Neo Ultra Mike
Creeping Shadow of "15000"+ Posts
"What If Strange Supreme Intervened?" - You know I said last episode how done I was with the Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers romance and wished they'd stop making that the emotional hook of these Peggy Carter stories... and granted I know these episodes are made obviously before anyone would have seen me say that and even if they did, wouldn't have cared but yeah I am still DONE with that concept. Hell it even makes less sense to bring up here because Supreme Strange's whole point is "oh Peggy you're like me you'd do anything to be with Steve again" even though if he knew where she was and had heard her story of being stuck in 1602 world, she'd know that wouldn't be the case as even if it wasn't by her direct choice she still gave up a Steve for the sake of maintaining reality. It could be that maybe some small rational part of Supreme Strange realized the madness of his plan and needed someone to stop him thus that's why he recruited Peggy to get Kahhori so they could stop the demonic monster part of him but yeah then that should have been more hammered in at the end. Since if that's not the case, that is bad form on Supreme Strange's part. Never mind the idea of if he can collect so many of these universal threats why would he need Peggy's help against Kahhori, but then why not just send her back or if he still needed her knock her unconscious (since like supreme master of mystic dark arts he should have like how many spells for that?) instead of letting Kahhori speak if she knew what he was really up to? You know in No Way Home when Strange was spell casting around Peter it not only was technically a weaker powered Strange but one who really did know on some level they were on the same side but that doesn't really seem to be the case here. People were bothered by how the characters power levels sometimes clashed in Infinity War but at least in those match ups with the upper echelon characters namely Thanos, Dr. Strange and Thor they were always going against other high level powers it'd make sense they'd have trouble against. Captain Carter and Kahhori who last I remembered needed back up against ships that had cannons on them shouldn't really be a threat here.
Speaking of Kahhori... kind of feels like the writers were DEVALUING her as an original concept bringing her back of all places here. I kind of thought the entire point point of this young Mohawk Indian woman gaining powers at such a different point and her entire episode mostly being subtitled was to show a very unique and not really seen perspective on these kind of heroes and offering up something refreshingly different. Granted she didn't have the most defined personality but she still mostly felt like someone who would properly represent her time and that general attitude but... now she's super modern MCU quippy cracking jokes like "oh I didn't do that" or "zombies are universal" like... yeah that's not the person I was following a few episodes before. I'm not going to really question how she is more aware of these modern ways of speaking and phrases since "blah blah blah" magic (even though yeah this is a plot hole not within viewing these as takes from the other movies, but within the show itself so should matter more) because honestly is going to be brought up, but just on the conceptual level having her now be so much more modern and fitting the standard Marvel world takes away from what made her special and unique. Like I'd much rather have a sequel on how she reshaped the world and what the modern era of Marvel would look like under her and the problems that come up because of that then "let's put her in this super dumb spectacle battle and let her personality be pretty much anyone else from the series." It honestly feels like sans having a new character they wanted to promote they brought her around to try and make Strange's plan seem more heinous because "oh I guess he needed to also kill heroes in order to try and power the forge" which... you know it's they're own made up kind of ideas I'm not going to nitpick how they work, but it just feels honestly superfluous having all of these other characters there too. Like I get why Infinity Ultron was brought back but sans drama, why is Kahhori's brother in this device exactly? Besides a way of making what Strange Supreme do look even more evil that he isn't killing off these great threats but is killing off these universal threats and... random people for whatever reasons.
Speaking of Strange Supreme, I have to once again bring up weakening residuals. Look even though I had some problems with "What If Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands" That was still a really great episode as the drama and sadness of that was really felt and made for this really tragic story. it did feel a bit lessened with Strange Supreme still around kind of cracking jokes and being a part of this other team but it didn't devalue any of that particular story and I get keeping him around for this kind of team. However we now see that Strange Supreme's ultimate plan with all of these threats and again... random people is to utterly destroy all of these worlds and forces and individuals for the sake of bringing back his world, specifically Christine which... we already SAW THAT STRUGGLE! You know I'm now realizing that though it still should have been communicated better, I really get why in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness the focus was on Wanda wanting to get back her kids. Because if the focus was on her getting back Vision... well we already saw that In WandaVision why are we repeating those ideals here? Like I get a character having a goal and how some will always strive for it no matter what and now instead of having to fight a variation of himself it's this other person he relates to and this time making him more the full villain antagonist but again it's still all for the same goal. The one I saw try and utterly fail at? Like in Avengers Endgame what made the past Thanos work was because this was a Thanos who saw he WON and got what we wanted and then got it taken away from him throwing any attempt he had at that idea in the gutter thus his anger and wanting to change the objective to rebuilding the universe but without those past ideals. Here though Dr. Strange Supreme is giving into these dark forces and having people tell him "you can't reverse this" and him not listening and... that is again literally what I already saw before from this series why would I want to see it again?
