I feel so bad for the people who worked on Wandavision who worked so hard to thread the needle of making Wanda both dangerous and evil but also in a way that redemption is possible and believable -- she doesn't kill anybody, she makes sacrifices to atone. And then they nuke it all with this movie.

Heard Elizabeth Olsen wasn't happy with how Wanda was written for the movie; feels like Game of Thrones all over again - the actors understand and respect their characters more than the show runners do

I love how all the male supervillains in No Way Home got redeemed because their powers were “making them evil” and they had no agency (allegedly), but they all get “redeemed” But a female supervillain who was an incredibly lovable character and hero for 7 years become a complete psycho with almost no explanation, has no agency in her evil, have no one try to break the connection she has with the Darkhold, only for her to die and have no one care felt empty and meaningless Also, I challenge anyone to explain to me why her heel turn is fundamentally different from Daenerys’s in GOT, which was also empty and meaningless

Crazy how they had a female writer (Jac Schaeffer) involved for WandaVision and Wanda gets handled so well. As soon as she goes into the hands of Loki writer (Michael Waldron) Wanda’s character is fumbled. Definitely agree that they should’ve waited to tell this story but it seems that they do the same strokes w/ these female characters EVERYTIME.

This whole thing with ruining Wanda's arc is explained by the fact Sam Raimi has admitted he didn't even bother to watch Wandavision before directing this movie. Imagine having the chance to make a movie as anticipated as this one, be paid millions and not do the bare minimum? Can we stop giving money to old dudes that clearly don't care?

Two of the most powerful female characters in Marvel are Wanda and Jean Gray, both of which are KNOWN for going mad because of so much power. This is incredibly rare with male characters, and if it is it rarely defines him.

I totally thought they were going to have it be like “Oh you think Wanda is corrupted by the Darkhold- Wait till you see Strange corrupted by the Darkhold.” And that’s how you subvert the “hysteric woman with powers” trope- you show Dr Strange being just as corrupted if not more so, and either have Wanda help him or at the very least have Dr Strange say “oh shit i was wrong wanda you’re hardly that evil.” They almost do this, but they don’t. And it feels like, well then what the hell was the theme or moral here? They have Professor X say that characters can be forgiven- but then Wanda just dies!

The most upsetting part for me of Wanda’s rushed Villain arc as that the writers could have had their cake and eaten it too, if you want Wanda as a villain but not do the work to show us descending to that level - JUST MAKE AN ALTERNATE WANDA THE VILLAIN! It’s the multiverse movie, we see an evil Dr Strange - why not do the same for Wanda? There’s so few characters in the MCU with as much depth and nuance as her and they threw it all out so she can become a one-note sociopath. Incredibly disappointing.

It’s like they took the great character exploration and motivation and were like, “hm, nah she’s a cold blooded child stealing killer now.” I just feel like she deserves better. WandaVision was so good and I wanted the movie to be about her rescuing her kids in a multiverse not becoming a less captivating version of herself. And you are right having to get all wishywashy with “it’s not her it’s the book controlling her” it’s bad writing and flanderization. She deserved better. She was the only MCU hero I cared about because her story was the only one that felt interesting to me.

Thank you because I really feel like people are not looking at how she was characterized from the beginning. Obviously the Hydra thing was not well done, but she shelved her agenda and worked with Tony Stark and the Avengers when she realized Ultron's true intentions. She never went back to wanting revenge on Stark. That shows a lot of maturity. The whole thing in Lagos was not her being bad. Captain American FUCKED up. She probably saved more people by getting the bomb out of the market place. She did let the town go when she heard they were hurting. She seemed to truly believe she was protecting them and keeping them happy, but she heard them when they told her they were wrong. There wasn't enough done to justify this change in course. It just wasn't well done. They could have done a similar story where Wanda wasn't the one originally after America but maybe decides she will take her power at some point during the film. Or she tries to get America to send her to a multiverse where she can be with her kids, and America points out that she would be separating that Wanda from her family. Like there are so many ways they could have done this and it would have been so much better. I hated how they handled it. I am really sick of the "I'm a woman with too much power so now I'm gonna go crazy and kill people" thing. Elizabeth Olsen had me bawling like a baby tho.

My biggest issue with her depiction in this film was the offscreen reframing of Wanda's arc from Wandavision, which felt almost dismissive of the emotional journey through grief that she went on, over the course of that series. I enjoyed seeing her depicted as a straight up villain, but I also felt the writers botched it pretty messily. She's regularly a destructive force in the comics, as well as being written very much as a kind of misunderstood pariah, but the comics (more or less, depending on the writer) made her feel like a more nuanced and interesting character.

