The Sword and Laser discussion

Don't have anything particularly insightful to add, but thought that What If ...? probably warranted it's own thread, since it gets brought up every week!

I didn't much enjoy this week's episode, but I'm generally not keen on zombie stories.

^ Yeah, I thought about starting a thread. Haven't enjoyed the nihilism of the last two episodes so maybe I'm not the right person to start it. What If has gone from a must-see to "when I get around to it" watch. I'm peeved because it's MCU and they've done an excellent job with the universe to date, but this is really awful.

John (Taloni) wrote: "^ Yeah, I thought about starting a thread. Haven't enjoyed the nihilism of the last two episodes so maybe I'm not the right person to start it. What If has gone from a must-see to "when I get aroun..."

Did you read Marvel Zombies?
I thought every episode was great so far! I hope they keep this show going until well after they introduce mutants & the FF in the MCU.

I'm skipping this week's since I loath zombie stuff, but I've generally liked the series. Ep 1 was kind of schmaltzy but OK. The Starlord ep was fun and the loss of Boseman still hurts. The Dr Strange ep was good and reminded us that not every What If universe is light and fluffy and better than ours. Some are tragic and brutal. I don't know if following it with another dark episode was the right thing to do, but I think we need to see the rest of the series to know if this was just a digression or what.

Uatu is still a dick, though.

The theme song should be What If by Creed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkHjF...

Holy Crap! This week's episode of What If...? was incredible! Ross Marquand (Aaron on The Walking Dead) was flawless as the voice of Ultron (He also voices Red Skull since Infinity War)!

Glad you enjoyed it! I found it...adequate. Overlong in the fight scenes with Ultron and the Watcher, then way too short with Thanos. Like...why didn't the Avengers think of that, since they had the Mind Gem? Anyhoo, it's a decent setup to what is likely to be a five part crossover.

You all know that I’m a huge Marvel fan and I love the MCU.

I’m not really enjoying this show. The frat party Thor episode was painfully unfunny, and most of the episodes have been tedious. I don’t get what they were going for with the zombie one. It was neither scary nor funny. I found the Dr. Strange one incredibly boring.

Now that they’re obviously all connected, I like it even less. This Ultron one was just dumb. It’s already established canon that Infinity Stones don’t work outside their own universe. That’s why that guy in Loki had a drawer full of them.

The animation is good, but without good writing, who cares? After watching the Ultron one I was so annoyed that I rewatched Infinity War in order to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

Trike wrote: "...It’s already established canon that Infinity Stones don’t work outside their own universe. That’s why that guy in Loki had a drawer full of them...."

I know that was the case in the comics, but I got the distinct impression from "Loki" that it was due to the location or technology of the TVA that they didn't do anything. Not necessarily home universe only.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Glad you enjoyed it! I found it...adequate. Overlong in the fight scenes with Ultron and the Watcher, then way too short with Thanos. Like...why didn't the Avengers think of that, since they had th..."

I think that (view spoiler)[kill 1st & ask no questions isn't the Avenger way most of the time. (hide spoiler)] It certainly was surprising!

Episode 9 wrapped it all up. In the dumbest way possible. Disappointed in this show.

(view spoiler)[So the Watcher is picking team members to defeat Infinitron and for half of them he makes the stupidest choices possible.

He picks Party Thor instead of Captain Marvel because… why? She demonstrated that she was stronger and smarter than him, plus tactically savvy. She didn’t unleash her full power because it would harm innocent bystanders. No collateral damage.

He chooses Killmonger, the most baffling choice. The guy murdered Tony, T’Challa and Rhodey, and then used Wakanda as a blunt instrument against the world. A complete psychopath, and yet they’re shocked that he turned on them and almost lost everything in his quest for more power. Really. How did you think that was going to go, Watcher?

And why was anyone trusting Zola not to just take over Ultron? I kept expecting him to go, “Ha! Now you haf delivered ultimate power unto me, fraulein!” Completely against character for him to be heroic and just act like a spoiler virus.

What dumb choices. How did this get signed off on? Just on a story level Watcher shouldn’t be picking teammates just because they were in a previous episode. (hide spoiler)]

That was awesome!
Don’t. Skip. Any. Episodes.

I enjoyed this series and the finale was satisfying. It felt very comicbooky. I would probably place this above the Falcon and Bucky show.
(view spoiler)[ The Watcher chose that team because, just like Dr. Strange in Infinity War, he looked at all the futures and this was the team he needed to win. And Trike, the obvious reply to your last comment is that those were the previous episodes because that was the team he needed and they wanted to spotlight them. (hide spoiler)]

On the subject of the team, its composition was addressed in-episode. As Strange said, (view spoiler)[they weren't supposed to win. They were supposed to separate the stones from the body. Any body. Ultron's or Killmonger's. Killmonger was chosen precisely because he would try to take power. It wasn't about the strongest, or the best, or the most moral. It was the team that would lead to the required outcome.

Also...I can't be the only one who thought Watcher was going to ask Black Widow to stay with him. Made me flash on the Steranko romance comic tbh. (hide spoiler)]

Haaa, for some reason I thought the show had 13 episodes. Was wondering, "what are they going to do for another four episodes?" Looks like the answer is, "Nothing!"

John (Taloni) wrote: "On the subject of the team, its composition was addressed in-episode. As Strange said, they weren't supposed to win. They were supposed to separate the stones from the body. Any body. Ultron's or K..."

Which is why the “plan” is so stupid. It relies on happenstance combined with withholding key information, and they only succeed through dumb luck and an unforeseen wild card. That’s not good writing, no matter how clever it appears to be on the surface. That’s the problem here: they were so entranced by their facile cleverness they didn’t see the broken assumptions underlying it.

It would’ve been fine if Strange and Carter knew the plan, counting on Killmonger to be selfish and thus factoring that in, but they’re both surprised by the turn of events. Given how we left Strange in his episode, there’s no guarantee he’d come through at the end. *Unless* he goes in with full knowledge he’s on a redemption arc.

Phil wrote: "I enjoyed this series and the finale was satisfying. It felt very comicbooky. I would probably place this above the Falcon and Bucky show.
[spoilers removed]"

Except that The Watcher doesn’t have that ability. Otherwise why is he constantly surprised by all the twist endings?

Sorry, this is just bad writing all the way down. It’s cutesy stuff masquerading as smart.

I amuse myself a bit asking, "why this team?" I mean, Killmonger's obvious. He will go for the Stones and therefore his involvement is precisely to betray the stated objective. It's completely in character for him.

But why, say, Party Thor? He isn't even the most capable Thor. If anything he's on the lower end of capability.

Welp, watching closely, there's a quick shot where someone other than Thor influences Mjolnir's path. Pretty sure it was Black Widow but it was a fast shot. Anyhoo, that person moves Mjolnir. Someone who would not have passed the "worthy" test.

But, this particular Mjolnir is not set up that way. So perhaps this particular Thor was chosen precisely because he wasn't as tough. He may have been there to provide a manipulable Mjolnir at precisely the right moment, and nothing else.

I thought the show was really just a lot of fun and an interesting set-up for No Way Home (and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.)

I've not read the comics (save for the Spider-Man ones that appeared in the papers ;) so I'm really just an MCU fan. "What If...?" isn't super brainy, but that's okay with me.