#and after wandavision it really felt like betrayal

[leighlew3]

Overall, Agatha All Along was a nice watch.

I struggled to connect with a couple of the characters due to some of the writing, including William/Billy which made things a tad difficult as he was so central to the plot and reveal tbh, but oh well. The cast were ALL great in their roles though.

Overall -- I dug the show.

Felt at first like there was a lot more emotional depth to mine from and they only sort of scratched the surface in exchange for an easy to digest 'fun' tale for the casual Marvel viewer for most of the show, but they really got deep with it in the last three eps, to my surprise and enjoyment.

Sooo yeah, Agatha really is a tragic figure and sympathetic "villain".

If I'm remembering her backstory correctly (sorry, been a bit distracted with a lot of work and life stuff while watching this show and am trying to remember the specifics set up in WandaVision) -- her awful mother basically created a self-fulfilling prophecy, ffs.

Believing Agatha was incapable of good (we've seen otherwise) and thinking she had to DIE for the supposed betrayal of her coven by practicing dark magic.. it simply set in motion BY her mother. The series of events that pushed Agatha to go dark and fight back in order to survive after her own mother ignored her desperate pleas to spare her as she burned alive...

Everything Agatha did after that, while yes it was her own choosing at the end of the day, was ultimately the result of that trauma and hate for fellow witches. The ironic price she had to pay for seeking to take as much power as possible after hers was threatened by her own mother and fellow witches -- was her own child. So basically, she was harmed -- and she harmed back. Not okay, but empathy makes you try to at last understand why she did what she did and feel bad for what she went through, even if it's not an excuse for her actions. But either way, had to suffer for it. It's sorta like someone sucker punches you, so you knock 'em out cold, and then YOU go to jail. Sigh.

Also, it's petty tragic that the only genuine love she's ever known was Rio (death herself). And it seems they produced a child together (?) whom she then tragically lost. It's just irony and tragedy wrapped in irony and tragedy. Sad shit.

Anyway, I'm glad to see "Agathario" was full canon, however tragic (for now) their "ending" was. Hopeful for further exploration of them in the future. But for now, for Marvel/Disney of all companies to be the one to allow a LEAD sapphic ship with a complicated history and dark dynamics to be a canon thing? Surprising, and kudos.

[inkyself]

Honestly I wasn’t expecting anything good out of a marvel series after the shit show in the last few tvseries but Jac Shaffer. Sir. A well rounded female protagonist? No make up look that slays? A feminist view on motherhood? A first episode that totally subverts the expectations of MAGIC but nicely ties in with the wandavision premise? End titles that slay??? I mean I’m sat I really am

[cdyssey]

Agatha All Along (1.02) Reactions:

A couple of sober/somber notes play when Agatha opens the brooch and looks at the hair. I’m thinking it probably came from her kiddo. ;-;

Something that REALLY stuck with me in the first episode was that Agatha’s imprisonment was talked about in terms of lucidity. (She was sick, and the residents of Westview felt for her, CARED for her!!) So, like, seeing her “car,” which, of course, really wasn’t a car but a set up to allow her to safely act out her internal reality spoke to just how locked away Agatha was for three years.

Seeing “evil witch” graffitied on Wanda and Vision’s dilapidated foundation of a house broke something inside of me. SHE JUST WANTED A FAMILY 😭😭

Agatha throwing the teen’s pen out of the window ALSKDNSKSM. Also, loved the casual confirmation of his queerness.

This really is the gayest show ever <333

PATTI LUPONEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Agatha LOVES putting on a show, which we knew as early as WandaVision, but she seamlessly slides into the southern widow act.

“You’ve been under the influence of another. Someone you hurt. They took your agency for three years. It’s not the first time your witch-kin have betrayed you. But you survive. In a way few do.” HOT DAMN!!!!!!!!!!

Ooh, the betrayal is probably referring to her mother (and former coven) trying to execute her.

LILIA’S LEGGINGS SKSLDJSN.

HOLY FUCK, the way that Agatha’s eyes are glistening after that absolute read. The microacting choices that Kathryn Hahn is making are DELICIOUS.

Watching Agatha tempt Lilia with the Road is soooooo good. She’s a master manipulator even after all this time. You always have to watch out with her.

SASHEER ZAMATA!!!!!! FUCK YEAH.

The coven so far is just like a roll call of former teenage obsessions. (I was really into Yellow Diamond and SNL fnfnndnd).

“Hey, where do you keep your jade eggs? I’m fresh out of marbles, and my pelvic floor is all over the place.” AKWKDIWIEJKSSK

Teen is right. Jen DOES look amazing. Living for that nose ring and that fucking popped collar

“Historically, we as a group don’t do well in courtrooms.” JQOQJDORWOWD.

Teen’s taking a leaf out of Agatha’s book to get Jen to walk the Road. 👀

“I’m gonna take a jade egg to go. You’ll know where to find it.” JAKWJDKWJSJS.

Obsessed that Agatha can’t go five minutes without making a disturbing innuendo towards another woman. <3

EATING THE PAPER. FERAL

“She’s a tough nut to smash.” CAN’T GO THREE MINUTES WITHOUT MAKING AN INNU—

Ooooh, when the Teen talks about himself, Agatha can’t perceive what he’s saying.

AGATHA’S CUNTY WITCH OUTFIT.

WELCOME COVEN!!!! SKWKDJJD

Ooh, Lilia keeps randomly throwing out tarot card names. So Jen is High Priestess, and I forgot the other one gkdkfjdjf. Oh, well

A BLACK HEART ON THE LIST. ARE YOU KDDING ME. GAY GAY GAY GAY

IT’S BLACK AND IT BEATS FOR YOU.

“That’s because you used a black pen.” Lmfao

“I know you get confused sometimes, but my real name is Sharon.” I don’t know why, but the people of Westview treating “Agnes” so kindly has REALLY fucking touched me.

AW. Her husband passed away. :(((

Lilia blurting out her premonitions is going to be used for such a tragic effect, I just know it

this song slaps holy fuck

THIS DARK COVEN. TERRIFYING

mrs. hart/davis getting into the song 🥺

CALLING PATTI LUPONE PITCHY EKWKWOWKDJWKWKKA

THAT FUCKING JUMPSCARE FUCK OFFFFF. GODDAMN

“I’d die before letting you befoul it with your noxious mediocrity.” GOD SHE’S SUCH AN ASSHOLE SKSKSOIDJD

I love her dearly

“It’s not my fault only a true coven can open the door.” QOKQKWURIWIWKWKSKWKAKS

I LOVE WHEN WOMEN ARE EVIL. I LOVE WHEN THEY ARE MORAL CESSPITS

“OH, I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. JUST BLAST ME, YOU BITCHES!” WIQOOQIWIWIWIQPLQOWUDICIWIWKQJD!!!!!!!!!!!!!’nnnn

