History Characters / ScarletWitch

** First, she and Pietro had a revelation with the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] superhero [[HaveAGayOldTime The Whizzer]], who was revealed to be their real father along with the Golden Age heroine Miss America.

** In UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks she took an earlier level in badass under writer Steve Englehart, who made her more assertive and aggressive and had her study real witchcraft with Agatha Harkness, learning to do things like animate inanimate objects and call meteors down from the sky.

%%* AdaptationDyeJob[=/=]DependingOnTheArtist: Marvel generally settles on her hair being brown, but she was originally drawn with black hair (possibly due to the limits of color printing at the time making it difficult to produce brown). The official Handbook gives her hair as auburn, which is another common color, but she's even drawn with bright red hair on occasion. The MCU offers a compromise, where her hair seems to be naturally brown, but she dyes it red while on the run.
%%* AdaptationalHairstyleChange: She's normally drawn with long hair in the comics. ''X-Men: Evolution'' introduces her with shoulder-length black hair that she then chops drastically short into a pixie.
%%* AdaptationalJerkass: Wanda tends get a lot of this in adaptations, in the mainline comics for all her flaws she’s a usually a sweet and compassionate person who hates being seen as a villain and only really flies off the handle when it comes to her loved ones. In both ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' and Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse however Wanda is a darkly embittered woman who indulges in MindRape frequently. In the MCU case though, it’s more justified due to her having even more a TraumaCongaLine than in the comics with Pietro being killed and losing Vision not too long afterwards. ''Series/WandaVision'' shows deep down she actually wants to be a nicer person with a simpler life.
%%* AdaptationSpeciesChange: As the movie rights for the X-Men were owned by Fox, Wanda is not a mutant in Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. She is instead an enhanced human--her powers were bestowed after a scientific experiment to which she and Pietro volunteered.
%%* AdaptationalModesty: Wanda has the dubious distinction of being one of the least dressed Avengers, although that quality was never linked to her personality. In the movies, she dresses in everyday casual clothes, and Creator/JossWhedon even assured Elizabeth Olsen she'd never need to wear the red bathing suit. Though in ''Series/WandaVision'' she wears the classic outfit anyway for Halloween as a MythologyGag.
%%* AdaptationalVillainy: Like her brother Pietro, she often gets this '''hard''' in adaptations, most notably ComicBook/UltimateMarvel and the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. In the comics she was explicitly ForcedIntoEvil and while she’s no spotless saint given the events of ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' she still isn’t a tyrannical person and is TheAtoner for her actions. In the Ultimate universe and MCU on the other hand, she’s a totally willingly recruit of villainy and in the former actually keeps pushing for mutant supremacy alongside Quicksilver even after Magneto died. In the MCU she does become a hero for a good while, but after the Infinity Saga she experiences a DespairEventHorizon at the loss of Vision eventually JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope entrapping a town with her powers in ''Series/WandaVision'' and later slaughtering her way through Kamar-Taj and then another universe by possessing her AlternateSelf, whom she wants to KillAndReplace so that she can be a mother to Billy and Tommy again in ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness''. All of which, is several magnitudes worse than what she did in the comics, especially since unlike the comics it was pretty much entirely on her own accord. She does at least have a last minute HeelRealization though.

* TheApprentice: To Agatha Harkness. Their relation began during ''ComicBook/TheCelestialMadonnaSaga'', and Agatha returned as a ghost mentor in her 2016 solo series.
* TheAtoner: She feels endlessly remorseful about her role in the destruction of most of the mutant species during the House of M incident and became an Avenger to atone. Eventually, along with Hope Summers, she repowers the worlds mutants, but still has not stopped expressing remorse, and a lot of Mutants ''still'' haven't forgiven her one iota, with widespread characterisation of her as [[TheAntiChrist 'The Pretender']] during the [[ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge Krakoa age]], with temporary death leading to a reaction of AndThereWasMuchRejoicing.

* BadPowersGoodPeople: The source of her chaos magic is a GodOfEvil, but she uses it for good.

* BrotherSisterIncest[=/=]{{Twincest}}: In ComicBook/UltimateMarvel she and her brother Pietro are outright stated to be lovers, and for decades people have made jokes about how uncomfortably close they are.
* BrotherSisterTeam: She and Pietro, especially when they are introduced to a new universe.
* CantHoldHisLiquor: During ''All-New X-Factor'', she and Lorna have a day of sisterly hanging-out. Wanda gets plastered at a renaissance faire (though it may have helped that she chugs back five beers in the space of thirty minutes).

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' redesigned her with the likeness of Angelina Jolie.

