The divergence is that this Stephen and Christine had a pretty good relationship. That’s obvious. This Stephen isn’t the same one from the movie. He wasn’t the self centered dick from the movie because it’s a completely different universe.

What If? was setup by Loki and that was always the plan. There really can’t be a What If? without the branching universe end of the Loki series. The “absolute point” also thing has some precedent (not that Marvel has been super-consistent about time travel.) Strange wasn’t branching new timelines every time he tried…

I’m rapidly moving into the “AV Club reviews are tedious bloviating” camp. I find it amusing that they give a B rating to an episode with the words “Failed Spectacularly” in the headline. Unless, of course, that’s just click bait. Although, the text of the article would seem to judge the episode more harshly than the…

I don’t think that Stephen Strange would care that much if Christine died, not at that point. He was a self centered dick, it wouldn’t make him seek out ways to prevent her from dying. This would have made more sense if it was “What If... Stephen Strange was nicer?”

Don’t cut yourself with that edge, my dude.

I gotta say, out of all these What If episodes so far, animated Stephen Strange really, *really* looks like Benedict Cumberbatch more than any character has looked like their movie counterparts. Not that they’re doing a bad job in the other episodes, they just really nailed his look here.

Here’s the thing: Sam’s not good at this.

I also thought the facial animation acting was pretty good.

Spending centuries trying to get back someone he lost?

The original What If series usually had terrible endings - kind of the entire point of the series (sometimes) was to say, “No, really, the good guys always winning is kind of the best way these things go.”

I can see that from your POV, but gonna take a guess that for kids, mainstream audiences and such, and no knowledge of the What If comics, this may have been slightly shocking.

Someone at Marvel HQ was real excited to see they had an opportunity to recycle their tentacle monster model from the Cpt. Carter episode.

Yeah the fight was very disappointing. The fight between Thanos and Dr Strang in Infinity War was my favorite fight. It was such an imaginative, end of your seat fight. Here, it’s just laser beams, fireballs and then a fist fight. A fist fight between two of the most powerful sorcerers in the the world? Ugh,…

This was probably the first What If episode I actually liked. I felt the first two episodes were too rigid, too confined by Disney/Marvel’s PG-13 standards, failing to push beyond the boundaries of conventional storytelling (either gender-swapping or simply role-switching established characters). Considering that…

Another strong entry. The animation stays great, with solid voice acting and much-improved writing, like last week. The show is definitely picking up steam with each entry.

My favorite episode so far. I also think the concepts will be used in future episodes and future live-action shows and movies.

The Ancient One happened. At this point, drawing an elderly Asian man and casting Keone Young to replay the events of the first movie would just add more confusion. Better to introduce a…

That was my thought, too — Cumberbatch got to play more actual emotions for Strange here (on both sides) than he has in his live-action work with the character to date.

She is in the sequel. It’ll be interesting to see how well she’s used this time around.

This was the best episode so far, and I’m impressed with how much pathos Benny C imbued in his character(s), still spotty American accent be damned.

They did a better job with the Christine/Strange relationship than in the movie. I hope she’s in the sequel.