Ryan Shoots First: What If… Thor Were an Only Child? (S1 Ep7)

This week’s episode of What If…? felt like a palate cleanser after the last few weeks have seen entire universes erased or destroyed. That being said, the final few moments of the episode definitely raised the stakes and set up what I believe is the finale of the season. 

The story revolved around if Odin instead of adopting Loki and raising him as an Asgardian instead returned him to his people as a peace offering. This of course changed Thor’s upbringing making him much more immature and selfish. This then results in a funny and easter egg filled episode on Midgard. The episode was very lite and high on commedu and sight gags as literal Gods treat earth like the rich kids house who is having a party when his parents are out of town. Still we get some very cool moments when the action is there as the animation really shines when particle effects and explosions are on screen. The voice cast again was on point this week from both returning and fill in characters. 

SPOILER ZONE!!

Of course the big moment this week was Darci and Howard the Duck FINALLY tying the note after this “Will they, Won’t they” but beyond that Ultron showing up at the end is huge for multiple reasons. 1 having Vision’s body implies that he achieved his goal in Age of Ultron of that being his final form. Now he also has all of the Infinity Stones to top it off. But the biggest reveal was how this moment caught even the Watcher off guard. Now in the comics the inside joke is that the Watcher gets involved all the time in our fate despite saying he won’t. This change and him not even seeing it coming tells me he is about to step in and will unite a bunch of the heroes we have seen over the series for a new team to take on this threat from Ultron. Some of this has been given away in shots that showed characters together but that will be the Watchers kick in the pants to intervene now that Ultron has messed up the flow of things anyway crossing dimensions. 

Beyond that I really enjoyed the Thor/Captain Marvel fight, the effects of beams and lightning especially that shot in the clouds was very cool. I also loved the misdirect of this being a mellow laid back episode setting up the ending to throw you off even more. Look forward to seeing more of Ultron. 

Observations

• More Darcy is always a good thing.
• Bleached brow Thor is back!
• Lots of cameos in this episode… How would the Grandmaster even find out about this?
• Uhhh, ok I now care about nothing else in this episode but this marriage.
• Just so we’re clear without Loki… Thor would destroy the universe with the power of Partying…
• The fact that Loki will never know how integral he was to the universe is soooo Loki. 
• This episode has been kinda goofy but the Marvel Thor fight was pretty cool. 
• This must have been the cool down episode before something really tragic happens next week. 
• Oh never mind we ain’t waiting. 
• Damn… Infinity Stone, Vision Ultron… That’s a formidable foe. Cool that it caught the Watcher off guard too.