WandaVision

[Dienekes]

"It wouldn't change how they see me" which Monica nods in agreement with. Short of cutaway interviews with the townsfolk individually, or maybe a SurveyMonkey, that's as close to authoritative as a show is likely to get you.

How does that line indicate the people got the justice they wanted? To me that line meant pretty close to the exact opposite. Wanda’s reasons would not change their opinions of the monster they think she is. And so she just leaves.

They were collectively traumatized. Again, what exactly did you want? Pitchforks and torches? Dancing in the streets? A bacchanal? What?

EDIT: Oh, you wanted them crying and screaming. Because everyone has to process trauma the way you want them to in order for it to be believable, or something.

Ok man. How in the hell did you take the line: “if we want them to be human and not background props show them with the breadth of human reaction.”

To:

“I want everyone to react like me.”

Really everyone reacting like me would be the opposite of my stated desire. That would make them equally props. Admittedly props who would be literally running for the exit instead of standing their staring but props just the same.

My desire in the final was to treat the people of the town like actual people. Individual, unique, with their own reaction to things.

The desire of the writers was to instead focus on making us see how bad Wanda feels.

That is the disconnect.

[Psyren]

How does that line indicate the people got the justice they wanted? To me that line meant pretty close to the exact opposite. Wanda’s reasons would not change their opinions of the monster they think she is. And so she just leaves.

Again, what else could she do but leave?

Regarding the "breadth of human reaction," see my previous post.

[Dienekes]

Again, what else could she do but leave?

Regarding the "breadth of human reaction," see my previous post.

Go to prison. Do time. Community service. Apologize to them. Not the audience. Not Monica but them.

[truemane]

So as angry as they deserve to be at her for clamping down on their free will, on some level they also understand. That is why we get the silent treatment from them at the end, rather than either celebrations or pitchforks.

See, that actually might have been a good way to resolve it. Had 'the town' come together and forgive her because they felt the depth of her pain, that would have been nice. And at least it would have been something.

[Psyren]

Go to prison. Do time. Community service.

Because doing time is proven to address the roots of trauma, particularly for magical beings.

This goes back to Ramza's great point about archaic justice systems, despite perhaps "feeling right" on cursory level, having the potential to be the worst possible response to situations like this once you take the time to actually think about them.

More specifically, jail would do nothing to help her prevent this happening again because what happened was not some mere societal or civil failing. She is quite literally unique. And that's the best case scenario. The worst is that prison itself adds to her trauma in any number of ways, and we get a brand new Hex upstate. Or even worse than that, she just falls into the hands of the next Hayward who wants to weaponize what she can do regardless of the consequences.

Apologize to them. Not the audience. Not Monica but them.

So, the Sorry Booth idea? Megaphone maybe? Bake Sale? Ooh, perhaps she could write it in the sky, that would cover the whole town, no chance of missing anyone then.

See, that actually might have been a good way to resolve it. Had 'the town' come together and forgive her because they felt the depth of her pain, that would have been nice. And at least it would have been something.

I don't know that they really "forgive" her either, and certainly don't know that having them say they do with no time to process what happened to them would in any way ring true. I think that having them react (or more accurately, not react) with clear yet silent resentment is the most efficient way of conveying that they want her to just leave, without doing anything that causes her more pain. Whether that is due to commiserating with her loss or fear of antagonizing her further is left open to interpretation, and I think that's okay.

[Dienekes]

She is literally standing in front of all of them who are all staring at her in fear. She could just talk.

Anyway, I’ve stated why the finale didn’t sit right with me. Gave my reasons. I think I’m done. This conversation is kind of draining and it’s just a show.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

It's not that Wanda, specifically, needs to make a big deal of it, but that the writers ought to have. Being body puppeted long term is explicitly called out as a horror. It should be treated as one. Either that, or you need to explain why it's not. Neither happened.

I would expect chaos as people break down, the same way that EVERYONE broke down previously when individuals were temporarily loosed from her control.

This is honestly just basic consistency.

Third this. Wanda going supervillain seems to be what they’re actually going for, so if she brushes it all under the rug, that’s cold but no different than she’s been doing all season.

