YMMV / What If…? S1E9 "What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Prince Killmonger's offer to the Guardians a genuine attempt to reach out or just Killmonger setting them up for futher betrayal? On the one hand, that he makes the offer at all instead of attacking them or leaving implies that he actually wants them on his side, and the fact he specifically points out the unfairness of not getting to change their universes could imply the former, alongside him essentially offering the Guardians a chance to fix their greatest mistakes. At the same time, this Killmonger is shown to be a highly skilled Manipulative Bastard, and it could be interpreted that he specifically picks up on their regrets to make the offer more tempting. The reason he makes the offer could also be simple Pragmatic Villainy, as the Guardians just defeated a cosmic-powered Ultron and Killmonger might Know When to Fold 'Em against those odds, and go straight to talking rather than trying to fight. It also depends on whether you believe Prince Killmonger is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, or a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist who can just hide it better than his canon counterpart.
  • A more humourous interpretation of why Uatu chose not to recruit the Tony Stark from Gamora's universe was his way of throwing Tony a bone given his recent streak of getting killed throughout the series.
• Ass Pull: King Loki somehow getting the chitauri sceptre containing the Mind Stone. Similar to the previous episode with Thanos and the Infinity Stones, this goes against the continuity established since this Loki would not have met Thanos and acquired from him the sceptre. This instead feels like a contrived way for Black Widow to defeat him by using the mind stone against him.
• Badass Decay: The third episode's Loki who had previously curb-stomped the Yellowjacket is easily put down thanks to a sneak attack from Black Widow and having his own staff used on him.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After killing T'Challa, Rhodey, and Tony in his universe, and starting a war between Wakanda and America without receiving any consequences, seeing Killmonger trapped in a mirror dimension with Zola-Vision and the Infinity Stones can be pretty satisfying.
  • The closing montage shows T'Challa and Peter Quill fighting side by side against Ego with the implication that Peter will likely get to join the Ravagers after all.
  • After seeing Ultron devastate his entire universe, killing everyone, it's immensely satisfying to see him finally be beaten down and ultimately killed.
  • Seeing the zombies torched can be really gratifying after sitting through a bleak apocalypse of them where the heroes seemed doomed to fail. The implication that Strange might've sent all of them to the chopping block can be even more so.
  • Not a villain per say, but seeing Strange Supreme get redemption is satisfying after how his story ended. Doubly so that he's not only on good terms with the Watcher now, but used the horrific powers that doomed his own universe to save countless others.
  • While where he gets it is an ass-pull, seeing Loki subjected to the mind control of the chitauri sceptre is still quite satisfying after all the trouble his Sacred Timeline counterpart caused with it.
• Complete Monster: Infinity Ultron is a much viler variant of Ultron who successfully managed to upload himself into Vision's body. Deciding "peace" means the eradication of all life, Ultron wipes out all of humanity with a nuclear apocalypse. Ultron then kills Thanos, loots the Infinity Stones from his body, and uses their reality-warping power to systematically annihilate all other life in the universe. After finishing that goal, Ultron recognizes the existence of the Multiverse itself and, armed with the Infinity Stones, attempts to completely purge every single universe of life.
• Inferred Holocaust: Given that Ultron was left with seemingly free reign over the multiverse in the last episode, having domain over Uatu's intra-universal realm, and Uatu tells the Guardians at the beginning that their worlds are either "under attack by Ultron or soon will be," implying that Ultron has already recommenced his genocide across the multiverse, it seems implied that there's an undefined number of people in other universes facing genocide offscreen throughout the episode. However, we only ever see Ultron invade Thor's universe, and that seems to have been taken care of pretty handily by the end of the episode.
• Les Yay: Natasha's flirtatious dialogue toward Steve Rogers in The Winter Soldier is barely changed when speaking to Peggy, giving them the same Will They or Won't They? air. Peggy even tells another universe's Natasha that her Nat considers Peggy one of the only three people she fully trusts, which is enough to make the other Nat trust Peggy entirely as well. There's also all the glances they give each other. In addition, Agent Carter classifies Peggy as "not a hugger" and the first thing Captain Carter does upon returning to her universe is grab Natasha in a bear hug.
• Memetic Mutation: Finally, Tony Stark has a happy ending!^note During the recruitment process, Tony Stark is shown to be alive and well but doesn't get chosen by the Watcher. However, fans are happy that at least he is still alive there; every other variant of him in the series died prematurely otherwise.
• Spoiled by the Format: The Guardians of the Multiverse have managed to get the Infinity Crusher working and use it to destroy the Stones… and we're only halfway through the episode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • A Gamora who managed to overthrow Thanos and defeat him, and having allied with her universe's Tony Stark could've had her own episode...and would have, if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't delayed production and forced the episode to be pushed to Season 2. As a result, this Gamora is unfortunately given a lot less screentime than the other heroes.
  • That universe's Tony Stark is so far the only one of his variants featured in the series to be alive and healthy, yet Uatu specifically forbids him from helping against Ultron. It would have been interesting to see Ultron once again meet his literal creator and for this Stark to see where his "put a suit of armor around the world / galaxy" philosophy would get him. But considering the infamous streak of him being killed…
  • Given that he preemptively killed off the T'Challa of his universe, many were hoping that Killmonger would get more interactions with the Star Lord T'Challa. They really don't get much focus before Killmonger's betrayal.
  • Ego's return consists of little more than a small moment where he tries to absorb Peter's powers before being blown up by T'Challa. While this underuse is likely the consequence of tragic circumstances,^note "What If… T'Challa Became a Star-Lord" was designed to be a Poorly Disguised Pilot for a standalone show about Star-Lord T'Challa, which most likely resolved this story arc in a more long-form manner it is still a shame that he didn't get more screentime, especially with Kurt Russell himself voicing him.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Captain Carter being put through the exact same events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier instead of more original adventures before she gets recruited in the Guardians of the Multiverse (at least at the beginning, what she finds on the ship hints at something playing out differently at least). Her first episode already suffered from this as a beat-for-beat retread of Captain America: The First Avenger.
  • Zombie Hunter Spider-Man is the only main character from the season to not be part of the Guardians of the Multiverse or even appear. Then again, given the nature of his episode's ending, there could be a good reason for this.
  • Although the title revolves around Uatu breaking his oath, the episode doesn't bother with explaining why breaking his oath is such a big deal, why keeping his oath is such a big deal, or show any repercussions for breaking it.
  • The episode has very little time to explore the interactions between the Guardians of the Multiverse and how they come from drastically different worlds, outside of T'Challa knowing Killmonger as his cousin in his world (and Killmonger being predictably dismissive) and Strange Supreme telling Captain Carter about Captain America in his universe. In the same vein, since none of the heroes but Black Widow and Dr. Strange know who Ultron is (since they either predate his existence or live in a universe where he was never created), there is a lack of an emotional connection to the final battle.
  • Killmonger's episode ends building up to an eventual conflict where Shuri and Pepper team up to expose Killmonger, which would have made an episode on its own. But this episode skips straight to the final conflict where Killmonger is about to be taken down for his crimes had he not been recruited by Uatu. His ultimate fate also means that we likely won't see the after-effects of his universe.
  • The world in which Loki is King could have spawned a potential sequel episode in which Nick Fury has to gather several heroes to defeat him, but instead that happens off-screen, and Loki is defeated in an anti-climactic way by Black Widow.

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