PTSD in the MCU

Welcome back to Westview, Marvelites! If you’re looking for a place to fangirl and discuss all things WandaVision, you’re in the right place!

Today we’ll be exploring the 8th episode.

This installment mainly focuses on Wanda’s traumatic past and the impact it’s had on her powers over the years. We also get to explore the multifaceted relationships that Wanda has with the other characters.

Let’s get started!!

Wanda and Agatha:

What started out as an innocent friendship ended up being one of Wanda’s worst mistakes. Agatha was initially one of Wanda’s closest allies (or so we thought). But there was always that nagging feeling that she knew much more than she was letting on. It was Agatha who planted seeds of doubt for Vision when she told him about Geraldine. Had she not done that, maybe Vision wouldn’t have grown suspicious of his wife. She’s also responsible for dropping little clues to Vision that Wanda is behind the sinister nature of Westview. This is apparent when she breaks character by asking to redo a scene and also when she explains the predicament of the Westview citizenry on Halloween.

But what is Agatha’s endgame? What does she truly want with Wanda? They’re both extraordinarily powerful beings but what sets them apart from each other? Here’s a few of my theories:

• The most basic answer is that Agatha wants power. She wants to be superhuman just like Wanda and finds it frustrating that Wanda posses all of this raw power but doesn’t want to use it. She probably felt the same way about her old coven: her mother had all of this magic at her disposal yet refused to teach it to her daughter because it was dark magic; this in turn caused Agatha to go astray. Wanda, on the other hand, considers her power a burden and only uses it out of convenience, self-defense, or unintentionally when she’s in distress. She doesn’t want to be superhuman but she’s learned to embrace her role for the greater good. While Agatha strives to be superhuman and scoffs at Wanda’s attempt at being normal, Wanda has no qualms about retaining her humanity. In her own eyes, she’s just a human with normal needs like a home, love and family.
• The main difference between Agatha and Wanda is how their powers came to be. Agatha was born and raised in a coven during a time when witches were being hunted down and executed. For centuries, she has immersed herself in the magical arts and has to practice them discreetly to avoid detection. Saying that Agatha is a master of magic is an understatement. Yet she realizes that her powers are inferior to Wanda’s which is probably what fuels her rage. As for Wanda, we were under the impression that the H.Y.D.R.A. experiments with the Mind Stone were the only source of her powers. This would mean that they were bound to phenomenal cosmic energy as well as being scientific in nature. In truth, Wanda’s powers are a combination of both magic and science, at least according to the flashbacks. This is especially apparent when Agatha mentions that Wanda was unconsciously using magic to protect her and her brother after their parents died. So maybe Wanda has always had magic powers within her; the Mind Stone just simply amplified them.

Wanda vs. her old self

Saying that Wanda Maximoff has been through hell and back is putting it mildly. Everyone she’s ever loved is dead. SWORD has officially labeled her a terrorist and has declared war on Westview because of her. And now she finds outs that her supposed best friend, Agatha, has been manipulating her this entire time. So why did the writers think it was a good idea to have Wanda relive her traumas? It couldn’t be just for kicks and giggles, right? Well, personally, I think the idea was to have Wanda realize how those experiences made her stronger; how they made her who she is.

Let’s take a look at them and see what kind of impact they played on Wanda’s life.

The death of her parents: Wanda’s first experience with grief, pain and trauma. This event also caused her to volunteer for H.Y.D.R.A.’s experiment in the first place.

• Significance: If this hadn’t have happened to Wanda, she wouldn’t have been exposed to the Mind Stone, but she probably would’ve developed her powers in some other way.
• Why she must face this trauma: she needs to remember why she wanted to change the world in the first place, what sparked her need to make her country a safer place.
• Relationship with WandaVision/Westview: Watching classic American sitcoms was a favorite pastime of Wanda and her family. It was the only constant Wanda could rely on whenever she experienced the unthinkable. Wanda’s flashback shows that she and her family were actually in the middle of marathon when they were attacked. This is why Wanda subconsciously chose to manifest her fantasy in the form of sitcoms.