But having all the secondary protagonists completely on board with the city-wide enslavement - either this is going to be an awkward out-of-character moment for each of them in future installments, or it’s going to taint their characterization going forward when I gather they are at least intended to be straight up good guys. For example, I know I’m not going to be cheering so hard when Monica shows up in Captain Marvel 2 because she’s apparently okay with slavery as long as the slaver has a sufficiently tragic backstory.

Warped characterization to fit the plot is one of the reasons I’ve had trouble getting into the comics.

[Psyren]

I didn't mean to come off overly snarky, but I genuinely don't see what what having her turn to the town adds to the finale. We got her remorse loud and clear from the quiet moment with Monica, and more of her voice aimed at them is the last thing the townsfolk need.

And the prison idea, while well-meaning in a traditionalist sense, is just bad all around. So I'm happy to leave it there as well.

[Dienekes]

I didn't mean to come off overly snarky, but I genuinely don't see what what having her turn to the town adds to the finale. We got her remorse loud and clear from the quiet moment with Monica, and more of her voice aimed at them is the last thing the townsfolk need.

And the prison idea, while well-meaning in a traditionalist sense, is just bad all around. So I'm happy to leave it there as well.

Perhaps how I was raised then. If you do something bad, you own up to it. And you apologize to those you’ve wronged. And take responsibility for your actions.

Otherwise what actions you take are about you. Not about them. When you’ve wronged someone it should always be about them. You lost your chance for yourself to matter in this equation when you wronged the other person.

Wanda’s finale is essentially her going Me. Me. Me. I need to better my power. I need to make myself stronger. They won’t understand my pain. I am sad they see me as bad.

As a viewer. I don’t care. I care way more about them.

[Ramza00]

She is literally standing in front of all of them who are all staring at her in fear. She could just talk.

Anyway, I’ve stated why the finale didn’t sit right with me. Gave my reasons. I think I’m done. This conversation is kind of draining and it’s just a show.

Speaking as a person who has real life experiences with a scary person who has threatened my safety.

I would be so on edge when powerful lady with magic talks, but I would not be in the space to do anything like atonement when I am still madly frightened by her. I do not think there could have been a space to make the victim feel secure at that moment. Distance and safety needed to occur first.

Thus any language is not for the fictional victims but instead the audience. I really wish the writers would have included a line or two where Wanda realizes she did bad (which they did) but also she was not in a situation right now to make amends. By including the Monica line they don't know what you gave up, it was a mistake without another line by Wanda saying I can't make this right at least right now, but I am going to do my best in the future.

-----

The finale was so disappointing for the writting has been mostly tight and then in that one scene it was kind of ruined. I really hope that this was an editing / vfx problem where better scenes were cut for it just makes the writers look bad and there were 6 to 8 great episodes of writting even though it was so good I bet I can find things to nitpick for 3% to 5% of the writting was bad but that means 95% of it was good.

But gosh that exchange between Wanda and Monica was not good.

[Psyren]

Perhaps how I was raised then. If you do something bad, you own up to it. And you apologize to those you’ve wronged. And take responsibility for your actions.

I was raised the same way - but I'm neither a cosmic being with a very real risk of causing further damage or being weaponized or having to fight her way out if she sticks around too long, nor am I constrained by the realities of a tv show that has to be economical with its runtime. Either of these situations makes scenes of her going around to all of the townsfolk to say how sorry she is not worth showing, never mind both of them together, and finding the nearest rooftop to yell it from isn't effective either.

And yes - "Me, me, me, I need to better my power" is the right answer, because nobody else but her has any real hope of stopping it from doing something like this in the future. Isolating herself to learn to control it is the best possible amends she could make. Do I expect it will turn out perfectly, no - but I would be even less optimistic about her being clapped in irons and sent to the Raft (again).

(Does the Raft even still exist?)

[theNater]

And yes - "Me, me, me, I need to better my power" is the right answer, because nobody else but her has any real hope of stopping it from doing something like this in the future. Isolating herself to learn to control it is the best possible amends she could make.

The problem is that it would be distressingly easy for a viewer to look at the show and say "It's a good thing that she enslaved that town, so that she could learn this important lesson about her power."