At a conceptual level, I disagree with the decision to turn a nuanced and complex character like Wanda into a psychopathic mass murderer just because she wants to be a mom. It undoes a lot of what made WandaVision so great and leans into some sexist tropes. HOWEVER, since that's the direction they decided to go, I have to say I really, REALLY loved Elizabeth Olsen's performance. I felt Olsen gave the Scarlet Witch the perfect amount of scariness, badassery, and campiness. She chewed the scenery and I LOVE that in a villain. I enjoyed Wanda going into full horror movie mode and started slaying her opponents like a Terminator. Lines like "Is their mother still alive? Good, then there will be someone left to raise them!" were so cold, yet I found myself cackling with ghoulish delight when she said them. So all in all, I think Wanda/Scarlet Witch is simultaneously the best and the worst thing bout Multiverse of Madness. It's not the direction I wanted from the character, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy every moment of her performance. Truth be told, the last time I enjoyed a comic book movie villain this much was when Heath Ledger played the Joker in 2008!

I super agree! I also think they keep bringing in women and saying "look, she is more powerful than the Avengers combined, is that feminist enough!??" and then because they are "too powerful" they can't even join in as it ruins the story 😑 or they turn evil

In Children’s Crusade, there’s this wonderful part where Billy says to the X-Men and Avengers “She’s evil? Well, the X-Men have Magento and Emma Frost, the Avengers have Hawkeye.” He goes on to list all these characters that have been evil turned good or have been possessed by evil. I think about that scene, I want them to do that scene in a future movie. The trouble is, at first I thought “most the characters Billy mentions only exist in the comics.” But then I thought, “Nah, they could do this scene.” Loki is a villain becoming redeemed in his TV Show. Hawkeye butchered people as Radan for five years during the Blip. Black Widow was an assassin. Hulk is obvious. Stark invented Ultron!

Can we just talk about how misleading all the trailers were? They all portrayed Wanda as one of the heroes helping strange but in the movie proper they make it very clear that she is the villain quite quickly. I had imagined based on the one trailer where she tells strange that when he breaks the rules he’s a “savior” but when she does it she’s the “villain”to be an indication that she was going to become evil at some point in the movie. I had imagined it would be at the midpoint or the end though. Pretty disappointed in the way Wanda was written in such a way that completely reneges on her development from Wandavison. I think it actually makes me dislike Wanda vision in retrospect because she goes through all this grief and trauma only to completely throw all that aside to make her the villain.

What frustrates me the most about this is that there's a really interesting groundwork laid for why Wanda ended up like this and they don't really explore it - the Darkhold taught Wanda that dreams are a window into Multiverses - meaning she was trying to grieve but every night getting not only a reminder of her loss but now she knows it's real. The went with Darkhold possession rather than the knowledge it gave her giving her an option that she was more likely to take while grieving. Also they cared more about the Darkhold being a post credit tease than setting it up so it'd be known about going into this - so they had to waste time they could've used on wanda's development explaining it.

I really enjoyed the Doctor Strange movie as a stand-alone. Wanda was absolutely terrifying and it worked for THIS movie. But I do think you're right: Wanda's arc didn't make sense when accompanied by the context of the comics and/or the WandaVision show. It felt like an alternate universe Wanda, not OUR Wanda from WandaVision.

What they did with Wanda in the Doctor Strange movie seems like a "crazy woman mama bear" trope. When Hawkeye lost his children, he became morally gray, but he didn't become evil. Why does Wanda become the villain immediately? I just wish they made some justification because it's such a big leap from Wandavision to Dr Strange.

I'm like 80% confident that they made America younger *specifically* to avoid having to deal with having a major secondary character being openly and confidently queer. It takes away from so much of her character, her independence and her agency (and as you mentioned, a lot of her powers are gone) and I hate it

I feel like the MCU bringing Captain Carter, Professor X, and Krasinski's Reed Richards feels like a Monkey's Paw situation. People wished for them but at what cost? It's like the studio are saying, "Okay, fans. You got your wish; can we move on?"

Injustices to Wanda aside. It seems a little messed up to follow up a series explicitly about her dealing with grief with her unaliving herself. They just don't care about anything

In the MCU only two things can drive a character for men: ego and love, and for women its some emotional or mental baggage holding them back. It gets tired

What is the obsession with making powerful women go crazy? Daenerys, Jean Grey, and now Wanda. The whole scene where Wanda attacked the Kamar Taj was almost exactly like Dany attacking KL. I hate this trope so much. It was stupid in GOT and it was stupid here.

That's why I liked Hela as a villain. Homegirl was like "Yo! I'm fly, my daddy run ish, we gonna git this bag." Hela was like "Yeah I'm a colonizer, what you gonna do bout it!?" Let a villain be a villain. It's so much more satisfying when you defeat them.

you talking about her potentially being slowly corrupted by the book and wrestling with that (circa 36min) made me think of frodo and the ring. that could've been a successful parallel.

Wandavision was also special because its one of the first times we see in superhero media where after a character going through immense grief and loss doesn’t go EVIL. They could of easily had Wanda consciously know she was hurting people and didn’t care and relished in it but no she thought she was keeping people safe and happy. We saw what true loss does to a character and her not going evil was beautiful. And they made her go evil with hardly ANY buildup majorly off screen for shock value.

