Psychological Effects of Strange’s spell on others
I’m guessing it will be addressed in the movie, but I’ve been thinking about how the spell might effect the people who knew Peter, especially those who spent the most time with him 1 on 1.
Would those memories simply be erased, leaving large voids ? That seems like it could cause horrific psychological effects, especially on someone like Ned, who seemed to really only have Peter as a friend growing up. With MJ, this specific thing might not be as bad, but still could have some effect.
If they formed some kind of replacement memory with some stand in for Peter, I don’t see how that would work either ? What happened to this person, do they now have a shared memory of Ned’s childhood that doesn’t actually exist? And if so do they have to now replace their real memories from that time? And if not, and Ned ever tried to talk about it, will he just feel insane because nobody else remembers ?
The last one, and probably the saddest, is that Ned will just remember being alone his entire childhood. While this would be the easiest, does Ned just now have to deal with the imaginary trauma of being isolated as a child? Will the different memories change his personality and how he developed as a kid?
Anyway, I am totally overthinking and it will probably be “magiced” away to some extent, but it was an interesting thought.
Posted Mar 27, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC