#aelaer's stephen headcanon

[askthesorcerersupreme]

♒ - cooking/food headcanon

I think Wong enjoys cooking, particularly if he’s stressed. He’s prefers cooking over baking, though he can still do both. He thinks cooking is more hands-on than baking, therefore more rewarding in a way.

Soup or stew is a favorite of his to both eat and cook, because of how many ways it can be prepared and how easy it is to make a large portion. Cooking for others is also a sort of love language for him. (We often see Wong cooking for Stephen in the comics, though before that was merely because it was his job, but even now in the recent comics it seems he likes taking care of his friends by cooking for them, required of him or not).

While he does enjoy cooking for others, he doesn’t like cooking with others. If you want him to continue cooking for you, then you stay out of his kitchen. With as chaotic as his life is, he wants to be in control where he can, such as in the kitchen.

Wong isn’t necessarily picky about what he eats, but certain dishes need to be done a near perfectly. If his rice is still crunchy on the inside, he won’t like it. If the vegetable:broth ratio in soup is off, he won’t like it.

He doesn’t have much time anymore to cook due to his position, but he still finds time for it, especially if he feels there’s a need to. If Stephen’s hands are acting up, he’ll make sure he eats by preparing him easy to eat, silverware free foods. Say America failed a test, then he would try to comfort her with homemade deserts.

Alright I just wrote a lot more than I thought I could about food 😂

@aelaer

[aelaer]

First, love your worldbuilding into how the Sanctums work. My question: do you think it's common for sorcerers to have children? And do you think there are apprentices under the age of 18?

Oooh hey! Thanks for the compliment and the ask! I’m glad you enjoy it.

With this question I’ll focus on those who actually end up making a life in Kamar-Taj and don’t “take their miracle” and depart back to the real world, like Pangborn (and I think there might be quite a few people who do that, and just tell people in their old life that it was a “miracle” and keep it at that). In my opinion, those who have decided to live as part of the order of defending reality do not tend to have children, or even largely pursue relationships outside of the order.

I don’t imagine it’s that large of a society - a hundred people at most, with many of them being churners and a fairly steady influx of newcomers. I think those still living within Kamar-Taj with a more permanent place in the order would be so strapped for time that they really don’t have a lot of major contact with people in the outside world outside of relationships they’ve built beforehand, such as some family members. In one of my stories I place cousins of Master Minoru (of Hong Kong) as part of the Japanese community in Argentina, for instance.

If a relationship did bloom between a member of Kamar-Taj and someone outside of the community, they’d likely have to work something out with the Sorcerer Supreme and likely either fully incorporate the person into their society or take their leave of it. There might be exceptions to this, but I do find it difficult imagining trying to juggle a double life being on-call 24/7 to potentially need to defend reality. There’s very few jobs like that in the real world; more regular ‘on call’ jobs like being part of the police or in the ER still get vacation days. I don’t know if defending reality allows such breaks, especially with how small of a society they are. If they ever expanded their numbers, such normality may be more attainable.

If a relationship bloomed between two members in the society, it would certainly be easier, but I can’t imagine many of them wanting to bring children into an order that defends the universe from horrid eldritch horrors. That’s again a very demanding job; one of the people in the relationship would likely have to retire or at least take on a job within the order that expected no combat excepting end-of-the-world situations. There may be a large desire for a child to have some sort of normalcy and peers to grow up alongside them, as well, which Kamar-Taj doesn’t offer.

Kamar-Taj doesn’t strike me as a place that is built for raising families. It potentially *could*, especially after Everything With Thanos and Weird Things becoming even more and more normal, but at the moment, not quite.

As for people within Kamar-Taj under 18, I think it depends. I’d find that a lot more likely than family-rearing at the moment. See, here’s the thing: there’s a major difference between 11/12 and 16/17. I can see them letting in a 16-year-old runaway from India in a heartbeat if they have a certain quality that the Sorcerer Supreme looks for. An 11-year-old is either returned to their parents or given to authorities in most circumstances.

I cannot even begin to imagine what the vetting process is like for letting new people in. The Ancient One had the Time Stone to help her see many possible futures (and I love that she rejected Stephen at first while knowing she was going to let him in). I’m not certain what they’ll do without it. After the Snappening there were probably a lot of lost people looking for something new in life, but how do you choose who to let in with so many hurt souls looking for healing?

Perhaps a lot of it is like what we saw with Mordo finding Stephen: dumb luck mixed with intuition. They don’t necessarily go looking for newcomers to bring into the fold, but there are two possible ways to find others. The first way is when they see someone lost, but has potential, they get to know them a little better before extending an invitation. The second way is that this person heard about Kamar-Taj and is actively seeking it, and something within the seeker makes the sorcerer reach out to them.

And if that person they’re reaching out to is a teenager why not? There are people under 18 all over the world that are legally emancipated or otherwise don’t have anyone to go to, and no one looking for them. If they can take care of themselves already without guardians at such a young age, they can probably handle the roughness of Kamar-Taj. It’d be something decided on an individual, case-by-case basis.

For children - those who haven’t yet hit puberty - I am fairly certain they’d be given to local services. If the country doesn’t *have* local services, then it’s probably up to the discretion of the sorcerer who encountered them. Stephen, bleeding heart he is, would probably figure out a way to find a safe, isolated orphanage in every country that doesn’t have foster homes and agencies and the like and establish deals with them to help those kids he did encounter. Probably could fund them a bit with the order’s funds, too.

And that’s my ramble on that subject.

[doctorofmagic]

@i-sudoku​ said:

Thank you for your review. I also love the show and wish for the second season especially after the appearance of Mitch Pileggy at the end. I also love all their dynamic. Yeah, the writing for Gabriella is all over the place

Lol for Diva Stephen. Drama queen. But he really likes to kills or sacrifices himself far too much

I’m so glad you also enjoyed the show! I’ll try and recommend it to as many people as I can haha. We deserve a second reason D:

And yes, Stephen does that a lot... I have a personal headcanon that he throws himself at death’s hands often because deep down he’s too tired of his life. I’m sorry, Stephen... I’m too cruel with my headcanons, I know...

@amagicdoctor​ said:

Do we even know when the next issue is coming out? I tried to look at the official site and #7 isn't up there. I wanted to see if a preview was available 😨😭

I believe within the next two weeks? The series is getting released biweekly, if I’m not mistaken. Which makes me very concerned because so was Surgeon Supreme. And guess what? Cancelled... But I’m also very confused when it comes to release dates so never mind me haha. In any case, I know for sure it’s not coming this week. They only post the previews meant for said week. The only comic book related to Stephen next is Savage Avengers #16.

@aelaer​ said:

Dude my dude (which is neutal gender in Californian) I'm still stoked about the what if animation with Strange fighting evil Strange - Wanda Vision was also an amazing trailer!