KATHRYN HAHN I LOVE YOU

I would die for this entire coven

[cowboylikeyouu]

i said i'd relate it to marvel, not just poolverine, right??? great let's go:

anti-hero is so overplayed it's hard to think about it as an actual song with lyrics and not just the radio hit that plays every single fucking time i'm doing the dishes at work lmao, but ever since i first listened to it so many parts just scream tony stark to me, like c'mon. his workaholic ass basically invented "midnights become my afternoon"

but especially both the pre-choruses are sooo tony coded, like yeah sweetie, you most definitely end up in crises. and "I wake up screaming from dreaming one day i'll watch as you're leaving 'cause you got tired of my scheming (for the last time)"?????? can't convince me that wasn't written about pepperony.

alright, moving on: mastermind

that one's hard bc i've seen like 2000 edits to the bridge lmao

"no one wanted to play with me as a little kid / so i've been scheming like a criminal ever since / to make them love me and make it seem effortless / this is the first time i felt the need to confess / and i swear i'm only cryptic and machiavellian 'cause i care"

you could literally apply this to any slightly morally-grey character with childhood trauma ever lmao, but i think the most obvious marvel choice just has to be loki (only talking about the bridge)

with a bit of fantasy the entire thing is kinda cherik coded as well, yeah.

2nd verse is natasha, i'm not gonna elaborate.

i think my fav one is relating the entire thing to wanda in wandavision tho, like she literally is THE mastermind, NOTHING was accidental, it really was ALL her design, she's the "wind in our free flowing sails and the liquor in our cocktails" bc she's literally the entire fucking town, like come ONNNNN

anyway, on to fortnight:

kind of a reach bc this isn't entirely canon but i never said it had to be lolololol:

stony. STONY STONY STONY.

hear me out on this one okay:

pepper & tony broke up at some point prior civil war right? my stony shipping ass likes to imagine that steve and tony had a fuckbuddies-thing going after the breakup, that obviously wasn't just a fuckbuddies thing bc they're in love your honour. this was obviously going on longer than a fortnight, but that doesn't matter, the term fortnight is just metaphorical okay 🙄 anyways, then civil war happens and they obviously "break up" and steve runs away with bucky, and that's where fortnight (the song) is set:

"I was supposed to be sent away But they forgot to come and get me I was a functioning alcoholic 'Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic"

did you really think taylor could open a song with a reference to alcohol abuse without me relating it tony immediately? bc that's basically impossible.

"All of this to say I hope you're okay But you're the reason And no one here's to blame But what about your quiet treason?"

the treason in question? definitely not the whole socovia accords thing, nobody was quiet about that, no, in my little stony headcanon universe the quiet (& much worse) betrayal for tony personally was the fact that steve chose bucky over him. if you like stucky, you can interpret it as him choosing bucky romantically, but you don't really have to.

the chorus doesn't fit into that narrative entirely bc there wasn't any "run into you sometimes" until endgame, but we could just understand this as tony sometimes hearing about steve from someone else who's maybe in contact from him, but never from steve directly.

"your wife waters flowers / i wanna kill her"

more like "your wife (bucky) shepherds goats in wakanda / i wanna kill her" lmao. i personally really don't like stucky, but even if they aren't a thing, it makes sense for tony to be fucking jealous, so yeah. lol.

"All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary And I love you, it's ruining my life (I love you, it's ruining my life) I touched you for only a fortnight (I touched you) but I touched you"

nothing to explain i think, it just makes fucking sense. tony's love for steve ruined his life during civil war and continues to do so after bc isn't it the fucking worst to be so angry at the person you love so much, while they're not even talking to you??

anyways, yap yap yap they repeat those lines a million times, and then, AND THEN:

"Thought of callin' ya, but you won't pick up 'Nother fortnight lost in America Move to Florida, buy the car you want But it won't start up 'til you touch, touch, touch me Thought of calling ya, but you won't pick up 'Nother fortnight lost in America Move to Florida, buy the car you want But it won't start up 'til I touch, touch, touch you"

i think this is the point where i should remind y'all that this song is feature with post malone and that he sings some earlier lines together with taylor AND that he sings the first part of this outro, like THATS STEVE SINGING BACK AT TONY AHHHHHH.

okay, the "thought of calling ya" is obviously referring to the phone steve gave tony that neither of them ever called, like THE PHONE WORKS BOTH WAYS YOU STUPID ANGRY GAYS.

"'nother fortnight lost in america" *cough* lost in CAPTAIN america *cough* *cough* bottom!steve supremacy *cough* *cough*

"move to florida... etc." aka steve being on the run and tony getting back together with pepper yap yap yap but they won't ever feel really alive unless they touch each other again boo fucking hoo.

hope you're satisfied, this was so fun, literally my favorite activity ever, everyone send me songsssss!!

*cough* poolverine *cough*

[ethvn-torchio]

I See Forever In Your Eyes | Wandavision

hiii!!! here’s my little post-canon fix it for wandavision :) i wrote this in like 2 hours so it probably sucks lmao.

warnings: some angst, wandavision ep 9 spoilers

Ao3

It took time for Vision to find Wanda. Days melded into nearly a month. At first, he had decided he didn’t deserve to see her.

When he would close his eyes, he could see her - see the pure fear and betrayal in her eyes when he had nearly killed her in Westview. 

The remorse was eating at him, though. He had to apologize, had to make sure she was alright. It was the least he could do for her, after all he caused. From what he was able to decide for himself (he had quite an interesting visit with Bruce Banner in an effort to recover some of his memories), the snap was partly his fault. 

He’s pulled from his musings when he reaches where he thinks Wanda could be. They had been here, once, years (to both Vision and Wanda, it had only been a year; six years in the real world) ago. It was his final guess - if she wasn’t there, then it would be evident that she didn’t want to be found. 

He could respect that decision, if so, no matter how much it would hurt his synthetic heart.

Vision flies a little closer, and to his relief, she’s on the porch, eating a meal. From what he could see, she looked tired, upset. 

He wanted nothing more than to take all of her pain away in any way that he could. 

Vision lets himself slowly make his way to the ground. 

Wanda quickly notices his presence. “Vision,” she says, guarded. She stands up, her plate clattering to the ground, ready for an attack if necessary. 

“Wanda. My memories were unlocked in Westview,” he explains carefully. The synthezoid takes a step closer. “I mean you no harm.”

She eyes him carefully, and he gets the distinct idea that she’s trying to read his mind. 

Vision takes another step. “Please. You’ll see.” he pleads, gesturing to where the mind stone used to be.

She nods, and he can see the red whirling power edging closer. When he closes his eyes, he can see himself back in that hotel room in Scotland.

“Vis? Is it the stone again?” Wanda asks, looking up from her book. 

“It's as if it's speaking to me.” Vision responds. He tried to focus on anything else - the rain, the street outdoors, but the stone wouldn’t stop.

She regards him curiously, placing her teacup on the nightstand and getting up from the bed. “What does it say?”

