scarlet--wiccan

[scarlet--wiccan]

Oh, and I also corresponded w/ a couple podcasts behind the scenes, including a very big, very popular shoe that abruptly ghosted me after soliciting a bunch of intellectual labor 🙃

I was looking on the Romanistan Instagram page, and their post on you said you do “consulting and editorial work"; what's that like?

I’ve had the opportunity to be a sensitivity reader for a couple different projects. I don’t actually get to do it very often or in a super professional capacity, but I’d to do more, in the future. That was more of me advertising myself, than anything else.

[scarlet--wiccan]

I was looking on the Romanistan Instagram page, and their post on you said you do “consulting and editorial work"; what's that like?

I’ve had the opportunity to be a sensitivity reader for a couple different projects. I don’t actually get to do it very often or in a super professional capacity, but I’d to do more, in the future. That was more of me advertising myself, than anything else.

[scarlet--wiccan]

John/Kanon still going strong, we win!!!!!!!

After serving on the frontlines in the war against Orchis, KWANNON is enjoying some much-deserved downtime with her new lover Greycrow. But when darkness falls across Japan, PSYLOCKE will wield her psionic blade against bloodsucking creatures of legend and faces a foe unlike any she’s ever seen. An all-new villain emerges in the mayhem of BLOOD HUNT!

#john greycrow #kwannon #psylocke

[scarlet--wiccan]

Headcanons about the Elder Gods?

I don't have headcanons, so much as... text-based interpretations. One of the biggest problems with the Elder Gods is the lack of clear, concrete worldbuilding. That's a pervasive issue with magic in general, but due to the nature of the stories they're typically featured in, the Elder Gods are often described with very mythical, grandiose language, and this creates a certain degree of... ambiguity. Just look at Immortal Thor-- Ewing is doing really cool stuff with the Elder Gods, but he's also making it seem like they're the center of the universe, because to Thor and Loki, they kind of are.

But that doesn't fit in properly with the larger Marvel cosmology, so to get a better understanding of this, I think we need a character like Stephen or Wanda-- someone who has direct ties to Elder Gods but isn't a mythical being themselves-- to pull back the curtain and just give us the facts.

So here's an outline of how I would refresh the worldbuilding in this special little corner of the Marvel cosmology. This is 95% based on facts as they are written, and the rest is logical extrapolation.

The Elder Gods and the Demiurge are part of a natural evolutionary cycle that all life-sustaining worlds must go through. It is how magic and divinity evolve alongside life.

When the right conditions are met for organic life to begin, the planet's collective life force emerges as a sentient entity called the Demiurge, which is the highest natural power in its own world.

The Demiurge begets the first etheric beings, which are avatars of the primordial elements of magic and nature. These beings, the Elder Gods, then beget the lesser pantheons; create mystical realms and dimensions; devise early forms of sorcery and magic; and so on and so forth, with varying degrees of participation from the Demiurge itself.

The Elder Gods of Earth were the architects of Earth's Inner Planes-- magical dimensions that share the planet's physical space. These include mythical locations, god realms, hell dimensions, and many other magical locations tied to Earth's folklore and mythology-- including the Flickering Realm and Serpent Sea, where Chthon and Set are imprisoned.

The Elder Gods are born from their native planet, so while they may be the oldest or most powerful beings on their specific world, they should not be confused with cosmic or abstract entities. That doesn't make them less powerful or important, they just occupy a different area of the Marvel universe and feature in different stories.

Some of the forces which the Elder Gods embody may be universal constants, but the Elder Gods represent those forces within their planet's natural ecosytem. As noted in this post, chaos magic is a natural force, and Chthon is an important symbolic representation of chaos magic in Earth's ecosystem-- by taking him off the board, Wanda has upset that balance.

Similarly, as far as we know, the Demiurge which represents Earth's life force is not a universal power-- each world, presumably, has its own Demiurge.

This one's a bit more of a headcanon--

Billy was never intended to be the same entity as Earth's Demiurge, but the way that Gillen, Oliveira, et al, represent his Demiurge powers also conflicts with the established lore. If I were to fix this, I would say that when Wanda used the Life Force to resurrect her sons, Billy-- and possibly Tommy-- inherited a natural affinity for the Demiurge's power, the same way Wanda has a natural affinity for chaos magic.