It rubs me the wrong way the fact that she has two moms but it's when she finds a father figure is finally when she gets more confident

"Me and Ian got dinner plans!!!" Just took me out but yet no lies. No lies were detected! Thank you for vocalizing what I've been struggling to articulate. I had been trying to get a group together of my dearest friends to make this a movie night experience. I am so glad I took the CAM broke actor route and watched by myself. I would have been thoroughly disappointed in front of my friends having hyped this movie up just to see Wanda The Scarlett Mother play Daenerys 2.0.

What is it with male writers and writing super powerful women who are emotionally/mentally fragile? Such a frustrating trope.

I think we could've used more time with the Professor in Wanda's head. It didn't seem as apparent to some of the people I went with that she was possessed by the Darkhold. I would've liked a bit more depiction of the struggle between Wanda and the Scarlett Witch.

I think Wandas villain arc came to fast. She JUST finished Westview we should of seen her true aftermath and feelings. We understand she accepted Vision death but children are a completely different story. We only saw the fabricated parts of her grief being manipulated by the darkhold. She should of had her villain arc not being manipulated by the darkhold after her 2nd or 3rd appearance post Wandavision. Also the movies have such a weird obsession with Wandas pain…I don’t know if it’s the desire to see Elizabeth Olsens stellar acting or what but every appearance she goes through something worse like it’s abuse at this point…

100% Correct, we gonna reach a point of diminishing returns at some point with this cinematic universe. This character assassination of Wanda had an easy solution - make it a alt-universe version of Wanda that the main universe Wanda has to overcome.

I would consider WandaVision one of the most interesting narratives in the MCU because of how interesting it made Wanda as a character. My gripe with MoM is that the disney-fication of everything streamlined the dynamic between Strange and Wanda into a moral dichotomy of good vs evil, giving us Wanda as a villain. I really like how grey Wanda ended up being by the end of WandaVision so making her straight up evil in MoM was not a good idea not only because of the problematic tropes it falls into but also because it doesn’t make much sense from a character point of view. The Darkhold is used as a justification for this and on the one hand fine but also it means that this character is motivated by a book rather than her own desires. HOWEVER, since they felt like doing this I have to say Olsen and Raimi really worked hard to make her a cool, memorable and interesting villain. Olsen’s acting paired with the horror elements from the creative team really sold me on Wanda’s villainy which frustrates me a little because they didn’t have to do this and could have chosen a better direction for her character. All in all, while the problems with Wanda that are present in MoM hinder my overall opinion on her arc, I’m impressed with how well they executed it. I really hope she didn’t die at the end because a redemption arc for Wanda would probably be the best direction going forward in my opinion though I’m not sure how well they’ll manage to do it.

I feel afraid for young avengers under disney, I dont really care much about avengers but young avengers is a treasure, and I feel disney is ready to screw them up. I hope I'm wrong

So nice to see someone so eloquently and off the cuff put into words exactly how I felt coming out that movie! I personally did not have any issue with the concept of Wanda being evil or at least do wrong in the movie. But I really hated the way that they dealt with her and her arc was literally just the arc of Wandavision but again. She was grieving which made her angry and turn to evil things to fix her grief before fixing it in the end and sacrificing her happiness (or life in this case) to solve the problems she caused. This movie couldn't really exist in it's current incarnation without Wandavision existing, and yet the writers seem to just ignore the arc that actually happened in Wandavision, just focusing on that one end credits bit and ignoring the whole show. I'm also still confused as to how the rebuilt vision is alive and well and has memories back after the end of Wandavision and we still have no acknowledgement of this, I'm still waiting for that to come back up. I'm really glad you raised it because every time I bring it up people are like "nah he doesn't remember" or "nah he died didn't he?" Like nah he's just out there I guess hiding in a cave or some shit, and they're just trying to pretend we all forgot for no reason. It smacks to me like they're trying to use the ending points of where the TV shows left off without alienating anybody that hasn't seen the shows, which was a problem that everyone predicted for Disney+ exclusive content. They had time to figure that shit out and went with "uhhh...throw an end credits screen on you can upload to KZfaq so people aren't confused" and just ignore the actual contents of the show. Overall I loved the style of the movie, but the substance really didn't do it for me.

So really this all boils down to them trying to use story beats and elements from the comics that they haven’t built up to at all. So people are cheering because they recognize the cool thing from the comics or other stories, but what is happening doesn’t fit with the actual character’s journey. I feel like this was also a problem with Loki from the Loki show (same writer lol) because they wanted to write Loki as a type of character that he is not in the actual films. Like the characters talk about him like he is compulsively a villain when canonically Loki at the point he is on the timeline is: 1) Colonizer Daddy Issues 2) Brainwashed by the Mind stone by Thanos So the show Loki acting like post-Avengers 1 Loki is a self-absorbed narcissist and a wicked person by nature and by his own power at this point in his story was super weird to me idk. I guess Avengers Loki is also a good example of a character who was previously contentious but sympathetic taking a hard villain turn due to mind control without a lot of explanation. So it’s the same sort of deal like “Wanda’s a villain like in the comics, give her a little Darkhold mind control, no more explanation needed”. Yay for the MCU recreating the inconsistent writing issues from the comics lol.