Dude is definitely a worldwide neutral gender haha! I’m so excited for What If!!! I love Uatu, I yelled when the Watchers appeared in GotG 2!! Can’t wait for it. Also I feel sorry for Wanda fans out there, but the trailer was indeed good. I’m watching it. Also Tom Taylor’s run owns my heart, so I’m quite curious. I’m not a deep MCU fan like the rest of the internet, but oh boy, I watch everything they release because I’m a Marvel worm. Certainly many reviews will come in the next month haha all aboard the hype train tchu tchuu ~

[amethyst-noir]

Okay, so mute Stephen from the fic “if only the gods had mercy on us” combined with a head cannon that Stephen is blind in his left eye equals a very stressed sorcerer. Stephen probably wouldn’t tell anyone about his blindness and muteness (but Wong knows), and the Avengers just assume he’s the quiet type. So he can’t properly communicate with anyone during a battle, can’t defend himself verbally whenever someone/a villain insults him and pokes at his insecurities, (1/2)

Poor Stephen. As if his left eye didn’t look bad enough after the car crash... yes, yes, I fully realize that this is where this headcanon comes from. (That, and the beautiful illustration by @aelaer have directly influenced the plot of an upcoming story and now you come with this!) But still. Half-blind, nigh-on useless hands and mute? Still tasked to protect the earth?

Puh. Take about a shitty deal.

But that idea is amazing in all it’s painful glory. But now I imagine him and Wong having some kind of telepathic connection - he needs a quick way to relay information even if his hands are occupied with magic and this could work over distances, too. Also, Stephen needs an outlet for his thoughts or he goes insane. More insane. That man likes talking too much and sign-language is hard with his hands and pain-levels. *

Enter Tony. Who forms a friendship (full with silent flirting conducted by elaborate winks and smirks) with Stephen and, after some time and full permission and awareness what he gets himself into, gets pulled into the bond. And then he’s blown away when he hears the sheer amount of snark and sarcastic commentary that comes from Stephen on a constant basis. So much for the silent, stoic type the Avengers had taken him for. No, it’s constant thoughts and cursing. Lots and lots of cursing in a very deep, expressive voice.

Tony almost falls over on his ass and stares at Wong in awe. All that babble and the man keeps a straight face all the time?! Incredible.

The rest of the Avengers are ???? and Stephen just raises an eyebrow and smirks. >>No my problem if you all don’t see what’s right in front of you.

* I don’t want to wave the magic “and it all gets better and he gets his voice back” but there is no way the Ancient One or anyone in Kamar-Taj would allow Stephen out in the world without at least one person capable of communicating with him during battle. That would be irresponsible and stupid. They would keep him sheltered in that case. Sign-language is wonderful but not really possible if his already damaged hands are occupied with offensive/defensive spells or Wong is on the other side of the battle field... The Ancient One also had a bond with him and so did Mordo but he broke it when he left after Dormammu - breaking a part of Stephen in the process. Since then it has only been Wong and Stephen is wary of allowing anyone else access to him this way because of the past betrayal. It takes a long time before he offers Tony this gift. Tony is determined to not betray it ever.

[aelaer]

Hehehehe i love ur head canons✌✌ One thing I feel goes largely unexplored in fics yet has ridiculously tremendous angst potential is the concept that Stephen often forgets what timeline he is currently in and gets lost and confused for a while, often remembering horrible things; and the reactions of whoever he's talking with at the time. What do you think would be the reaction of the avengers to that? (esp. Tony, Nat, Vision, Wanda, Steve, Peter & whoever else u wanna add)

That's an interesting supposition! I've seen it covered a couple times in fics, including in Signature Move, where he had to work on specifically weeding any important information from those timelines and then muting them. I think he'd have to do this for his own sanity.

But supposing that during this process some things slip through and he gets extreme moments of deja vu about things that didn't actually happen, or lost in some more horrid events. I think that Stephen would do his best to play it off as nothing important and just a faulty memory.

I think the reactions would highly vary depending on how well the individual knows Stephen. That is a significant factor in anyone who's assessing him and his insistence that all's well, especially since there wouldn't really be much outward sign of anything off.

So with the team as they're getting to know him:

Steve, Bucky, Rhodey, Carol, and Sam: That staring off into the distance and disassociation could be recognized by these guys as signs of PTSD, especially from Steve, Rhodey, and Sam, recognized from their military days.

Natasha and Clint: Would figure out quickly that he's lying about being fine. Natasha recognizes a poker face when she sees one, and Clint has the SHIELD training.

Bruce and Peter: Wouldn't prod, but distract him from it with geeky science talk.

Thor: Would probably dismiss it as something related to seidhr at first, though he's usually more observant than he lets on.

Tony: Likely would also see the PTSD signs simply due to his own personal experiences. He might do a little prodding, but not heavily at first; he doesn't know him that well yet after all.

Wanda: Wanda is a hard one since she hasn't had a lot of canonical development. I think she'd dismiss it at first and take him for his word. She might get curious and try to poke at his mind if it becomes a trend, but it honestly depends on whether or not some ground rules were established about that or not in the Avengers - and we just don't have enough canon to show anything for it.

Vision: He'd be the only one to ask straight off the bat, due to not completely having those human nuances down. He'd point out all the scientific observations he's made and poke further, all while being very polite about it. And it would be him that accidentally ends up breaking the dam.

They'd all be various amounts of horrified, naturally. And all of them in their own ways would try and help him, with people like Tony and Bruce tackling it from the science side, Sam and Steve going at the therapy side, several of them going at a "try beating it out in a good old fashioned spar" side.

Basically it'd cover all the found family tropes in such a scenario. That would be an amazing story.

[aelaer]

Gonna send this separately so you can choose which ask to answer first and when. So the sorcerers have four main HQs in four different time zones and countries, all of which they can easily travel to in seconds. What do you think that means for the masters, their sleep schedule, and their nationalities? Like, do they have a fairly distributed postings (x number of masters are posted in London and must stay awake when London is, etc)? Or do they just sleep whenever they want?

This is a great question and one I’ve considered it while building out my headcanon for the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. Here’s something of an excessive essay through a history of building out the four areas, which I think can help establish what goes on in modern day.

Because I’m a Tolkien nerd, I go overly deep into thinking about how languages come into play. Not only that, but I’m also a huge history nerd *and* I adore geography, so this gets very long and unnecessarily detailed. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it.

Hypothetical Early History - Kamar-Taj:

The films established Agamotto was the first Sorcerer Supreme and so he must have established the Sanctums and Kamar-Taj. It’s likely he was either from or very familiar with the Nepal area to establish Kamar-Taj in Kathmandu– but Kamar-Taj may not have necessarily been there since the first Sorcerer Supreme. The Sanctums protect the Earth, but Kamar-Taj is more of a headquarters, and those sort of places can move. I like to think that the first Kamar-Taj in the MCU was actually in Tibet like in the comics and had to be moved centuries ago due to Reasons. However, there is no evidence for this currently and simply remains a headcanon.

