that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 takes place concurrently with Age of Ultron, followed by Thanos already having the Soul Stone upon arriving on Earth, either Gamora was sacrificed far earlier so Thanos could stand a chance against Ultron, or one of his other children was the one instead.
    • Gamora was fighting with the other Guardians on the Sovereign planet. Looks like Nebula was the sacrifice.
    • Possibly Thanos sent Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive to retrieve the Soul Stone rather than fetching it himself. If so, it's anyone's guess whether those two betrayed each other, fought over the chance to be the sacrifice, or just flipped a coin for it.
  • While there are many, many questions on how Thanos managed to get the other five Infinity Stones, specially given Xandar and Asgard are intact when Ultron attacks, one comes with a certainty: the Time Stone might've been taken because it was left unguarded, namely from Ultron's rampage including a successful attack on the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Literal wizards couldn't stop the killer robot!
  • Any extremely powerful character introduced in later films that had been around before the events of Age of Ultron can also be assumed to be dead. As the episode shows, that includes Captain Marvel, but that also includes ones from phase 4 films and shows, such as the Eternals, Celestials, Clandestines, any of the gods in Love and Thunder (perhaps including even Eternity, if the Watcher was also at risk).

    Episode 9: What If… The Watcher Broke his Oath? 
  • The Stinger heavily implies that Steve Rogers has been stuck inside the Hydra Stomper from the parallel time of Captain America: The First Avenger all the way to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That's something like 70 years. And who knows what happened, if it was the universe still finding a way to freeze Steve so he'd be preserved for the future, if he's this reality's version of the Winter Soldier and might be Brainwashed and Crazy, if he's a very old man who was trapped all those years, or if he's simply dead.
  • Killmonger might not be able to hurt anyone anymore, but with him out of his own universe, there's no way to bring him justice, and no immediate hope to end the American-Wakandan war peacefully.
  • Ultron destroying the zombie horde is helpful in the short run for the zombie universe, but it also means that Peter, Scott, and T'Challa won't be able to cure any of those zombies with the Mind Stone.
    • There's also the fact that Uatu only took the zombies from their universe but none of the surviving heroes. Considering the Cruel Twist Ending of that episode, the implications may be very dire.
      • Alternatively, Uatu knows that Ultron would wipe out the horde, and so was using the zombies as fodder, meaning naturally he wouldn't take the few survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse to die at Ultron's hands.
  • Infinity Ultron was defeated, but unlike the defeat of the Sacred Timeline’s Thanos, the destruction wreaked by his Infinity Stones was not undone. Dystopian Natasha’s universe is still scoured of all life, various timelines were damaged during Ultron’s brawl with the Watcher, and Infinity Ultron even ate an entire galaxy. Countless lives were wiped out in seconds while having no clue what was going on, and are now lost forever.
  • Uatu telling Natasha that her new home is "a world that lost their Widow" is not enough to prepare her when she learns that this universe had also lost Tony, Thor, Bruce, and especially Clint. At least she still has Steve (though this Steve has never met her or her deceased counterpart) and Nick Fury (who accepts her as someone with "the same spirit" as the Natasha he knew).
  • If one thinks about it, the results of Arnim Zola getting his hands on the Infinity Stones could've been worse than one would expect. While Killmonger certainly intends to use the Stones for his own selfish agenda, and by possessing Infinity Ultron's armor he can evidently wield the Stones in multiple realities as Ultron had, the Stones' potential would probably be limited since Killmonger can solely use them to augment himself (or rather the armor he's wearing) into a god when taking them outside of their native universe. Zola is from the exact same universe as Infinity Ultron was, controlling a body from that same universe, and he's also a technological being with god-like powers at his disposal. So it's not out of the question to think Zola could use the Stones' full potential on their native universe to reshape it in a single sweep into a world where HYDRA dominates everything, just as the Sacred Timeline Thanos was able to use his universe's Stones to cause the Snap there in a single move; without any of the drawbacks Thanos had when trying to use them all at once.

    Episode 10: What If...Nebula Joined the Nova Corps? 
  • Irani Rael's decision to betray Xandar to Ronan is actually a huge mistake on her part. After all, Ronan isn't exactly the kind of person who will honor a deal if he feels he has the upper hand, and seeing how much contemptible racism he has for Xandar and its inhabitants, there's a good chance that he would've just immediately carpet-bombed the planet's surface the second he got into position, Nova Prime herself included.
  • Rocket is not with Groot on Xandar, so it’s quite possible he never escaped the High Evolutionary in this universe or was killed during 5 years Xandar was closed off.
    • Alternatively it's possible they just never crossed paths in this timeline.

    Episode 15: What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World? 
  • The only discernible reason Kahhori and the Mohawk successfully fought off the conquistadors was because they had the power of the Tesseract. This suggests that in every other universe where the Tesseract doesn't get launched out of Asgard into North America, including the main one, Kahhori and her people were killed by the conquistadors.
    • On the other hand, it's heavily implied that the effects of the Tesseract on the underground lake is what led the conquistadors to believe it was the legendary Fountain of Youth, which may mean the conquistadors had no reason to attack their village in any other universe.

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