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My Thoughts On WandaVision Season 1 - Non-Spoiler And Spoiler Reviews


JayC

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I am writing this review in two parts. The first part is non-spoiler for those who haven’t finished watching the entire season of WandaVision on Disney+ yet. I will simply share my overall view of the series. In the second half of this review, I will go into more detail on why I feel the way I do which will involve specific show spoilers.

Non-Spoiler portion:

WandaVision ended as it began, which for me was a let down. I waited until the entire series aired before putting my thoughts to paper about it. I knew going in, things would start out slow and build up as it progressed. Even though I originally, and still do, find the first three episodes of the show to be incredibly dull and overdone with the whole sitcom gimmick, I had every confidence that sooner or later things would get better. I think it should have been sooner — two episodes in at most — but I won’t quibble over that.

Starting with episode 4, things finally started to pick up, and the show actually felt like something that belonged as part of the MCU. As the season went on, the writers dangled little teasers and easter eggs which created much debate among fans. This is something I think fans have come to expect and very much enjoy about the MCU. With the movies and now these Disney+ shows, it’s not just about what’s happening on the screen at that moment, but what is to come next. Between episodes 4-8, I thought the writers did a brilliant job with this, perhaps too good a job as it turns out.

While I don’t think the series as a whole is horrible, I don’t feel the show delivered with the final payout, and the two after-credit scenes in the final episode almost seemed like an afterthought just to get us to go watch the next movies.

Most of the secondary characters in the show ended up adding very little to the overall story in my opinion. I do think actor Paul Bettany (Vision) gave very strong performances, and we did add some much needed depth for both Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision. But in the end, the final result was a bit of a let down.

To make it even worse, I felt like the show creators, knowing people would be disappointed, made a last minute effort to tamp down expectations.

WandaVision director Matt Shakman told HuffPost that Paul Bettany dug his own hole because the actor promised a major cameo at the end.

Quote

“He dug himself this hole. He can get out of it.”

He then told EW

Quote

“I hope that [fans] feel like the journey was satisfying for them, I know there are so many theories out there; there will be a lot of people who will no doubt be disappointed by one theory or another. But we’re always telling this story about Wanda dealing with grief and learning how to accept that loss, and hopefully people will find that the finale is surprising but also satisfying, and that it feels inevitable because it’s the same story they’ve been watching the whole time.”

In this, they seemingly tried to turn it on fans with the implication that if we didn’t like it, then it was our own fault for building the show up too much. Sorry, but spending the season building up expectations by leaving pretty blatant clues (we will get more into that in the spoiler portion) and even having the stars of the show come out in interviews during the season to say things like we will see fantastic cameos on par with that of Mark Hamill’s appearance in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, only to then say “my bad” doesn’t really hold much water with me.

So just to sum up my non-spoiler portion of this review, I will leave you with these final thoughts. I feel like this same story could have easily been told in half the time and now that I’ve seen what happens, I doubt I will ever have much desire to go back and re-watch this show again. I look at a show like the Mandalorian which has done a great job of not only telling a compelling overall story which lays groundwork for the Star Wars Universe, it also has great individual episodes that can be watched and re-watched again and again. That is what good TV should be, and this show in my view falls very short that.

 

SPOILER PORTION:

In this part of the review, I am going to talk about specific things that happened during the series. With this I will try to show why I think the show runners deliberately set up viewers for a big payoff that never really came, and that it wasn’t the fans’ fault for expecting more.

Let’s start off with one of the most obvious build-up points for the show that never paid off. Midway through the season, we were introduced to Evan Peters who initially was thought to be some version of Quicksilver. It’s long been known that this show was meant to lead into the upcoming Doctor Strange: Into The Multiverse Of Madness movie. So when we saw Evans show up, who is best known for playing Quicksilver in the 20th Century Fox X-Men movies, I think it’s pretty easy to see why fans would have thought this was going to be a major plot point for a multiverse storyline. In the finale, we learn that Evans isn’t really Quicksilver at all, just some normal guy named Ralph Bohner, who I guess was supposed to be the Ralph that Agnes/Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) kept referencing as her husband during the series — a character constantly mentioned but never seen.

Why take an actor from the Fox X-Men Universe and drop him in here only to make him be some common schmuck? Talk about a total let down for no reason. Based on the final outcome, it would have made a lot more sense to have actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson who played the original MCU Quicksilver during Age of Ultron back and then say it was someone else using a magic disguise. In my view, bringing in a Fox actor was a deliberate misdirect to build up hype and excitement for the show.

Next up, we have Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and her name dropping of some big Aerospace Engineer. The biggest Aerospace Engineer known in the Marvel Universe is none other than Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. This again was a pretty obvious tease deliberately made to get viewers with knowledge of the Marvel Universe hyped.  I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect this should have led to more than what we got. After teasing this character in multiple episodes, the final payoff ends up being a character named Major Gooder (Rachel Thompson). This is a character who never appeared in the comics and was completely made up for the show. It was never made clear if Gooder was the actual Engineer Monica was referencing or just someone sent by the engineer. Either way, there was no real payoff from this. All we ended up with was a scene where Monica tries and fails to ram a previously built space land-rover into Wanda’s Hex wall.

