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We decided that although Jace is the planeswalker posterboy, each planeswalker needs a Vorthos magnifying glass. The MTGSalvation Wiki posts factual information about each planeswalker, but the truly diehard Vorthos will argue between games on the subtlety of each character and speak for an hour (or four) on podcasts analyzing characters. Documenting knowledge of planeswalkers is a community effort, and this is an effort to aid the process.
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Who Is Chandra?
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MJ: Chandra is a spunky go-getter. At least, I think that’s what we’re supposed to think. I posed the question to some ladies of MtG out there, and while her stubbornness is attractive to some, her shallowness is all too apparent to others. Her “don’t-mess-with-me” attitude seems crafted to appeal to young girls, like the female equivalent of the Style Guide’s notorious fourteen-year-old boy. But I’m not sure how effective this is, given that most women in Magic I know are much older than fourteen, and many of them are competitively minded, making Chandra’s unplayability the only characteristic that really stands out. Personally, I’d like to see a calmer, wittier Chandra similar to Donna on That 70s Show.
Mike: Chandra is an easily made persona for teenage boys. Hot = hot. Flame = sexual identity fantasized about but never mentioned. Men need some semblance of sex appeal. If fourteen-year-old boy is the style guide demographic, well, too-hot-to-handle woman fits that quite well.
She’s also creates a demographic problem. Chandra Nalaar, for those who haven’t been paying attention, is a woman. A strong, magically gifted woman, but a woman nonetheless. Unfortunately, a large majority of Magic players are not women. Do we know what percentage? It’s more than 50% and less than 100%. Between Jace and Chandra, then, gender-wise, which character is a new player more statistically likely to find resonant and relatable? Jace will always win, but having a vampish character somehow balances the two?
I don’t want to accuse Magic’s marketing of conscious sexism, but compare her to Princess Leia with layers of femininity. Is she just sexually charged?
MJ: Maybe “hormonally charged,” i.e., “being visited by Aunt Flo,” as the sistas in college put it; maybe that’s how women are supposed to relate to her.
Mike: Maybe her flame-induced rage could be from PMS; it’s a fair assessment, but women aren’t robots. They don’t wish to eliminate Y chromosomes from the Earth. Keep in mind, they hate females, too, and I doubt Chandra has female or male friends. To be honest, I doubt she has any friends. She is alone by default but has seemingly embraced her solitude. She consumes herself with discovery, destruction, and disenfranchisement with authority. It’s easier for her than to interact with others.
MJ: Interestingly, this antisocial component seems very traditionally nerd-antihero-masculine to me. All the planeswalkers share this alienation, though, which I think is intentional in order to resonate with Magic’s target demographic. It’s just more interesting in the profiles of the female ’walkers, since women in general are usually more group-minded. It would be intriguing to see if women who play Magic tend to actually be more loner/individual/private than the “average” female—which might throw some light from another angle onto the old debate of why women are such a minority in the game.
Mike: Initial glances at any Grand Prix or FNM will likely give you some evidence, MJ. Cheerleaders don’t appear to be a demographic.
MJ: Are the women who do end up in the Magic community more like the male nerd-antiheroes who play than they are like other women? Or, at least, do they perceive this to be true? Liliana and Chandra are extreme loners, and Elspeth is, too, emotionally, though on the surface she plays better with others. Are these female planeswalkers intended to resonate not only with lonely fourteen-year-old boys, but also with the particular type of woman likely to take up Magic?
Mike: I’m not sure if this is a by-product of marketing all the planeswalkers in a similar fashion or a wild swing that got you a triple for the WotC vs. Boeing softball league. I think it’s a by-product because of the lack of longitudinal studies available on female players. Check it: Try to find five studies on female CCG players. Go to video games and you’ll find a few, but that’s like comparing sparklers to M-80s, and Chandra hates sparklers.
