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What If Season 3 - What If... The Emergence destroyed the Earth? Thoughts

"Let's begin near the end. The final act of a tragic story. When you've seen as many wars as I have, you get used to it. The hard part is watching worlds fall that don't need to because a hero can no longer rise to meet their moment. But I swore an oath. And so I watch. In every variation of this universe, Riri Williams is its last best hope. But in every one I've watched, no matter how hard she fights, and how long she struggles, she always fails. Always... Welcome to Earth. What's left of it anyways." Uatu

This might be the most emotional episode of the entire season so far. Yet again, another peak episode and my personal favorite episode of the season so far. It’s a testament to the team this season and further shows how much of a shame it is to see What If end (for now). This episode's Riri Williams is a great focus character and I can't wait to see her in her own show in 2025. Even in the bleakest universes and situations destined to end in tragedy, all it takes is one bit of encouragement to break through and emerge to bring hope.

This is a pretty bleak setting and it's all because the Emergence just so happened to take place before Etenrals. The Iron Federation feels like a corrupted dream of Tony Stark with the Iron Legion suits around the world (or in this case the remnants of the world). There’s concept art released for What If S3’s promotional material which suggests Strange was able to save parts of Earth.

Riri Williams continues to fight even in a universe where everyone she knows and loves is dead. The fight is all she has left. It's hard for people to still try to hope and fight when even the few survivors you connect with perish. Even with her wit and sass in the episode (they did a great job of capturing that from her depiction in the movie), you can tell she's barely hanging onto hope for a better world. However, as Uatu will showcase himself, all it takes is to show someone they're not alone.

I hadn't expected Quentin Beck to be the main antagonist of a universe like this but man it was such a great idea. I really love how this episode really showcases how much of an egotistical narcissist asshole he really is to the point he would let himself die quicker by putting all those Nanites in his body. Peter and this universe's Riri really need to interact at some point and bond over dealing with Quentin Beck.

Also, I really hated Sharon Carter after she's been revealed to be the Power Broker, so it'll be nice to see that she got karma in at least one universe.

It's really nice to see Ying Nan again and I can't wait to see Shang-Chi once again in the next episode which hopefully will be a lot more lighthearted than this episode. I love this episode but I need a bit of lighthearted plot after the bleak story of this episode.

The Alliance mook deaths caused by White Vision are very brutal and disturbing to see. I was not expecting the disturbing and bloody imagery of the deaths of Riri's team at the end.

Tony Stark would be proud of Riri Williams for building a weapon in less than 7 minutes capable of killing White Vision. She built this in a broken-down ship... with a box of scraps!

Whoever came up with the idea of Riri Williams to go against Quentin Beck deserves a raise. It's a great idea to pair someone who has the intellect of Stark and creates Iron Man suits to go against Mysterio.

I really love how Riri's new suit is basically making her the Vision with Iron Man/Ironheart suit aspects of her universe.

They reused Infinity Ultron's theme (fittingly with Beck's monologue of how he controls the tech of White Vision and the specific track is Fascinating) and some footage of the Red Room Task Force in Episode 3 (They used the same models and animations but they changed the background with one shot at the very least). Brock Rumlow also appeared in the episode during White Vision's attack, so not sure if that's just reused footage or simply they reused his model.

The contrast of the Watcher between S1 Episode 8 and this episode is massive. Two equally similar bleak scenarios where no matter what the heroes do, it won't be enough to stop Ultron or in this case Quentin Beck both of which use and are made up of Stark tech. For Infinity Ultron, the Watcher treats it like yet another sad scenario but one he cannot intervene (until Infinity Ultron becomes a Multiversal threat). But here, he makes it clear how fucking tired he is of seeing the same outcome and is tired of not being able to do anything...so he intervenes by giving Riri encouragement to fight. The Watcher's character arc really presents itself here as a Multiversal cosmic being becoming so attached that no he can longer just simply stand and abide by bleak scenarios where they repeat endlessly.

The imagery and cinematography in this episode go so hard, especially with Riri forming the Avengers symbol at the end becoming a literal light in the darkness that is the post-Emergence Earth. Bravo to the artists of this episode and the season.

The three Watchers, the Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner have stacked voice casting: Jason Isaacs (Admiral Zhao and the Grand Inquisitor), D.C. Douglas (Rayvis), and Darin de Paul (Who also voiced Zeus last episode but also Ardyn of FF15) respectively. It's going to be interesting to see what finally causes the three to finally try to put an end to the Uatu's interventions.

This is definitely one of the best episodes and emotional ones as well. A peak episode in short. It really showcases how even in the darkest of settings, one person can truly still bring a little light back to the universe. It also showcases Riri's character in a new light given the change of settings and circumstances. It's a strength of What If: we get to see characters act or change with their different circumstances. It also showcases how the Multiverse Saga needs to spend more time with the characters it introduces rather than just introduce them and then not use them until years later as we learn more about the case in the episodes than in the main MCU right now. This episode is what Marvel Zombies should've been in my opinion. They also really need to release the score of every episode like S1. Laura Karpman and Nora deserve all the praise for their work in this episode, the season, and the show as a whole.

Note: Unfortunately, this episode does break the huge creature or person towers over someone trend of the last four episodes... however, we did get Tiamut's emergence so technically it might count.