so I’m of course excited for Multiverse of Madness, both because Doctor Strange 2016 is my favorite Marvel origin movie thus far (you, too, can become a superhero through dedicated reading and study and being really good with languages...) and because Wanda will be in it and maybe-just-maybe we will *finally* get some Wanda/Stephen shipping content that exists for real in canon.
but. the presence of Wanda and the shipping potential there is also a source of some trepidation for me, because... *deep breath before initiating rant* MCU IS TERRIBLE ABOUT LETTING THEIR COUPLES BE HAPPY. seriously though. the only ones I can think of who have ended up in a genuinely happy and satisfying place are Clint/Laura and Steve/Peggy (as of Endgame, and through a somewhat controversial writing move). if anybody can think of more exceptions, I’d be happy to hear about them, but there is a definite and concerning pattern. Tony/Pepper, Bruce/Natasha, Wanda/Vision: death did them part. Thor/Jane, Steve/Sharon: broken up off-screen. Peter Quill/Gamora, T’Challa/Nakia: who knows at this point. and then there’s NWH, where no matter who you ship with who else, you will end up crying at some point. this was actually the movie where I started thinking about the pattern. also the eternals are not exempt from this: all couples from the movie either have one person dead or one person yanked off-planet by an irritated space robot by the time the credits roll. all this to say, there is a non-zero chance that I will watch Multiverse of Madness on its opening weekend, but there is an even higher chance that I will exit the theater in a cloud of shipper’s huff. (and that my lovely Christine-shipping fellow theater-goers will have some strong opinions too.) because the MCU is terrible about letting their couples be happy. thoughts?