Only at 29 minutes, but YES!!!!!!! That’s what I said to my husband! She’s supposed to be the most powerful being in the universe, she has this incredible story, these incredible motivations (she could have found a universe where her children were orphaned and needed her… and then when people are coming after her, she snaps and is like “I’ll take the first ones I can find because I need to get away from y’all before you stop me.”), and they ***seemingly*** end her story in a Dr. Strange movie? She should have been a big bad that faced down all the Avengers (or even her children as Avengers) or multiple teams from across the multiverse.

"Colonizer shield" Stop. You got me dying on the clock. 😂 😭

Her grief and loss and determination to make it right are so relatable in WandaVision. The jump to total corruption didn't make any sense! She already experienced losing herself and made a desicion to live with her grief rather than living a lie. I could understand her obtaining the DarkHold as a kill switch, in a moment of last resort. I think she would feel less alone by relating to people who lost loved ones after the snap

I didn’t like that I’d have to watch Disney+ to “get” the movies. Now I see the bigger problem is the huge potential for contradictory character development and world building as the MCU grows. Maybe the shows should expand on things the movies can’t go into rather than be based on primary characters and events if they won’t be able to remain true to one vision for a particular character. Where MCU was strong is getting us to invest in their heroes and make personal connections, even if different directors handled the character. We watched them grow and develop over many movies, but still on the same arc. However if a MAJOR arc is just going to be destroyed, then it doesn’t belong within the same story. I think there should be a way to keep her growth and still set up a compelling narrative. In fact, a flawed person making a wrong decision is so much more relatable and compelling than the “book turned her evil” narrative that I have to conclude this director wasn’t up to the task of creating a good story for this character.

Okay but-- you writing a Storm story would be so iconic....... 👁 I think you expressed the faults within most attempts of writing Wanda perfectly. She can be so much more. Especially on Mother's day weekend, they could have put more respect on her name, but I also think people are already saying it's her movie so I see why they'd want to leave it more vague right after she got her own show. Personally I don't think WV was about her redemption but her descent. She felt bad about Westview, but in the end, decided to go right instead of left. If we don't get an adaptation for Children's Crusade and see Billy mirror her desperation and journey, that's when I'll complain. Their mutual connection is what really speaks to me.

They should've teamed up to mend the cracking multiverse. Explore the mental issues of several characters to drive home the theme of "madness" promised in the title. Wanda: grief to the point of depression Stephen: the trauma of having died over and over again in The Dark Dimension + getting dusted I'd throw in Moon Knight (D.I.D.), Ghost Rider (likening his possession to a supernaturally tinged brand of schizophrenia) and Loki (self-worth issues + the fact that he's the remnant of an erased timeline) to tag along. Have Prof. X try and help them through their individual issues instead of getting his neck snapped "Matrix-style". Rather than Wanda, finally bring Kang into the fold. His mastery of time travel etc. could have reached nigh-magical levels so Strange can't simply trap him in the Mirror Dimension or resort to other default moves of his. If they wanted, they could have a Wanda variant call out to her and gradually corrupt her mind for a future storyline.

