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This is a DynaMic Network podcast.

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Make Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review
superhero films and debate the superiority

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between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters
and stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny

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DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe.
And welcome to the first episode of 2025. This

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is our year, guys. This is our year. Year for
what? It's just our year. I don't know. It's

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a saying. I don't know what it means. I thought
you were saying it's like Marvel's year. I

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was like, what? Superman's coming out that too.
That too. Well, we're kicking off this year

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with a Marvel review. At the very least, this
episode will be talking all about season three

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of What If Marvel's animated series on Disney
Plus. Yeah, you know, the show's hit or miss.

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But was season three more hit or more miss compared
to the other hit or miss seasons? We'll find

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out later on in this episode. Before that, we're
going to break down the comic book movie news

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from the past week, of which there was just
one news item. and that was that Jason Momoa

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has been cast as Lobo in Supergirl Woman of
Tomorrow. As always we list our segment times

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in our episode description so feel free to check
out the show notes if you want to skip ahead

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to a particular topic. Guys our artificially
intelligent Duel simulator AJ9K has a quick

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message for our listeners, so listen up. Why
hello there, do you want even more from this

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podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic Duel
community on Patreon, where you can choose

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from three tiers. The dynamic two-o tier gives
you access to our Discord chat server. The

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fantastic four tier gives you two bonus episodes
each month, and the X-Force tier makes you

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an executive producer of this show. Lastly,
The DynaMic Podcast Network tier lets you

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create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo
simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop

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your show, provide graphic support and consultation,
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your ideas via email at dynamicduelpodcast at
gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash

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dynamicduel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ9K and
thanks to everyone who supports the podcast.

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Be sure to tune into the other shows in the
DynaMic Podcast Network this week. Including

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Max Destruction, which pits your favorite action
heroes from film and television against each

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other. This week hosts Scotty and Gilly are
finding out who would win between He-Man and

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Lion-O. And I gotta say that's one I've been
looking forward to for a long time. Yeah, me

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too. On the Sinjyo World podcast, host Zachary
Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite

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anime and manga characters. Zach is off for
the next two weeks, but make sure to check

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out his latest episode if you haven't already.
On the Console Combat Podcast hosts John and

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Dean simulate battles between popular video
game characters. In yesterday's episode, they

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reviewed the first season of Secret Level. Visit
dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our

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show notes to listen to all the shows in the
DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out

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of the way, quick to the note prize! A no prize
is an award Marvel used to give out to fans.

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Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a
digital award we post on Instagram for the

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person that we feel gave the best answer to
our question of the week. Last week we asked

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you guys, from 1 to 10, how excited has the
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man trailer made

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you for the series, and why? And of course this
is coming off the back of the trailer that

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was released last week for the upcoming Disney
Plus television show that's going to debut

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at the end of January. We got only a few answers
this time. for this question, three of them

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to be exact. So let's go down our two honorable
mentions as well as the no prize winner. The

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first honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon,
who said. What's up dynamic dudes, Travis here.

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Shout out to my evil twin. So all in all, this
trailer looks pretty good. I like the art style.

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I love the designs. Me, I know a lot of people
are kind of iffy about the whole race swapping

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of Norman Osborn, but hey, at least it makes
the waves make more sense for him now. Now

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I'm giving it a chance and so far I'm going
to give it like an 8 out of 10. It gets me

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hyped. It looks promising and I can't wait to
see more of it. You're not going to lie. The

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rows of red and black hair in the comics never
quite made sense to me for Norman Osborn and

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Harry Osborn, but interpreting them as cornrows
is kind of cool. Yeah, I actually like that

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a lot. I think if you could race band anybody,
Norman Osborn would be a top contender. I'm

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really excited to see how that plays out. But
I'm also excited to see that Travis is fairly

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excited for the upcoming show because I need
to kind of latch on to that sort of excitement

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and see if I could experience it vicariously
for myself being someone who's not as excited

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for the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man show.
Because personally I put myself at maybe like

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a four and a half or a five? I'd put myself
probably in that same spot. To me the most

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exciting thing about this is seeing Peter Parker
in high school. Like on film... There's always

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this rush to get him out of high school because
the actor keeps aging, but with animation,

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you don't really run into that problem. Yeah,
that is definitely one of the more beloved

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iterations of the characters, you know, young
Peter Parker. Well, great answer, Travis. Let's

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move on to our next honorable mention, Mason
Thompson. Who said? What's up? If I had to

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rate it from one to 10, I would rate it a solid
4.3 because I do not like the art style. I

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don't like how it's mixing 3D with Hootie like
that one wish movie did and I don't like how

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he has the future foundation suit like you guys
said. I do like how he has the like the web

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shooters in a backpack though. I think there
have been some successful iterations of flat

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three-dimensional art out there so I don't think
I would knock your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man

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for its art style especially since it's evoking
those early Ditko drawn comics but like Mason

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Thompson said we both had gripes about the future
foundation being his first superhero suit that

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he gets after his homemade one. Although I will
say, luckily, according to some promo art that

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was released last week, it does look like Spider-Man
does get his classic red and blue Spidey outfit

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by the end of the season. So that news alone
actually gets me more excited for the show

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because I guess I'm more of a stickler for Spider-Man's
look than I ever thought I was. It's one of

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the reasons why I didn't like the Amazing Spider-Man
movie. The first one with Andrew Garfield.

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So the purist in me is happy to see the character
don that suit. Thanks Mason Thompson for that

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answer. But the winner of this week's snow prize
goes to Daniel Alonso. Who said, okay, I definitely

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agree with Joe. It definitely should have been
a Tom Holland's origin of Spider-Man. Um, I'm

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about a three out of 10 on this one. It kind
of looks like how DC makes shows. So I'm not

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really too excited, but I'm probably still going
to check it out. I'm not sure yet. So Jonathan,

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if you're wondering why he gave Daniel Alonso's
answer the no prize win, it's because even

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while he's shitting on a Marvel show, he still
manages to also shit on DC. And I think that

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is an admirable skill. I mean, I'm still confused
as to what he's talking about. Because like,

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if it's a show that DC would make, it would
look good and he would be excited about it.

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I cannot comprehend his answer. What DC show
is good? Name one. My Adventures with Superman.

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Wrong. Batman kids crusader, suicide squad isekai,
Harley Quinn. Actually they're all pretty good.

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I'm not gonna lie. That's what I thought. DC
puts out some pretty good animated shows as

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well. No, I chose it because it's fun to dunk
on DC whether or not the claim is accurate

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or not. Oh, okay. You're just jealous. Jealous
of all of DC's awesome animated shows. Quantity

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is not quality, my friend. Quality? What quality?
What if season three? No, I'm talking about

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like. X-Men 97, okay? Fuck you, Jonathan. Hahaha.
Moving on, congrats to Daniel Alonso for winning

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this week's No Prize. If you, the listener,
want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay

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tuned to later on this episode when we'll be
asking another question of the week. And now

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that that's done, on to the news.

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Okay, so during interviews for his film Aquaman
The Lost Kingdom, Jason Momoa was doing press

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rounds talking about the upcoming DC Universe,
saying that he hoped James Gunn, the head of

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DC Studios, would give him a call regarding
the role of Lobo. Well, apparently he got the

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call because he made a social media post announcing
that he has been cast as Lobo in the upcoming

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Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow film. It's a role
he was pretty much born to play considering

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the fact he looks and acts exactly like the
character from the comics. Of course, Jason

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Momoa was Aquaman in the DCEU, a role that I
actually enjoyed him in, but anyone who says

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he's not a better Lobo is kind of kidding themselves.
Well, I mean, he never fit into the Aquaman

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mold according to what was set in the comic
books, right? I do think he was an interesting

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adaptation for film. And I thought it was pretty
cool how they cast an actor, a Pacific Islander

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descent to play Aquaman. That totally makes
sense. But you're right. You look at the dude

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and he looks exactly like Lobo. As far as I'm
concerned, this is dream casting. And I think

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he's totally up for it. Oh yeah, totally. He's
been talking for years how much he likes the

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character of Lobo. So it was kind of surprising
when he was cast as Aquaman. There's a lot

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of mixed reactions. when the first image of
him as Aquaman was released by Zack Snyder

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and it said, like, unite the seven. It was an
early Justice League promo image. And, yeah,

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everyone looked at that and I was like, oh,
look, it's Lobo. I wonder if we're going to

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get some like Aquaman gags in the Supergirl
movie on behalf of Jason Momoa. I who are you

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expecting? Aquaman. Right. Yeah, maybe. Lobo
is the character where you can kind of get

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away with breaking the fourth wall, kind of
like Deadpool in that regard. So it might happen.

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Who knows? If the character is done right, if
he's given a good enough part in the Supergirl

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movie, I could totally see Jason Momoa headlining
his own Lobo movie in a style of film that's

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very much in the same vein as Deadpool. Although
Jason Momoa isn't funny, so he'd have to have

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good writers. Jason Momoa is funny? What are
you talking about? He was like partial comic

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relief in Justice League. Look at the end of
Peacemaker. Yeah, you're right. You're right.

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I think he's definitely funny enough and charismatic
enough to hold his own film or maybe appear

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like in a Superman movie as a major character.
For all we know, maybe he makes a cameo in

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the upcoming Superman movie. I would not be
surprised if he did. Like in a mid-credit scene

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or something? Yeah, end-of-credit scene, mid-credit
scene. Loba has often appeared in animated

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Superman projects such as Man of Tomorrow and
the Superman animated series. I think that's

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actually how a lot of the general public are
familiar with the character. Of course, the

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character of Lobo was not in the Supergirl Woman
of Tomorrow series, although I think he was

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originally intended to be. I'm not sure what
role he's going to serve in the upcoming Supergirl

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film starring Camille Alcock, but I actually
think the characters of Supergirl and Lobo

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work pretty well together. So I'm excited for
this news a lot. Of course, the Supergirl film

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does not come out until the summer of 2026,
so, you know, it's still a ways out. But like

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I said, if we see Lobo maybe in an end credit
scene, Maybe we'll get an early look at the

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character before we see him on screen. I'm really
hoping that audiences aren't too confused when

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they see Jason Momoa not as Aquaman because
you know the first Aquaman movies were received

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fairly decently. I'm not talking about critically
but just in terms of like box office performance.

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The first Aquaman movie made over a billion
dollars and is still DC's highest grossing

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film of all time I believe. I don't think audiences
will have too hard of a problem seeing Momoa

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in the Lobo role considering that he's probably
going to be in heavy makeup. Right, yeah, like

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white body paint and red eyes, the works. Hopefully,
fingers crossed. But speaking of past DCEU

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actors returning for the DCU, that brings us
to our question of the week.