A lot of the books Stephen gets are in Classical Sanskrit, according to Wong, once he finishes several books in English as a novice (called The Book of the Invisible Sun, Astronomia Nova, Codex Imperium, and Key of Solomon). Classical Sanskrit’s more recent than Vedic Sanskrit, but it’s still a very old language. It came around about 2500 years ago and was widely used until the beginning of the dominance of Islamic societies about the 13th century. It spread all throughout Asia in its near 2000 years of prominence in learned, literary circles as well as in several vernacular circles. This includes both Nepal and quite a bit of China.

So with Kamar-Taj within Asia (there’s no reason to believe otherwise) the primary language both studied and spoken across several different cultures would have certainly been Sanskrit until the end of the first millennium AD. For any newcomer who was illiterate (of which there likely would be many) it would be the first language they were taught to read and write (and speak as needed). It would serve as the lingua franca across all four locations. But naturally each location would have picked up the vernacular languages in their region as well as other elements.

So let’s take a look at the actual Sanctums and how they would differentiate between each other before going further into how the lingua franca would change over time.

Hypothetical Early History - The London Sanctum

Let’s look at London first. London is a very old city that has history to the Roman era (called Londonium then), established by them in 47 AD. Apparently it had a population of 50,000 by the 3rd century AD, which is nuts; remember that the historical City of London is only about a square mile wide, but in modern day about 500,000 people work in that square mile. So 50,000 people can live in that amount of space easily. It only really started spilling out in the 1600s, too.

Why am I saying all this? Well, I looked up the filming location from the very beginning of Doctor Strange, where Kaecilius runs out of the library to the London Sanctum and to the city. That was filmed on Whitehall Court, which is located in Westminster and about a kilometer away from the borders of the classic City of London.

This means that the London Sanctum was not considered a part of London for some time. Indeed, Agamotto likely established it several hundred years before the Westminster Abbey and the predecessor to the Palace of Westminster were established in the 10th and 11th centuries. Before that? There was no reason for anyone to be there. So for several centuries the London Sanctum was in the middle of nowhere. There was likely an illusion spell over it to prevent any random passerbys from over the centuries to find it unless they were “meant” to find it, or whatever. You know, magic stuff. They’d probably disguise it as a small servant’s house once the village around the abbey and palace started developing (with some sort of suggestive “do not disturb” spells of various strengths depending on the political/religious climates of the decade).

The facade would change with the changing architecture in the village and likely would remain generally undocumented until Westminster became an official borough in the 16th century. With houses getting much closer and less easily able to completely hide their presence, even with subtle “look the other way” spells, this is when I really think they’d have to set aside actual budget for whatever property taxes were set by the Crown. You can hide a building in plain sight with magic if there’s enough empty space, but I don’t think you could hide it if you have buildings on each side of it unless you do the Harry Potter trick of squeezing the space out of existence for all non-magic folk. They clearly don’t do this in the film, and they wouldn’t want someone to try and build something on their very not-empty lot, thus needing to pay property taxes. But generally they’d otherwise be left alone.

Despite it not being part of London until the Greater London area was established in the 20th century, due to its closeness to the City of London I think it would have been called the London Sanctum from a very early point. London/Londonium had been around for a millennium longer than Westminster, so I don’t see them changing the name just because they’re suddenly in a village called Westminster now.

The vernacular language of the Sanctum (not to be confused with the literary language and worldwide language of communication, Sanskrit) would shift with the centuries. First it would be the Common Brittonic with Latin after the Roman invasion in order to do any business in London (which was only a kilometer away, though distance naturally wouldn’t be an issue with a sorcerer). This would eventually shift to Old English at the Roman Empire’s decline, and Latin would be put on the backburner for some time. Old English turns to Middle turns to Early Modern (which is Shakespeare), and Latin’s revival with the Renaissance does spread into the Sanctum if they pick up any well-read, learned individuals in the 16th to 18th centuries.

Hypothetical Early History - The Hong Kong Sanctum 

The Hong Kong Sanctum was built on a set for a street that doesn’t actually exist in Hong Kong so we can’t use the same trick we did for London on precise location. But like London, the area has been inhabited for millennia, with it becoming part of one of the Chinese dynasties (Qin) in 221 BC. It was difficult to find dating for the history of its name and what it was called before it became Hong Kong. From what I can find, the British, once they received the island to colonize in the 19th century, gave the whole island that name, which was the phonetic translation of “ 香港 ”, or “fragrant harbour”.

It’s very unlikely that the Hong Kong Sanctum was actually called Hong Kong for most of its history unless it was directly within the village that bore that name on Hong Kong Island. But we don’t know where the Sanctum is supposed to be; it could be on Hong Kong Island (the original British territory), the Kowloon Peninsula (in the second growth of the colony), or on Lantau Island, another island, or one of the other New Territories north of the peninsula, gained by the British in 1899. Its original name probably reflected whatever area it’s historically located in and it would not have been changed to “Hong Kong” likely until the 20th century.

The vernacular language of the Hong Kong Sanctum would have started with the Chinese/Sinitic language groups of Yue and Hakka (which are considered Cantonese by non-linguists), specifically with dialects local to the area. It looks like another dialect from the Min family also lived in the area, so that could be sprinkled in as well. I would think that sorcerers based within the Hong Kong Sanctum would be expected to speak at least two local Chinese dialects to be able to communicate with as many newcomers as possible, and that the common language across language barriers for all the hundreds of variants of Chinese would be Sanskrit, as that would be the literary and formal language used to talk with people from all around the world. The literary language would eventually change, of course, but we’re not quite there yet in this ridiculous meta.

It’s possible that, since the area was generally not very populated until the 19th century, that the Sanctum was a lot more open in its existence (with less concealment spells and the like) and that they even allowed rumours of its existence to leak out to the local villages for anyone who was looking for greater spiritual enlightenment and knowledge. They may set some sort of obstacles on the way to find the Sanctum, but it wouldn’t be completely off the map like London would have to be for most of its existence. I don’t see anything in Taoism, Buddhism, Daoism, or Confucianism that would mark the magics of sorcery as “unnatural” or “evil” as many sects of Christianity would have in Europe, but I may be wrong on this topic.

They’d not have to worry about an increasing populace until the 19th century, since Hong Kong Island only had 3,000 people when the British colonized it. The population got a huge influx of people from Canton/Guangzhou once the British took over, which would eventually shift the vernacular from several dialects of Chinese to the one the people of Canton brought with them: Cantonese. Along with Cantonese, there definitely would be an increase in English amongst those speaking the vernacular in the Hong Kong Sanctum from the 1840s onward, just as there was with the rest of the population of Hong Kong. We’ll get more into this development in another part, but first we need to cover America.