That affinity, could, in theory, be used to transform and redefine the laws of magic on Earth and in all of Earth's Inner Planes. This would validate Immortus's concerns about their timeline-altering potential in a way that is functionally similar to Wanda's Nexus powers; it would also explain why people like Loki and Agatha are so eager to take advantage of Billy's power-- but it doesn't have to mean that Billy is some nascent creator god. I'm more interested in finding specific, interesting ways to give these characters their expansive powers while still allowing them to stay grounded.

America's Utopian Parallel backstory is currently defunct. If we're going to discard it entirely, then it should be easy to reframe Billy's Demiurge powers as a part of Earth's Demiurge/Elder God cycle. We can still keep the idea that Billy is a future world creator-- but remember, Gillen describes this as a singular moment in his future, not as Billy ascending to godhood. Make it so that, at specific moments in certain timelines, Billy's Demiurge power gives him the opportunity to birth a new world, and the Parallel is from one of these divergent timelines. Functionally, it then becomes like Wanda's Nexus status-- a cosmic significance that connects Billy to many versions of himself accross the multiverse. This would support his ability to gaze into alternate timelines, which we've seen in Young Avengers and Death's Head.

#elder gods #worldbuilding #demiurge

[scarlet--wiccan]

OOOOH ORLANDO YOU KEEP PULLING ME BACK IN........

#just saw the cover preview for SW (2024) #I will post when I find full-res version but we got the full sibling team-up AND a pull from Ewing's multiverse worldbuilding BITCH........ #with a tie-in to Billy's storyline from New Avengers bitch......

[scarlet--wiccan]

Love Beto down, and-- setting aside the poor casting choice-- I'm not saying I would want to replace him with a white character, but I kinda feel like Chamber would have made more sense to fill that role X-Men '97.

#this is massively colored by my love for the (rightfully!) oft-criticized 2017 Gen-X comic

[scarlet--wiccan]

What is the Witches’ Road?

The Witches' Road is a setting that was introduced, and featured prominently, in Scarlet Witch (2016). If you haven't read the series, I would make it a priority-- it establishes Wanda's current backstory, and it really sets the stage for who she's become in the last decade. Several characters and and worldbuilding elements, including the Road, have also carried over into the current Scarlet Witch series.

The Witches' Road is a mystical dimension that is, primarily, only accessible to witches. It's depicted as a branching path that winds through the various mythological realms, so it's likely a part of the Inner Planes. The Road is inhabited by magical creatures and contains symbolic representations of different mystical and spiritual concepts related to witchcraft and other "folk magic" practices.

Gardnerian gender-essentialism aside, you can see here how Wanda is able to call upon the goddeses whose realms the Road passes through to gain the upper hand against Declan. [Scarlet Witch (2016) #4]

Most importantly, it is the home of the abstract entity called Witchcraft, who is literally the personification of witchcraft and the natural balance of magic.

In the Marvel universe, abstract entities, such as Eternity, Death, or Nightmare, are personifications of universal concepts. Wanda's enemy in the upcoming Scarlet Witch (2024) series is an abstract entity called the Griever, who represents entropy and the inevitable death of the multiverse. The Witchcraft entity is, as I said, a representation of witchcraft and natural magic, and she's depicted as a goddess figure who was evidently worshipped by ancient covens, including Hexfinder's ancestors.

In Scarlet Witch (2016), Witchcraft is also seen consorting with an abstract Chaos entity, distinct from Chthon or Lord Chaos. Wanda implies that witchcraft and chaos have always been closely linked, and are part of an important natural balance. Contest of Chaos (2023) established that chaos magic is a natural, entropic force that was bound within the Earth by ancient witches in order to mitigate its destructive effects and maintain a balance which could support life and magic. This mirrors the relationship between the Witchcraft and Chaos entities, and also parallels the binding of Chthon's spirit within Mount Wundagore.

Clea describes this history in Fantastic Four (2022) Annual #1, which is part of the CoC event. The language she uses is similar to how chaos magic is described in #5 of Trial of Magneto. Chaos is part of natural world, and witchcraft-- as a broad archetype for nature-based magic-- is what keeps it in balance. In Scarlet Witch (2016) #14, Wanda remarks that magic can exist on any planet where there is life-- and as Witchcraft is a universal abstract, we can assume that this balance exists in different forms on every world.