It's not a good thing that she enslaved the town. Having a hero say that explicitly, or putting in a post-credits scene of Westview residents waking up screaming, or something, would help make that clearer.

[Dienekes]

She just fought a battle against a fellow mage and etched spells into walls. She can take the 5 minutes to apologize before flying off if prison won't work.

As to her taking the Darkhold which she knows is literally called The Book of the Damned off by herself as the best way to learn. I just don't believe it. Especially since she's fought alongside the Sorcerer Supreme which has a sanctum designed for teaching magic and keeping dangerous magical thingies -i.e. her safe and secure. But that's more nitpickery when I am most focused on the whole who does not apologize and the dialogue designed to indicate to the audience that she's so sympathetic and we're supposed to be all sad for her when I don't really care. Or at least didn't care nearly as much as I was way more interested in the people who just went through a living hell.

Edit: Ramzao, you make a fair point. As I have not been in this long term abuse situation. So I defer to your judgment. But I do agree the Monica conversation was bad. Just long enough for the writers to point that they know what was going on was wrong. But not enough to actually show much of anything about Wanda’s continued motivation.

I get what you’re saying about the finale being cut to pieces. But I also have to judge based on what’s in front of me not a theoretical perfect version.

And again. I still like the show. But yeah. Some of it felt off to me. Like WW’s last movie with Trevor hijacking a body. They do vaguely address how messed up it is. But not nearly to enough extent.

And again I'm back into this. No more. Cheers.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Especially since she's fought alongside the Sorcerer Supreme which has a sanctum designed for teaching magic and keeping dangerous magical thingies -i.e. her safe and secure.

In general I agree with you but minor nitpick here: I don’t think she’s had the chance to really interact with Dr. Strange. He had to introduce himself to Tony at the beginning of Infinity War, which tells me he hadn’t met the Avengers previously. Then he got sucked into space, she went to Wakanda and they both died for five years. They might have had time to talk at Tony’s funeral or in the three weeks prior to WandaVision, but as she had just watched Vision die in front of her twice less than a month prior from her perspective - I doubt she was feeling up to quizzing her fellow supers about their powers and support structures.

Now as to why he didn’t approach her - that could use some explanation IMO. I would think Kama Taj would have some way to detect magic, and she’s been in the public spotlight for a while now. Someone there should already be aware of her, even if it’s not Strange.

[Ramza00]

STRANGE
So I keep a watch list of individuals and beings from other realms that may be a threat to this world. Your adopted brother Loki is one of these beings.

Well there is your problem!

Hey Strange you should have talked to Wanda in the last 2 years you been Sorcerer Supreme prior to Infinity War!

[Draconi Redfir]

there is literally nothing Wanda could have said to the townspeople that would have helped anything. They wanted her gone, she wanted to be gone. Nobody wanted to talk, they just wanted their dang lives back.

anything she said would have been little more then a poorly executed attempt at an apology.

[hungrycrow]

IMHO apologies are only good from people you want to stay in your life somehow. What Wanda did to the people of Westview is way too bad to come back from. Anything she does to them now, even just talking to them for five minutes, would only hurt them. Leaving ASAP was best option.

[Starbuck_II]

Perhaps how I was raised then. If you do something bad, you own up to it. And you apologize to those you’ve wronged. And take responsibility for your actions.

Otherwise what actions you take are about you. Not about them. When you’ve wronged someone it should always be about them. You lost your chance for yourself to matter in this equation when you wronged the other person.

Wanda’s finale is essentially her going Me. Me. Me. I need to better my power. I need to make myself stronger. They won’t understand my pain. I am sad they see me as bad.

As a viewer. I don’t care. I care way more about them.

Got to be careful now, some will now days take advantage of you if you bend the knee and say you are sorry.
It is fine to say "I apologize" mind you, but some won't be appeased regardless of what you say or do.

And really, how do you make up for accidently mind controlling a whole town?

[Psyren]

The problem is that it would be distressingly easy for a viewer to look at the show and say "It's a good thing that she enslaved that town, so that she could learn this important lesson about her power."

It's not a good thing that she enslaved the town. Having a hero say that explicitly, or putting in a post-credits scene of Westview residents waking up screaming, or something, would help make that clearer.

