Since its release in late September, Agatha All Along has cast a spell on critics and Marvel fans alike.

The last chapter of MCU The ever-expanding spellbook currently holds a respectable 82% on Rotten Tomatoes and attracted a impressive 9.3 million views worldwide within its first seven days on Disney Plus.

It is clear then that Agatha’s magic has managed to break the barrier. superhero apathy which has supposedly cursed Marvel fans in recent years.

However, as he watched Agatha, Teen, and her friends walk down the witches pathI couldn’t help but wonder what a real witch would think of the show. After all, according to 2021 census dataMore than 74,000 people in England and Wales identify as modern pagans, while another 13,000 explicitly identify as witches. So what do you think about your religion being used as a basis for another? superhero tv show?

On the path of the witches

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Get into Sarah Kerr, president of the Pagan Federation in the UK and a self-proclaimed witch. Sarah has been practicing the craft since she was 16 years old and currently works as a professional healer and witch.

So what did she do with Agatha all the time? Well, it’s good news for Kevin Feige and the team behind the show because Sarah was pretty thrilled with the whole thing.

“I enjoyed it,” he told me. “It was a great show. I love shows like this, even if every once in a while I watch them and say, ‘Oh God, here we go again.’ But actually, I really enjoyed this because they did a really good job of portraying the rise of energy for magical work, and understanding that at its core, witchcraft is about self-exploration.”

“It’s about growing as a person,” he continued. “It’s about exploring and understanding the world around you, and I think, even though it’s a little sensational, they captured that (idea) pretty well.”

Sarah was also quite taken with the character of Agatha, admitting that she admired the confidence of witches (something Agatha has in spades) before adding that one of the most important parts of modern witchcraft is building confidence and becoming more confident about yourself. same. However, what he liked most was the idea of ​​the Witch’s Path.

“I think what I liked most was that they captured the metaphor of the journey you take, because it is very much a journey when you start the craft. It is a lifelong journey that explores you deeper and deeper. So, I think for me that was pretty important, and Witch’s Path is obviously the symbolic metaphor within that series for that journey.”

Get behind me Mephisto!

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“I think that was really interesting. I’ve never really seen that portrayed before on film. There’s a ton about rituals and spell casting and all that kind of stuff. However, the actual journey that witches take when they begin to practice is rarely depicted. “That was really interesting to me.”

However, before Kevin and the other Marvel bigwigs get too confident that they have the witches on their side, it’s important to note that Sarah had some criticisms of the show. Sarah took issue with how sensational it was; No, we’re not talking about the way Marvel witches throw fireballs or fly; this has more to do with the darker aspects of witchcraft in the MCU and its connection to MephistoMarvel’s equivalent of Satan.

“I mean, number one, Satan doesn’t appear in most witch practices,” he explained when I asked him about Satan’s ties to witchcraft. “I can’t say that for all witches because, for some, it will be true. But I think there is a lot of emphasis placed on this dark entity, this dark lord, which for many practitioners, especially in the Western world, is simply not true.”

For Sarah, this is part of a larger problem with the portrayal of witches in the media, which has created a negative stereotype around their religion. “I think it’s (a stereotype) that’s centuries old, and I’m not necessarily talking about necessarily going back to the historical witch hunts,” he said. “It goes back a lot further, you know? And I think it’s not just based on witchcraft; It is based on the control of women.”

“I think in the Western world we have now reached a point where this is less of a problem. Women are no longer hunted for being witches. But it is something that is laughed at and misunderstood. There is still discrimination, that is why my organization exists.”

Sarah expanded on this idea a little further when we were talking about the general representation of witchcraft in the media and the difference between what we see on the big and small screen. He said that very often in the press and media, witchcraft is portrayed as “this evil thing because it deals with the dark side of life, with the unknown, with the side of life that people struggle to explain.” , but that is not your experience. of the trade at all.

What Marvel needs to do next

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Fortunately, Sarah believes that shows like Agatha All Along and characters like scarlet witch are helping to address this problem. “I think the more witches are portrayed in a positive light, I think that has a positive effect. We have seen a massive increase in the number of people practicing witchcraft… because people want something they can believe in and something that is under their control. Witchcraft offers that.”

So if Marvel wants to keep witches and warlocks around the world happy, what does Kevin Feige think he should do?

“Don’t change it because they’ve actually done an incredible job. Keep exploring those metaphors that are real within witchcraft. Ignore the tropes, ignore those stereotypes because a lot of them aren’t true anyway, but keep going because you’re actually doing a really good job with this.”

It seems to us that critics are not the only ones who fall under Agatha’s spell!

Have you already started walking the Witches’ Path? It’s never too late to start, but you’ll need to read our Agatha All Along Episodes 8 and 9 Streaming guide to know where to start. we are also celebrating Terror-Tober on Dexerto and we have put together lists that break down the 102 best horror movies and the Scariest moments in video game history.. Enjoy!