Avengers... let's get dark... Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 20 darkest “What…If” moments. Beware of a multiverse of spoilers ahead.
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00:00 The sad truth is that there are worlds among the multiverse simply meant to die.
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 darkest "What If?" moments.
00:12 Beware of a multiverse of spoilers ahead.
00:15 You can't do this.
00:17 But we must.
00:20 Hey, sisters.
00:26 How you girls doing?
00:29 Okay.
00:31 When Natasha Romanoff was a child, a woman named Melina pretended to be her mother as part of an undercover spy program.
00:38 The young Black Widow also spent time growing up in a cruel training facility known as the Red Room with other girls.
00:44 Both aspects of Natasha's past came back to haunt her in a grim sequence.
00:50 After a mission brings Black Widow close to the Red Room, she's attacked by her fake mother and "sisters."
00:56 During the extended fight, Melina encourages her soldiers to target an injury Natasha got as a child.
01:02 Hit her harder!
01:04 Agnessa, aim for her left knee. She damaged it in a bicycle accident in third grade.
01:09 Black Widow is also nearly killed by the woman she once had to call "mother."
01:13 This extraordinarily somber family reunion emphasized how horrifying Natasha's past truly was.
01:21 Nat! Nat! Are you alright?
01:23 No.
01:24 Number 19. Peggy loses Steve again.
01:28 I can't lose you again.
01:30 We both know what I need to do.
01:32 Despite Captain Carter's best efforts, she and Steve Rogers were never able to start a real relationship.
01:38 It looked like her luck finally changed when she found a version of him in an alternate world.
01:44 After the two grew closer, Peggy discovered she needed to send Steve away to save the entire 1602 universe.
01:51 But even if he had been from that year, it could have never worked out.
01:55 In Multiverse of Madness, it's revealed that worlds can collapse if people from one universe try to live in another.
02:02 That means there was no way for Rogers and Carter to live happily ever after without risking an entire reality.
02:10 Peggy and Steve's relationship was doomed as soon as they laid eyes on each other.
02:14 We never get a happy ending.
02:18 I'm sure somewhere out there, we do.
02:21 Number 18. The Grandmaster revels in death.
02:25 Shortly after arriving on the planet Sakaar, Tony Stark is invited to attend the Grandmaster's birthday celebration.
02:31 Iron Man soon discovers that the festivities are more violent than he could have ever anticipated.
02:37 It turned out that the Grandmaster loved to celebrate his day of birth by watching aliens race to their death.
02:43 Oh, look at that flame. He was made to be roadkill.
02:46 Despite the lack of blood, the race features some pretty brutal demises.
02:51 At one point, a driver and his cart are sucked into a big grinder and then use its ammunition to kill two more competitors.
02:58 The scenes, constant jokes and bright colors initially help hide how harsh this race is.
03:04 But if viewers look underneath the hood of this violent birthday celebration, they'll see the Grandmaster's cruelty staring right back.
03:11 Wow. Well, a fitting end for who was that?
03:15 Number 17. Loki invades Earth.
03:18 We have the same enemy here.
03:20 The person who killed your brother also killed two of my people.
03:23 Good people. We should be working together.
03:26 We are not allies. After Thor is unjustly slain on Earth, Loki arrives to punish the villain responsible.
03:34 He agrees to team up with Nick Fury to bring Hank Pym to justice for going after the God of Thunder.
03:40 After a fun final battle, Loki decides to turn on his new ally.
03:45 He brings Asgardian soldiers and technology to Earth and declares himself as a de facto ruler.
03:50 It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation.
03:54 The bright fear of freedom hobbles you, diminishes your life's joy.
03:59 And to make matters worse, nearly all the Avengers that were around in the original timeline had already fallen.
04:05 Fortunately, Fury knew at least two captains who would be willing to rebel against Loki's tyranny.
04:11 The might of those heroes and a newly arrived Black Widow will hopefully be enough to save this oppressed world.
04:18 You and your replacement Avengers fought valiantly, but now I think it's time you told me all your secrets.
