A few thoughts about Wanda's depiction in "Multiverse of Madness" - and how it might have been improved
(This is going to be my last Wanda-centric post for a while, given that this movie constitutes her last appearance (to date) in the MCU)
Allow me to start by pointing out things I **LIKE** about *Multiverse of Madness:*
- Dr. Strange and Wong are always great
- America Chavez's introduction
- the music note fight scene
- I have no idea who Clea is (I'm not a big comics reader) but she looks super cool and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in future stories
.........
Now, on to the main consideration that puts *Multiverse of Madness* near the very bottom of my MCU rankings list:
Namely, **the blatant character assassination of Earth-616's Wanda Maximoff.**
What makes this most egregious is that there were SO. MANY. WAYS. the movie could have used Scarlet Witch as a villain without completely ruining her MCU characterization.
Because the thing is, putting it in the most basic terms, Wanda's story in *MoM* is about the Darkhold corrupting her to the point that she wants to steal away a Billy/Tommy at any cost since *she* wants to be happy, gosh darn it; and when Billy/Tommy's terror forcibly wakes her up to the truth of the situation, she fixes her mistakes by destroying the Darkhold and (maybe?) herself along with it. But there are so many missteps with her character along the way, it's *almost* like the movie's creators didn't take the time to fully watch, much less appreciate, the character nuances leading up to and including *WandaVision* (🙄).
Here are just a few examples, off the top of my head, of what could have been tweaked to make Wanda's depiction here more of a natural progression of what had come before:
- Heck, just explaining the Darkhold better would have been a major step in the right direction. Both *WandaVision* and *MoM* brush over the fact that the book is practically a sentient entity that actively corrupts its readers. A few blink-and-you'll-miss-them throwaway lines were NOT sufficient to describe or explain Wanda's complete 180 shift between the ending of *WandaVision* and what we see in *MoM* (I myself rather missed the relevance of those *MoM* lines the first time around and ended up having to look up a wikipedia explanation of the Darkhold to finally understand what was up with that stupid book). So as it stands, we're left with a bunch of viewers who go to town with the argument that Wanda was a villain all along, implying that she is deliberately making all these bad choices while in her right mind, when she's actually very much NOT in her right mind.
(Allow me to also point out the TOTAL missed opportunity to use the scene of Professor X entering Wanda's mind to depict our 616-Wanda's mental state while under the influence of the Darkhold. Sigh.)
Combine this lack of explanation with the fact that our 616-Dr. Strange uses the Darkhold and comes out still a hero (albeit with an extra eye), and it's sadly easy to see why so many people downplay, if not outright ignore, the Darkhold's role in Wanda's downfall.
- Have our Wanda be plagued with nightmares of Billy and Tommy dying/in danger in multiple universes. Instead of trying to steal her children away from an already loving household, have her believe she's *saving* them - which would also explain why she wants America's powers, because she wants to save all the Billys and Tommys who are in danger. This would also reiterate the twisted and corruptive properties of the Darkhold, which turns her dreams into these nightmares. And the "change of heart" scene would still work, when she realizes her children are already safe with their own Wanda.
- Reveal near the end that the Wanda who Dr. Strange approached was actually a Wanda/Scarlet Witch from another universe who came to Earth-616 and pretended to be our 616-Wanda. Maybe our 616-Wanda would find out what was going on and join the fight to help turn the villain Wanda around.
- As an alternative to the above, have an evil Wanda/Scarlet Witch in an alternate universe use our 616-Wanda to Dreamwalk and chase after America that way. Our Wanda wouldn't actually be evil and would have to grapple with the idea that a version of herself could be that evil (and it's possible some viewers who thought Wanda didn't get her comeuppance after Westview might be satisfied knowing Wanda experienced being controlled).
Again, these are just a few ideas off the top of my head. Ideas that would have reiterated Wanda's characterization as one of the most complex heroes/antiheroes in the MCU, rather than simplifying her into a rage monster (and taking the focus away from Stephen into the bargain).
Allow me to start by pointing out things I **LIKE** about *Multiverse of Madness:*
- Dr. Strange and Wong are always great
- America Chavez's introduction
- the music note fight scene
- I have no idea who Clea is (I'm not a big comics reader) but she looks super cool and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in future stories
.........
Now, on to the main consideration that puts *Multiverse of Madness* near the very bottom of my MCU rankings list:
Namely, **the blatant character assassination of Earth-616's Wanda Maximoff.**
What makes this most egregious is that there were SO. MANY. WAYS. the movie could have used Scarlet Witch as a villain without completely ruining her MCU characterization.