Hypothetical Early History - The New York Sanctum

Like Hong Kong, this name is more recent, though not as recent as its sister sanctum in China. Before New York City was colonized, it was populated by the Lenape people, who called their territory Lenapehoking. I imagine that the New York Sanctum was once called the Lenapehoking Sanctum, assuming that the Lenope people were able to hold that territory for the several centuries before the Europeans came over. There’s no recorded history that I could find, so we cannot be certain on that account.

Unlike the London Sanctum (and possibly the Hong Kong Sanctum), it is also possible that the religion of the Lenape people and other local tribes were open to the idea of some individuals having a greater natural connection and unusual, great powers. I think obstacles would be set for those of the Lenape who wanted to leave to find this spot of enlightenment, but at the same time I do not believe it would be viewed necessarily as a negative thing.

If they drew recruits from the local populace, the vernacular would have been largely from the language spoken by the Lenape of what is now called New York City, which is called Munsee (and sadly has only two living native speakers left). They possibly also spoke Umani, the language the Lenape south of New York spoke.

This would have all changed with the arrival of European colonizers. The Dutch bought some of the area in modern lower Manhattan in 1626 from one of the Lenape groups, but the territory only extended to Wall Street; Bleecker Street is about 2 miles north of that, so they’re still in Lenape territory. However, the next 100 years dramatically shifted the landscape. New Amsterdam became New York (and transferred back, *then* back again), and inter-tribal warfare combined with the lack of immunity from the diseases the Europeans brought over cut Lenape populations dramatically in the modern New York area. I could see a potential influx of Lenape individuals who wanted nothing to do with the business of war and disease and looked for the mysterious building that no one could ever map in their territory for sanctuary. And from there, a lot of Lenape sorcerers in the 17th century.

Greenwich Village (which is where Bleecker Street is) started as farmland with some of the Dutch in the 1630s onward. The first black Dutchmen were freed a decade later and given parcels of land there, as well. Who knows: maybe one of them, or their children, became the first black sorcerers as I’m uncertain if such an opportunity would have presented itself earlier in London and I’m not sure if they would pick up random folk who didn’t come directly to Kamar-Taj or one of the three Sanctums. That said, I don’t know what travel from Africa looked like (outside of the countries on the Mediterranean) before the slave trade really got going from the age of exploration onwards. It’s hard to say what the sorcerer recruiting process would be like, especially with the language barriers. And I’d rather not magic all language barriers away, they’re interesting to keep around.

Anyway, the area was first designated as a hamlet on paper in 1713 (as Grin’wich); by the end of the century it was a decent-sized suburb that absolutely exploded in population throughout the 19th century. It would certainly have been during the 1700s that they would have had to established a visible building on record so no one tried to build on top of them (and start paying property taxes on that, too, haha); they probably expanded their property throughout the 1800s as smallpox drove people out of south Manhattan to the fresher airs of Greenwich, then with the immigration and building booms of the rest of the century.

By the 18th century English would have entered the vernacular of the sorcerers residing in the New York Sanctum and would remain the primary vernacular language until modern day. It would likely be renamed sometime in the 1700s as well with the expansion of New York City and the further decline of native settlements.

Hypothetical Early History - Mingling With the Normals Around the World

One reason I favour Kamar-Taj in a more remote region in its earlier years rather than Kathmandu would be for sorcerers from all around the world to easily mingle outside without worry of some central Asian villager getting spooked out of his ever-loving mind for seeing his first European. And it makes sense to me that Kamar-Taj would have a large community of farmers, herdsmen, and the like doing basic things to keep people fed and shod while more experienced sorcerers did the reality protecting part of the job. They simply wouldn’t be able to do their job if they didn’t have people who were keeping the community running. And I don’t think they’d outsource it for much of their existence. I really see Kamar-Taj as a very self-sufficient society that keeps away from the rest of the world as much as possible. That would take a lot of room, and you’d need a lot of land for that. So yeah, I’m favouring Kamar-Taj as a “hidden land” in Tibet as it was in the comics until the world began to enter the modern era. And here they could mingle with anyone they wanted.

When it came to going out to the rest of the world, however, I would imagine caution and secrecy was of ultimate importance. Again, you don’t want to spook the western European villager with seeing a black person for the first time some 2000 years ago. So basically sorcerers avoided any locals as much as viably possible.

On that note, until the age of exploration I imagine that each Sanctum would be very strict with who was allowed outside of the Sanctum to their immediate surroundings. They don’t want to draw too much curiosity and scrutiny lest rumours travel to those with considerable power. This would be especially important in London after the rise of Christianity and the distrust in anything seen as magical. People that didn’t look like you appearing in your little village? Don’t want to scare the illiterate locals.

So for the majority of the Sanctums’ histories, only sorcerers with backgrounds that were native to their location would actually go outside if they needed to and there was a chance they’d come across someone. America would be the most lenient while London the strictest. These rules would be in place for precaution and secrecy.

Even when the age of exploration begins in earnest and you actually start seeing traders from Asia, Africa, and the Americas in London as the centuries pass onward, minority sorcerers still may not want to travel the streets of London due to the possibility that they may be mistreated. I’m not greatly familiar with the history of diversity and how minorities were treated in London, but if it’s anything like the rest of the world, it probably wasn’t great. And the last thing anyone before the 19th century would want is to show magic and be accused of witchcraft. I imagined they just avoided the possibility of problems happening altogether by limiting who went outside the Sanctum in certain parts of the world.

It’s not really until the 19th century that you see stringent rules start to relax a bit; Hong Kong has several European traders and New York and London have turned into much larger melting pots. By the time WWII comes around, these old rules about where people can travel directly from the Sanctums are dropped as the world has become a melting pot.

Hypothetical History Up To The Modern Era

As established, the main language of literary and cross-cultural communication would start with Sanskrit due to its prominence in Asia as a writing system first and foremost when the Sanctums were established (presuming that they were established a few centuries before or after the BC/AD shift; I don’t think the MCU uses the comic canon for Agamotto’s age). Using it for spoken language afterwards just makes sense with so many cultures present.

The lingua franca of Sanskrit wouldn’t change until Sanskrit’s decline; I don’t see it happening immediately, either. Sanskrit started declining in the 13th century, but I think it would remain the lingua franca until sometime during the Renaissance and the years of colonialism that follow. I believe there would have been a large push for Latin to be the main language of literacy and communication between the 16th to 18th centuries, primarily from the sorcerers from Europe. A good number of more complex texts from the London Sanctum would have surely been translated into Latin at this time (while the idea of writing in the vernacular, as spread with the printing press, has certainly caught on and beginner texts there are starting to be translated into early Modern English).