“I don't... I don't know. But something…” He trails off.

The stone trills again making Vision flinch. Wanda takes his face in her hands soothingly. Vision turns his head so he can kiss her left palm, then presses Wanda's hand to the Mind Stone.

“Tell me what you feel.” he urges. Her hand seems to dull some of the discomfort from the Stone, and he relishes in her touch.

Wanda gestures, her hand emanating her red swirling energy. She seems confused.

“...I just feel you.”

Wanda finally lets her hand fall to her side. “It is you,” she murmurs.

“Yes, Wanda.” 

She graps his hand, realizing that his hands were cold - like he hadn’t been near any real warmth in forever. Maybe he hadn’t. She gives his hand a small, (hopefully) comforting squeeze, with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. He says nothing for a good while, taking in the sight of her - like he hadn’t seen her for years.

And technically, he hadn’t. But for them, it had only been two months (which still felt like an eternity). 

“Wanda…” he says softly. “All I can say is I’m sorry.”

“...Vision? Is...is it really you?” She asks, her voice a mix of hopeful and fearful. He cups her face, and something feels off about his movements. She looks into his soulless, dark eyes, searching. 

“Wanda...” he murmurs. She can’t help but lean into his touch a bit, her mind racing with the single thought of Vision - the real Vision - he was back, he came back to her. She’s about to open her mouth to say something else when, with sudden crushing force, he begins to grip her head with the clear intent of crushing her skull. “And I was told you were powerful.” he spits, condescending and yet emotionless at the same time. 

She screams, a wordless plea for him to stop, and her head is beginning to ache from the pressure, and -

And then her Vision, Westview Vision, sends him flying. 

She swallows the lump in her throat, nodding. She can feel tears beginning to pool, blinking furiously. She can’t find the words for a long time, and he stares at her reassuringly, she finds comfort in his eyes - the only thing that was unchanged from the original Vision. “It wasn’t you, Viz. They didn’t let you have your memories.” she says with a sad grimace. 

His cool hand runs across her cheek, before he quickly moves it away, as if restraining himself. “Do you want me to leave?” he offers. He didn’t want to leave Wanda - but she had every right to push him away after he almost killed her. Perhaps, he deserved to be exiled. Maybe if he was smarter, faster, he could’ve prevented everything in the first place. If he had been more assertive, maybe he could’ve been destroyed the right way. Maybe Thanos wouldn’t have been able to snap, if he had just been smarter-

“...No! No. I want you here.” she necessitated, squeezing his hand once again. “...I don’t want to be alone,” she says mournfully, tears threatening to fall again. 

“You’re not alone, Wanda.”

“Who else do I have? My p-parents and Pietro are long gone. Most of the Avengers are gone, I-I- Steve is gone, Tony is gone, Natasha is gone, nobody even cared when Westview happened...” she trails off with a sob. “Tommy and Billy were all that I had left and you- you’re back, and-” she begins to weep openly. 

Wordlessly, he brings her into his arms, pulling her into a hug. He allows her to grieve. Vision knows she deserves it, deserves some comfort - and if he could be a small part of that comfort, than he would be more than glad to help.

-------

might make a part 2 idk (with some smut?????? jk unless???) but if you enjoyed please comment or rb :)

[bex-pendragon]

I guess now is as good a time as any to collect my thoughts about the Loki series because I have very mixed feelings about it.

I want to start by saying thank you to the wardrobe department for letting this guy run around with his sleeves rolled up for multiple episodes. It was very much appreciated.

Spoilers to follow...

I also want to preface this by saying that I was never one of those hardcore Loki stans. I've always found the character compelling, but that's more down to the actor's portrayal than anything else. This is one of those cases of exactly the right actor for exactly the right role. (And yeah, I think Tom Hiddleston is attractive. What do you want from me, I'm superficial.)

After enjoying WandaVision and TFATWS, I was feeling pretty low-key about Loki. Just watch the show, they said. It'll be fun, they said.

WELL.

I was not expecting to have all these feelings about it??!

Let's start with some complaints:

I thought the pacing was a little off compared to WV and TFATWS. Episode 1 dragged. Things picked up in ep. 2, then things got WILD in episode 3, then episodes 4 and 5 were both solid.

I kind of wish it had ended right there because I, for one, was having a pretty good time.

This show was different than I expected it to be. When they first announced it, I had a grand vision of Loki running amok through the timeline and the TVA cleaning up after him, like an even more chaotic version of Legends of Tomorrow. After Thor: Ragnarok, I was hoping for some fun shenanigans. But, as this is an earlier version of Loki, we got existential angst instead.

We did, however, get Old Man Loki and this hilarious alligator:

I had a feeling that they would leave us with a fractured timeline for the final episode because that's the direction the MCU is moving in. I also saw the betrayal coming, even though I was really hoping they'd surprise me.

The series suffers from being the first chapter in a larger story. I think it would've been more affective to end the series with Loki and Sylvie venturing into the Mansion at the End of Time and then hit is with a post-credits teaser of the Big Bad. That way it would've felt a bit more wrapped up and we could've been left feeling good about a second season instead of being ANNOYED that we have to wait however long to see how things work out. However: the actor absolutely nailed it! He's going to be an amazing villain in future movies!

They balanced the self-contained story/piece of a larger story aspect much better in WandaVision. They wrapped up the story. It was sad but cathartic. Wanda's journey was so deep and I still get emotinoal thinking a bout it. And we still got the multiverse tease in the post credits scene.

TFATWS also told a self-contained story. Yes, it left us with plot threads to pick up later, but the main story was wrapped up. The characters got to learn and grow and it was so well done.

Loki was also on a great growth arc. I'm not complaining about that. They managed to take a character I've always had mixed feelings about and make me care about him! And they acknowledged that he’s bi! (Not that they did much with it, but I wasn’t expecting them to. This is the MCU, not the Arrowverse. I’ve learned to expect nothing more than blink-and-miss rep. That’s all they’re willing to give us at this point. The MCU is woefully behind when it comes to LGBT rep. I know I should be mad about it, but in this case, I’m willing to let bicons be bicons.)

But they just left way too much stuff up in the air for my liking. I don't mind an open-ended season, but it's so much better to wrap up the current plot and introduce the next thing! They... kinda did that? But with more questions than answers and in the most heartbreaking way possible!

There were a lot of interesting new characters introduced. Hunter B-15 was a standout, and it was awesome to have Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Owen Wilson rounding out the cast.

But SYLVIE! Sylvie broke my heart, y'all.

She's got everything: tragic backstory, powers, a dramatic lowering-the-hood moment. It's such a gamble to put an established character up against a newcomer. At this point, we've been watching stories about Loki for a decade. His name is the title of the show! And yet, Sylvie stole the show.

I hope this character sticks around, because I want to know more about her backstory and her exploits.

