Everyone Everywhere Needs Waymond Wang

I walked into a movie theater to see
Everything Everywhere All At Once

expecting a genre bending multiverse
movie infused with many interlocking

layers of philosophical
and cultural meaning

And I was not disappointed

What I was not expecting however was
to witness one of the most challenging and

subversive representations of masculinity
that I’ve ever seen in any genre

In order to explain what I mean
we’ll need to shift the focus away

from the film’s protagonist,
played by the incredible Michelle Yeoh

and over to the character of her husband
played by actor Ke Huy Quan

Ke became famous as a child actor
in the 1980s for the roles as

Short Round in the Temple of Doom
and Data in The Goonies

Despite that early success, he
couldn’t find many opportunities for

a young Asian American actor in Hollywood

So he eventually quit acting altogether

In his triumphant return to the big
screen, after nearly two decades

he's brought to life a truly extraordinary
example of empathetic manhood

If you were to only watch the first half
of Everything Everywhere All At Once

the idea that Waymond Wang could be
an avatar for positive masculinity would

seem a little strange

Evelyn: Sometimes I wonder how he would
have survived without me

When we first meet Waymond,
in his original incarnation

he appears to be sweet, almost childlike,
but ultimately naive

Evelyn: She puts a lean on our laundromat
and you know what your father does?

Evelyn: He brings her cookies!

A goofy, silly, bumbling father whose
marriage is in the process of failing

Evelyn: No more google eyes!

He’s timid, conflict averse, and perfectly
content to let his wife run their business

Waymond: We'll talk later?

These traits are often associated with a
range of familiar subordinate male

archetypes in Hollywood media

In interviews, directing duo Daniel Kwan
and Daniel Scheinert

referred to collectively as Daniels have
said they wanted to turn

a “beta male” character into a hero

Daniel Scheinert: We needed someone who
was convincingly sweet, kind of beta male,

Daniel Scheinert: who you'd almost laugh
at and dismiss

That in and of itself isn’t unusual, most
movie heroes begin their journey as

someone decidedly un-super,
who then grows in power over time

Mary Jane: Wow!

Waymond is different

What’s remarkable is that the filmmakers
managed to turn him into a hero

without giving him his own character arc

Waymond: Evelyn?

Waymond: What's going on?

He doesn’t gain any new powers,
or skills, or learn to fight

Waymond: Everyone stay calm! I think
it's time for a family discussion

All the other characters evolve in
transformative ways

over the course of the film,
as you’d expect

but Waymond doesn’t change

He is essentially the same character
at the end of the movie

that he was at the very beginning

On a fundamental storytelling level
that shouldn’t really work.

Incredibly, the Daniels manage to make
Waymond, and his empathic worldview

the anchor point around which everything
else in the movie ultimately bends

Before we explore how they pulled off that
impressive narrative trick, it’s important

to note that the entire concept of alpha
and beta males as related to human men

is pure pseudoscience nonsense

Dolittle: The strongest male is called
the alpha male

Dolittle: The alpha male is the big
boss, he wants everybody to know

Dolittle: he's the boss male. You have
to be him. The boss of all the males!

The very idea that animal behavior can be
neatly mapped on to the complexities of

human society is absurd

Sheldon: When I fail to open this jar
and you succeed

Sheldon: it will establish you as
the alpha male

Still, the erroneous myth persists and
is perpetuated in popular culture

Gray: Who's the alpha?

Owen: You're looking at him kid

Sheldon: That's not surprising, this is
something I long ago came to peace

Sheldon: with in my role as the beta male

So let’s talk very briefly about how terms
like “beta male” are typically used

because I think that’s what the
Daniels are attempting to subvert

in the character of Waymond

Marty: That's him

In fiction we expect this type of
character to be a pushover, a doormat

a man who lets other more
dominant men walk all over him

Goyle: Watch where you're going Longbottom

Classmate: I have a question

Classmate: My wife says I'm a pushover but
what if deep down inside

Classmate: I'm really just a nice guy?

If there’s a wife involved the guy usually
falls into the old Henpecked Husband trope

Mrs. Daffy: Haul your anchor lose of that
chair and get busy with the house chores

wherein a long-suffering man submits to the
demands of a controlling overbearing wife

Madeline: Could you just not breathe?

This subordinate put-upon man is
often a comedic figure

and he’s been around for
as long as Hollywood itself.

