What If...1x01
Oct. 6th, 2021 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsAlright, as you may have noticed, I ended up not doing ‘What If’ as it was airing. I’m feeling a little burned by these Marvel shows so far and this was the one I was least interested in. Because it’s a cartoon and I don’t care for the animation; because it’s an anthology so there isn’t meant to be an ongoing story; because it can at most be semi-canon to the rest of the MCU so there’s no need to rush to watch it.
That never meant I wasn’t going to watch it, I just needed to let it buffer for a bit. So now that it’s basically done (for now) is a good time for me to get on it.
Another aspect is that I don’t know how long these reviews are going to be; because I don’t need to make them fit they may short reactions or I may have a lot to say about the scenarios we see.
It also didn’t help that I really wasn’t interested in the premise of the first episode; or rather, I had a bad feeling about it. Whatever I end up thinking about it I didn’t want to get anywhere near the rest of fandom while the iron was hot. It turned out fandom didn’t seem nearly as loud about this show anyway, so that reason wasn’t that big a deal, but it persisted. Also I had other things going on, but now I can start reviewing this show and see if it is worth it.
(Reading some of the plot descriptions…I’m not sure any of these sound good…or even worth the effort of watching. So if I only last a couple episodes don’t be surprised. But I can probably stick with it that long.)
What If… 1x01: What If Captain Carter Were the First Avenger
…wait, is that really what it’s called? That grammatically…weird. I don’t think it’s incorrect (although depending on where you look at titles, sometimes there’s some capitalization that shouldn’t be there), but it’s still awkward to say ‘were’ instead of ‘was’ or ‘had been.’
Anyway, sigh. Yeah, that brought out about every reaction I was expecting it to. I don’t like the animation (although I might get used to it in time); I cannot stop hating fuck you Steve Rogers; the storyline is favoring things that I hate and seems to want to undermine things that I love.
In spite of that I would probably say it was okay, when taken as its own thing; and I kind of wish I liked it better.
Let’s start with this as an AU; why does Peggy standing in a different spot cause the Hydra attack to happen earlier? If this expects me to believe that this all spirals from that small choice, then it can’t change other things until there are consequences for what changed. Some of the further changes make sense in the new context, but some of the things that stay the same seem very forced into the same shape in spite of the changed context. Sometimes even self-contradictory; why would Howard make the shield so important on his own decision and then claim the shield isn’t much of a plan?
I was definitely distracted by the way Peggy’s power levels seem a lot higher than Steve’s in First Avenger. I’m partially willing to put that down as the difference in realism between live action and animation, so it just got bumped up here, but this show seems to really want us to think that this could all have gone the same way except for a small change. So why are Peggy’s powers different?
Unfortunately, that’s not the Doyalist reason that comes through. I might even be able to contrive an in-text basis for it since Peggy is a more experienced fighter going into it, and understands quicker what her powers could be used for. But that’s a stretch and doing it only makes the Doyalist subtext come through. They want brownie points for making Peggy better than Steve. I don’t complain about this as a SJW insertion, I complain about it as pandering to a certain segment of the viewers/fanbase/not actually fans but likely to comment on a prominent property that aren’t satisfied saying Peggy would have been just as good at it as Steve, no she has to be better.
Honestly, Peggy seems a little out of character here. Again, not a problem if this actually is a different version of reality, but if it’s supposed to be a branch from the same history I feel like I can judge it. She ends up seeming less strong in the ways that she already was a strong character as if to further highlight just how strong they’ve made her through the serum.
While we’re on the subject, the serum doesn’t seem to affect Peggy physically to the extent that it did Steve. There’s some, but not the major bulk up that Steve had. And once more, if this is literally the same day/world up until the moment of diversion, then the serum should have the same effects as it did in First Avenger just on a different person. I willing to give it to them in FatWS that it was a different design, but this shouldn’t be.
All of that put out there, the puffing up of Peggy for brownie points doesn’t annoy me nearly as much as the favoritism fuck you Steve Rogers gets. I might actually have liked the Steve in this episode, were it not for how much I hate FUSR at this point. Steve here is fine, makes me think he might have been a decent guy if he hadn’t been put into a world he didn’t understand but insisted on making choices for.
(Passing thought, maybe the next time I rewatch the MCU I should look at it from the perspective that Steve is a bully. A kid who had no power and once he has it, he thinks it given him the right to force other people to do what he wants. It’s not that different from my current view.)
But because of the things this episode gives to this Steve it feels very much like puffing up FUSR as well. Tony will always be 50x the hero and the man that Steve is, but this episode would like you to think Tony is nothing special. Howard could have invented Iron Man suits 70 years ago (even though he’s just a button guy), and Steve could have been just as good an Iron Man as Tony without having to earn it. Bucky brings up a good point if Steve doesn’t know how to drive; Tony had a lifetime of experience that he put into the suits, including being a car guy who knew what he was doing and the suit was designed for what he knew. Howard can’t even make a flying car yet (although I think he did in Agent Carter if I recall correctly).
Of the things than nag me about the episode we got here, that’s the thing that makes me angry.
Also, I think I may ship Peggy/Bucky now; and I’m back to Peggy/Howard fuck buddies headcanon. I just cannot ever seem to ship Peggy/Steve even when it isn’t FUSR. But I can see this as the Steve/Bucky world, and I'm okay with that.