04:26 Number 16. Killmonger slays Rhodey and T'Challa.
04:30 The devious Killmonger supported Tony's decision to send Rhodey to a black market vibranium deal.
04:36 We send Rhodey there. He's US Air Force and he's the company's military liaison.
04:41 We're all above board. I think that's a great idea.
04:43 At the same time, the villain ensured the Wakandans knew Americans were trying to purchase their most precious resource under the table.
04:51 Killmonger's complex plan ensured that Black Panther and Rhodey ended up in the same place.
04:57 The villain took advantage of that fact by slaying both of them while they were distracted.
05:01 Let me take the vibranium back where it belongs.
05:04 Sorry, cuz, that ain't gonna fly.
05:07 [SCREAMING]
05:13 Once they were both gone, Killmonger made it look like Rhodey and Black Panther had ended each other's lives.
05:20 The villain's sinister plot increased tensions between two countries while taking two good men from the world.
05:26 And although Tony figured out the truth, he couldn't stop Killmonger's dark plot.
05:30 Word to the wise, never play clue with Jarvis. He sees all.
05:34 Go ahead. Call the cops. Still won't get here in time to save you.
05:38 Number 15. The Watcher lets a world burn.
05:42 Minutes after Peggy failed to save Queen Hela from a worldwide catastrophe in 1602, the super soldier became the royal family's biggest enemy.
05:51 While the captain was figuring out her next move, the Watcher moved in closer for an important conversation.
05:58 The cosmic being essentially told the heroine to abandon the world.
06:02 I'm not leaving. Worlds die every day.
06:06 I've watched millions fade from existence. It happens.
06:10 Well, not on my watch. After Carter fails to heed his advice,
06:15 the Watcher returns again and urges Peggy to just let the world burn.
06:19 Audiences already knew that the cosmic man rarely intervenes when universes are in danger.
06:25 But seeing him actually abandon a world full of people and his friend Peggy made him feel colder than ever.
06:32 The Watcher showed that he'd rather watch a person close to him die than lend a hand.
06:37 I'm sorry. This world is destined to die. You can't change that.
06:42 Number 14. The end of Hela's childhood.
06:45 The goddess of death spent most of her What If episode obsessed with gaining power and conquering others.
06:52 But it's only after she loses her Asgardian abilities that we learn why she was so power hungry.
06:58 During a flashback, we see that Hela was a normal child that loved playing with her pet.
07:04 Everything changed after her father Odin chained her dog up and said that it was time for her to start helping him conquer other realms.
07:12 He is born with the heart of a fighter, just like his mistress.
07:16 The king must tame his threats to ensure that they fight for him.
07:22 The heartbreaking scene made it clear that Hela could have grown up as a well adjusted royal.
07:27 Unfortunately for her, Odin preferred to forge her into a tool of war that he could point towards his enemies.
07:34 You will obey. You had your throne, so you threw away your sword, forgetting that she was your own daughter.
07:41 I will no longer be party to your conquest.
07:44 Number 13. Stephen Strange absorbs living creatures.
07:48 This is where it starts for you with the death of Dr.
07:52 Christine Palmer. So overwhelmed by loss, you will seek answers in the mystic arts.
07:59 Although Dr. Strange has the ability to travel back to the night where his beloved Christine died,
08:03 he can't seem to prevent her demise from happening over and over again.
08:08 He eventually learns that there is a twisted way to get the power he needs to change fate.
08:13 Aha, gain the power through the absorption.
08:16 We watch as Strange steals life from a series of monstrous looking beings to increase his own magical capabilities.
08:23 As he absorbs more creatures, we get foreboding hints that he is becoming more beastly too.
08:29 Although Strange's intentions were good, the way he gained his power was truly evil.
08:35 This absorption sequence marked the point where the hero we knew became a villain.
08:40 He's on the wrong path. I could warn him, intervene,
08:44 but the fate of his universe is not worth risking the safety of all others.
08:48 Number 12. War comes to Wakanda. After Killmonger makes it look like Tony Stark was murdered by a Wakandan warrior,
08:56 US General Ross sends vibranium drones to attack the advanced nation.