Moving on, the Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg) character who was the director of S.W.O.R.D. is another character I was pretty disappointed with. Now admittedly, I can’t fault the show runners for building this one up with teases. This character did end up being pretty much what he was portrayed to be from the get-go. I will say I think there was a missed opportunity here, but nothing in the show really suggested Hayward was anything more than a narrow-minded bureaucratic leader of a government organization. The missed opportunity was in not making Hayward have some connection to Ultron, but again there was nothing in the show that really ever suggested that was going to be the case. However, I am not sure why Hayward was arrested at the end and essentially labeled a bad guy. While no one liked Hayward, his actions tried to stop a an extremely powerful madwoman who kidnapped a small town in New Jersey. I guess the implication was that he was never authorized to re-build and use the Vision body, although that was never actually really made clear. While we as viewers where kept in the dark about the white Vision until the second-to-last episode, it didn’t really seem like it was some major secret or that the powers that be in the Government weren’t aware it was happening. After all, you would think both the Avengers and the Wakanda Government would be aware that Vision ended up at S.W.O.R.D. Obviously, Wanda knew where to go to find Vision’s body. It also seemed like Hayward was pretty up front when talking to Wanda in episode 8 that Vision had been deemed property of the U.S. government. So why sending in the White Vision to stop Wanda would be a criminal act didn’t make much sense to me. Hayward was in official command, so it seems the supposed “good-guys” Monica, Darcy and James Woo were the ones disobeying orders and would have been arrested for violating orders if this was real life, not Haywood. After all, it was Monica who let Wanda just walk away for doing what were pretty inexcusable acts to the people who lived in Westview.

I know the intent here was that we should feel sorry for Wanda and excuse her actions because of the recent tragic events that happened in her life, but come on. She basically forced her mental will on a whole town of completely innocent people for weeks so she could create a “perfect life” for herself, even if it did initially start as an accident. There is no excusing that, and not only did she prove herself to be someone of extreme power completely out of control, but she also proved herself to be a credible real threat to everyone on the planet.

It would have been one thing if Wanda was being manipulated by some greater force as we were seemingly led to believe throughout the show with all the demon and devil references, but in the end it was all her own doing. How anyone like Monica could justify what Wanda did here in anyway is beyond me. Monica saying they (the people she mind controlled for weeks) will never know what Wanda sacrificed for them and telling her that if she had Wanda’s powers she would probably have done the same thing really doesn’t make me like or admire these characters anymore or feel sympathy for them.


As for the cameos that the show’s stars teased in interviews, well it that turns out they were just screwing with us. While I am still not entirely sure who the Luke Skywalker-like appearance Olsen teased was supposed to be, the one Bettany teased apparently was himself.
 

In the end, it seemed like the real goal of this show was simply to bridge a gap between the events of Avengers: Endgame and the next round of MCU movies without any major revelations. In other words, they wanted you to be hyped just enough so you go to the theater and pay to watch the movies. I feel like they really didn’t want to do anything major here that would have major overall implications to the MCU, perhaps in fear it might take away from the movies. Obviously, the show was meant to establish the magic origins of Wanda so her role in the upcoming Doctor Strange movie will make more sense. They also gave us a backdoor way of bringing Vision back to the land of the living. This reminded me of what they attempted to do at the end of Star Trek: Nemesis when it seemed they wanted a way to bring back Commander Data if future Next Generation movies happened.

For those who have been wanting to see Mephisto in the MCU, I think that may still be a possibility. The same goes for the X-Men and Fantastic Four being introduced into the MCU, but it’s pretty obvious to me from this series, those kind of things are being held for the major box office movies and some TV show.

Both mid- and after-credit scenes from the final episode are obvious set-ups for the coming movies. First we have a random Skrull in disguise as a FBI agent come to collect Monica so she can show up in the next Captain Marvel movie as Photon. In the second scene, we see Wanda’s astral form studying the Darkhold book when she hears mental cries for help from her children who were obviously more than just figments of Wanda’s imagination. This is an obvious set-up for the next Doctor Strange movie where I’m guessing we might actually get that Mephisto reveal people were hoping for here.