It's so wild to me because I (and many people on the internet) envisioned Katie McGrath as the gender-bent version of Loki. I'm a diehard fan of hers. I was never expecting it would actually happen, mind you. It was just a nice thought. And typecasting because, y’know, she looks like THAT.

I’m glad they went in a different direction when they cast this role. As much as I love Katie, I think it would’ve been too distracting. I was glad to see an unfamiliar face in the role. It skewered my expectations in the best way. I thought Sophia Di Martino had great screen presence and she held her own against the cast of more well-known actors. I also liked her dynamic with Hiddleston.

"And speaking of which…

Guys, I ship it.

This is probably an unpopular opinion, given the fact that they’re variations of the same person, but I was really rooting for these two! They totally snuck up on me. This is not the kind of ship I usually go for. I mean, it’s weird, right?

AND YET.

There’s something to be said about learning to love yourself. It’s heteronormative that Loki’s "self" ended up being a girl, but I liked them, ok? I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s just me being bi and thinking they’re both cute, but here we are. All aboard the chaotic bi express!

After Sylvie's big reveal in episode two, I was like: wow, look at her! I can’t wait to see Loki get his ass kicked by his alt-universe self! Then in episode 3 they were fighting and going off on an adventure together, bickering all the way. Then with the singing? And the eye contact? WTF?

Then we get the hand-holding in episode 4:

Then with the hurt looks, the back-to-back battle couple fighting, the EMOTIONS. When Loki thought she was pruned? OUCH. The acting! When he actually DID get pruned? The heartbreak! He was so soft with her in that last scene and like an idiot, I fell for it.

Then they meet up again in episode 5 and he RUNS TOWARD HER like he hasn’t seen her in years?! Getting past the enemy with the power of friendship? Them SHARING THE BLANKET??!!

Yeah, I’m a sucker. I’m a clown. I played myself. They gave me all the tropes. All that was missing was a dance scene with UST. *slides a 20 dollar bill to the writers as a bribe for season 2*

I totally saw the betrayal coming. And it HURT. I really don’t need any more tragic ships in my armada and these two are probably doomed, right?

Probably. Am I still going to ship it? Definitely.

And speaking of ships: it doesn’t have to me Loki/Sylvie OR Loki/Mobius. Loki has two hands!

Anyway, I just needed to ramble about all of that because my emotions are doing a thing. I really wasn't expecting to feel this way! I know it will never happen but I kind of want to see Loki, Mobius, and Sylvie to go to New Asgard and meet up with Thor. Imagine the shenanigans!

But most importantly: I think someday, when they meet up again, Thor will be proud of the man his brother is growing into. He's still got a ways to go to get there, but he's further along in his path than Sylvie is. I hope she gets there too.

What is love? Lady thou woundest mine heart.

[topoffyourhat]

Okay I need to break down some stuff after episode 8 cause HOLY FUCKING CRAP so if you don't like spoilers, GTFO.

1. Okay when Monica was blipped back and frankly everyone else blipped back too, everything was moving a million beats a minute. They were gone 5 years and like you wake up and find out your mom died but like...imagine our poor girl Wanda! She had a mother fucking front row seat to when the world fell apart and then all the sudden you come back to a battle where the guy that took the love of your life's life and literally destroyed half the world is wrecking even more havoc and you just have to fucking fight and clean this shit up hoping you can restore everything back but know what you lost can't be. As hard as it is, I feel like the way she's responded to his death compared to Pietro or her parents, I can't put my finger on it cause like while it's obviously been a breaking point for her, this is gonna shape her and her powers more than anything else and I can't wait to see how cause right now she's definitely the villain in her own story or really antivillain in the case cause she's doing what benefits her. After she snapped and trapped Westview in her sitcom reality she could've instantly stopped it but didn't want to cause she finally gets a happy ending. I think the final episode will be her realizing that and maybe working on doing more good like Vision would've wanted her too, maybe she'll go more down the rabbit hole hence your House of M, OR she pulls a Clint and is like I'm done with this shit and just goes into hiding but like who told her that Hayward and SWORD took Vision's body cause damn it that's what I wanna know! You know this girl stormed SWORD begging for a funeral. That scene of Vision dismembered?! I felt her pain in that scene and instantly compared the I can feel you from Infinity War to when she said she I can't feel you now. It was beyond heartbreaking. Wanda and Vision don't deserve it. There's a lot inconsistencies with when she was brought back during the final Thano's battle to Tony's funeral and like I want those gaps filled in.

2. Agatha Harkness's back story. It looked like they were Salem and the way she took her coven and her own mother out like BOSS BITCH. We stan a fucking queen! But they were discussing her betrayal with her coven for delving into dark magic. So she's definitely a damn villain and willing to pull any strings possible to gain and stay powerful including Wanda but based off her protection spells in the basement and the book from the last episode I believe Mephisto or at least Nightmare are still possibilities of being brought to MCU as she can use that magic to bring them here once she has the opportunity or learns how. Maybe she already has connections with them. She's immortal and has to know something about and I feel like she's not saying. I thought the fly was Mephisto based on the comics and was wrong but I still feel like Marvel wants to explore that and they should cause it sets up your Multiverse of Madness movie.

3. I've been so damn sketchy of Hayward this whole damn time. Just doesn't seem right at all and is constantly contradicting himself. Like why the unhealthy obsession with Wanda and killing her? It is just based on her taking control of Westview or her incident in Civil War? At 1st I thought it was Ultron possessing him but based off the end credit scene with White Vision I feel like they've either already uploaded Ultron into him or are getting ready to but just need Wanda. OR when Wanda lost control of her powers at the house site and restored Vision I think the Vision she brought back was using part of her soul. It's the humanization part of himself she brought back cause she helped humanize him and obviously how they fell for each other based on that Civil War flashback but maybe the White Vision is the AI part of him void of emotion or memories of her and that's who her and her Vision are fighting against in the last episode cause Hayward can give him commands and Vision will execute. Monica also can't stand him now that she's learning the truth so some flashbacks with Hayward and Maria would fill some gaps too you know? We know he was appointed in Maria's place after she died but clearly there wasn't a lot of approval in that decision.

4. Also there's supposedly supposed to be this big cameo next week. We've all got our theories but Bettany said it's someone he's idolized and always wanted to work with. Like WHO THE FUCK IS IT?! I really hope Dr. Strange cameos to set up Multiverse of Madness with Wanda but also like they brought up Monica knowing an aerospace engineer up for the task like could it be Reed Richard's from Fantastic Four since they're redoing that AGAIN. Could it be an X-Men crossover since they brought back Evan Peter's and mutants can now be explored further in the MCU with X-Men? Maybe it's Ultron cause I still think he's coming back someway somehow based on everything or could it just be a new big bad like I've also been thinking like Mephisto or Nightmare to set up Multiverse of Madness cause really we know why this is we have Wandavision in the 1st place. To set up Phase 4 and you know this is the movie to set it up and your Young Avengers initiative with Tommy and Billy.

