Witch Hat Atelier - Vol. 8 Ch. 42

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@columbidae My guess is that they want to keep the worlds of witches and non-witches as separate as possible. A witch learning medicine means they have to learn it from non-witches, which means a greater chance of them spilling the secret about magic. Plus, non-witches might resent having to compete with witches in practicing medicine, when witches already have magic on their side.
 
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@Chrana Chapter 15 mentions that the medical witches fought against the forbidding of magic cast on flesh, prior to the day of conspiracy.

Chapter 30 goes into more detail, about how that rule was put in place due to how dangerous experiments that involved casting magic on flesh were. Since the day of conspiracy, witches are barred from learning medicine. It's implied that even learning about medicine (and detailed knowledge on how bodies work?) will just lead down the path to forbidden medical magic again.
 
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The doctors KNOW they can't learn magic however, there can't be any way they don't know the past about the medical witches... But the director didnt show any reaction of Tartar getting outed.

My current theory is that medicinal witches are still a thing but only in secret, even from other witches. This doesn't help my theory since no way would the director let this info fly out like that if she knew... Hmmm....
 
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Yep, it's laying down the ground work but the Brimhats are getting what they want, Coco's outside perspective and insight slowly creating a new faction to destroy the current status quo. I highly doubt the Brimhats are doing this out of spite though, and it's more them doing so for the survival of magic itself. The Brimhats themselves are a faction that strives magical perfection at all costs but it's quite clear that their magic has stagnated due to the lack of information exchange. All the Brimhats we've seen so far are self destructing due to their experiments plus I wouldn't be surprised that when one dies their magical research is also mostly destroyed
 
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Jeeze... just something as simple as learning about medicinal herbs is this dire.... secrets and secrets and secrets. Seems like in the end, keeping secrets is something all witches learn very well....
 

reu

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@friendly It's silly to think that someone who can move mountains wouldn't try to do something as simple as setting a bone, or figure out the threshold were a cure becomes a poison and vice versa.
Especially when their role as magical emergency services is so ingrained in them.
 
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Oh man, Tartar future witch-doctor incoming.
And form witch-doctor to necromancer is only a little step.
 
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this chapter's focus on apples as its revealed tartar is dabbling in forbidden knowledge??? mmm good ol' forbidden fruit imagery
 
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...Hmm, so much for my idea of creating an ink destroying medicine to get around the taboo of healing magic. There must be some sort of method to negate spells that have been etched directly on a person without surpassing the parameters of what is permitted...
 
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What Tartar is doing isnt bad, sure there were crazy witches in the past that used medical knowledge to do horrendous things but medicine is one of the most important steps of human society.

The fact that witch society prohibites the learning of medicine rises the probability of someone misusing this knowledge.

I hope this new arc really focus more on this personal situation and doesn't involve the brimhats, because if they get involved this would only become some "right vs wrong" situation and there is much more to this than that.
 
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This chapter is the good intention path, as adults fear to tread where children wander. But Tartar's reasoning is quite profound the brimhats use a very similar philosophy and the ancient wars were fought for many reasons some good and bad. The forbidden knowledge comes from a powerful need to heal this isn't something Tartar will give up, Coco clearly comes to magic in very different way and views it as much more dangerous. Her need to protect the ones she loves is going to lead to a strong internal conflict (probably one that will play out in the greater society as well).
 
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@alacaelum
I don't disagree that this little arc doesn't need the Brimhats per se, but at the same time I also don't at all agree that the Brimhats are (or have been portrayed as) "wrong" and them showing up would in no way make it "right vs wrong". What makes the conflict interesting is that there are very strong arguments on both sides. In fact we're seeing much of the same thing playing out IRL with advanced technology, medical or otherwise. Almost everything we develop is multiple use. The same genetic tech that allows us to so rapidly develop new vaccines, start to cure genetic illnesses, better heal injuries and so on could be used for bioweapons. Nuclear fission technology provides not just power but crucial isotopes used for medicine, while of course simultaneously enabling world devastating arsenals. The computers we use to talk to each other, collaborate globally, work and play, also provide avenues for mass manipulation and organization of evil. Etc etc. And the trend only looks to accelerate.

Ideally we'd find the right middle path, but if we ever had an actual nuclear war or grey goo scenario or something (and didn't all die) I can easily see an extreme counter reaction against advanced tech. Yet at the same time advanced tech has made lives better for billions, has in fact enabled "billions" to even exist in the first place (industrialization, synthetic nitrogen fixation, green revolution, understanding of disease). And the methods to create and enforce such a scenario would itself raise huge ethical issues, here for example they used magic for unilateral mass mind wiping and manipulation.

No easy answers for sure.
 
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@zanonyn That's the thing, i agree with you, and i didn't mean that the brimhats are wrong but as they are firm believers of their creed so are most of the "normal" witches, so when the two sides clash their argument does turn into a "right-wrong" one... they point the other as wrong and themselves as right, and in this is the beauty of the thing.

I put "right-wrong" instead of "good-evil" because i thought there was more space for analysis, the latter example is more direct, too direct.

I should have been specific but that comment would have been annoyingly long that way, but thanks for the opinion it was beautifully written.
 

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