WandaVision
Feb. 27th, 2021 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI thought I had at last escaped the trammels of the MCU, but then multiple friends and also various news magazines informed me that I just HAD to watch WandaVision, and even though I did not care about (1) Wanda, (2) Vision, or (3) Wanda/Vision as a ship (two dull tastes that are somehow even more dull together?) eventually I cracked and did watched it.
I now care about Wanda, Vision, AND Wanda/Vision. Rarely have I felt so bitter about being forced to have feelings about a character. Apparently when they actually get character development and are allowed to interact with each other, they are... actually interesting? And funny? WHO KNEW. A MYSTERY.
As much as I'm enjoying the show, it's actually only strengthening my beef with the MCU as a whole, because it shows how shoddy the character work has become in the movies. This is character groundwork that they should have laid back in Age of Ultron, when they first introduced Wanda and Vision, instead of six years later in a supplementary TV show that many people will never see.
I'm particularly peeved that we only now! in the year of our lord 2021! got that flashback scene to Wanda and Pietro's defining childhood trauma, when a Stark missile hit their apartment and killed their parents. Putting some version of that scene into Age of Ultron, even a far shorter one, might have made me care about Wanda and Pietro's characters. Yes, yes, Wanda and Pietro tell the story, but that's not the same as seeing it.
And if I had cared I might have found it less ridiculous when Wanda and Pietro stopped working for Hydra and the Avengers instantly gather them into the bosom of the team. Also, I might have actually given a damn when Pietro died - although probably not much of one because having a guy whose superpower is "faster than a speeding bullet" die of bullet wounds is still a stupid cause of death. As it is, the first time in my life I gave a damn about Pietro was when not!Pietro shows up on this TV show and we get to see him, you know, actually interact with Wanda.
On a different note, this show has also strengthened my feeling that you could fill a thimble with what the people at the MCU know about ethics and still have room to spare, but tbh I expect nothing more, obviously it's bad that Wanda has taken an entire town hostage in her grief-sitcom-delusion, and just as obviously there will be no real consequences because the MCU would not function if superheroes suffered consequences for their actions ever. Do I care? Eh, whatever. At this point it's one of those things you have to suspend disbelief about when you partake of an MCU property. In some worlds, ghosts exist; in the MCU Superheroes Are Good no matter what they do.
I now care about Wanda, Vision, AND Wanda/Vision. Rarely have I felt so bitter about being forced to have feelings about a character. Apparently when they actually get character development and are allowed to interact with each other, they are... actually interesting? And funny? WHO KNEW. A MYSTERY.
As much as I'm enjoying the show, it's actually only strengthening my beef with the MCU as a whole, because it shows how shoddy the character work has become in the movies. This is character groundwork that they should have laid back in Age of Ultron, when they first introduced Wanda and Vision, instead of six years later in a supplementary TV show that many people will never see.
I'm particularly peeved that we only now! in the year of our lord 2021! got that flashback scene to Wanda and Pietro's defining childhood trauma, when a Stark missile hit their apartment and killed their parents. Putting some version of that scene into Age of Ultron, even a far shorter one, might have made me care about Wanda and Pietro's characters. Yes, yes, Wanda and Pietro tell the story, but that's not the same as seeing it.
And if I had cared I might have found it less ridiculous when Wanda and Pietro stopped working for Hydra and the Avengers instantly gather them into the bosom of the team. Also, I might have actually given a damn when Pietro died - although probably not much of one because having a guy whose superpower is "faster than a speeding bullet" die of bullet wounds is still a stupid cause of death. As it is, the first time in my life I gave a damn about Pietro was when not!Pietro shows up on this TV show and we get to see him, you know, actually interact with Wanda.
On a different note, this show has also strengthened my feeling that you could fill a thimble with what the people at the MCU know about ethics and still have room to spare, but tbh I expect nothing more, obviously it's bad that Wanda has taken an entire town hostage in her grief-sitcom-delusion, and just as obviously there will be no real consequences because the MCU would not function if superheroes suffered consequences for their actions ever. Do I care? Eh, whatever. At this point it's one of those things you have to suspend disbelief about when you partake of an MCU property. In some worlds, ghosts exist; in the MCU Superheroes Are Good no matter what they do.
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Date: 2021-02-28 12:20 am (UTC)I now care about Wanda, Vision, AND Wanda/Vision. Rarely have I felt so bitter about being forced to have feelings about a character. Apparently when they actually get character development and are allowed to interact with each other, they are... actually interesting? And funny? WHO KNEW. A MYSTERY.