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If you could recast any other DCEU actor in
a DCEU role, who would it be and why? I'm getting

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real confused by all these DCE acronyms, man.
Well, if you're a Marvel fan, so I would expect

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nothing less. Recording answer at dynamicduel.com
by clicking on the red microphone button in

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the bottom right hand corner of the screen,
which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail.

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Your message could be up to 30 seconds long.
And don't forget to leave your name in case

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00:12:55,739 --> 00:13:00,762
we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our
favorite answer. and award that person a dynamic

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00:13:00,802 --> 00:13:06,237
Duel no prize that will post to Instagram. Be
sure to answer before January 11th.

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00:13:13,486 --> 00:13:17,654
So that does it for all of the news for this
episode. Let's go ahead and move on to the

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main event in which we review the third season
of Marvel's and Disney Plus's What If series.

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Alright, What If Season 3 is an animated series
on Disney+, directed by Brian Andrews and Stephen

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Frank, written by Matthew Chauncey, and starring
many familiar names and voices from the live-action

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Marvel Cinematic Universe. Based on the What
If comic books, the show explores the multiverse

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with a series of anthological tales told from
the perspective of Uwatu the Watcher, who is

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the cosmic entity that oversees the events happening
in each episode. Each story is set up with

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00:14:07,012 --> 00:14:13,098
a question of what if that explores how a change
in the primary MCU timeline would affect continuity,

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and each episode unfolds the universal effects
from that change. Season 3 is the final season

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of this animated series, and over these past
few years, this show has been hit or miss in

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00:14:24,522 --> 00:14:28,403
regards to the quality of the stories it tells,
though I would say there have been many more

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hits than misses. We found that season 1 focused
more on its overarching narrative of the multiversal

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guardians to the detriment of its indiviDuel
stories. focused more on its indiviDuel stories

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and succeeded more because of that. Season 3
also focuses more on its indiviDuel stories,

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saving its greater arc of Uwatu and the Watchers
for the final episodes. And you'd think that

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would make it as good as season 2, but unfortunately
you'd be wrong. With that said, here's your

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00:14:59,087 --> 00:15:04,651
spoiler warning for what if season 3 and probably
season 1 and 2 as well will be discussing plot

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points from the entire series and revealing
fun Definitely better discovered by watching

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00:15:11,194 --> 00:15:16,736
the show and not listening to two nerds talk
about it. Yeah, honestly, I'm really torn on

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this season because well, I think some of its
episodes pose the absolute worst What if scenarios?

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I also think the closing episodes were incredible.
Oh for sure Yeah, the season ends with a bang

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not a whimper. They did a really good job on
closing out the season in a way that may make

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you look at season 3 as a whole with rose tinted
glasses, but we're going to break down each

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episode piece by piece and figure out what was
good and what was bad. The showrunner stated

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that the What If series is ending because the
MCU's multiversal saga is going to start wrapping

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up here, but that's not going to happen until
2027 with the Avengers Secret Wars film. So

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my big takeaway from season 3 already knowing
that the show avoided the pitfalls of season

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20 episodes into the series, for some reason
it seems like the writers were beginning to

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run on fumes. All three seasons have had some
great premises that introduced lasting characters

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like Captain Carter, Doctor Strange Supreme,
Nova Prime Nebula, and K'Hori. But season 3

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overall seemed to lack that same enthusiasm,
that magic that comes when you ask a simple

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question that unlocks a universe of wonders.
That's not to say that season 3 didn't have

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great ideas like Hulkazilla. or the Western
Legend of the Ten Rings. It's just that it

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seemed like there were fewer of them in this
season. I don't like either of those premises.

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Hulkzilla, dumb. Western Shang-Chi, dumb. You're
fucking wrong, bro. What? Those were both fantastic,

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and I'm gonna slap the shit out of you next
time I see you. I freaking fell asleep for

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the Shang-Chi one, absolutely. That was one
of the better episodes this season, and history

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will judge you harshly. Okay, fine, come at
me, bro. Come at me, history. Okay, all right.

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Just wait. Next time I see you on the street.
Overall, I'd say that out of the nine episodes

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in season one, I enjoyed about six of them.
And for season two's nine episodes, I enjoyed

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actually eight of them. There was only one episode
that I didn't really like out of season two.

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And for this season, out of the eight episodes,
I'd say I only enjoyed about five of the stories.

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So like totaling it all up, 19 out of 25. is
not too bad for the series overall, which is

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why I said the show has more hits than misses.
And I gotta say, despite that track record,

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I'm gonna miss What If? I'm really sad that
the series is ending because even when the

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episodes weren't firing, the show still always
had the potential to be jaw-dropping amazing.

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And I think that was the best thing about it.
Yeah, the question of What If? and the premise

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of What If? is 100% all about potential. I just
think that they never really asked more interesting

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questions. Like Howard the Duck and Darcy having
an egg? Who cares? It was nice to get Howard

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the Duck content out there. This is the most
that we ever got of the character. But we'll

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break down that episode once we get to our story
breakdown. But specifically regarding season

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three, I do appreciate that the writers ventured
further outside the world of the original Avengers

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to include newer characters because the main
detriment to the MCU as a whole currently.

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is that it's less cohesive than it's ever been.
You know, throughout the entire Infinity Saga,

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it was easy to keep track of everything and
everything felt more intertwined. Whereas nowadays,

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there are so many random projects and nothing
is really connected. And it's so disparate

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that it's hard for people to stay on top of
everything. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Like the

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ten rings from Shang-Chi that cliffhanger has
not tied into, you know, Atlantis, which is

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not tied into the Eternals. which is not tied
into, you know, secret invasion and the scrolls

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and everything like that. Right, right. It's
like, what am I supposed to be following here?

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Exactly. Yeah. You know, a lot of the Phase
Four and Five characters have yet to be revisited.

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So it was really nice to hear from those actors
like Simu Liu, who plays Shang-Chi, Oscar Isaac,

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who plays Moon Knight, and Kamel Najiani, who
plays Kingo from The Eternals, and Tionna Paris.

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It was really nice to get this next generation
of Marvel characters and actors in the mix.

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Yeah, if anything, just to remind audiences
that they exist, just in case you forgot about

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them, which one will be in the Avengers? Who
knows? Find out, keep watching. If there's

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one thing about this season that I actually
really liked over past seasons, and I thought

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was an improvement, was the animation style.
Now I know it's largely the same as what we've

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had before, but there were moments in this season,
particularly towards the end, where they were

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able to use lighting in a way that they haven't
done before. And I thought it went a long way

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in showing actually just how interesting this
animation style is. For sure. Yes, cinematography

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is a term that's largely applied to live action
content, but it also applies to animation as

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00:20:05,033 --> 00:20:10,697
well. I think that's easy to overlook. But the
cinematography of this show, episode to episode,

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is spellbinding. Everything looks so gorgeous,
which is no surprise because the show is produced

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by Marvel who is owned by Disney who produces
some of the greatest animated content the world

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has ever known. But to review what if overall
is really difficult because each story in itself

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is its own tale. So let's go ahead and get into
our episode breakdown. Episode 1 was called

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What If The Hulk Fought The Mech Avengers? It
stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Mark Ruffalo

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as Bruce Banner, Teona Paris as Monica

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00:20:45,858 --> 00:20:52,663
David Harbor as Alexei Shostakov, Simu Liu as
Shang-Chi, and Oscar Isaac as Mark Spector.

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In the episode, Bruce Banner becomes friends
with Sam Wilson, who counsels him in his trauma

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support group. An accidental Hulk transformation
leads to Banner trying to separate the Hulk

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from himself using gamma radiation. However,
the experiment manifests a powerful radioactive

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monster called Apex that is capable of growing
in size and spawning kaiju monsters. Tony Stark

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develops mecha-sized Hulkbuster suits for the
Avengers, and though the original team falls

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to the Kaiju in battle, the surviving heroes
win the Gamma War. However, ten years later,

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the beasts return, prompting Sam Wilson as Captain
America and Photon to investigate the radioactive

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anomaly in the Arctic. There they find the Apex
still alive and leading a massive Kaiju army.

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Photon and Winter Soldier learn the location
of Bruce Banner, believing he's the key to

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stopping the Kaiju. Captain America visits him
in the Astra Islands to convince him to join

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the fight. Banner refuses, but provides Sam
with a plugin he wrote for the mech suit's

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interface called the Mighty Avenger Protocol
that will allow the Avengers to combine their

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strength. The merger proves effective in defeating
many of the kaiju, but the apex still proves

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to be too strong for them. Banner arrives on
the scene with a nuclear gamma bomb that he

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detonates. The Hulk absorbs the full blast.
permanently transforming him into Mega Hulk,

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who uses his gamma breath to disintegrate the
apex monster. Mega Hulk acknowledges his friend

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00:22:18,603 --> 00:22:23,569
Sam, proving that Banner's mind is still somewhere
inside the creature, and he leads the remaining

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00:22:23,589 --> 00:22:29,977
Kaiju into the sea, to the Astra Islands. I
heard you diss on this episode a few minutes

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00:22:30,017 --> 00:22:35,153
ago. And I'm here to reiterate that you are
wrong. I thought this was a fantastic homage

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00:22:35,273 --> 00:22:40,978
to the Godzilla stories and mecha stories like
Gundam, Evangelion and Pacific Rim. To me,

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00:22:41,018 --> 00:22:46,043
the whole thing felt very gimmicky. It was like
Power Rangers meets Godzilla, which sounds

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00:22:46,123 --> 00:22:51,568
cool. But the whole time, I was just wondering
how the hell was this Apex Hulk created? Like,

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why is it a separate being from Bruce Banner's
Hulk? It was Bruce's attempt to separate himself

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00:22:57,413 --> 00:23:02,435
from the Hulk, but We don't know how gamma radiation
works. You know, it created the Hulk. I think

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00:23:02,455 --> 00:23:07,416
it's entirely plausible that instead of separating
the two beings, it would separate another yet

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00:23:07,616 --> 00:23:12,217
more monstrous creature. I really liked the
great camera work in this episode, especially

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like that split screen style that they would
do that made the show feel like Voltron or

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00:23:16,399 --> 00:23:21,420
Power Rangers. That was a lot of fun. And it
really served to highlight the cool wide cast

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of characters that they got for this episode.
You know, I mentioned before it was really

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cool to see people like Oscar Isaac back in
the role. you know, despite how small that

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00:23:28,203 --> 00:23:33,126
role may be for this episode. What'd you think
of this Avengers lineup? Like is this the new

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00:23:33,166 --> 00:23:37,549
official lineup that you would like to see on
the silver screen? No, but I thought it was

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a great representation of international characters,
you know, really taking that global approach.

