"Look, if it´s you or someone you love who´s on
that operating table, and it´s life or death, I´m the one you want holding the
knife." – Stephen Strange (deleted scene from Multiverse of Madness)
Dr. Strange’s story across the
MCU is not just of a man mastering magic, but of a man wrestling with the
illusion of moral mastery, forever on the edge between savior and sinner. The
audience first meets the powers of the sorcerer supreme is through the Ancient
One. We see that the sorcerer supreme wields an immense amount of power, that obviously
has the potential to corrupt. The Ancient One is not immune to this and is seen
to draw her powers from the dark dimension. She is able to maintain her moral
ground with no overreaches of power except that one aberration. But this shows
the potential for corruption that the power holds. The Ancient One could have
gone down a darker path, but she didn’t. Her student, Kaecilius, did.
Kaecilius going astray is proof
that mystical power has scope for corruption. There is one guiding light that
the Ancient One gives to Dr. Strange as her dying words, which become his moral
compass.
“Arrogance and fear still keep you from learning the
simplest and most significant lesson of all – It’s not about you.” – The
Ancient One
This simple truth, the
knowledge that the higher order of things is more important, becomes Strange’s
guiding light, even though he continues to struggle with it.
"You still think there will be no consequences,
Strange? No price to pay? We broke our rules. Just like her. The bill
comes due. Always!" – Karl Mordo
At the end of the movie, Dr.
Strange defeats Dormamu by meddling with the laws of nature. Mordo gives his ominous
warning. This almost becomes a pattern with Strange where he continues to break
the rules, and pays the price. This begs the question, is Strange working to
fulfil his duties to the multiverse or for his own glorification?
In Infinity War, Strange makes
several key choices. Firstly he is upfront about willing to sacrifice his
companions, Tony Stark and Peter Parker, in favour of an infinity stone.
However, once having gone through alternate futures, Strange makes the morally
ambiguous choice to sacrifice the stone, himself, and half the universe to save
Tony Stark. This one decision, would come to haunt him later.
In No Way Home, Strange again
makes the choice of meddling with the memories of the entire world to fulfil
the whims of a boy. By doing so, Strange literally messes with free will and
chooses to play God, taking decisions for the entire world upon himself. In the
wake the fallout from that decision, Strange is willing to send back the
multiversal visitors to their own universe which would mean their inevitable
deaths, without offering them a chance at redemption – a point where he
disagreed with Spiderman. Dr. Strange’s reasoning being that the order of the
multiverse must be preserved to prevent incursions and a multiversal collapse,
i.e. the greater good. History is witness that when a single man takes it upon
himself to sacrifice others for the greater good, that’s where morality
starts to become dubious.
“You break the rules and become a hero. I do it and I
become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair.” – Wanda Maximoff
Arrogance was already a problem
with Strange. It was a tool when he was a doctor. It was what made him drive
recklessly on a cliff. Like the demon Raavan from Hindu scriptures, Strange was
a perfect human specimen capable of playing God – extremely learned and
capable. But his arrogance had potential to lead him astray.
This pattern of meddling with
the universe continues in Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman where Strange
enters a new universe to fight a symbiote, only to create a bootstrap paradox
that ends up creating the symbiote in the first place.
Next we are shown the alternate
paths Strange might have taken through the multiverse. In What If we first meet
an alternate version of Strange where Christine Palmer dies instead of him.
This sets Strange on a path where he ultimately becomes Strange Supreme. He
consumes many powerful beings to increase his own power, to the point that he
is barely able to contain them. And they
in-turn begin to control him. He is so driven to madness with his ambition that
he ends up destroying the universe. For the first time, the audience witnesses
what Strange could have been.
This idea is explored further
in Multiverse of Madness. Nicodemus West confronts Strange with the question if
the blip was the only way to save the world. Strange knows that there were
other ways, and he had made a choice for the world.
“I guess what keeps me up at night is wondering did it
have to happen that way? Was there any other path?” - Nicodemus West
There’s a deleted scene from
Multiverse of Madness where Strange and Chritine are asked about a new surgical
method. The scene recounts that Strange is willing to use risky techniques,
till he holds the knife. He trusts no one else with the power. But this begs
the question, should be much power be allowed in any hands? But
this scene is deleted for being too similar to the opening scene with Defender
Strange.
The movie opens with Defender
Strange making a choice to take America Chavez’s powers for himself because
Strange thinks that the kind of massive power America holds is not safe for a
child and only Strange can be allowed to wield it safely. For this, he is
willing to sacrifice America Chavez as well.
“This is the only way.” – Defender Strange
In the same movie, we also see
the Strange from Earth-838 using the darkhold to defeat Thanos on his own. This
again, breaks the rules of mysticism. But Strange takes it upon himself to
break those rules for the greater good. He even accepts death as punishment
from the Illuminati for his discretion.
Next, we meet Sinister Strange
in the movie, who also made choices that led to the destruction of his
universe, where he was left stranded. But Sinister Strange had reached beyond
redemption and fought the original MCU Strange for Christine Palmer.
At the end of the movie, Dr.
Strange does consider taking America’s powers like Defender Strange did. But
it’s like the Ancient One’s advice comes back to him – “it is not about you”.
And he encourages America to take on the Scarlett Witch on her own. Here, we
see a character development for Strange. He let’s go of the knife and believes
in someone else holding the power. But this may not be true for his variants.
Strange walks the same
tightrope in every universe. One misstep – love, duty, ego – and he falls into
darkness. Like the law he mirrors, Doctor Strange’s morality is both his shield
and his trap – built to protect the world, yet destined to break under its own
weight. Strange is the MCU’s purest utilitarian, willing to sacrifice the few
for the many. But the question reverberates whether he should be the one
holding the knife.
