Wanda Animation Analysis

[LiamAshvinn001]

So recently I've been spiraling down a rabbit hole of Wanda lore and HELP ME SOMEONE PLEASE SEND HELP.

Anyways, most people already know about the Deal and other stuff from her quotes, but this one will examine specifically the nature of her clocks and other observations. The In-Game footage was from James Buckets video, Everything You Need to Know About Wanda! (New DST Character) - YouTube.

So first the Animation part. Now Im not sure of everything in the Return of Them content, im still fairly new, but theres actually a shell in her workshop, (All images are placed in the order theyre discussed)
Didnt notice this before, but Wanda actually Turns INTO A SHADOW and actually GO INTO THE CLOCK, then go back into normal form

Also oddly, she actually notices the shadows before theyre even at at the door, and she evens checks behind her before her shadow becomes a hand, meaning she actually feels when the shadows come.

Next, when she ages a shadow hand actually appears from a clock above her head. Maybe her Deal had something to do with her infamous age mechanic.

DK if this is just an artistic thing, but becoming older actually makes Wandas outfit CHANGE, to the point even her belt dissapears

Finally, her alarming clock attack at a certain frame, shows a shadow flame, which matches with one of her notes om the animation

Sorry some of the images didnt load properly so heres the last ones

 

[SkyistheGround]

your observations are pretty keen! i have some explanations for some of them

32 minutes ago, LiamAshvinn001 said:

theres actually a shell in her workshop

wanda has a thing for collecting knicknacks and trinkets, this is probably a result of that. it's a bit funny, considering how she's always in a rush and doesnt like to waste time on things, but this is important to her somehow

and for shells specifically,

37 minutes ago, LiamAshvinn001 said:

DK if this is just an artistic thing, but becoming older actually makes Wandas outfit CHANGE, to the point even her belt dissapears

most likely just an art thing, wanda gets shorter when she ages. there's less space on her torso. it's also possible that the sprite artists forgot, but it's honestly not that big of a deal. three different sprite sets for one character? i salute them

43 minutes ago, LiamAshvinn001 said:

Finally, her alarming clock attack at a certain frame, shows a shadow flame, which matches with one of her notes om the animation

it can also be seen leaking shadows in its idle animation. the alarming clock's use of shadows is pretty obvious, though all of her clocks require nightmare fuel to make (time pieces). i'm personally unsure exactly how nightmare fuel has time bending powers? unless its simply explained with a shrug and "it's magic". maybe that's what we're supposed to do, though if we ever get an explanation on the powers and limits of shadow magic (if there is any) i would gladly sit down and listen. hopefully in maxwell's short? can't ever really be sure, though 

[LiamAshvinn001]

58 minutes ago, SkyistheGround said:

your observations are pretty keen! i have some explanations for some of them

wanda has a thing for collecting knicknacks and trinkets, this is probably a result of that. it's a bit funny, considering how she's always in a rush and doesnt like to waste time on things, but this is important to her somehow

and for shells specifically,

most likely just an art thing, wanda gets shorter when she ages. there's less space on her torso. it's also possible that the sprite artists forgot, but it's honestly not that big of a deal. three different sprite sets for one character? i salute them

it can also be seen leaking shadows in its idle animation. the alarming clock's use of shadows is pretty obvious, though all of her clocks require nightmare fuel to make (time pieces). i'm personally unsure exactly how nightmare fuel has time bending powers? unless its simply explained with a shrug and "it's magic". maybe that's what we're supposed to do, though if we ever get an explanation on the powers and limits of shadow magic (if there is any) i would gladly sit down and listen. hopefully in maxwell's short? can't ever really be sure, though 

Thanks for the trinket stuff, I didnt think much about it, but maybe time pieces use nightmare fuel as a sort of power? and maybe she does something with the clockmakers tools and theulcite for the time bending properties? Or maybe Wanda herself is what  makes it magic somehow, since little clocks always seem to be paired whenever she uses the clocks or takes damage. Maybe the Deal with the Mystery Entity wasn't just knowledge on using Nightmare Fuel but also the ability to bend time with it? Would really love that it isnt like you said about that its just magic. Who knows maybe the Nightmare Fuel works more as a "fuel" or power source and the user has to choose how to apply it,

[mr. brj]

2 hours ago, SkyistheGround said:

i'm personally unsure exactly how nightmare fuel has time bending powers? unless its simply explained with a shrug and "it's magic".

It's magic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Seriously though, I think it goes a bit deeper than that, but not that much. I always liked to believe that Wanda was another canditate for the nightmare throne along with Maxwell, but thanks to the powers she learned from the shadow entities (most probably the Shadow Watcher), she was also able to escape from them for quite a long time. So yeah, it's just magic, but Wanda was clever enough to ask for the right kind of magic.

