What If What If... The Other Half Got Snapped?

[metaphysician]

This is not how I interpreted what they said in Guardians 2. Peter Quill didn't actually lose anything in and of himself. He's still the same person with the same genetics and part-Celestial heritage as before. What changed is that Ego wasn't around anymore, and thus no more reserve of cosmic energy from Ego that Peter could contest for control. Basically, he's a pyrokinetic who can't make fire, and who now doesn't have a fire around either. Only replace "fire" with "cosmic energy that is much, much, much harder to find or create".

Implications for Gauntlet usage? IMO, not much. We already have precedent from Guardians 1 that Peter's weird heritage provides *some* advantage when handling an Infinity Stone, but only to a certain degree. Given that wielding the Power Stone via the Gauntlet was casual and effortless for Thanos, while doing the Snap inflicted severe injury? I think its safe to say that the Snap is orders of magnitude more injurious, which means even with Peter's genetic advantage, he's probably in the same situation as Tony Stark- he can do it and still be alive afterwards, but only briefly and with mortal injuries. You need to be at least Hulk-tough to use it and still be functional afterwards.

 

[TheVileOne]

Personally, not a fan of the Ego backstory for Star-Lord. I prefer his dad being J'Son of Spartax.

 

[Weather Witch]

Really interesting idea, but not sure if they could pull it off in the current format.

 

[Drizzle]

I still think this would be a great concept for What If? but they'd have to make the plot different enough from Endgame (as in not a retread like Captain Carter was for TFA) and it would definitely have to be at least a double length episode. 25-30 minutes wouldn't cut it. They could still have the same basic ideas like going through time to get the stones (since Hank will be alive this could happen although they wouldn't crack time travel in the same way that Scott discovered), having someone like Carol snap everyone back into existence, but the only catch is they still have to fail in the end since the only outcome where Thanos lost happened in Endgame, as per Doctor Strange.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

since Fury wouldn't have been snapped this time around, he'd remember that he had one of the stone's in his office (in Goose) back in the 90's...
would be cool to see them have to go back an try to break into S.H.I.E.L.D head quarters

 

[Drizzle]

since Fury wouldn't have been snapped this time around, he'd remember that he had one of the stone's in his office (in Goose) back in the 90's...
would be cool to see them have to go back an try to break into S.H.I.E.L.D head quarters

That could work.

Space Stone/Tesseract - Fury goes back to get it from SHIELD
Reality Stone/Aether - The Guardians go back to get it from the Collector since without Thor, they wouldn't know about when it was on Asgard
Power Stone/Orb - The Guardians could get it from Xandar right before Thanos does, but he catches them in the act and follows them through time similar to Endgame
Time Stone/Necklace - Strange could just go back to the Sanctum to get it at an earlier time
Mind Stone/Scepter - Wanda could go back to get it from the Hydra base since she had the most experience with it. She could also be reunited with Pietro during this similar to Tony w/ his dad or Thor w/ Frigga in Endgame
Soul Stone - I'm stumped for this one considering Gamora and Nebula were the ones who knew about Vormir and they'd still both be dead. I don't know how they'd figure that one out. Maybe through Carol? Even then, who makes the sacrifice? Maybe a rebuilt Vision sacrifices himself after going there with Wanda? Her basically resurrecting him in WandaVision could be expedited if she didn't die in the snap.

As for how everyone joins the battle after coming back this time, Thor could transport everyone there using his bifrost summoning powers.

As for how they lose? Here's my idea...

Some of the Avengers struggle a lot more in the battle, especially Tony and Bruce since Tony's armor wouldn't be as advanced as it was at the end of Endgame and Bruce would still have issues with the Hulk like he did all through Infinity War. It'd mostly be Carol, Thor and Strange doing a lot of the legwork. Carol would be a bit weakened from the snap bringing everyone back so she wouldn't be as strong as she was in Endgame but still powerful enough to defeat Thanos with the assistance of Thor. Once she's finally ready to deal the killing blow, a portal opens up in front of her. Much to everyone's shock, it's the original Thanos complete with all six stones, back after being dusted in his own snap since he'd be included in the 50% with Tony, Steve, etc. considering the victims were chosen at random. He came back when Carol willed everyone back into existence. Why would she make such a lapse in judgement? Because Thanos still teleported to his garden after the snap and he faded to dust there, meaning no one would know if he was alive or dead. The gauntlet and stones didn't disappear with him, but since no one would know the location of the garden with Nebula dead, they'd remain there until he rematerialized.

