The following contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
As seems to be the norm with MCU movies now, there has been a lot of discourse on the internet about whether Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is good. The conversation is especially focused on the character of Wanda Maximoff and her portrayal within the film. She's gone into full Scarlet Witch villain mode this time around, and though she is the main antagonist of the story, her development is as central to the story as Doctor Strange's is, likely because of her status as a main character within the larger MCU.
However, a lot of her character development seems to mirror things that were already explored in WandaVision. If anything, this movie kind of plays like a direct sequel to that series, and as such it's trying to continue Wanda's story. The problem is, instead of introducing or building on aspects of her character, the film seems to retread old ground. Realistically, people are going to struggle with the same problems over and over (especially when those issues are related to trauma), but in a fictional story, it feels a bit redundant to give a character development that they've already had.
In Multiverse of Madness, Wanda is once again hurting others in order to give herself an idyllic life with her family, much like she did in WandaVision. The main difference is that in WandaVision, she held a town captive in the imaginary life she had created. Meanwhile, in Multiverse of Madness, she needs to steal power from one person in order to travel to a different universe and be with her sons there. Obviously the post-credits scene of the final episode of WandaVision hints that Wanda has not totally let her family go and will continue to search for them, but now in the new film, it seems like she really didn't learn anything from her experience with Westview.
Wanda once again has to learn to let her kids go, because keeping up the facade is only leading to hurt and destruction — which is the exact lesson she (seemingly) learned in WandaVision. She also only becomes aware of the negative effect her actions have had (or at least seems to become aware) when she is confronted with the fear that she is causing in others. In WandaVision, she became more aware of what she was doing when she heard the townspeople ask her to let them go. In Multiverse of Madness, though she is much more lucid and aware of her actions, she doesn't realize what she's become until the alternate versions of her children become scared of her. Even though it manifests in slightly different ways, it feels like the same story beat happening over again.
By focusing on this storyline, Multiverse of Madness did little to add to Wanda's character or story that hasn't already been explored; the only thing it did differently was to make her a full-blown villain. The movie more a continuation of her WandaVision story, which would be fine if the film's creators had found a new avenue of her personality to explore. It's not as if her arc in Multiverse of Madness is boring, but it makes WandaVision feel almost pointless if it turns out that Wanda didn't really learn anything from that experience.
Not every piece of media has to be a moral lesson, and it would be absolutely fine for Wanda to have learned nothing from Westview. However, by the way the show's ending is framed, it seems like the MCU wants the audience to believe that she has at the end of WandaVision. Unless the ending of was just supposed to be a momentary pause for her instead of a wake-up call (which is perhaps implied by the end credits scene where she's clearly not ready to let go of the Scarlet Witch or her family), it seems strange to have her seemingly realize her mistakes only to repeat them and fall even deeper into a villainous role.
Perhaps that was the point all along: to drive home the point that people repeat their mistakes and this isn't something that Wanda is going to give up that easily. However, if that's the case, it should be made more clear. Right now, the impression is off as though Marvel only knows how to portray Wanda in one way. She's definitely getting more development now than she was in her early days in the MCU, but the MCU is really narrowing her character down to "traumatized, mentally ill mother." Again, this works in WandaVision, but her arc in Multiverse of Madness just seems to leave her at the same point WandaVision did.
It doesn't feel like the character is regressing, but simply that she's going in circles, remaining static instead of growing and developing. It's exciting to see more of Wanda as she's clearly a fan favorite, but when her story keeps retreading the same ground over and over again, it's frustrating. Hopefully, in any potential future appearances she has (not a guarantee, since the character's ending in Multiverse of Madness was left intentionally ambiguous), the writing manages to find something new to explore with Wanda, and doesn't make her walk the same path yet again.