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You had Nakia from Wakanda. You had the Red
Guardian and Malia Vostokov from Russia. You

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00:23:47,816 --> 00:23:52,740
had Moon Knight who was in this very like Egyptian
type armor. You had Shang-Chi representing

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Southeast Asia. It was pretty fascinating stuff.
I thought that was all really cool to get that

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international feel. I guess in that regard,
it was more like Pacific Rim than anything

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00:24:01,541 --> 00:24:07,224
else. Exactly. I liked the lineup. I'd actually
be really happy if this was the Avengers lineup

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00:24:07,244 --> 00:24:12,287
going forward, but maybe replace Nikiya with
Shuri's Black Panther. That'd be dope. Yeah,

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00:24:12,307 --> 00:24:16,569
and maybe toss in Namor or something like that
in there. Have a Talokhan-style suit of armor

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00:24:16,609 --> 00:24:21,552
made out of vibranium. Hell yeah! I'm still
really offended that you didn't like this episode.

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00:24:22,072 --> 00:24:26,906
I don't think you've given a good enough reason
to not like it. I mean, seeing Hulk turn into

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Godzilla and then using that gamma breath to
melt the apex, I thought was fantastic. It

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was such a good homage. I don't even know if
I have a good reason for why I didn't like

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00:24:37,469 --> 00:24:41,690
it. I just remember watching the shows. Well
then shut the hell up. Okay? I think I was

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just upset that I had to watch another season
of What If? And I was like, ugh, okay. Maybe

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00:24:46,592 --> 00:24:50,153
try to step up as a critic then, you know? Just
because you have to watch a show doesn't mean

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00:24:50,173 --> 00:24:53,990
that you should go in hating it. Okay? This
was a great premise. I thought it was one of

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the better executed what if premises that the
series has ever done actually. You might be

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00:24:59,412 --> 00:25:04,114
right. Maybe I'll rewatch this episode specifically
and I'll completely change my mind. Because

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00:25:04,214 --> 00:25:07,956
on paper actually it does sound interesting.
Yeah, I think you need to do that. And also

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00:25:08,016 --> 00:25:11,257
slap yourself on behalf of everybody else out
there who is listening to this and wish you

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00:25:11,277 --> 00:25:16,360
would. I don't know about slapping myself, but
I'll watch it. Let's go ahead and move on to

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00:25:16,460 --> 00:25:22,786
episode 2, which is called What If Agatha Went
to Hollywood? It stars Catherine Hahn as Agatha

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00:25:22,827 --> 00:25:28,470
Harkness, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Dominic
Cooper as Howard Stark, and James Darcy as

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00:25:28,550 --> 00:25:34,193
Edwin Jarvis. The story of the episode is, in
her quest for power, Agatha Harkness learns

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00:25:34,273 --> 00:25:39,956
of the celestial Tiamat growing in the Earth's
core and plans to siphon its power. During

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00:25:39,996 --> 00:25:44,539
the Golden Age of Hollywood, she becomes an
actress who convinces her director Howard Stark

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00:25:44,919 --> 00:25:50,902
to add star power to the motion picture by hiring
the famous Bollywood actor Kingo. of the Eternals.

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Kingo arrives at the set in Hollywood and performs
a large dance number with Agatha. He reveals

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00:25:57,268 --> 00:26:01,731
during their scene that he knows about her plan
to harness celestial power and attacks her.

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00:26:02,252 --> 00:26:07,156
Agatha defends herself using the other Eternals
powers, revealing that she has already siphoned

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00:26:07,216 --> 00:26:12,840
those abilities and that Kingo is last on her
list. She convinces him of her heroic intent

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00:26:12,961 --> 00:26:19,590
and his own humanist tendencies, getting him
to agree to transfer his power to her. Arishem

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00:26:19,630 --> 00:26:24,352
signals his arrival to Earth and Agatha and
Kingo get Stark to shoot the finale at the

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00:26:24,372 --> 00:26:30,296
Griffith Observatory where they perform the
ritual. Agatha absorbs Tiamat's power and becomes

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00:26:30,356 --> 00:26:36,839
a celestial as Arishem arrives and the two fight.
She uses magic to restrain Arishem and defeats

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00:26:36,879 --> 00:26:41,922
him, absorbing his power as well. Agatha then
reveals her deception, that she was seeking

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power all along and not to save the world. But
Kingo convinces her that she could bring about

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more change as an actress. than as a celestial.
Agatha relinquishes her power, and she and

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00:26:52,293 --> 00:26:57,978
Kingo attend the world premiere of their movie
Cosmic Queen as more celestials arrive on Earth.

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This episode fucking sucked, man. As beautiful
as it looked and as well as it evoked the golden

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00:27:05,004 --> 00:27:11,770
age of Hollywood with fantastic art deco style,
I really hated the story. Yeah, the whole story

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00:27:11,810 --> 00:27:15,893
kind of felt like it was two concepts merged
into one. I feel like writers were like...

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00:27:16,126 --> 00:27:20,587
Oh, I really want to do like a Kingo Bollywood
dance episode. And now the writers were like,

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00:27:20,867 --> 00:27:26,288
oh, what if Agatha absorbed the power of a celestial?
And at the end, they were just like, oh, fuck

301
00:27:26,308 --> 00:27:32,970
it, combine them. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure
that the worlds of Agatha's witchcraft and

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00:27:32,990 --> 00:27:37,912
the Eternals really vibed as well as they thought
it would. But the biggest problem I have with

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the episode was when Kingo convinced Agatha
to relinquish the power of the celestials,

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because I don't think that was in character.
for Agatha. I think Agatha is and always has

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00:27:47,536 --> 00:27:53,761
been someone who seeks out and craves ultimate
power. And I think during that turn, Kingo

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00:27:53,801 --> 00:27:58,866
forgot the simple fact that Agatha is not actually
an actress. You know, she came to Hollywood

307
00:27:58,906 --> 00:28:04,771
as part of her ruse. So for Kingo to convince
Agatha that they were the same, you know, insecure

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00:28:04,851 --> 00:28:08,974
actors looking to show the world they were big
and that she didn't need her celestial power

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00:28:09,115 --> 00:28:14,418
and that she only needed to be famous, like
that was such a weird self-absorbed perspective,

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00:28:14,898 --> 00:28:20,100
as if being an actor was the most important
thing a person could become, like more important

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00:28:20,140 --> 00:28:26,361
than a world creating life-generating celestial.
Like the narcissism to that idea was astounding

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00:28:26,401 --> 00:28:31,923
to me. Yeah, only Hollywood could have come
up with something as ridiculous as stardom

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00:28:32,063 --> 00:28:38,105
being something greater than a god. Exactly,
which is weird because it's not like this episode

314
00:28:38,145 --> 00:28:42,386
was written by actors, but it certainly felt
like it. was. And in that regard, yeah, the

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00:28:42,406 --> 00:28:47,809
episode just felt too self-serving. And, you
know, like if you want to give an homage to

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00:28:47,969 --> 00:28:53,011
classic Hollywood, you got to look at WandaVision.
I think that show did it way better than this

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00:28:53,051 --> 00:28:59,234
episode of What If did. That said, I do think
the episode was aware of how ridiculous it

318
00:28:59,274 --> 00:29:03,536
was being. Sure, yeah, it was meta in that regard,
but that doesn't do anything for me. Like you

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00:29:03,556 --> 00:29:09,830
look at Kingo too, you know, Kingo was convinced
to betray Arasham. because Agatha promised

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00:29:09,870 --> 00:29:15,553
him a three-picture deal. It kind of makes the
character of Kingo pretty petty. Yeah, I guess

321
00:29:15,593 --> 00:29:19,835
if we're gonna talk about things I liked about
the episode in addition to the visual style,

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00:29:19,935 --> 00:29:24,877
I also did like Howard Stark in the episode
because like he's often seen as a parallel

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00:29:24,937 --> 00:29:29,900
to Howard Hughes, but in this episode, he seemed
more like an Orson Welles type. I thought that

324
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:34,738
was pretty clever. Yeah, it was like Orson Welles
or maybe even like Walt Disney. I did think

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00:29:34,778 --> 00:29:39,561
that Dominic Cooper gave a great voice performance
as like a classic Hollywood director type.

326
00:29:39,801 --> 00:29:43,644
Oh yeah, he does that old timey voice really
well, which we saw in Captain America, the

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00:29:43,684 --> 00:29:47,727
first Avenger. I forgot that I'm rating each
of these episodes as we're talking about them.

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00:29:48,728 --> 00:29:53,571
I would rate episode two, what if Agatha went
to Hollywood, two and a half out of five stars.

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00:29:53,751 --> 00:29:57,574
Didn't really like it, but I would rate the
first episode, what if Hulk fought the Mech

330
00:29:57,594 --> 00:30:02,017
Avengers four out of five. I don't even want
to give my ratings now because I feel like

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00:30:02,117 --> 00:30:06,479
my- rating for the first one is probably going
to be very different from yours. But yeah,

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00:30:06,499 --> 00:30:11,761
I would agree with episode two's rating. Episode
three was called What If the Red Guardian Stopped

333
00:30:11,801 --> 00:30:18,224
the Winter Soldier? It stars David Harbour as
Alexei Shostakov, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes,

334
00:30:18,724 --> 00:30:24,466
Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster, and America
Ferrera as Ranger Alessandre Morales. Wait,

335
00:30:24,646 --> 00:30:33,663
what? Really? Yeah. Why? I don't know. In the
episode In Early Nineties Russia, Alexei Shostakov,

336
00:30:33,743 --> 00:30:38,727
the Red Guardian, ignores his orders from the
Red Room to become a sleeper agent in Ohio

337
00:30:38,847 --> 00:30:43,852
with the young Natasha Romanoff. Instead, he
shadows the Winter Soldier on his mission to

338
00:30:43,912 --> 00:30:49,597
acquire Howard Stark's newly created Super Soldier
Serum in New York. Alexei prevents Bucky from

339
00:30:49,637 --> 00:30:53,961
killing the Starks, and the two fight. When
the police and S.H.I.E.L.D. arrive on the scene,

340
00:30:54,121 --> 00:30:58,084
the two flee and receive notice from the Red
Room that due to their failure, they are on

341
00:30:58,104 --> 00:31:03,227
their own for extraction. Shield agent Bill
Foster investigates the scene and stops Alexi

342
00:31:03,247 --> 00:31:08,849
and Bucky at a traffic stop while on their way
to Las Vegas. Bill Foster gives chase, turning

343
00:31:08,909 --> 00:31:14,272
into Goliath, but the pair drive their car off
a cliff to escape. Alexi and Bucky survive

344
00:31:14,312 --> 00:31:18,633
and mend their wounds by breaking into a veterinary
hospital where Alexi tries to get Bucky to

345
00:31:18,673 --> 00:31:23,755
remember his past. The pair arrives in Vegas
where they meet with a Rook, an American informant

346
00:31:23,775 --> 00:31:28,617
who leaked the Super Soldier Serum's existence
to Russia, who turns out to be Obadiah Stane.

