Wanda, Wanda, Wanda: The Scarlet Witch of It (Agatha) All [Along]
I recently ran into some of the fandom's discussions around Wanda, Agatha, and the Hex, and I have found myself vaguely frustrated by the ways in which everything is discussed. I think everyone is entitled to their reading of it; however, I want to dissect my own personal reading, and personally how I see their dynamic.
Upfront, I do not see Agatha as a victim in this situation, in any form. As I read Agatha during Wandavision, she was a hunter and murderer who was staking out her prey, and that went ass up for her. She lost the fight, and the Hex following was a form of imprisonment that Wanda thought best fit, for what I read as a multitude of reasons. So, I want to unpack all of this. What the Hex was during WV, what Agatha's personal Hex is, and the Wanda of it all.
The Hex within the context of Wandavision seems like a near bodily reaction to Wanda's grief. It is interesting how much emotions seem to matter to witches for the fulfillment of their magic (Billy, the fear of the Seven, mixed with the belief of the Road; witches blasting Agatha after a certain point of verbal abuse). The Hex is her pain manifested, mixed with the fantasy of what she was denied and desired.
Wanda is, at this point in her life, only a few decades old. She is not a child; however, in the short time she has been on the planet, her life has been riddled with pain and suffering. She has taken blow after blow, and this blow seems to have broken the lid on the jar of her magic. Protective and self-soothing, it flows out to give her what she wanted. However!
She is not the only one taken into the Hex. All of Westview falls under it, and becomes tethered in the strings of her magic (and her grief).
While Wanda shows throughout the show she understands to some extent her power over what is going on, wishing to keep it going even though the specter of Vision is slowly awakening to the false reality--I would argue it is not until the finale that she fully understands the extent of what she is doing. She believes at first that it is Agatha making Sarah (Dotty) say what she is saying. She even looks distressed by what is being said.
Just a great shot of Darkhold Agatha, and fantastic lines, okay, back to the ramble.
And this is where we understand the extent of how mixed in with her emotions that Wanda's magic is. The resonance of her magic is dragging others through her pain, her nightmares.
Which Wanda, does not want to believe! Wanda is at her heart, a very mixed up, but wants to be better person. She is at her core, hurt, but has wanted to change the world for the better. This, in my opinion, is one of the greatest differences between her character and Agatha's. Agatha hungers for power and knowledge, and I do not think young Agatha was deeply different (and not as a slight against her character, this is why I like her). Wanda's wants and desires, on the other hand, is exemplified by the genre she chose for her Hex: a sitcom. She wants a place to belong, to be safe, to have friends and a family, to be loved.
Even as this begins to dawn on her, she sees what she has done as righteous, because this isn't about them...
This is about Wanda. This is how Wanda wants to/needs to feel. She needs to be at peace, to feel safe. Because the reality is, even in the Hex, there have always been cracks... At the end of the day, she cannot wish away the pain.
Oof Sharon.
And the overwhelming pain and anxiety and stress Wanda feels, her magic lashes out.
And it fully dawns on her the extent of what she is doing, and what is going on.
Wanda is not being heroic, but this is not active malice. While that does not change the trauma she put the residents of Westview through...
She tries to do her best with what she is working with, as reality really is sinking in. She is a mess, but she wants to be good.
So, it comes back to Agatha now.
This evil cockroach watching from the sidelines!
With Agatha the Hex she is put under is somewhat different. It happens once the Scarlet Witch is fully realized. Once Wanda has resurrected herself by reclaiming her powers and claiming her identity.
Agatha bit off more than she can chew with this situation!
So smug for someone who is about to lose badly.
Yeah.....
Agatha led to her own downfall too, which is so on point for her! Agatha's arrogance, her hunger for power led her to Westview, and it is also what made her yap the exact thing that gave Wanda the way to win.
She is resigned to her loss. Even if she will beg and plead in a moment.
And Wanda fully realizes her potential, her crown manifests.
Agatha, in some ways, made the Scarlet Witch! She helped forge her! And Wanda drains Agatha of centuries of stolen magic while forging herself as the Scarlet Witch.
This is not the Wanda who cast the Hex over Westview anymore. This is not the girl who is doing magic by merely her emotional outbursts.
What Wanda has done?
Okay, let's get back to the point of this entire ramble: what does Wanda do with Agatha at the end of Wandavision! Put her under a Hex.
