one trope that gets a solid airing in the Witcher is women’s magic being this chaotic power they are born with that works...
one trope that gets a solid airing in the Witcher is women’s magic being this chaotic power they are born with that works through them without training or even conscious awareness, like scared little girls turning out to be seething masses of eldritch energy while men are off being boring studying mathematics and training in the gym for hours to upskill.
“life may have treated you like shit but at least you have god-like powers” is certainly a more appealing proposition than having to study calculus while running a marathon as people throw daggers at you, but still.
Huh, this reminds me of a famous media creator (can’t remember whom – Joss Whedon, maybe?) who said that unlike girls, who just turn into women at some point, boys have to come of age by trial to become men. Seems like a similar view: men earn power, women just have it.
there’s definitely something where a girl becomes a woman by recognising the power already in her (occasionally via some ghastly menstruation fetishising) whereas a boy becomes a man by a trial to gain the approval of other men, although obviously there are also tons of stories in which a little boy turns out to have been the Chosen One this whole time and has awesome powers he never even knew about, like talking to snakes, while the little girl studies really hard.
in the Witcher I think Ciri who I keep spelling Siri represents female-vulnerability-is-merely-a-front-for-terrible-strength while Yennefer represents abuse-has-made-you-stronger-than-others and Calanthe of course is one-of-the-guys.
[yep still haven’t seen the second season]
Uh, the obvious question is how does Paul Atreides fit into this schema?