___ARG___
Before starting I wanted to say that it will be pretty long because I have a lot of things to say, ( It’s a topic that I already wanted to tackle since a while ) I also wanted to say that I won’t hesitate to be a bit harsh sometimes so.. enjoy 🙂
For me, even if from a more shallow perspective she’s badass, extremely menacing and that Lizzie absolutely nailed it for the acting, when it comes to the writing perspective and storytelling it’s still a pure character assassination. Why ? Because WandaVision established a completely different path for her character to follow and was even kind of a redemption / new departure arc, ( I know it sounds weird but let me explain ) It’s proved by the plot : Wanda Maximoff riddled with devastation and grief after having to sacrifice the love of her life in vain to try to save the world, and being in the unique position of not getting it back years later like many others on had the chance to do so and doing her best to try to accept it, going through the five stages of grief until the phase of the acceptance represented by the fact that when she realized that Westview’s inhabitants were suffering, she put an end to it.
Yea let me say that again, WHEN WANDA REALIZED THAT WHAT SHE WAS DOING WAS WRONG, SHE PUT AN END TO IT. Wanda gave up her dream, her perfect life that she was actively trying to reach since she was little, this happiness that she was never supposed to know under normal circumstances, and everything she ever wanted because she knew the consequences of forcing it to being true. She KNEW that it was the right thing to do, she KNEW that damages has been done and she tried to fix it. How ? by isolating herself and in the middle of the woods and trying to understand her power in order that something like Westview’s events never happen again.
Here’s what you really need to understand : Wanda didn’t knew that Westview’s inhabitants were in pain and was like them under her own spell ( her magic took control and all of her memories were suppressed / repressed to protect her ). She wakes up in this completely new world ( without any previous memories from previous events ) and slowly becomes more and more aware of the power she has on it and starts to enjoy it not because she can make them suffering ( because she didn’t even knew that they were under control in the first place ) but because it’s a way to escape the harsh reality that she was always forced to face and having control on her own life for the first time. Wanda didn’t knew what she was doing until Agatha showed her what she has done and she is immediately horrified and freaks out after realizing it. Wanda actually evolved at the end of the show because with the help of Vision’s wisdom, Wanda understood that she cannot spread her suffering despite having the power to do so, and she decides to endure the pain and let her family go.
My main problem with Multiverse of Madness is that the movie… ACTIVELY acts like WandaVision never happened. So not only this abomination literally retells the same story but worse, it also completely invalidate all of the character growth that she went through by acting like the show and even the events from the previous movies by extension never happened. One of the worst points is that the movie almost gave right to this asshole of Tyler Hayward when you think about it, ( yea the dude who had no problem exploiting Vision’s dead body and violating his integrity and his rights by dehumanizing him and treating him like a thing ), and even Tony by a certain extent ( because it also means that Steve and the others took her defense and fought for her for nothing ). You thought that Wanda evolved at the end of her show, understood what she has done and all of the pain she caused and that the next time we will see her she’s going to show us this growth but actually she literally didn’t learn anything at all and even regressed in some way.
Other problem, her motivations. Even if they are somehow “comprehensible” the way she tries to achieve it doesn’t make any sense. I mean.. She literally has 9779078447 other ways to achieve her goals but choose the dumbest way possible and the worst thing is that when other characters confront her about it, she answers it in a completely braindead and outrageous way possible with the most derisory justifications ( which demonstrates all the artificial additions that the film tries to add randomly to try to give meaning to the way she acts which has none by the way )
But here is are the big questions, why there are all of these writting problems ? Why Wanda act so out of character and literally feel like she suddenly lost 80 points of iq ? Simply because Sam Raimi didn’t even really watched WandaVision and just watched some key scenes here and there ! And the worst thing about it is that It’s not even like the show lasts forever because there’s only 9 ep of barely 25-30 min ! I mean.. even Elizabeth Olsen herself was really doubtful about Wanda who was always ( compared to a lot of people tend to think ) very kind, polite, sympathetic, and with a lot of empathy suddenly turning into this evil psychotic mass murderer who mercilessly kills hundreds of people without any second thought. If even one of your actors ( that are technically less skilled than you at what you do ) feels like this is wrong it just proves that there’s a serious writing problem.
It’s so frustrating to see someone so talented like Sam Raimi literally screwing her up as well as Michael Waldron and the other writers and I blame them for not getting into her character enough and ignoring/overshadowing all the canon events to her story in the MCU. Wanda was literally one if not even the most complex Mcu character that we had and seeing the way they butchered her character just bother me so much. So much better could have been done with her character but they just straight up waisted all of these opportunities and the saddest part is that Wanda’s mistreatment isn’t an isolated case and she’s just an another name added to this list of manhandled characters that suddenly started to increase massively since phase 4.
I have nothing against Wanda being turned into a villain, ( especially when you have such a good actress like Elizabeth Olsen to play her, and how great they did it in some comic book storylines ) if they actually take their time to really set up things correctly to keep her character writing consistent enough which they simply didn’t.
– PS : I already see you miles away coming to jump at my throat about the Darkhold and if it’s what you intended to do don’t even. This poor sequence of 10 seconds isn’t enough to justify such a massive character changement. It’s just lazy writing and just proves how poorly her transition hero-villain was done and how unnecessary and irrelevant it was ESPECIALLY just after WandaVision ended because it just undo all of her arc since almost her first appearance and just actively harms her character plot wise.