What She Represents
Mike: We covered briefly how brand, creative, and marketing created Chandra to fit the mold of planeswalker and character, but her main, initial branding pitch is:
“Watch me light everything on fire!”
Which, as cool as burning things can be, doesn’t translate to much of anything relatable.
MJ: Some women, it should be noted, have let me know they’re very much aware of the blast-your-face-with-burn kinda angry-chick profile that Chandra has been relegated to.
Mike: I would think most women know that she isn’t one-dimensional. Every redhead ever when excited/yelling gets relegated to angry/fiery redhead, whether it’s warranted or not. The South Park gingers-don’t-have-souls episode hasn’t helped them.
MJ: Kind of like Asian women driving. Of course, when you look at pictures of the traffic situation in China, it kind of makes sense. You have to improvise.
Mike: Agreed. Her fiery attitude continues to alienates her. She is forced into a corner but has chosen the corner. Creative has made a character than men can interact with on a topical level of sexuality, but there isn’t any reason for people to search below the surface. Think ASU freshmen.
MJ: Nevertheless, angry, Jace-punching Chandra’s belief in her herself and singular focus on her goals is attractive on a very visceral level, same as with Bella in Twilight, whom we can’t help but keep tabs on.
Cue Kings of Leon Sex On Fire
Mike: The trope of fire = sexuality has been in the public since Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa at the very latest reference point. I won’t get into Greek art; I’ll let you research that yourself. Spoiler alert, it’s not even close to PG.
Mike: A clever MtG Salvation poster aligned a promotional artwork for M12 of Chandra to Lady Gaga and Chun-Li.
Mike: Is Lady Gaga really a sex symbol? Really? She barely looks like her. MTGSalvation is quick to find connections, but her face does not reference an adult model. Her thighs are developed, as is her chest, yet her face remains youthful. How old is Chandra? (Yes, immortal, as she’s a planeswalker; I get it.)
I don’t think she looks that much like Gaga. I even see more Maggie Gyllenhaal there, or the kid who plays Ronald Weasley in Harry Potter.
Hot.
MJ: Just because they’re both wearing two pounds of black eyeliner and have light hair doesn’t make this Chandra and Gaga look alike. If we were going to go down the pop-star comparison path (facially), it should’ve been Amy Winehouse.
Crazy? Check!
MJ: I agree that the face is almost prepubescent, though, while the body is definitely twenty-one-plus years
Mike: Steve Argyle has been really pushing Chandra in his alterations and sketches. The story behind this piece is amazing, and I recommend reading it:
Mike: She looks possibly twenty-five years old at maximum, though freckles do give people a youthful look. The goggles also make her appear younger. Seriously, though, freckles really make women appear younger than they are.
MJ: In terms of looks, everyone agrees she has great hair. She won my
Courtesy of Steve Argyle via Jeremy Froggert.
Mike: She is an interesting, hypersexual character. Steve Argyle loves painting her whenever possible, but not always in burnination mode:
MJ: From an artist’s standpoint, painting red hair is just fun, anyway. It’s so rare in real life that I think it gives characters that extra bit of allure, and creating art that involves fiery locks is indulgent. It’s exotic. You can ride the brown cow or you can pet the blood-bay racehorse. You can pet the black lab or the shiba inu. Red is fundamentally very appealing because of its scarcity. I used to dye my hair red. The reactions you get are amazing. And scary, ha! I’m sure part of it was that I was Asian + redheaded, which is even weirder, but also it’s a striking color. Plus, chemically red does things to your brain—it excites. And orange makes you hungry (which is why fast-food joints all had orange interiors back in the day). So if you have an even remotely attractive reddish-orange-haired girl walking down the street—whoa, watch out! There’s definitely going to be some stares and salivation left in her wake.
Mike: It definitely defined 1980s movies, along with pouty lip biting;
MJ: Chandra is getting older. I hope we see her become more nuanced as the character develops. What goes on in a female’s mind as she transitions from a raw-power, know-it-all, invincible chick to a skilled, confident, compassionate advocate or leader can be very interesting material, if given thoughtful treatment.