* CompositeCharacter: In the MCU Wanda has gotten fused with [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean Grey]] in terms of how she uses telekinesis and her overall character arc, with the events of ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' greatly echoing the ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'' and ending with a HeroicSacrifice of redemption.

* DiabolusExMachina: Both ''Avengers Disassembled'' and ''House of M'' depend on Wanda developing [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands a scale of power]] that she had never even been close to before. This is explained as being a power boost from the Life Force--although writers sometimes forget that and have her back to her reality warping ways.
* DoingInTheScientist[=/=]DoingInTheWizard: Writers continually flip flop between explaining her powers as being purely science-fiction based psychic mutation, magic, and magic created by mutation.

* FantasticRacism: She experiences this both for her status as a mutant and her mixed marriage to the Vision.

* IncestSubtext: In the main 616 universe, never intentionally--but still Wanda's relationships with her brother Pietro sometimes look a little ''too'' close, especially during the Silver Age. Also, see BrotherSisterIncest above.
* InstantAIJustAddWater: Her hexes may cause robots to spontaneously develop sentience. This was implied in the Ultimate continuity, leading to Ultron. In the Howard the Duck series, apparently a past encounter with a sentinel lead to it developing a sentient hatred of all superhumans, styling itself as a Punisher like figure.
* KarmaHoudini: There's no small amount of controversy among fans on whether Scarlet Witch has been fairly dealt with for her actions on M-Day. X-Men fans especially feel that she was let off too easily, whereas Avengers fans feel like it's been enough. Rather like the comics.

* LegacyCharacter: Now that Magneto and Magda are no longer her parents, there is a new quest to discover her real parents. She discovered that her real mother was also into witchcraft, and more: she used a outfit and also called herself "the Scarlet Witch".

* LevitatingLotusPosition: She engages in this from time to time.

* MagicalRomani: She is Roma, and has significant magical power. It turns out that not only is her magic partially tied to the elder god living in Wundagore Mountain, her mother is also a Scarlet Witch, meaning there is a definite undercurrent of magic in the peoples' history.

* MsFanservice:
** Scarlet Witch has been this since her first appearance in the comics. She's a very beautiful brunette who usually wears {{Stripperific}} outfits (particularly a red bathing suit or other costumes like the ones that she wore at the end of the ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers and Force Works team and during the run of Kurt Busiek and George Perez) that are more seductive then her contemporaries Jean Grey, Sue Storm, or Janet van Dyne.
** The MCU version usually fights in outfits with an ImpossiblyLowNeckline, with Creator/ElizabethOlsen expressing discomfort at being the only woman in battle scenes showing cleavage. In ''Series/WandaVision'', she spends most of the second episode in a LovelyAssistant outfit for a magic show, spends all of episode 6 wearing the classic Scarlet Witch leotard from the comics as a Halloween costume, and dons a modernized version of it in the finale that shows off her form though doesn't show as much skin.

-->'''Chaos:''' Why should a being like you, a witch who works in chaos, care for this thing of perfect order?
-->'''Wanda:''' Because '''chaos''' and '''order''' belong together.

* PutOnABus: After ''House of M'', she disappeared from the comics for six years, with writers forbidden to use her except in flashbacks or alternate universes. TheBusCameBack in ''Children's Crusade''.
* RealityWarper: Her probability manipulation could be regarded as a minor form of reality warping. Crossover event ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' cranked her up to full RealityWarper. It's later pointed out that with her level of power, much like [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan Nate Grey]], she only stays dead as long as she wants to.

* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains: Inverted, where her default costume is legendarily skimpy, and any time she shows up as an antagonist, she usually wears something more modest; in ''X-Men: Evolution'', she wears a bodysuit with a trench coat over it, although her civilian outfit has a halter top. In the MCU, her ''Infinity War'' costume includes a corset (with her actress complaining how she was the only one showing cleavage) while her EvilCostumeSwitch involves being covered literally neck to toe.

* [[HesBack She's Back]]: The formation of the second version of ''Mighty Avengers'' teased this, but it was really Loki in disguise. Played straight in ''Children's Crusade'' #6 -- Wanda's alive, repowered, and back to her old self.

* SolitarySorceress: When she tries to understand more in depth about the origins of her powers or how far they could extend, she tends to analyze and study by her own.

* SquishyWitch: She has fairly low defense for an Avenger without her powers--but it can't be forgotten that Captain America has trained her in hand-to-hand, as evidenced when in "Nights of Wundagore" she is up against an opponent whose magic is stronger than hers, and she punches him in the face and [[DisneyVillainDeath knocks him off a cliff]].
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: In the Brotherhood of Mutants, so there could be a DesignatedGirlFight against Jean Grey, the only X-Woman at the time. And then again in Cap's Kooky Quartet.