The Ancient One, who is now Sorcerer Supreme at this time, isn’t quite sure yet of that change. She’s getting a lot of resistance from Hong Kong in particular who think Sanskrit has served fine for well over a millennium and can serve just as well in the next. Instead she encourages more translations of beginner books into the vernacular and encourages those in the other Sanctums to learn other vernacular languages of other Sanctums as she can see the world is beginning to shrink and more places are being mapped. She, of course, can speak several languages fluently so she can talk to as many students in their native language as possible. Because the Sanctums are not within Spanish-speaking or French-speaking territories, these two languages are acknowledged as wide-speaking and at least a couple sorcerers learn the languages if there are no native speakers, but they do not come into the running as a lingua franca (just as Mandarin does not, either, as no one near Hong Kong speaks it).

Things remain in flux for the next 200 to 300 years until the New York Sanctum is largely populated by those who immigrated recently to the English colonies. And then the request starts to change: make the lingua franca English. London largely agrees with this (though things get a bit salty between a couple English natives and a couple pro-Independence colonizers at the end of the 18th century) but by the time the 19th century rolls around, there’s a lot of support for this from both New York and London.

Hong Kong doesn’t see why it should change at all, and then the Opium Wars come around, and by 1850, there’s quite a bit of English being spoken by newcomers in their area and almost everyone else is speaking another dialect of Chinese rather than the vernacular they were familiar with. They agree, albeit a bit reluctantly. English becomes the vernacular in the latter half of the 19th century and any starter books that haven’t been translated start to be translated into English.

The Hong Kong Sanctum also works on translating several starter books into Cantonese as they still want to draw from the local populace who don’t speak English; they still have plenty of the local Yue and Hakka dialects made over the last thousand years (with updates made every couple hundred years with shifting languages).

France’s fall from power with the removal of their monarchy and the defeat of Napoleon, alongside the continuous British colonization efforts and the growing prosperity from the new county of the United States, remove French from potentially becoming a lingua franca and solidify English as a worldwide language. This only increases in the 20th century after the Allied success in WWII, even with Britain giving up/losing their colonies throughout the next thirty years. English is still spoken in those territories, after all.

Hypothetical History: The Modern Era

The twentieth century saw the most change in the shape of the world than all centuries previous, and this change is reflected in policy with the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. Before the twentieth century, the sorcerers that resided/worked in the various Sanctums were very homogeneous. London was staffed by Europeans and Hong Kong by Asians, especially of southeast descent. New York was the most lenient due to the low population in the area that was constantly moving, though individuals who looked like the indigenous peoples were certainly preferred (no blonds here). Everyone was welcome in Kamar-Taj as it was a completely closed off, secluded community and everyone was used to a very mixed population. As mentioned earlier, while London and New York saw different ethnicities, especially after the Renaissance, I don’t think a lot of people would really want to go out and about in those areas due to the prejudices of the era.

It is possible that some sorcerers came with prejudices as they were introduced to Kamar-Taj, but the amount of discipline and the ability to work together was so imperative to Agamotto, the Ancient One, and other Sorcerer Supremes (however many there were) that anyone who didn’t shed them simply wouldn’t be permitted to continue. Their tight-knit society wouldn’t be able to function if some sorcerers refused to work with other sorcerers because they looked different, practiced a different religion, or was a woman. The Ancient One being a woman of ambiguous religious practices helped get rid of a lot of people.

But as mentioned, a lot of things changed with the twentieth century. Prejudice still existed, of course, as it does today, but it was significantly less than when the slave trade was legal around half the world 200-300 years ago. The invention of photography, radio, and TV alongside WWI and WWII made the world smaller than it ever has been. And as the three Sanctum cities were much more heterogeneous than in centuries past, who presided over what relaxed.

In the 21st century, sorcerers come from all around the world over. Because their numbers are small I think recruitment still remains largely out of being lucky enough to come across a sorcerer who thinks you may be a good candidate, or to hear about Kamar-Taj through word of mouth and travel to Kathmandu (where it eventually permanently located as need for fields and fields of space became unnecessary). Anyone who doesn’t know English well (or at all) is taught to read, write, and speak the language during their novice days. As English is the lingua franca of the business world right now, no one in their right mind would turn that down, either; right now, English remains the most desired language to learn in the majority of non-English speaking countries.

Anyone can now be posted anywhere due to the heterogeneous world. Sleep schedules correspond with the local time of the location; as each Sanctum has an alarm system that goes to Kamar-Taj (and I imagine Kamar-Taj has its own), it would be easy enough to get sorcerers who are wide awake to help with an emergency. There’s probably someone keeping an eye on all locations when the locals are sleeping, even if they’re not physically there.

The majority of sorcerers who don’t have assignments that correspond with the Sanctums would remain in Kamar-Taj, and if they needed to go to any old Sanctum, it likely would be Hong Kong as Hong Kong is only two hours and 15 minutes ahead of Kathmandu. (China is one time zone when it should be at least three, but that’s another conversation altogether). That said, even if the local residents of the Sanctums are asleep, I view the Sanctums as facilities that are open twenty-four hours to the people of Kamar-Taj if they need to reference something that lives within one of the other Sanctums.

I don’t think the permanent staff of the Sanctums in the modern era would be overly large, either; there’s the Master, of course, probably another person to see to the Sanctum’s day-to-day tasks, and maybe a handful of acolytes and apprentices making a certain study of something that lives within the Sanctum or prefer to be within that time zone for some time while doing another job that they could do anywhere (such as the translations I mentioned). But because they do have that nifty alarm system, and the world is much more heterogeneous than it once was, the desire to keep sorcerers assigned to certain parts of the world appearing like people locally from there so as to draw less attention from locals is a custom that has more or less died out. And that has made the assignments much, much more flexible.

So yeah, I think in the modern era there is a bit more flexibility that wasn’t present in former eras because the world is smaller. With the alarm system connected to Kamar-Taj, which would have traffic 24 hours a day more than likely, you have a worldwide system of sorcerers with an eye on each Sanctum as well as a worldwide system of sorcerers that can go wherever they need to go to take care of dimensional issues as they come up.

[aelaer]

☕ How do the Sanctum works. Like, do Sanctum Masters get monthly allowance? If so, how? Where does it come from? Also, how come only Wong and Stephen were in it? How come only a master seem to be enough security? Low numbers? Enough power by themselves? Do they get to decide who is in and who isn't? (According to your theories, of course) 👀

Regarding the money questions:

Dude, dudeeeee. I wrote a long-ass meta about the finances of Kamar-Taj and the Sanctums way back in July that is probably my most passionate head canon regarding Kamar-Taj society. For anyone who doesn’t want to read an over-thousand-word meta about the financial status of Kamar-Taj and how they got all that money, I’ll summarize below.

The meta assumes three things as truth:

The law of conservation of mass (mass cannot be created or destroyed) is a truth in the MCU.

The Masters of the Mystic Arts are neutral good.

The three Sanctums can be found by others.