5. Finally...I want full on Monica Rambeau using her powers, taking names, and kicking ass! I can't wait to see her as a defined, self actualized superhero and it seems like she's got some beef with Carol. I know that will eventually be explored and hopefully it's with the badass holy trinity of her, Darcy Lewis, and Jimmy Woo in the Woo Files! Also since Darcy fell into the hex, she should have powers too. I hope she ends up being Verity Willis. She can detect lies including Loki's and Kat Dennings has always wanted to work with Tom so...🤔🤔🤔

All right, that is all for now and I'm going to bed. I'll be theorizing all week like the rest of you and know my mind will be blown next Friday.

[smellycinnamonthundahfudge]

Just Like Us

the possibility of vision surviving, or at least some version of him bc of white vision or bc of wanda's chaos magic has been posed as a possible ending for the finale...

and to that, what i have to say is...

grief and loss can't just magically disappear

i think for it to do so would be disingenuous to what all of us experience as humans

we do lose things that matter to us, we do get heartbroken

it'd almost feel wrong, a betrayal of the realism they've so beautifully portrayed to us... for that to just magically disappear....

the reason wanda creating wandavision is such a beautiful powerful point, is because it talks about how from grief

can come something beautiful and happy

but inevitably, the pain, and the loss, and the grief. is still there.

grief can't just magically disappear.

the fantasy wanda built for herself was a reaction to the loss being so unbearable

but, a reaction like that can't last because eventually the pain will still be there

i don't think they would have posed grief as love persevering, if they were just going to make grief as something that can just magically disappear

the reason wandavision is so tragic is because the fantasy, the thing to make the pain go away...

doesn't make it go away

not completely

the pain, the loss is still irrevocably there.

we are going to say goodbye to vision at the end of this finale.

that... i can feel.

i... We, -have- felt, for quite some time now...

and i think that's still what's going to happen

keeping vision has a price, it's chipping away at who wanda is

at who the person vision fell in love with is

and, grief and loss can't just be magically snapped away

that's not life

and if previously on taught us anything, it's that they're committed to having wanda as relatable and resonant and as humane as she can be

i too thought i wanted wanda & vision to live happily ever after

a part of me still does in some way...

but, it'd just...

the pain and loss and grief and tragedy and all the emotions, and the power that those emotions and those moments had would all lose their meaning...

if vision is just going to be brought back...

we felt those moments because we Did care

we cried because She cared and so we did too

to make the loss she felt meaningless would be...

betraying the love that they had made with each other

because to betray that loss would be to betray the meaning that that loss had, the love that that loss had...

so no, i don't think vision or even just white vision should live on beyond the finale

let the loss stick

let the loss stay

it would be so much more heartbreaking, and real... to do so...

it would be a real actual, loss

and seeing wanda survive that, cope with that...

would imo, really make her a hero worth rooting and caring for

she'd be a hero that's just trying to do what the rest of us all are

cope with the heartbreaks and pain we all endure

i really think that can be something so powerful, and, beautiful.

making one of the most powerful famous heroes in the marvel cinematic universe...

just as human as any one of us.

[aion-rsa]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 Marvel, Captain America, MCU Easter Eggs

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This article contains The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 spoilers and potential spoilers for the wider MCU.

Well, it’s finally here. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 6 was an action-packed, but rather messy season finale for the show. Hopefully it isn’t a series finale, and we���ll see it continue in season 2 as Captain America and the Winter Soldier, but that’s an argument for another time.

For now, we’re here (as usual) to dig in to all the Marvel Comics and MCU references the show gave us this episode. We’ll be honest, it was relatively light on those, but there’s still plenty to speculate about. And if you spot anything we missed, be sure to let us know in the comments!

The New Captain America

Sam’s incredibly sharp-looking Captain America costume is a perfect live action translation of the version he wore in the comics. That costume was designed by Carlos Pacheco, and first hit the pages of Marvel Comics in October of 2014, in All-New Captain America #1. Even then, it felt like a perfectly movie-ready design, but to see it translated to beautifully to live action is a real treat, and this is an immediate contender for “best superhero movie or TV suit” right now. The additional stars and stripes motif added to the underside of the wings here seems to be an MCU flourish, but that’s just one little way they managed to improve on perfection.

It’s safe to assume that Sam’s new wings are vibranium, or at least vibranium laced, just like his shield, considering that it was made for him by the tech geniuses in Black Panther‘s Wakanda. There’s something to be said here about how America is stronger when it works with and accepts help from its allies, as opposed to going it alone. Just witness how much better Sam’s wings hold up under pressure than Walker’s homemade shield.

Similarly, Sam primarily uses the shield and the wings for defense. Compare that to how Walker wields his shield, as a slashing/bludgeoning weapon for offense. It’s a nice illustration of two different interpretations about how best to utilize America’s power.

Bucky

Bucky’s leap from a barrier-crashing motorcycle in episode 6 is a nice callback to Steve’s very similar move in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As a voice barked “stand down” from a SHIELD quinjet, Steve hit a barrier on his bike and was thrown forward into the action. 

We also see Bucky straining to open the back of the van with his vibranium arm, but he doesn’t flex as hard as Steve did when he stopped Bucky taking off in a helicopter in that same movie. Both Sam and Bucky reflect elements of what made Steve an exceptional Captain America in the finale, and prove to be a terrific team.

Bucky gives Steve’s notebook to his therapist as a thank you gift. Honestly, she deserves less. It belongs in a museum.

U.S. Agent

John Walker manages to control the effects that the super soldier serum is having on his psyche when he gets a second chance to prove himself, dropping his damaged makeshift shield and realizing he needs to prioritize human lives over vengeance. 

Val says that people will need a “US Agent” soon, and not a Captain America, as things are about to get “weird”. US Agent, of course, was the codename Walker took on after he stopped being Captain America in the comics. Speaking of which, Walker’s new costume is basically identical to his Marvel Comics US Agent costume and it looks really great here.  We wrote more about the Marvel Comics history of U.S. Agent here.

Why are Val, Walker and his wife back in the courthouse where Walker got court martialed to try on his new US Agent costume? Feels like pandemic-related restrictions forced the show to film all those scenes at the same time, doesn’t it?

Isaiah Bradley

Sam returning to properly make sure Isaiah Bradley gets his due once again mirrors the excellent Truth: Red, White, and Black story by Robert Morales and Kyle Baker. There it was Steve who made sure that Isaiah’s deeds were finally known to the world.

Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of Isaiah, but you can bet we’re going to get more of Elijah down the road. Between introducing two members of the Young Avengers in WandaVision with Billy and Tommy, and the impending arrival of Kate Bishop on Hawkeye later this year, young Elijah is due to get himself some red, white, and blue duds of his own.

Sharon Carter is the Power Broker?

