History Headscratchers / DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness

** In point of fact she was ''not'' given her powers by the infinity stone, the stone simply awakened what was already there. This was detailed in WandaVision.

[[folder:The voices in the post credits scene of WandaVision]]

* Captain Carter is apparently a variant of Captain Carter from ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf'', since this Captain Carter is part of the Illuminati and she does not mention the events of the What If? animated series at all.

** WordOfGod is that ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021'' is canon to the MCU. The bigger question now is whether the episodes of ''What If...?'' are animated because it's an artistic choice, or if it's because those stories are from animated universes.

** The Watcher acted in ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021'' only because Ultron specifically targeted him and began to threaten the whole multiverse, and even then he did his best to ensure most of the work would not be done by him. The destruction of one universe, no matter how sad it makes him, is not enough to goad him to break his oath.

* Allusion to ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021'' aside, why did 616-Wanda look like a zombie inside 838-Wanda's mindscape when snapping Charles' neck? Was that a conscious choice or just an [[EvilMakesYouUgly Evil Makes You Ugly]] embodiment of her Scarlet Witch persona? At various points in the movie (like the subsequent chase outside the mindscape) she does act zombie-like, hobbling around bleeding and pasty and all, but this was full-on decomposition.

** In regards to her jacket being blue with a white 5-point star on it, thats literally the Somali flag. If anything, her denim jacket makes her look more like a Captain Somalia than a US patriot. But it's likely in her reality, the design has nothing to do with any of the countries in our world.

** The USA was named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who hypothesized that the land Christopher Columbus discovered was a separate continent, so the USA doesn't have to necessarily exist for America to be named America. As for the other questions most of her MCU history is taken directly from the comics, so she's not Captain America with a different backstory, at least that much is for certain.

** In the comics, America's world was created by the Demiurge aka Billy "Wiccan" Maximoff who was born in USA. It's possible that the inhabitants of the Utopian Parallel (America's world) used a lot of references to USA (like naming America) to honor Wiccan. If the MCU follow that, it will likely be the same.

** America is a pretty common Latina name (see America Ferrera, star of Ugly Betty and Superstore). You wouldn't ask if someone named River was heavily associated with a river, would you? And if they wore something with a river logo on it, would you assume the were heavily associated with a river or were drawn to that logo because of their name?
** In regards tk her Jacket being Blue with a white 5 point star on it. Thats literally the Somali flag. If anything her denim jacket makes her look moremlike a Captain Somalia than a US patriot. But it likely in her reality the design has nothing to do with any of the countries in our world.

** Anyone can be a sorcerer, you must be born with at least some inherent magical ability to be a witch.
** Witchcraft requires incantations to cast most spells (except for the Scarlet Witch) where as sorcerers use hand motions.
** Witches have covens which are more or less required. Sorcerers go to Kamar-Taj to learn sorcery, but after that they can go their own way, run a sanctum, or become Sorcerer Supreme.
** Witches seem to be all women (Though that may be wrong and it's just a coincidence that Wanda, Agatha, and Agatha's coven were all women, I'm not sure what Billy would count as, especially since he was made with magic)
*** Billy can be considered a male witch.
** Other than that it's hard to tell, especially since Wanda's a special case where not everything applies to her since she's the Scarlet Witch

*** Having to train an ability doesn't mean the ability is innate. Endgame and Thor: Love and Thunder show Thor has to exercise in order to maintain peak performance, the physical equivalent of "study and practice." That doesn't mean that he isn't superhumanly strong without "study and practice," nor does it mean that a normal human could achieve the same strength with "study and practice." The MCU has had plenty of opportunities for the mystically inclined characters to confirm the universality of sorcery, especially with characters like Ned. But they purposefully never have.

** The films don't specify a difference. Given that both Wanda and Strange can use the Darkhold without issue it's possible that the difference is relatively negligible and simply constitutes two distinct magic traditions that take separate approaches to achieve a common outcome. Witchcraft is based in western pagan tradition, while sorcery is a hodgepodge of eastern religions. Either philosophy would have different spells to suit the needs of their environment, but that wouldn't necessarily mean the two are mutually exclusive.

