What If…?’s Infinity Stones Theory Has A Plot hole Compared To MCU’s
What If…? episode 8 had Marvel retcon the power of Infinity Stones once again to give the “new” fans some basic understanding of their powers. Infinity Stones are extremely important at the moment considering the number of changes Marvel has undergone to commit to the story of the Infinity Gauntlet in meetings for the release of the Avengers and retconned it many times (Tesseract and Loki’s Scepter).
What If…?’s episode 8 is inspired by Avengers: Age of Ultron and it reveals a timeline where Ultron defeated the Avengers and launched a nuclear holocaust. This version of Ultron had acquired Infinity Stones when Thano visited Earth and he was able to use them to destroy the universe. But after learning about the Watcher, Ultron broke the dimensional barriers to fight the Watcher. The fight between the two is stunning but there is a possibility that MCU’s Infinity Stones operate differently in the comics.
While Thanos destroyed the Infinity Stones in the Endgame, they are still present in Phase 4, like the scene in Loki which revealed the limitations of their powers and Loki learned that Infinity Stones do not work in TVA. The entire scenario was possibly inspired by the comics where the Stones only retain power when used in their own dimension. In the Endgame, the Ancient One had suggested that there is a relationship between the Infinity Stones and the existence of a branched timeline.
However, What If..? took another approach and revealed that MCU’s Infinity Stones do not possess that limitation at all. Ultron’s actions show that the Stones do retain powers, showcasing a retcon in the MCU.
However, there is a good reason for this plot hole! A.C. Bradley (Showrunner) told The GOAT Podcast that What If…? was being made before Loki had been finished! Thus, Watcher is not seen watched any Multiversal language such as “nexus points.” This could be fixed and they could show that the depowering of Infinity Stones in Loki was got nothing to do with their nature but to with the properties of the dimension, the TVA is present (maybe the Quantum Realm)!
Source: SCREENRANT