When men, like Waymond,
are presented as too nice, too vulnerable,

Classmate: Don't even think about it

or too accommodating

it’s framed as a significant obstacle to
him being taken seriously as a real man

This media pattern has been
especially common

in stereotypical depictions of the meek
often de-sexualized Asian man

Jock: You Know karate?
Takashi: no

Jock: Good

Male characters who refuse to fight,
or refuse to fight back

are nearly always mocked as weak,
effeminate, or cowardly

Dave: Do something, stand up
for yourself! Hit him back

Dave: Link, hit him back.
Where are you going?

Leonard: I'm going to assert my
dominance face-to-face

Of course subordinate male characters only
exist in relation to the equally fictional

myth of the “alpha man"

Waymond: Wow, what a fast elevator!

In Everything Everywhere All At Once

our original Waymond is juxtaposed with
another version of himself from another universe

Alpha Waymond: I told you
to stay low and out of sight!

Alpha Waymond: I'm not your husband,
at least not the one you know

Alpha Waymond: I'm another version of him
from another life path, another universe

Alpha Waymond: This is where I am
from - The Alphaverse

Alpha Waymond is shown to be assertive,
demanding, and aggressive

Initially the audience is just as enamored
with this new Waymond as Evelyn appears to be

Alpha Waymond: Every rejection, every
disappointment has lead you here

It turns out however that Alpha Waymond
isn’t exactly all he’s cracked up to be

He’s controlling, impatient, quick to
violence, and distrustful of others

He builds Evelyn up, tells her she’s the most
important person in the whole multiverse

then abandons her the moment
she doesn’t live up to his expectations

Alpha Waymond: I'm sorry Evelyn.
I need to go

Evelyn: What?

Alpha Waymond: I need to find the right
Evelyn. And this one...

Alpha Waymond: is not the one

Evelyn: No no. Wait! Let me try again!

Evelyn: Alpha Waymond?

Alpha Waymond is just using Evelyn

as indeed all the Alphas are in their attempt
to "Make the Alphaverse Great Again"

Alpha Waymond: This is the
Alphaverse mission

Alpha Waymond: to take us back to
how it's supposed to be

If Everything Everywhere all at Once were
a normal movie with normal character acs,

our original Waymond would essentially turn
into Alpha Waymond by the end of the story

He’d learn to temper his sensitivity with
an unhealthy dose of aggression

thus transforming from the sweet naive guy
who won’t even kill a bug

to a domineering dude who takes out a room
full of security guards to protect his wife

He might even be given a cathartic
“finally grew a spine” moment

where he loudly demands a divorce

Stu: Because whatever this is
ain't working for me!

Stu: Let's do this!

This type of hypermasculine transformation
is a supertrope in storytelling

This is how pop culture
reinforces the myth

that the correct way to be a man is
to be aggressive, intimidating and

most importantly to dominate others

It’s not an exaggeration to say
some that kind of power fantasy

underpins the origin story of
most male heroes in media

But Everything Everywhere all at Once
is anything but a typical movie

As the story progresses the audience
experiences an epiphany

Evelyn: My silly husband

Evelyn: probably making things worse

We realize our initial impression of
Waymond was completely wrong

Deirdre: Okay, you can let her go

We share this realization with Evelyn

as she suddenly sees her
“silly husband” in a new light

Waymond isn’t actually
passive or submissive

He’s been quietly proactive
throughout the movie

Waymond: Everything is going to be okay

Constantly striving to smooth things over with
the tax auditor in order to save their laundromat

Evelyn: Oh, tomorrow is better-

Waymond: Ah ah thank you thank you.
6pm. Thank you so much!

Deirdre: Thank you for the cookies

He’s not getting what he wants out of his
marriage so he’s taking steps to change it

The divorce was his idea after all

part of his desperate plan
to salvage their relationship

Waymond: I wanted to star off
the new year on a new foot

And he does all of that while
also expressing vulnerability

and attempting to balance his needs
with the feelings of others

In short, he knows what he wants
and he never stops trying to get it

he just doesn’t do it in a domineering way

Waymond: I know you're all fighting
because you're scare and confused

Waymond: I'm confused too

Waymond’s worldview is articulated in this powerful
speech about 2/3rds of the way through the film

Waymond: The only thing I do know is that
we have to be kind

His words echo those of Sonmi 451
from Cloud Atlas

Sonmi 451: And by each crime
and every kindness

Sonmi 451: we birth our future

Waymond: Please be kind

Waymond: especially when we don't
know what's going on

If you heard it in the real world
Waymond’s plea to “be kind”

could come across as...