(I think…I’ll leave any discussion of the multi-verse’s existence for a later time. I’m going to focus on whether the AUs we’re given make sense.)
That never meant I wasn’t going to watch it, I just needed to let it buffer for a bit. So now that it’s basically done (for now) is a good time for me to get on it.
Another aspect is that I don’t know how long these reviews are going to be; because I don’t need to make them fit they may short reactions or I may have a lot to say about the scenarios we see.
It also didn’t help that I really wasn’t interested in the premise of the first episode; or rather, I had a bad feeling about it. Whatever I end up thinking about it I didn’t want to get anywhere near the rest of fandom while the iron was hot. It turned out fandom didn’t seem nearly as loud about this show anyway, so that reason wasn’t that big a deal, but it persisted. Also I had other things going on, but now I can start reviewing this show and see if it is worth it.
(Reading some of the plot descriptions…I’m not sure any of these sound good…or even worth the effort of watching. So if I only last a couple episodes don’t be surprised. But I can probably stick with it that long.)
What If… 1x01: What If Captain Carter Were the First Avenger
…wait, is that really what it’s called? That grammatically…weird. I don’t think it’s incorrect (although depending on where you look at titles, sometimes there’s some capitalization that shouldn’t be there), but it’s still awkward to say ‘were’ instead of ‘was’ or ‘had been.’
Anyway, sigh. Yeah, that brought out about every reaction I was expecting it to. I don’t like the animation (although I might get used to it in time); I cannot stop hating fuck you Steve Rogers; the storyline is favoring things that I hate and seems to want to undermine things that I love.
In spite of that I would probably say it was okay, when taken as its own thing; and I kind of wish I liked it better.
Let’s start with this as an AU; why does Peggy standing in a different spot cause the Hydra attack to happen earlier? If this expects me to believe that this all spirals from that small choice, then it can’t change other things until there are consequences for what changed. Some of the further changes make sense in the new context, but some of the things that stay the same seem very forced into the same shape in spite of the changed context. Sometimes even self-contradictory; why would Howard make the shield so important on his own decision and then claim the shield isn’t much of a plan?
I was definitely distracted by the way Peggy’s power levels seem a lot higher than Steve’s in First Avenger. I’m partially willing to put that down as the difference in realism between live action and animation, so it just got bumped up here, but this show seems to really want us to think that this could all have gone the same way except for a small change. So why are Peggy’s powers different?
Unfortunately, that’s not the Doyalist reason that comes through. I might even be able to contrive an in-text basis for it since Peggy is a more experienced fighter going into it, and understands quicker what her powers could be used for. But that’s a stretch and doing it only makes the Doyalist subtext come through. They want brownie points for making Peggy better than Steve. I don’t complain about this as a SJW insertion, I complain about it as pandering to a certain segment of the viewers/fanbase/not actually fans but likely to comment on a prominent property that aren’t satisfied saying Peggy would have been just as good at it as Steve, no she has to be better.
Honestly, Peggy seems a little out of character here. Again, not a problem if this actually is a different version of reality, but if it’s supposed to be a branch from the same history I feel like I can judge it. She ends up seeming less strong in the ways that she already was a strong character as if to further highlight just how strong they’ve made her through the serum.
While we’re on the subject, the serum doesn’t seem to affect Peggy physically to the extent that it did Steve. There’s some, but not the major bulk up that Steve had. And once more, if this is literally the same day/world up until the moment of diversion, then the serum should have the same effects as it did in First Avenger just on a different person. I willing to give it to them in FatWS that it was a different design, but this shouldn’t be.
All of that put out there, the puffing up of Peggy for brownie points doesn’t annoy me nearly as much as the favoritism fuck you Steve Rogers gets. I might actually have liked the Steve in this episode, were it not for how much I hate FUSR at this point. Steve here is fine, makes me think he might have been a decent guy if he hadn’t been put into a world he didn’t understand but insisted on making choices for.
(Passing thought, maybe the next time I rewatch the MCU I should look at it from the perspective that Steve is a bully. A kid who had no power and once he has it, he thinks it given him the right to force other people to do what he wants. It’s not that different from my current view.)
But because of the things this episode gives to this Steve it feels very much like puffing up FUSR as well. Tony will always be 50x the hero and the man that Steve is, but this episode would like you to think Tony is nothing special. Howard could have invented Iron Man suits 70 years ago (even though he’s just a button guy), and Steve could have been just as good an Iron Man as Tony without having to earn it. Bucky brings up a good point if Steve doesn’t know how to drive; Tony had a lifetime of experience that he put into the suits, including being a car guy who knew what he was doing and the suit was designed for what he knew. Howard can’t even make a flying car yet (although I think he did in Agent Carter if I recall correctly).
Of the things than nag me about the episode we got here, that’s the thing that makes me angry.
Also, I think I may ship Peggy/Bucky now; and I’m back to Peggy/Howard fuck buddies headcanon. I just cannot ever seem to ship Peggy/Steve even when it isn’t FUSR. But I can see this as the Steve/Bucky world, and I'm okay with that.
(I think…I’ll leave any discussion of the multi-verse’s existence for a later time. I’m going to focus on whether the AUs we’re given make sense.)