[LiamAshvinn001]

5 hours ago, mr. brj said:

It's magic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Seriously though, I think it goes a bit deeper than that, but not that much. I always liked to believe that Wanda was another canditate for the nightmare throne along with Maxwell, but thanks to the powers she learned from the shadow entities (most probably the Shadow Watcher), she was also able to escape from them for quite a long time. So yeah, it's just magic, but Wanda was clever enough to ask for the right kind of magic.

I always thought it was Charlie she made a deal with.

[Juny Pear]

The time bending powers of shadow magic actually make a lot of sense if you think about the rules of the constant that have been established ever since all the way back in DS.

Maxwell says that time within the constant flows differently when talking to the player at the end of adventure mode and it just so happens that shadow magic is most prominent within the constant. Not just that but while on the nightmare throne, a highly powerful and magic imbued artifact, Maxwell is kept from aging, or at least it's slowed down. As soon as the connection between the throne and him is broken, time resumes him immediately to the state he should be in after what has to be an absolutely long amount of time.
In a way it's very similar to how Wanda dies, just a bit more graphic for the sake of visual flare, but I think the most important detail is that both of them don't leave a skeleton behind, likely due to them having aged SO much that there can't be a skeleton, it just crumples to dust like we see Max's doing.

Another very important sorta time bendy thing regarding shadow magic is the ruins reset after killing the fuelweaver.
I had suspicions even before Wanda was added that nightmare fuel and shadow magic in general can influence time in a significant way, but it wasn't quite as concrete. Now with the context however that these things are absolutely capable of doing so I am more confident in the ancient gateway turning back time within the ruins to restore them back to a previous state.
This may be confusing, afterall why wouldn't it just turn back time to before the ancient society collapsed, but it could just be seen as a last ditch effort failsafe in case the gateway has been activated and nobody is around to stop it, so to prevent any more interdimensional leakage it turns back time for certain things and areas.
Now I will fully acknowledge that this could all just be a thing for the sake of gameplay mechanics and that with the forge trailer we saw the active gateway lead to pugna's realm, which obviously means time hasn't been reset in this aspect of the canon, however at the same time the gateway story arc is a bit wonky when it comes to exact canonicity and even still, the part of the ruins being reset potentially being heavily tied to time bending properties is still fairly valid in my eyes.

I also do want to say that this is all just personal speculation and if any of this is wrong I would be happy to be corrected by future updates. Just figured I'd share my two cents.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

53 minutes ago, Nettalie said:

Another very important sorta time bendy thing regarding shadow magic is the ruins reset after killing the fuelweaver.

i think that this is just a videgame mechanic. In the lore they only defeat FW 1 time to use the gate which we can't in game

[mr. brj]

1 hour ago, LiamAshvinn001 said:

I always thought it was Charlie she made a deal with.

That could be the case too, but the setting of Wanda's animated short is almost identical to the setting in the animated Wes short. I'm assuming Wanda was being hunted way before Wes was dragged into the Constant. The street lights are shorter in the Wanda short, probably implying the need to light them up manually. Plus if you look at the building where the creperie is supposed to be, you can see that the wide window is not carved out yet.

These would all mean that in the Wanda animated short, Charlie isn't the queen yet, and it's unclear whether Maxwell was the king. And don't forget that the Shadow Watcher is still roaming in the real world, something we only saw in the William Carter puzzles, so I'm also assuming Maxwell wasn't even in the Constant yet.

I might be wrong on my observations, but I believe these are all intentional choices which imply that Wanda was being hunted way before the nightmare entities found a puppet to sit on the throne. 

[LiamAshvinn001]

13 hours ago, mr. brj said:

That could be the case too, but the setting of Wanda's animated short is almost identical to the setting in the animated Wes short. I'm assuming Wanda was being hunted way before Wes was dragged into the Constant. The street lights are shorter in the Wanda short, probably implying the need to light them up manually. Plus if you look at the building where the creperie is supposed to be, you can see that the wide window is not carved out yet.

These would all mean that in the Wanda animated short, Charlie isn't the queen yet, and it's unclear whether Maxwell was the king. And don't forget that the Shadow Watcher is still roaming in the real world, something we only saw in the William Carter puzzles, so I'm also assuming Maxwell wasn't even in the Constant yet.

I might be wrong on my observations, but I believe these are all intentional choices which imply that Wanda was being hunted way before the nightmare entities found a puppet to sit on the throne. 

Ah ok