With a smile, he says to the Avengers, "I am...inevitable." Before they have a chance to react....

*SNAP*

Everyone dies. This is the darkest timeline.

 

[NHawk19]

Dr. Strange only saw 1 solution to a win based on 14 million realities and that was prior to him being dusted.

Did he just not look at options where he would survive? Or did he stop looking to soon?

 

[Dark Raven]

When Strange and Wong brought back all these heroes to fight Thanos at the end of Endgame, why didn't they bring back the X-Men from the Fox Universe, the FF (both the Story and Trank versions), Silver Surfer and Maguire and Garfield Spideys? And Strange could've also recruited some other Iron Men from the multiverse.

And Iron Man could really have used an Iron Legion (like in Iron Man 3) to fight Thanos and his minions.

And really, they could've gotten some villains like Abomination, Doc Ock or even Dr Doom.

 

[Bren]

Dr. Strange only saw 1 solution to a win based on 14 million realities and that was prior to him being dusted.

Did he just not look at options where he would survive? Or did he stop looking to soon?

Maybe that was the very first option, and since Stark dies he looks for an alternative 13 999 999 other times and didn't find any hahaha

 

[JB33]

That could work.

Space Stone/Tesseract - Fury goes back to get it from SHIELD
Reality Stone/Aether - The Guardians go back to get it from the Collector since without Thor, they wouldn't know about when it was on Asgard
Power Stone/Orb - The Guardians could get it from Xandar right before Thanos does, but he catches them in the act and follows them through time similar to Endgame
Time Stone/Necklace - Strange could just go back to the Sanctum to get it at an earlier time
Mind Stone/Scepter - Wanda could go back to get it from the Hydra base since she had the most experience with it. She could also be reunited with Pietro during this similar to Tony w/ his dad or Thor w/ Frigga in Endgame
Soul Stone - I'm stumped for this one considering Gamora and Nebula were the ones who knew about Vormir and they'd still both be dead. I don't know how they'd figure that one out. Maybe through Carol? Even then, who makes the sacrifice? Maybe a rebuilt Vision sacrifices himself after going there with Wanda? Her basically resurrecting him in WandaVision could be expedited if she didn't die in the snap.

As for how everyone joins the battle after coming back this time, Thor could transport everyone there using his bifrost summoning powers.

As for how they lose? Here's my idea...

Some of the Avengers struggle a lot more in the battle, especially Tony and Bruce since Tony's armor wouldn't be as advanced as it was at the end of Endgame and Bruce would still have issues with the Hulk like he did all through Infinity War. It'd mostly be Carol, Thor and Strange doing a lot of the legwork. Carol would be a bit weakened from the snap bringing everyone back so she wouldn't be as strong as she was in Endgame but still powerful enough to defeat Thanos with the assistance of Thor. Once she's finally ready to deal the killing blow, a portal opens up in front of her. Much to everyone's shock, it's the original Thanos complete with all six stones, back after being dusted in his own snap since he'd be included in the 50% with Tony, Steve, etc. considering the victims were chosen at random. He came back when Carol willed everyone back into existence. Why would she make such a lapse in judgement? Because Thanos still teleported to his garden after the snap and he faded to dust there, meaning no one would know if he was alive or dead. The gauntlet and stones didn't disappear with him, but since no one would know the location of the garden with Nebula dead, they'd remain there until he rematerialized.

With a smile, he says to the Avengers, "I am...inevitable." Before they have a chance to react....

*SNAP*

Everyone dies. This is the darkest timeline.

Well done!!

 

[Drizzle]

Well done!!

Thanks

 

[NHawk19]

Question is how do they figure out time travel?

Maybe Ant Man doesn't get dusted as he's in the quantum realm, but that still means he's brought back by the Pym family and doesn't experience the time shift which gives him the idea. Or he gets dusted and reappears in the quantum realm which is a whole other issue. Either way the Pym family is also there to move the van so the rat doesn't rescue him.

Also Tony, and Bruce aren't there to work it out. That leaves Hank. Admittedly he'd be the expert on using the quantum realm to time travel, but what gives him the idea? Like I said before, Scott should've been retrieved as planned. Which begs the question did Scott hit whatever quantum anomaly sent him 5 years forward in a time jump just seconds prior to the snap? He could still reappear in Hank's lab depending on what they do with the equipment from the van? It would also mean they still assumed he was dusted, just inside the quantum realm.