Dr Strange 2: In the Multiverse of Madness (Spoilers)

[Umbran]

The Darkhold feeding someone's worst angels is absolutely what its always been about, though. I don't know any incarnation of it where extended contact with it didn't wreck someone.

In fact, it is kind of important that it does. Wanda is insanely powerful. And, dramatically, that's a problem. It means there's no real challenge for her to overcome. The influence of the Darkhold provides that challenge. It shifts the movie from being about who is stronger with magic (a boring question) and shifts the questions to really be about the moral questions of what we do for what ends.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Sure, if this were a documentary, I'd totally be okay with them recounting how Wanda got corrupted. But it's a choice of a fiction writer who could decide what to do, and who chose to look at a character who'd gone through the events of Wandavision, and to undo that character growth due to the influence of an inanimate object.

See, I read it more as someone desperately reaching for a ledge and missing. And it didn't completely undo it; the end of the movie at hand shows that.

And what does do, as do a lot of the things with the alternate Stranges, is show that magical power is particularly hard to keep your arms around without it corrupting you even before the Darkhold gets into it.

 

[Thomas Shey]

In fact, it is kind of important that it does. Wanda is insanely powerful. And, dramatically, that's a problem. It means there's no real challenge for her to overcome. The influence of the Darkhold provides that challenge. It shifts the movie from being about who is stronger with magic (a boring question) and shifts the questions to really be about the moral questions of what we do for what ends.

Yeah. And as noted, we already knew at the end of Wandavision that this was at least going to be a problem.

As I noted, its clear she went into delving into the Darkhold with the best of intentions; but she suffers at that point from literally not knowing what she's doing. In D&D terms, she's very much a sorcerer, not a wizard. And the only way to find out she has at hand is this kind of spooky ancient magic book, but for all she knows, that's just how magic rolls. She theoretically could have gone to Strange, but she already knows she's done something bad with Westfield, so who knows how he'll react?
If I have anything to complain about, its that the tail end business with her hearing her children's voices crying for help falls completely out of the picture. I seriously wonder if in the pre-reshoot version that played more of a part and the reshoot was done because she came across as a bit too sympathetic with that in the picture.

 

[Bolares]

If I have anything to complain about, its that the tail end business with her hearing her children's voices crying for help falls completely out of the picture. I seriously wonder if in the pre-reshoot version that played more of a part and the reshoot was done because she came across as a bit too sympathetic with that in the picture.

I read that as a sensorial way to demonstrare the darkhold influencing her. She was not actually hearing her children crying for help. It was the darkhold making her hear that, and pushing her to go the route she went on the movie

 

[RangerWickett]

What she is in this movie was directly set up in wandavision

In WV she messes with people's minds. The last three scenes are her getting revenge on Agatha for trying to kill her, her voluntarily giving up her loved ones to move on, and then the stinger of her looking at the book and hearing voices.

The next scene we see of her, she's admitting to sending demons to kill a child, and then one scene later she sees an injured sorcerer crawling away and disintegrates him.

Messing with minds to full on merciless murder. There is a pretty marked jump between the end of WV and the start of MoM.

Like, sure, time jump can explain it, but it's bad storytelling.

 

[Imaculata]

The only thing I feel they could have done better, is actually showing Wanda's descend into darkness, rather than her starting off evil right away.

 

[Thomas Shey]

In WV she messes with people's minds. The last three scenes are her getting revenge on Agatha for trying to kill her, her voluntarily giving up her loved ones to move on, and then the stinger of her looking at the book and hearing voices.

The next scene we see of her, she's admitting to sending demons to kill a child, and then one scene later she sees an injured sorcerer crawling away and disintegrates him.

Messing with minds to full on merciless murder. There is a pretty marked jump between the end of WV and the start of MoM.

Like, sure, time jump can explain it, but it's bad storytelling.

I think this is just one of the things that's going to bother you that doesn't others. I don't consider it bad storytelling, because it was set up the moment we see she's diving into the Darkhold. While it'd have been possible she could have walked away, with what we know of her issues ending up somewhere like this seems far the more likely outcome to me. That just can't feel like bad storytelling to me; it seems entirely earned.

 

[Stalker0]

I think this is just one of the things that's going to bother you that doesn't others. I don't consider it bad storytelling, because it was set up the moment we see she's diving into the Darkhold. While it'd have been possible she could have walked away, with what we know of her issues ending up somewhere like this seems far the more likely outcome to me. That just can't feel like bad storytelling to me; it seems entirely earned.

I agree. Now for people who haven't seen Wandavision, this could seem out of left field. This movie tests the MCU's belief that all of its products are going to be consumed, as they really do expect people to have seen the tv show to know what's going on, and the movie really doesn't explain that much.

But if you have, I mean Wanda really goes down the hole in that show, doing a lot of bad things. It doesn't seem weird at all that you take that, add in a super evil book constantly corrupting you, that after a bit of time you have a witch that has gone full dark side.

I do think the Darkhold is narratively important to get her there "so quickly". Without it, I could see Wanda getting there eventually, but I would need to see that progression (else we have another Season 8 GOT Dennerys heel turn). But the book acts as a catalyst, accelerating Wanda through that progression and making her more unable to listen to reasonable arguments than she might have otherwise. Considering that Strange used it for like 10 minutes and may already have corruption in his body....it seems very reasonable that a person using it for several weeks (months?) could be completely corrupted.

 

[Staffan]

In WV she messes with people's minds. The last three scenes are her getting revenge on Agatha for trying to kill her, her voluntarily giving up her loved ones to move on, and then the stinger of her looking at the book and hearing voices.

The next scene we see of her, she's admitting to sending demons to kill a child, and then one scene later she sees an injured sorcerer crawling away and disintegrates him.

Messing with minds to full on merciless murder. There is a pretty marked jump between the end of WV and the start of MoM.

Like, sure, time jump can explain it, but it's bad storytelling.

It's a fairly big time jump. It's been at least one, maybe two years between Wandavision and Multiverse of Madness. Wandavision took place pretty much directly after Endgame, in 2023. Multiverse happens after Spiderman: No Way Home, which takes place in late 2024. It's unclear how long after, but definitively after (it could be in the interval between The Big Fight and Peter swinging around at Christmas in the end scene, so it's possible but unlikely that Multiverse is in 2024 but more likely to be 2025).

And two years with a Book of Evil Badness working its way into Wanda's mind? Yeah, I'll buy her becoming unhinged.

Plus, as has already been established, Wanda was never much of a paragon of Good. She deliberately triggered the Hulk into going on a rampage in a densely populated area, just because she wanted to get back at Stark for building the weapons that killed her parents.

 

[RangerWickett]

Yeah, I'll buy her becoming unhinged.

Then show it.