Then it goes into the quality of the clothing of sorcerers and the type of diets necessary to maintain the rigorous training taken on by the dozens of people living in Kamar-Taj, which means needed resources, which means money. I mention that London, Hong Kong, and New York are three of the most expensive cities in the world, which means very high property taxes, which means even more money.

Then I spend 500 words explaining how the Ancient One used the time stone to basically play the stock market, save insanely rare arts to auction off later, and basically become the master of insider trading which is a small price for the world to pay for the Masters of the Mystic Arts constantly saving their reality.

Long story short, the Order is filthy rich as an organization to take care of the mundane needs of its members as well as to keep local governments happy (with taxes) but its members are nowhere near such wealth, making little to no money. You can read about it in the link if you want to know the nitty-gritty details of my headcanon.

Why Wong and Stephen are the only ones seen in the Sanctum:

Just because they’re the only ones seen there on film doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who ever travel there or room there. I’ll break it down:

The Sanctum features for about 16 minutes in the first film (about 10 minutes from London’s fall to Stephen getting himself to a hospital, then 5 minutes between his return from the hospital to the second attack on the Sanctum going into the Mirror Dimension, then a minute at the end). Even with the additional 2 minutes of the new deleted scene, that’s not exactly a ton of time.

It’s even less time in Infinity War, clocking in at less than five minutes at the beginning.

I figure that Daniel Drumm - who we do see a bit more in another deleted scene, meditating - immediately evacuated any novices or apprentices that might have been there after London’s fall, and in doing so misses Strange’s arrival. By the time Stephen sees him a few minutes later, he’s back at the front, waiting for Kaecilius and the others. He clearly didn’t have time to get any other Masters to assist him, and likely they all went immediately to London to assess the situation before realizing that wait, New York or Hong Kong may need back up.

By the time Stephen gets back from the hospital (however long that scene took in real time), Mordo and the Ancient One are in New York, there’s likely a couple other Masters trying to repair London, and the rest are with what apprentices and acolytes can fight in Hong Kong. The Ancient One would have stayed in New York, but Stephen had to piss her off and she is gone that very, very important 2 minutes it takes for Kaecilius to come back and Stephen to dump them in the mirror dimension. Then of course we know what happens in Hong Kong where we see quite a few people.

I do think that the majority of sorcerers tend to stick around in Kamar-Taj overnight, but I believe that during the day (New York’s evening hours) you’d see a lot of foot traffic from Kamar-Taj, which also allows Stephen time to sleep as there are people awake from the other side of the world. I also think that Stephen’s needed for actual mystical threat wrangling so I love the idea that each Sanctum has a caretaker or steward of some sort to take care of the day-to-day runnings. The idea I got from keshwyn on AO3 - highly recommend her series of one shots around it, her OCs are brilliant. My post-Endgame OC for this role is this 60-something Italian woman that is a master emotional manipulator (which pleases Wong and scares Stephen shitless).

So yeah, there’s definitely foot traffic. We just haven’t seen it yet. Hopefully we’ll get a little more life in the Sanctum in the sequel.

How come only a master seem to be enough security? Low numbers? Enough power by themselves?

In the first film we heard a gong go through the area when London was attacked, so clearly they have some sort of alarm system for when there are attacks like that. I think it’s rather that a Master of the Sanctum is enough of a force to hold off an attack for a minute (or less) until reinforcements arrive.

But an alarm can only go off if its not disabled. I believe Kaecilius managed to disable all those alarms with his inside knowledge. I also believe that he was actually the former Master of the New York Sanctum just due to the comment he made to Daniel Drumm in the film; it would also explain how he knew exactly where to hit the Sanctum with what spell, and how he managed to disable the alarm for London until it was too late, and how we didn’t get any intervention from anyone for both of New York’s attacks as well as the attack on Hong Kong (that Stephen and Mordo would have heard just before going there). This is also how Kaecilius knew that, despite New York not being completely destroyed, that he had managed enough damage to its seal so long as he completely obliterated Hong Kong to open a portal to the Dark Dimension.

So yeah, basically if a former Master of a Sanctum attacks the Sanctums, there are serious security issues. This must not have happened in the past before for it to be addressed. I’d like to think Stephen as his eventual Sorcerer Supreme self looks further into closing that small, but significant loophole.

Do they get to decide who is in and who isn’t? 

I think anyone who is an apprentice or higher can go into a Sanctum to visit, and outsiders are up to the discretion of the Master of the Sanctum which is only overruled by the Sorcerer Supreme.

If they’re banning someone within Kamar-Taj from entering, that’s a significant issue in a small society that needs to be addressed by either a council of Masters or the Sorcerer Supreme. It just wouldn’t work in such a small group with such major responsibilities.

[aelaer]

What if the whole world somehow knew about Stephen saving Earth from Dormammu by repeatedly fighting and dying? Like how the world knew about Tony flying into a wormhole to save a city from being nuked. My first thought is that some would think he's Jesus lol. Would they praise him? Worship him? Blame him? Would he be better off with them not knowing? (1/2)

After the path of growth Stephen went through in the first movie, I don't think he'd want to be known like this. That sort of fame would probably have him avoiding the public as much as he could. Can you imagine, especially as a new, fledging sorcerer? He'd probably feel pressured to continue to learn as much as possible.

There is something tragic in no one knowing his work, but at the same time with the whole world knowing about a world-eater and one guy stopping it? Tony was used to paparazzi and the fame. Stephen definitely wasn't, not by the general public.

(Guess which story carries a storyline similar to this? Yup, my favorite one! Ah anyone who hasn't read Signature Move yet needs to do so now. She covered worldwide fame and the consequences of it so well. Though Stephen wasn't a fledging sorcerer in this story.)

[aelaer]

☕ Stephen's backstory, comics vs MCU. Just how much would you like them to be alike? Would you be interested in Stephen having a new background? Or would you prefer the Donna timeline to be there? What about Victor, too? 👀

As you know, we really don’t have a lot of information on MCU Stephen’s backstory other than that Donna’s death was filmed at some point, we just haven’t seen anything of it. I can tell you what similarities I do and don’t want, at least:

Stephen’s dad:

Name: His name is Eugene, but I am fine with them updating the name for something more common to babies born in the 50s (as opposed to the 1900s) to fit with the timeline being moved up in the MCU.

Personality: This is a quote taken from the Expanded History of Stephen Strange on the 616 Marvel Wiki that sums up Eugene’s personality:

“However the wonderment of childhood was quickly quashed by Stephen's father Eugene, who was a no nonsense businessman who often chastised his children for pursuing activities that he considered a waste of time, such as birthday celebrations. One day Stephen tried to show off the ribbon he won in a spelling bee, and was punished by his father. Seeking Eugene's approval, Stephen decided to become just like his father, dismissing anything other than the pursuit of money as a trivial waste of time.”