** See UnequalRites. Judging be the wording the distinction is more cultural/political than fundamental - in MCU sorcery is a tradition specifically associated with Kamar'Taj and it's founder, and with their role as explicit guardians against Dormammu and other extradimensional gribblies it's easy to start see themselves as special, but there's a lot of magic outside their grasp.
** Based on information from Thor: Ragnarok it seems what is defined as witchcraft in the MCU may be more of a lifestyle choice thing. Loki uses magic and learns magic from Frigga, who states that she was raised by witches. Yet Loki says that he is not a witch (although according to Thor, he dresses like one.) It seems the difference between witchcraft and sorcery may just different methods of implementing their will to create change. A sorcerer may have had to open a portal and conjure the beast that attacks America Chavez, whereas a witch may have to lay down certain runes and incantations to contact and get them to do their bidding. By seeing the runes etched on the beast's skin, one could see the method of magic used to summon it was witchcraft.

** Her being fixated on having exactly those kids does make sense, even if it requires some context extraneous from the movie. She already had the experience of being the mother of those boys in ''[=WandaVision=]'', and the grief of losing them (amplified by the Darkhold's corruptive effect) is what motivates her. She doesn't just want kids, she wants ''her'' kids back.

** She doesn't want replacement goldfish. She is not trying to solve the problem of being a bereaved mother. She has been dreaming and therefore living that she is the real mother of those two slightly older versions of her kids, so the problem she is trying to solve is that she is not their mother in her waking life.

* What happened to Tina Minoru? She was just fine in Endgame and suddenly, she's disappeared and someone else is in charge of her sanctum and she doesn't even get a mention. Unless, the one in Runaways was her but ''that's'' wildly unlikely.

** If memory serves, the current Avengers roster includes Hawkeye, Hulk, War Machine, Falcon, Captain Marvel, and Ant Man. The only two characters in spitting distance of Wanda's weight league are Hulk and Captain Marvel. The last time Wanda and Hulk squared off she sent him on a rampage, and that when Wanda wasn't even half as powerful as she's now. Wong is in touch with Captain Marvel, so if he didn't contact her then it can be surmised that she was off world or otherwise wasn't believed to have been of use. Kamar Taj is perhaps the only organized institution of sorcerers in the world, and they're fighting a distinctly mystical threat. It'd be logical for them to assume they need to fight fire with fire, and that outside help would have limited use.

* Why Strange (or the other Avengers) seemed to never even bother to visit Wanda right after the Westview Incident? It could've prevented a lot of trouble if he checked up on her and made sure she was okay. However, it seems that, in the year between Westview and this movie, no one even bothered to visit her once and, when someone finally came to see her, it's just because they needed her.

** The odd one is Strange. The members of the Masters of the Mystic Arts tackle potential magical dangers. However, if the dialogue between them is any indication, it seems that Strange never goes to Wanda to offer her a place in Kamar-Taj to learn magic.

** I saw it as a shout-out to Series/MoonKnight.

** Which begs the question of whether the Cloak of Levitation had a hunch that 616-Strange might ''really'' need its flying power some night...

** America can't control her powers. She can't take Wanda anywhere on purpose, and there are likely plenty of universes where her family doesn't exist. As to why they don't teach her, it's because they can't. America's abilities are inborn. They'd no more be able to teach her how to use her powers than they could teach Thor to shoot lightning. The power is hers and has to come from her, which it eventually does. Moreover, Wanda makes clear she won't be satisfied with one universe; if anything bad happens to her kids, she expects to be able to go get new ones. Finally, Strange learns that messing with multiverse travel can cause Incursions, which are cosmic catastrophes. Even if they could give Wanda enough to satisfy her, that in itself could spell doom for an entire universe.

** One thing that has been consistent throughout the MCU where Wanda is concerned is that, while she doesn't like innocent people suffering, if she believes people are her enemies or have wronged her in some way - the gloves come off. The Darkhold is not just influencing her; it's amplifying a personality flaw that's always been there and is now extra sensitive because of how much pain Wanda has had to go through. From her perspective, the people protecting America are the enemies trying to stop her from reuniting with her children, and the Darkhold's influence allows her to turn her conscience off as she kills them under the belief that she's just being MamaBear. It's only when she sees how terrified her children are of her that she realises how far she's gone.

** Just like Black Bolt and Professor X. They are variants. This is likely not the Captain Carter from What If but yet another variant. Just like how this world has a Strange, Christine,and Mordo.

