re: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness SPOILERS THREAD

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There is almost none for Wanda. Going from Wandavision to this movie is a huge leap

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At the beginning of WandaVision, Wanda’s grief causes her to snap, and with Agatha’s influence, enslaves an entire town to escape from that grief. She eventually realizes what she’s done and frees the town she enslaved, resigning herself to living alone without her family. Many pointed out that Wanda didn’t seem like a hero, and it didn’t make sense for people to treat her as such. WandaVision was essentially the tragic backstory that created a villain.

At the beginning of this movie, she’s living alone and suffering from the same grief. It’s a continuation of the same story. Now, fully aware of what she’s doing, and under the corruptive influence of the Darkhold, she is trying to find a way to get back the family she “lost” in WandaVision. As the movie progresses, she gets increasingly willing to slaughter innocent people. She goes from subtly hunting one person, to massacring magic users, to wantonly destroying cities. At the end, she learns that she really is a monster, and that the only way she could “take back” her family would require them to see her as a monster. This convinces her to destroy the darkhold, likely sacrificing herself to do so at the expense of the multi-verse.

On the flip side: Chavez doesn’t grow that much, but she learns how to trust herself and harness her power. She also has a point of putting askde selfishness in the end. At the beginning, she sees Strange’s desire to sacrifice her to save the multi-verse as a betrayal. By the end, she suggests the same play, and learns to appreciate the calculus that sometimes a life must be sacrificed for the safeguard of many. While she figured out another way to fix the problem (i.e. giving Wanda what she wanted, thus allowing Wanda to finally understand that she had become a villain), the fact that she now accepted the fact that her power represents a danger to everyone was a profound development of impathy. She matures beyond being a damsel in distress and a mcguffin for the hero and villain to fight over and instead gains agency, learning to creatively use her powers to solve the conflict between protagonist and antagonist. This is serious growth for a young character who starts out the movie as afraid, self-centered, untrusting, Jaded, and basically hopeless.

Now, Strange’s arc. He feels a lack of fulfillment at being a hero. He knows that his actions in Endgame were necessary, yet still feels guilt at the price paid to attain victory. He still feels haunted that one of the prices of being a hero was losing his love interest who is marrying another man. He wonders if he really needed to pay that price, and if he could have had both. By the end of the movie, he learns to let go of his love because he learns it’s really not possible. Now that he’s not haunted by regrets, he can move forward and embrace his role going forward. We also see a hint that the darkhold now has some corruptive influence remaining from his use of it, which could set up a future heel turn for him as well. There’s also a lot of foreshadowing in that the other Dr. Stranges were mostly evil or grey figures. This Strange is seen as “better” than the others, but is he really?

It ain’t shakespeare, but it’s definitely a well above average Marvel Movie for character development

no, it was a joke about the Detroit Tigers. They were hyped before that season and won like 50 games

Comic baws - does America Chavez have any other ability than just skipping to another universe when the chips are down? That seems like it's super unhelpful if that's all she brings to the table.

according to google, her abilities seem quite OP. I haven't read any comics post 2000 or so so she is way past my comic knowledge but:

Flight
Super Speed
Super Strength
Bulletproof, flameproof, can survive in space
Energy control (like when she punched Scarlet Witch in the movie)

Did we see the Darkhold in any previous MCU entries?

I want to say Agatha Harkness had it in WV.

Zombie strange was insane and a marvel highlight.

Overall I thought it was a hair too long. About a 7/10 and more of a setup than a huge blockbuster finisher movie like the Avengers. Felt great to be back in the theater.

I thought this was a mediocre to bad movie. Very disappointed leaving the theatre and I haven’t felt that often with Marvel.

Wasn’t that the book in the AoS series?

Yeah, seems like there were a few storylines involving it.