Since another round of “Vision was manipulating Wanda” posts are popping up, I thought I’d discuss something that I’ve been meaning to: what Vision thought happened at the compound during Wanda’s escape.

A big part of it comes down to this little bit, right here:

Why does Tony think Wanda didn’t want to leave? We know that Tony didn’t speak to Wanda before he next sees her in the airport. Vision did. Later on Tony tells Wanda he thinks she hurt Vision’s feelings, meaning Vision has spoken to Tony, and informed him on his view of the event: Tony isn’t making assumptions, Vision told him that Wanda didn’t want to leave.

But why would he, when she had announced to him she was going to leave?

From his perspective, Wanda initially rejects Clint, and agrees with Vision and Tony that she should stay at the compound.

Vision is inexperienced when it comes to picking up social cues. The creators have made sure we understood that in all of one minute, when earlier in the movie Vision phases into Wanda’s room, misunderstanding the intricacies of human social concepts like privacy.

So while the viewer, and Clint, can easily detect Wanda is dejected and clearly unhappy with her decision, to Vision, Wanda has made the logical choice, and chosen to stay at the compound. 

But then Clint tells her something that makes her change her mind. 

Clint told Wanda that if she wanted to make up for what she’s done wrong, she has to come with him.

This goes back to Vision missing emotional nuance. The audience knows is that Clint gives the encouragement Wanda needs. She wants to be involved, not sitting on the sidelines. That doesn’t suit a woman who has made sure she was always personally in the fray, fighting for her beliefs, even if at times she wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. 

For Wanda, she saw the logic in what Vision was saying, but emotionally she never fully agreed. Vision was not manipulating her by telling her why he thought she should stay; Clint was not manipulating her by telling he why he thought she ought to go. 

But for Vision, who hasn’t fully grown as a person and whose ability to understand people is limited in some ways, what he sees is a situation where Clint arrives in subterfuge, tricks Vision to make sure he’s alone with Wanda, attacks Vision unprovoked, and then uses her guilt against her to get her to side with him. 

So later, when Tony asks what happened, Vision will say that Wanda never wanted to leave. Wanda had agreed with him; Wanda was safe. It was the logical choice. 

Shortly later, Vision will learn precisely the impact of emotions, and how influential they are to decisions thought coolly logical.