** Black Bolt's powers come from his enhanced vocal chords. So in order for him to use his powers without instantly ripping his throat open, logically his own skin would have to be immune to his powers. It doesn't really make sense, but RequiredSecondaryPowers are a convention of comic books.

* Why Strange (or the other Avengers) seemed to never even bother to visit Wanda right after the Westview Incident? It could've prevented a lot of trouble if he checked up on her and made sure she was okay. However, it seems that, in the year between Westview and this movie, no one even bothered to visit her once and, when someone finally came to her, it's just because they needed her.

* Why Strange (or the other Avengers) seemed to never even bother to visit Wanda right after the Westview Incident? It could've prevented a lot of trouble if he checked up on her and made sure she was okay. However, it seems that, in the two years between Westview amd this movie, no one even bothered to visit her once and, when someone finally come to her, it's just because they need her.

** Even worse, what if the Darkhold wasn't ''letting'' anyone else talk with her? The other heroes missing her role in Westview can be justified as the members closest to her- Steve, Clint, Natasha- were either dead or busy with other personal issues, and those that were available- Peter, Thor, Scott- had no particular reason to look for her at the time (not that they didn't ''care'' about Wanda, just that they didn't have any reason to think she in particular would need them). After Westview, Wanda was shown living in isolation, and the Darkhold could have taken steps to subconsciously discourage people from coming to see her without Wanda realising it.
** The odd one is Strange. The members of the Masters of the Mystic Arts control potential magical dangers, however, if the dialogue between them is any indication, it seems that Strange never goes to Wanda to offer her a place in Kamar-Taj to learn magic.
** We don't know for sure that they never visited her. Strange knew where to find her, and she didn't seem surprised by him showing up, so she probably wasn't hiding. They may have simply believed her when she said she was giving up magic and wanted to be left alone for a while. Hell, for all we know she [[MundaneSolution texted the Avengers group chat]] and told them she was okay and didn't need them checking on her.

*** If they were real kids that died, the question wouldn't have been asked, but they weren't. Those kids were magic construct. Imagine finding out your wife was part of a year-long coma dream. Instead of moving on with your life and dating new people, you mope over your literal dream wife. If Wanda has real flesh and blood kids, they won't disappear because they would be real actual humans.
*** So close to getting it and missing the point. If you were in year-long coma dream that seemed real you probably ''would'' have trouble moving on with your life. You'd need therapy and psychological help: help Wanda wasn't getting. These question keep assuming Wanda will act logically but by this point she's completely mentally cracked. She doesn't care how these kids were created, she knows how they were created, it's ambiguous but by the end of ''Series/WandaVision'', it's clear she always knew what was up with Westview. She doesn't want kids in general, she wants ''her'' kids. They are as real to her as biological kids.

** Wanda was witness to Vision's death three times. Two of those times she was the one who killed him. Their last moments together involved him grappling in terror with his impending death--a situation she forced him into in the first place--after convincing her to let her family go. It's probable that she couldn't emotionally coexist with both him and their children after all that. What's more, it may not have been feasible. Universes where Wanda has this set of children with another man *and then* gets together with a super android may be very rate, or simply not exist.

** The whole point of ''[=WandaVision=]'' is Wanda accepting Vision's death and moving forward it. And considering ''[=MoM=]'' is basically a year after that, she just wanted her sons back to live a normal life as a mother.

** Wanda and Strange aren't that out of character, Strange Supreme destroyed his universe without any help from the Darkhold. And it's not like Agatha isn't a tiny bit pointlessly evil, she gets a villain song where she boasts about murdering a puppy. There's also the fact that Agatha isn't really capable of that much evil without attracting more attention than she can handle, whereas Steven and Wanda are universal threats.