347
00:31:29,066 --> 00:31:33,489
Alexei is saddened to learn that the Rook is
a capitalist, and Obadiah attempts to shoot

348
00:31:33,509 --> 00:31:37,993
them before Bucky knocks him out the window
of his penthouse hotel room. Goliath and S.H.I.E.L.D.

349
00:31:38,233 --> 00:31:43,277
arrive on the scene and chase Alexei and Bucky
to a construction site. There, Hydra handler

350
00:31:43,337 --> 00:31:48,521
Vasiliy Karpov tries to get the Winter Soldier
back under control, but S.H.I.E.L.D., Alexei,

351
00:31:48,561 --> 00:31:53,325
and Bucky team up to take him out. Ultimately,
the Winter Soldier is captured and taken back

352
00:31:53,365 --> 00:31:58,308
to the Red Room. but Alexei defects and retires
as a gym teacher before Bill Foster recruits

353
00:31:58,349 --> 00:32:04,793
him into SHIELD and he becomes a member of the
original Avengers. Now on paper, I don't think

354
00:32:04,833 --> 00:32:12,379
that episode sounded too bad, but in execution,
the Red Guardian was so fucking dumb that this

355
00:32:12,499 --> 00:32:17,322
episode was really hard to get through. He was
kind of like a Soviet flag waving communist

356
00:32:17,362 --> 00:32:22,774
poster boy but with the IQ of a kindergartener.
It was bad. Yeah, his whole shtick got. real

357
00:32:22,934 --> 00:32:27,955
old, real quick. From his opening scene with
Drakov in the red room, like the way he's yelling

358
00:32:28,015 --> 00:32:32,716
at him, like he's not acting like a real character,
he's acting like a cartoon character. And yes,

359
00:32:32,816 --> 00:32:37,298
I understand that this is a cartoon. And yes,
the character is still a little bit goofy in

360
00:32:37,318 --> 00:32:42,279
live action, but not to this extent. They went
way over the top here in a way that made me

361
00:32:42,419 --> 00:32:47,360
kind of hate the episode. Like every line out
of David Harbour's mouth, like smash the capitalist

362
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:53,490
pigs and like you gotta seize the means of production
and it just, it didn't work. I don't understand

363
00:32:53,590 --> 00:32:58,473
why the Red Guardian didn't want Bucky to kill
the Starks. I'm guessing it's because he fancied

364
00:32:58,513 --> 00:33:03,596
himself a hero who doesn't kill, but that doesn't
seem quite in keeping with the character that

365
00:33:03,676 --> 00:33:08,999
I know from live action. At least Bucky Barnes
as the Winter Soldier was solid. I gotta say

366
00:33:09,139 --> 00:33:14,682
that Sebastian Stan's voice performance in season
3 far and away was better than his appearances

367
00:33:14,722 --> 00:33:17,743
in season 1. He's really grown as a voice actor.

368
00:33:22,066 --> 00:33:28,347
evoked classic films like Party Thor was a riff
on risky business. You had Nebula joining the

369
00:33:28,387 --> 00:33:33,669
Nova Corps as a kind of tribute to Blade Runner.
Yeah, that was cool. They even parody Die Hard

370
00:33:33,769 --> 00:33:37,730
with the Christmas episode from season two that
I thought was really good. That's right. Here

371
00:33:37,830 --> 00:33:43,072
it seemed like they were trying to pay homage
to Thelma and Louise evading the police and,

372
00:33:43,132 --> 00:33:47,533
you know, driving their car off of a cliff and
everything like that. But god, this was just

373
00:33:47,613 --> 00:33:52,139
such a piss poor tribute to that movie. If I
have to say a good thing about the episode,

374
00:33:52,459 --> 00:33:57,503
I did think it was neat that the Russian intelligence
regarding Bucky's mission came from Obadiah

375
00:33:57,523 --> 00:34:02,147
Stane. I do think that it makes sense that he
would be the one to have Howard killed considering,

376
00:34:02,507 --> 00:34:07,451
you know, he tried to kill Tony Stark in Iron
Man 1 in a similarly underhanded way. I like

377
00:34:07,471 --> 00:34:13,455
to think of Obadiah Stane as the Rook as like
main MCU sacred timeline canon, because we

378
00:34:13,495 --> 00:34:18,894
never really know where Hydra got that intel
from. that Howard Stark had recreated the Super

379
00:34:18,934 --> 00:34:22,755
Soldier Serum, I totally think it makes sense
that Obadiah Stane would have sold him out.

380
00:34:23,175 --> 00:34:27,717
Yeah, I liked that too. I didn't even realize
initially that was Obadiah Stane. It took me

381
00:34:27,737 --> 00:34:32,178
a while, but once I did, I was like, oh yeah,
that's awesome. There's one character in this

382
00:34:32,218 --> 00:34:36,739
episode who worked with Bill Foster. They called
her Ranger Morales. She's actually a character

383
00:34:36,859 --> 00:34:41,460
from the comic books named Alessandre Morales,
who was a SHIELD agent. I don't know why they

384
00:34:41,620 --> 00:34:45,301
adapted her as a Ranger in this episode, but
I thought that was at least a cool Easter egg.

385
00:34:46,046 --> 00:34:50,407
I don't understand why they cast America for
her to voice her. I wonder if that signals

386
00:34:50,447 --> 00:34:54,309
that she'll be playing the role in live action
as well. Yeah, maybe she'll be playing a shield

387
00:34:54,369 --> 00:35:00,351
agent in the future in the MCU. That'd be pretty
cool. I give episode three two out of five

388
00:35:00,391 --> 00:35:05,072
stars. It was actually one of my least favorite.
What if episodes that they produced? Oh, wow.

389
00:35:05,152 --> 00:35:09,166
That's lower than I would have given. I think
I would have given it like. two and a half,

390
00:35:09,287 --> 00:35:13,310
maybe just a half star higher. Why would you
give it a 2.5? You fucking hate bathos more

391
00:35:13,330 --> 00:35:17,654
than I do. And yet this entire episode was the
definition of that. Doesn't make any sense.

392
00:35:17,734 --> 00:35:22,178
That's true, I don't know. Let's go to move
on to episode four, which was called What If

393
00:35:22,298 --> 00:35:28,443
Howard the Duck Got Hitched. It stars Kat Dennings
as Darcy Lewis, Seth Green as Howard the Duck,

394
00:35:28,823 --> 00:35:34,368
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Tom Hiddleston
as Loki, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Michael

395
00:35:34,408 --> 00:35:41,737
Rooker as Yondu Udanta, and Josh Brolin as Thanos.
This episode is a sequel to the What If Thor

396
00:35:41,757 --> 00:35:47,139
Were an Only Child episode from season 1. In
it, Darcy and Howard the Duck meet after one

397
00:35:47,180 --> 00:35:52,162
of Party Thor's celebrations in Las Vegas and
they go out for nachos, falling in love and

398
00:35:52,202 --> 00:35:57,065
getting hitched. They have a baby egg raising
it in their New York apartment where they're

399
00:35:57,105 --> 00:36:02,268
served an invitation to one of the Grandmasters
intergalactic cruises. There, the egg is taken

400
00:36:02,288 --> 00:36:07,262
for childcare while Howard and Darcy are invited
to brunch. Upon realizing that their child

401
00:36:07,303 --> 00:36:12,987
is going to be served as brunch, Yondu the Ravager
crashes the scene, stealing the egg to take

402
00:36:13,007 --> 00:36:18,491
it to the Collector on nowhere. Howard and Darcy
steal a ship and en route contact Nick Fury

403
00:36:18,531 --> 00:36:24,415
of SHIELD for help. On nowhere, Yondu meets
the sorcerer Kyselius, who zealots captured

404
00:36:24,455 --> 00:36:28,838
the Collector in order to get the egg. Yondu
reveals that other parties expressed interest

405
00:36:28,878 --> 00:36:34,250
in the egg, including the Dark Elves and Zeus,
but Kyselius incapacitates him. Howard and

406
00:36:34,270 --> 00:36:39,593
Darcy infiltrate a dark ritual trying to use
the egg to birth Dormammu. However, S.H.I.E.L.D.

407
00:36:39,953 --> 00:36:45,116
intervenes and acquires the egg, losing it in
the ensuing chaos, allowing Howard and Darcy

408
00:36:45,156 --> 00:36:51,059
to escape with their egg and hide out on Jotunheim.
Loki is eager to help, but King Loffi wants

409
00:36:51,099 --> 00:36:56,642
to use the egg as a weapon. The frost giants,
S.H.I.E.L.D., the Olympians, the dark elves,

410
00:36:57,003 --> 00:37:02,634
the zealots, and Thanos' black order all converge
on the scene, all fighting for the egg. Amidst

411
00:37:02,654 --> 00:37:07,338
the chaos, the egg radiates a cosmic energy
that incapacitates everyone but Howard and

412
00:37:07,378 --> 00:37:13,963
Darcy and hatches, revealing a baby human-avian
hybrid that they name Bertie. They take Bertie

413
00:37:13,983 --> 00:37:19,327
back home and put her to bed. Now let's address
the elephant in the room here with this episode.

414
00:37:19,808 --> 00:37:26,133
In that a woman and a humanoid duck had a baby.
You know, Howard the Duck has had romantic

415
00:37:26,193 --> 00:37:30,797
tension with human women like Beverly Switzler,
who was in the comics and even in the Howard

416
00:37:30,877 --> 00:37:36,627
the Duck movie. His stories have always tiptoed
that line without ever explicitly venturing

417
00:37:36,707 --> 00:37:42,068
into human animal relations territory. And I
don't know if it's just my mind, or maybe it's

418
00:37:42,088 --> 00:37:46,950
just the paradigm shift of seeing Howard as
a dad, but like I had trouble getting over

419
00:37:46,990 --> 00:37:52,551
the idea of Darcy banging Howard. Like I just
kept wondering, how would that even work? Am

420
00:37:52,631 --> 00:37:56,292
I the only one? No, absolutely. I was thinking
the whole time I was watching this episode,

421
00:37:56,312 --> 00:38:02,542
like really they decided to base an entire episode.
of Howard the Duck's implied coupling with

422
00:38:02,582 --> 00:38:07,844
Leah Thompson in his movie. That's ridiculous.
Yeah, I mean, it was also implied in the comic

423
00:38:07,884 --> 00:38:13,605
book, so it wasn't just in the movie. But it
raises questions. Ducks have corkscrew-shaped

424
00:38:13,645 --> 00:38:19,707
dongs, right? And Darcy was in labor and she
gave birth to this egg, like the size of the

425
00:38:19,867 --> 00:38:24,528
egg would have just left her whole downstairs
totally demolished. So I'm thinking it had

426
00:38:24,568 --> 00:38:32,191
to be a Caesarian birth at least, you know?
And I came to the following conclusion. The

427
00:38:32,211 --> 00:38:38,333
Howard the Duck movie taught us that females
on Duckworld have human-like chests, right?

