Line #1 Headscratchers/WITCH


1	* We know that the Heart of Kandrakar cannot be taken by force, but only given over by the keeper. Therefore, before Cassidy got the Heart, Nerissa had to give it of her own free will. And if she did, how can the whole story about how Nerissa became corrupted and killed Cassidy because of jealousy make any sense? Either this is a plot hole, or the story the WITCH girls are told is kind of MetaphoricallyTrue.
2	** Not really. The comics make it obvious that The Oracle can take it. The only reason Phobos failed was because while he was technically the Oracle, he had not yet been given the full powers. The backstory of the Oracle position also supports this- the first Oracle chose guardians.
3	*** Well, maybe I just forgot. Would you please remind what was the issue where it is stated that the Oracle could take the Heart? As for choosing Guardians, I used to think that the team of Guardians is supposed to resign sooner or later, and only then their successors are chosen.
4	*** I reread the part and apparently, not even the Oracle can TAKE it. The Heart can however decide to leave on its own, given a better choice. It's a living thinking thing. Likely what happened with Cassidy.
5	*** That or Nerissa too realized that something was wrong and agreed to pass it to Cassidy, but then went into withdrawal (she was all but stated to be ''addicted'' to the Heart's power) and became crazy.
6	** And then, another thing bugs me: if the Oracle actually could take the Heart against Nerissa's will, why didn't he do it again when she returned to storm the fortress? He tried using Resonance, he sent the Guardians to fight, he started some ritual... but why, if he could just get the Heart, leaving Nerissa virtually powerless?
7	*** ForgotAboutHisPowers. The Oracle could've teleported her into the sun, crushed with sheer mental powers(which actually is in 100000 ton range), wiped her memory, reality warped her into nothingness. Heck, he could've done this to any villain. And apparently, after rereading things, he couldn't take it away. Doesn't stop him from teleporting her into the sun though, as he's teleported Will against her will even when she had the heart. The Oracle is more powerful than even Elyon, who can purge an entire planet of evil within seconds. Arguably justified that he doesn't, he's not supposed to take action. The council as a whole however is allowed to do so.
8	*** And he could have done all this thing years ago, before Nerissa even were able to kill Cassidy. I remember Cassidy saying the Oracle let her die because they all played some role... Well, maybe the whole plot - from the moment Nerissa got corrupted and till her final battle with WITCH girls - was the Oracle's {{plan}} of some sort? He wanted Nerissa to become what she became because he needed such an enemy for some reason?
9	*** Of course, there is the age-old adage that says "power corrupts" with a bonus feature of "absolute power corrupts absolutely." We know that the figure of the Oracle is meant to be not so much an active leader as it is a placeholder for it. The Oracle is all-powerful, sure, but he is a figurehead because if the Oracle was to be corrupted, everything would go way, way South, hence, the "figure" is embedded with a non-interference policy. My take, anyway.
10	*** Confirmed by canon: the one time the Oracle took actively part to an adventure (namely pulling a DeusExMachina to prevent the Interpol from finding the identities of the Guardians) he got ''impeached'' because the Congregation felt he wasn't justified enough. And when he took back the job (as the replacement and instigator of the impeachment had been revealed to be [[spoiler: [[GrandTheftMe possessed by ''Phobos'']] ]] he managed to get enough freedom of action (not much, only the ability to make an urgent intervention without having to consult the Congregation) by having Yan Lin and Endarno as advisors and counterweight.
11	* This is gonna sound like a strange question but...Taranee's hair when she transforms. WHAT THE HELL?! First off, none of the other girls' hair really seems to change. So why does her hair change? And why that style? I dunno but it just personally bugged me because I think her civilian hair style is adorable, but that weird...WHATEVER the hell that is...just doesn't flatter her adorable face!
12	** I think it's for the same reason Will's guardian form is more endowed than the older version of Will. Probably she just likes that hair but her mom won't let her.
13	** I always thought it signified her repression as she tried to be a "good girl" and the hair was indicative of her desire to break away and be independent (it's more for Wild Mass Guessing but that's my take).
14	** I have always thought they were supposed to be dreadlocks, like her brother has, but styled in a way that it would not be hard to draw in dynamic poses. (New power made it worse. The hair the actress had in issue #104 looks better)
15	* Does anyone know how the comic's storyline would have gone had the creators not been replaced?