LOL, I FUCKING KNOW. I don't like sitcoms! I thought Olsen was miscast by Whedon! I didn't like how he and the Russos wrote Vision and Wanda in the movies! I REALLY don't like how they were endlessly dragged through the shit in the comics as a couple! And I was so fucking bitter after Endgame. I had NO expectations. I had minus expectations. I just started watching because it was SOME MCU content and available. (Perhaps there is a lesson here! Anyway.) I knew Olsen had been fantastic in other roles, ditto Bettany, and you're absolutely right, it's infuriating that they didn't get to actually, well, ACT until some small moments in Infinity War, and now this. And EVERYONE is so good, with the exception of Hayward, who is pretty much cardboard, but that's okay.
I'm particularly peeved that we only now! in the year of our lord 2021! got that flashback scene to Wanda and Pietro's defining childhood trauma, when a Stark missile hit their apartment and killed their parents. Putting some version of that scene into Age of Ultron, even a far shorter one, might have made me care about Wanda and Pietro's characters. Yes, yes, Wanda and Pietro tell the story, but that's not the same as seeing it.
Not only that, but Aaron Taylor Johnson told-not-showed the story in a totally unsympathetic way with his gross Vaguely Eastern European accent. (And as a detail I really like how they've been handling Wanda's accent in the show -- like Olsen said, "It never went away," and the variation is fairly realistic imo.) It's amazing how the stories improve when they have actual GOOD writers writing them, rather than just white Hollywood royalty dudes obsessed with boob faceplants and fat jokes. (I don't think Feige had a lot to do with this show -- apparently he had the sitcoms idea and wanted Agatha's basement to be "dark and scary.") This is like one of those stories the fic writers do, about the things that happen offscreen (like Wanda actually getting accepted by the team) because shit needs to blow up in the final act. -- And wow, what a giant difference there was for me in two visually similar sequences, where Wanda falls to her knees and her powers and grief explode together -- at the end of AoU, it was just a final boss move and wiped out a lot of CGI fake bots with no other real consequences. In the show, it was the final culmination of blows that had kept falling on her since she was a kid, that we'd seen dramatized for the whole episode, and the town shifting into her childhood fantasy escapist landscape was stunning and chilling. And then of course Bettany killed it with "Welcome home," which we actually saw in the trailers. I cried.
obviously it's bad that Wanda has taken an entire town hostage in her grief-sitcom-delusion, and just as obviously there will be no real consequences because the MCU would not function if superheroes suffered consequences for their actions ever. Do I care? Eh, whatever. At this point it's one of those things you have to suspend disbelief about when you partake of an MCU property
I take it more as an allegorical thing at this point -- someone had the very good question of, where the fuck are the other Avengers after the Snap, for her? Does she truly have no support system? And it kind of falls apart if you think about it too hard. But if I kind of handwave it as a dramatization of her grief -- and grief really is isolating and alienating and just eats you alive -- then it works on that level. She is that alone because on some level she always has been, her trauma goes back her entire life.
T also commented -- and it's kind of rare for him to have any emotion about MCU films other than "my wife likes it so I'll keep her company" -- that Olsen had done an amazing job with the bright sitcom humor, the dark grief and depression, and Wanda's actual personality, tying all those together into a real person. I was really impressed.
Even the music is great! It's by Christophe Beck, who first blew me away with his Buffy and Angel scores and apparently he did the Ant-Man movies, which I guess is how he got into the MCU.
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Date: 2021-02-28 08:03 pm (UTC)Yes, I think Wanda's sitcom thing works really well allegorically... except that the show keeps reminding us that it's *not* just an allegory, she has literally taken thousands of people hostage in her sitcom town, which is actually quite villainous no matter how grief stricken she is. But of course the show will just shrug that off. The MCU's most consistent theme at this point is probably protagonist-centered morality.
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Date: 2021-02-28 11:08 pm (UTC)CO-SIGNED. Just when we think we're out, &c &c, and omfg now if Wanda's in it I might want to see Dr Strange 2? I don't know, though, if the shows are going to keep filling in the giant character blanks that exist in the action-oriented movies, I might just stick with the shows. I think a showrunner hinted that FATWS might explore Bucky's trauma the same way WV did Wanda's, which is only what I KEPT WAITING FOR in the movies. Plus did you hear Ryan Coogler got a big deal for a Wakanda series?? DAMN, I want to see that one.