Because the thing is, putting it in the most basic terms, Wanda's story in *MoM* is about the Darkhold corrupting her to the point that she wants to steal away a Billy/Tommy at any cost since *she* wants to be happy, gosh darn it; and when Billy/Tommy's terror forcibly wakes her up to the truth of the situation, she fixes her mistakes by destroying the Darkhold and (maybe?) herself along with it. But there are so many missteps with her character along the way, it's *almost* like the movie's creators didn't take the time to fully watch, much less appreciate, the character nuances leading up to and including *WandaVision* (🙄).
Here are just a few examples, off the top of my head, of what could have been tweaked to make Wanda's depiction here more of a natural progression of what had come before:
- Heck, just explaining the Darkhold better would have been a major step in the right direction. Both *WandaVision* and *MoM* brush over the fact that the book is practically a sentient entity that actively corrupts its readers. A few blink-and-you'll-miss-them throwaway lines were NOT sufficient to describe or explain Wanda's complete 180 shift between the ending of *WandaVision* and what we see in *MoM* (I myself rather missed the relevance of those *MoM* lines the first time around and ended up having to look up a wikipedia explanation of the Darkhold to finally understand what was up with that stupid book). So as it stands, we're left with a bunch of viewers who go to town with the argument that Wanda was a villain all along, implying that she is deliberately making all these bad choices while in her right mind, when she's actually very much NOT in her right mind.
(Allow me to also point out the TOTAL missed opportunity to use the scene of Professor X entering Wanda's mind to depict our 616-Wanda's mental state while under the influence of the Darkhold. Sigh.)
Combine this lack of explanation with the fact that our 616-Dr. Strange uses the Darkhold and comes out still a hero (albeit with an extra eye), and it's sadly easy to see why so many people downplay, if not outright ignore, the Darkhold's role in Wanda's downfall.
- Have our Wanda be plagued with nightmares of Billy and Tommy dying/in danger in multiple universes. Instead of trying to steal her children away from an already loving household, have her believe she's *saving* them - which would also explain why she wants America's powers, because she wants to save all the Billys and Tommys who are in danger. This would also reiterate the twisted and corruptive properties of the Darkhold, which turns her dreams into these nightmares. And the "change of heart" scene would still work, when she realizes her children are already safe with their own Wanda.
- Reveal near the end that the Wanda who Dr. Strange approached was actually a Wanda/Scarlet Witch from another universe who came to Earth-616 and pretended to be our 616-Wanda. Maybe our 616-Wanda would find out what was going on and join the fight to help turn the villain Wanda around.
- As an alternative to the above, have an evil Wanda/Scarlet Witch in an alternate universe use our 616-Wanda to Dreamwalk and chase after America that way. Our Wanda wouldn't actually be evil and would have to grapple with the idea that a version of herself could be that evil (and it's possible some viewers who thought Wanda didn't get her comeuppance after Westview might be satisfied knowing Wanda experienced being controlled).
Again, these are just a few ideas off the top of my head. Ideas that would have reiterated Wanda's characterization as one of the most complex heroes/antiheroes in the MCU, rather than simplifying her into a rage monster (and taking the focus away from Stephen into the bargain).
Commentaires
Of your additional suggestions, the idea that Wanda believed she was saving the boys is the strongest. Combine that with the Darkhold influencing her mind such that she doesn't see how she's the one endangering them, up until her moment of clarity at the end, and you've got a more consistent and tragic story.
Thank you. I also think it would line up best with the end credits scene in *WandaVision,* given that when we hear the boys call out, it sounds like they are in distress.
The one time MCU does Show and not tell, the fans still bitch about them not telling how the Darkhold works. if they did tell how it work, you guy would be bitching about "Show, Don't tell us how the Darkhold works".
The MCU was clearly able to explain the Stones and why Thanos needed them. Its a simple writing issue
No argument from me!
Her acting was good. It was not Oscar worthy by any standard. Neither was Basset’s. I’d also argue that neither was Curtis’ but hers was better and it wasn’t in a ‘multiverse’ movie. It was in an awards style movie.
There is no 180. She was a villain in WV, and the very last thing we see her doing is read the book of evil to get more powerful, to find ‘her’ kids. This is after the evil witch who wanted the evil book had told her exactly what the evil book is and what it does.