It's not a good thing, no. But it's not an evil thing either, because it was an accident. Those do happen in real life, and hopefully this show isn't anyone's first exposure to the concept.

Especially since she's fought alongside the Sorcerer Supreme which has a sanctum designed for teaching magic and keeping dangerous magical thingies -i.e. her safe and secure.

We have no way of knowing that she even knows who that is. The battlefield was a bit crowded.

Given that EO is currently filming Doctor Strange 2, I expect "why didn't Wanda just go to the Sanctum" will be answered there. Cheers.

anything she said would have been little more then a poorly executed attempt at an apology.

I take it all back, I would have absolutely loved 10 minutes of Wanda doing exactly this. I would link it repeatedly in this thread.

[Ramza00]

Just a reminder the original goal for Dr. Strange 2 was May 7th, 2021.

Now that may have changed even without COVID due to Jan 2020 the old director and Disney decided to split due to creative differences and in Feb 2020 press leak said Sam Raimi was going to be the director and this was confirmed in April 2020. Likewise at the same time the Loki head writer Michael Waldron was brought in to rework the script.

Filming for Dr Strange 2 was supposed to start May 2020 prior to COVID but was delayed to Nov 2020 the same month that WandaVISION finished filming (VFX work and editing though of course was still going on after filming.) Wanda / Elizabeth Olsen supposedly started filming Dr Strange 2 as soon as WandaVISION ended filming.

—————

So yeah everyone’s plans and timelines were impacted by the last year and a half.

[theNater]

It's not a good thing, no. But it's not an evil thing either, because it was an accident. Those do happen in real life, and hopefully this show isn't anyone's first exposure to the concept.

This isn't about the state of Wanda's soul, it's about the show failing to convey the gravity of the harm she has caused. I've actually had someone ask me why the residents of Westview aren't more grateful to Wanda. So I think a little more clarity about the consequences of her actions, accidental though they were, would not have gone amiss.

[dehro]

Nods.

We know that Wanda was messing with peoples minds to an extreme degree prior to episode 9. Wanda only knows there is a hex starting with episode 3, and she does not know she is treating people like extreme puppets till Agatha revealed that fact to her.

Thus her fight with Agatha is demonstrating she can learn the precise details of magic but also she has the character to set people free from the hex and not re enslave them as soon as she learned the truth about the Hex in episode 9.

It was a mirror fight but also indicating Wanda had learn things and was not just who had more power.

bolded by me... that's just not true.
she is perfectly aware that Vision is not real and when he starts questioning his actions and hers she "reboots him" multiple times.. likewise, she is confronted by Monica before Agatha and steps out of the town to confront the military before that.. she's also well aware that people are acting according to her script well before Agatha sets them free temporarily, and that every time she loses concentration on her spells reality seeps in.. She's smart enough to know and realise that that is not reality..in fact, she confronts Sword precisely to be able to sustain her make-believe.
no.. she's not the blind puppy victim you are trying to make her out to be.

That said, I'm fairly happy with the show and the finale but yes, I also understand the reasoning of people who feel cheated of a "reasonable" reaction towards the victims, any sign of atonement or resolution for the victims, however improvised and lacking.. it just wasn't there and that may have devalued the finale for some.

Then again, I don't read the comics but I was under the impression that the Scarlet Witch was primarily a villain in the MU. By that logic, it makes sense that she's enough of a psycho not to take responsibility and that she's on her way to turn full villain (the Darkhold has already done that to others in the MCU)... if she's going full villain, her making a half hearted attempt at apologising fits with the narrative, and ignoring the victims does as well. She has sort of started in the MCU as a minor villain turned hero almost immediately, which may have placed expectations on the viewers that are misguided with regards to her character... the heroes of this show were Vision and Monica, not Wanda. It stands to reason that she should turn villain and that explains away her lack of action and consideration once she's decided to skedaddle.

[Kornaki]

I think Wanda's defenders are missing the point a bit. Monica says they will never understand what you sacrificed for them. And to paraphrase a bit, Wanda is basically just like yeah they won't those jerks. Do either Wanda or Monica in that scene understand the townsfolk sacrificed more for Wanda in the last week? It's unclear to me.

