Today, I am writing about my remarks on something entirely different.
What’s it like to create a masterpiece? What do you get when you cross a grief-ridden reality warper with a crazed witch from the 17th century? In this post, I will cover each of these questions, and add my thoughts along the way. Just be warned, there are spoilers for WandaVision in this post, including from the last episode that just came out today!
What follows is my understanding of WandaVision, from breaking down the complex characterisations to the introduction of Chaos Magic, to how WandaVision will play out in the 4th Phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Let’s get into it!
What I will go over:
1 — WandaVision Story
- My reaction to the plot, my retrospect, and thoughts while watching.
- The idea of chaos magic, and the other magic types.
- Nuances and variations in the WandaVision show!
- Why the show is one of the best things Marvel has ever done.
2 — The Bigger Picture
- Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and what role Wanda will play in this.
- What Marvel Inc. intends to do with Wanda’s character.
- Where will Wanda go after this?
And no, I am not on the Marvel set, so these are my speculations. You should know that my speculations are based on a mental repository of every Marvel movie/show, and thousands of comic books 😉
1. The Show Overall
And was probably the most anticipated show out of the Disney+ assemblage of Marvel TV series releases. I was most definitely looking forward to it the most as well. Up until the events of the last episode, many Marvel fans have grown to love Wanda’s character, but there was a slightly underwhelming feeling when we never get to see her warp reality on the big screen.
Even those who are not crazy comic nerds are aware of the insane magical capabilities of Wanda, alongside the millions of retcons she is received over the years, especially about her powers and capabilities. For those who do not know, Wanda has been given an immeasurable amount of character changes:
- She was first considered to be a mutant and the daughter of the infamous Magneto, capable of manipulating probabilities by a significant amount, even near-impossible ones, such as oxygen in the air randomly igniting and causing a human to spontaneously combust.
- Then, her (and her twin brother’s) backstory is changed to being the daughter of a human couple; she is still a mutant with the same psychokinetic, or probability manipulation, powers.
- Then, she was adopted, experimented on by a crazy geneticist called the High Evolutionary, and given to parents with the last name Maximoff, meaning she was a mutate instead of a mutant.
- Later her parents were said to be heroes during the Golden Age with the surname “Frank” (Wanda Frank just does not sound right to me).
- Then the same human Maximoff couple in rendition 2 are revealed to be Wanda’s aunt and uncle, and that her mother was a previous Scarlet Witch.
Today, the agreed-upon backstory for Wanda is some sort of amalgamation of all of these, where Wanda’s real mother was the previous Scarlet Witch, she was adopted by the Maximoff family, was abducted by the High Evolutionary and brought to his base of Wundagore Mountain, where she was experimented on and disguised as a mutant.
Fortunately, the MCU has adopted a more streamlined backstory for Wanda. She was born to the Maximoff family with a natural affinity for magic (unknowingly), went through a bunch of trauma that involved her parents being bombed, was addicted to sitcoms, and got her intrinsic witch skills magnified when she was experimented on by Hydra with the Mind Stone.
Sounds kind of similar to the comic, right? I think it is a genius edit.
And from there we get MCU Wanda! Until the events of WandaVision, she is completely unaware that her “neuro-electric interfacing” abilities are just magic. Therefore, we do not get the full extent of her powers. In Age of Ultron, her telekinetic abilities are especially weak, though her telepathic and neuropathic capabilities are considerable, being able to control multiple people at a time.
And yes, we did get a hint of Wanda’s telekinetic powers, especially when her brother dies, like when she disintegrates the Ultron spawn or snatches Ultron’s heart out.
Then in the subsequent films, we see her powers grow to the point where she can destroy the Mind Stone in Vision’s head, and hold back Thanos (with all Infinity Stones but one) at the same time! However, we also see her telepathic abilities disappear along with her accent. At this point, Widow has taught her to mask her Sokovian accent, and she views mind control as unethical.
Her biggest display of telekinetic power was probably when she was able to take out a bunch of Thanos’ demon troops.
But then, after Vision dies in Infinity War, Wanda is back with a vengeance in Endgame. She approaches Thanos (with no Infinity Stones) alone, who had recently taken out Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, and proceeds to mop the floor with him at the heels of her accent coming back.
Later on in WandaVision, it is confirmed that Thanos would have been ripped in half (or been killed in some way) by Wanda had he not ordered his troops to rain down energy bullets from his massive ship.