Despite a season of what seemed like brilliant clues and teases, all we got was a cliche superhero battle where our heroes essentially fought evil versions of themselves in an attempt to say love conquers all. I guess I might even be willing to be satisfied with that if I wasn’t left feeling that Wanda did horrible things all on her own accord throughout the series, and that I should just be understanding of that because of her emotional pain. Give me a break. Heroes shouldn’t have to be perfect, but this takes it to a whole new ridiculous level. Yes, I was expecting a much bigger payoff here and with reason. Not because I conjured up a bunch of wild theories for the show, but because we were led to believe and strung along for 8 episodes that a big payoff was coming. The stars of the show even went out of their way to say so. The people making this show did all that on their own. Again, I didn’t hate WandaVision, but the fans wanting more and expecting more is due to the show runners being a victim of their own PR-hype machine and that shouldn’t be put on fans suggesting they are being unrealistic with their expectations.

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SPOILER WARNING! (I don't think I actually spoil anything, but still, I'd rather give a heads up just in case)

While I understand and even relate to the disappointment in how certain clues were leading somewhere else, it's nothing new for the MCU. It's part of the misdirection and us as fans were responsible for following those red herrings, but the clues for what actually happened in the show were there ALL ALONG.

The one thing I do agree with is that Wanda was let off way too lightly. She went BOYS level dark here and even if she repented or wasn't 100% deliberate... Butcher would've had a field day. 

What happens from here? I was recently on a podcast and said that we were shown that Wanda was still heroic, and well-meaning even if she had the immense ability to cause harm unintentionally. We could even say that the Sokovian Accords exist because of her. But after some thought, I think they're actually setting her up to be a "relatable villain" like Thanos and Killmonger, or an antihero like Deadpool at least. They mean well, but aren't doing things the heroic way.

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SPOILERS!

 

I left that final episode with a very empty feeling, I was mislead as a fan and viewer, while the episode gave me the same level of good old entertainment as the one before it, I felt like I opened an empty box on christmas, as JayC said we were lead to believe we were going to get a huge bang at the end, clearly it was a trick to bait us along to watch every episode. I honestly had so much to say in regards to how I felt about this show, but in the end JayC really had the exact same opinions so I'll go with "what he said" , don't get me wrong I enjoyed watching this show, but did I also feel like we got a stunt pulled, well yes. I also must mention that I really think it was a waste to have evan peters as quicksilver, not in the fact that he wasn't quicksilver in the end, but now you have basically removed evan peters and the multiverse version of quicksilver from even exisiting in the future. I also feel weirdly knocked around now that strange didn't appear in this show at all, he was just sitting back watching these evens unfold that clearly were in his jurisdiction?, also did we not see him teased in a preview? ah..old hulk in infinity war move. 

 

My one take away from all of this show is that this feels like it's connect to the new Strange movie will likely by setting up Chthon as the baddie, with the darkhold, and chaos magic blah blah, seems almost like they were just using this as a spring board to say well now we got these elements for you.. I mean we also finally got Wanda in her official suit.

 

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1 hour ago, watanabefan said:

People's response to this is a good indicator of why I don't read fan theories. Not making fun of anyone who is upset. But I saw a LOT of people all over the web who were dead set on Mephisto being revealed as the mastermind behind everything (possibly played by Evan Peters) and that seemed like a stretch to me.

That, and also people watching the show for the things it might set up rather than like, enjoying it on its own terms and engaging with what's actually in the show.

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I've bringing thinking about the Evan Peters thing. Like most other people, I figured he'd been zapped in from the X-MCU (it works in different ways). MCU Quicksilver was dead so whoever warped him had to poach from a nearby alternate reality. The big reveal (SPOLIER) is that he's just some goofy dude that was living there. I still think he's X-MCU Quicksilver though. Here's why -

He laughed when he heard the name boner. If he had grown up with that name, he'd cringe when he heard someone say it. Even nice people would snort when being introduced to him. He's hate it. Instead, he laughs at it. No way his name is Boner.

The writing on this series was fairly complex. Twists, turns, misdirections. It was obviously thoroughly discussed and plotted out. Having some random dude living in Westview just happen to look exactly like an alternate reality version of Wanda's brother doesn't make any sense. The Quicksilvers are the alternate versions of each other, not Ralph Boner. The meta analysis means there is a reason Evan Peters is playing him.

The necklace seemed to me to be a a token of mind control. Of course it could have been doing whatever the writers say it was doing, I just had the impression it was just mind controlling him, not also giving him his powers.

Speaking of powers, he used that super speed quite comfortably, like he's had it for years. There was no learning curve, he knew how to stop and turn at crazy speeds. 

Agent Woo went to Westfield because he hadn't heard from someone in the witness protection program. Ralph Boner is exactly the kind of joke name that Peter Maximoff would make up as a bro joke. It's clearly a made up name. 

So my new theory is that somehow the X-MCU Quicksilver got into the XMU before Wanda came to Westview. The US government had him in hiding. Cue Wandavision.

I bet there is more Evan Peters in the MCU and they tell us how he got there. I hope it has something to do with Dr. Strange 2, which I am bummed is not coming out in a couple of months.

