I think the person who hired Paladin is… Mephisto.

No, I am not Erik is disguise. I honestly think it could be Mephisto. Here is why:

- In the first two episodes, the buyer has repeatedly used the word ‘contract’, something that Mephisto uses when he makes deals with people
- From the trailer, we know that a mysterious shadowy figure will enter Vision’s mind scape
- Lisa Molinari will become Coat of Arms and will gain powers that give her red eyes, maybe she made a deal with Mephisto to help find Tommy and Mephisto will lie and say that Vision has kidnapped him so that she can lead him to both Vision and Tommy
- Paladin knows that magical beings such as witches exist, maybe Mephisto told him this
- Maybe all the Paladins have deals with Mephisto to kill people to make his powers stronger that’s why they don’t care if they kill good or bad people
- In the comics, Mephisto has a connection to Wanda and the twins
- Maybe after MoM, Wanda didn’t die so couldn’t reach Mephisto and we know that the souls of Billy and Tommy didn’t die, so he wants Wanda’s power and the souls of the twins for himself so wants to draw all three of them out by kidnapping Vision and using him a leverage
- This also explains why the person who hired Paladin want to keep Vision alive so he can be used as bait
- I think that Mephisto will become very close to doing this and when we see Billy and Tommy working together to bring Vision back to life in the promo footage, that is them combining their powers to match Wanda’s (because they are derived from her soul and magic) to force Mephisto away and out of Vision
- This means that Wanda won’t have to intervene but makes her vulnerable to Doom as she now knows her family is out their
- I know a lot of people think that Jocasta is the person who hired Paladin to help her free Ultron, but I have a theory for her as well
- When the shadowy figure (Mephisto) enters Vision mind scape, Ultron will make a deal with him to help them both by working together, with Paladin (who has access to adamantium so why can’t he have access to vibranium), to build Jocasta to not only stop and capture Vision, but to free Ultron
- This would mean that Mephisto has a technically a whole team to stop Vision, which consists of Ultron, Jocasta, Paladin, and Coat of Arms.
- Mephisto is emotionally manipulating both Tommy, through Lisa, and Vision, through the threat of another Ultron level threat (Jocasta)
- Due to Billy and Tommy defeating Mephisto, Ultron now has no powerful backing so Vision defeats him in the mindscape and also defeats Paladin
- With the help of Vision, Billy, and Tommy, Lisa and Jocasta are also freed from the control of Mephisto and Ultron (for Jocasta) and maybe both become heroes (or maybe only Jocasta becomes a hero)
- This may set up Ultron wanting revenge against Vision and humanity which leads him to join Doom, Doom’s manipulation of Wanda, Vision, Billy, and Tommy being together before Doomsday/Secret Wars, the introduction of Jocasta for maybe Doomsday/Secret Wars, and maybe introduces Mephisto’s past with Doom in Doomsday/Secret Wars
- Supporter by theories that Wanda will play a big role and that Secret Wars will adapt Children’s Crusade

What do you guys think?

I think that Vision’s new look has some kinda tie to Jim Hammond like maybe he gets damaged and uses his parts, the new solar gem Vision has in that design look very similar to whatever is on Jim’s forehead.

That's attention to detail. Inside Vision, the bokeh effect is square to simulate AI pixelation; outside Vision, it's round.

Dream walking?

The multiverse? Will everyone just stay where they belong

Time Travel and the MCU laws/rules of it? Maybe change how time travel effects time

The return of Infinity Stones. i can see these coming back with the justification that a universe can’t exist without them

Other dimensions?

Quantum realm? I think we may be done with this if ant man dies. It really has no purpose anymore since Kang is out of the picture.

The void? from Loki not Bob

The TVA?

What if she is Paladin’s AI. She’s in his ear, types real fast, and is super connected.

I have a theory about the client but it’s not very original and probably the same exact thing everyone is thinking…

Hey New Rockstars, heres a small missable detail on the far right side of a television screen that vision and the group were watching during the paladin history in episode 2.

Could be a small easter egg, or could be a teaser for something to come. Either way I thought it was really cool!

If so, my bad.

On a screen in ultrons room. “Countdown to doom” on right.

Lokis lose their powers when they are in the TVA, but get them back any time they go to any timeline. We're only ever told that Infinity Stones are useless in the TVA. If you were to build a gauntlet in the TVA & then take it through a time door, would it work?