* WildCard: Her ''X-Men: Evolution'' incarnation is part of the Brotherhood, but only so she can get revenge on Magneto, and only fights the X-Men when she has to (and the first time she does so is at Mystique's manipulation). In Season 4, she's pretty much the TokenGoodTeammate of the group, being horrified when her powers cause an accident that nearly gets innocent people killed. And in the GrandFinale, she's the only one of the Brotherhood (at first) to join the X-Men in fighting Apocalypse and his horsemen.
* WindsOfDestinyChange: TropeNamer. Her power is usually described in the comics as the power to alter probabilities, changing the odds of something happening (SpontaneousCombustion, entropy, changes in weather) from very unlikely to a dead certainty.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The "Darker than Scarlet" arc in ''West Coast Avengers'' and the later ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' storyline.

* AmazonBrigade: She's become a member of the Daughters of Liberty alongside Sharon Carter, Toni Ho, Misty Knight and Peggy Carter.

* CoolOldLady: Awesome old lady who's willing to help the Fantastic Four and babysit.

%%* TheMentor: To Scarlet Witch.

* ActuallyADoombot: In the Children's Crusade mini, it was revealed that the Wanda living on Wundagore Mountain after ''House of M'' was a duplicate, (which also means that the amnesiac Wanda ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} slept with was a Doombot).

* TheApprentice: To Agatha Harkness. Their relation began during ComicBook/TheCelestialMadonnaSaga, and Agatha returned as a ghost mentor in her 2016 solo series.
* TheAtoner: She feels endlessly remorseful about her role in the destruction of most of the mutant species during the House of M incident and became an Avenger to atone. Eventually, along with Hope Summers, she repowers the worlds mutants, but still has not stopped expressing remorse, and a lot of Mutants ''still'' haven't forgiven her one iota, with widespread characterisation of her as [[TheAntiChrist 'The Pretender']] during the [[ComicBook/XMen2019 Krakoa era]], with temporary death leading to a reaction of AndThereWasMuchRejoicing.

** What ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' revealed about her had a lot of them--in ''its very premise'' given it was established years before that Wanda had already regained her memories of her kids without losing her sanity again. Likewise, so was Comicbook/DoctorStrange saying there's no such thing as Chaos Magic--when he himself used it.

** In ''ComicBook/AvengersTheChildrensCrusade'', she was all set to sit back and let the ComicBook/XMen do what ever they wanted to her. Then Emma Frost tried to mind control her kids into going with the X-Men.

* NarratorAllAlong: She's revealed as the narrator for the second half of the 2015 ''[[ComicBook/TheVision2015 Vision]]'' series, and has been narrating events to the Vision's new daughter Viv.

* RealityWarper: Her probability manipulation could be regarded as a minor form of reality warping. Crossover event ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled cranked her up to full RealityWarper. It's later pointed out that with her level of power, much like [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]], she only stays dead as long as she wants to.

* TraumaCongaLine: Creator/JohnByrne wrote and drew ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers West Coast Avengers]]'' for a little over a year, and spent most of the time putting her through one of these. First the Vision was dismantled and his personality erased, effectively ending her marriage. Then she was kidnapped by a secret society trying to use her to create a race of super-mutants. Then her children were revealed to be made from pieces of the devil's soul and erased from existence. Then her memories were erased, she was driven into a catatonic state, and she temporarily went insane, all part of a plot by [[TheChessmaster Immortus]] to ruin her life and drive her mad.

* UnstablePoweredWoman: Despite being one of Marvel's most powerful magic users, Wanda has had a variety of storylines where her fragile mental state has devastating consequences for the universe. It started when she was forced to forget a DealWithTheDevil where she and ComicBook/TheVision have their idealized NuclearFamily. Suddenly remembering them starts a psychotic break that triggers ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' and later feeds into ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', and it often falls to her father, brother, or occasionally ComicBook/DoctorStrange to keep her in check. From 2010 onwards, however, she's mostly been stable and kept herself in check.

While discussing just how complicated having kids would be for a superhero, Janet van Dyne/Characters/TheWasp slipped up and briefly mentioned Wanda's "kids" to her, leading Wanda to discover the truth and consequently suffer a breakdown. Thus began the arc of ''Avengers Disassembled'', where Wanda lost control of her powers and unconsciously killed off several Avengers, including Vision and Hawkeye, without being physically present -- she spent most of the arc being kept company by illusions of her children until the Avengers came to confront her. She was eventually taken out by [[Characters/MarvelComicsSorcererSupreme Doctor Strange]], only for Magneto to come and take her to Genosha to atone for his neglect. Her rampage destroyed the Avengers, since they couldn't go on after to the damage she had caused.