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Personally i enjoyed it, although i do think if you're not somebody who appreciates old-time sitcoms, you might've found it underwhelming.  When i was growing up i watched tons of bewitched, brady bunch, and even some dick van dyke on local stations that would air the re-runs endlessly, so this show brought back a lot of memories of those cheesy old shows.

I liked the Evan Peters stunt casting, it worked as a nod to the sitcom trope of replacing the actor who played a character without any in-universe acknowledgement, and also of course on a meta-level as we all know him as QS from the Fox films.  Really their only choices in terms of creating the illusion that QS was back were to cast Peters or bring back Aaron T-J, but if went with Aaron they would have had to really make him act more bizarrely to cue us in that he's not on the up and up.  If they just cast some rando then everyone would've seen thru it immediately, depriving the episode of suspense. So i think Evan was the best choice.

As far as people being disappointed because their fan theories didn't pan out, i'm sorry if that led to disappointment. It always seemed unlikely that Disney would use this series to introduce the x-men as i think they will take their time with that.  In the end the series was, as advertised, a series about Wanda and Vision, and i'm glad they kept the focus on those two, with Monica's development as a bonus.

I really liked the way Wanda and Vision defeated their opponent,s not by relying on raw power but by cleverly exploiting weaknesses in the rules that their opponents operated under. Felt very comic-booky to me.  

As far as Wanda "getting away with it", she was already largely feared by the public (although maybe her battle against Thanos in Endgame helped redeem her in the eyes of the public, certainly Monica seemed to admire it) and now she's got to live with the guilt of what she did.  Would've been nice if she could've somehow erased the townsfolks' memories of their time in sitcomland so they wouldn't have PTSD or whatever but instead just had a few lost days. but oh well.

Definitely looking forward to Falcon & Winter Soldier.  I also really hope they bring back Kathryn Hahn at some point as she really put in an amazing performance.  

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Olsen never teased a "Luke Skywalker-level cameo" herself. She simply said "Yes" when an interviewer asked if we're going to see an unexpected casting. Clickbait sites misconstrued her words. And that interview happened before the 80s episode, so the casting Olsen was referring to was Evan Peters. As for Bettany's comments, he was just being cheeky when he mentioned he was excited to work with a certain actor, since that person turned out to be himself.

I do agree with some of the complaints you stated, namely Hayward being the only person who was appropriatedly treating Wanda like a threat only for him to turn out to be a full-blown bad guy. And while the ending didn't put Wanda in a pedestal, the narrative still tried to paint her in a heroic light, especially since Monica validated her, whereas the one person opposing her was reduced to a bad guy. That's the one thing that really rubbed me the wrong way about the entire show, how the implications of Wanda's actions are brushed away. Monica being "They don't know what you sacrificed or them" comes off as tone-deaf considering all the did was do right by the people she was torturing for weeks. Ending the anomaly wasn't a favor that Wanda was doing its citizens. I wonder what would have happened if Agatha hadn't gotten involved, since it's only by contrast to her Disney villain nature that Wanda comes off as a good guy.

All in all, I don't have strong feelings for the show. It was entertaining and the gripes I have with it are just gripes. I wonder if this is because I wasn't really invested in it or because I never read into fan theories or let myself be carried by the hype, which certainly had something to do with me not being disappointed at the show not using Mephisto or whatever hundred crackpot theories MCU fans were pushing for. On that side, I think this show is a cautionary tale for fans, and that they shouldn't set these crazy unwarranted expectations on a story.

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I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a different kind of story than we've seen in The MCU thus far, told in a different way. It's one that would not have lent itself nearly as well to the constraints of a feature film. It was more personal and character-focused, with some mysterious elements that were best revealed over the course of an episodic series. I also thought they nailed it with the sitcom homages- each of those early episodes being an homage to a specific classic sitcom. Some people have complained about the pacing, but I thought it was spot-on, and divided well by episode. I wouldn't have minded if the last 2 or 3 episodes were each slightly longer, as there were some little details I wouldn't have minded being delved in to a bit more, but overall, I thought it was great. I don't want Disney+ series to just feel like they took a couple of movies and chopped them up in to episodes- I want them to be stories like this, that lend themselves to this format, often with more focus on characters, personal relationships, etc.. than can be done in a 2 hour and 17 minute film. 

The acting was top-notch, too. Elizabeth OIsen and Kathryn Hahn, in particular, were quite excellent, and Paul Bettany is always great as Vision. As far as Wanda "Getting away with it..." Y'all are some vengeful folks, lol. She did not mean to start this, and had a lot of issues controlling it. A big part of this series was about Wanda realizing the extent of her abilities, her self-imposed restraint being shattered by trauma after trauma, pushed over the edge by seeing the lifeless body pf the love of her life dismembered for scrap Vibranium. I thought it was very well done.

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1 hour ago, ransomz said:

I bet there is more Evan Peters in the MCU and they tell us how he got there. I hope it has something to do with Dr. Strange 2, which I am bummed is not coming out in a couple of months.

