Warning: Contains spoilers for Marvel’s What If…? episode 7.

In What If…? episode 7, “What If…Thor Was An Only Child?,” the MCU hands Thanos another insult as the character is once again written out as a non-consequential joke. Each episode of Disney+’s What If…? is based upon the idea that a single change ripples across the timeline and can make huge differences. However, this conceit should still see major actors in the universe act in a way that is true to their characters.

Thanos served as the main antagonist for Phases 1 through 3, with everything that happened leading up to his appearance, his victory, and his eventual defeat in Avengers: Endgame. His plot to claim the Infinity Stones was so central to those Phases that Marvel has now named them The Infinity Saga. In What If…?’s episode 7 timeline, Thanos does not appear, and instead, Thor is confronted with the arrival of Ultron. This version of Ultron has claimed the body of vibranium that the main MCU timeline saw awakened as Vision and now holds all six of the Infinity Stones.

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Ultron’s appearance with the Infinity Stones raises several questions about how he could attain all of them without Earth gaining a wider awareness of his actions. However, Ultron’s success undermines Thanos’ movie-spanning plan to attain the Infinity Stones. Not mentioning the character at all does him, and the part of the MCU that was reliant on him, a huge disservice. This isn’t the first time that What If…? has insulted the Titan, as episode 2 used him as the butt of a larger joke. “What If… T’Challa Became Star-Lord” showed Thanos as a comic relief character who had been easily argued down from his deeply held belief that he needed to eradicate half of the universe, suggesting that The Infinity Saga could have been averted by talking the issue out.

Ultron uses the infinity Stones in What If

While Thanos isn’t shown here, for Ultron to appear, Thanos must still have existed in this universe and have been working on his plan to attain the Infinity Stones. Ultron’s creation at the hands of Tony Stark was only made possible by his attaining Loki’s scepter, which carried the Mind Stone. Loki, in turn, received the Mind Stone from Thanos to aid in a quest to acquire the Tesseract (the Space Stone) for the Titan. While Loki seems otherwise engaged in this episode of What If…?, Thanos must have gifted the Mind Stone to someone else for it eventually fall into Iron Man’s hands and allow for the birth of Ultron.

For Ultron to appear with the full six Infinity Stones, he would have had to have acted across the universe, and if Thanos were searching for the Infinity Stones himself, he certainly would have heard of Ultron’s maneuvers. While Thanos is a villain, his goals do not align with Ultron’s: Thanos believes that he is saving life in the universe by destroying half of it, whereas Ultron seeks to wipe the slate clean and start again. This means that in the What If…? timeline, Thanos likely confronted Ultron and attempted to stop him, effectively trying to save half of the universe.

His possible defeat happening off-screen does not do the character justice, and that is hammered home by the fact that the only acknowledgment of the character is Nebula’s What If…? quip about him, which suggests she does not know of her father’s loss. Alternatively, if Thanos did not confront Ultron, the implication would be that he simply gave up on the mission that defined his life and purpose in The Infinity Saga after he lost the Mind Stone. Either way, What If…?’s presentation of Thanos once again fails the antagonist who drove so much of the MCU.

More: Theory: MCU's Multiverse Will Be Invaded By Ultron In Phase 4

Marvel’s What If…? releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.

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