16	** Elyon would've been a villain I think, and I think Caleb also wasn't in the picture (which probably meant the Cornelia x Peter romance would've developed sooner).
17	* From the cartoon, does anyone know why Cornelia's hair is made of feathers?
18	** I thought they were leaves, her being the earth guardian and all
19	* If Caleb was conceived seventeen years ago and Nerissa was only freed from her imprisonment after Phoebos rose to power (thirteen years ago), does that mean the whole drama over her going evil and being imprisoned only happened less than seventeen years ago? And in turn does that mean she was disguising herself as the mage and seducing men for fun before going full on murderous evil?
20	** I was under the impression Nerissa was freed ''before'' Phobos' rise to power, and was actually the mastermind behind it. I mean, Phobos was a child at the time, and the Mage, as an adult and a woman of the Escanor line, had more than enough power to spank him into submission even as an old lady. That and Phobos did fight the Guardians before the Veil was raised, implying that Kandrakar sent its remaining Guardians (possibly with replacements for Cassidy and Nerissa) and Phobos (who was a ''child'') somehow brought the situation to a point that the Oracle preferred to seal him in than continue the battle, something he just hadn't the power to do (in the cartoon Hay Lin, when the Heart was at full power, kicked the ass of an adult and ''experienced'' Phobos while weakened by a recent loss of life force, three or five Guardians at full power against child Phobos would have been embarrassing).
21	** I thought it was the raising of the veil that allowed her to be freed since they couldn't keep an eye on her anymore. Maybe I'm just remembering things wrong however.
22	** If you're talking about the cartoon, Nerissa's chronology makes no sense at all. The older guardians are said to have fought Phobos on Zamballa. While the cartoon only shows three of them (meaning that Cassidy was probably already dead and Nerissa imprisoned, since Kadma leads), they look young. When Cassidy's ghost meets Nerissa, they say it's been forty years - which would mean that Phobos has been active and up to no good since at least thirty years (otherwise the guardians should be visibly older on Zamballa, and perhaps have gotten a replacement for lost teammates?). However, even if Phobos ''was'' a fresh-faced forty-year-old tyrant, Elyon is only a teenager, which would mean Elyon's parents allowed the tyranny of Phobos for years while they worked on another child...? Not to mention that Nerissa tells Julian she's been impersonating the Mage, and Julian seems to know where to look for a grave and knows how old the grave is...
23	*** Vague attempt at rationalizing everything. For Phobos, it could be like in the comic book, where he's implied to be some kind of EldritchAbomination who reincarnates periodically (with the one appearing in the series being the current one), thus Nerissa and co. would have fought and killed the previous one. For the grave thing... Julian and the Mage were ''really'' lovers and was the one who buried her after she was killed, only for Nerissa to wipe his memory and take the Mage's place in ''everything'' to keep her escape secret, and when she finally renounced the rouse Nerissa ([[BecomingTheMask who had grown to actually love him]]) restored his memories.
24	** It's entirely possible that the old Guardians retain their youthful appearance when they transform, the same way the new Guardians appear older. This is what happens later when Nerissa reunites them under her control. They all appear young again. Their Guardian forms may just have a default age. Also, it was after the attack on Zamballa that Kamda left the Guardians and became their new Queen. So it's quite likely that was when the old Guardians decided to retire and then put up the Veil to keep Phobos from attacking anywhere else. As for Nerissa escape, she mentioned that a portal opened in her prison that let her escape. After that the Mage took her in for a few years, until Nerissa killed her and assumed her identify. And Julian did NOT know where the grave was. In O for Obedience, Nerissa told him where it was and said that 'numbers do not lie'. When Julian found the grave, he saw the date on it and realised that the real Mage died before Caleb was born, meaning Nerissa was Caleb's mother.
25	* I know with the target audience the violence had to be pretty sanitized and bloodless. However they were already hacking around with everything from swords & battle-axes to medieval siege weapons to magical energies in the kiloton range soooo... all the rebels could think to smuggle across the veil were some radios, flashlights, and binoculars??? I think some assault rifles, shoulder launched ordinance, and copious amounts of mines & C4 would have gone a long way towards leveling the playing field against Phobos. No need to show the real results any more than they did with the equally bloody, crushy, and burny 12 Century toys Meridian already had.
