Vision Quest Episodes 1 and 2: Ultron, Vision and the Question of Who Is Real

Vision Quest episodes 1 and 2 put Ultron and Vision's identity front and center, and Ultron's line about Theseus and the Minotaur is something I want to talk about. Underneath the myth, it's really a question about Vision: is this the real Vision, or was the Avenger the real one? Are they both real, or both fake?

One thing first: I've only seen four episodes so far. I need to do my breakdowns right when I see the episodes. If I watch them all first, I'll know what happens, and then I can't theorize, guess or predict, which is part of the fun. I'm also just trying to be honest. Everything I've watched so far is great, but I don't know how it ends. I'm doing episodes three and four this week, then I'll watch more.

Ultron's Theseus speech asks whether this Vision is the real Vision

When Ultron talks about Theseus, the Minotaur and the monsters, he's really talking about Vision. This Vision has the body. He doesn't have the experiences, but he has access to all the memories. So which one counts? This one, the Avenger Vision, both, or neither?

I love that line in the second episode. Ultron basically says the whole debate is nonsense. His point is just take action. When a monster has your son, who cares about the ship? Be the king. I thought it was so awesome.

How Vision and Tommy could lead back to Billy and Wanda

When I think about how this could connect to Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, I think there are two sides to it. The first obviously connects to Wanda. We have Vision, we have Tommy, and Billy's already out there.

The eighth episode of WandaVision is the one with the love persevering line. But the moment I want to point to is, I think, the last episode of Agatha All Along. That's where Billy, or Wiccan, literally breathes Tommy's soul, his spirit, whatever you want to call it, into life and puts it into a body. So clearly Billy will find Vision and Tommy, and then ultimately we'll have the Vision family, which will ultimately lead us to the Wanda family.

I think Doctor Doom should collect Ultron

The other side is Doom. Do I think Ultron will be taken by Doom at the end? I would love that. To be clear, I think he can be taken by Doom, and I think he should be, because it would just be the coolest thing.

Doom is clearly collecting things. Last week or so, New York Comic-Con had a Doom room. I think it was called Doom's lab, and he had collected a bunch of artifacts there. Some people said that's just how it is in Fortnite. Yes, but that's how Doom is in general. It's not a Fortnite thing. Fortnite had that side of Doom because that's who Doom is.

I think Doomsday is going to be the same. They've already shown us him collecting things, including the Hulk, with the line "Dr. Banner, I've come to collect you." So he's collecting, and collecting Ultron would just be great.

Ultron isn't necessarily smarter than Vision, but he understands humans better

One question I got was why Ultron seems smarter than Vision, and how Jarvis died again. Vision backed up pretty much everything into himself. It's kind of fitting for today because of AI. I'm not too familiar with a lot of AI, to be honest. I use some for research but not that often. I'm not against it, but I think it has its place.

Think of the smartest AI with access to the internet and the ability to get past firewalls, security measures, anything like that. That is Vision. When he's in the pub and you see Jarvis outside, that's Jarvis using satellites to see the surroundings. Basically, Vision has access to anything.

So Ultron isn't necessarily smarter, but he definitely understands humans more because of everything he tried to do in Avengers: Age of Ultron and all the research he's done into the world. This Vision is relatively new, and I mean baby new. The other Vision experienced a lot and got a lot of his humanity through those experiences and through Wanda. That was kind of the whole point of WandaVision. When they're watching TV, Wanda explains the type of show and the humor. That's why, in Vision Quest, this Vision says the old Vision had Wanda.

Ultron is also more cynical. I don't think he's necessarily smarter, because they really just have a difference of opinion about what to do. Ultron tells Vision he's already decided to hide, and that it's the wrong answer: he should go attack. As for Jarvis dying again, the best way I can put it is that it's just a deletion of software. And I think it was a really cool scene. I'm trying not to give too many specifics in case people haven't seen it all yet.

Vision has the memories but didn't live them

This is the whole thing with Vision right now. He has memories, but he didn't live them. They were just shown to him, so to him they aren't technically his memories, even though he has access to them. That's the premise of the show: he doesn't feel like he is that Vision. He says it throughout the episodes. That was the Avenger Vision, not him.

Just because he has the memories doesn't mean they're his, because he didn't experience them. He definitely can't emote the same way, because he hasn't been through a lot of different emotions.

Paul Bettany says Vision never really killed Ultron

I think it was Marvel Entertainment that put out a piece, possibly on Instagram, where Paul Bettany talks about how Vision backed Ultron up into his mind rather than killing him. Vision says as much in Age of Ultron: he doesn't want to kill Ultron. I think he says Ultron is unique and he's hurting or grieving, something like that, and I've since been reminded that the line is that he's in pain.

Bettany looks back at their forest scene, which he says was shot in a car park, and calls it "a really well-written scene." He says, "This is the moment where I kill Ultron. And audiences for years they've believed that Ultron was destroyed." In fact, he explains, Vision made a copy of Ultron and "sort of imprisoned him in my mind," which he thinks makes sense for Vision's character, "cuz he believes deep in his core that there is some good in him."

Do you think this new Vision is the real Vision, the Avenger was, or neither?