This is a looong comment but I got mad at the film LOL, I've never read the comics so I enjoy hearing what other people have to say of the movie, I can only really speak from my *vague* memories of the movie franchise. I like how they showed how much of a hypocrite Doctor Strange was, but I think it went a little over viewer's heads, and even over the heads of the characters? He controls a man to beat himself up for three weeks, and America shrugs it off like it's fine. That's essentially the same thing Wanda did to Westview, but Doctor Strange has no empathy or remorse for what he does, and America doesn't see that that's going too far. Which... frustrated me that America then goes on to say that 616 Dr Strange is like, the good one? Since she's met two of them, seen a statue of one, she can definitely say THIS version is different to all the rest, after knowing him for like 3 hours? That threw me because it felt like the whole movie was trying to establish that Dr Strange had the potential to become just like Wanda, which we have seen in What If, the lengths he'll go to for Christine (even tho that relationship..... never seemed very important? I don't know why Christine means so much to him?!), but at the same time, the movie + America say that this Dr Strange would never ever do what Wanda does, YET AT THE SAME TIME, he DOES do what Wanda does, YET he is not corrupted like her because he's different and good? just !!!! huh ???? I feel so confused by all of that. Especially because I thought his journey would be to learn some kind of empathy - what with the guy at the beginning telling Strange that he had lost his cats and family member as a result of Strange's choice, and Strange having had a career in surgery so he has to be able to detach from his emotions, and Christine kind of saying that this is why they never worked out (sort of saying that?). But because it's not THIS version of him who is corrupted, it's different versions of him who are, he just does not learn anything, he can't connect with Wanda on an emotional level, which is really what Wanda needs. he tells Wanda her kids aren't real, just super insensitive! So to have him as the central character to this story doesn't make sense to me, UNLESS his journey is to learn to be empathetic! in which case, he'd be a great character for the story! But he doesn't! He doesn't kill America out of empathy for her, he just doesn't kill her because... he doesn't really need to, and Good Guys Don't Kill. He learns nothing. The journey he goes on in this movie is just for him to get a third eye, which feels unearned because I don't think he learns to be empathetic, surely the third eye should signify his empathy? But the third eye comes from touching the darkhold so I guess it's setting up him becoming corrupted??? or is it???? He has this moment with Christine where he says he's scared of being open, why????? Has that ever come up? We learn he had a sister who died when he was young... why do we learn that there???? It changes nothing about his character, gives no insight. Ok, your sister died, how does that make you feel tho? Can you understand Wanda now? It's almost like the movie is now saying 'See, he already lost someone important to him, and HE hasn't turned out like Wanda, so he really is The Good Dr Strange, unlike the rest of his alternate selves' But then it just seems like he could only understand Wanda if he lost Christine, but 616 Strange doesn't lose her. HIS Christine is still alive, so he can still chat with her. She hasn't died, like Wanda's family, husband, and children all have. He's not isolated like Wanda is, Strange has countless people to talk to, a job he has to do. Wanda has literally nothing, nobody. And Strange has alternate Christine. I just don't understand this character or why HE was the one who went up against Wanda, if his arc was NOT to learn empathy? What was his arc??? I don't know what it was! I can definitely understand America hating Wanda, but I felt she should have much sooner been like 'I would also do anything to get back to the ones I love, I've literally BEEN doing that, but please stop trying to kill me, I can just give it to you. here u go'. People also saying that Wanda isn't a murderer, she doesn't kill children, but she DID blow up an apartment complex in Civil War, so I can imagine her state of mind being like 'Well, I've killed already. I've controlled people, manipulated people. Other people get to kill and manipulate for the sake of what they want. I want my children. So what's one more murder by my hands. What's one more murder, what's another murder... what's another and another and another..' THAT'S interesting, but this aspect of her character isn't explored, we have to deal with whatever Dr Strange has goin on which is NOTHING! I would also like to see if Monica finds out Wanda killed her mum in an alternate universe, considering Monica said to Wanda that she too would do anything to get her mother back. if that was the mum she could have had back, but Wanda killed her..... welll................ that'd be drama. Also GOD I don't care about Captain Peggy or whatever her name is, it's so lame I hate england so much just stop, nationalism so stupid. She says the line 'I can do this all day' GOD couldn't even give her her OWN line. no offense to hayley atwell, who I've always loved in the role, but omg I don't care about captain peggy if she's just going to be female-british steve rogers....... if there's one thing britain doesn't need it's more freakin nationalism oh my god marvel. stop with that.

SOOOO excited to hear you say your're going to do a video on Judaism in comics/Jewish representation. Its such a complex topic, which is strange considering how comics sort of started as a Jewish American invention. Cannot wait to hear your takes

Peggy being a semi-recurring character isn’t the worst thing but it annoys me so much with how it disrespects Sharon. Her actress got so much hate and harassment, which were supported by Hailey Atwell. Peggy was also never a huge character, barely even notable in comparison to Sharon’s history, so it makes no sense for her to be prioritized over her.

Ok, so... I know a lot of people are getting sick and tired of Peggy, and with good reason. Marvel's being super micro-aggressive by promoting the hell out of her over Sam. But like... She's my favorite character. Her TV show was my gateway into the MCU and Marvel as a whole. I'll never get tired of her. But Marvel needs to put respect on Sam's name.

I didn't mind Scarlet Witch being the villain. One of the things I loved about Wandavision was when she would tap into those dark, sinister moments. The problem was I wanted a more nuanced take on the villainy on the show. It would've been more interesting to have her use the Darkhold from the beginning and slowly become corrupted by it throughout the movie. Perhaps, it would've made the whole thing resonant more with the fans. I do think the main issue for this movie's messiness was America. As much as she was vital to the whole multiverse thing, the movie should've just concentrated on Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch and them both dealing with the ramifications of the mistakes that they've made in the past.

Princess that version of the story where Wanda leans into the dark hold to help Strange fight his evil self is a way better story. Coz then the progression to her evil self would make way more sense

My main gripe with America's character in the film is that you can clearly see, as a comics reader, her description can very much for that of Illyana Rasputin (aka Magik). How trauma plays into America, Dr strange being a mentor like character, these are all things that the comics have explored between Strange and Magik. Like you said, it feels like Disney not having all the Marvel rights is finally catching up to them

"It's to give a short hand of something" that's such an important point. So many tropes used and shortcuts taken to make these stories fit into films.

Also an historical add-on, Wanda actually recovered her memory about the kids after Byrne's West Coast Avengers, in the annual written by Roy Thomas. Busiek's run kinda mentioned how she dealt with that event. Then Bendis just kinda ignored all that and pick up straight from Byrne.