So yeah there is a lot of bad in this episode and it is one of the weakest of the season but still it's better then 1602 because in terms of pure amusing amazing spectacle this one had a lot to offer. Like the season one spectacle was also really good having to deal with the team vs Infinity Ultron but honestly Kahhori and Peggy teaming up to let loose these other threats like Hela, Surture, Zombie Wanda, Thanos, Infinity Killmonger and seeing all of these various destroyers fighting one another was really sick. And then having Infinity Peggy get Hela's crown as Kahhori got the hammer and 10 rings led to an epic clash and you know the idea that ultimately Strange Supreme succeeded in bringing back his universe even if he died is at least a decent note to end him on. And if there was a new emotional interseting idea I liked it was Peggy and Strange's annoyance at the Watcher for being an observer and questioning how involved he got and then Peggy seeing the various infinite worlds and actually more understanding how some people do need to act but maybe more on why others can't. And hey seems like the gimmick next time maybe that Peggy is observing these events with the Watcher so could possibly offer some amusing commentary. Admittedly not a lot of jokes in this one worked but Strange turing the ales more into Peggy's beers, Surtur and Hela recognizing and clashing with one another, Kahhori taking away Killmonger's infinity suit to give to Peggy and her realizing she could clone herself like Strange did were at least solid jokes. Still a weaker episode of the season...
Which yeah like Loki, What If season 2 isn't as good as the first. I think a problem is that What If season one had more of an edge that allowed for like bad endings and for characters to loose or go through a more unique form of struggle then we saw before. I don't want that in EVERY episode but it was able to balance that out with lighter episodes. I guess to Fone Bone's delight season 2 either has jsut cliffhanger endings but all more generally positive endings which I do want some but all of them gets old. Especially when they are still trying to hammer in themes and few are just allowed to be fun romps when they really should be. I still see a lot of potential in these series but honestly there should be more new writers brought in to really focus on these scripts nailing the one specific tone and knowing to really not always fall back so much on the jokes and quips or if it is focusing on being jokey just do that. If I were to list my order from least favorite to favorite it'd probably go like
9. "What If the Avengers Assembled In 1602"
8. "What If Strange Supreme Intervened"
7. "What If Captain Carter Fought The Hydra Stomper"
6. "What If Iron Man Crashed Into The Grandmaster"
5. "What If Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes"
4. "What If Hela Found The 10 Rings"
3. "What If Kahhori Reshaped the World"
2. "What If Nebula Joined the Nova Corps"
1. "What If Happy Hogan Saved Christmas"
So hoping for better in season 3... and not ANOTHER Peggy and Steve love story trolling cause yeah that well has officially dried up.
Speaking of Kahhori... kind of feels like the writers were DEVALUING her as an original concept bringing her back of all places here. I kind of thought the entire point point of this young Mohawk Indian woman gaining powers at such a different point and her entire episode mostly being subtitled was to show a very unique and not really seen perspective on these kind of heroes and offering up something refreshingly different. Granted she didn't have the most defined personality but she still mostly felt like someone who would properly represent her time and that general attitude but... now she's super modern MCU quippy cracking jokes like "oh I didn't do that" or "zombies are universal" like... yeah that's not the person I was following a few episodes before. I'm not going to really question how she is more aware of these modern ways of speaking and phrases since "blah blah blah" magic (even though yeah this is a plot hole not within viewing these as takes from the other movies, but within the show itself so should matter more) because honestly is going to be brought up, but just on the conceptual level having her now be so much more modern and fitting the standard Marvel world takes away from what made her special and unique. Like I'd much rather have a sequel on how she reshaped the world and what the modern era of Marvel would look like under her and the problems that come up because of that then "let's put her in this super dumb spectacle battle and let her personality be pretty much anyone else from the series." It honestly feels like sans having a new character they wanted to promote they brought her around to try and make Strange's plan seem more heinous because "oh I guess he needed to also kill heroes in order to try and power the forge" which... you know it's they're own made up kind of ideas I'm not going to nitpick how they work, but it just feels honestly superfluous having all of these other characters there too. Like I get why Infinity Ultron was brought back but sans drama, why is Kahhori's brother in this device exactly? Besides a way of making what Strange Supreme do look even more evil that he isn't killing off these great threats but is killing off these universal threats and... random people for whatever reasons.