** Agatha was simply weaker and probably lacked vision. The Darkhold was essentially made for Wanda. It's like the one ring. In Gollums hands it was an addictive trinket. If Gandalf had it, he'd be the next Sauron.
** Why ''didn't'' the Darkhold corrupt Strange-616? Yeah he possesses his own corpse and it ''looks'' spooky, but his moral outlook doesn't change at all. The best you can say is there's a brief window (maybe 30 seconds) where it seems like he might be willing to sacrifice America, but then he doesn't do it. Plus, sacrificing America was something that ''Wong'' suggested mere moments ago, even though Wong never touched the Darkhold at all! So it appears that Strange-616 is just immune from Darkhold temptations, which is weird because the entire movie revolves around the temptations of power and arrogance.
** It's possible there hasn't been enough time for the corruption to take effect; but in TheStinger mid-credits you can see Strange gains a third eye, implying the Darkhold has done ''something''.
** Season 4 of Agents of SHIELD shows the Darkhold being passed between various different people and groups back in 2017. And Word of God confirmed that it was the same book, not a copy or a different tome with the same name. So Agatha couldn't have actually had it for centuries, at most she had it for 6-7 years.
** It seems being in possession of the Darkhold is not enough to get corrupted, but actively using it is. Strange gained a third eye just by using one spell in the book (although a very twisted one). Agatha was probably making sure to use the Darkhold sparingly, while Wanda is seen diving headfirst into the book as soon as she got her hands on it in the ending of ''Wandavision''.

** It might be possible that the speed of corruption depends on one's mental state and desires. Agatha was petty in her desires and also relatively grounded in reality, Strange had both discipline and somewhat noble goals, his main vulnerability being obsession with Christina, and he even managed to overcome that (also, he didn't use the book for long), while Wanda was unhinged even before coming in contact with Darkhold and accustomed to thinking big.
** The book is also at least semi-sentient, with it being able to change its language and content depending on reader, and original author made it for Wanda specifically, so it might as well be a {{Chessmaster}}, corrupting different people to different extent depending on situation, all to cause more havok and get in Wanda's hands.

** If you recall, both Strange and Mordo were handicapped by wearing 1/2 of the magic-suppressing handcuffs. Steven didn't get his removed until Christine took it off for him, back outside the courtroom. Neither one could use magic during their fight. Mordo's sword, being magic in & of itself, was the only magic he could use. And why drug the tea? Strange, as another Sorceror Supreme, would quite likely detect a magical attempt to knock him out. He wasn't expecting the mickey, especially since this Mordo seemed well-disposed toward him- at least, to begin with.

*** So close to getting it and missing the point. If you were in year-long coma dream that seemed real you probably ''would'' have trouble moving on with your life. You'd need therapy and psychological help: help Wanda wasn't getting. These question keep assuming Wanda will act logically but by this point she's completely mentally cracked. She doesn't care how these kids were created, she knows how they were created, it's ambiguous but by the end of Series/WandaVision it's clear she always knew what was up with Westview. She doesn't want kids in general she wants ''her'' kids, they are as real to her as biological kids.

** Her being fixated on having exactly those kids does make sense, even if it requires some context extraneous from the movie. She already had the experience of being the mother of those boys in Wandavision, and the grief of losing them (amplified by the Darkhold's corruptive effect) is what motivates her. She doesn't just want kids, she wants ''her'' kids back.

** The prophecy of the Scarlet Witch presented in Wandavision states that she is more powerful than the Sorcerer Supreme, which means she's the de facto most powerful magic-user in her dimension. She was given her powers by an infinity stone, which is a distinction she shares with one of the other big heavyweights of the setting, Captain Marvel. She has access to the Darkhold, sister book to the Book of Vishanti, which was a weapon so powerful that much of the plot hinged on Strange and America getting it. Finally, there's the genre to consider. Multiverse of Madness is, in part, a horror movie. Wanda is the monster. The monster in a horror movie is always borderline unstoppable.

** If memory serves, the current Avengers roster includes Hawkeye, Hulk, War Machine, Falcon, Captain Marvel, and Ant Man. The only two characters in spitting distance of Wanda's weight league are Hulk and Captain Marvel. The last time Wanda and Hulk squared off she sent him on a rampage. Wong is in touch with Captain Marvel, so if he didn't contact her then it can be surmised that she was off world or otherwise wasn't believed to have been of use. Kamar Taj is perhaps the only organized institution of sorcerers in the world, and they're fighting a distinctly mystical threat. It'd be logical for them to assume they need to fight fire with fire, and that outside help would have limited use.

** The public display is probably designed to replay only ''pleasant'', G-rated memories. It's an advertisement, after all: Memory Lane wouldn't want to turn off its customer base with ugly recollections. America's memory-replay only turned grim because she kept the memory of the last time her family were together and happy for too long.

** You may as well ask why she doesn't use her telekinetic powers to discretely sever their brain stems. At the end of the day it's a movie, and movies of this nature are meant to bs entertaining spectacles. Having a tense fight where a bunch of different powers are on display makes for a much more engaging action scene.