> Strange used the Darkhold and comes out still a hero
That’s because he went in a hero and is a much stronger person.
Wanda on the other hand was already a villain with a *long* list of crimes under her belt before she ever turned a page and is *not* mentally strong/resilient.
She has also spent her *entire* life at war. She’s lost everything (some of those things multiple times). Her parents were killed and the man who she blames for it is worshipped. She was experimented on by Nazi’s. Her brother was killed. She decided to help mankind and was labelled a villain and feared for it. Then imprisoned for it. Then she was an international fugitive. Then She had to kill her partner. Then watch him be murdered. Then she brought him back and brought kids with him and then had to kill him again and them as well.
She’s the poster child of PTSD, generational trauma, and mental illness.
Strange opened the Darkhold to save a child.
Wanda opened the Darkhold to murder that child and to steal others.
> idea: Reveal near the end that the Wanda Strange approached was… from another universe
I know you’re just spitballing but that’s such a cop out.
So is ‘it was the Darkhold’. If you pass culpability for Wanda’s crimes onto a different Wanda or a spooky book, making her completely innocent, then you’ve just ruined the story you’re telling. Nothing mattered and there’s no consequences.
And as you stated, Strange read the book and didn’t go evil. So it’s clearly not entirely the books fault.
You’ve described Wanda as one of the most complex characters, but also want to remove that complexity because you don’t like that Marvel made her bad.
“I like her complexity, but I didn’t like her being a villain, so let’s remove that complexity and say it was someone/something else’s fault”.
Having it be a different Wanda also doesn’t absolve her of her crimes in WandaVision, where she was already a horrific villain.
> this is going to be my last Wanda centric post for a while
Ok?
... When? The most Agatha tells Wanda about the Darkhold is the title - "The Darkhold, Wanda, the Book of the Damned" - when Agatha is reading from it to give a definition of the Scarlet Witch.
If I'm somehow misremembering a key scene in the show where Agatha explicitly tells Wanda (and the audience) what the Darkhold is and what it does, I would appreciate a reminder.
Unlike some viewers, Wanda hasn't read Marvel comics. She wouldn't hear the title "Darkhold" and instantly understand - "oh, that's not just a mundane book of spells and witch definitions, it's practically a sentient entity that will twist my mind and soul to darkness."
>Wanda opened the Darkhold to murder that child and to steal others.
That wasn't her intention upon first opening the Darkhold, though. She took the Darkhold because she thought she could learn how to control her powers so she wouldn't hurt anyone else. THAT is spelled out very clearly at the end of *WandaVision.*
> that’s such a cop out. So is ‘it was the Darkhold’. If you pass culpability for Wanda’s crimes onto a different Wanda or a spooky book, making her completely innocent, then you’ve just ruined the story you’re telling. Nothing mattered and there’s no consequences.... “I like her complexity, but I didn’t like her being a villain, so let’s remove that complexity and say it was someone/something else’s fault”.
First of all, that is an interesting but highly inaccurate interpretation of my stance here. Second of all, we have enough people (such as yourself) saying Wanda is a villain based on her previous actions (that she's already tried to make amends for, I may add), so emphasizing that the Darkhold has corrupted her or that a different Wanda is fully corrupted wouldn't strip away that layer of "complexity" anyway.
>Having it be a different Wanda also doesn’t absolve her of her crimes in WandaVision, where she was already a horrific villain
On a tangent, but just curious... What *would* absolve Wanda of her crimes in *WandaVision*?
When this is pointed out to her, she hurts the person doing it. When SWORD ask her to free her slaves, she threatens to kill them all. Then she enslaves them too.
We never even find out what she does to the children of the town but they essentially stop existing. So nothing good.
Why would she need to be, or why would you want her to be ‘absolved’ of her crimes? Isn’t it much more interesting that she did something unforgivable and just can’t be forgiven?
And no, the very last scene of WandaVision explicitly shows her using the book to find her kids.
I don't think so. Especially since so many other antiheroes/villains are depicted in a sympathetic light and often do receive some measure of "forgiveness" especially when they start to see the error of their ways. Why should Wanda be the exception?
Redemption arcs are the more interesting stories, in my opinion. Watching characters change enough that they're willing to put in the work to make amends and fix their wrongs and fight an uphill battle against their previous life trajectory as they strive to become better will always be much more interesting than "bad guy does bad things because they're bad and they'll never ever change because bad."