All the Robins should be LGBT, honestly. Tim's already bi. I could see Dick and Stephanie being pan. I could see Damian being ace (but alloromantic and very touch-starved). I could see Jason being bi. But as for who should be the Robin in "The Batman" sequel? The iconic Ms. Carrie Kelley. (Who should be a lesbian, by the way.)

NOT CHARLES GATEKEEP GASLIGHT XAVIER LMAO. Anyway this analysis is so well thought out, I love the X-men comics and I think you summed up perfectly why the movie didn’t work in a lot of ways. Love your content 💗

I had so many frustrations with the way Wanda and America Chavez were written in this film. I'm glad I'm not alone in that.

The sad thing to me is.. everything Monica Rambeau championed in WV was totally wrong . Wanda proves her wrong so hard in MoM it's almost comical. And I know that she is being corrupted by the Darkhold but A: it's not well executed B: we still see 2+ hours of Wanda completely ignoring everything she learned in WV. It's flat, nuanceless and jarring. They should have skipped the whole fanservice Illuminati part (which hilariously reminded me of the MetaHumans email- featurette in BvS) and give more time to flesh out how MUCH she is under the influence of the book. Like a Light Yagami with the Death Note level of corruption.

I feel like not enough reviewers are talking about this! And it was so glaring

It's good to finally hear a fan express why the Hollywood habit of grabbing some of the most popular event comics and adapting them often doesn't pay off because it totally ignores the history that was laid for those stories to work the way they did in the comics. It's not the idea that you "can't adapt a comic to screen page for page"; nobody is asking for that, but events that are based upon character relationships don't really work if you don't take the time to build character relationships, and movies today are all about action scenes -- not character development.

“Light skinned vision is right there, go get your man!” Loved it!!!!

Honestly I have a gripe with how the strongest women superheros are often depicted i.e. mental health issues or driven by the love of a man. I will NEVER forgive them for what they did to Rouge in the movies. Honestly she was totally let down!!!!

I thought Wanda’s arc made sense, but the issue I had was that the turn came way too soon and had no real buildup. WandaVision came out a year ago, and she clearly moved on by the end of that show. DS2 basically disregards that (Raimi even admitted he didn’t watch WandaVision in its entirety). I have no problem with her being corrupted by the Darkhold, but that change came way too quick and she came off as a two-dimensional character

I didn’t really know how to feel about the movie. I mean it really wasn’t what I wanted. And yeah, a movie isn’t bad just because it doesn’t fit my expectations, but I still feel like they made a lot of questionable decisions. Like I’m just struggling to figure out what kind of arc they were going for with Wanda. Because the Wanda we got at the end of WandaVision and the horror movie monster we got in Multiverse of Madness feel like completely different characters. I could probably get behind Wanda doing evil if they show us how she gets to that point. But I don’t think the movies really put it in that work. I agree with you on America too, they did my girl dirty. Why is she a MacGuffin? Why are they trying to sell me on this father-daughter friendship with Strange that I don’t care about? Why did they blast her moms into another dimension for no reason!? But they have her a Pride pin, so I guess they expect me to cheer.

I think it was a poor decision in my opinion for them to go full House of M here with Wanda and felt way too early imo. It's so annoying 🙄 and that was my biggest fear going into this film and I'm starting to think I like the original idea of the villain being nightmare and Dr Stange and Wanda teaming up to stop him and in essence redeem Wanda. The MCU did not need to pull this nonsense they pulled in this film and for me the direction was just bizzare.

Commenting just on how we got Wanda from end of WV to Doctor Strange MoM. It feels like we had a slightly alternate universe Wanda than WV Wanda. What REALLY doesn't help this disconnect: 1: Doctor Strange 2 REALLY poorly communicates that Wanda has been with the Dark Hold torturing herself over her kids for a year and a half in universe. 2: Both WV and especially Doctor Strange 2 VERY poorly defines what it actually means to be corrupted by the Dark Hold. Somehow despite four characters being afflicted by it in DS MoM. It's impossible to really tell what's Wanda (because although she let Westview go at the end she's been a baddie let's be real) and what's the Dark Hold because the last time we saw Wanda she's just so different. It gives them both a cheap out for Wanda's horrific actions, and also takes away all her baddie energy as the villain. Compromises her villainy and heroism. 3: There are some Doctor Strange 2 ideas that just flatly don't mesh with the rest of the MCU, but mainly Wandavision. Some of it can be explained away with the year time gap with Wanda reading the book, but stuff like her hearing voices of her children crying for help just doesn't fit here. So it just ends up feeling like we got a slightly 'off' Wanda in MoM.

