That defines Wanda nearly perfectly. The Scarlet Witch, who tries her hardest in every situation, but ultimately is human. A woman who makes mistakes.
Wanda, at her core, wants to do good. Vengeance ruled her heart in the past, and that same vengeance drove her to nearly destroying the world. She had a hand in great destruction, and its haunted her ever since. The knowledge of how misguided she was guides her future, leading her to want to be a better person.
For her, that’s in being a ‘hero’.
Hero is a loaded word for a woman that’s been branded a terrorist, through both her own intentions and her own accidents. At its core, it means that Wanda wants to help people. Everyone. She has suffered in her past, and she hates the concept of others suffering as she has. So to her, being a hero is a chance to right her wrongs and to also protect people from the same things she’s been through.
Her mistakes weigh the heaviest on her, however. Being an enhanced, Wanda has abilities far beyond the realm of normalcy. Stronger than most those around her. Her powers cause fear, especially as she learns to control them. Because, unfortunately, Wanda has little comprehension of her own abilities. How to apply them, what their limits are, how to control them. She does rely on them, as they are necessary to her goals. However, her powers have led to mistakes that have endangered lives. And any cost of life is enough to cause pain to Wanda. When she hurts the Wakandan ambassadors in Lagos, Wanda struggles with her role as a hero. How can she do what she sets out to do when she causes pain along the way?
In that way, Wanda must learn to control her fear. Wanda learns to let go of the fear of those around her. She understands that people will always fear her, and she has no control over that. It teaches her to control the things she can and let go of the things she cannot. In that way, fear is one of those things she can control in herself. She teaches herself to look at the benefits of her abilities. Weigh the pros and the cons. She can’t learn to control her abilities if she hides from them. So she has to use them, and simply control her own fear. That leaves the world to sort its own fear of her themselves.
That does not mean, though, that Wanda doesn’t feel the loss of the lives on Lagos. Nor that she didn’t feel the pain of what she’d caused in Sokovia. These losses tend to make Wanda stronger, however. She used to retreat from them, but after being rallied by friends, Wanda realizes the way to handle loss is to be better.
Unfortunately, this way of thinking takes a turn for the worst.
It is not just the lives of innocent strangers that Wanda must bear. Wanda suffers enormous loss throughout her life. The loss of her parents, which first triggered her need for vengeance. The loss of her twin brother Pietro, whom she avenged when she ripped out Ultron’s primary body’s heart. The loss of the man she loves, Vision, avenged when she attacked Thanos one-on-one on the battlefield. And eventually the loss of her children. While Wanda primarily avenges her losses, Wanda learns the hard way that she does not cope with loss well.
Racked with survivor’s guilt, Wanda tends to push herself to limits when she suffers a personal loss. Such as allowing herself to be experimented on after becoming radicalized by HYDRA after the loss of her parents. Or pushing herself to her limits as a hero after the loss of Pietro. And after the loss of Vision, Wanda makes her biggest mishaps yet.
Wanda’s powers reveal their abilities to be able to manipulate reality. Wanda uses this ability to take over a town, changing people to fit her scripts and adjusting the world to fit her narratives. She builds herself a Vision to love, and even creates her own pregnancy and children. These beings she creates are very real and sentient, though created through magic. However, Wanda’s powers have unforeseen consequences. She doesn’t realize she’s imprisoned the people of the town within themselves or the unhappiness she’s created within them. Her own survivor’s guilt leaves her blinded to reality, and her lack of understanding of her powers does little to help.
Despite her problems, however, Wanda always comes back to her core desire: to help people. Even when she simply wants to live her own life, she realizes that she’s causing pain to do it. And thus, the need to help overwhelms the need to leave out her dream life.
Wanda’s determination to set the world as she sees fit is powerful. This manifests itself in many ways. One certain way is her desire to fix the loss in her life. ‘No’ is not a word that exists in her mind. Instead, she pushes to find ways to cope with or make right her own loss. When it comes to helping people, she is still of a similar mind. Wanda is nothing if not determined when her mind is set to a goal. She can rarely be stopped, and sometimes can be brought to anger by those who try to stop her. For the most part, Wanda has a level head. However, if her goals clash with those of others, she can become angered and lash out. She still never intends to hurt others, but she will push them away in any way she can find that is safe.
Despite her determination to the point of single-mindedness at times, Wanda is not impervious to being reached. It can be easy, or sometimes it can take a lot of effort. At the core, however, Wanda doesn’t want to hurt or endanger people. When she realizes what she’s doing can be harmful to others, Wanda will learn. Ultimately, Wanda is always learning and adapting. Her powers are of a level she isn’t sure how to cope with, but that doesn’t mean she’ll let them get out of control. She may need a boost in the right direction, but she is always open to learning.
Wanda tends to live for family, as well. Whether this is blood or whether it is found family. She is open to the families she makes through the Avengers, the people she fights alongside. And blood family means everything to her, though having lost so much the family she makes tends to be just as strong as she has little true family left. As such, Wanda has grown up with a love of things that remind her of families, like sitting around the tv watching sitcoms with hers. These things tend to bring her the most happiness.
And ultimately, at her core, Wanda is a happy person. She’s a person full of vibrancy and kindness. A desire to help the world and to see those in it as happy as she is. When all is well in her life, Wanda smiles freely and lets herself go just as much. These moments are rare, and mostly only occur in her false reality, however they reveal the her that would exist without loss. A quirky, happy, and helpful woman just looking to see the world as a better place.
After so much pain, loss, growth, and development, Wanda finds herself in a strange place currently. She’s just been revealed to be the Scarlet Witch, the Harbinger of Destruction. A chaos magic user prophesied about among witches. This information brings knowledge to Wanda, and the pursuit of more of it as she comes to understand herself and her powers better. There’s also the loss of her children, made in a reality that no longer exists. She can still hear their voices calling to her, and her determination is set. First, learn to control her powers. Second, learn to bring her children back. These are what guide Wanda now, leaving her with little interest in the outside world unless it is brought to her. Or she is brought into it…
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SAMPLE:
INVENTORY:
just the clothes on her back
NOTES: n/a
IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? plot-heavy!