Speaking of Strange Supreme, I have to once again bring up weakening residuals. Look even though I had some problems with "What If Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands" That was still a really great episode as the drama and sadness of that was really felt and made for this really tragic story. it did feel a bit lessened with Strange Supreme still around kind of cracking jokes and being a part of this other team but it didn't devalue any of that particular story and I get keeping him around for this kind of team. However we now see that Strange Supreme's ultimate plan with all of these threats and again... random people is to utterly destroy all of these worlds and forces and individuals for the sake of bringing back his world, specifically Christine which... we already SAW THAT STRUGGLE! You know I'm now realizing that though it still should have been communicated better, I really get why in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness the focus was on Wanda wanting to get back her kids. Because if the focus was on her getting back Vision... well we already saw that In WandaVision why are we repeating those ideals here? Like I get a character having a goal and how some will always strive for it no matter what and now instead of having to fight a variation of himself it's this other person he relates to and this time making him more the full villain antagonist but again it's still all for the same goal. The one I saw try and utterly fail at? Like in Avengers Endgame what made the past Thanos work was because this was a Thanos who saw he WON and got what we wanted and then got it taken away from him throwing any attempt he had at that idea in the gutter thus his anger and wanting to change the objective to rebuilding the universe but without those past ideals. Here though Dr. Strange Supreme is giving into these dark forces and having people tell him "you can't reverse this" and him not listening and... that is again literally what I already saw before from this series why would I want to see it again?
So yeah there is a lot of bad in this episode and it is one of the weakest of the season but still it's better then 1602 because in terms of pure amusing amazing spectacle this one had a lot to offer. Like the season one spectacle was also really good having to deal with the team vs Infinity Ultron but honestly Kahhori and Peggy teaming up to let loose these other threats like Hela, Surture, Zombie Wanda, Thanos, Infinity Killmonger and seeing all of these various destroyers fighting one another was really sick. And then having Infinity Peggy get Hela's crown as Kahhori got the hammer and 10 rings led to an epic clash and you know the idea that ultimately Strange Supreme succeeded in bringing back his universe even if he died is at least a decent note to end him on. And if there was a new emotional interseting idea I liked it was Peggy and Strange's annoyance at the Watcher for being an observer and questioning how involved he got and then Peggy seeing the various infinite worlds and actually more understanding how some people do need to act but maybe more on why others can't. And hey seems like the gimmick next time maybe that Peggy is observing these events with the Watcher so could possibly offer some amusing commentary. Admittedly not a lot of jokes in this one worked but Strange turing the ales more into Peggy's beers, Surtur and Hela recognizing and clashing with one another, Kahhori taking away Killmonger's infinity suit to give to Peggy and her realizing she could clone herself like Strange did were at least solid jokes. Still a weaker episode of the season...
Which yeah like Loki, What If season 2 isn't as good as the first. I think a problem is that What If season one had more of an edge that allowed for like bad endings and for characters to loose or go through a more unique form of struggle then we saw before. I don't want that in EVERY episode but it was able to balance that out with lighter episodes. I guess to Fone Bone's delight season 2 either has jsut cliffhanger endings but all more generally positive endings which I do want some but all of them gets old. Especially when they are still trying to hammer in themes and few are just allowed to be fun romps when they really should be. I still see a lot of potential in these series but honestly there should be more new writers brought in to really focus on these scripts nailing the one specific tone and knowing to really not always fall back so much on the jokes and quips or if it is focusing on being jokey just do that. If I were to list my order from least favorite to favorite it'd probably go like
9. "What If the Avengers Assembled In 1602"
8. "What If Strange Supreme Intervened"
7. "What If Captain Carter Fought The Hydra Stomper"
6. "What If Iron Man Crashed Into The Grandmaster"
5. "What If Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes"
4. "What If Hela Found The 10 Rings"
3. "What If Kahhori Reshaped the World"
2. "What If Nebula Joined the Nova Corps"
1. "What If Happy Hogan Saved Christmas"
So hoping for better in season 3... and not ANOTHER Peggy and Steve love story trolling cause yeah that well has officially dried up.
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