#stephen strange appreciation post
valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn:
Allow me to write more meta about Stephen being a softie. This is about his and Wanda’s first encounter in the garden. I love how soft he is throughout the whole thing and the fact that he only raises his voice once. But, step by step.
Wanda: “I knew you’d show up sooner or later wanting to discuss what happened at Westview. I made mistakes and people were hurt”
Stephen: “But you put things right in the end and that was never in doubt”
This right there is one of the reasons I love Stephen. He knows what she did and he knows it was wrong, but he doesn’t judge her for her terrible mistake, he waits until she starts explaining herself and while he doesn’t excuse her actions, he puts the focus on her decision in the end, which defines her just as much as her mistakes.
He sees the whole and not just her flaws, and I think that’s beautiful. And so after that he calls her both “an avenger” and “one of the most powerful magic wielders in the planet”.
But of course, she’s lying. The very first thing Stephen says upon seeing the Darkhold is:
“I know the Darkhold corrupts everything and everyone that it touches. I wonder what it’s done to you”.
Still keeping his faith in her. He’s giving her a chance to either explain herself or give enough information so he can make a judgement of the situation. But it’s his reluctance to come to conclusions that I find so alluring. It reminds me of how intently he listened to The Ancient One in DS1 whereas Mordo turned against her pretty much immediately. There’s that side in Stephen where he doesn’t condemn people, not even when they make bad mistakes. He gives them room to talk, explain themselves, and then he acts accordingly.
Wanda: “I’m going to leave this reality and go to one where I can be with my children”
Stephen: “Wanda, your children weren’t real, you created them using magic”.
He says that almost in a whisper, head tilt + looking her straight in the eye. He’s so careful when saying that just so he won’t hurt her. It’s his compassion shining through that I love about that.
But he doesn’t forget that there’s a kid in danger because Wanda is hellbent on killing her, this is the only time during their conversation that Stephen raises his voice at her:
Stephen: “What you’re doing is a flagrant violation of every natural law. If you take that child’s power, she won’t survive”
Wanda: “Her sacrifice would be for the greater good”
Stephen: “Well you can kiss the lunchbox goodbye because that’s the kind of justification our enemies use”.
I like that he says “our” there. It’s clear he still sees her as one of them, one of the good guys, despite her mistakes at Westview, despite her sending a demon after America. He still sees Wanda when he looks at her, even with the suit and the tiara and all that devastation around them.
After the garden he returns to Kamar-Taj and tells the other sorcerers: “Wanda is gone, she has the Darkhold and the Darkhold has her”, but once she reaches the compound he still tries to reason with her: “Wanda you’re justified to be angry, you had to make tough sacrifices”. (It is quite something that this is Stephen saying that, he knows what making sacrifices really means, how much it hurts… and he knows better than anyone else that most of the time no one notices nor acknowledges the sacrifices you make).
The easiest thing would have been to disregard her as being no more than a villain now but he tries again and again and again to reach out to her, he shows kindness and compassion, he tries to be understanding and break through the delusion. It doesn’t work out but he tries… and I love that about him.
I think that’s one of Stephen’s greatest traits (among all other amazing traits because perhaps I’m slightly biased, LOL) is he doesn’t judge people. He even listened to Kaecillius before saying what he did wouldn’t work in the long run. Even when he was annoyed with Tony after getting insulted a few times in Infinity War, he still listened to what he said.