09:00 Although the robots are tough, the African army prevails in the end.
09:05 But the Wakandan victory isn't the end of the conflict. Upon losing the first skirmish,
09:10 General Ross pledges to attack the African nation with more powerful weapons.
09:15 "I want all Jericho missiles locked and loaded by 0600." "Yes, sir."
09:18 "I'll do respect, sir. Isn't that a lot of firepower to aim at a country most Americans can't find on a map?"
09:23 "By tomorrow, they won't need to."
09:26 The next time we see this version of Wakanda, the country is on fire and in the midst of being occupied by the US military.
09:33 Killmonger's manipulations plunge the isolated nation into a war it never asked for.
09:39 And even though he was removed from the equation,
09:41 there's no telling if this universe's Wakanda can regain the world's trust.
09:46 "Was it worth it? My cousin?" "Yeah, I did what I had to do."
09:54 Number 11, Nebula is betrayed and nearly murdered.
09:58 In one bleak universe, Nebula was working for the Nova Corps
10:02 when she learned that her ally Yondu had been brutally murdered by an unknown assassin.
10:07 During her investigation, her shady ally Yon-Rogg betrays her and leaves her to drown.
10:13 Nebula narrowly managed to escape a watery doom.
10:16 But shortly after getting to safety, it's revealed that the head of the Nova Corps was a true villain all along.
10:22 The big bad decides to cover her tracks by ordering Nebula's execution.
10:27 "Finish her and make sure you melt down the pieces when you're done." "Yes, ma'am."
10:31 It's difficult to see the character suffer at the hands of Nova Corps officers.
10:36 And although she escapes, local civilians still treat her like garbage.
10:40 It's a miracle Nebula didn't turn back to the dark side after her hellish near-death experiences.
10:47 "Oh, Nebula. Nebula, are you okay?" "Golly gosh, I barely recognized you."
10:52 Number 10. The inevitable death of Steve Rogers.
10:56 Years after Steve Rogers was presumed dead, a brainwashed version of him returned wearing a seriously deadly suit.
11:03 He nearly killed his former best friend before his longtime love interest Peggy knocked him out.
11:09 Sadly, things didn't get better from there.
11:12 It turned out that Rogers wouldn't be able to live outside of the hydra stomper armor he was trapped in.
11:18 "You can't remove it?" "Not unless you want to put him straight into a coffin."
11:22 Furthermore, the very suit that was keeping him alive could kill him at any moment.
11:27 These dark revelations helped paint a very dark portrait of the remainder of Steve's days.
11:33 Whether he found a way out of the suit or stayed inside it, Rogers wouldn't be able to live much longer as a free man.
11:40 "Steve, I can't. I can't lose you again."
11:44 "Wait, wait. Wait, no, Steve! Steve, no!"
11:48 Number 9. Cahortes people lose their homes and freedom.
11:53 "Greed and grief ignited a terrible battle amongst the surrounding nations. In the end, peace was made."
12:01 A group of villagers were living a peaceful existence until Spanish conquistadors arrived.
12:07 The invaders made a violent debut by shooting at innocents and setting everything aflame.
12:12 By the time the conquistadors actually stated what they wanted, most of the village had been reduced to ashes.
12:19 The worst part of their invasion came after the villains realized they wouldn't get the magical prize they had sought after.
12:25 Instead of leaving the villagers in the ruins of their society, the conquistador leader ordered for the innocent people to be chained up.
12:32 His despicable actions proved that there were no depths to this man's cruelty.
12:37 If Cahortes hadn't returned to free her people, the conquistador would have gotten away with an unimaginable injustice.
12:44 [Screaming]
12:52 Number 8. The heroes lose hope.
12:55 "Another survivor camp claims to have made progress on a cure."
12:59 "Well, awesome! Global crisis solved! High fives all around, guys."
13:02 "Not quite."
13:03 A team of heroes gets word that a zombie cure might be waiting for them in New Jersey.
13:08 But during the train ride, Hope gets infected with the virus.
