Easter Eggs: (Scarlet) Witch Ones Did You Find?

[tv echo]

Regarding the Ship of Theseus scene in the WandaVision finale...

WandaVision: Ship of Theseus Explained
By Alec Bojalad   March 5, 2021
https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/wandavision-ship-of-theseus-explained/

Quote

The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment so old that it’s not even clear who thought of it in the first place. The best known version of the puzzle (and the reason it’s often referred to as The Ship of Theseus) comes from Greek philosopher Plutarch who recounts the concept from Greek legend. He writes: 

“The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their places, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.”

What Plutarch is essentially asking here is “how often can you replace a part of something before it constitutes a new whole?” Since this is the MCU, let’s apply that logic to SHIELD’s surprisingly destroyable Helicarrier. Let’s say The Hulk destroys the powerful turbines that keep the helicarrier afloat, so SHIELD replaces them. Then The Chitauri invasion destroys the long runway atop the helicarrier so SHIELD replaces that. Finally, a HYDRA virus wrecks the internal computer system on the ship and that must be replaced as well. Do we have an entirely new helicarrier at this point? If so, at which point did the first helicarrier cease to be itself and become a new helicarrier? 

The Ship of Theseus thought experiment doesn’t always need to apply to a ship, obviously. It’s applicable to anything with replaceable parts. And the point of it all isn’t just to get in the weeds on the nature of carpentry and ship-building – it’s to delve deeper into the philosophical realms of identity and cognition. There is really no right answer to this question….or at least none that we’ve found yet. But that’s what makes the question worth asking.

Edited March 6, 2021 by tv echo

[ProudMary]

As a music geek, I immediately picked up on Ralph Bohner playing the first few notes of 311's song Amber, on his guitar. Lyric from that song: "Amber is the color of your energy."

[phalange]

The movie theater marquee in the last episode advertises a fictional movie, “Tannhauser Gate” which is a reference to Blade Runner.