#witches' road #witchcraft entity #chaos magic #contest of chaos #scarlet witch (2016)

[scarlet--wiccan]

Were the og brotherhood based out of magneto’s castle in the QS series? I feel like that came up there but it wasn’t something that I have any memory of from the silver age. It wasn’t asteroid m, correct?

I kind of wish we had more details about the twins time with the brotherhood but that feels like something I’d regret asking for if it ever came to be

Oof, okay, this question really led me down a rabbit hole. I just re-read a ton of old comics, and my main takeaway is that Magneto and the Brotherhood have been all over the place, and have lived on way too many castles and islands, some of which are not named, or only appear in single issues.

But, also, just so you know, your question was not entirely clear. I assume that you are asking about the abandoned castle, on what appears to be a small island in the Atlantic Ocean, that Pietro and Nestor visit in #13 of Quicksilver (1997). Pietro claims that this is where he and Wanda were brought by Magneto after he saved them from the mob. To my knowledge, this is either a very hasty retcon, or simply a continuity error, as no such castle was shown in previous depictions of their time with the Brotherhood.

In X-Men (1963) #4, the Brotherhood are shown living in the presidential palace of Santo Marco, which is a fictional country in South America that had been conquered by Magneto. This is the first time we meet Wanda and Pietro, so this is the setting you see in most flashbacks to their origins. In later comics, it was retroactively stated that Magneto had already established a base on Island M in the Bermuda Triangle-- you know, that place with the weird octopus castle-- so I assume that this is where they were living before they moved into the presidential palace.

After abandoning Santo Marco, the Brotherhood established their next base on Asteroid M. In X-Men #6, however, they are shown meeting with Namor on an unnamed island in the Atlantic, where Magneto had constructed an array of magnet-powered machines. A very similar, but different, island is also shown in Avengers (1963) #49, in which the twins temporarily rejoin Magneto, who wants to turn the island into a sovereign mutant nation. Sound familiar?

I believe that the castle in Quicksilver is based on or both of these small Atlantic islands, but to me it reads as a sort of... accidental composite setting. I think the writer just needed a place for that one scene, and they didn't want to bother checking all of the facts. And I get it-- like I said, these people were living all over the place, and it gets kinda confusing.

Avengers Origins: Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver, which is a dubiously canon retelling of Wanda and Pietro's backstory, expands on the Brotherhood's stay in Santo Marco. Here, Magneto seems to have set up permanent residence in the palace. The twins eventually flee from the Brotherhood and must escape the palace after Magneto becomes forceful and violent with them. In canon, however, they actually departed from the Brotherhood of their own volition during a skirmish in New York in X-Men #11.

#quicksilver (1997) #brotherhood of evil mutants #magneto #island m #asteroid m #santo marco

[scarlet--wiccan]

Do you think if Vision hadn’t (for all intents and purposes) died in WCA, he and Wanda would’ve stayed together? I mean, if it wasn’t that it probably would’ve been some other convoluted comic drama, but under ideal circumstances where nothing very pointedly came between them. I don’t want them to get back together, but I wonder if they could have weathered the decades like Reed and Sue.

Specifically, I think Crystal and Pietro probably would’ve struggled to stay together even if it weren’t for her infidelity and Max’s manipulation just bc they weren’t a very well-suited match. I don’t think the same is necessarily true for Wanda and Vision

Not everybody can be Reed and Sue, or Scott and Jean. Hell, even Scott and Jean can't be Scott and Jean for more than a few years at a time. I think you could argue that, yes, Wanda and Vision had what it takes to become one of those enduring, iconic couples, and could have filled that niche for the Avengers in way that nobody else has ever successfully done. Their relationship was given a lot of attention at the time, and it made a really big splash in-universe.

Most of events which led to their marriage dissolving-- everything in late-80s Avengers West Coast, and then, many years later, Disassembled-- could be described as authorial intervention, and in Wanda's case, character assassination. Byrne set out pretty intentionally to ruin everything Englehart and Mantlo had done for the characters in Vision & the Scarlet Witch. Vision's destruction, the baby retcon, the Darker than Scarlet storyline, all of it was done to break these two characters down and pull them apart. So, I think if it wasn't Vision's personality re-write, it would have been something else. And if it wasn't any of that, it would have been House of M.

As much as it pains me to say this, it's hard for me to imagine what Wanda would be like without those storylines. I don't mean to diminish the levels of misogyny and ableism that have gone into her treatment over the last several decades, but since before I was born, Wanda has been a character who, for better or worse, has been defined by trauma, exploitation, and loss. A lot of the texture and nuance of how I analyze and relate to this character is informed by that, and so much of what I love about her and her family in the modern day wouldn't exist if contemporary writers weren't responding to that history.