13:12 Her allies try to stay optimistic that they could find a cure to save her just in time.
13:16 But when the train runs out of fuel in a zombie-infested area, Hope decides to lay down her life to get her friends to safety.
13:23 "Peter!"
13:25 "Smile."
13:29 "Smile for me, okay?"
13:31 Watching her take her final steps was incredibly heartbreaking.
13:34 Unfortunately, her demise becomes even more tragic when we see her come back as a zombie and attack her friends.
13:42 Seeing the heroine turn into a member of the Walking Dead gave us little hope that this timeline could get better.
13:48 "I'm sorry. You know, she gave her life so we could get the cure."
13:52 Number 7. Sacrificing lives to the Forge.
13:56 Strange Supreme knew that he didn't have enough power to restore everything he lost.
14:01 So, he decided to get what he needed in the absolute worst way.
14:06 During the season 2 finale, Strange Supreme revealed that he built a forge that could be fueled by the lives of very powerful beings.
14:13 "Oh no, he's begun! He's feeding them to the forge!"
14:17 What made this plan worse than the time he absorbed a variety of creatures was that he didn't just stop at sinister threats.
14:24 This time around, Strange Supreme was willing to throw the most noble heroes inside the forge if it got him closer to his goal.
14:31 "I gave you a choice, Peggy Carter."
14:33 "Agh!"
14:35 "They will feed my machine."
14:37 While Peggy and Cahorty are able to save most of the good guys, they couldn't stop Strange Supreme from falling into the dark machine.
14:45 Number 6. Natasha confronts the Watcher.
14:48 "And then there was one."
14:50 "I won't go back there."
14:52 "My world is... gone."
14:56 Once the Guardians of the Multiverse complete their mission, the Watcher enables them to return back to their original realities.
15:02 However, Natasha refuses to go.
15:05 She reminds the Watcher that her home was completely ravaged by Ultron in an emotional speech.
15:10 And when Natasha asked him to do something to aid her home, he reveals that he's either unwilling or unable to.
15:17 "Then fix my world."
15:20 "I can't, Natasha."
15:23 The Watcher instead decides to take her to a less damaged world that's in the midst of a huge conflict.
15:29 While his gesture is nice, Natasha still has to carry the weight of losing everyone she knows.
15:35 She also must live with the fact that the powerful Watcher didn't move to save her world.
15:39 "We're just stories to you. We're not real. You watch us fight, win, lose."
15:45 "Tell me, did you make popcorn while Ultron murdered my friends and burned my world to the ground?"
15:50 Number 5. Star-Lords Forced to Slaughter Worlds
15:54 While most supervillains destroy societies with their own hands, the depraved Ego made his young son Peter sow chaos.
16:01 The boy left a path of destruction across countless worlds.
16:05 According to Thor, Peter even managed to annihilate Asgard's armies.
16:10 After hearing about the countless lives that perished by his hands, we heard a twisted truth.
16:16 It's implied that Ego was directly controlling Peter's darkest actions the entire time.
16:22 "Everything that's happening, it's not me. It's him. He has this power to get inside my head."
16:29 The thought that the kid might have had to watch worlds fall while being powerless to stop it is horrifying.
16:34 Although Peter's story ends on a hopeful note, he can't bring back all the lives that were lost.
16:40 He can only avenge all the beings that died because the atrocious Ego didn't know when to stop.
16:46 "You killed my mother?"
16:48 "No, no, no, no. I get it. You're upset. But you know you don't have the power to destroy me, Peter."
16:55 Number 4. Hawkeye Dies as a Villain
16:58 "Drop your weapon!"
16:59 "I swear, I didn't shoot!"
17:01 It was tough watching members of the original Avengers lineup meet their ends in a variety of gruesome ways.
17:08 Hulk's demise was particularly grim and hard to watch.
17:12 However, Hawkeye arguably had the saddest death of them all.
17:16 He was given the task of observing Thor by SHIELD higher-ups.
17:20 All of a sudden, one of Hawkeye's arrows flies loose and fatally wounds the God of Thunder.