Yes, Sharon Carter is the Power Broker. No, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. She took Sam, Bucky, and Zemo to see super soldier serum scientist Dr. Nagel in his lab. He was working for her! She let that dangerous shit play out, which was very much against her interests! What! No. What! The man must have been confused as hell in his final moments.

Sharon uses the same tech that Natasha Romanoff used to disguise her face during the climax of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 

We find out that Sharon was indeed behind Karli’s initial rise to Flag-Smasher power, after taking her in and giving her a chance in Madripoor. Sharon is willing to forgive the betrayal if Karli and her friends come back to the fold, but Karli’s too far gone for that.

Sharon gets a pardon from the US government. I guess it wasn’t that hard after all. Maybe you could click this link while you’re here.

Is this the first time Sharon has been called Agent Carter in the MCU? And is there some way to bring Peggy back to kick her narrow Power Brokering ass? How dare you besmirch the Carter name, girl.

Sharon’s “mercury vapor” bomb that takes out that poor dude kind of feels like the dust that the Red Skull used to use during the Mark Gruenwald era of the comics to kill people…which left them looking like red skulls. Uh-oh…this brings us to the next question…

Who was Sharon calling at the end? Val? Nick Fury? Her Skrull bosses? Alexander Lukin? Something is definitely wrong here. It’s possible that she’s working with Val to put together a team of Dark Avengers/Thunderbolts, but nothing makes a lot of sense with Sharon’s arc in the MCU in general, let alone this show.

Zemo

That is indeed Zemo’s butler Oeznik (played by Nicholas Pryor) who kills the fuck out of the Flag-Smashers in the police van with a remote controlled incendiary device. What an Evil Jarvis. In any case, Zemo got at least some of his wish, as now there are a few fewer super soldiers running around the MCU.

Among the books that Zemo is reading in his cell is Alexander von Humboldt’s Views of Nature – the German polymath, geographer, naturalist and explorer was the first person to truly make note of human-induced climate change. But we can only assume that the book Zemo is holding close to his heart as he hears the fate of the Flag-Smashers is the Machiavelli tome that Bucky rudely interrupted earlier in the series.

Despite the news saying that there are no suspects in the Flag-Smasher bombing, Val knows straight away that it was Zemo who had “the last laugh”. Huh. “Couldn’t have worked better if I planned it myself,” she jokes. “Oh, well, maybe I did. No, I’m kidding, I didn’t. Or did I?” Who the hell knows, Val.

Batroc

Is Batroc dead? Batroc had better not be dead! We demand more Georges St-Pierre in the MCU! Ze Leaper has managed to escape certain death multiple times in the MCU so far, and we’d like that trend to continue. He’s such a great all-purpose, kinda hapless baddie, that we’d love to just see him show up for the occasional slugfest. Or hell, maybe a Batroc fight can be a kind of “right of passage” for anyone else who has to wear the Captain America costume down the road!

And hey, he even did some leaping in this episode!

The Flag-Smashers

Sam’s face-off with Karli Morgenthau is a lot like Steve’s final face-off with Bucky in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when he tries to talk her down instead of fighting back.

The Raft

The Raft was first introduced to the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, but the fact that they’re going out of their way to mention it multiple times in this show, and the fact that the Flag-Smashers were destined for there (after all, they’re super soldiers) should be an indication of just how important that place is going to be to the MCU going forward. I think we can safely expect both Val and Sharon to be doing some recruiting out of there.

The New Falcon?

We only get a brief moment with Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres, as he gazes adoringly at the TV broadcast with Sam as Captain America, but hopefully we get more of him in the future. After all, Joaquin became the new Falcon when Sam wore the red, white, and blue in the comics, and he DOES have Sam’s old wings.

Where is Steve Rogers?

You know, if they keep making that joke about Steve being “on the moon” maybe there’s gonna turn out to be some truth to it. Is this how the MCU will introduce the “man on the wall” concept from the Original Sin story in Marvel Comics? OK, fine, probably not.

The Bridge

Sam having his first big public moment on a bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn, where New Yorkers see him, cheer him, and implicitly accept him as a hero feels like moments in Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man movies, particularly the Brooklyn Bridge scene in the first one, and the subway car scene in Spider-Man 2. This is decidedly less heavy-handed, though.

Ayla

GRC representative Ayla is not from Marvel Comics. We don’t get her last name, and she shares a first name with extremely obscure Nightstalkers villain Rotwrap. Look, there’s not  a lot going on in this episode, we’re trying.

Speaking of things we don’t have a lot on…

“Government Official”

Can you believe that despite appearing in nearly every episode of this show, Alphie Hyorth’s bearded senator is still only named as “government official” in the credits? What are you hiding Marvel?!? Maybe he’s actually Mephisto! (sorry, a little WandaVision humor there) 

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But for real, why would you have a recurring character who ends up central to so many elements of this story and NOT name him? Is he a Skrull? Is he Senator Robert Kelly? (look, we miss all the mutant speculation from the WandaVision days)

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 Marvel, Captain America, MCU Easter Eggs appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[ceterisparibus116]

I guess that's another area where I feel the show pulled a bait-and-switch. The way Wanda treated any and all inconveniences in the first half of the show made it clear to me that she was very aware that she was manipulating people. She wasn't reacting to them; she was controlling them. Even if she truly believed they were happy, she was still willfully and deliberately manipulating people.

But if you think the show was ambiguous about it, that's fine! We can totally disagree on that.

Really, my main gripe is, again, not with the particularities of what any character did or didn't do or did or didn't know, but with the way the writers undercut their own message.

Put another way: every story asks a question, right? And a good writer tells the story with an answer in mind to the question. So if there is an array of story-telling options to choose from, a good writer will select the options that enhance the answer. Or, at least, don't actively detract from it.

With WandaVision, watching up to the finale, I continually thought the question of the show is, "How does grief effect people?" (Which, by the way, is a beautiful question.) We saw it with Wanda and Vision; we saw it with Wanda and Pietro; we saw it with Wanda's entire backstory which was more properly explored; we even saw it with Wanda's twins and their dog! So maybe the writers were actually asking a different question, but I honestly can't think of what it would be.*

And then I though the answer that was slowly being revealed over the course of the show, as we saw more and more hints that something was very Wrong with this world Wanda had made, was: "Sometimes grief makes you hurt people." At the very end, when we see that Wanda didn't realize the full extent of what she was doing, we see that the answer is: "Sometimes grief makes you hurt people in ways you don't intend."

That's awesome! That's complex! That's relatable! That's real!

But it was undermined by the fact that her consequence (losing Vision) was so...self-centered. A very real consequence, sure, but insufficient because the person she'd hurt wasn't just Vision, it was...literally everyone else as well. I wanted to see her apologize to them (truly). I wanted to see them reject her as a hero. I wanted to see her grapple with the question of whether she's a hero at all. I wanted to see her considering giving up her power or maybe even switching her position from CACW to think that maybe the Sokovia Accords are a good idea after all, because maybe she needs the accountability. I wanted to see all of that, and I wanted at least a full episode exploring it! And maybe we'll get that in other shows and movies, but we didn't get it in the show. And so I was left unsatisfied with WandaVision for that reason alone.