Yes, I think Wanda's sitcom thing works really well allegorically... except that the show keeps reminding us that it's *not* just an allegory, she has literally taken thousands of people hostage in her sitcom town
Well, we have a whole final episode to resolve that!....lolsob. It's like when Tony was crashing through Jo'burg (I think it was supposed to be Jo'burg) and telling his AI "Buy that building I just knocked down!" Not quite, MCU.
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Date: 2021-02-28 11:39 pm (UTC)I rewatched TWS last night (the gears are slooowly beginning to grind on your Natasha fic. Possible first line: "Oh, Natasha," Yelena said. "You always wanted to be a good girl.") and boy, the Steve & Peggy scene in that movie comes off really differently if you're wondering if Steve has been Peggy's secret basement husband for all these years.
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Date: 2021-03-01 12:00 am (UTC)Yeah, I wish I had that kind of self-control, lol. Altho I did think Endgame had booted me out of the fandom. Maybe the original movie schedule was supposed to address that kind of burnout -- throw the Natasha fans a solo movie, then an origin story? for Shang-Chi, and then I think Eternals was supposed to kick off cosmic MCU with a giant bang. And I can see the appeal of all of those! I like supporting diverse movies, plus Eternals is apparently gorgeous, and have been wanting a Nat movie for FOREVER. And I was so not thrilled with "Asgardians of the Galaxy" but if Jane!Thor is going to be in it, and Val...ARRRGH why am I so unable to detach myself from this fandom.
(Although I know I'm not going to be able to resist FATWS. Dammit, Marvel.)
I KNOW, if nothing else I want to see Sam and the shield! They will have me totally if they even just mention Isaiah Bradley. (Could we be getting Eli in Young Avengers? Maybe??) I was so out of fandom before I got into MCU, and then I saw TWS about a year later than everyone else and was hooked, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised it still really has a hold on me ("I don't like you, but I love you...."). Argh.
I rewatched TWS last night (the gears are slooowly beginning to grind on your Natasha fic. Possible first line: "Oh, Natasha," Yelena said. "You always wanted to be a good girl.")
Aww! No rush but I am excited for Yelena and Natasha times!
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Date: 2021-03-01 02:28 am (UTC)I'm thinking tentatively that the fic will focus on Natasha getting the Winter Soldier's file from Yelena right around the end of TWS. As Natasha tells Steve in the movie, "When I joined SHIELD I thought I was going straight" - and now that it turns out this was not true at all, Yelena is DELIGHTED to throw it back in Nat's face. (You just know Nat tried to talk Yelena into defecting too and Yelena probably tried to kill her.)
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Date: 2021-03-01 06:01 am (UTC)AUGH Thanos, please no more Thanos. I have been Thanos'd enough for a lifetime.
I'm thinking tentatively that the fic will focus on Natasha getting the Winter Soldier's file from Yelena right around the end of TWS. As Natasha tells Steve in the movie, "When I joined SHIELD I thought I was going straight" - and now that it turns out this was not true at all, Yelena is DELIGHTED to throw it back in Nat's face. (You just know Nat tried to talk Yelena into defecting too and Yelena probably tried to kill her.)
OMFG poor Nat, Yelena would NEVER let her live that down, not ever. I really like the idea of her getting Bucky's old file from Yelena!
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Date: 2021-03-01 02:43 pm (UTC)Naturally she will demand a kiss in payment for the file.
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Date: 2021-03-01 02:54 pm (UTC)....god, poor Nat. MCU just really blipped over HOW traumatic that must have been for her, unless that was meant to come out in her fervent attachment to the Avengers as found family and her willingness to die for them/Clint's family/half of humanity, &c &c. Which makes her story pretty damn sad.
less squee
Date: 2021-02-28 12:47 am (UTC)(Maybe Dr Erskine in the first Cap movie, and maybe possibly Howard Stark in Agent Carter, but I think that's it. -- I did just look it up, and Peter B. Parker breaks a glass at his wedding in Spider-Verse and the director Rodney Rothman said unequivocally in interviews that the character was Jewish. So I missed at least one.)
Re: less squee
Date: 2021-02-28 08:15 pm (UTC)Also, TBH, I think the writers see "volunteering for Hydra" in the same way they see "taking a town hostage because grief": to them it's an interesting character fact about Wanda, not, like, something that has any moral implications.