I 100% do not want this. I find the trope of “distant from dad because he was emotionally/physically abusive” a really tired one; there are thousands of ways for families to fall apart, and abuse doesn’t need to be a part of any of them. No one necessarily needs to be fully in the right, and no one needs to be fully in the wrong. And frankly put, that’s how a lot of real relationship problems actually work.

Frankly put I think it would be a million times more interesting if they weren’t exactly close due to differences in interests and personalities, but that he let Stephen be a kid, and when he got accepted to some of the most prestigious colleges he was stoked. I definitely don’t see him as a backwater hillbilly who wants Stephen to be a farmer rather than a rich doctor-- and that’s a trope I really dislike as well, as it suggests that people from poorer, less educated families living out in the middle of nowhere don’t want to see their children wildly succeed and live their own lives. It’s a real disservice and ugly stereotype of people living in the rural parts of the United States.

I would be much, much more interested in seeing their relationship deteriorate from amicable to non-existent due to the tragedy of Donna’s death. Eugene loses himself in functional alcoholism and Stephen to his studies.

Stephen’s mom:

Name: Beverly is another name that sounds good in the 1900s and a bit outdated for the 50s, though not nearly as much as Eugene. Again, I’m fine with the same name or an updated name.

Personality: There’s very little said about her from what the Wiki says. All I could find is:

“Stephen lost himself in his work and a few years later he was called back home when he heard news that his mother was on her death bed. Her final words to Stephen were to look after his brother Victor.”

So a lot leaves it up to the imagination. In my headcanon, she’s the one that wants Stephen to go to college at one of the more local universities so he can drive back to visit on the weekends, or at least they could drive out to the city once a month. She’s the one that needs a little persuasion about how awesome his scholarships to those fancy universities out east are, but she accepts it and the first year of Stephen’s undergrad works out really well.

Then Donna dies, and nothing is ever the same again. I expanded upon her (and Eugene’s) personalities and my own headcanons of them during Whumptober in the prompt “Scars”, so you can see how I see it all playing out with her and her eventual death there if you want.

Donna:

She has to remain Donna, no renaming for her. Donna’s not too old fashioned either so it can work fine for a 1980′s baby. Basically I’d like her story to remain more or less as it is: Stephen’s back in Nebraska after his first year of college (at 19) and she’s 17 and they just have a jolly good time with a bunch of friends out at a lake, and then she dies in a freak accident.

And the family completely falls apart from there.

Victor:

He’s the one that I’m not sure about at all. I didn’t even include him in my fanfic because he seemed like a third (or fifth) wheel in this particular family dynamic. I realllllyyyy dislike the comic book canon for him, too.

So I’d be fine with him being completely left out of the MCU. However, if he were to make an appearance, I’d be okay with the following:

Older, not younger, than Stephen. Canonically he’s 8 or 9 years younger than Stephen, making him 10 or 11 at the time of Donna’s death. Even if Stephen is grieving, I find it very difficult imagining the MCU Stephen abandoning his kid brother completely to college. I am the eldest in my family and I have a 14 year gap between my youngest sibling; such a thing as one of our middle siblings dying would make me more fiercely protective and want to get closer to my youngest sibling. And while comic!Stephen threw himself into “money money money” due to his dad, in my headcanon Eugene isn’t a completely emotionless prick, so that early influence wouldn’t be present. The breaking of the family occurs due to Donna’s tragedy. A kid sibling being present doesn’t as easily fit the equation with MCU Stephen’s personality. I might be projecting my own fierce love for the baby of the family, but MCU Stephen just isn’t THAT big of a prick. Arrogant for sure, and self-centered and self-important before the accident, yeah. But kid siblings are kid siblings, and that’s another thing altogether.

Much older than Stephen. But I wouldn’t want him to be too close to Stephen either in order for the sundering to be complete. There’d need to be a significant age gap and Victor’s personality would need to be the one that has him pulling away early on, leaving him as a sibling you’d only see once a year, maybe. This would be Victor’s own choice. More importantly, it wouldn’t give Stephen another close sibling connection and the ability to better cut himself away from his parents.

No getting hit by a car and dying immediately after an argument about their dead dad. I mean honestly, talk about insanity. I know things like that might happen in RL, but in this fictional scenario, it feels so over the top to the point of incredulous hilarity. That’s not exactly a mood you want to inspire in an audience.

No getting revived by botched magic and turning into a vampire instead. Who the fuck thought that was a good story idea? I hate this plot. And it’d be horrid for MCU Stephen, who heard “Death gives life meaning” from the Ancient One just before she passed away to go through something like this. Not to mention he’s experienced coming back from death too many times to count, so he’d know just how not-necessarily-great that was, especially as some half-dead creature. Ugh.

No double superhero life. None. Nada. Zip. Probably an accountant or something. Has a wife and two kids. Average life.

He’s just an estranged elder sibling he saw every once in a while as a teenager, lost contact with after their dad’s death, and talked with maybe twice afterwards (including the days after the accident, which would be... interesting).

And that’s my headcanon ramble for today.

[aelaer]

☕ Also, why do you think he has them? Genetics? Stress? 👀

This is regarding Stephen's white hair.

I think it's both. I headcanon that they first appeared in undergrad due to genetics and became especially prominent during his residency due to stress.

He considered dyeing it at first, but realized that there was a bias in the medical community for "more experienced" surgeons, and that the grey helped make him appear older-- and thus a more experienced surgeon-- in his first couple years outside of residency. By the time he gained the experience and notoriety he desired, he was so used to the grey that dyeing was a non issue.

He's just very happy his family doesn't have a tendency to go bald. That would have been a nightmare.

[aelaer]

☕ Still Ragnarok, that teleportation thing that was only ever used in that movie, but also the clothes summoning in Infinity War! Liberty taken from the directors that Shall Not Be Spoken Of, or actual spells that will get used? And if so, how limited do you think it is? Inside of the Sanctum only?

Clothing: I believe it's an illusion spell, similar to the one Loki uses in the original Avengers. I read somewhere that it's called glamour, but when I actually tried to dig into the Marvel wiki, I found nothing regarding a spell to specifically change one's appearance- though I really thought I'd seen Doctor Strange do it in the comics a couple times.

I'm going to try a spell of summoning and see if I can call upon @doctorofmagic to bring to us their vast knowledge of strange arcane lore to bring clarity to the question of clothing changes and if it has a specific name beyond illusion within the comic world.

(The pun was very intended).

I believe the clothing illusion, whatever it's called, can be used everywhere.

But the teleportation trick. Stephen travels very differently in the comics, needing no tools to generally do so, so we only have the MCU to look at. Mordo says in the first film that sling rings are used to travel the multiverse and says nothing about their use in our universe, so it's possible that sorcerers can do teleportation spells with themselves. However, we never see any sorcerer actually doing this outside the Sanctum, never mind bringing other people with them. I mean I'd do that if I were Kaecilius or the Ancient One while fighting.