428
00:38:38,734 --> 00:38:45,157
Like they totally show duck boobs in that movie
even though ducks aren't mammals and they wouldn't

429
00:38:45,217 --> 00:38:53,160
have memory glands. So maybe the ducks of Duckworld
evolved to have more mammalian-like sex organs

430
00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:58,142
despite remaining avian in an appearance. I
don't necessarily think it's out of bounds

431
00:38:58,162 --> 00:39:03,685
to say that Howard maybe doesn't have a corkscrew
dong. Maybe it's more like a human-like feather

432
00:39:03,745 --> 00:39:09,748
dong or something like that. But then I remembered
that if Darcy gave birth to an egg, as the

433
00:39:09,808 --> 00:39:15,771
female, she would be the one to produce the
egg. But human ova do not have hard shells.

434
00:39:16,351 --> 00:39:21,193
So at that point I was like, fuck, I do not
understand any of this. And I flipped my office

435
00:39:21,213 --> 00:39:26,208
table. So I will say that you thought about
Howard the Duck's dick way more than I did.

436
00:39:28,269 --> 00:39:32,371
But everything you're saying is valid. I just
don't get it, man. I don't get how it would

437
00:39:32,391 --> 00:39:37,514
work. I just don't understand. But, you know,
trying to get past that, this episode was another

438
00:39:37,554 --> 00:39:42,257
silly one. It was really hard to go back to
back with the silly episodes, but I wanted

439
00:39:42,297 --> 00:39:46,859
to give this episode a little bit more leeway
due to the fact that Howard the Duck stories

440
00:39:46,879 --> 00:39:52,170
from the comics are a little bit more silly
by their very nature. Yeah, well, the two stars,

441
00:39:52,350 --> 00:39:59,032
both Howard the Duck and Darcy, are pretty much
comedic relief, I would say. So I'm more forgiving

442
00:39:59,172 --> 00:40:04,493
of this episode being goofy than I was of the
last one for sure. Yeah. I mean, there were

443
00:40:04,533 --> 00:40:09,255
some jokes that just didn't land for me. Like
when Ebony Ma was saying that the Black Order

444
00:40:09,335 --> 00:40:13,736
is on Jotunheim for a company retreat because
they have a group on. I was like, what the

445
00:40:13,996 --> 00:40:19,962
fuck is going on here? But bad jokes aside,
I tried to give the episode. a little bit more

446
00:40:20,002 --> 00:40:26,566
grace in terms of the cringe worthiness on display
here. I did like the theme of new parenting,

447
00:40:26,687 --> 00:40:30,889
being a new parent myself as the father of a
one-year-old. I can appreciate that. But there

448
00:40:30,909 --> 00:40:36,213
was also like another part of me that was like,
why is that baby sleeping with a blanket in

449
00:40:36,273 --> 00:40:40,196
its crib? Like it's just born, like get that
blanket out of there. They shouldn't be sleeping

450
00:40:40,216 --> 00:40:43,998
with blankets until they're one. You notice
stuff like that in movies all the time when

451
00:40:44,018 --> 00:40:48,890
you're a new parent. There was something sweet
about Darcy and Howard's relationship. They

452
00:40:48,910 --> 00:40:53,111
just seemed really comfortable together. And
it seemed like they were great parents concerning

453
00:40:53,251 --> 00:40:58,912
what Bertie became, which we find out later
on in the series. I didn't even care for that

454
00:40:59,032 --> 00:41:04,174
payoff. Like, who cares by the end of it? I'm
like, I don't know anything about this character.

455
00:41:05,094 --> 00:41:09,735
Why is it that important to me? I thought Bertie
was fine. I think conceptually, she's pretty

456
00:41:09,755 --> 00:41:14,097
cool as a character, especially because she
kind of looks like Lea Thompson's Beverly Switzler

457
00:41:14,317 --> 00:41:17,991
from the 80s movie. Well, that's one of the
problems I actually had with it. She was just

458
00:41:18,212 --> 00:41:23,413
way too 80s, I hate 80s style. What? Yeah. Dude,
you're so wrong.

459
00:41:30,822 --> 00:41:36,866
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460
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461
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462
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463
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464
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465
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466
00:42:18,062 --> 00:42:23,005
Let's move on to episode 5, which was called
What If The Emergence Destroyed The Earth.

467
00:42:23,425 --> 00:42:28,728
It stars Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams,
Emily Van Camp as Sharon Carter, Tessa Thompson

468
00:42:28,808 --> 00:42:34,551
as Valkyrie, and Jason Isaacs as The Eminence.
On a post-apocalyptic Earth that was ripped

469
00:42:34,591 --> 00:42:40,074
apart by the celestial Tiamat's emergence from
the planet's core, Mysterio takes control of

470
00:42:40,114 --> 00:42:46,558
humanity's last vestiges using Tony Stark's
drones and his own holographic illusions. Riri

471
00:42:46,578 --> 00:42:50,922
Williams tries to create a weaponized suit of
armor using the technology available to her,

472
00:42:51,302 --> 00:42:56,687
but is captured by Vision, who has been commandeered
by Mysterio. She is rescued by the Alliance,

473
00:42:56,747 --> 00:43:02,553
the last remaining force united against Mysterio
composed of heroes such as Wong, Okoye, Valkyrie,

474
00:43:02,833 --> 00:43:07,778
and Ying Nan. Riri is taken to the Alliance's
base to complete her weapon when Vision attacks.

475
00:43:08,298 --> 00:43:13,710
She is able to complete her weapon just in time,
using it to defeat Vision, then uses his components

476
00:43:13,750 --> 00:43:20,612
to become a human-synthesoid hybrid to infiltrate
Mysterio's tech systems. Alongside the Alliance,

477
00:43:20,692 --> 00:43:26,593
Riri attacks Mysterio's base, able to see through
his illusions. However, her suit malfunctions

478
00:43:26,774 --> 00:43:32,255
and she falls victim to Mysterio's trap. He
reveals that he too is a tech hybrid, having

479
00:43:32,355 --> 00:43:37,156
uploaded his network's nanites into his body,
allowing him to control his illusions with

480
00:43:37,216 --> 00:43:37,697
his mind.

481
00:43:41,410 --> 00:43:46,212
so he needs Vision's components to keep him
alive. He attempts to extract Riri's synthzoid

482
00:43:46,252 --> 00:43:52,035
pieces from her, but with the Watcher's prompting,
she pulls them back to herself and phases through

483
00:43:52,075 --> 00:43:57,758
Mysterio, assimilating his internal nanite network.
Having defeated the villain and dismantled

484
00:43:57,778 --> 00:44:03,061
his federation, Riri projects the Avengers logo
to Earth's remaining survivors, giving them

485
00:44:03,121 --> 00:44:08,504
hope. Meanwhile, three Watchers known as the
Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner

486
00:44:08,964 --> 00:44:15,255
witness Uatu's prompting of Riri, pleased by
his interference. I liked the premise of this

487
00:44:15,295 --> 00:44:20,976
episode. The concept of Tiamat's early emergence
was solid, and I think it makes sense that

488
00:44:21,096 --> 00:44:26,918
someone like Riri, if she was a survivor, would
prove to be a vital asset to the rest of humanity

489
00:44:26,978 --> 00:44:31,599
given her technological prowess. I think the
episode had promised that it largely lived

490
00:44:31,639 --> 00:44:36,661
up to. The one thing that I would have changed
that would have made it better was the use

491
00:44:36,681 --> 00:44:42,191
of more prominent hero and villain characters.
Like, Mysterio was an interesting choice for

492
00:44:42,211 --> 00:44:46,594
the leader of the Federation, but it also seems
a little unlike his character to take such

493
00:44:46,614 --> 00:44:52,038
a commanding role. Like the character's accomplishment
in this episode is probably greater than anything

494
00:44:52,078 --> 00:44:57,181
Mysterio has ever done in the comics. I wouldn't
have been surprised if his role was someone

495
00:44:57,241 --> 00:45:02,085
more like Dr. Doom or Norman Osborn or even
like the Kingpin that had taken over what remained

496
00:45:02,125 --> 00:45:07,388
of Earth, but I consider this like a step up
for Mysterio. Not that I want to disparage

497
00:45:07,428 --> 00:45:12,710
him, because I do like Mysterio. Yeah, I think
Mysterio is one of the more interesting villains

498
00:45:12,830 --> 00:45:18,312
in the MCU as a whole, so I was actually glad
to see him return here. As a master of illusion,

499
00:45:18,452 --> 00:45:23,754
he is hands down the best candidate to have
done the things that the character did in this

500
00:45:23,814 --> 00:45:30,535
episode. I also liked the fact that they adapted
his cancer arc in the comics into this, like

501
00:45:30,555 --> 00:45:34,857
he was a sick dyke man who was trying to prove
himself in a way, except instead of cancer,

502
00:45:34,877 --> 00:45:40,324
they went with nanites. Yeah, his look... in
this episode was very similar to the look that

503
00:45:40,344 --> 00:45:45,308
he had in the Guardian Devil story arc in the
comic books. You're right though, for what

504
00:45:45,428 --> 00:45:51,353
this part required in this story, Mysterio was
the best candidate. I also think that Mysterio,

505
00:45:51,553 --> 00:45:55,296
he's had some pretty impressive feats in the
comics, you know? He was the only one from

506
00:45:55,336 --> 00:45:59,980
the main universe to go into the ultimate universe,
if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. So I think this

507
00:46:00,020 --> 00:46:05,184
is in keeping with some of the more impressive
things he's done. He never like took over Earth

508
00:46:05,284 --> 00:46:11,417
1610 though. No, but the guy is a technological
powerhouse. Yeah, I do think that having Wong

509
00:46:11,878 --> 00:46:17,403
Ying Nan Okoye and Valkyrie as the last surviving
heroes was a little bit weak for this episode.

510
00:46:17,443 --> 00:46:22,027
Like, Dan, you couldn't even squeeze in like
a bee lister in there. It was very random.