This is an interesting theory, but none of it follows, as far as I'm concerned. First of all, the kid's name was "Bohner", with an 'h', not a for-sure made-up name. Monica pronounced it "boner", but it could very well have been "bon-ner". He may well have grown up with people constantly teasing him and pronouncing it 'boner', but he responded the way he did because he was mind-controlled to play a character. Whenever they were freed and got the chance to talk about it, people repeatedly attributed all their mind-controlled behaviour to being forced into character. He could've been crying on the inside, but his character would have laughed at that name, so he did. Secondly, this:

1 hour ago, bashpics99 said:

I liked the Evan Peters stunt casting, it worked as a nod to the sitcom trope of replacing the actor who played a character without any in-universe acknowledgement, and also of course on a meta-level as we all know him as QS from the Fox films.  Really their only choices in terms of creating the illusion that QS was back were to cast Peters or bring back Aaron T-J, but if went with Aaron they would have had to really make him act more bizarrely to cue us in that he's not on the up and up.  If they just cast some rando then everyone would've seen thru it immediately, depriving the episode of suspense. So i think Evan was the best choice.

It was a sitcom trope, and a real-world meta-reference, and that's all it ever seemed to be to me. I don't think Disney has any interest in seeing the Fox universe integrated with the MCU in any way, and frankly I don't really either. I know the speculation about Spider-Man 3 has people feeling like all the earlier Marvel movies are fair-game, but I just don't see Disney wanting to go that direction. I know Doctor Strange is going to deal with the multiverse, but doesn't it seem much more likely that the multiverse will be populated with identical duplicates of characters, the same way it is in the comics, not different actors playing different characters who just happen to have familiar names?

Finally, he did use the super speed naturally, but so did Wanda's kid, who was obviously brand new at it. And, again, his character was a natural and he was mind-controlled to play the character. You raise a good point about Agent Woo's witness-protection program comment, but that could easily just have been a mcguffin to explain why Woo was there at all.

Again, not saying you're wrong. It's a cool theory. I think it's all pretty easily explained away, though.

Frankly, I liked the whole show. I don't think any promises were implicitly or explicitly made in bad faith. The finale didn't blow me away, but it was solid. When viewed as its own story that pulls from source material and loosely connects with the rest of the universe, it worked really well. I think Elizabeth Olsen was referring to Evan Peters when she mentioned a "Luke Skywalker moment". He's a familiar face we weren't expecting. That tracks for me. When he showed up, the first thing I thought of was her Skywalker comment. I didn't hear about Bettany's comment, but it's likely he was just trying to be cute or clever. I'm not worried about it.

Also, Wanda was clearly having a psychotic break. That doesn't necessarily excuse her actions (I maintain that the Scarlet Witch is one of the most nefarious villains in all of X-Men history), but it does provide context. I don't think Monica Rambeau was trying to diminish the impact she had on other people's lives, just empathize with her. Generally when someone has suffered a break, especially if they're dangerous, trying to corner or attack them is a really, really bad idea. You need them to feel comfortable to get anywhere with them. There exists the very real possibility she will still be called to bear for her actions, but I think it was obvious Monica thought it was neither the time nor place for it.

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For this show, I tried really hard not to read too much about it online nor listen to fan theories.  I personally feel fans trying to write a better show then what's being put on tends to ruin things.  When people started to complain about the first three episodes, it drove me nuts because it proves people just don't have the patience for weekly television anymore.

I enjoyed the series completely.  I've read Vision and the Scarlet Witch as characters for over 30 years now and it was super exciting to see them get center stage.  The Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel was in the Avengers when I first started reading comics, so that was a big bonus for me as well.  I actually welled up when she went through the hex barrier and appeared to fully get her powers. 

SPOILERY BITS

I get how some people are going to be pissed about how the Peter Evans character panned out, but I'm optimistic that there's more that could happen there.  There's a guy in the MCU that looks like Quicksilver from another universe and we have two movies coming up that will actually deal with the multiverse, so while I know everyone wants things tied up neatly in a little bow, I say let it play out.  I admit even at one point they got me on board with the whole "It's Mephisto!" thing, but really believe that a big name character like Mephisto should get a bigger introduction then a spot on a tv show.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Darcy in the finale as well.   She proved to be a popular character and helped move the story.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here though as I have a feeling that the pandemic might have played a little part there and perhaps Kat Denning wasn't able to get back to film certain spots OR they just cut certain things for pacing reasons.  Keep in mind that WandaVision was supposed to be the second tv series released and I believe about the 5th or 6th event in Phase 4.  It got moved to being the first, so there's a possibility that things had to be rewritten slightly.  Agatha was a great character and was very happy that they didn't kill her off.  There's a chance at a redemption arc down the road.