Agatha first asks if she will send her to prison, which Wanda responds in the negative to. And for good reason from Wanda's perspective: Agatha, like a bloodhound, came into Westview to kill and take all of Wanda's powers! Wanda also knows now: Agatha is a centuries years old witch! What's a prison going to do?
And the moment Agatha got out? Would Wanda be promised any peace or protection? And if Agatha did manage to befriend her again, is that a promise of a reality--because Agatha lied and wheedled her way in before. How long until Agatha uses the comforting lie of friendship to turn on Wanda and reclaim all of that magic that Wanda just took?
In Wanda's mind this is self-preservation. And beyond that: this is not the spell cast as it was before. No dramatic falling to her knees, no! Wanda merely waves her hand and traps Agatha in her role of the nosy neighbor. Because of this, I do not personally read Agatha as genuinely trapped in the same way the other residents were--Wanda's grief and pain are not part of this spell, this is not broken in that way. This is the Scarlet Witch fully bending reality.
This is house arrest! From Agatha's perspective: it sucks; however, Agatha is not stupid enough to think she did not have a heavy hand in creating this scenario. She does not want it to happen, of course!
I think it is fun to explore other routes, about the Hex still emotionally tormenting Agatha. And yes, her identity and self being locked away is terrifying and terrible! It is cruel to an extent; however, Agatha wanted to murder Wanda, threw the first punch, dragged her through her grief (gave Wanda false hope with a fake version of her very dead brother), lied and manipulated her...
And eventually, in 'Agatha All Along,' we get to see Agatha find the keys to her prison and begin to wiggle her way out--dropping the Nosy Neighbor, and donning Detective Agnes to solve her own imprisonment.
Wanda's role to Agatha is a strange one, not easily given name. She's a jailer, certainly, but she also does not truly know Agatha Harkness. At the end of the day of Wandavision, she is a former Avenger, trying to take care of a scenario the best way she knows how, and the safest way she can think of.
Agatha, the reason we love her, is the Witch Killer. And she lost the bet on this Witch she came to kill, this time.
I am certain for some folks I earned the NGL I got back in the day for this, so please enjoy the silly meme I made of it... But I promise I do like her!!
"This is house arrest" is the PERFECT way to look at this situation, god I love when fans actually understand the nuance of the characters they're talking about. Yes. A thousand times YES.
Wanda knew deep down that if she let Agatha go she'd never know a moment's peace, and that disruption could drag Wanda back into the fray in a way she couldn't emotionally or mentally handle. The final Hex wasn't messy. It was clean and tight with a massive dose of irony, but I love how you pointed out that Agatha was starting to dig her way out of the Hex rather than succumbing to it. We never get the full scope of what Agatha endured during the Hex, so we're left to speculate. Was it torture? Was she aware of what was happening? Did the cracks start once Wanda "removed" herself from our known reality in MoM? It's anyone's guess, and at the end of the day, we're just playing in a sandbox of someone else's imagining. We can't create canon events, so we stick to headcanons and theories.
anyway i think pride month is a good time to think about how lesbophobia and biphobia faced by women are not actually different types of bigotry in any concrete way, it's all just slightly different manifestations of the overlap between misogyny and homophobia that causes people to treat women like they are not a reliable authority on their own sexuality. its not that one type of queer sexuality is meaningfully more accepted its that asserting your own sexual identity as a woman is pretty much just seen as a threat to general society and will receive whatever pushback is easiest to reach for. unfortunately sometimes as a reaction to this we have a tendency to place the blame on each other for this treatment instead of realizing we're all crabs in the same bucket.
there are essentially zero experiences that a bi woman has had that a lesbian hasn't also, and vice versa. we don't gain anything from acting like we're two distinct groups with any real power imbalance or competing interests between them.
For a second Rio stands in the doorway, holding the folder of results she'd went to get.
Results Agatha has apparently already obtained through means Rio would rather not examine too closely just yet.
Agatha's left hand works the trackpad while her right scribbles with a pen onâRio leans in, squintsâthe back of a patient satisfaction survey form. Dense, slanted handwriting. Arrows, numbers, annotations. A second form sits underneath, already obliterated with notes.
Rio closes her eyes. Briefly. Long enough to remember she chose this. Voluntarily. In front of witnesses.
âHow,â she says.
Agatha doesn't look up. âYouâre going to have to be more specific, dear.â
"Sewing is a gateway drug to thinking through complex problems. It seems really simple; culturally, we make it women's work. Let me tell you: real sewing at any kind of level of proficiency is a bloody magic trick. Sewing, like mold making, involves mental frames that require one to think inside out and backwards. It requires one to work on an order of operations that is often taking into account the reverse. It's a really, really important skill, and if you learn how to sew, you're mostly on your way to carpentry and welding and sheet metal work. I'm not kidding: these are planar forms meeting under rules and conditions. And if you can make a sleeve work, I swear to God, you could build a house."
Helena Wells is a principal dancer nearing the height of her career at the New York City Ballet, Myka is a wardrobe assistant and seamstress with the company.
Iâm going to reblog myself, again, to collect the stuff in one post for my viewing pleasure, because I feel a little responsible for this madness. (That I am so freaking grateful for, youâve no idea how much Iâm cackling with pure evil for making this thing which led to other people doing better things)
Also the timeline goes as this, I think:
amatterofcomplication decides to make ballet manip for unknown reasons
apparitionism commentfics the manip
Roadie writes the most gorgeous thing ever after seeing the manip
apparitionism sees the incredibly gorgeous thing and regrets not going epic, and proceeds to go epic
deathtodickens looks and reads and does the doodle thing
nutty reads the things and looks at the things and orders duckling to do things
duckling makes incredibly pretty things things that move for the epic thing apparitionism wrote
I apologize to everybody for being at present unable to juggle my work/life balance so as to produce decent fanfictional wordage. Honestly Iâm just so tired. Not of B&W, not that, but I need to get back to feeling like theyâre the recreational recharge. A fillip of that will occur but then short out... anyway, hereâs that most recent fillip. In the opening bit, some people gathered for what they thought was going to be breakfast, only to find that Myka and Helena were at odds in some way (or were they...?). I recommend checking that out to get a sense, however misleading, of what might be going on. This is of course for you, @greenharrow , continuing that @b-and-w-holiday-gift-exchange gift, and as always, I beg the indulgence of anyone else who might be trying to follow along as well.
Subterfuge 2
Upstairs:
Myka slips into her (their!) bedroom and gentles the door to, muting its usual clank-close to a polite, even discreet, metal-on-metal version of a throat-clear.
Helena is contemplating herself in the bureauâs mirror, but she turns at the noise, subdued though it is. A smile as subtle as Mykaâs door-closing drifts across her mouth. âDid they âbuy itâ?â she asks, quietly sly.
Her tone has already raised the temperature in the room, but Myka tries to keep herself from heating in response. For the moment. âIâm not sure,â she says, certain that Steve would have no trouble with that utterance. âLots of misdirection, anyway.â
âWhat did you tell them we argued about?â
Myka readies herself for the conveyance of more misdirection, but Helena preempts her: âWait, more importantly: did you bring breakfast?â
The avidity is precious, no less so for being entirely predictable. Myka is not entirely abashed to display empty hands. âPete told me I have oatmeal on my shirt. Does that count?â
âThus by lack of specificity regarding portion size am I slain. Or rather, left to starve. Incidentally, why couldnât we have fought over breakfast? In their presence, one or both of us storming out in a huff... far less misdirection required.â She crosses her arms, leans back a bit.
The relax of posture lessens the physical anticipation that is building, inevitably, between them; the grace of it is for Myka a relief. Almost always, but especially today, she needs more runway than Helena does. âBecause neither of uns can sell that, not when weâre in the same room and not actually fighting. And even this time, Pete accused me of a cover-up. Said itâs always worse than the crime.â
âIs it? What was the crime, then? Presumably not âmisrepresenting ourselves to steal time.ââ
âIt shouldâve been that; âsteal timeâ sounds more crime-y. But actually they went with wasting time. Thatâs what they worked around to, once they got over being disappointed we arenât becoming jewel thieves.â
âOh but we couldââ
Myka cuts off that glee with something that is not exactly regret. âWe could not.â
âAre you certain?â Thatâs a wheedle.
Charming, but: âWe donât need to.â
That occasions a not-quite-pouty jut of lower lip. âWell of course no one needs to become a jewel thief. Unless one has no other way of making a living, I suppose. Which would seem odd, wouldnât it... surely there would be other career paths. Although it isnât inconceivable one might be coerced onto the nefarious path.â She pulls up, like she knows itâs a dangerous verbal wander.
