Monday, 22 February 2021

WandaVision 'Fourth Wall' - Feb 22

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us go to the adventures of the Great Wandini and her husband! Pause.

First, my apologies for the rant in my previous/last blog entry - it was completely redundant and unnecessary; already, Gina Carano has teamed up with Benjamin Shapiro to continue to battle Disney, cough. She has landed on her feet, so don’t despair – she will continue to yap historical idiocies for many years to come – but none of them were justification enough to have her fired from the Disney/SW franchise – but we digress.

Back over at the Disney/MCU franchise, last week’s episode of WV, ‘the fourth wall’, revealed that it was Agatha all along, and the entire fan network was abuzz over the last 3 days about this epiphany.

Yes, people were entertaining the possibility of Agnes being Agatha Harkness – well, MCU’s version of the witch – since the show is beginning, (and even before), but the confirmation was still very impressive and nicely executed… so what?

Well, here is the thing – there is no problem with Agatha being WV’s main villain, especially since the director Tyler Hayward does not appear to be going anywhere, especially into the Hex. He plans to nuke it, but the WV ep 1x08 promo mentioned that someone named Richards is involved, and that could mean that we might be getting the Fantastic Four started in the MCU…or that we’ll be meeting Nathaniel Richards, who is an MCU villain, known as Kang the Conqueror and Lord Immortus among other monikers. In the last incarnation, he tangled with Wanda and Vision in the comics, and it is know that Kang will be appearing in the upcoming ‘Ant-Man’ film, (however slow it will get there), so why not have him here in WV?..

Back to Agatha, it is a strong possibility that she is the main villain here – she has claimed to kill Sparky the dog, among other things. That is quite important, as in MCU’s AoS, killing dogs was an important part of being Hydra, and who’s to say that this Agatha isn’t a part of Hydra…or a part of a Hydra’s experiment? Her powers, the coloration aside, manifest in a similar manner to Wanda’s… and the issue of colors is kind of important in WV; here, though, I want to point out that Agatha’s colors aren’t black, but purple, and purple just isn’t quite the similarly evil color as black is, so who knows? Agatha is a trickster, who works best behind the scenes, as opposed to direct confrontations, but then again, so does Loki, so yes, Agatha may be Loki to Wanda’s Thor; will she die, as Loki did in the ‘Infinity War’ movie remains to be seemed, and is she evil or merely bad? The jury is still out on this one.

Elsewhere… Wanda seems to be suffering from some version of a hangover, as things begin to fall apart within her pocket world. Actually, her pocket world is beginning to fall apart, and it is a strong fan theory that Wanda here is something of a puppet herself, manipulated by Agatha, (as the latter claims, but Agatha herself seems to be more mischievous than evil here), or by Mephisto, or by Nightmare, or by Richards – the possibilities are numerous. …Director Hayward, however, is far down to the end of the line – he seems to be more interested in Vision, (cough, the mysterious project Cataract), and he probably is some sort of a mini-bad in this series, but this is where Monica comes in, or will come in.

More precisely, we are getting back to the colors. Wanda’s powers are scarlet, Agatha’s are purple, and Monica’s – Lt. Trouble’s – are blue. Well, white and blue, (as they had been back in the ep 1x03), but my point stands – Monica, Wanda and Agatha are forming a trinity of some sort.

Let me elaborate. Does anyone remember the “Wizard of Oz’ movie? No, not the original movie about Dorothy Gale and her adventures in the Land of Oz, but a much more modern ‘prequel’, which depicts the adventures of the titular ‘wizard’, and his encounters and relationship with the three witches of Oz, who were the good witch, (white color theme), the wicked witch of the East, (black color theme), and the wicked witch of the West, (red color theme turned green from envy and evil). Pause.

No, I do not know if the scriptwriters for MCU’s WV have looked at the ‘Wizard of Oz’ movie for inspiration, but there are some feels from the Oz franchise in this streaming series, not to mention that the witches’ covens are often depicted having three members in fiction, (such as the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’ series), and it can also be noted that Agatha – for her own selfish reasons, no doubt – did prevent Wanda and Monica from coming to blows at the episode’s end. Yes, undoubtedly, Wanda will not be grateful for this now that she knows that it has been Agatha all along, but if she and Monica did begin to duke it out in the streets, Wanda’s fall from grace would have been much faster and evident than it will be. Agatha just does not want to be a full villain, it seems, no matter what. Anything else?

Well, director Hayward’s values are actually zeitgeist: ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ show was supposed to be aired before WV, laying the groundwork of a different MCU, one where superheroes, (such as the Avengers, cough, the CA: CW movie), are on the cusp of being outlawed; director Hayward is just trying to get on with that program, when Wanda crushed his base, and took-off with Vision to Westview…and we’re missing something crucial here, and it would be nice if the next two episodes of WV filled-in the gap, maybe Agatha can help? Darcy already did her part with Vision…

…Yes, this exposition dump of Darcy and Vision was not too fun to follow – and even Vision agreed, as he took off, leaving Darcy behind in their burrowed van. Poor Darcy! Also, her journey into the Hex kind of conflicts with Monica’s – if Monica’s DNA changed so much through her journeys through the Hex-walls, then what about Darcy? Yes, this Disney/MCU playing fast and loose with its’ own politics, but it feels as if Darcy is getting the short end of the stick here... or are we talking about post-AoS Gifted here? It would be good to know!

However, Pietro – speaking of knowledge – probably will not be a key to the multiverse here. Remember, MCU-wise, WV is taking place at the same time as the ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ movie does. In that film, if anyone forgot, Mysterio tried to set-up the concept of the multiverse as a red herring, and failed in the end. Here, I think, will be something similar; why?

Because Sony had utilized the multiverse concept with their ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse’ movie first, and it did so quite successfully! Disney/MCU conflicted with Sony after the ‘Far From Home’ proved to be very successful, and lost. Since then, I believe, they have been trying to starve Sony into submission by trying to turn Sony’s Spider-verse into something more or less second-rate, (as the Spider-Man movies had been pre the CA: CW film), while avoiding any direct confrontations over copyrights, which may include the concept of a multiverse. Disney doesn’t care for controversies anymore, especially in real life, (cough, Gina Carano, cough), so they’ll probably fiddle with the concept of the multiverse, (among other things), for as long as they can, until they win, (in which case they’ll embrace it), or they lose, (which might happen – but then they’ll drop the concept of the multiverse as if it was a hot potato, period). They will try to swing their viewers/fans for as much cash as they can during the process, of course – but that is another story.

In addition, what about the upcoming Doctor Strange film, the ‘Multiverse of Madness’? Between the Sony conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney/MCU had plenty of both time and motivation to rethink their strategy, especially about their phase 4, as we can see now – WV was supposed to air after ‘The Winter Soldier and the Falcon’, and now it is being aired before, so who knows what the future will bring?..

For now, though, this is it. Wanda and Vision seem to be on the cusp of something serious, Monica is about to get her superhero stripes, Agatha is about to launch her masterplan, (presumably), and poor Jimmy and Darcy are about to get the short end of the stick. It is a mixed bag, put otherwise, and it is very fun to watch.

See you all soon! 

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