>the very last scene of WandaVision explicitly shows her using the book to find her kids.
I just went back and rewatched the scene to make sure I hadn't missed anything. The scene depicts Wanda having opened the Darkhold and is using it in some fashion, then she hears her kids calling to her. There is nothing to show that she is actively looking for her kids, though that is a possibility since there's nothing to show that she is NOT looking for her kids, either.
Even if she is looking for her kids *at that point,* though, doesn't mean she left Westview with the Darkhold with that intention in the first place. Is it so hard to believe that she took the Darkhold with good intentions, and once she opened it, it started corrupting her to where her intentions changed?
I don’t want everyone’s story to be the same.
The world already feared Wanda. Then she enslaved and tortured people. Then she murdered people.
I don’t want her to be forgiven. It would be bad story telling. If it was the real world she’d have the death penalty or a full life sentence. And rightly so.
She’s too powerful for that though. So when she inevitably shows up again, I want to see her striving to do good but not receiving any acceptance.
> Redemption arcs are the more interesting stories, in my opinion.
Sometimes. But some people can’t be redeemed. And sometimes it’s more interesting not to redeem them.
> Watching characters change enough that they're willing to put in the work to make amends and fix their wrongs and fight an uphill battle against their previous life trajectory as they strive to become better will always be much more interesting than "bad guy does bad things because they're bad and they'll never ever change because bad."
Agreed. But they don’t have to put in the work and succeed. Or they don’t have to put in the work, succeed in being a better person, and then be accepted. They can still be rejected by society.
I’d prefer she came back, tried everything she could to make amends, and have her sons and Vision be disgusted by her. I’d much prefer Billy hang around with Ghostatha after rejecting Wanda.
She deserves an unhappy ending for what she did.
Even if we can forgive her crimes post-Darkhold. There’s no forgiving her crimes pre-Darkhold.
> There is nothing to show that she is actively looking for her kids, though that is a possibility since there's nothing to show that she is NOT looking for her kids, either.
You know what? Fair.
> Even if she is looking for her kids at that point, though, doesn't mean she left Westview with the Darkhold with that intention in the first place.
Again. Fair.
> Is it so hard to believe that she took the Darkhold with good intentions, and once she opened it, it started corrupting her to where her intentions changed?
Once again, fair.
But… there’s still all her crimes before that.
For clarity, I don’t actually think how you’ve reasoned out your ideas are bad. They’re logical and would fit the story.
I would just prefer she *not* have a redemption. A redemption arc? Yes. 100%. But I want her to do everything she can and still not be accepted.
At best I want her sons to acknowledge her as their mother but to never accept her as being their family.
The thing is, even in the storyline you describe, Wanda is receiving some kind of redemption arc. What has floored me the past few years is that the fandom attitude toward Wanda is generally that *she is such a villain she doesn't even deserve a redemption arc.* Even in this comment thread alone, you posited that my emphasis on the Darkhold influencing Wanda goes against my own interpretation of her as a complex character because "she's a villain and having any clear explanation behind WHY she's a villain and what's influencing her to BE a villain somehow makes her less of a villain and her entire character is villainy so we can't take that away." And that's how discussions generally go for Wanda: there is absolutely no room given to consider the *good* things she does and the ways she tries to *fix her mistakes* without fans constantly referencing past mistakes she made *which she already tried to fix.*
I can't think of any other MCU character who actually tries to make amends for the wrongs they've committed, who faces as much backlash as Wanda. Loki mounting a war against Earth because he was miffed about not getting the Asgardian throne is never brought up during discussions about how great he is for foiling Kang's designs; but Wanda turning on Ultron and freeing Westview and destroying the Darkhold, apparently none of that is worth even mentioning in light of the horrible things she did leading up to those decisions. Tony Stark creating Ultron led to actual permanent deaths on an enormous scale, yet people tend to brush over that because, hey, Tony meant well and was traumatized after New York and he didn't mean to hurt anybody and he tried to save them from Ultron afterward; meanwhile, Wanda very clearly NOT meaning to hurt anybody in Westview and then freeing them afterward certainly isn't enough for the audience to give her the slightest bit of grace for controlling the town.
So, yeah, does Wanda's story *have* to include "forgiveness" in the sense that everyone in-universe decides to collectively forget all the bad things she's done and welcome her with open arms? Of course not. But it would sure be nice if the fandom could actually acknowledge all the things Wanda has already done to "redeem herself" rather than have her entire character be "nothing she does will ever be good enough because she's a VILLAIN and rotten to the core and past the point of redemption."
