Part of the Journey is the End
is a series of watch-it fanfics set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The characters of the MCU are brought together in some kind of movie theater with only a single note to explain what's going on:
Thanos is coming. You need to join forces with yourselves and new allies.
With that the various heroes are given an insight into what could have been their lives without this intervention.
This work provides examples of:
- Adaptation Origin Connection:
- Peter has some history with the Tracksuit Mafia and mentions they bought some of Vulture's weapons. The gang were not shown to have any connection to Spider-Man or Vulture in the MCU.
- The USO girl Steve lost his virginity to is revealed to be Quill's grandmother, much to both of their mortification. This had been teased, but ultimately debunked by James Gunn.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Kate develops a crush on America here, leaving her as either bisexual or lesbian.
- Adapted Out: The stories cover Phases 3 and 4 of the MCU starting with Infinity War but the events of Captain Marvel and Black Widow aren't covered. The author has also confirmed they won't be covering Secret Invasion (2023) or the second season of What If?.
- Alternate Self: Technically, all of the characters who are watching are this as the viewings have caused them to branch from the canon of Earth-616. They decide to declare their home reality as "727" as a result.
- During with great power, there must also come great responsibility, Alternate versions of Peter 2 and Peter 3 are brought in to provide context about the villains and to help support and guide Peter 1.
- Big Good: Uatu the Watcher is the one responsible for bringing everyone together so they can avert the damage that Thanos and Kang will cause.
- Big Bad: Thanos is the looming threat whilst Kang is the greater scope villain the "727" Avengers need to eventually fight.
- Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: Played with. The heroes try not to judge their friends by what their variants have done but it's clear that some hard feelings show up when something especially heinous happens, such as Wanda's variant attacking Kamar-Taj and the Illuminati or Ikaris killing Ajak to hide knowledge of the Emergence.
- Everyone Has Standards: Steve tries to give John Walker a fair chance as Captain America at first, acknowledging that he isn't an inherently bad person and means well. However, even Steve eventually gets fed up with Walker's ignorance and Leeroy Jenkins tendencies, and comes to agree with everyone else that he's not worthy of the shield.
- Internal Reveal: As in canon, Peter Quill learns that Mantis is his half-sister when Mantis and Drax already knew about the relationship.
- "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot
- Like a Son to Me: Several of the older heroes start feeling this way to the younger ones. Specifically:
- Tony felt like this in canon towards Peter but Strange also comes to feel the same way.
- Clint feels like this towards Kate after seeing their adventures together.
- Strange starts to feel this way towards America after seeing how they would have bonded.
- Not So Above It All: In night monkey, Steve is initially bemused by Tony, Wanda, and Natasha's assertion that they don't like Brad Davis for getting in between Peter and MJ. When Brad tries to discredit Peter with an out-of-context photo though, Steve quickly agrees that he is an asshole.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Several of the heroes don't think too highly of their multiversal variant selves, largely because of seeing first-hand how those variants have screwed things up.
- Subverted with Peter, who likes Peter-Two and Peter-Three, and Thor who likes Party Thor.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: When watching the events of "What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?", seeing the circumstances of Natasha's death prompts Sam to recall his fight with Scott, which leads him to suspect that Scott's counterpart is the one killing the would-be Avengers in this reality. He was wrong about the identity of the one responsible, but he was right that the killer was someone using Pym particles, and his ignorance can be excused as Sam has never met Hank Pym at this time.
- Screw Destiny: According to Uatu, the Kang variants were supposed to lose against the heroes of Earth-616, but somehow wound up winning instead.
- Tempting Fate: After learning about He Who Remains' conquerer variant, Scott fervently hopes he'll never have to meet him.
- Wham Line: The final chapter of pizza balls has one that completely shakes up the meaning behind these viewings.America: Earth-616 has been destroyed. I'm the only survivor.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When the Avengers and the Guardians learn the true purpose of the Eternals and the Celestials, they all express contempt at the idea that a planet must die for a Celestial to be born.