So, I had problems with the film too. Now, Feige has gone on record as saying that the MCU Disney+ shows are not to be required viewing for the films. So, with that context, imagine going to see this film not having watched WandaVision as I am sure many casual fans did: Wanda at no point seems reasonable. She looks like a woman lusting after someone else's children which makes no sense if all one had seen was her last outing in Endgame. She went from grieving Vision to wanting kids? This movie really needed to sell her descent into villainy and it didn't really do it. Another thing, how can she destroy the Darkhold in *every* universe? If she can affect events across the multiverse that way, what can't she do? Also, in the infinite multiverse, there's not a *single* universe in which Tommy and Billy were recently orphaned where she could go take that Wanda's place? Also also, I didn't buy Captain Carter being a member of the Illuminati as I wouldn't buy Captain America being on the Illuminati. A self-appointed judge, jury, and executor for the enhanced community? We all know no Cap would stand for this. Also, why even have the Illuminati? This is a multiverse movie and in What If, we got introduced to the Multiverse Avengers. Why not have the Illuminati be them instead? I just hope they give Wanda one hell of a redemption arc. We all know she's not dead.

I guess I don’t have an attachment to the comics like you do, but similarly, I never felt like Wanda was a compelling character until wandavision. To me, it’s like they finally have her get a character arc, and then immediately reverse that in Doctor Strange 2. I always thought that the MCU was at a loss of what to do with Wanda. In age of ultron, she willingly drives the hulk mad in a crowded city knowing that it will kill a whole bunch of innocent people. Then, they do a 180 and she’s suddenly working with the people she was just trying to kill. And then they now do another whole 180 and make her a murderer again. There just isn’t a cohesive creative vision for her character.

I was waiting for your thoughts specifically about her character ever since your video on how Wandavision subverted the crazy woman trope. I’m watching this whole thing.

actually America was only 14 when introduced in the comics. The way she was drawn and even sometimes written made her seem older. Currently in the comics she is still only 18 eventhought she has been around for a decade.

Your Doctor Strange: MoM discussion talking about Wanda is the only one I need in this YT space right now. I'm so tired of watching fans go "it was really great, the illuminati served their purpose as a plot device, Wanda's conclusion was fitting because of course she was the villain" and I'm thinking "I didn't watch the same movie as you all did apparently."

"I'm sure Jean Grey is cackling about that" LMAO

I came out of the movie just so completely disappointed and I'm so happy that someone feels a lot of the same way that I did about it. I rewatched a few scenes, and have kinda just come to accept that this was just meant to be a gory romp and to value it as that 😮‍💨 would love it if Wanda isn't dead

Love your videos! Thank you for posting this, been following for a bit! Just started sharing some of your video essays with wife! 🤙🏿 In regards to Wanda, I was always thought it was odd and confusing how she was constantly empowered by her insanity in comics and then constantly gas lit and manipulated her family and leaders (both mutant AND Avengers) but no one EVER like gets her any type of therapy or psychological helps just act scared of her and try to control her and the that seemed to transfer into the MCU but Wandavision was the closest we got to seeing with agency and humanized but the writers still just had most chars treat her with fear and opposition, and she still only had the power to creat that world because she was emotionally/mentally unstable, and still no type of empathy or help, but it’s getting better at humanizing her and showing as a powerful woman who may have mental/emotional challenges but in control of their powers.

If Anna Diop wants to not waste her talents on Titans (a show not utilizing it's potential) she would make a great Storm. She's beautiful and has a very comanding, yet somehow endearing presence. And I'm sure she'd look just as good with the white hair, if not better.

Very much with you, I think I got whiplash going from Wandavision to Multiverse of Madness. Saying that 'the darkhold did it' is weak storytelling and uninteresting

As a Wanda fan who went throught the absolute shitshow that is Avengers Disassmbled/House of M(which actively butchered her continuity and character), which tossed her into comic limbo for 7 years. Plauge her with bunch of misogynistic tropes for more than a decade. This movie feels like it's celebrating everything wrong that plagues her character since then.

Honestly I'm okay with them using Photon alias for Monica Rambeau but I much prefer her alias Spectrum. It's such a gorgeous name and I think it fits what her abilities are better.

Never done the live chat before, so thank you for your lively chat! It was so much fun and you were funny and very engaging!! Can’t wait until your next one!! 🖤😎

I’m glad I listened to your review I ended up subscribing too bc you gave me some perspective on the way her character has drastically changed from Wandavision and now I see it. The Darkhold corrupting it’s user felt a lil cheap and it would’ve helped if we could’ve seen her slowly becoming corrupted by it. The scene of her limping in the tunnels made me feel sad by how desperate and insane her character has become. It’s obvious that she isn’t dead and I just hope she gets her true redemption.

holy shit this is SO GOOD you're so spot on about why dr strange 2 wanda felt so so weird. like love sam raimi cool visuals n shit but that was NOT wanda

Ahh, you should clip a short video out of this starting about at the point where you compare Wanda to Daenerys. That comparison makes a lot of sense.