As far as Hayward goes, again I'm optimistic.  I don't think SWORD is going anywhere and there's an argument to be made as to just what he did that was illegal.  They had rights to Vision's body and they were also actively trying to stop what Wanda was doing which was basically a mass kidnapping.  Her being a being with powers may have given them the authority to do what needed to be done.  Yes, it's dastardly that he wanted to make Vision into their weapon, but as was stated, he now belonged to them. I do think we could see him again in Captain Marvel 2 or Secret Invasion.

I really like the idea that the "real" Vision is still out there.  I'm of the mind that he does have his memories back, however he does not have his soul anymore, so it may be still a more robotic Vision we see again in the figure. 

Lastly, the idea that Wanda is now a villain is interesting.  I would put her more as misguided.  She knows now that she has these powers and while there might be sorcerers out there (looking at you Dr. Strange) that know not to read the Darkhold, Wanda doesn't.  Her already fragile psyche isn't going to be prepared for what is in that book and may make her more determined to get her fake life back. Her hearing her children at the end could be proof of that.  Also, some folks saying "She got away at the end", who was really going to stop her?  They are probably trying to find her almost immediately after she left.

The main thing I would say is that anyone that was expecting all the answers in this show should have been kidding themselves.  This is the very first post-Endgame MCU event, so you should have known it was going to be used to build towards the future.  Try to remember that when Falcon and Winter Soldier starts.

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14 hours ago, JayC said:

"...In this, they seemingly tried to turn it on fans with the implication that if we didn’t like it, then it was our own fault for building the show up too much. Sorry, but spending the season building up expectations by leaving pretty blatant clues (we will get more into that in the spoiler portion) and even having the stars of the show come out in interviews during the season to say things like we will see fantastic cameos...."

"...I know the intent here was that we should feel sorry for Wanda and excuse her actions because of the recent tragic events that happened in her life, but come on. She basically forced her mental will on a whole town of completely innocent people for weeks so she could create a 'perfect life' for herself, even if it did initially start as an accident. There is no excusing that, and not only did she prove herself to be someone of extreme power completely out of control, but she also proved herself to be a credible real threat to everyone on the planet"....

"....It would have been one thing if Wanda was being manipulated by some greater force as we were seemingly led to believe throughout the show with all the demon and devil references, but in the end it was all her own doing. How anyone like Monica could justify what Wanda did here in anyway is beyond me. Monica saying they (the people she mind controlled for weeks) will never know what Wanda sacrificed for them..."

Well put, my thoughts exactly. For those that are saying we're too hard on Wanda, let me give you an analogy: The Purple Man forces his mental will on fill in the blank, then mindwipes their memories. He videotapes these incidents, later has some change of heart and vows never to do it again. The victims don't have a clear memory of what happened and the videotapes never surface. Does that excuse what he did?

By having Wanda responsible for this, they've (the writers) made it so that there's no credible way of keeping her as a hero, no credible way of explaining away all the things she didn't do (like resurrecting Quicksilver ), no credible way to stop her from doing this again short of killing her. This is the danger, when you write in your characters as having unlimited abilities or have them do unspeakable crimes or kill them off just to bring them back. You just write yourself into a corner, and that makes for boring and frustrating reading. Dont be surprised then when your audience starts tuning you out.

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Doesn't the series basically justify Secretary Ross's enactment and Tony Stark's compliance of  the Registration Act? 

The flaw in the MCU that is starting to show through more and more is that you can do horrible things and be forguven in the end if you're an Avenger. 

Wanda doesn't even redeem herself for what she did in this series. There was no manipulation, no one pulling her strings. Wanda did what she did because she was distraught over losing her boyfriend? And there are no consequences no accountability? She just gets to walk away? It doesn't really make sense when you don't look at the plot through rose colored glasses.

Wanda battles and defeats Agatha in the end. But why does that make her the good guy? She is the cause of the problem througout the whole series. Wanda is the one that kidnapped and enslaved a whole town. Agatha was trying to steal her power, yes. Partly because she was power hungry, but also because she knew Wanda did not understand or able to control the power she posseses. And justifiably so I might add.   

I know the world isn't black and white all the time. And real life doesn't always have a clear iine to who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. But if you have great power and you use it to your advantage knowingly at the harm of others, it's hard for you to be a hero. Even a sympathetic one. 

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13 hours ago, JusticeDemon1 said:

Whine whine whine whine whine.  Sorry it wasn't your cup of tea, but all I see here is whining.

Lol, no you read well thought out critic with examples of why. Your response however doesn't follow suit 😉

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11 hours ago, Hordak Rules said:

 I personally feel fans trying to write a better show then what's being put on tends to ruin things.  When people started to complain about the first three episodes, it drove me nuts because it proves people just don't have the patience for weekly television anymore.

 

I get how some people are going to be pissed about how the Peter Evans character panned out, but I'm optimistic that there's more that could happen there. 

LOL, you realize you contradict yourself here right? You are certainly right in that they could come back later at some point and say something else about Evans, but my review is based on the here an now with what we were left with in this series.  Yes fan theories can go wild but I don't think that is  fair when the writers deliberately drop blatant clues and teases which is what they did here.

Building these things up and then coming out the week before the show ends and to start trying to tamp down expectations demonstrates they knew exactly what they did.

As for those saying things like X-Men, FF or Mephisto which are big reveals should be held for movies, from the studio stand point I can see that, but from our standpoint as viewers my question is WHY? Why should something I invested 9 weeks into watching not deliver some big payoffs? Disney and Marvel choose to directly tie these shows into the main MCU. I don't see why there should be a distinction between movies and these shows anymore when it comes to that kind of thing.

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This kind of write-up/review makes me think back pre social media days where you actually had to wait to find out what was gonna happen on the next episode on the night it was shown on tv you werent bombarded with ridiculous fan theories and assumptions because there was no way to have knowledge of these things happening the show had to have something to it to begin with just for you to watch it so who cares about theories and what you thought or wished would happen it didnt so deal with it its disney they are known for fucking people and they literally added another $1.00 to the monthly service and made however many millions just off of that while everybody is complaining about a fucking tv show . 

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I think what some of you seem to be missing is that Wanda didn't knowingly commit these attrocities. If she were given a fair trial, there's a very good chance she'd be acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity. She had a psychotic break, and unwittingly cast a spell that enslaved a town full of people. At the beginning of the series she was just as confused as Vision about what was going on. When Monica first slipped out of character and said "Pietro was killed by Ultron, right?" it triggered the slow dialing down of her psychosis, but frequent distractions and acts of hostility by Hayward and Agatha, coupled with a fundamental lack of understanding about what she had done, slowed her progress over the next few days. She wasn't fully cognizant of her crimes until the last episode, when she was confronted by her victims, and she almost immediately freed them, at great cost to herself. That doesn't mean she didn't hugely traumatize an entire town, and it doesn't necessarily mean she's not dangerous, but it does mean she isn't irredeemable. Grief causes one-time psychotic breaks in people all the time, who then go on to live productive lives. Hell yeah, she's a huge potential danger to the world, and she should stand trial for her actions, but she isn't beyond redemption just because she suffered a temporary psychosis, no matter who it hurt.

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2 hours ago, JayC said:

I'm pretty sure she in fact did.

She did not. The notion of WandaVision having "a 'Luke Skywalker' Moment" comes from the headline of this interview by TVLine: "Will WandaVision Have Its Own 'Luke Skywalker' Moment? Elizabeth Olsen 'Really Excited' for Surprise to Come." The interview is as follows:

When asked if WandaVision has anything similar [to the Luke Skywalker moment] in store — namely a casting that she can’t believe hasn’t leaked yet — Olsen gave us a quick, “Yes.” And though she dared not offer any specifics, she did share with a laugh that “I’m really excited” for viewers to see what (or who) is coming.

The interviewer herself clarifies what she specifically asked was if there was a casting that Olsen couldn't believe hadn't leaked yet. This article is from February 2. The fifth episode of the show, in which Even Peters appears as "Fietro" came out on February 5, and up until that episode, it was only known that Evan Peters was in the show, but not as whom.

But if you can find an interview in which the words "Luke Skywalker" do come out of Olsen's mouth, I will stand corrected.

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6 hours ago, JayC said:

"....As for those saying things like X-Men, FF or Mephisto which are big reveals should be held for movies, from the studio stand point I can see that, but from our standpoint as viewers my question is WHY? Why should something I invested 9 weeks into watching not deliver some big payoffs? Disney and Marvel chose to directly tie these shows into the main MCU. I don't see why there should be a distinction between movies and these shows anymore when it comes to that kind of thing.

Well said. In fact, since we're living with a crisis that's affected the movie/tv industry so much, it only makes sense to do away with the "movies are for big time events, tv is for minor puff piece things" mentality that some studios used to have/still have. 

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20 hours ago, ransomz said:

I've bringing thinking about the Evan Peters thing. Like most other people, I figured he'd been zapped in from the X-MCU (it works in different ways). MCU Quicksilver was dead so whoever warped him had to poach from a nearby alternate reality. The big reveal (SPOLIER) is that he's just some goofy dude that was living there. I still think he's X-MCU Quicksilver though. Here's why -

He laughed when he heard the name boner. If he had grown up with that name, he'd cringe when he heard someone say it. Even nice people would snort when being introduced to him. He's hate it. Instead, he laughs at it. No way his name is Boner.

The writing on this series was fairly complex. Twists, turns, misdirections. It was obviously thoroughly discussed and plotted out. Having some random dude living in Westview just happen to look exactly like an alternate reality version of Wanda's brother doesn't make any sense. The Quicksilvers are the alternate versions of each other, not Ralph Boner. The meta analysis means there is a reason Evan Peters is playing him.