26	** They had no idea how to procure them in useful numbers. And even if they had (or decided to ransack the police armory), Irma (whose father is a cop with a gun in the house. I know from personal experience that responsible cops tend to beat UsefulNotes/GunSafety in the heads of their children and, indirectly, grandchildren) would have freaked out and demanded the necessary UsefulNotes/GunSafety, making the girls realize ''why'' it would have been an horrible idea. Besides, radios, flashlights and binoculars already give a ''huge'' advantage against someone who doesn't have them (radios allow better coordination (and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII showed that inferior tanks with radios may overwhelm and defeat superior tanks without radio thanks to coordination), flashlights enable better moving at night, and binoculars allow to see much farther than with the naked eye and hit or run earlier)
27	* I'm surprised that nobody else has asked this, but [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what the hell happened to Phobos and Elyon's parents?]] Did I miss something? I mean, I heard that they died, but how? Phobos was shown to be somewhere between ten and fourteen at the time, and I don't think it would be very easy for a tween to just go in, kill his parents, hide the bodies, and then usurp the kingdom.
28	** I wrote a fanfiction about this(of course since it is a fanfiction it isn't canon but I believe it's very plausible)and in it Phobos turned his parents into roses then shredded and burned them. Usurping the kingdom was easy because he was the only heir left, but as I'm typing this I'm wondering if any of his parents had relatives that could've made a claim and if they did. I really need the creators to write a special about Phobos's backstory, can someone please make a petition?
29	** What is established clearly (and there's no {{Retcon}} IIRC) is that Elyon was taken away just around the time Phobos ascended to the Throne/their parents ''disappearance''. While I like the theory of the troper above me, I reckon it's simply to have this idea that he probably manipulated his parents and put them against one another, and when they were vulnerable enough be done with them. Also, poison is often a weapon in these types of killings. I wouldn't think much about it tho, the comic's always been inconsistent with Phobos' age. In the first issues it was implied he was as old as a thousand years (but that cannot be, considering Elyon aged like a normal girl), then roughly seemed to be in his late 20s, and then his ascension to the throne seemed to happen either in his late childhood or late teens...
30	* It always bugged me that Elyon was so willing to believe the words of a man she just met that she didn't even ask her friends for their side of the story. It is explained a little more in the cartoons as she was upset they didn't tell her the truth, but she doesn't even ask for an explanation. And it wasn't like her parents abused or mistreated her in any way,they really loved her and treated her like their own daughter yet she's perfectly fine with throwing them in prison. She even tried killing her friends several times because of what a brother she didn't even know existed until recently told her. In the cartoon she only believes them when it's nearly too late and her powers are getting drained. Elyon's sheer stupidity is so mind boggling, I have to wonder if Phobos used magic on her in addition to lying. On a side note, in issue #7 there are some soldiers who don't believe she's the princess. Does anyone know why not and why she didn't use her powers on them before Cornelia came?
31	** A lot of this can be blamed on ExecutiveMeddling: the original writers of WITCH had planned different ideas for the series, before getting screwed over by Disney around issue #7, and that's where the continuity seems a little wobbly (Elyon is suddenly best buddies with Cornelia despite no mention of this before, Caleb appears out of nowhere...). It's rather telling because before and after issues from 7 to 9 the continuity works well in general (save a few details here and there).
32	** That may be true, but it still doesn't explain why she thought her friends were evil just because a man she just met told her so. For example, I reread issue 5 and she says the Guardians are responsible for the people of Meridian's pain because they can't leave due to the Veil. But like I said before, only two people told her that story and she immediately believes it and attacks her friends, never mind the other two times she'd attacked them. You would think she'd ask a few more people or ask her friends for their side of the story. You'd also think she'd wonder why her brother isn't doing more to help the people if he's so powerful.
33	*** It really depends on what and how they told her. She is told she is the magical princess of another dimension, but they're trapped by the evil kandrakar, she gets some biased demonstrations, and then she sees her friends transforming and fighting "her" people. She got tricked by using a standard Magical Girl origin story.
34	*** It could also be that she's been receiving a lot of new information in relatively short time. She's suddenly the princess of another world, one set in a medieval fantasy time with no means of technologically advancing to be up to date with our current world's technologies; she has an actual brother who's been missing her for years, her friends are apparently the enemies of her world, and her parents aren't even her actual parents at all but her evil kidnappers. She doesn't know who to trust, if even her parents aren't who they claim to be. I reckon she was just confused and got closer to Cedric since he was the only one at the time who presented himself as an ally instead of an "enemy". Plus, since it was established that Will and Taranee had just recently arrived to Heatherfield, maybe she didn't trust them and felt they "corrupted" the team that had been established previously. Since all of the weird magic stuff happened just after Will came, it would feel a little coincidental for her.