But what completely undermined the show's message for me was for the show to then basically tack on: "Sometimes grief makes you hurt people in ways you don't intend - but that's okay because someone else is probably hurting people worse and for worse reasons!"

Like...noooo!

People can absolutely disagree with me, but for me, I felt that the writers' storytelling choices regarding Hayward completely undermined the message they were trying to portray. Which not only made for a bad story (in my opinion), but also felt like a betrayal since they'd set it up to be so richly complex and deeply relatable.

(I mean, when I make bad choices because of grief, I don't get to deflect by pointing to someone else who's worse. I have to apologize to the people I hurt. I have to think about why I did what I did. I have to make actual changes to ensure I won't do the same thing again. Seeing Wanda struggle with that would have made her incredibly, beautifully, powerfully relatable.)

So that's my issue. And again, I suspect (though I could be totally wrong) that that is part of OP's issue as well. I've definitely seen it reflected in other posts and reviews, so I know I'm not the only person who felt this way, so I'm hoping the writers take the feedback and reevaluate their approach.

*The only other question I can think of, maybe, would be, "Is it ever okay to stop treating someone like a human?" This question was the one that was basically asked in every scene relating to Hayward. He didn't treat Vision like a human; he didn't treat Wanda like a human. That would be a great question. Except a question that only relates to the villain is a pretty narrow question, and leaves the show feeling disjointed. A good question should relate to both the villain and the hero. In which case the question of, "Is it ever okay to stop treating someone like a human?" should've been applied to Wanda's treatment of the people in the Hex as well. But as explained above, I don't think they made Wanda experience the consequences of her actions enough for that question to be applied to her in a fair and satisfying way.

MCU Phase 4 Rant

Phase 4 has really left me feeling empty and upset with the mcu so far so i wanted to rant about it just to clear my mind. if you disagree with anything i say, that’s fine but know that your different opinion does not in any way invalidate mine.

I honestly didn’t have an issue with wandavision until the end of the show when she didn’t face the consequences of her actions. she didn’t intentionally hurt people, but she didn’t accept the consequences when she learned she did. the bullcrap about her making a sacrifice or something was so dumb. and then the criminalizing the dude trying to FREE A TOWN OF ENSLAVED PEOPLE was ridiculous. its like, near the the end of the show they realized he wasn’t a compelling villain so they tripled down and made him jump from trying to save the town to straight up ATTEMPTED CHILD MURDER OUT OF NO WHERE. like yea okay, sure.

falcon and the winter soldier made it seem like tony didn’t care about the others and that cap would forget about sharon. that coupled with a nonsensical plot with a weak antagonist butchered the show. “do better” and “don’t call them terrorists” were terrbiel lines that shouldn’t have even left the drafting phase. then the race subplot with isaiah provides further retconning and other issues but it also felt forced given the blm protests and riots at the time of filming. and then the criminalization of john who, while he wasn’t a good cap, wasn’t even given the chance. he at least tried but nooo it’s funny when the dora milaje try to MURDER him and lemar. at least it was entertaining and mackie and stan’s chemistry was brilliant. i think, even though i didn’t really like the show, it has the most rewatchability of the three.

loki hurt me the most as he was my favorite character. the plot itself was fine, but the characterization of loki was terrible. they completely glossed over, yet again, what happened to him between thor 1 and the avengers 2. additionally, despite giving him more powers, they nerfed him even further. they made him into a joke and then brought in sylvie like she was his superior which is just such an insult to loki and the fans who have been wanting this show for HIM for so long. he gets made into a joke, nerfed, and set aside to set up sylvie. yea we got some nice emotional moments and confirmation that he wasn’t evil, but it was done in such a rushed and sloppy way. unfortunately, owen wilson and tom hiddleston’s chemistry was not enough to save this show.

and we got black widow which was just so bad. bad writing, directing, characterization, etc. characters made illogical choices, had invincible plot armor, they butchered nats character so much (yea right like she’d not check in even once on the people from her past??? we know how much family means to her! and she makes such dumb decisions in the movie too). they turn potentially great, serious and emotional moments into flat out jokes. they disrespected the character so much in order to set up yelena. i just got into marvel during the pandemic as i needed something as a pick me up as i was going through a lot of crap. at the time, i felt it was the perfect time to come into the universe with all the shows coming out. i loved the shows when i first watched them as i was riding the high of experiencing them for the first time and when they first came out, but now that i have had time to digest them and think about them more, i am upset. they ruined so much and have really lowered any expectations i have of future installments. if i see any of the same directors or writers from these projects on future mcu projects, my expectations will immediately drop.

[thiscrimsonsoul]

Do you think that pietros death could be considered a "women in refrigerators" death. Basically his death was solely for Wanda's emotional pain and to an extent growth? Genuinely curious, because a friend and I were discussing that trope and how it could be done vice versa when that death popped into my mind. Thoughts and thank you!

{out of parikash} Hmm… I honestly don’t believe that’s the reason they killed Pietro off, but I will argue it in both ways because I have arguments for both, heh.

Okay so basically, this is about the idea that authors or moviemakers will sometimes build in throwaway supportive characters into a main character’s lives for the sole purpose of having them die horribly or provide some other sort of motivation for the character to then go in a desired direction. So think about… Batman for example. If Bruce Wayne’s parents hadn’t been murdered, he never would have had the motivation, drive, interest, desire, what have you for revenge and the truth. One could argue that he never would have become Batman at all, that it wasn’t some innate destiny of his, but rather it was fueled by the grief of losing his parents.

So… in the same vein… did MCU set Wanda up to be driven by grief and pain by killing off her parents, Pietro, Vision, etc. for the purpose of then seeing her through to the next arc of her character, whatever that might be? For the purpose of character development, if you will?

Argument Against This Concept

So… I don’t believe that they were actively trying to do this sort of thing with Wanda because at least her (adoptive) parents’ deaths and Vision’s were canon in the comics. Pietro lived well past when he died in the MCU, but even so, I think they were mostly sticking to comic canon for the others. Were they trying to force the issue with Wanda by adding another source of grief nd pain with Pietro? I don’t think so. And here’s why…

I think there are two major reasons why Pietro was killed off so early. One… is an IC issue and one is an OOC issue. The OOC reason I believe might actually be the reason, although I can’t find this actually confirmed anywhere. I think ATJ did not want to be in multiple Marvel movies. There are two reasons for this. One, he was reluctant to do any Marvel movies at all and had to actually be heavily convinced to play Pietro. It wasn’t anything about Pietro that he didn’t like, but rather it was that he didn’t want to get into a movie-making machine like MCU that makes movies with so many top- or high-billed actors. He was still up-and-coming at the time, and he felt like there were better ways to break out and showcase his talent than being lost in a sea of a hundred other people, heh. It wasn’t until he found out that EO was playing Wanda that he was finally on board, because he knew and respected her from Godzilla, and if she was giving MCU movies a serious look, then he felt like okay, maybe it won’t be such a bad thing. The other reason is that ATJ is very adamant about not being type-cast as any one character or type of character. He said in an interview that he looks to make each one of his roles very different from anything else he’s ever done. It’s the reason why he looks so different in each role with different style and color hair and outfits and such, different accents, different time periods, etc. It’s the reason why he can play a hero type character like Pietro in Ultron and then turn around and play a psychopathic killer like Ray Marcus in Nocturnal Animals. So ATJ may very well have said that he didn’t want Pietro to be a recurring character, I don’t know. I suspect it, but I have not seen or heard that confirmed anywhere.