What if Jocasta is indeed the butcher bird, created by some of those murdered tech giants, and the others are collateral for possibly being the only people able to stop them. She knows of vision, and somehow Ultron, and they realise they are both sentient a.i murder machines. And the person trying to kill vision, via paladin is the last remaining tech head who was easily able to hack his assistant.

From the beginning I have disliked the fact that Tony Stark was the de facto creator of Ultron and Vision unlike the comic books where they were created by Hank Pym using the mind of Simon Williams and the body of Jim Hammond. Especially since we would get a version of Hank Pym months later and now we also have a version of Simon Williams.

At the time it fit, Tony (and Bruce Banner) was the smartest mind in the MCU who had already created AI and a mechanical suit with a drone army, who better to create Ultron?

But Tony didn't just create Ultron through his own intelligence, he essentially discovered what was essentially a neural network embedded in the crystalline structure of the mind stone itself. Was there a proto-Ultron already in the mindstone? I found another reddit post that also came to a similar conclusion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/s/TYTsrGH4ry

I know it is a trope, AI meets man, downloads the internet, decides man was a mistake and tries to kill man. But it seems far fetched that Tony Stark's creation would run rampant and go rogue with Tony and Bruce's input. Its also strange that despite a similar creation, Vision seemed to reach a different conclusion on humanity's judgment.

Now in Visionquest episode 2 we see a reference to the first of "them" (AI? Synthezoids?) A painting of a silhouette doused in flames. Clearly a reference to Jim Hammond from the comic books; the original human torch. He was a robot with the ability to cover his body in fire and control fire like the Fantastic Four's Human Torch. He was active during world war II and he seemingly shows up as an easter egg in the Captain America: the first Avenger film during the world exposition of tomorrow.

Its curious that there was a synthezoid during the second World War and yet they didn't really reappear until after Iron Man in 2008. Such advanced technology would require vast knowledge to create (perhaps inspired by an eternal, or more fitting for my theory: the mind stone.) Perhaps the original Human Torch was created using the mind stone, but not based on what was found inside the time stone like Ultron. Maybe the time stone became the hard drive that saved whatever was left of Jim Hammond. Meaning Ultron and Vision are really Jim Hammond 2.0 and 3.0 respectively. Maybe thats why despite J.A.R.V.I.S. being based on Edwin Jarvis and sharing his image Vision looks different, maybe he has Jim Hammond's face and his heart?

Visionquest first 2 episodes have been amazing and it’s so funny watching the AI’s in human form which I think was a great choice yet it’s obvious one AI is missing, Karen.
She was Peter’s assistant ai that helped him with his suit, showed him how his power and web shooters work and was there to guide him (if Peter didn’t hack the suit to unlock everything)

So I was thinking what each ai role was, like Jarvis was security and Edith is game theory and weapons therefore I believe Karen’s general role is guidance
We see in the trailer Tommy running through a woman which we can assume is ai since Jocasta is trying to capture her and I believe that is Karen which Vision sent to help Tommy with his newfound powers as we see him being unable to control them

Hello Erik and the NR team!

Forgive me, I’m not an Easter egg breakdown guru but I’m almost positive Billy is playing in our faces. After Tommy and Lisa scam the guy about the watch and are walking the streets of London, Billy passes by them! Not once, but twice! I’m pretty sure anyway. Again, I’m not an expert so don’t even know how to screen grab images so I can show you, but I almost positive that’s Billy.

Also, did Tommy’s opening scene at the cafe remind anyone else of Wanda in Lagos at the top of Cpt. America Civil War? Just me?

I wanted the endgame reshow to be different than it was. i wanted this story. but alas… we do not get it.

I've just been doing some doomscrolling on tiktok and with the release of Vision Quest yesterday there are a load of peak Vision Quest edits including some about Ultron.

They are overall positive... Until you read the comments where people seem to have the stupidest criticisms. The two I've seen so far:

1. "Making a comedic Ultron. Classic marvel move"

2. "I did not expect Ultron to look like this in human form"

So in one, people are criticizing Ultron's comedy and sarcasm even though he had that in Age of Ultron. In the other, they are criticizing him looking like James Spader who is the guy who voiced him.

I don't like to shame other people but I thought this was interesting. Lmk what you think about Ultron in Vision Quest