So I’m a big fan of Doctor Strange and decided to check out his what if? And it’s what if Stephen lost his heart instead of his hands? The fact that Doctor Strange is in it is reason alone to watch it but I found this interesting nonetheless. I mean I love his abilities, his personality, and his background. So I couldn't miss out on this.
Anyway, in this series, Stephen had Christine in the car with him when he had his accident. In the movie and canon-wise, he was alone. It was a slight change but had a big impact and I love it. I have to admit I thought they were talking about his heart literally but they meant Christine. That threw me off slightly. That misunderstanding was on me for taking it literally. Anyhow, after the loss of Christine, Doctor Strange seeks guidance through the mystic arts and seeks the Eye of Agamotto. Now the Eye of Agamotto basically deals with manipulating and alternating timelines, which I'm a sucker for. I like anything and everything to do with time manipulation. I think DBZ put me on, so I guess I have that to thank for it. Moving on, the Ancient One talked him out of it but he ended up becoming the Sorcerer Supreme after she passed on.
But that title and accomplishment weren’t enough for him, Strange still couldn’t let go of Christine.
Even two years later.
So at this point, we see Wong approach him and try to get Strange to join him before he does anything stupid.
But it was too late.
Stephen makes up his mind to go back to try to avoid the accident but is still rear-ended and gets in one anyway despite his attempts to avoid it. No matter how many times he tried to go back and fix it, it was the same outcome. It was kind of disheartening to see him so powerless. The Ancient One comes to him and tells him there’s nothing he can do because Christine's passing is an Absolute Point. So it must happen. The Ancient One then informs Stephen that without Christine's passing, his journey or accomplishments never begins.
Doctor Strange then goes to seek out sorcerer Cagliostro since he supposedly knows how to break an absolute point in time. Instead, Doctor Strange ends up meeting O Bengh (O Bang) who’s the librarian for the Cagliostro books.
Turns out that the secret is to gain the immense power to break it through the absorption of other beings. So Doctor Strange tries to use the power of mystic beings but it backfires severely. Obviously, Doctor Strange is warned against the path he’s chosen by O Bengh ( O Bang), who tells Stephen that love can shatter his mind.
Of course, Strange continues anyway and keeps absorbing mystic beings all to bring Christine back.
Eventually, O Bengh falls ill and when Doctor Strange tries to interfere, O Bengh tells him that death is a part of the plan. Then we cut back to before Strange used the Eye of Agamotto and Strange sees the Ancient One. She reveals that she split him into two, one that pursued the path of reviving Christine and one who did nothing but was still in pain and grieving. This basically allowed for two of his possible timelines to occur in one universe.
Pretty trippy if you ask me.
Anyway, If the misguided Stephen keeps trying to bring back Christine, which is an absolute time point, It’ll destroy the universe.
Thus only he can stop himself.
But before he can locate himself, misguided Stephen summons him and tries to talk to good Doctor Stephen. I guess he tries to convince good Stephen that this is the right thing to do. Misguided/ evil Stephen then takes Doctor strange to the accident site and explains that they can save Christine if they become whole again.
Seeing as their powers are split between the two of them.
Evil Stephen is adamant about this while good Stephen is warning him that the world will be destroyed if she’s saved.
Then they get into a fight and evil Stephen wins and absorbs good Stephen. He succeeds in bringing her back but she’s rightfully freaked out. I mean I would be too. But it looks like the world that’s already kinda in shambles starts deteriorating even more. Evil Stephen seems to regret his actions when the world starts falling apart but it’s too late by then.
I gotta say I enjoyed this a lot. Again, I love characters with problems and I love Doctor Strange. He’s one of my favorite marvel characters and I think this was pretty interesting. I love how we got two routes - one with Evil Stephen and one with Good Stephen. I especially enjoyed the fight between the two.
As morbid as this sounds, I'm glad this didn't have a happy ending. In my opinion, we already have one of those and I liked how that worked out, but it's just something about time manipulation that really piques my interest. In reality, there is no winning against time, only races and wars, so it was nice seeing this struggle with Stephen.
And nice seeing him fail over and over again no matter how many times he tried to bring Christine back. He even tried standing her up, letting her drive instead of him, he tried ditching the event, not passing the truck he originally passed before the accident.
Multiple things.
And every single last attempt ended with her passing on.
I also enjoyed seeing him slowly lose his sanity and become more and more consumed. It was like all of this just kinda overtook him and possessed him; he became obsessive. It was an interesting side of Doctor Strange to see.
And I mean I would expect no less given the situation. I can't blame him for grieving Christine, because it is hard to lose someone you love.
Very hard.
But I can blame him for choosing her over the world.