511
00:46:22,067 --> 00:46:28,112
I felt like, oh, this was the cast you could
afford. OK. Yeah, I would have liked to have

512
00:46:28,152 --> 00:46:33,737
a stronger supporting cast for Riri Williams.
I got the overall impression that what if season

513
00:46:33,757 --> 00:46:38,953
three was supposed to come out? after the Ironheart
series given that we had Riri's inclusion in

514
00:46:38,993 --> 00:46:44,017
this episode and the Hood's inclusion in the
next episode. Yeah, that makes sense because

515
00:46:44,137 --> 00:46:49,401
Ironheart, the series has been pushed back,
I think a number of times. Right, right. After

516
00:46:49,421 --> 00:46:54,025
seeing this episode though, I'm really looking
forward to the Ironheart series. I hope that

517
00:46:54,485 --> 00:47:00,530
show really portrays Riri as like adaptable
and smart as she was in this episode. I actually

518
00:47:00,550 --> 00:47:05,074
really liked the Ironheart vision hybrid that
she became. That was pretty cool. That was

519
00:47:05,114 --> 00:47:11,017
pretty sweet. I rate episode 5 3.5 stars out
of 5. I thought it was pretty good. Oh, and

520
00:47:11,077 --> 00:47:14,679
I don't think I mentioned my rating for the
last episode too. The Howard the Duck episode,

521
00:47:15,039 --> 00:47:21,362
I gave 3 out of 5. Let's move on to episode
6, which was called What If 1872. It stars

522
00:47:21,442 --> 00:47:28,086
Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, slash Ten Rings. Hailey
Steinfeld gave the voice of Kate Bishop Hawkeye.

523
00:47:28,566 --> 00:47:31,008
Wyatt Russell was in the episode as John Walker.

524
00:47:34,918 --> 00:47:40,262
and Walton Goggins played Sonny Birch. In the
days of the Old West, a group of gunslingers

525
00:47:40,342 --> 00:47:45,807
signal for the legendary fighter, Shang-Chi,
known to them as the Ten Rings for his unique

526
00:47:45,867 --> 00:47:51,212
calling card. Partnered with the crack shot
Kate Bishop, known as Hawkeye, Shang-Chi takes

527
00:47:51,272 --> 00:47:56,396
out the gunslingers. He gets John Walker to
give him the location of the Hood, a mysterious

528
00:47:56,436 --> 00:48:01,420
villain abducting the Chinese immigrants building
the region's rail lines who had taken Shang-Chi's

529
00:48:01,460 --> 00:48:06,973
sister, Sha Ling. Walker's info leads Shang-Chi
and Hawkeye to a town which they find decimated,

530
00:48:07,313 --> 00:48:12,036
with only a young boy named Kui-Jun-Fan left
remaining. The boy tells them the town was

531
00:48:12,056 --> 00:48:17,460
attacked by the Hood, who left on a ghost train.
Shang-Chi, Hawkeye, and Jun-Fan head the train

532
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:22,644
off at the pass, discovering that it hovers
off the ground using stolen Stark tech. They

533
00:48:22,704 --> 00:48:28,128
find the missing railroad workers under a trance,
hypnotized by Sonny Birch, using a special

534
00:48:28,189 --> 00:48:33,892
musical pocket watch. Jun Fan escapes Sunny's
men, but they capture the boy and nearly throw

535
00:48:33,932 --> 00:48:39,076
him off the train, prompting the watcher's interference.
The train arrives at the station where the

536
00:48:39,116 --> 00:48:44,560
hood waits and reveals to be Cha Ling herself,
who is using the cloak's dark power to help

537
00:48:44,620 --> 00:48:49,684
enslave an army to fight for her vision of the
country. She and Shang-Chi battle as Hawkeye

538
00:48:49,704 --> 00:48:54,848
is put under Sunny Birch's trance. Jun Fan rings
the train's bell ten times to snap Hawkeye

539
00:48:54,868 --> 00:48:59,227
and the prisoners out of their trances. and
Shang-Chi decides that fighting his sister

540
00:48:59,427 --> 00:49:04,331
is not the answer. Just as Chao Ling is about
to deliver the killing blow, Hawkeye shoots

541
00:49:04,351 --> 00:49:09,434
and kills her, ending the Hood's threat. Shang-Chi
and Hawkeye watch as the Chinese immigrants

542
00:49:09,494 --> 00:49:14,337
celebrate, listening to Jun-Fan, referred to
as the Iron Fist, re-enact the story of their

543
00:49:14,377 --> 00:49:19,521
adventure. The pair rise off into the sunset
as Uwatu the Watcher is confronted by his peers

544
00:49:19,601 --> 00:49:24,284
for his meddling. They attack him, resulting
in shards breaking from their observational

545
00:49:24,324 --> 00:49:29,619
plane and hurling into the multiverse. I thought
this was a fantastic episode. I really love

546
00:49:29,659 --> 00:49:33,621
how they were able to incorporate characters
like Shang-Chi and Hawkeye in this old west

547
00:49:33,681 --> 00:49:38,744
setting, and even tossing in references to characters
that haven't shown up in the MCU yet, like

548
00:49:38,784 --> 00:49:44,948
the Hood and Iron Fist. And they even fit in
actual history, like the Chinese workers' mistreatment

549
00:49:44,988 --> 00:49:49,851
during the transcontinental railroad construction.
It was just really well done, really well realized

550
00:49:49,891 --> 00:49:55,150
in a way that fit neatly together like a puzzle
piece, it just made sense. I- I completely

551
00:49:55,170 --> 00:49:59,273
disagree. I did not like this episode. It was
one of the most random episodes, I think, of

552
00:49:59,293 --> 00:50:04,117
the entire series so far. And I understand that
the watcher kind of set up that was on the

553
00:50:04,177 --> 00:50:08,581
far reaches of the multiverse, and therefore
it was going to be a little bit more random.

554
00:50:09,061 --> 00:50:14,466
But there are a lot of things I didn't understand,
like the Walt Goggins pocket watch. What the

555
00:50:14,506 --> 00:50:19,811
hell was that about? The iron fist connection.
I didn't actually even make that connection.

556
00:50:20,071 --> 00:50:25,271
I guess that's interesting. Definitely interested
in seeing. Iron Fist make an appearance in

557
00:50:25,331 --> 00:50:31,355
the MCU at some point, hopefully at Shang-Chi's
sequel. But also, like, why Kate Bishop and

558
00:50:31,375 --> 00:50:36,719
Shang-Chi to begin with? Like I didn't understand
the connection there whatsoever. As far as

559
00:50:36,779 --> 00:50:41,863
Hawkeye goes, Hawkeye totally makes sense as
a Western character, plus the story itself

560
00:50:41,923 --> 00:50:48,127
draws a lot of parallels to the film True Grit,
of which Hailey Steinfeld made her debut performance

561
00:50:48,167 --> 00:50:53,026
as an actress. So one, they're playing that
up. casting Kayleigh Steinfeld in this role

562
00:50:53,046 --> 00:50:57,587
and to Hawkeye it just makes sense as an old
west character being a crack shot. I think

563
00:50:57,607 --> 00:51:01,688
it makes a lot of sense that she would pair
up with Shang-Chi. Tossing in Sunny Birch I

564
00:51:01,728 --> 00:51:06,490
think makes a lot of sense considering the actor
Walton Goggins has been in a lot of westerns

565
00:51:06,730 --> 00:51:11,691
and he said that he got his pocket watch from
Russia which I think was a tie-in to the hydra

566
00:51:11,731 --> 00:51:17,172
conditioning using the code words to brainwash
the Winter Soldier but in this case it was

567
00:51:17,432 --> 00:51:23,018
a song that was doing it. They needed something
auditory so that Jun Fan can interrupt it with

568
00:51:23,038 --> 00:51:27,879
the 10 rings of the bell. OK, well, I mean,
some of those explanations are just like meta

569
00:51:28,260 --> 00:51:33,461
rationalities. So I guess these sort of work.
Did it explain where Shang-Chi's sister got

570
00:51:33,501 --> 00:51:38,763
the hood from? Yeah, she got it from a villain
who was already exploiting Chinese workers

571
00:51:38,803 --> 00:51:43,884
at the time. She killed him and took the hood
from him. I don't know. The episode was too

572
00:51:43,964 --> 00:51:49,206
different from the MCU for my liking. Who cares
about that? What do you mean, too different

573
00:51:49,226 --> 00:51:53,508
from the MCU? The show's called fucking What
If. Yeah, but this was more different than

574
00:51:53,609 --> 00:51:58,431
other episodes. No, it wasn't. They just changed
the time period. And in regards to Iron Fist,

575
00:51:58,611 --> 00:52:03,974
now there have been multiple Iron Fists throughout
history in the comic books, dating back centuries.

576
00:52:04,554 --> 00:52:10,077
And there was an Iron Fist that was around in
the mid 19th century named Jun Fan, who actually

577
00:52:10,137 --> 00:52:14,460
traveled to America during the days of the Old
West. That was the character that they were

578
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:18,370
incorporating in this episode. It was a really
nice call out to the comics. He was actually

579
00:52:18,770 --> 00:52:25,453
the Iron Fist before Orson Randall, who eventually
passed his mantle down to Danny Rand. So really,

580
00:52:25,533 --> 00:52:30,515
really cool stuff. For that, I rate the episode
four stars out of five. Episode seven was called,

581
00:52:30,736 --> 00:52:36,038
What If The Watcher Disappeared? It starred
Hailey Atwell as Peggy Carter, Jason Isaacs

582
00:52:36,098 --> 00:52:42,721
as The Eminence, Devri Jacobs as Kihori, Allison
Sealy-Smith as Aurora Monroe, Natasha Lyonne

583
00:52:42,761 --> 00:52:48,403
as Bertie. Karen Gillan as Nebula, Taika Waititi
as Korg, and Ross Marquand as Infinity Ultron.

584
00:52:48,783 --> 00:52:53,904
Following the events of What If Nebula Joined
the Nova Corps from Season 2, the monstrous

585
00:52:53,964 --> 00:52:59,606
Hydra Champion tears into the dimension, threatening
Xandar. Captain Carter and her team of multiversal

586
00:52:59,646 --> 00:53:04,587
guardians including K'Hori, Birdie, and Storm
the Goddess of Thunder arrive on the scene

587
00:53:04,747 --> 00:53:09,028
and by propelling Captain Carter like a bullet
through the monster's head, they defeat it.