Re: less squee
Date: 2021-03-01 12:12 am (UTC)Altho frankly, since Wanda has been in the team movies since AoU and MCU tends not to have sympathetic (or good) villains (I think Killmonger is one of the very few exceptions), she's not getting a villain edit, no -- they didn't do that even in Civil War, where she was criticized not for joining Ultron or unleashing the Hulk upon a densely populated city, but an accident when she was part of the team. Nat and Gamora also got very light treatments compared to how they can be in the comics, particularly Gamora -- they just basically made a different and much more sympathetic character (with much less autonomy). And stuff like Tony making Ultron pretty much got glossed over too -- "You made a murderbot?!" is a punchline, and Tony's still defending his AoU actions in Endgame, and the movie never really contradicts him on it. It's just Tony *jazzhands*
-- Zemo could be a more interesting villain, if they move beyond "You killed my family, prepare to die" and to him actually having a problem with superheroes, which could tie in with Vision's observation in CW that the superheroes seem to bring trouble, not end it (paraphrasing). But I get the feeling the end of the Avengers is going to lead to the triumphant resurrection of Avengers 2.0, Young Avengers, so that idea will probably not be explored very seriously. (And to be fair, asking a giant revenue-generating pop culture machine worth billions and billions which is based on superheroes to critically examine the idea of superheroes is maybe a little unrealistic in terms of late capitalism.)
Re: less squee
Date: 2021-03-01 02:36 am (UTC)I'm pretty sure there is nothing that the superheroes could do that the movies would not exonerate them for. Like, again, Wanda has taken an entire town hostage, and the TV series treats it just seriously enough to give us, like, *stakes*, but at the same time it doesn't really want us to care about any of those people.
They're pretending to critically examine the idea of superheroes because that's cool and edgy right now, but at the same time they want us to uncritically root for the heroes - they're trying to have their cake and eat it too, basically. If they dropped the pretense of criticizing the idea of superheroes, I bet they'd have the superheroes do fewer dodgy things overall.
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Date: 2021-03-01 04:06 am (UTC)But also, yes, let's just ignore the fact that Wanda has taken the entire town hostage, the bad guy is clearly labeled as the one who is against her.
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Date: 2021-03-01 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-01 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-02 05:19 am (UTC)Yeah. I mean, I get that holding an entire town hostage creates a more credible real-world threat (vs. folks just shrugging and being like "let's leave Wanda alone to her dreams"), and breaking into the Hex does create some interesting scenes and helps get Monica Rambeau her powers, as well as letting Agnes meddle. But I wish the "what she's doing is dangerous and bad" didn't immediately stop the moment she was shot at by the drone. I also wish it were a much smaller space (like, a hex that only involved a few people, maybe even the SWORD facility that she broke into), and/or she wasn't actually painfully mind-controlling people? Like, it could be that she's just siphoning off some spare brainwaves (like SETI but for her sitcom needs), or maybe if the people just fell into a coma instead of being forced to walk around like puppets?
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Date: 2021-03-02 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-01 07:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-01 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-14 09:14 pm (UTC)My superhero media policy is never to expect anything other than pretty people staring over their shoulders at fantastic explosions; that way I'm never disappointed and it's all the sweeter when I get the odd tidbit of actually-kind-of-good. Maybe that makes me a snob? But at least I'm a snob who's entertained a lot.
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Date: 2021-04-14 09:35 pm (UTC)WandaVision I really liked up until the last episode, when I thought it really sort of fell apart, but that was probably inevitable: of course Wanda couldn't live in sitcomworld forever, they had to tie her back into the wider MCU.
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Date: 2021-04-14 10:25 pm (UTC)I also feel like Wandavision fell apart a little at the end - I wasn't sold on the "rival witch power vampire" reveal even though it had its own theme song; it felt like they really wanted to unlock Wanda's phenomenal cosmic power but couldn't figure out how to do it within the story framework they'd set up.
Also, I know it's just accepted popcorn-movie shorthand now and Wiccans love it and all, but anything with the conceit of actual witchcraft happening in 17thC Salem is Too Soon for me. I know that's the dumbest hill to die on at this point, yet here I am.
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Date: 2021-04-15 04:00 pm (UTC)I think you are right that the standalone MCU movies often do pretty well at mixing popcorn fun with more seriousness plotlines. The MCU just doesn't seem to be able to balance it throughout the franchise as a whole, especially in the team-up movies. (I stopped watching the team-up movies after Civil War - not technically a team-up movie, but it sure had all the downsides of a team-up movie - and I have never regretted this decision.)
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Date: 2021-04-15 06:21 pm (UTC)e x a c t l y