And I maintain that the way Wanda was depicted in *MoM* just added fuel to the fire.
Also we don't know if the corruption is working on Strange yet or not. For all we know right now he could have been corrupted by it.
Strange read the book *once* in order to save people after which it was immediately destroyed.
Her corruption in that context makes sense and isn’t the 180 OP claimed. If anything it shows how shallow their argument is.
It’s called the *Dark*hold, and is referred to as ‘the book of the damned’. It’s also sought after by Agatha - an actual evil witch, who wants it to get more powerful.
None of that means anything other than ‘evil’.
I mean, do *you* think just opening a book with a questionable title is actually a conduit for an evil being and will actively corrupt you? I highly doubt the Darkhold came with trigger warnings on the cover.
(I haven't read the comics, and I like coming into the MCU projects basically blind to the comics arcs so I can watch the movies/shows on their own merits. So in terms of background knowledge, I was basically Wanda when Agatha revealed the Darkhold, and let me tell you I had *no clue whatsoever* that the book was so terrible and that Wanda was making a very poor decision by trying to learn to control her powers by studying the Darkhold. Even after watching *MoM* the first time, I didn't quite understand the book's influence. Finally had to look up a wikipedia article about the book. Which Wanda wouldn't have been able to do anyway.)
I'm not saying Wanda should have used the Darkhold. I'm not saying she shouldn't have sought other help. I AM saying it is completely *understandable* why the woman who had been shunned and attacked and held under suspicion by *almost* everyone her entire life wouldn't necessarily trust outside help, and why, upon finding a book that apparently has information about her powers, she would decide to try the "self-help" method on her own, and that she did NOT have any malicious intentions to start out with.
The difference between Strange and Wanda is that Strange is an experienced sorcerer. Wanda is learning the extent of her powers. Wanda opened the book because she heard her children calling for help.
The bottom line is that MoM was very poorly thought out. The only thing that Waldron and Raimi wanted was Wanda being the villain. It had nothing to do with any kind of story arc and unfortunately, they are stuck with it.
And she enslaves and tortures a town. She even kidnaps and hides all their children.
You could make the argument she didn’t realise at first. You cannot make that argument by the end. Or even by the midpoint.
Her grief isn’t relevant when multiple characters confront her and she doubles down and attacks them.
She is 100% a villain in WV.
Further proof that these negative aspects already exist within her is the fact that the book affects people differently, as we see with Agatha and Stephen. Conceptually, this isn’t that bad for me, because Wanda is still establishing her own rules, and her new “badass” Scarlet Witch persona is essentially a reflection of everything rotten inside her, amplified up to a 100%.
But like you said, what definitely doesn't work is the reasoning behinds her actions. I understand that the Darkhold (probably) clouds a person’s judgment and keeps them from seeing things clearly in their pursuit of an end goal, but in the film she comes across as pettish and dumb. Giving her actions a stronger sense of urgency (saving her children) would have totally worked better.
I also like the concept of Wanda discovering that she is unhappy *in every* universe as an alternative for her motivation, that there is a "multiversal pattern" in which her life is consistently miserable across all timelines. Her mission in the film could then be about finding out a way of how to fix this, because she sees it as deeply unfair and cruel that her suffering exists on a universal scale. Stephen obviously tries to stop her because it could break the multiverse and he's aware that this could be the Scarlet Witch prophecy becoming real. I'm sad this wasn't the case because it would build on her new role of the 'rewritter of realities' plus it's consistent thematically with what he already have in the film itself, about finding true happiness.
That's a really good point, and that's partly why I just wish the movie had explained the Darkhold better, because this IS especially what it does.
Of course, there's also the fact that a person's negative traits being amplified, doesn't mean they are devoid of any good/positive traits.
>I also like the concept of Wanda discovering that she is unhappy *in every* universe as an alternative for her motivation, that there is a "multiversal pattern" in which her life is consistently miserable across all timelines
This would have been great too. Showing a Wanda who's willing to attack a happy version of herself is one way of depicting her madness, I guess; but with no real explanation for *how* Wanda got to this point, it doesn't land well. Your version would have been a more reasonable explanation for her underlying motivations.
*I have no idea who Clea is (I'm not a big comics reader) but she looks super cool and I'm looking forward to never seeing her again because Marvel doesn't follow through on its end credits.*
\*Fixed that for you.
😭😭😭