588
00:53:09,529 --> 00:53:15,916
After the battle, the group discover the shards
deducing the Watcher is in trouble. They attempt

589
00:53:15,936 --> 00:53:20,799
to get to the 5th dimension to help Uatu, first
using the shard's energies to augment their

590
00:53:20,839 --> 00:53:26,584
ship, then using another shard to augment Storm's
hammer Mjolnir using a spell. Unsure of how

591
00:53:26,604 --> 00:53:31,587
to use their final shard, the team remembers
that Infinity Ultron once breached the barrier

592
00:53:31,627 --> 00:53:36,651
into the 5th dimension so they make a plan to
capture and reprogram him. Knowing the mission

593
00:53:36,671 --> 00:53:41,615
would be too dangerous for her friends, Peggy
journeys alone. and finds Infinity Ultron living

594
00:53:41,675 --> 00:53:46,258
in solitude in the universe he destroyed. The
other Guardians realize Peggy's actions and

595
00:53:46,298 --> 00:53:51,962
go to rescue her, finding only Infinity Ultron
and Peggy's broken shield. Ultron recounts

596
00:53:51,982 --> 00:53:56,665
to them that Peggy was attacked and taken by
one of the Watchers. He tells them that after

597
00:53:56,725 --> 00:54:02,609
spending eons alone in his universe, he's realized
that emptiness is not the same as peace, and

598
00:54:02,629 --> 00:54:07,112
agrees to help the Guardians in their mission
to the fifth dimension. He uses the last shard

599
00:54:07,192 --> 00:54:11,684
to gain fifth dimensional power. and pilots
their ship into the Watcher's observational

600
00:54:11,724 --> 00:54:16,368
plane. I thought this was a pretty decent episode
as a first parter. I thought there was a lot

601
00:54:16,408 --> 00:54:20,311
of good set up here. I thought the action was
pretty top notch, including the battle against

602
00:54:20,391 --> 00:54:25,375
the Hydra champion. I thought it was really
nice revisiting Nebula and Xandar from season

603
00:54:25,415 --> 00:54:30,139
two. And most of all, I thought it was really
cool to see the variant of Storm that was the

604
00:54:30,179 --> 00:54:35,804
goddess of thunder. Voiced by the same actress
that voices Storm in X-Men 97. I liked this

605
00:54:35,824 --> 00:54:40,790
episode. I liked these last two episodes. a
lot, particularly when it came to the action

606
00:54:41,210 --> 00:54:46,712
and just the premise itself. I thought the mythology
of the Watchers, it was really, really interesting.

607
00:54:46,792 --> 00:54:51,893
The most interesting thing to come out of this
entire what if series, all three seasons. That

608
00:54:51,993 --> 00:54:59,295
said, I do wish that they would have had a more
familiar cast of characters to aid the Watcher

609
00:54:59,615 --> 00:55:05,357
in this final battle. Two of them are original.
One of them I thought was kind of cheap and

610
00:55:05,377 --> 00:55:12,359
just turning Storm into a Thor. variant, I don't
think Storm should be a Thor variant. I think

611
00:55:12,379 --> 00:55:19,562
that's kind of a disservice to Storm. Why? Because
she is not Thor, they are separate characters.

612
00:55:20,243 --> 00:55:24,384
I just wish they would have maybe just gone
with Storm. No, I mean, considering that the

613
00:55:24,404 --> 00:55:29,767
characters are both masters of the elements,
I thought it made total sense to have her as

614
00:55:29,787 --> 00:55:33,208
a variant of Thor in this episode. I thought
that was really badass. I didn't think that.

615
00:55:33,228 --> 00:55:37,234
I think a lot of people thought that too. I
know a lot of people who actually questioned

616
00:55:37,274 --> 00:55:42,318
whether Storm was a variant of Thor and to me
that's I don't like that. Whether she's a variant

617
00:55:42,398 --> 00:55:47,421
of Thor or whether she's a variant of herself
I think it works either way. I definitely don't

618
00:55:47,441 --> 00:55:51,484
think it does a disservice to either of the
characters. I do agree that it would have been

619
00:55:51,504 --> 00:55:56,868
cool if the Multiversal Guardians included more
characters from the series past. It was nice

620
00:55:56,888 --> 00:56:01,211
to have Khori back. It was interesting to have
Bertie in the mix here. Like what if they did

621
00:56:01,291 --> 00:56:05,254
really Williams slash Vision like that would
have been cool. That would have been cool.

622
00:56:05,294 --> 00:56:10,275
And also tossing like a novo prime nebula in
there as well. It's almost like a multiversal

623
00:56:10,395 --> 00:56:15,596
a-force in that regard. Yeah, yeah. I really
liked the opening to this episode where they

624
00:56:15,676 --> 00:56:21,538
switched perspectives from Uwatu to the imminence
where he was like, a watcher must never ask

625
00:56:21,938 --> 00:56:27,060
what if, you know, I thought that was pretty
cool. Yeah, the opening to the series, I never

626
00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:31,581
skipped it because I just loved the narration
by Jeffrey Wright. The whole premise that it

627
00:56:31,621 --> 00:56:36,286
sets up about time and space and things like
that. leading up to the whole question of what

628
00:56:36,406 --> 00:56:41,849
if, it's a fantastic setup. And then to twist
it near the end like this, I thought was also

629
00:56:41,909 --> 00:56:47,973
pretty cool. It was very meta in this very enjoyable
way. Did you notice that Peggy's multiversal

630
00:56:48,033 --> 00:56:51,795
ship in this episode looked a lot like King
of the Conqueror ship from Ant-Man and the

631
00:56:51,815 --> 00:56:58,599
Wasp quantumania? No. Oh yeah, like the sphere?
No, it's like a clamshell type thing. I didn't

632
00:56:58,659 --> 00:57:02,761
notice that. That's cool. Yeah, that was a pretty
cool Easter egg. I also really liked Infinity

633
00:57:02,821 --> 00:57:08,807
Ultron's Revelation. toward the end of the episode
that life must exist for peace to exist? Well,

634
00:57:08,827 --> 00:57:15,649
the philosophical ideas posited in this episode
and the next episode I thought were very profound,

635
00:57:16,309 --> 00:57:20,970
probably more profound than they needed to be.
And I definitely was not expecting that from

636
00:57:21,050 --> 00:57:25,411
this series considering we also got some very,
very silly episodes. Oh yeah, the show definitely

637
00:57:25,511 --> 00:57:31,273
veered wildly back and forth between being profound
and being goofy as hell. In all, I give episode

638
00:57:31,313 --> 00:57:35,931
7 3.5 stars out of 5. I thought it was really
good. a great setup. I thought you would have

639
00:57:35,951 --> 00:57:39,934
given it a higher rating than that. I thought
this was like at least a four. It was good,

640
00:57:39,974 --> 00:57:44,358
but it didn't have enough payoff. It all came
in the next episode, which I thought was the

641
00:57:44,398 --> 00:57:50,703
best of the season. That was episode eight titled
What If What If. In a flashback scene, the

642
00:57:50,763 --> 00:57:55,988
Eminence shows Uwatu the multiverse and has
him take the oath, making him a watcher and

643
00:57:56,028 --> 00:58:01,793
instructing him to make only observations, not
judgments. Uwatu wonders what if the Eminence

644
00:58:01,813 --> 00:58:06,981
was wrong about him. but is told that what if
isn't a relevant question. In the present,

645
00:58:07,101 --> 00:58:10,864
Uwatu makes his case to the other Watchers that
his actions were for the betterment of the

646
00:58:10,904 --> 00:58:15,508
multiverse. Captain Carter is brought before
the Watchers as well, convincing Uwatu that

647
00:58:15,588 --> 00:58:20,592
though a Watcher is supposed to be no one, everyone
is someone. Infinity Ultron arrives with the

648
00:58:20,612 --> 00:58:25,556
Guardians and attacks the Watchers, allowing
Peggy and Uwatu to escape. The Watchers destroy

649
00:58:25,576 --> 00:58:30,821
Infinity Ultron as the team plots a course for
Strange Supreme's universe. But they're knocked

650
00:58:30,861 --> 00:58:35,723
from the fifth dimension. onto a barren planet.
Though the Guardians attack the Watchers, their

651
00:58:35,763 --> 00:58:41,926
efforts are useless and the team is nearly killed,
prompting Gawatu to instruct them to take the

652
00:58:41,966 --> 00:58:47,989
Watcher's oath and granting them his powers.
As Watchers, they attack the Eminence, the

653
00:58:48,009 --> 00:58:53,811
Incarnate, and the Executioner in an all-out
battle. In an effort to win, the trio merge

654
00:58:53,931 --> 00:58:55,572
and begin erasing Peggy,

655
00:58:59,266 --> 00:59:04,450
Peggy musters the strength to sacrifice herself,
pushing the Watchers into Strange Supreme's

656
00:59:04,530 --> 00:59:09,794
universe where the Watchers have no power. With
the Eminence defeated, Uatu reveals to him

657
00:59:09,954 --> 00:59:15,419
what he's learned, that what something is, is
not the same as what it means. Mourning Peggy,

658
00:59:15,559 --> 00:59:21,063
Kihori, Birdie, and Storm join the Watcher on
the observational plane to watch over the multiverse.

659
00:59:21,524 --> 00:59:26,348
I loved this episode. I thought it was enjoyable
not only from an action and spectacle perspective

660
00:59:26,368 --> 00:59:32,132
from which it delivered in spades. But I think,
you know, the episode was also philosophically

661
00:59:32,192 --> 00:59:37,616
profound. There were some deep lessons and real
heroic struggles going on. I'm really curious

662
00:59:37,696 --> 00:59:45,442
as to how the mythology of the Watchers matches
what's in the comics. It's a little bit different.

663
00:59:45,582 --> 00:59:50,185
Like, Iwatu doesn't watch from the observational
plane. He watches from the blue area of the

664
00:59:50,225 --> 00:59:54,629
moon. So they play a little bit looser with
the mythology of the Watchers overall. But

665
00:59:54,649 --> 01:00:00,009
the essence is there. And also, like, I've never
seen a Watcher throw down like the Watchers

666
01:00:00,049 --> 01:00:07,116
threw down in this episode. Holy shit, man.
They were badass. Dude, so this battle between

667
01:00:07,136 --> 01:00:13,862
the Watchers and the Guardians of the Multiverse
may just be the most epic battle to ever happen

668
01:00:13,962 --> 01:00:19,226
in any on-screen superhero project ever. It
would be up there, for sure. Absolutely. Just

669
01:00:19,246 --> 01:00:24,878
in terms of epicness? Yeah, you might be right.
I mean, but the What If series has always had

670
01:00:24,998 --> 01:00:29,900
epic action. You take a look at the Guardians
of the Multiverse against Infinity Ultron from

671
01:00:29,940 --> 01:00:35,142
the first season. And then you have Khori and
Captain Carter against Strange Supreme in the

672
01:00:35,182 --> 01:00:39,644
second season where they were using all of those
cool universe destroying artifacts against

673
01:00:39,684 --> 01:00:45,167
him and stuff. But yeah, I think this episode
was the best of the lot. and just kind of melted

674
01:00:45,187 --> 01:00:49,470
my face from all the awesomeness that it had
to show. Like even towards the end, how cool

675
01:00:49,490 --> 01:00:54,454
the watchers were and how they were able to
manipulate space, time and everything like

676
01:00:54,474 --> 01:00:59,038
that. The way they played with physics in this
episode I thought was really cool. It was really

677
01:00:59,098 --> 01:01:04,423
fascinating when they joined back to back to
back and became like one being spinning around

678
01:01:04,483 --> 01:01:11,689
almost like the living tribunal. It was really
abstract in concept and so interestingly rendered

679
01:01:11,829 --> 01:01:16,640
on the screen. Oh man, and the stakes. Holy
cow, like erasing them from every multiverse.

