YMMV / What If…? S1E7 "What If… Thor Were an Only Child?"

• Accidental Innuendo: Thor tells three Skrulls to do him when he wants them to turn their faces into his. The first Skrull he asks seems to notice this and raises an eyebrow before transforming his face.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • A lot of how much you sympathize with Thor in this episode vs. thinking his Comically Serious antagonists in S.H.I.E.L.D. have a point depends on whether you believe him that his previous incident that destroyed Alpha Icarus wasn't really his fault and didn't actually result in any casualties.
  • Whether or not Frigga actually believed Thor about being on an educational trip before Mjolnir blew his cover. Her tone when she thanks Carol for "educating" Thor (particularly her emphasis on that word) and her relatively subdued reaction to seeing Mjolnir covered in graffiti suggest that she was aware of what Thor was up to, but was pleased that he finally took responsibility for cleaning up after himself.
• Character Rerailment: Maria Hill's characterization here is more in line with her Inspector Javert tendencies in the comics, even going so far as to try and use nukes against what amounts to fratboy hijinks on a global scale.
• Comedy Ghetto: Likely at play with audience reception on the episode—especially considering a bulk of the series so far tended to be on the side of Cosmic Horror or grittier storylines. IMDB's ratings of What If…? (2021) currently put it at the bottom at 6.6.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Thor's party overtakes the entire planet Earth and involves every face in the cosmic side of the MCU. What does a week-long global party look like for Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, or anyone else active around the time of the first Thor movie whom we didn't see?
  • While not the first time humans and S.H.I.E.L.D. have dealt with aliens on Earth, this is the first time (in this timeline, anyway) that humanity as a whole encountered aliens on such a massive scale. In the Sacred Timeline, humanity's first big unmasquing — The Chitauri Invasion of New York in 2012 — was a traumatizing event that led to massive distrust in aliens and Differently Powered Individuals in the franchise's world. How would "first contact" being a relatively harmless rave hosted by the Norse God of Thunder affect humanity?
• Harsher in Hindsight: After Maria Hill calls off S.H.I.E.L.D's assault on Thor, Brock Rumlow childishly pouts about how S.H.I.E.L.D never gets to fire nukes. Fast-forward to the very next episode, and all of the world's nukes are fired…by Ultron, who uses them to obliterate all of humanity.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many people tuned in just to see Thor and Captain Marvel, widely considered the two most physically powerful heroes in the MCU, duke it out.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Despite the episode revolving around a chaotic party being thrown on Earth, Tony Stark, one of the most avid partiers in the MCU, is completely absent.
• Spiritual Adaptation: The plot has similarities to Life, the Universe and Everything which has Thor (as in, the god, not the superhero) attending a party that's wrecked an entire planet.

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