17:26 The Archer is quickly arrested and left questioning how this tragedy could have happened.
17:31 "This doesn't make any sense. I don't slip. I don't misfire."
17:36 And before Hawkeye could learn that he wasn't responsible, Hank Pym takes his life.
17:41 Knowing that the Archer died confused and disgraced made his last scene stand out in an episode full of depressing demises.
17:49 "Barton had a wife and kids. If he was gonna go, it wouldn't be willingly."
17:53 "You think he was murdered?"
17:54 "If I had to guess, my money is on the same someone who killed Stark."
17:58 Number 3. Ultron Overwhelms the Watcher
18:02 We initially thought the worst thing Ultron was going to get away with was launching nuclear weapons on his version of Earth.
18:08 "We're too late. He did it."
18:11 "War."
18:13 However, he accomplished something far worse after gaining the power of all the Infinity Stones.
18:19 After becoming aware of the multiverse, Ultron decides to bring his violent version of peace to new realities.
18:26 "So many universes. So much chaos."
18:30 "They need to be silenced."
18:32 "You do not have to do this."
18:34 But the Watcher attempts to break the robot first.
18:38 Unfortunately, he's unable to keep up with Ultron's raw power.
18:42 The Watcher is left with no choice but to retreat.
18:45 If this episode didn't end on an optimistic scene where the Cosmic Observer teamed up with Strange Supreme,
18:51 Ultron's victory would have led to the show's grimaced ending.
18:55 "Run. Watch. It doesn't matter."
18:59 "From here, I can see everything. No one can stop me now."
19:05 2. Vision's Betrayal
19:08 "I'll canvas the base. See if I can find his transport."
19:10 "Sergeant Barnes, you will not find what you're looking for."
19:15 During the zombie apocalypse, Wanda Maximoff became a member of the Undead Horde.
19:20 Since Vision was unable to cure her, he kept her fed by tricking people into becoming her next meal.
19:27 The dark truth was revealed when Bucky discovered Black Panther was one of the unlucky victims.
19:32 Seeing what Vision did to T'Challa was already disturbing.
19:36 "Vision, what the hell is this place?"
19:38 "A trap."
19:40 "N'Kozia, we feared you were dead."
19:43 "The Vision grabbed me and San Francisco. Thought he was saving me."
19:47 But knowing the synthetic being would have continued sacrificing heroes if given the chance was an unbearably grim thought.
19:54 While Vision tried to logically explain what he did, there's no excusing his manipulative actions.
20:01 It's impossible to look at him the same way when you know about the horrifying methods he used to keep Wanda going.
20:07 "You lured innocent people to their deaths all in the name of love?"
20:12 "Shh, love sucks."
20:14 "I still cannot entirely fathom what I have done."
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20:35 Number one, Strange Supreme breaks reality.
20:38 "I spent centuries, sacrificed everything for Christine."
20:45 "And now can you save her?"
20:46 All the monstrous things that Strange Supreme did allowed him to bend the rules of time and save the woman he loved.
20:53 However, his dark path came at a high cost.
20:57 Since rescuing Christine in the past caused a massive time paradox, reality completely falls apart.
21:04 Even Strange Supreme's incredible power isn't enough to stop his universe from collapsing around him.
21:10 And the desperate man can't convince the Watcher to help either.
21:13 "Honestly, if I could fix this, if I could punish you instead, I would."
21:17 "But I can't interfere."
21:19 "You, more than anyone else, should understand that meddling with time and events only leads to more destruction."
21:26 In the end, Strange Supreme is forced to watch Christine fade away from him one last time.
21:32 His attempts to reunite with his loved caused the end of everything.
21:36 We've yet to get a bleaker what-if ending than a completely isolated Strange Supreme
21:41 forced to exist in an utterly broken reality.
21:44 "No, no, no, no, no."
21:48 "I'm sorry."
21:55 What what-if reality would you never want to live in?
21:58 Let us know in the comments below.
22:00 "Not exactly a happy ending."
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22:11 [Music]
22:18 [Music fades]