‘What If…?’ Season 2: What Is ‘The Forge’ & Why Did Strange Supreme Create it?

‘What If…?’ Season 2 finale brought an ending to Strange Supreme’s story from season 1. He lost Christine, and despite finding a purpose, he soon found out that the grief had consumed him, and he never truly abandoned his goal of resurrecting Christine and his world. However, somewhere along the way, Strange turned sinister and decided to use villains and heroes as fuel for his machinations, and decided to re-forge the world literally. To do that, he used “The Forge,” and today we’re going to explain what it is.

Strange Supreme created a Forge to recreate his own universe

From the moment that Strange Supreme appeared in ‘What If…?’ Season 2, we knew that something sinister was going on behind the scenes. However, Strange presented it to Peggy Carter as a mission during which she will be helping to stop another Universe from being destroyed as she was supposedly hunting down the Universe killer.

The Universe killer in question was Kahhori, who was tricked by Strange at some point between her first appearance and the finale. Supreme Strange needed Kahhori not because of her willingness to save the Universe but because she was powerful, drawing powers from the Space Stone itself.

Strange’s plan was ultimately revealed when his cover was blown, and Kahhori explained to Peggy that Strange has been feeding both superheroes and villains to a gigantic forge in efforts to re-create his own Universe and consequentially resurrect Christine.

Peggy and Kahhori eventually managed to locate the gigantic Forge and things were far worse than they feared.

The Forge supposedly feeds on powers

There is a good reason why Strange continued collecting Universe killers in Sanctum, and it wasn’t because it was such a neat hobby. To recreate a whole Universe, he needed a lot of power as fuel, power that only beings beyond humans could provide him with. Strange Supreme was ready to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of superpowered beings to feed his Forge and recreate the reality in which his own Universe was still standing and Christine was alive.

He would have succeeded in his goal if it weren’t for Kahhori’s powers of teleportation. It’s unclear how Strange Supreme created the Forge, and the exact mechanics of how it works weren’t explained in much detail. All that is clear is that it required power as fuel and that it was ultimately successful in what it was supposed to do.

How did Strange Supreme recreate his world & Christine?

In the final moments of the fight, Strange Supreme managed to separate himself from his demonic form, and in the final moments of being good, instead of continuing the fight, he decided to let go and feed himself to the Forge. Since Strange is one of the most powerful characters in Marvel Universe, and his demonic form further amplified those powers, as it turned out, Strange was enough fuel to truly recreate the Universe he previously destroyed.

But there was a catch: despite making the ultimate sacrifice and giving rise to a complete Universe restoring the lives of billions, trillions of beings, Strange won’t be able to enjoy it. He was completely consumed by the Forge and wasn’t reborn into his Universe and if the Watcher is to be believed, he never will be. The only indication that Doctor Strange still exists within that Universe is the butterfly that landed on the Watcher in the final scenes of the Episode.

Yes, I know it’s quite a disappointing ending to Strange’s character arc. He deserved better. But it is what it is.

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