What If...?

These all start so strong,....but ended so WTF.

Loved the idea of Ultron winning, Hated how off the rails it went at the end.


I feel like a broken record with the same gripe on many episodes.

j00t said:

it definitely breaks rules from the comics, but we don't know if it breaks rules from loki because we don't really know where the TVA is. it seems these rules are consistent with endgame though, as the infinity stones can't be destroyed in the comics, but thanos was able to. it's also a bit wonky because of how branching timelines work in that when they used the stones in endgame, they still worked despite being taken OUT of their original timeline.

effectively the stones that were used in endgame were from ANOTHER timeline, even though they were the same stones that they interacted with earlier in their life. it's stupid wibbly wobbly timey wimey nonsense but the movie made it clear that time travel isn't like back to the future. which is the exact reason why old man cap showing up at the end didn't make any sense according to the internal logic of the movie.

obviously people are debating that, even the writers and directors don't agree, but there's enough gray area in that debate to make the assumption that in the MCU, the stones work throughout each multiverse. which should end up making a stupid plot goal for someone to retrieve multiple copies of the stones to one up each other... but then again you have the TVA which did exactly that...

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Not sure why the TVA's location matters.

They could go with something alone the lines of the timelines the stones came from no longer existed so they lost their power. Seems silly to have even brought them up at all, though

Ambiturner said:

Not sure why the TVA's location matters.

They could go with something alone the lines of the timelines the stones came from no longer existed so they lost their power. Seems silly to have even brought them up at all, though

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There are/were some theories that the quantum realm isn't affected by the stones. And so since the TVA is also in some odd realm outside of the time continuum, that may explain why the stones were just paper weights there.

well... i sort of think about that like a police lock up. yes, sure police lock ups are... locked up, whereas the infinity stones in the TVA were just in a secretary's drawer, though i'm pretty sure that was both a visual gag and a way for loki to lose interest in them and search for something stronger.

but ultimately in a police lock up you have all kinds of just... "evidence" sitting around waiting for significantly longer than it should be. more than a few officers could just grab some of it and walk right out with it (depending on the precinct, of course. bigger cities are going to have more security protocols). but they don't (i mean i'm sure some people actually do, but ignore that). if you're an officer and you are doing a raid or something and you need to bring some bigger, better gear than what you normally use on a daily basis, you don't go digging around the evidence locker. you go fill out the paperwork and get gear from the quartermaster (or whatever the position/office is called in a police station)

i think with the TVA, and we have to make a lot of assumptions because the show wasn't interested in filling in any of this, but i don't believe just ANYONE had access to the timepads or whatever they were called, and any time someone opened up a time doorway it was being monitored so it's not like the secretary who had his drawer full would be able to take them anywhere. it sounded like he NEVER left the office.

like you said it's a minor thing, which is irritating because it's clear the show itself thought it was a minor thing and spend zero time explaining any of it.

as far as the episodes go, i think there's definitely an argument to be made that this is an experiment by disney and they aren't quite sure what people will latch onto. the animation style is probably pretty expensive and they probably don't want to waste money on stuff people don't care about. but i also think a part of it is the writer's themselves not really knowing how any of it is going.

hopefully season 2 will have cleaned a lot of that up

Not to mention that if they had timepaded into some universe with the stones in hand, the stones would have presumably returned to their original power level where a normal mortal cant even touch them without dying. Its not like they were ever easily usable.

j00t said:

There are/were some theories that the quantum realm isn't affected by the stones. And so since the TVA is also in some odd realm outside of the time continuum, that may explain why the stones were just paper weights there.

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Last episode seemed to imply that each timeline had their own TVA, so they can't be "separate" from timelines. Only thing I can think of that would make sense to do with the location would be if they're "located" before the universe began or after the universe ended in each timeline and that somehow renders them powerless

Ambiturner said:

Last episode seemed to imply that each timeline had their own TVA, so they can't be "separate" from timelines. Only thing I can think of that would make sense to do with the location would be if they're "located" before the universe began or after the universe ended in each timeline and that somehow renders them powerless

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outside their own timeline, not multiverse. it's probably an overly pedantic distinction; so much so that it might not even matter... but the TVA is snipping timelines within it's own universe. otherwise what would the watcher even be doing? and there is only a single Uatu the Watcher (though, there are several other watchers) vs there being several kang's and tva's.

but yeah, my assumption was that it was just located in such a place that the stones just don't effect anything going on there, but as to WHY or HOW they have no effect? who knows.

The whole explanation in.... Infinity War? about the stones states that they were created at the dawning of the universe. I'd take that to mean that the big bang ties the stones it shits out to that universe, be it the exact one it was created in or a parallel one (ie different time lines or however you want to phrase it). Since, and I don't remember if it's explicitly stated or just heavily implied by Mobius with his 'time works differently here' (paraphrasing) statement, but I'd take that to mean the TVA functions outside the bounds of what we call the 'universe'. I know this is all simple and repeated but whatever.

They even called back to the Avengers dying episode. Was a great wrap up. Cosmic power level Doctor Strange was also a badass

I just realized something about the after credits scene - wouldn’t that imply he might be the Winter Soldier?

We will get the Gamora/Stark episode next season. The animation house that had that episode on their docket was too overwhelmed by COVID and so it got pushed to season 2.

spronk said:

only minor quibble would be that there is no chance Killmonger is able to handle that many infinity stones without turning instantly to dust, but I guess you could say maybe he took the black panther steroid juice or something.

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Black don't crack.

spronk said:

didn't feel rushed which i appreciated. only minor quibble would be that there is no chance Killmonger is able to handle that many infinity stones without turning instantly to dust, but I guess you could say maybe he took the black panther steroid juice or something.

Lots of stuff the entire series could have been better, especially the episodes that felt super rushed, but hopefully that means a better season 2. The big mid episode fight felt very much like a Thanos infinity war fight and it was really cool.

I wonder who watches The Watcher

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My gripes are that Killmonger was even chosen in the first place. Also the part where, for absolutely no reason, Mary Sue T'challa comes in and destroys a fucking celestial in less than a second.

Also The Watcher claiming he can't interfere after all the interfering he's already done doesn't make a lot of sense. Plus he seemed to know last episode how to stop Ultron with the Hydra scientist virus, it's weird it had to be last second improvised by Black Widow.

Despite that and while not being as powerful as the Dr Strange episode, it was overall very good.