That said, if her arc is going to be six movies of being a bad guy who pretends to be a good guy and half the audience falls for it for the first four, this could be the start of a great plot.

[Psyren]

@dehro - those "rewinds" were not in her control either. They were a result of her subconscious mind fleeing her trauma instead of coming to grips with it, hence the commercials growing more pointed as time went on.

Just a reminder the original goal for Dr. Strange 2 was May 7th, 2021.

Now that may have changed even without COVID due to Jan 2020 the old director and Disney decided to split due to creative differences and in Feb 2020 press leak said Sam Raimi was going to be the director and this was confirmed in April 2020. Likewise at the same time the Loki head writer Michael Waldron was brought in to rework the script.

Filming for Dr Strange 2 was supposed to start May 2020 prior to COVID but was delayed to Nov 2020 the same month that WandaVISION finished filming (VFX work and editing though of course was still going on after filming.) Wanda / Elizabeth Olsen supposedly started filming Dr Strange 2 as soon as WandaVISION ended filming.

—————

So yeah everyone’s plans and timelines were impacted by the last year and a half.

I'm not talking about the original timeline, I'm saying that Elizabeth Olsen confirmed she is currently filming DS2 (as of last week).

This isn't about the state of Wanda's soul, it's about the show failing to convey the gravity of the harm she has caused. I've actually had someone ask me why the residents of Westview aren't more grateful to Wanda. So I think a little more clarity about the consequences of her actions, accidental though they were, would not have gone amiss.

It's easy to Monday-morning-quarterback and say the show could have used "a little more clarity" without having to determine the specifics. I have yet to see a proposal to insert more of these "consequences" that wasn't goofy, asinine, or just a pointless waste of time better spent on the characters we'll actually be following once this is over.

[Gallowglass]

wow.

So, lots to dissect in this thread.

It never fails to amaze me, the same voices that complain that modern television spoon-feeds the audience information, tells too simple stories and exposition too much, giving the audience no credit for understanding something not explicitly spoken are often the same ones complaining when a show does the opposite.

If this show failed in anything it was in not expressing Wanda's viewpoint sufficiently enough for some of you to understand it. Instead you quickly paint her as the capital B Bad guy. The writers and show creators obviously meant for us to have some sympathy for her and expressed that by having the positive side characters (monica, jimmy, darcy) express that sympathy. They could've done that better with more exposition. I think probably some of that was cut out in editing. I think some of it was because they just didn't know how to express it outside of, I don't know, giving Wanda a terrible talking to a psychiatrist scene. A lazier show would've put a SWORD/FBI profiler in and spent five mintues spelling it out for the audience.

To be clear, I agree with the sentiment. I think they did a terrible job of building sympathy for Wanda and a terrible job of explaining why Monica, Jimmy and Darcy are on her side. Other than they assume as an Avenger, one of the people responsible for fighting off the Alien catastrophes and bringing back 3.5 Billion lost love ones, she is probably the good guy and deserves to be treated innocent until proven guilty.

to all the people asking questions about why she didn't go to Dr. Strange or why Dr. Strange didn't go to her. That's easy.
Wanda. Doesn't. Know. She. Is. Magic.
I mean, they spell that straight out for us. That's clear as a bell.
Wanda doesn't know she's a witch. She thinks she's a Slovakian anti-government anti-authority freedom fighter/terrorist who was given telepathy and telekinesis from an alien space stone. All the stuff Agatha spews out, she had no idea of, not one bit.

Wanda doesn't even vaguely understand her powers. She routinely gets abused by the writers into being the provocation for ongoing events. We need the world to turn against the Avengers, lets have Wanda be responsible for a bunch of deaths while trying to save more people by throwing an exploding man into the sky. By the way, that's the weakest "Wanda's fault" thing in the entire 23 movies. If she hadn't hurled Crossbones into the sky, even MORE people would've died in the market down below.

To top that off, Wanda has real actual psychological problems. I know some of you are "oh boo hoo, you've lost someone, who hasn't" and I guess you feel that way about any one with mental issues.