The H.Y.D.R.A. experiments: Signing up for Baron Strucker’s program was the twins’ way of getting revenge against Tony Stark. They figured they would be able to fight the good fight by gaining some powers of their own.

• Significance: This was more or less an outlet for Wanda and her brother. It was a way for them to take action against their perceived attackers/enemies and change the world, as she says in the episode. This is also the time of her life where her powers were amplified to a cosmic degree; but it’s also where she was basically tortured and used as a guinea pig to do H.Y.D.R.A.’s bidding.
• What we learn: Other test subjects who were exposed to the Mind Stone died from its effects, but somehow Wanda survived. The stones in the MCU are often portrayed as being sentient where they are able to act independently and choose who can wield their power. Perhaps the Mind Stone sensed Wanda’s latent powers and chose to amplify them.
• Why she must face this trauma: Judging from her reaction to the flashback, this part of her life obviously gives her major PTSD and anxiety. In order to move past it, she must come to terms with the pain and fear she felt back then and embrace it instead of hiding it away.
• In the scene where Wanda is in her room at the Hydra base, she’s watching a Brady Brunch episode. Bobby is insulting Cindy’s doll and saying she doesn’t have any feelings because she’s made of sawdust and rags. This mirrors the numb mental state that Wanda appears to be in when she’s experimented on by HYDRA. In more ways than one, she deeply resonates with this lifeless fictional doll.

The death of Pietro

• Significance: This incident, though horrifically painful, lead to Wanda’s relationship with Vision. She was obviously feeling isolated because she was in the early stages of grieving while living in a foreign country. Her relationship with the other Avengers was also very strained due to the fact that she exposed them to their greatest fears when she first met them. Vision, while not wholly human, senses Wanda’s pain and tries to his best to comfort her. He admits that he’s only ever been alone and has never felt love of any sort; therefore he doesn’t feel the lack of it nor does he feel the effects of loneliness. By saying this, he inherently admits, somewhat bittersweetly, that he doesn’t know what being human feels like, let alone experiencing strong human emotions. In that, Wanda sees him as a kindred spirit because he’s missing pieces of his soul as well, he just isn’t aware of it yet.
• Why she must face this trauma: Perhaps Wanda needs to understand that although she lost her family, she had gained a new one in Vision. Thus according to Vision, “It can’t all be sorrow, can it?”
• Correlation with WandaVision/Westview: As a far as we know, Agatha’s Pietro (a.k.a. Fake Pietro or simply Fietro) was a puppet that she used to manipulate Wanda. The old witch was literally pulling on Wanda’s heartstrings to get her into a vulnerable headspace. So all those things that Fietro did to prove to Wanda that it was really him was indeed an intricate farce, courtesy of Agatha.

Final Thoughts

Although the Halloween episode was by far my favorite, I have to say I really enjoyed this one. As a person who suffers daily with anxiety and depression, I know how it feels to be numb inside and not want to wake up in the morning. This is why I relate to Wanda and her struggles so much.

Granted, I haven’t experienced a fraction of the trauma she’s had to deal with, but then again trauma is trauma, right? What you feel as traumatic may be something that’s just mildly uncomfortable to someone else and vice versa, but that’s ok. We all feel different things, we all have have own triggers, and we all feel devastating pain at some point in our life.

But the one thing that remains constant and makes us all inherently human is the ability to feel, to be affected by our environment on an emotional level. Of course, it’s not the most convenient trait we have, but in a way, it brings us all together. Just knowing that there are other people out there who go through the same struggles I go through is a comfort in itself. I’m not saying I want people to feel the pain that I do, but more that I take comfort in the knowledge that I’m not the only one who feels numb and scared; that maybe I’m not the only one who feels crazy sometimes.

Stories with imperfect characters like Wanda and Vision helps bring this idea full circle. Knowing that these stories exist helps make life that much more bearable .