That's kind of the main reason I balk at the desire many fans (and creators!) seem to have to return to a much earlier version of this character/relationship. We'd be losing a lot, and sacrificing a lot of our ability to have insightful conversations about what Wanda represents, just to satisfy nostalgia for something most of us weren't even around for. And it's not lost on me that this nostalgia is something Marvel, the company, is constructing and marketing to us because of their racist little TV show.

#the vision #wanda maximoff

[scarlet--wiccan]

Would Wanda & Pietro have been homeschooled by Marya & Django?

Possibly, but I can't really attest to what that would look like. Homeschooling, at least in modern America, still involves, like, textbooks and stuff. Education inequality for Roma is a serious issue, and we know that the Maximoffs were extremely poor, so they probably wouldn't have had access to those resources.

In looking back on Wanda and Pietro's childhood, I'm reminded of Peter David's racist remarks about Romani families, which were made at NYCC '16 in response to a question from Roma activist Vicente Rodriguez, regarding David's work with Romani characters like Quicksilver. David invoked an unfortunately common narrative about Romani culture-- that our children are routinely abused, kept out of schools, forced to work or beg at a young age, and pressured into early marriages. These are social issues that have more to do with poverty, segregation, and discrimination than actual Romani cultural values, but it has been very convenient for a very long time for racists to place the blame on us while obscuring the true history of our systemic oppression. This is a fundamental device of anti-romani rhetoric.

I'm bringing this up because I think a lot of people, whether they realize it or not, have internalized this view of Romani culture. While many traditional communities may seem closed off or insular, I think that the relationship between Roma and outside culture is misunderstood. Families like this don't want to stifle or harm their children, and it's not like we're behind the times-- we have feminism and other social movements. But it's hard for that kind of change and growth to take root in communities that are deeply oppressed, ghettoized, and routinely displaced. This is a documented issue, and you can see the same thing play out across race and poverty lines in America.

So, I feel very strongly that characters like Django and Marya can be used to combat this prevailing, harmful narrative. When we see families like the Maximoffs, I want to really emphasize the fact that these are people who would do everything in their power to protect their children and give them a happy childhood. Same thing goes for the von Dooms, and even Margali when she's at her best. Maybe they didn't have the means to give Wanda and Pietro an education, but I believe that Marya and Django gave them as many opportunities as they could afford to learn, and play, and grow, and I think that's why they grew up to become the intelligent, studious people we know them as today.

#education #social issues #marya maximoff #django maximoff #robintext

[scarlet--wiccan]

just read this week's Voices update on Unlimited. Felt like Oliveira was this close 👌🏼 to confirming you-know-what about Emma

[scarlet--wiccan]

Who can spot the difference?

#*Pietro voice* 'now why am i in it? see how they put me in it?'

[scarlet--wiccan]

On related note, a few years ago, the Entomological Society of America officially discontinued the use of "gypsy moth" and "gyspy ant" as common names for Lymantria dispar and Aphaenogaster araneoides. L. Dispar is now known as the "spongy moth," so named for the appearance of their eggs, but I don't think a new common name has caught on for the ant species yet.

These changes we brought about, in large part, by the advocacy of Romani people in academia. You might not think that bug names are a very serious issue, but I believe that language matters. These species became known as "gypsies" because their attributes were likened to certain stereotypes and negative perceptions of actual Roma, so the continued use of those names reaffirmed those negative associations in the public consciousness. Slurs and pejoratives can never be truly decontexualized.

In my mind, one of the biggest obstacles that Romani people face when we are trying to advocate for ourselves is a lack of recognition as a marginalized group that deserves the necessary consideration. Even for seemingly trivial matters, like bugs or comic book characters, the way that people talk about us-- and talk down to us, when we get involved-- is telling. So, I always think that changes like this are a win, because it means that people are willing to learn and grant us the dignity we deserve. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to effect change in your own field, even arts and science.

#anyways I just really geek out on this sort of stuff

[scarlet--wiccan]

Any opinions on Sybil Dvorak aka Skein?