35	** Original poster here. Thank you for your suggestions as this is really confusing and since I plan on addressing this in my fanfiction either as a oneshot or in a flashback I want to make sure that the reason I give Elyon for acting the way she did is plausible and makes sense. There are also a bunch of other things that aren't explained that bother me like why and how was Ludmoore able to make portals and why did the people going through them end up in different time periods, how did Cedric get a business without raising suspicion and how did he get the knowledge and funds to run it, and how bad was Phobos's rule already? We see life is hard for the people but they're going about their daily lives and they're not running in terror from soldiers and being dragged off the streets and we know they don't have a lot of food but we don't see any starving skeletons so it seems they have enough. Again, I do plan on putting all this in my fanfiction and I want to make sure it makes sense.
36	* How exactly do their powers work? Do they each get a fifth of the Heart's power or what? And the Aurameres are a little confusing. In the cartoon Miranda tries to destroy them because without them the Guardians are powerless but don't their powers come from the Heart of Kandrakar? And power-wise, the Heart is one of the most powerful magical items ever yet Elyon and Phobos wipe the floor with them. How does that happen? Also, how much does their Guardian form increase their powers, and how much more power does the New Power form give them? I would think that after the New Power they can fight enemies without transforming, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
37	** The Aurameres are the "essence" of the elements, and the Heart is merely a way for them to access it. Even Will is only using what the Heart allows(It is a sentient thing).
38	** So does that mean that they could've defeated Phobos but the Heart didn't give them enough power? We see it can act by itself when it absorbed the Seal of Phobos in issue 3 and shrunk the scuttler in issue 10, so it could've just shrunk Phobos or something. And I'm sure it could've easily taken out Nerissa and gotten Matt out of the book. Can it see in the future and didn't act because it knew everything would work out or does it only act by itself when the girls are in immediate danger?
39	* Whatever happened to Hallinor in the comics? Things seem to suggest she's dead, but we never really get a confirmation about it, and we don't see her either in Kandrakar or as a ghost of sorts a la Cassidy. Is her spirit just wondering on in the multiverse, not finding a place to rest?
40	** Actually, since Hallinor and Kadma where expelled from Kandrakar, if she's dead(which is the most likely option) she simple passed on to the in-universe afterlife
41	* How on Earth did Takeda make a portal to another world using cold? And why would he blame the Guardians for what happened to Mariko, never mind knowing about them and their powers in the first place? And how could Mariko's and Shinobu's minds go to the Fast World while everyone else went with their Physical bodies?
42	* It seems to me that Will holds the Idiot Ball a lot when it comes to using the Heart. She could've used it against Phobos or used it to get Matt out of the book. Aside from not having a plot or cool battle scenes, are there any other reasons why this would be? You'd also think she'd ask the Oracle what powers they each have and what the limits are. In a lot of issues they use powers that aren't explained or introduced and we don't know if all the girls can use them or only a specific Guardian( for example, the other girls use some type of transfiguration at some point or another but Irma is the only one who turns people into animals, and then only into toads. Is that because there's limits to her power or she just never experimented? Can the other girls turn people into animals or only the Water Guardian Can)?
43	* Is Elyon the Queen of the whole planet of Metamoor? I know all the action takes place in Meridian because it's the capital but no one mentions other cities or going to the other end of the planet or anything. No one mentions governors or mayors or anything of the sort either so does that mean she has to do everything herself?
44	* I've always wondered;can cartoon WITCH get the same powers as comic WITCH and vice-versa? For example,does comic Will have super-strength and can she shoot lightning and open folds? Can cartoon Irma turn people into frogs? And in both versions, now that the Heart absorbed the Seal of Phobos,can Will and all future Keepers shoot black lightning and summon that black gunk? And comic-wise, does anyone know all their secondary powers? In every arc if not every new issue they're all displaying new powers and we don't get any explanations.
