Scarlet Witch #1

[history79]

"I've been talking to Jason Aaron about making sure that she isn’t just a female Doctor Strange. There are differences even between her and Doctor Strange so that her magic is different; I'm really making a point of stressing that there's a female energy that connects with a certain kind of magic. As a sort of shorthand, I'm calling it 'witchcraft,' but there are literally areas of dimensions that she can go to that Doctor Strange wouldn't be able to go to, because he's a man."

- James Robinson

Comments

[baihu]

Maybe because I'm Asian, this isn't that hard of a concept for me to grasp. There's Yin and Yang, which have separate attributes attached to either side, notably for the genders, generally Yin is associated with the female aspect and Yang is associated with the male aspect. In a similar vein, Yin is associated with the moon and to an extent the spiritual side of life (mystical creatures etc.), and Yang is associated with the sun and humanity in general.

It's defined as negative and positive energy, but not in the 'bad' vein that the west tends to place on the idea of 'negative' energy. They are two sides of the same coin, both are neither good or bad, excess or depletion in either is considered potentially bad and so on.

In western witchcraft, I believe witches have the strongest association with the moon. It's more than likely because of the 'moon's blood' concept aka menstruation and the ancient spiritual/mystical association early humanity put on that natural process. The way Yin and Yang is defined in Asian culture may also point to a similar root concept, though it became more intellectual as time went on in the east.

A difficulty in portraying this concept in the book may point to a) Marvel never fully defining that aspect before though considering how many random magic systems/deities/practitioners writers would toss in for plot convenience, this shouldn't that big a deal and b) it needs a writer more well-versed in portraying that concept, like say Neil Gaiman, and bringing in more real-world examples or references to give credence to the whole central plot idea.

[jekylls_salvation]

Ancient Asian philosophy. Sexist? Gasp.

[baihu]

Please do not insult my culture be projecting your own insecurities and preconceptions. What have I typed is 'sexist'? Because there's acknowledgement of differences in the genders? Because there's acknowledgement of tribal cultures that used to have wise women roles that associate with the moon? Because we don't subscribe to a black-and-white/good-evil philosophy? Do you understand the Tao symbol of Ying and Yang specifically shows that both the idea of light and dark balance each other, and that even each half has an aspect of the other in them? That everything ends up being a combination of 'halves' to varying degrees?

It's a differing philosophy of life from your own and that you clearly do not understand, and resort to stereotypes in lieu of an actual point to try to justify your own desire to be superior. In short, bigotry.

I do not come onto this thread to be insulted by someone who doesn't read what I post, uses broad strokes over several different cultures at once (Asian philosophy could refer to Daoism, Buddhism, Chinese folk culture, Vietnamese folk culture, Malaysians folk culture etc). I wanted that I'd go to the racist subreddits. Maybe you should minger there yourself, you'd find more likeminded people I hope.

Might as well screenshot your post and try posting it to /r/tumblrinaction - "Tao Ying-Yang symbol is sexist because they acknowledge genders are different by equal!"

[nyadnar17]

I understand it. I just don't like it. I hate that the answer to the question "Why call Scarlet Witch vs Doctor Strange" is "she's a woman".

In particular I would prefer a potential flagship female character to be special for reasons outside of her genatalia and in general I hate gender based magic systems in fiction because they always just seem to reinforce the dumbest parts of traditional gender roles.

[tigerkaya]

Interesting.

[coldfury]

Here's the problem with this approach. By hanging their 'Yin' and 'Yang' on the concept of genders, it's systemically going to be *weird*. Because they're going to play up all these weird witch tropes they can to differentiate her from Dr. Strange, but it's not like they're going to have Dr. Strange go "I can do this because I'm a dude, and I have a penis." Because that'd be weird, and probably sexist.

They're doing it to make her special, which is fine, she needs that, but instead of hanging it on her type of magic, it seems like they're hanging it on her gender, which is just clunky.

Maybe I'm judging it too harshly off one issue. Marvel's magic needs a clear set of guidelines, and I'm not sure this is shaping up to be it.

[laughing_tree]

"Marvel's magic needs a clear set of guidelines"

Whereas I'd argue, as I did above, that that's the last thing it needs.

[nyadnar17]

I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree. Right now whenever I read a story about a magic character at Marvel the rules seem to be "they can do whatever they want except when they can't". I never know what the states are or if a particular obstacle in their path is a big deal or not.

I know generally what Spiderman can and can't do. Characters with easily extrapolated powersets like Magneto or Ironman are a little trickery, but in general I know if a problem they are facing is a big deal or not. With Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch I literally have no clue what they can and can't do at any given time unless they specifically say it out loud.

IMO that kinda sucks

[laughing_tree]

Oh, I don't have an issue with rules for a specific character or even a specific title. It's rules across the board, about magic itself so that it applies to all books, that I think are too restrictive.

DC made a sort-of attempt at that some years back, when they had Michael Moorcock of all people create a bible for how magic worked in the DC Universe. But there really wasn't much effort to enforce those rules, and I think Keith Giffen was the only writer who ever bothered following them. That kind of rulebook would be the sort of thing I don't want.