Mykaâs been trying, lately, to acknowledge, then shift, those rather than ignore them (as she tended to do in the past, for fear of pain). Sheâs glad to be able to perform that shift now. âWhat if I were to coerce you onto a different path? âCoerceâ loosely defined.â
âI believe you have done, havenât you? Butâas Pete would say, âback upââwhy were jewel thieves invited to the party?â
Here we go. âBecause of diamonds.â
âWhat about them?â
âTheir metaphorical utility. The extent of it.â
âAh. Our âargument,â I presume? We do disagree about the most stimulating topics... diamonds as metaphors.â Helena shakes her head, an exaggeration of amazement, as that sly smile once again steals over her face.
âTheir formation more than themselves,â Myka says, for accuracy... well. Accuracy only in the sense of keeping her stories straight.
âThe production of the gem via pressure?â
I know something you donât. Itâs always a surprise. âExcept that isnât scientifically accurate.â
âIsnât it?â
The avidity again. Myka would like to imagine sheâll âblow her mindâ as Pete would have it, leading not to Helena being mad at her but grateful for new knowledge. And so: âI wonât go into detail, but it has to do with crystallization. Table saltâesque, but carbon in the mantle. From the mantle.â
âPrecipitation? Distillation? More common, as processes... thus perhaps indeed of more pedestrian metaphorical utility. Was that your putative position? If so, I certainly understand why my failure to agree might have been considered a crime.â
The wrinkle in Helenaâs brow is all it takes to suffuse Myka. âSee,â she says, and now sheâs the avid one, the one who canât hold back. âThis is why.â This is why. Steve would have no trouble with this either... which demonstrates, hugely and unfortunately, that sheâs made him into her internal lie-o-meter. Obviously that has to stop.
âI canât say that I do. See, that is. Why what?â Thatâs genuine confusion.
âYou will. See, that is.â There a real satisfaction in being able to ape Helena, ape her to a purpose, even if that purpose has to remain obscured. For just a bit longer. âWhat Iâll say for now is, we have had that disagreement. In the past.â
âHave we?â Thatâs further confusion.
Speaking of metaphors: âImplicitly,â Myka says. âDiamonds. Pressure. Whether a difficult situation was necessary for a positive outcome.â
âYouâve eased my mind considerably. Iâm not you of course, but I might nevertheless have been concerned about my failure to recall. And I do take your point, given my position as the... purveyor. Instigator? Of a number of difficult situations.â
The verbal wander again... and again, Myka has a different path to hand. Today of all days, a different path. âAnyway, come downstairs.â
Helena lowers her eyebrows and opens her hands. âThe entire point of the subterfuge was to avoid the assemblage, was it not?â
And now Myka is just a bit giddy. âWas it? Anyway, theyâre gone.â
Eyebrows reverse; hands do too. âAre they.â
Myka nods.
âThen why in the world would we go downstairs?â
âI have something to show you.â
Flirtatiously: âCouldnât you show me something here?â
Mykaâs certainly not immune to that tone, and under other circumstances... but no. âNot the same thing.â
âArenât you being strangely insistent about this?â
âIn a way.â
âIs this âthingâ time-dependent?â
Productive... âIn a way.â
âAre we playing Twenty Questions?â
âIn a way?â Myka is giving Helena reasons to wonder, and Myka herself wonders, briefly, if she could have made a better plan... too late now.
âI suspect âanimal, vegetable, or mineralâ would not yield a useful answer.â You have no idea, Myka thinks toward that, but Helena doesnât receive the psychic emanation; rather, she says, âDo you feel well?â
Myka goes back to what was working: âIn a way.â With a twist, one that she hopes will be enticing: âIn another way, check back with me after a bit.â
âAfter what bit?â
Yes, sheâs enticed, but trying not to seem so. âThe bit that happens downstairs.â
The glory of the back-and-forth. If Myka didnât also worship their physical connection, sheâd be happy to talk like this forever. But this and that happiness aside: how well will she feel after that bit? No better than this, surely... but, perhaps, somewhat differently well than this? In another way, so to speak...
Impossible to predict.
Helenaâs reaction to Mykaâs leading non-answers, however, is not. She heaves an obviously fake long-suffering sigh and says, âI donât know why I reward you for such nonsense... however, my curiosity is piqued. I suppose I had better accompany you downstairs after all.â
âI suppose so.â She offers Helena her left hand, palm up, as if inviting her to waltz; Helena places her right hand delicatelyâshe can be so delicate when she chooses (with that hand, with her self entire)âinside the invitation, in acceptance.
Offering and accepting: Myka lets a certain hope rise that their hands, now together, are a precursor.
one time we were listening to fleetwood mac in the car and my sister who was probably 4 at the time asked, without being prompted, âcan girls marry girls?â and THAT is the power of stevie nicks