Waymond: Be kind

...a little cliché or
at best unrealistic

Evelyn: It's too late Waymond

So I think it’s useful to break down exactly
what he means when he says “be kind”

For him kindness is not
putting on blinders

ignoring the negative, or being fake nice

Waymond: Think about it, unless it's an
emergency, whenever I try to talk to you

Waymond: you always get pulled away

Waymond manifests kindness through
patience, communication, and empathy

Waymond: Ah, sorry, my wife confuses
her hobbies for businesses

Waymond: An honest mistake

And the movie presents all of those traits
as useful pragmatic skills

This brings us to Business Waymond

a version of the character from a
divergent timeline where he and Evelyn

never got married. This Waymond defends
original Waymond’s perspective

without of course knowing that’s what he’s
doing since he’s unaware of the multiverse

Business Waymond: You think I'm weak,
don't you?

He’s speaking directly to the audience,
as much as he is to Evelyn

when admonishing us for our previous
assumptions about him

Business Waymond: When I choose to see
the good side of things

Business Waymond: I'm not being naive

Business Waymond: It is strategic
and necessary

Business Waymond: It's how I've learned
to survive through everything

In reality, he’s not naive

He understands the oppressive
nature of the world

but chooses to fight back
in his own way...

Waymond: Can't we just stop fighting!

...with empathy joy and hope

Business Waymond: This is how I fight

It’s interesting to note that although
Business Waymond should be considered

the pinnacle of success,
we don’t envy him

Business Waymond: In another life...

Business Waymond: I would have
really liked...

Business Waymond: just doing laundry and
taxes with you

Instead we pity him for what he never had

laundry and taxes with Evelyn as his
wife in a distant universe

Waymond is the anti-cynic,
the antidote to nihilism

and his worldview is represented in the film
through the visual motif of googly eyes

When Evelyn finally adopts his perspective

she affixes a third googly eye
to her forehead

This marks the moment where the Daniels
flip the action movie genre on its head

Waymond’s worldview runs counter
to the underlying message

in almost all action movies

the reductive notion that violence
can solve all conflicts

regardless of the circumstances

Waymond: Evelyn! Evelyn please, no more!

Waymond understands that the way to
ultimately win against a stronger oppressive force

is to create a situation where the foot-soldiers
of the powerful refuse to keep fighting you

Waymond: What are you doing?

Evelyn: I'm learning to fight like you

As noted eloquently in the book The Dawn of
Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

“Revolutions are rarely won in open combat.

When revolutionaries win, it’s usually because the
bulk of those sent to crush them refuse to shoot,

or just go home.”

And this is precisely what happens in
Everything Everywhere all at Once

Evelyn uses her new found
multiversal power

to learn why each of her
opponents is hurting inside

and then she gives them what’s missing

After which, one by one, they all
lose interest in trying to fight her

Violence doesn’t solve this conflict,
it can’t

because the enemy is a cynical nihilistic
bagel devouring love and meaning

and everything else

Empathy is what solves it.
As it must

Notice that even though he’s pivotal
to the film’s resolution

Waymond’s masculinity doesn’t require
him to become an action guy

He doesn’t need to take center stage
or fix the problem himself

Waymond is content to inspire his wife

and then stand back and support her
while she wins the day

It’s particularly important that this
depiction of transcendent masculinity

is embodied by an asian man

As Chris Kranadi pointed out in his Stale
article about Waymond’s character

“It’s a rare depiction of an Asian male lead that
not only rejects and deconstructs Hollywood’s

stereotypes of them but also serves as a necessary
evolution for Asian representation in cinema.”

At the beginning of this video I said that
Waymond doesn’t have a character arc

well it turns out that by the
time the credits roll

it’s us the audience who’ve been
given a character arc

Over the course of the film, our
perspective has shifted so dramatically

that we’ve come to understand Waymond

and more importantly to embrace
his revolutionary worldview.

This shift in perspective also
reframes the social expectations

Hollywood so often places on masculinity

Like kindness, empathy can occasionally
feel ​​naive or ethereal

just a pretty, empty word
with little to reinforce it

Especially in difficult times like ours

I’d argue though that what Waymond
advocates is actionable empathy

It’s empathy that you don’t wait around for

it’s the kind of radical empathy

that we can use to fundamentally
change our reality

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