I very much agree with the points you made about America Chavez near the beginning of the video. It was very similar to the half hour rant I subjected my partner to in the car after leaving the theater, so it's kind of nice to see that I'm not the only person that had serious problems with how they executed her character (honestly, it should have been Illyana Rasputin, make a few minor changes to the story and it works so much better and makes so much more sense, especially considering that Illyana is a character than actually, you know, has comic history with Wanda and Dr. Strange?) Honestly, I think her inclusion at all was just Disney being like, well, we're setting up for Young Avengers, so we need her in there, here you go. The Wanda stuff for me just felt like a culmination of unsatisfying storytelling regarding her character since her introduction in Age of Ultron. I don't think there was any way stuff with her was going to end well or in a satisfying manner, unfortunately.

honestly I was on board with evil wanda getting her way and I'm kinda mad they pulled a "she lost the will to live" in the last 5 minutes. Like, nothing America showed her contradicts her plans. She can just take the power, hop one universe over, and do the plan again. But no the movie wants us to be very aware strange was definitely the main character look how snarky he's walking away so cool

I agree with so much of what you lay out here. I have a theory that Olsen was ready to leave when they enticed her back with a series and a juicy villain arc, and they wrote around that. It would have been nice to get many more layers and chapters of this Wanda’s story, but it never seemed like Olsen was down for that.

Oh my gosh!!! Sososo glad you made this video! I was so tired of only seeing reviews by Marvel film bros who were totally uncritical of the film

I love your explanation btw, because I see so many people complaining about how the character was not given justice in this film but they never get into the nitty gritty of why they feel that way. I think you just explained where a lot of them come from. It's so rare to find someone like you, keep up the great work!

i totally agree w/ what you said about america chavez! she gets NOTHING to do in this movie. i haven't read the comics so i had no idea she was supposed to be a badass lesbian that just makes this even worse

I always appreciate these kinds of breakdowns from people familiar with the source material because it provides a deeper understanding of theses chatacters and stories that the MCU just can't or wont do as well as showing how much of a misstep was actually taken

Great video, as always. When they immediately heel-turned her (quite clumsly) almost immediately at the beginning of the movie, I was thinking "oh, they are going to be doing bad comic book writing now and somehow redeem her later because....multiverse". The rest of the movie became souless to me.

Is it OK if I recommend a video (not mine, lol; got none!) about the G-slur issue? The title's pretty self-explanatory: "Whitewashing in _Wandavision"_ The person who made it is bipoc and notably part Romani. I don't know them, but they're a small creator, and I just really liked the video. It's got lots of good info. Afaik the CC seems cool, plus idk about anyone else, but why so few bipoc creators in my recommended? ...Now, I thought about it, and I reckon there's enough space/difference that it's OK (not diverting away ppl), but this is _your_ channel and it's your call. So if it's not cool, I totally and genuinely understand, and of course deeply apologise. Cheers! 💝

You ever play tetris and you're building all these lines...and theres mad gaps in it. You start off clearing a few rows, but as the blocks keep coming you're just stacking them as best u can. Every few rows you clear a line and go up a level but all the gaps are making it harder and harder to clear lines. That's the MCU. Its becoming apparent now with Phase 4 that they may have a few too many lines with gaps in them to keep climbing levels.

Finished watching dr strange this weekend. Listened to everyone online to shortest to longest video. Great video.

I completely agree. My whole party I went with to see this left hating it. Wanda was reduced to a slasher villain essentially and no one had any arc deeper than a puddle. My husband finished wandavision before the movie and he was so mad about how they did Wanda. Also as a Puerto Rican woman I hate this version of America Chavez. If they picked a Mexican actress because she was the best fine. But they could’ve found any ol latina in Puerto Rico and gotten the same quality of performance. Feels like they think us Latinos are all the same. Interchangeable as long as it’s a brown skin playing the part. This film was a waste of time

I’m gonna watch this but I’m so happy I wasn’t the only one mad about this. It broke my heart and make me so angry sitting in this theater, watching this … thing. This bad boomer’s horror fanfiction.

Thanks for doing this talk. I was ambivalent about this film. You put it in context!

I love your mind. It’s so fascinating to me how you break this shit down

I overall really liked the movie. Wanda's somewhat abrupt reveal as the villain was pretty weird indeed, though. It is problematic and felt weird since she seemed to have character growth in a quite different direction at the end of WamdaVision. On the other hand, she is an amazing villain and I stan.

I'm still in the beginning of the video so i'm not sure if you bring this up yet but man i got a lot of dark phoenix energy from her in this movie which i feel like wasn't earned in a way, and that if we eventually get x-men stuff that story line will be less impactful *edit* wow you nailed it lol

I really hope you get to watch the movie again cuz I’ve always really enjoyed your take on so many fandoms. I think another viewing will help digest the material, as it did for me

I liked the movie. But I have so many complex feelings about Wanda and you make some good points. It was rushed as a complex character because I get she’s a complex character but she’s written as purely a villain mostly. Her reasonings aren’t explained fully as much like in the comics. I thought she would be helping Dr. Strange. I was shocked she was a villain.

The erasure of her Romani and Jewish identity made Wanda in the MCU look like a WASP women was just fighting for her right to have the American Dream. And willing to sacrifice a POC girl for her imaginary kids. I literally laughed at the movie a couple times because of how she wanted to have her cake and eat it too.

I'm not really a fan of marvel and so on but I immensely enjoy listening to you talking about this