And then we get WandaVision.
We think that yes, Wanda’s controlling reality, but magic was not suspected until Agnes (who is later revealed to be the Salem witch Agatha Harkness), the supposed “nosy neighbor” is introduced, and fan theories about her being Agatha Harkness start flying. Even then, it is assumed that Wanda’s powers have not been changed or reinterpreted because in a deleted scene of Captain America: Civil War, Vision says “Ms. Maximoff manipulates molecular polarity, allowing her to alter reality.”
Therefore, many people just thought that she is using telekinesis to make everything appear differently in Westview, and her telepathy made everyone abide by her sitcom-obsession storyline. In reality (ha, ha!), Wanda cast so many spells at once when she arrived at the vacant lot where she and Vision were supposed to live; they made a deed, but then he died.
By casting protection, transfiguration, mind control, conjuration, and chaos magic spells all at once over a vast location, Wanda constructs the “Hex” anomaly, which enslaves the people of Westview, and forces them to live in Wanda’s idyllic sitcom world, despite their true selves being suppressed and suffering all the while. She is also able to will Vision back into existence, Mind Stone and all, despite his real body being illegally reconstructed by Tyler Hayward, (acting) director of S.W.O.R.D.
After her grief tantrum, Wanda gets to live in sitcoms and TV shows as they progress through time, and we see these odd Easter Eggs throughout the show, courtesy of the big bad Agnes (she is Agatha Harkness), who is trying to get Wanda to subconsciously reveal how she created the hex by causing bugs in Wanda’s new world.
Ultimately, Wanda learns that she is the realization of the myth of the Scarlet Witch, a being with no coven, no need for incantation, and no necessity for the learning of magic, yet capable of spontaneous creation through the volatile and powerful chaos magic — which was previously speculated by Agatha to not even have existed until she felt the afterglow of magic emanating from the Hex and Wanda.
The show concludes with Wanda having to confront her grief and release the people of Westview, and let her children and homemade Vision dissipate from reality, but not before she permanently turns Agatha into Agnes after an epic showdown where she finally dons her comic-bookesque costume, which leaves Agatha speechless.
In the end credits scene, Wanda is shown using an astral projection to coexist as her normal self, and in an evil-looking (but heroic) Scarlet Witch form, trying to master her powers by reading from the Darkhold (also known as the book of the cursed) — which, notably, corrupts those who read it.
While she is reading, Wanda hears the cries of her children, whom she created in the Hex.
And that is our segue into the multiverse.
2. The Bigger Picture
Though a popular theory was that WandaVision would be the gateway that appends mutants to the long list of new characters in the MCU, it is clear that WandaVision was a definite service to MCU and comic fanatics, as well as a hint into the next Dr. Strange movie, which will probably be our introduction to Phase 4 characters and themes.
Our favorite witch is already confirmed to be in the next movie, and Olsen herself has talked about filming it in some interviews.
It seems that Wanda’s magic is going to go haywire, and cause some inter-universal consequences.
For those who do not know, Wanda is a nexus being in the comics, or an entity that bridges different universes together, and is therefore unchanged between universes and dimensions. Therefore, her reality warping can affect the multiverse, and it likely will. In literature, Dr. Strange is the one who puts Wanda in a coma to reverse the effects of her powers.
At this point, Wanda is an ultra-powered being who can end any fight, but I can see her appearing in Phase 4 of the comics, as the Avengers villains are becoming a lot stronger, and Wanda’s powers now are still very nerf-able. Either that, or they will have to kill her off, bring in Hope Summers and mutants, or keep her catatonic.
Ultimately, Wanda’s ability to rewrite reality is going to be the tangent that introduces the multiverse, and like in the comics, Mephisto (Marvel’s version of the devil), will likely be in connection to her fabricated twin children somehow.
I think that Wanda’s character and the course of Phase 4 as a whole are where the MCU starts to not only expand the universe but also incorporate more and more comic book elements, which viewers like.
I’m excited to see what they release next!
About the Author
Hi, my name is Okezue Bell, and I am a social technologist and activist with interests in computer science, applied math, and bioengineering. I run a social and financial equity startup called Fidutam and am heavily engaged in the sustainability industry. Feel free to comment on this article or message me if you have questions, and leave claps if you enjoyed it! Check out my Wikipedia and follow me on Instagram!
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