Born and raised in a war-torn near 3rd world eastern European country
As a child her parents were blown up in front of her by a Stark bomb.
As a teenager, was indoctrinated and trained to be an anti-government, anti-authoritarian terrorist.
Taken by the world's most evil organization, experimented on, kept as a prisoner but conditioned to think of herself as a willing participant and given immense powers she can't control
One of those powers involves now hearing the voices inside other people's heads
Confronted by the lies behind your deep seated beliefs, the people you thought were evil aren't and the people you thought were "your side" aren't.
Your brother, your only living familial connection, the only person whose been with you every step of the way dies.
Taken to another country, given a place to be trained in the use of your new powers and new "friends" who suspiciously seem like the last two groups who promised the same.
Fall in love with someone, making a connection you never thought possible, partially because of the same alien stone that gave you your power binding you together.
Forced to fight that person you now love who is on the other side of a conflict between your new defacto family
Imprisoned for a short while in the most inhuman way possible, pyshically and mentally bound and isolated.
Freed and forced to go on the run as a fugitive for several years.
Sneaking a few secret meetings with your lover, the only islands of peace in your entire existance up to now.
Starting to make plans for a future that you start to believe may be possible.
Your lover is then killed.
No, not just killed. You are forced to Kill your lover to try and save the world. And you do.
Then the bad guy just undoes your sacrifice and kills him himself in front of you.
You cease to exist for five years. Then you come back.
As soon as you come back you are recruited into an enormous fight against the foe that killed your lover.
After the battle is over, then what.
Several weeks go by while you try and figure out what happened to your lover's body. You just want to see him, to verify it with your own eyes, to say goodbye.
You find out that your friends, over the last five years, just handed him over to the government and never gave it a second thought.
You find out where he is. Presumedly you try through the proper channels and get rebuffed. Regardless, full of anger and fury you show up where he is and demand to see him.
Some beuarocrat perfectly provokes you for reasons not explained. Taunting and tormenting you in an obvious ploy to get you to do... something?
You see your lover's body laid out, turned into a machine, everything you loved about him gone. You verify through your very real link that he's not there.
You flee into your torment. Go to a place you once thought you could start your new life. The life you wanted so much....

Mentally exhausted beyond ALL reason, you reach out with powers you don't understand and make that reality real.

Did Wanda know it wasn't real? Sure. Sometime consciously, most times not. Not in the early days. In the early days she was in a trauma induced disassociative episode. A full fledged schizophrenic break from reality.
The actress Elizabeth Olsen outright stated that was the intent of the show creators in interviews. About how excited she want to act Wanda's mental issues. to give a voice to her reality.

Did you see the after credits in the last episode. Did you notice there were two wandas in the cabin? The quiet, contemplative one in the sweater drinking coffee on the stoop of her cabin and the scary sorcereress floating in the air reading the book of evil magic. These are basically two personalities now living in Wanda. That's what we were seeing in the entire series. The one who knew what was going on, the one that destroyed the drone, dispatched Monican and the Beekeeper, the over personality created by Wanda to protect the inner personality. Her innocence and her love and her ability to have connections with others like Vision and Pietro.

So yeah, I'm willing to cut her a break. She doesn't need to be told what a terrible person she is, she needs some real counseling on a psychological level to go with someone who has her best interests in heart to train her to control her powers.

Is that Dr. Strange? Probably. Though I'm 99% convinced that Dr. Strange doesn't even know Chaos Magic is a thing. I think its a secret known to the witches not to the sorcerers. I think Dr. Strange never recognized Wanda was magic either.

I think Wanda is some prophesized super witch that heralds the coming of chaos with the destruction of the Stones. I think the fact that the stones no longer exist in this reality, serving as gates and controls on the six fundamental forces they represent is the chaos that she taps into. And, yeah, after seeing the end credit scene I think she's even likely to be the bad guy in the next movie who Dr. Strange has to redeem.

[Psyren]

Kudos to you Gallowglass. You have a lot more patience with these scalding takes than I do. Brilliant write-up.

[Tyndmyr]

For example, I know I’m not going to be cheering so hard when Monica shows up in Captain Marvel 2 because she’s apparently okay with slavery as long as the slaver has a sufficiently tragic backstory.

Warped characterization to fit the plot is one of the reasons I’ve had trouble getting into the comics.

