Episode 147: Marvel's WandaVision with K.T. Anglehart

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Today, we’re thrilled to share our conversation digging into Marvel’s WandaVision with mystical YA fantasy author K.T. Anglehart.

Contains Spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and WandaVision

K.T. (Katrina) Anglehart is an author who loves reading and writing magical stories. Her first novel The Wise One (The Scottish Scrolls Book 1) is a mystical, urban fantasy set in Boston and Ireland - which focuses on the main character Mckenna as she grapples with her newly awakened magical abilities and travels to Ireland seeking answers about her past. The Wise One recently won 1st prize for Supernatural Fiction at the 2021 Chanticleer Paranormal Book Awards. Katrina is currently working on book two of this series titled The Twin Flame which will be set in Scotland. More information on her series can be found on her website at: https://www.ktanglehart.com/.

Back in the summer of 2021, we interviewed Katrina and as we wrapped up that conversation we talked about how much we each liked WandaVision and that we’d someday love to talk about it together. Fast forward to March 2022, when we finally got to make that dream a reality.

In this conversation, we focus in on Wanda Maximoff’s journey from non-typical Avenger to stepping into her power as the Scarlet Witch identity within the WandaVision series. But from another lens, this story is about walking the path of grief, moving towards acceptance of a loss, and starting to heal. Wanda is a complicated anti-hero who sometimes leans into the realm of villain and this story does a thorough job of forcing the audience to sit within that gray area with her character.

There are many areas of this show that we discuss. Here are a few:

  • Wanda’s journey characterized by loss through the Avenger saga films - her tragic early loss of her parents at the hands of a Stark Technologies weapon, the devestating death of her twin brother Pietro in Age of Ultron as he saves the life of someone else, and the subtle set-up of the unique relationship she develops with Vision. Until Infinity War, where she ultimately has to destroy the Mind Stone the only way possible - by using her powers to break it apart and Vision along with it, only to have her actions reversed and have to witness Vision’s brutal death once again at the hands of Thanos.

  • The origin of the Scarlet Witch character and what Stan Lee has said of the original intention for her character. We also touch on Stan Lee’s dedication to diverse and interesting characters, ones who reflect a wide range of humanity and human experience. Since her origins are connected to the X-Men universe, we also touch on other fascinating characters from these comics - Wolverine, Storm, and Magneto.

  • Early on WandaVision uses brief and subtle disquieting moments to counterpoint the feel-good nature of the sitcoms they’re paying homage to which help clue the audience in that something is wrong and to help establish intrigue as to what’s going on. Moments like the choking scene in episode one, the “Help me Rhonda/Wanda” song on the radio in the middle episode 2, and the rewind moment at the end of episode 2.

  • Subtext is utilized really well within the dialogue throughout this show. At one point, Wanda is talking to her boys about the death of a beloved pet dog and how death can’t be reversed. It serves as a way to start to touch on what she is avoiding and will ultimately need to accept about the loss of Vision in the world outside of the false one she’s created.

  • The Organic/intuitive-based Vs. Knowledge-based magic is a fascinating conflict between Agatha Harkness and Wanda that we see in the final three episodes, becomes it comes down to a clash of approach to the mystical arts. One example is the first rune scene in Agatha’s basement, where she basically shames Wanda for not knowing the basics of the craft.

Towards the end of the episode, we discuss the philosophy thought experiment that WandaVision’s Vision and the SWORD re-created White Vision engage in and what that may mean for the future of the character.

We hope you enjoy this episode! We greatly enjoyed diving into this topic together and hearing each person’s unique take.

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

—

This episode was recorded several months prior to the release of Doctor Strange and in the Multiverse of Madness. We therefore focus specifically on what’s in the WandaVision series and what came before to set up that story without any allusions to the 2022 Sam Raimi film.

Notes:

K. T. Anglehart’s first novel The Wise One (The Scottish Scrolls Book 1) was released in October, 2020 and recently was named the 1st Prize Winner in Supernatural Fiction at the Chanticleer 2021 Paranormal Book Awards. Katrina is currently working on writing book 2 “The Twin Flame” she currently plans to release around the end of 2022/beginning of 2023 . You can learn more about The Wise One on Katrina’s personal website https://www.ktanglehart.com/ and her instagram @kt_anglehart, the first three chapters are available in her bio at https://smart.bio/kt_anglehart/.

We touch on the topic of Subtext in dialogue. That could be a topic all it’s own, but here is a MasterClass article titled “What is Subtext?”.

The Verbivore mentions the fake out that Marvel did in having the actor Even Peters (who has played Quicksilver in X-Men Days of Future Past) show up as Fake Pietro. Here is an interesting take on why Marvel may have made that choice.

Here are some Wanda related movie and TV series moments that we touch on:

The Verbivore and Katrina read several quotes. Here they are:

  • "I remember that I liked (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) very much and I thought it would be fun to have villains who aren't really bad deep down," Lee told Comics Creators On X-Men. "We already had a reluctant hero with Spider-Man so I thought it would be fun to create a pair of reluctant villains." - Stan Lee, Found on UncannyX-Men.net

  • “We can't rush aging just because it's convenient. And we can't reverse death. No matter how sad it makes us. Okay? Some things are forever.” - Wanda, WandaVision Ep: 5

  • “Well, because it can't all be sorrow, can it? I've always been alone, so I don't feel the lack. It's all I've ever known, I've never experienced loss because I have never had a loved one to lose. But what is grief, if not love persevering?” - Vision, WandaVision Ep: 8

The Ship of Theseus discussion between WandaVision Vision and White Vision occurs in Episode 9 and is based on a philosopical thought experiement created by Greek philisopher Plutarch. Here is some additional information:

We’ve interviewed author K.T. Anglehart on a previous podcast episode. That episode is:

Books, Movies, and Graphic Novels Mentioned:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Bethany Stedman