The necklace seemed to me to be a a token of mind control. Of course it could have been doing whatever the writers say it was doing, I just had the impression it was just mind controlling him, not also giving him his powers.

Speaking of powers, he used that super speed quite comfortably, like he's had it for years. There was no learning curve, he knew how to stop and turn at crazy speeds. 

Agent Woo went to Westfield because he hadn't heard from someone in the witness protection program. Ralph Boner is exactly the kind of joke name that Peter Maximoff would make up as a bro joke. It's clearly a made up name. 

So my new theory is that somehow the X-MCU Quicksilver got into the XMU before Wanda came to Westview. The US government had him in hiding. Cue Wandavision.

I bet there is more Evan Peters in the MCU and they tell us how he got there. I hope it has something to do with Dr. Strange 2, which I am bummed is not coming out in a couple of months.

This was my thinking, too. My issue was that these threads were started and then dropped. I didn't need a payoff, but I would have been happier with the finale if they had continued to string us along.
So, while I didn't need or expect him to say "I'm Pete Maximoff, but the other X-Men call me Quicksilver, and I'm from an alternate universe," it felt like having something yanked away without something like another mid-credits scene, or even a scene before the credits with Wu knocking on his door and an exchange along these lines...
Pete/Ralph: *opens door* Can I help- Oh, it's you.
Agent Wu: Mr. Bohner. I was worried about you.
Pete/Ralph: Ha ha. Bohner.
Agent Wu: What are you, twelve? Please stop laughing at that.
Pete/Ralph: I'll stop laughing when you stop calling me that.
Agent Wu: You know I can't do that. Not yet.

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Possible spoilers

I thought as a whole, this was a great series.  I thought it did what it set out to do:  show the evolution of Wanda to the Scarlet Witch (villainous) character and bring back Vision.  If you watch this show without any preconceived theories clouding your judgement, it does work as a good show.  Did Wanda get off way too lightly?  Yes.  But this could lead to her in a bigger role down the road as a powerful, relatable villain.  This is where I feel there will be a movie tie-in.  Her character has been seen as tragic, but she has been in the middle of a lot of villainous acts already throughout the MCU.  Eventually, she is going to have to pay for everything she has done.

Her being a mutant?  Please.  Let this one die.  Everyone wants so hard to link this to mutants and X-Men because it's revealed she was born with her powers.  That does not mean she is a mutant.  They went through lengths to explain that this had to do with witchcraft and that she was the embodiment of the fabled Scarlet Witch.  I didn't hear anyone calling Agatha a mutant.  

I don't know why everyone wanted a tie-in to the Dr. Strange movie.  Just because it came our before the release date, doesn't mean it has to lead into it.  But people read comics and think they know how Marvel is going to work everything together.  Even when Marvel has varied greatly from the comics in many ways.  Because she is going to be in DS2?  We still don't know how much, and in what capacity.  She could very well be in hiding again, and Strange is trying to track her down.

Why would Mephisto have to be involved?  Because 'magic?'  Because 'in the comics...?'  While I did feel Agatha was a disappointing character as the big bad, I didn't think for a minute that Marvel would have brought in the devil to their franchise.  Not when devil imagery is not allowed in their China adaptations of their content.  Marvel is not going to cut out a huge market when so many other villains could be plugged in.

Why would we introduce the X-Men now?  You have to think about the market.  That is Disney's driving force in everything they do.  Do they bring out the X-Men on Disney+, maybe getting a small spike in subscriptions (since most people that want D+ already have it), or do you wait till theaters are a viable option again and you make mountains of money?  This is why major events seldom take place on TV shows.  It has nothing to do with their perception of it being small screen vs. big screen.  It has everything to do with their perception of it being small money vs. big money.

Reed Richards?  Fantastic 4?  See above.  

If this show transitions Wanda to a future big bad (or the more likely tortured soul tweener), then I feel it was more than worth it.  If they just hand wave the events of Westview and she is a hero again, then this series was a monumental waste of time just to make her more powerful and bring back Vision.  That could have been taken care of with a small exposition dump in a different movie.

 

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My theory, for what it's worth, is that Feige & Co. tricked us into thinking this was the beginning of the Multiverse storylines when what they were REALLY setting up were the mutants. Monica's DNA was re-written several times as she went in and out of the Hex and we saw what happened to her. Who's to say everyone within the Hex aren't going to be affected the same way? All those SWORD agents got wiped over with the Hex a couple times, too. And Darcy for that matter. If the MCU wants to differentiate themselves from the Fox mutants, this could be a very effective way: Wanda inadvertently created them. As for a coincidence that I don't think is anything more than coincidence, I re-watched the series this weekend and thought "Hmmm, Dottie could be Emma Frost if my mutants theory is correct..." so I went to look up what the character's 'real' name was and discovered the actress' name is Emma. For a split second, I thought I had the answer. :)

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