So I like to believe that this is a tool the Sanctum gives to the Master to use. I love the idea of the Sanctum having a minimal sentience and Stephen needing to basically develop a working relationship with it. And it just makes sense with what skills were (and were not) established in the first film.

Sort of related: We see items (like the tea) being replaced by beer. This could be a transformation spell, but it may be easier to pull off a summoning/teleportation and switch the two since just creating portals is Sorcery 101 in the films. If cutting through space is so easy, perhaps moving a non-living object through space is just as simple. Granted, this also may just be the Sanctum.

Still, it's all speculative at this point and really up to the viewer.

[aelaer]

☕ Which version of the mystic arts do you prefer, the one where you have to be worthy to use magic (a rule that only seems to apply to Stephen, unsurprisingly) from the comics or the MCU one in which all can learn and practice. Also, what do you think of the 'shouting your spells' thing? In the comics some (most? Everyone?) people need the ability to speak to do magic, not in the MCU. 👀

MCU, 100%.

However, I think that not everyone can learn magic *well* due to just individual inability. For instance, I *could* learn an instrument but I'd never learn it very well because I'm tone deaf and I don't think that's something you can fully correct. Another example is that people will only learn up to a certain level of math because their brain cannot fully comprehend more advanced mathematics, and we all have a different level of "I don't comprehend this anymore".

I view magic in the same light - everyone has potential, but everyone's ceiling of just how much they can learn differs. It's not necessarily tied into IQ as we've seen how the traditional IQ measurements don't really work for all applications of everything that can be learned in life - like music, for instance. Some very intelligent people can't play an instrument and some more "average" level IQ folks are musical geniuses. And there would be a percentage of the population that just couldn't do magic due to emotional intelligence and IQ, or just overall lacking in the core parts of intelligence as outlined in the multiple intelligence theory.

This wouldn't be like Harry Potter where you just have it or don't have it, but rather that the individual's ceiling of ability just isn't high enough for the core components of making magic, of which I imagine dips into several areas of intelligences based on the theory named above.

And those that have the perfect combination of it all end up being gifted and made for the Mystic Arts.

In regards to shouting spells, we've seen in more than one franchise that speaking spells works a lot better in written media than movies and TV. Take Harry Potter; spells were shouted throughout battles in the seven books, including the last battle. The film completely nixed that by the last film.

And imnsho, the Harry Potter spells sound way cooler than the comic book spells Stephen uses. There is a bit of silliness, especially in older comics, with the spoken spells that would take away from the seriousness that the MCU is trying to build. All the MCU humor is situational or through character commentary, not because the world itself is inherently silly. If the world itself was silly and not meant to be taken too seriously, the stakes for the fictional universe mean a heck lot less to the viewer.

That's not to say that I think Stan Lee and Steve Ditko didn't take their craft and character creation seriously. I'm pretty sure they loved their jobs and put amazing effort into it. But they were writing in a time where the comic writing style, when looked at in the 21st century, sounds ridiculous in several instances. Part of that is the names of the spoken spells, especially if it was every. single. time. a. spell. was. cast. The fight scenes would be a lot of yelling that, again, even Harry Potter ended up nixing for every battle spell in the films. I think it'd get old and take away some of the battle drama because they'd not have the years of history and emotional build up that the forbidden spells of Harry Potter did. They'd just be silly words.

And that's my two cents on magic.

[aelaer]

☕ Stephen's gloves in Ragnarok. Good? Bad? Horrendous? Too comic like? 👀

Not a fan. I like Ben's hands and the makeup team does such a freaking awesome job at the scars. Also that yellow color is just ugly.

I really want someone to ask about those things if they do put them on him again because they just aren't very nice looking gloves xD

[aelaer]

☕ The Sanctums, sentient? Magical? Normal building? Buzzing with magic or just homey? (Also, the style?)

Not exactly sentient, but alive in some manner. The best equivalent I can think of are plants that react to various stimuli in different ways. So they're not sentient but definitely alive in some manner.

The main thing about it is that it can read people and their intentions and do things according to what it senses. There's a fic on AO3 by anon (somewhere in my bookmarks) that has the Sanctum 'read' Stephen and chooses a set of rooms based on him, and I like that a lot. I also like the idea that the building has a 'don't pay attention to me' spell that is only reverted when someone has either the address or a pressing need for help.

I also believe its master (as well as the Sorcerer Supreme) can make their policies, for lack of better word, known to the building so it knows who to let in immediately, who to never let in (which is why Kaecilius couldn't enter it in the normal way) and so on.

And heck yeah, definitely buzzing with magic. I love the idea that because it's such a magical hub, that it sometimes attracts not very normal things, or can sometimes turn normal things abnormal (like the mold in one of the bathrooms that's grown eyes and refuses to get off the walls).

[aelaer]

☕ Christine 👀

I love Christine.

I love that she's a fellow doctor and not a nurse (one of my pet peeves in poorly-researched fanfic, considering she's called doctor several times in the film). Nurses are of course amazing and anyone is an idiot who thinks they are lesser than doctors, but consider Stephen's attitude before everything. He'd have been condescending as hell regarding the education level to nurses he didn't like, so having Christine on an "equal" ground as him helps in terms of having someone in the medical field who has the same knowledge base as him, to the point that they invented a technique together. I love that professional relationship.

I like that she is compassionate without being a pushover. When Stephen finally went too far and refused to apologize, she was right to leave him. You absolutely cannot help someone who doesn't want the help, and in the film's case it was help with moving on. Early on he didn't want that help at all. It's not until the very end that he is really able to. But that's compassion done right.

I hope they remain friends, but I'm not really rooting for a romantic relationship once more mostly due to Stephen. I think he ruined that opportunity due to how poorly he treated her both while they were dating (it was all about him) and while she was his only constant when he struggled after the accident. Basically, she's already a complete angel for what looked like forgiveness at the end of the film, and for remaining in his life in any capacity, but I don't think he deserves a second chance in the romantic realm with her. There's too much history. I'd like both of them to move on and remain friends, even better friends than before.

What may be neat is if she got together with Dr Jericho Drumm. I know I heard speculation of him being in the second film. His brother's history in the comics has already drastically changed with, instead of being in Haiti, that he was part of the Mystic Order and died in New York in the first film so that's a potential connection. I'm not sure if they should keep the voodoo connection or not; I don't know enough about the practice to know how well the comics translate to modern sensibilities.

I'm looking forward to seeing her play at least a bit of a role in the second film though. She's a good connection to the "real world" for both Stephen and the audience.

[aelaer]

☕ Stephen with a cut to his forehead vs a cut to his cheekbones. Hard choice isn't it. 👀

Cut to his forehead if caused by an environmental factor (debris, being shoved into a wall, etc). Cut to his cheek if caused directly by an attack from a bad guy or a bad guy's weapon.

Not hard at all. ;)