Many MCU Fans Have The Same Reaction To What If...? Season 2 Episode 6

After a rough 2023, Marvel Studios has launched what may just be the best thing it's done all year. "What If...?" Season 2, Episode 6 — "What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World" — has earned mountains of praise from fans to the point where people are thinking of giving Marvel another chance after some lackluster outings. 

For many Redditors on a discussion thread that covered the topic, Kahhori's episode is a standout. According to u/NotGodsThrowaway, the only negative is that it was too short. "The fact that this wasn't a full length live action movie is a travesty," they wrote. "This was insanely good." Redditor u/Sound_swipe hopes it isn't the last we've seen of the new hero Kahhori, voiced by Devery Jacobs, "By far the best episode this season!" they commented. "The pacing for this show feels off a lot of times, but they completely avoided that issue this episode. Really hope that they find a way to introduce Kahhori into the 616 MCU."

And since Kahhori is a new hero and the episode follows a new timeline, anyone could watch it and understand what's going on. And it doesn't get bogged down by common Marvel pitfalls, which is what @AltArmedForces shared on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Even if you do not like Marvel, you need to watch season 2 episode 6 of What if...," they posted. "For all of Marvel's faults for the past couple years, that episode itself seemingly rights everything." This kind of praise is hard to come by in any superhero media, so what is it about "What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World" that has enraptured audiences?

"What If...?" is a Marvel anthology series where each episode explores a different universe, where the timeline veers toward a different course than what we've seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and Disney+ series. Season 2, Episode 6 of "What If...?" follows the Tesseract as it crash-lands in America before it was colonized by Europeans. Kahhori, a member of the Mohawk tribe, finds a lake infused with the Tesseract's power, which leads her to the Sky World where other Mohawks with special powers are present. Knowing the Conquistadors will attack her loved ones, Kahhori escapes the Sky World and frees her people from oppression. 

The episode introduces a new character but also deals with pertinent themes. It envisions a world where settlers never colonized America, with Kahhori defending her people against invaders. And the team behind "What If...?" ensured representation and diversity were present every step of the way. Looper attended a Q&A screening of "What If...?" Season 2 where head writer A.C. Bradley spoke about getting in touch with people representing Indigenous communities. "From day one, we were talking to people," she said. "We brought them in for everything from design, story, costuming, music. It was really a collaborative effort, and we were so lucky to get all the help."

"What If...?" Season 2, Episode 6 works as a compelling story, but it goes so much deeper than that. It allows a disenfranchised community to be seen in the most popular media franchise currently running. Between Kahhori and the upcoming series "Echo," Marvel is giving a voice to Indigenous communities, and that's worth something. 

Kahhori has no ties to the comics, but her "What If...?" episode does a good job of laying out precisely who she is. She's a Mohawk woman who gains the power of the Tesseract, an Infinity Stone. This power is shared by other Sky World villagers, who can seemingly manipulate objects and remain immortal, as explained by Atahraks (Jeremy White). However, it soon becomes clear that Kahhori's powers extend beyond what everyone else has, as she's able to summon the portal to the ground so that they can return to Earth. 

In terms of Kahhori's cosmic power level, one would assume she could be on the level of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). After all, Kahhori's power derives from the Tesseract, aka the Space Stone, and that's also how Captain Marvel got her powers. Kahhori's an incredibly powerful being, which comes to light at the very end of the episode when Doctor Strange Supreme (Benedict Cumberbatch) arrives and mentions how he's been searching for her for a long time. 

With this warm reception, Kahhori could easily become a recurring character on Marvel's "What If...?" in the same vein as Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell). However, it would be truly outstanding if Kahhori made the leap to live-action. With entities able to traverse the Multiverse, she could make her way to the main MCU timeline. Granted, she wouldn't like what she sees in North America when she gets there.