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What 'Witch' Means in Gundam: Witch From Mercury




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Floriane



Joined: 27 Oct 2022
Posts: 43
PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:50 am Reply with quote
Thank you for the quality of your research and writting! It was a pleasure to read your article!
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 2023 2:03 pm Reply with quote
Many years ago, I wrote a graduate-level paper analyzing the European Witch-Craze, so I found the angle taken by this article to be very interesting indeed. The Hammer of Witches reference was a blatant allusion for anyone who's studied the subject, and I could certainly see using the GUND format being equated with making a pact with the Devil; thus, the ones who can use it without side effects are witches.

However, if that thematic through-line is intended in G-Witch, then it's a thin one so far, at best secondary or even tertiary to normal Gundam themes. The series also seems more interested in using it as flavoring rather than an actual angle of reflection and/or analysis. The Witch-Craze was ultimately at least as much a social phenomenon as it was a religious one, with religion being used as a hammer to deal with elements like social outcasts, nonconformists, and mental illness, as well as being used as a tool to scapegoat people for negative events which had no human cause. I can maybe see a little of that in the G-Witch, but it's too vague to be a point of emphasis.
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