45	* As every WITCH fan knows the comic does have a lot of plot-holes and inconsistencies, and while I do like the air of mystery it's very annoying as a fan and fanfiction writer to have to make assumptions on everything because the writers couldn't put in a few sentences explaining things in more detail. So here are a bunch of Phobos and Metamoor-related headscratchers that I hope fellow fans can help me answer. How old is Phobos? How powerful is he really? I mean, the Oracle had to isolate him and his world from the rest of the universe, but even if he's super powerful it's not that easy to conquer another world. Was Phobos planning on conquering other worlds in the first place, and how was he planning to get there? Can anyone just make a portal? Was Metamoor familiar with other planets? Was Phobos the the first male Escanor with such powers? How does the power of the Light of Meridian get passed down? Does it immediately go to the first-born daughter as soon as she's born, and does that mean the Queen has no more magic after? Can other Escanor children other than the Light be born with powers or was Phobos the only one? Is the Light of Meridian more powerful than the Heart of Kandrakar? Is Phobos really more powerful than all five Guardians put together and the Heart considering he overpowered them so easily or was it only due to their inexperience? How do the portals and time difference work? Is Ludmoore more powerful than the Guardians considering they didn't use their powers to free Matt? I have so much questions and would really appreciate it if people would try to help me answer them, and if you know if the authors answered any of these questions in an interview in English please tell me. Maybe we can also put other headscratchers here for other WITCH plotholes.
46	* Does anyone have an idea on how the magical outfits get chosen and how they appear? I mean, is there a laundry room or closet somewhere in Kandrakar filled with random shirts, skirts,shoes,and accessories in bright purple and blue that the Heart chooses from for each new generation? And how do these outfits get put together exactly, seeing as they just appear? Is there a fashion designer or is it completely random? And does each girl get her own closet? And what happens if the outfits get ripped or dirty like it sometimes happens in the comics? And how do the hairstyles get chosen and styled? I know I'm probably overthinking it, but someone mentioned it on tapatalk and now all I can think about is the girls trying to transform while some of the Elders of Kandrakar are grumbling and pulling out five sets of freshly laundered Guardian outfits from the dryer. And while we're on the subject, does anyone have the slightest idea on how the tights and color schemes for the tights and outfits got chosen?
47	** We see in a flashback that the earliest Guardians had more modest outfits, resembling Chinese hanfus (the comic basically suggests the origins of the Guardians on Earth began in ancient China). It seemed as time passed on the outfits changed to resemble the fashion of the times. There's even the idea that the outfits change based on the wearer's preferences and inner desires; based on how Cornelia, who tends to use long skirts or dresses, has an overly long skirt as her outfit. Will has low chest doubts and her Guardian form is more well endowed. Or how Hay Lin, who's in tune with her culture the most out of them all, has her outfit resembling a qipao. The girls in their natural forms are all pretty cute but plain and awkward looking at times and probably some of them wish to grow up to resemble a more beautiful and mature form (like how most teens wish to get out of their awkward acne-ridden teen phase to finally be beautiful young adults) It's probably a set of decisions and magic from the Heart of Kandrakar taking into considerations the girl's "heart's" desires.
48	* Can anyone explain WHAT THE HELL the Oracle was thinking when he imprisoned Nerissa? How on Earth were the other girls supposed to explain her disappearance to her family(and how did they)? The Guardians then were still Earth girls with families who most probably didn't know about their secrets so how can he think it was a good idea to make one of them disappear? Never mind the fact that leaving someone to rot in a stone coffin is not the way to make them repent. And of course, if Nerissa was able to do all those things like invade dreams can Will do that? And why didn't the Heart protect Cassidy, and how did the girls explain her disappearance? And what language was Halinor's diary written in and how did she learn it?
49	* One thing that has always made scratch my head is all the aliens coming to Earth and fitting in with(seemingly)no help.When Orube comes, we see her get into all kinds of hilarious situations and needing the Guardians to help her, but with all the Metamoorians? The Browns and Mrs. Rudolph each have a house which is kind of hard to get without a bank account, Mrs. Rudolph can teach math,and Cedric even has a well-known business!How does this make sense? Then we see that people like Ludmoore and Elias came but in the past, which has another problem of how were there portals when it sounds like they only started appearing in the first issue... Not to mention we see that other Metamoorians in other issues try to come and no one wonders how and where they will live. In the ninth issue a family comes over, and they have Mrs. Rudolph's help, but you still need papers and bank accounts and all that, not to mention is that family stuck on Earth now that the Veil was removed? And in the Ludmoore arc, Mr.Collins mentions that strange creatures were seen there, so does that mean more aliens went to live on Earth and managed without any help?

Context Headscratchers / WITCH