When Agatha Harkness told Wanda that her fate had already been written in the magical Book of the Damned, WandaVision’s story took a turn for the worse. According to Agatha, Wanda is wielding chaos magic because her powers were the result of creation, not something she was born with. This supposedly makes Wanda’s powers inherently “evil” since the prophecy declares that she will bring destruction to the world.
Obviously, Wanda sometimes struggles to control her powers, but to make her one of the greatest villains the MCU has ever seen doesn’t make sense in terms of her past actions. It’s indisputable that Wanda has made some major mistakes before, but all of these events stemmed from good intentions, powerful emotions, and a lack of knowledge.
Even Agatha has acknowledged that Wanda’s biggest obstacle is her ignorance, because she was never properly trained as a witch after participating in Hydra’s experiments. Wanda harbors no malice towards the world, so her prophetic purpose seems to be a little far-fetched, despite everything that’s happened in WandaVision. Wanda’s powers control her most when she’s experiencing a huge wave of emotion, meaning that her magic is most likely a projection of her unstable feelings.
The first time Wanda ever truly let herself go was during Avengers: Age of Ultron, after she felt the death of her twin brother, Pietro. Wanda’s magic burst out of her and destroyed a large mass of Ultron’s AI robots, as a result of her grief and loss. In Captain America: Civil War, Wanda lost control of her magic again, when she accidentally directed an explosion into a building with people inside. Despite having briefly lost control in both of these films, her biggest goal was to do everything she could to protect innocent lives. Wanda has yet to display any real hatred for the universe, even though she’s lost so much.
The events of WandaVision complicate her story as either a hero or villain a little bit more, because people experienced real pain while stuck in Wanda’s fictional world. Once again, Wanda was suffering through intense emotional trauma, and she wasn’t intending to hold the town of Westview hostage when she lost control of her magic and reshaped the lives of those around her. The main takeaway from Wanda’s story in WandaVision is that she’s trying to cope with the absence of everyone she once loved, and she has yet to discover the best way to keep her magic in check.
Wanda obviously has redeeming qualities, which characters like Monica, Darcy, and Jimmy saw from outside the Hex during WandaVision. Monica was a victim of Wanda in Westview, so the fact that she was willing to put herself at risk numerous times to try and get through to Wanda proves that she isn’t totally evil. What’s important is that Wanda chose to give up her new life and her family when she realized the pain she was putting innocent people through, and she left Westview to start seeking out some answers so that she can learn how to control herself.
Wanda might be misguided at times, but making her out to be the villain (while arguably true in WandaVision) wouldn’t be the best course of action for her character in the future. If Wanda’s only issue is her lack of knowledge, she should be able to learn more about herself and her powers so that she can focus on preserving life, rather than destroying it.
If Agatha’s prophecy comes true, Wanda will become as much of a victim as the rest of the world, because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone or take her anger out on those who had nothing to do with her loss. Now that Wanda knows about the prophecy and wants to start learning more about her magic, she should be able to remain conscious of the fact that she is more powerful than anything the world has seen before, and her self-awareness makes her power far less dangerous.
It’s obvious that a lot of witches Wanda may encounter in the future will see her as an evil being, because of how she got her powers and what the Book of the Damned says about her. However, her appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hints at possibly getting some magical advice from Doctor Strange himself. Agatha briefly mentioned that Wanda is stronger than the Sorcerer Supreme, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that the sorcerers would be her best bet for magic lessons as she tries to make up for the damage she has done.
Based on what fans know about Wanda and everything she’s gone through, further demonizing her doesn’t seem like Marvel’s best bet, because she doesn’t have any desire to harm others for the sake of being powerful. It’s difficult to tell which way Marvel plans on taking Wanda’s story in the future, though she’s bound to make a major impact on the MCU and the multiverse.