Mike: Indeed. Does she have maternal instincts? Can creative discuss sexuality, loneliness, and companionship while staying PG-13? What happens when Chandra has stuck it to the man everywhere? Will she use diplomacy? I’m not sure they’ve thought that far ahead (Sorin is over 9000 or so, and his personality is still pretty dynamic).
Arrogance
Mike: Chandra is supercharged, whether it’s fire and rage or a passion for life with her overt sexuality. Her dominance has created an arrogant character. Now, I’m not against arrogant women; most of the time, the perception is not reality. Of course, successful women feel pride in their work. If a woman is in business, can she become slightly arrogant? In this cutthroat world, more power to her.
MJ: I would say she’s more like a successful teenage actress than a businesswoman! You just know she’s headed for a Lohan-style crash-and-burn.
Not exactly #winning.
Mike: Chandra’s lack of looking ahead isn’t ignorance or a lack of mental capacity; she knows what can happen, but never thinks of it. Does she have ADD? Perhaps not medically, but her temper is short, her belief in her abilities so headstrong that it’s foolhardy. Ambition is met with resistance by many. “Why aren’t you content?” Her focus is on the future, the next spell, the new knowledge. Red is not traditionally the strongest color. It can be in brute strength, but she has neither brawn nor strategy to fully implement her full ability. She needs that mana fix. She needs a Lohan fix to subside her ambitious nature.
MJ: Arrogance only earns you an ankle bracelet—the kind that monitors your blood alcohol level—
Mike: —except this isn’t Hollywood, where a career can be reignited. Bad girls can fade away. (Good girls gone
Closing Thoughts
MJ: I thought about Chandra last night and realized that there’s probably more of her in us than we’d like to think. This might be why some girls really like her and others hate her, with fewer in-between opinions.
Who doesn’t want to just sometimes burn their enemies’ faces off (on the battlefield as well as in real life)? Who wouldn’t like to be able to be more impulsive? Haven’t we all been extremely arrogant and selfish when we’ve felt we “have the power” or are in a powerful position?
MJ: So some females are like “I get that,” and can readily identify with her, while others find her persona unappealing perhaps because they dislike those traits in themselves and are uncomfortable with the simplicity of the depiction. I’m sure this applies to some males as well. “Angry girls are angry equals spicy” and “Hot is hot” for some, while others will say “Uninteresting and predictable” or “Angry girls are hot only when accompanied by a good backstory.”
MJ: I think her duality makes her hard to place and hard to love by players. I think Chandra is at the cusp of being chopped. The game decides how important the characters are. Her first form (5cc) was fine, the second (6cc) was marginal. I cannot imagine planeswalkers going under 3cc. This means that Chandra has 3cc, 4cc (arguably the best cost), 7cc, and 8cc forms left. Since the character hasn’t been accepted or had a song made about her, her time is short. Liliana and Elspeth are simply more interesting. They have topical personalities with a variety of real emotions. (Nissa is, well, Elf tribal; she’ll always have her niche.) With Chandra, you have to simply omit her topical nature, whereas Liliana and Elspeth unveil their characters with each peel, building upon previous steps. Chandra’s potential is limited, and since Koth exists, I’m not sure if she’ll last into the next decade.
MJ: I think Chandra has a lot of potential, and I hope WotC continues to explore her storyline and puts in the work for us to get to know the deeper texture of her character. Then we can have spicy big action-flick explosions as well as a lot to explore during the quieter moments with Chandra.
Anyone who’s tried to play Red knows that if done wrong, bluntly and simplistically, it’s horrible, and you’re never going to have long-term success with the deck. If, however, you get surgical with your burn and have the patience and tenacity to wait for opportunities and the acquired knowledge of when to strike, it becomes a formidable force and a mentally stimulating deck that’s fun to pilot. I’d like to see Chandra grow up and become the latter.