The IC reason is… Pietro is a freaking game-breaking character, haha, but unlike Wanda nad several others that MCU dumbed down (she could have mind-controlled or –numbed Thanos way better and longer than Mantis, so wtf… she could have killed him in Infinity War, and AGAIN in Endgame), there is no way to dumb down Pietro’s powers. He runs fast and is superhumanly strong. *shrugs* That’s it. You can’t really… change that or alter it or delete it or whatever because it’s already so simple. Now… think about it… Pietro would have screwed up umpteen number of things that the MCU had planned. He would’ve read the entire Sokovia Accords in minutes, read the clause about imprisonment at the Raft, and both twins probably would have left and gone off on their own at that point because BULLSHIT.

Even if the twins did stay through Civil War, there is no way they would’ve gotten hold of Pietro to put in the Raft but let’s say they did… once Steve busts them out, he would convince Wanda to leave them all behind, including Vision. Because nobody puts his sister in restraints in a cell and drugs her. Like that would have been the ultimate betrayal and he never ever would have put up with that. Vision… did nothing to stop her imprisonment and didn’t come rescue her with Steve, so… he would convince her to forget him. That… would have made Infinity War interesting… but let’s tackle that.

Let’s say everything does somehow remain the same, only with superfluous added Pietro, heh. Geez, it’s like we’re talking about adding a spice or something, lol. But okay, so… fast forward all the freaking way to the end with Thanos trying to get the stone from Vision. Eh-hem. What-all… is stopping Pietro… from just walking up and taking the damned gauntlet right off Thanos’ hand? Hmm? Somebody explain this to me, haha. Like… Thanos literally would not see him coming, Pitro would run right up, grab the gauntlet, and use his superhuman strength to yank that sucker right off. Thanos would not be trying to stop him, wouldn’t be clenching his hand or anything because he wouldn’t have time to react to it. Once Pietro had the gauntlet, he could run anywhere he wanted with that shit and all he has to do is play keep-away from Thanos until the other Avengers can manage to kill him and boom. No need for Endgame, haha.

BUT… let’s say Pietro does die in Ultron… but they decide to bring him back with Clint during the time test. Same problem! At the end of the movie, Pietro can just run up to Thanos’ purple ass, take the gauntlet, they can kill him, he can run Tony’s ass to whatever power source he needs to use this gauntlet and not freaking die, and there we go. I mean, admittedly this is not as clean a fix-it as the Infinity War one, but STILL. XD My point is that they probably killed Pietro off because his powers were too much of a plot-breaking, purple-raisin-punching issue for the future.

Argument For This Concept

HOWEVER… having said ALL of that up there… what if MCU is trying to fuel Wanda’s guilt, grief, pain, etc. to drive her toward an end? And end… we might see in WandaVision or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Here’s my theory for this…

Wanda becoming dangerous unhinged from reality, becoming delusional, and creating an alternate reality in which Vision is still alive and she has twins with him is canon in the comics. It was the result of Vision’s death having a huge effect on her psyche but also her mental instability reaching a breaking point. Why is Wanda so canonically mentally unstable? Chthon. So… Disney/MCU decided not to go the mutant way with Wanda and Pietro because Sony owned the rights to the whole mutant thing. In addition to scrapping that part of the twins’ genetics, they also inexplicably wrote out Wanda being influenced by the primordial god/archdemon Chthon at her birth, which infused her with his power, as he wanted to use her as a vessel which he planned to later return to and through which he intended to exert his power on earth.

Because Chthon is an evil, selfish, powerful, magical, and often chaotic force, Wanda gained her mental abilities to alter reality, read thoughts, and induce nightmares. Her telekinesis and other things are generally understood to be from her genetics as a mutant. So… in changing Wanda’s mutant status, Disney had to change her background and make her adoptive parents her actual parents to cut out her dad (Magneto) and her mom (who gave birth to the twins near Mount Wundagore, where Chthon’s home base was and where the High Evolutionary’s base was. In the comics, Wanda was affected by Chthon as birth and the twins were later experimented on by the High Evolutionary, but Disney omitted all of this and instead placed Strucker and Hydra in charge of the experiments. So it would seem that deleting their mutant heritage also caused Disney to remove Chthon, making Wanda’s tendency toward mental instability nonexistent. Or at least… not supernaturally caused.

Where am I going with this? Well… if they then intended all along to bring in the canon plot of Wanda creating this alternate reality so she could live happily ever after with Vision (as they seem to be doing with WandaVision), they needed some reason for her proverbial cheese to not just slip on her cracker but fall all the way off it, haha. The whole crux of that plot is that Wanda is so broken by the grief of losing Vision that she can’t stand to not have him around anymore, and thus she creates a reality in which she can be with him and have the family the always wanted. Well… MCU Wanda was never going to be that mentally fragile unless something else drove her to it. Just killing Vision alone wasn’t enough. So they set her up for a lot. Her parents die in this horrific event that traumatizes her. Then Pietro dies in an equally traumatic battle. Then Vision dies… at her hands… and then is brought back…and killed again in front of her. I could be wrong, but that would be enough to drive me off the deep end, heh. Not to mention Tony and Natasha being gone which I’m sure also had some effect on her, and Steve being… well… whatever the friggin’ frack they did with him in Endgame. So… one could make the argument that Disney needed to really hurt Wanda a lot, and very pointedly and repeatedly, in order to set up her mental breakdown in WandaVision. So in the absence of Chthon’s volatile and powerful influence on her mental stability, Disney decided to just break her down through tragedy, trauma, and loss… to bring her around to the same point she would have been at in the canon comic world.

*shrugs* Since WandaVision isn’t out yet, all we can do is speculate, but… given that the title of Doc Strange’s next movie is In the Multiverse of Madness… Haha, I mean… whose multiverse and madness are we talking about here? Wanda’s? Could be. ;)

Okay you know what? I kinda convinced myself, and now I think it’s both hahaha. I think that there were other reasons why they had to kill Pietro off specifically, but that he may still have been part of a setup for Wanda to come back around to her canon comic place in preparation for WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness. That’s my final answer, lol.