I'm not a huge fan. During my interview with Romanistan, I mentioned Sybil as a character who is sometimes attributed Romani identity, but Spider-Woman #48 specifically states that she was "raised by gypsies." That phrasing evokes very a specific media trope, and to me, it implies that Sybil was either a non-Roma child who was adopted or abducted by gypsies-- something we see in a lot of popular European literature-- or, that Nocenti was simply using "gypsies" as a stock backdrop for rural Europe, with no consideration for the fact that this is a distinct ethnic group.

To my knowledge, Sybil never expresses any particular cultural identity, and I don't believe that the text ever treats her as a racialized character. This is also a persistent problem with Romani depictions in comics-- when these characters leave their homes or communities, it's as if they cease to be Romani. It's always framed as being a part of their past, but never their present. If they have children-- think Luna, Billy, and Tommy-- those children are rarely attributed the same heritage.

So, I don't believe that Sybil is a character who really contributes any meaningful or substantial representation. She reminds a little of Meggan and Amanda, but with so few appearances, she just doesn't provide much material for me to discuss.

I do actually find Sybil's backstory really interesting. The way that it's written in #48 is, frankly, really shallow, but there's a lot of potential there, and I think the character's very sympathetic. Reaffirming her Romani identity in a more well-researched, well-realized fashion could help bring more life to her origins as a trafficking victim, her ethos on class and wealth, and even her experiences with substance abuse and proximity to certain countercultures-- all things that were depicted very poorly in Spider-Woman, but could certainly become part of a much better, more powerful story.

But Sybil/Skein/the Gypsy Moth has never been that character, and at this point, after forty-odd years, I'm not sure if she ever will be. I have a soft spot for her, but to me, she falls on the lower end of Romani depictions in comics.

#sybil dvorak #skein #gypsy moth

[scarlet--wiccan]

Was Wanda’s relationship with Warren dubiously canon, like the first class books were possibly in a poorly distinguished au or someting?

I ask because it’s seemingly coming up (albeit probably briefly, if not as a full-on throwaway line) in giant sized x men

Yes, I would classify most retellings-- things like First Class, Uncanny Origins, Avengers Origins, etc.-- as dubiously canon. These are stories which ostensibly take place within continuity, but may contradict or alter the original order of events, change the setting or time period, make different character choices, or even add new lore. Because these changes are not being explicitly implemented within canon as a retcon, I usually view it as, like, non-canon until proven otherwise.

To put it another way-- First Class can be read within the context of Earth-616 continuity, but I wouldn't retroactively incorporate things from First Class, such as Wanda's relationship with Warren or her friendship with Jean, into my understanding of Earth-616 continuity unless explicitly told that it's canon. Does that make sense?

#X-Men: First Class (2006)

[scarlet--wiccan]

I know that West Coast Avengers ended like 6 years ago and the Watts siblings have barely been in anything sense, but I keep seeing people on Twit listing them among Black mutants/X-Men characters and um. I'm sorry to rain on your parade but they are not and have never been X-Men characters and are officially listed as human mutates. No X-genes here.

#I just.... love and light but non-X really do not need to be pulled into the X-Men ensemble. They don't benefit from it. #If you want to see more of Johnny and Ramone that's great! But the answer isn't making them mutants #it's letting people actually write good Hawkeye and/or America Chavez books for once

[scarlet--wiccan]

I thought Sybil was a Mark Gruvenwald invention? Unless this is another thing where the wiki page labelled it wrong, or forgot to label the co creator or it was a case of being originally Nocenti's idea and Gruvenwald was the guy who executed it. Im not trying to like get on a high horse and start arguing in Nocentis defense for clarification if the tag was meant to be read negatively 😅 god knows I've read some absolute bullshit from that woman, I just never heard of Sybil being her original character

Sybil's first appearance was in Spider-Woman #10, which was written by Gruenwald, but her backstory was established in #48, which was written by Nocenti. I don't know who originally conceived of the character or decided on her origin story-- the book changed hands several times, especially towards the end of its run. Claremont was writing it just before Nocenti took over. This was in the early 80s, and there are a lot of things in Spider-Woman #48 that feel emblematic of what Claremont and Nocenti were doing in more iconic titles, like X-Men, at around the same time.

#the general weirdness about the punk scene. the use of decadence drugs and overt sexuality to paint this seedy underground setting #with a weirdly moralistic tone #the slapdash broad sketching of foreign cultures/racialized peoples imbedded in otherwise genuinely compelling and creative storylines #you get it