‘WandaVision’: How Is S.W.O.R.D. Connected to Wanda and Vision’s Story?
While a lot of Marvel fans can usually go on for days about theories and knowledge they’ve learned from comic books and over a decade of movies when a new movie drops, WandaVision is quite different. It doesn’t give any information about how the two leads got to their current positions or really what the heck is going on.
It’s a lot of fun, of course. And Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen are fantastic together again as Vision and Wanda Maximoff. However, why are they in an American sitcom version of their life together? Who are these new characters? And why does the plot rewind and have commercials?
Again, there are things that even the most die-hard fans can’t fully answer yet. But that’s where the fun begins. There are Easter eggs planted throughout the episodes, and the S.W.O.R.D. symbol is one of them. What is S.W.O.R.D. and what does this reference mean for Wanda and Vision? [Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for WandaVision].
Wanda and Vision inexplicably start off in this American sitcom world, but things aren’t right
WandaVision starts off with Wanda and Vision as themselves, but in this picturesque Americana lifestyle in a 50s home. Everything is in black and white. And with the live studio audience laughing along to their antics, it’s very much a sitcom.
There are no explanations for how the two of them got there, seeing as the last time fans saw Wanda, she was beating Thanos’ butt in Avengers: Endgame after being snapped back into existence. Vision, unfortunately, died in Avengers: Infinity War when Thanos took the Mind Stone from him. And WandaVision hasn’t yet explained how Vision is back.
What the show has offered to fans is clues surrounding the S.W.O.R.D. symbol.
The S.W.O.R.D. symbol shows up a few times in the early ‘WandaVision’ episodes
S.W.O.R.D., or the Sentient World Observation and Response Department, is essentially S.H.I.E.L.D. but for space. Spider-Man: Far From Home seemed to confirm that the Marvel Cinematic Universe was bringing it into its projects from the comics, with the Skrulls and Nick Fury in a space station.
At the end of the first episode, the camera pans out and the viewer gets more of that show-within-a-show effect with someone watching a screen of WandaVision. And they have a notebook with the S.W.O.R.D. logo on the front.
There are two bigger moments involving the logo in the second episode. First, Wanda finds a toy helicopter in the bushes outside their house after a lot of wind. While the world is still in black and white, this toy is in maroon and gold. It has the S.W.O.R.D. symbol.
And near the end of the episode, Wanda and Vision both go to investigate a disturbance outside their house. And a person comes out of a sewer, and his uniform as the S.W.O.R.D. symbol as well.
What does S.W.O.R.D. want with Wanda?
S.W.O.R.D. is watching Wanda, but it doesn’t seem like it’s controlling her. She seems like the one who rewound things when they didn’t fit her narrative, and she’s the one who got Vision to stop his boss, Mr. Hart from choking.
One Reddit user guessed that Wanda created this fantasy world due to her grief following Vision’s death. And everyone there is a real person, with S.W.O.R.D. trying to control the situation and bring them out.
However, Wanda did hear someone on the radio asking “who’s doing this” to her, so maybe another force is at play in this world.
In the comics, Agatha Harkness wipes Wanda’s mind when grief becomes too great for her after her twins are taken, according to Den of Geek. Scarlet Witch is so powerful that she can bend and warp reality on a quantum level. While that rings a bell for Ant-Man lovers, Avengers: Endgame also spent a lot of time on quantum physics, time travel, and more.
So, to stop Wanda from ripping the world’s fabric of reality, maybe Agatha/Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) somehow took over and constructed this world for Wanda. Or had Wanda create it where she can live with Vision. And maybe that’s what S.W.O.R.D. is trying to intervene in.
The appearances of the logo and other communications show that S.W.O.R.D. is infiltrating this fake world. It just can’t fully make it through. Yet.