I'll probably still watch it, because MCU, and there's nothing in theaters for forever...but I am totally not enthused for CM 2. Literally any other MCU film sounds more interesting.

I read a fair amount of comics, but yeah, that's always a problem. Trying to untangle the giant web of why characterization is such a mess for any given character ends up ultimately being kind of a chore, and at some level, you end up having to just accept that many writers do what they want. It's an obstacle to getting deeper into them.

Wanda’s finale is essentially her going Me. Me. Me. I need to better my power. I need to make myself stronger. They won’t understand my pain. I am sad they see me as bad.

Correct. It's what you would expect to see when the villain wins. Its what we DO see when Thanos wins.

Any reasonable interpretation of events has this story a tale of Wanda turning to being a villain...but none of the protaganists seem aware of this. Not even Wanda herself, who is off flippin' through the Darkhold, which I'm sure is a wonderful idea.

If your actions are only self serving, you're not the hero. Having piles of cosmic power does not make that any better whatsoever.

It's easy to Monday-morning-quarterback and say the show could have used "a little more clarity" without having to determine the specifics. I have yet to see a proposal to insert more of these "consequences" that wasn't goofy, asinine, or just a pointless waste of time better spent on the characters we'll actually be following once this is over.

I don't need to be a chef to know when food tastes bad.

But all the same, consider this instead. Folks are in horror when they come out of mind control, just as they were previously in the show. Wanda tries to apologize to the people, and asks what she can do to make it up to them. Those capable of conversing with her say there's nothing she can do, and some of them start demanding, screaming almost, that she just leave and never come back.

Bam, same overall outcome, but with slightly more emotional interplay than watching paint dry.

[Ronnoc]

It's not a good thing, no. But it's not an evil thing either, because it was an accident. Those do happen in real life, and hopefully this show isn't anyone's first exposure to the concept.

At some point an accident leads to an evil act when you don't try to rectify it. She knows the people of Westview are suffering by episode five and we know that she has the power to release them. She didn't for selfish, albeit sympathetic reasons.

As is often the case I think some of the tonal disconnect is due to the denouement stretching a little long. The climax for her arc is choosing to let Vision and the kids go in order to save the people of Westview. If we'd wrapped shortly after that I think people would have an easier time accepting her start on the road to redemption.

[Psyren]

Correct. It's what you would expect to see when the villain wins. Its what we DO see when Thanos wins.

What? No it's not. Thanos won and set all the power aside days later. He actively made himself weaker, because he didn't need it anymore.

Any reasonable interpretation of events has this story a tale of Wanda turning to being a villain...but none of the protaganists seem aware of this. Not even Wanda herself, who is off flippin' through the Darkhold, which I'm sure is a wonderful idea.

If your actions are only self serving, you're not the hero. Having piles of cosmic power does not make that any better whatsoever.

The whole point of this story is that there is no clear "hero." A story about mental illness and trauma doesn't need such puerile concepts.

As for Wanda becoming a villain, I fully expect that her reading the Darkhold is not going to end in sunshine and bunnies, but being unable to trust Agatha it's her best option in that moment.

But all the same, consider this instead. Folks are in horror when they come out of mind control, just as they were previously in the show. Wanda tries to apologize to the people, and asks what she can do to make it up to them. Those capable of conversing with her say there's nothing she can do, and some of them start demanding, screaming almost, that she just leave and never come back.

Bam, same overall outcome, but with slightly more emotional interplay than watching paint dry.

A bunch of wasted time and footage to get to, in your own words, the same outcome. I'll pass.

She knows the people of Westview are suffering by episode five

She doesn't. Vision confronts her and then her power edits the footage to protect her psyche. Only Agatha disabling it in episode 8/9 allows the information to "stick."

[hungrycrow]

At some point an accident leads to an evil act when you don't try to rectify it. She knows the people of Westview are suffering by episode five and we know that she has the power to release them. She didn't for selfish, albeit sympathetic reasons.

In fairness, according to episode 9 she didn't actually know they were suffering, just that they were under mind control. She probably assumed the weird sitcom fantasy was making them happy.

Of course as Vision said, that wasn't her decision to make.