680
01:01:16,981 --> 01:01:21,604
That was wild. And yeah, the final battle, the
fact that they cracked a planet in half. I

681
01:01:21,624 --> 01:01:25,727
was just watching this and I was just like taking
notes for like a future duel episode because

682
01:01:25,827 --> 01:01:31,031
it's just how cool it was. Yeah, I felt like
we were put to shame in terms of how cosmic

683
01:01:31,111 --> 01:01:37,075
level fights go. Oh yeah. Right, because we've
speculated on duels between cosmic level characters

684
01:01:37,695 --> 01:01:41,590
and I don't think they've been nearly as interesting
as what we saw on the screen here. Absolutely

685
01:01:41,630 --> 01:01:47,754
not. Like I could only aspire to get as awesome
as this final battle was in our Duel speculations

686
01:01:47,774 --> 01:01:52,558
We got a separate game up. I have to ask why
are there multiple watchers? Like if there's

687
01:01:52,618 --> 01:01:58,582
only one multiverse in the comic books who watch
who looks over earth 616 So they just never

688
01:01:58,622 --> 01:02:03,425
explained that in this show No, the function
is a little bit different of the watchers here

689
01:02:03,925 --> 01:02:08,869
I'm assuming that they have a whole lot of watchers
looking after a whole lot of different parts

690
01:02:08,889 --> 01:02:13,792
of the multiverse I found it interesting that
the other two Watchers also had titles. I knew

691
01:02:13,932 --> 01:02:18,434
that there was the Eminence, but I didn't know
that there was also the Executioner and what

692
01:02:18,474 --> 01:02:24,517
else? The Incarnate. That's weird. I can't off
the top of my head think about the significance

693
01:02:24,597 --> 01:02:29,940
of those three names for those characters. Well
in the books, I believe the Watcher that everyone

694
01:02:29,980 --> 01:02:34,903
else reports to is just simply known as the
One, and they kind of like deposit all their

695
01:02:34,923 --> 01:02:40,978
knowledge there. But I like the names of the
Eminence, the Executioner, and incarnate. I

696
01:02:40,998 --> 01:02:46,499
think it makes them sound pretty badass. It's
almost like one is a creator, one is a preserver,

697
01:02:46,859 --> 01:02:51,921
and one is a destroyer. Kind of like Hindu mythology.
That's pretty cool. Yeah. But essentially,

698
01:02:52,401 --> 01:02:59,523
they almost played like God. And the philosophical
questions in this episode almost border on

699
01:02:59,543 --> 01:03:05,124
the theological because it's essentially asking,
well, why does God allow bad things to happen?

700
01:03:05,324 --> 01:03:10,718
And in that regard, Uatu is almost like a Lucifer
type character. where he's rebelling against

701
01:03:10,818 --> 01:03:14,199
the higher order. Yeah, you're right. I didn't
even really think about that. That's pretty

702
01:03:14,219 --> 01:03:20,481
interesting. The concepts of like to preserve
something when only needs to observe it, that

703
01:03:20,501 --> 01:03:24,842
was fascinating. There was a statement posited
by one of the watchers that to essentially

704
01:03:25,102 --> 01:03:30,984
be able to see something from all sides, you
cannot have a side. And Watu's response was,

705
01:03:31,044 --> 01:03:36,245
but things have changed. I didn't think there
was a good answer at all. I don't understand

706
01:03:36,405 --> 01:03:40,909
like. What changed? I didn't think they explained
that well enough. No, they definitely could

707
01:03:40,929 --> 01:03:45,772
have dedicated, you know, an entire season toward
the philosophical questions that were raised

708
01:03:45,812 --> 01:03:50,936
during this episode, I think, and really get
into Uatu's mindset of why he chose to do the

709
01:03:50,956 --> 01:03:55,559
things that he did. Besides the fact that, you
know, everyone is special and injustices need

710
01:03:55,579 --> 01:04:00,082
to be righted. But I think for the purposes
of this episode, that was enough explanation

711
01:04:00,122 --> 01:04:05,282
for me. I still think I'm on the side of the
eminence and his buddies. because I don't think

712
01:04:05,382 --> 01:04:10,604
Watu put up a good enough debate, but no, yeah,
it was still a fantastic episode, just for

713
01:04:10,644 --> 01:04:14,966
going harder on the philosophy than it needed
to. Yeah, I gotta say I'm on the side of Watu.

714
01:04:16,026 --> 01:04:20,448
I think injustices need to be righted, and I
think if you don't think that, then you're

715
01:04:20,468 --> 01:04:26,111
not a very good superhero candidate, Jonathan.
No, I think that sometimes you do just need

716
01:04:26,131 --> 01:04:30,893
to observe things, that not all injustices can
be righted, and not everything that you see

717
01:04:30,933 --> 01:04:35,739
as an injustice is an injustice. because if
you look down the line, maybe it all turns

718
01:04:35,819 --> 01:04:41,461
out for the better in the end anyway. Maybe
if you look at the very end of things, things

719
01:04:41,561 --> 01:04:46,483
are good. You know, we can't always see the
consequences of correcting certain things that

720
01:04:46,503 --> 01:04:52,026
you feel like you need to be corrected. Superheroes
are guilty sometimes of playing God, and I

721
01:04:52,066 --> 01:04:57,568
think it's hard to know where that line is before
you cross it. Uatu, you know, definitely has

722
01:04:57,588 --> 01:05:01,962
the eyes of a watcher, so you can kind of see
everything. So maybe he did know. But I don't

723
01:05:01,982 --> 01:05:06,105
understand then why he was disagreeing with
people who also had his power. Because they

724
01:05:06,125 --> 01:05:11,128
weren't looking closely like he was probably.
I don't know, they explore these ideas, I remember

725
01:05:11,248 --> 01:05:16,872
in the Captain Marvel comic book series back
when Genisvel, who is the son of Marvel, was

726
01:05:17,052 --> 01:05:23,717
in the role. And he gained cosmic awareness
and he basically was driven insane by questions

727
01:05:23,737 --> 01:05:28,480
like these. Whether or not to save one person
or whether or not to save a whole planet of

728
01:05:28,520 --> 01:05:34,094
people. And the effects. that resulted from
his actions and he could see everything and

729
01:05:34,375 --> 01:05:39,276
he ended up destroying the entire universe and
then recreating it basically. It was a really

730
01:05:39,316 --> 01:05:44,437
interesting read but I don't want to drive myself
crazy thinking about some of these answers.

731
01:05:45,057 --> 01:05:48,938
One of the coolest things I thought about this
episode was at the very end when the Watchers

732
01:05:48,978 --> 01:05:53,420
kind of like signing off, we got to see multiversal
variants of characters like Riri Williams as

733
01:05:53,460 --> 01:06:01,522
the Punisher, he had like Thanos as Wolverine,
a Samurai Ghost That was all really cool to

734
01:06:01,562 --> 01:06:06,124
see. It makes me want the show to go on forever.
Yeah, I would have loved to have seen some

735
01:06:06,144 --> 01:06:11,426
of those episodes rather than some of the episodes
we got in this season. Absolutely. But that's

736
01:06:11,446 --> 01:06:17,148
the end of the show overall. The episodes in
this season were pretty typical of the series

737
01:06:17,188 --> 01:06:20,590
as a whole in that they were hit or miss. There
were some episodes that I really didn't like

738
01:06:20,630 --> 01:06:24,852
this season. There were some episodes that I
absolutely loved. And I think when the show

739
01:06:24,892 --> 01:06:30,302
is doing well, it's really playing up to its
potential. And when it's not. it's really squandering

740
01:06:30,322 --> 01:06:34,404
that potential. And yeah, though I'd say the
show did squander its own potential somewhat

741
01:06:34,444 --> 01:06:39,126
here in this season due to its hit or miss nature,
I think it ends with a bang, not a whimper,

742
01:06:39,286 --> 01:06:43,948
due to its spectacular action and meaningful
themes. I'm gonna give this season three and

743
01:06:43,968 --> 01:06:50,671
a half stars, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Again, I liked five out of the eight episodes

744
01:06:50,711 --> 01:06:54,272
here. Overall, I still think season two was
the best. Yeah, I think season two had the

745
01:06:54,332 --> 01:06:59,435
best questions, but like I said earlier, I also
think that the best episodes of the series

746
01:06:59,455 --> 01:07:05,379
as a whole were the final two of season three,
but I get it. I'd be interested in hearing

747
01:07:05,419 --> 01:07:10,202
what the listeners think, so be sure to reach
out to us guys on Discord if you're a patron,

748
01:07:10,683 --> 01:07:17,494
or on Instagram. But that does it for this review.
AJ9K helped close us out. Thanks for listening

749
01:07:17,514 --> 01:07:23,075
to Dynamic Duel. Visit the show's website at
dynamicDuel.com and follow us on Instagram

750
01:07:23,135 --> 01:07:29,017
at dynamicDuelpodcast. You can support the show
on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicDuel

751
01:07:29,137 --> 01:07:33,358
and joining a tier that works for you, or by
rating and reviewing Dynamic Duel on Apple

752
01:07:33,378 --> 01:07:39,000
Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website.
Don't forget to listen to the other shows in

753
01:07:39,020 --> 01:07:44,541
the DynaMic Podcast Network, including Max
Destruction, Senjoh World and Console Combat.

754
01:07:46,218 --> 01:07:52,840
In our next episode, as a tie into this review,
we will be doing a duel between the monitor

755
01:07:53,200 --> 01:07:58,103
and the watcher. Yeah, I didn't know how we
were going to do this duel with the watcher

756
01:07:58,263 --> 01:08:02,584
prior to seeing the final episode of What If
Season 3, but now I'm totally game for it.

757
01:08:02,844 --> 01:08:07,546
It's going to be fucking epic as hell, hopefully.
So look forward to that next week. That does

758
01:08:07,566 --> 01:08:12,549
it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks
to our executive producers, Ken Johnson, John

759
01:08:12,569 --> 01:08:14,669
Strosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom.

760
01:08:36,039 --> 01:08:40,420
If everyone is someone, then someone is everyone.
But if no one is everyone, and no one is also

761
01:08:40,561 --> 01:08:43,821
no one, then someone is also no one, therefore
your mama.