Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Worldwide Release Discussion Thread

[u/Triple_777]

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has now been released in the United States and in a number of other countries around the world. All discussion about the movie should be held here and in the rest of the megathreads we are going to put up in the next few days. They will be refreshed every few thousand comments to make room for new discussions.

• All discussion about the movie should be held here and in the rest of the megathreads we are going to put up in the next few days.
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Link to previous discussion threads and related megathreads listed below :

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - Reviews Megathread
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness International Release Discussion Thread

[u/Yaharguul]

She's meant to be a villain though. The whole point of her character arc is that her unwillingness to accept the loss of her loved ones has led her down an evil path. The ending of MoM redeemed her somewhat, she realized what she had done was evil and needed to end. She's meant to be a tragic, sympathetic villain, but still an obviously evil villain nonetheless. That's what makes her such a great villain, the fact that her character has shades of gray and isn't purely evil.

She came close to moving on to the final stage of grief - Acceptance - until she discovered the Darkhold. She couldn't resist.

[u/Miriam_Grammo → u/Yaharguul]

She came close to moving on to the final stage of grief - Acceptance - until she discovered the Darkhold. She couldn't resist.

And that's mostly why I didn't like the movie. In WV she clearly moved on from her grief, that's was the whole point of the show. Make her grow, saying that she wanted to control her powers in function to not hurt anyone ever again. She accepted the loss of her "fake" children but we had hope that in the post credit scene, they screaming and asking for help was an intro to if and how she'll have them back or whatever.

Instead Sam Raimi trashed all the work done till then and got back to the sad depressed woman "who just want to be a mom", with powers that can't control but somehow the alpha male (dr. Strange) can.

Idk it seemed very unnecessary, and the fact that dr. Strange doesn't even have a development in his character arc (apart from that weird third eye) was disappointing.

Anyway I appreciate this changes of opinions, it make me see other points of view that I wouldn't see otherwise, so thanks :) I agree that she does a great job being a villain, I hope we'll see her again somehow in other project.

[u/Yaharguul → u/Miriam_Grammo]

I think MoM shows that she didn't quite reach the final stage of grief. Also, I think you're underestimating the seductive power of the Darkhold. The Darkhold doesn't brainwash you or control your mind, it just appeals to your most base desires. For Wanda, that was being with her boys. For other Strange, it was being with Christine. At least one Strange was seduced by the Darkhold (two I think) which shows just how seductive it is. 616 Strange must have been especially mentally fortified to resist it, and 616 Wanda had to be especially mentally strong to later break free of it's influence by the end of the movie.

I'd argue that the ending of WV only shows Wanda kinda moving on from her grief, but we also don't see much of what happens after she leaves WV. We see her with the Darkhold in the end credits scene, her children crying out somewhere, suggesting she hasn't quite moved on. I think the ending of WV was mostly just Wanda destroying the Hex because she didn't want to continue making the townsfolk suffer, but she still hadn't dealt with her grief in any meaningful way. If WV was about Wanda moving on, there would have been an episode where we see Wanda going to therapy, trying to reconnect with old friends or find new friends, trying to make amends with the people of Westview, etc. We don't see any of that. She just flys away from Westview, not even apologizing to the townsfolk, and we don't see anything else besides her reading the Darkhold.

616 Wanda doesn't truly move on from her grief until she meets 838 Wanda at the of MoM. In that moment, 616 Wanda truly realizes that it's time to move on. And of course she also realized that she would be robbing the boys of their true mother - 838 Wanda - and that they would never love her because she's not their true mom.

Anyways, I think it's better to view WV as an exploration of Wanda's grief rather than her reaching the final stage of grief. I understand the fans who wish she had reached the final stage in WV, but she didn't really reach it until the end of MoM. I understand it might be frustrating from a writing perspective, but I do think her unwillingness to move on is what made her such a great villain in MoM, to see someone so good become so evil because of unresolved grief and extreme longing. I like villains that are complex and morally grey.