I’ve only been reading The Wotch for two years now, and thus wasn’t around when the comic’s primary protagonist, Anne Onymous, was revealed to be immune to transformation magic that would reverse her gender. Considering that it’s become a meme for Anne to zap her male friends into women, the inability for Anne (or her teacher Miranda, for that matter) to be changed into boys seemed odd at the very least, and some fans protested at the inherent unfairness of the situation. The fact that Miranda, who was the Wotch before Anne, was likewise immune was a significant hint that there were forces at play that transcended claims of sexism or even mere comedic forces at play.

Three revelations have come to light concerning the Wotch (and the Worlock) that strongly hint that Anne remaining female is in fact an important story point. First, The powers of the Wotch are chaos-based. (Likewise, The Worlock’s powers seem grounded in principles of order and stasis.) Second, The initial Wotch was originally a man who ended up transformed into a woman and who, despite her discomfort in being a woman, is unable to change back. Third, Wotches seem to specialize in transformation magics. Why is this significant for our protagonist?

The Wotch and the Worlock were revealed to be a force of balance in the world, one working through chaos and change, the other through order and stasis. (In this, I am reminded of a print comic from DC Comics: Hawk and Dove.) You could view it as a form of Yin and Yang… and as part of that balance, one half of this duality must be female. And while it may seem stereotypical that women are thus associated with chaos, it is much truer that women are associated with constant change. Women bring life into the world (and thus bring change to it). Their very biology undergoes a monthly cycle of hormones (and while males also have a hormonal cycle, it tends to be more subdued). In short, it’s a stereotype because of the truth behind it. For that matter, the original Wotch also specialized in Transformation magics… possibly due to the chaos inherent in finding oneself a different gender… or different species, for that matter.

One thing to note is that Anne (and other Wotches) are not immune to transformation magic. Instead, the Wotches are forced to remain female in all forms (though I must admit some curiosity as to gender-neutral forms, as well as those that embody both genders). And as time has passed, we’ve seen Anne be as likely to transform a female friend male as the opposite. (Indeed, one female tertiary character is trying to work up the courage to ask Anne to turn her male; I’m curious as to if her friend, with whom she switched minds a couple times due to various magical mishaps, might likewise be hiding an interest in being a girl again, and it might be amusing to see a couple of side stories where they both end up switching genders without realizing the other did… and then going out on a date with both switched. But that’s just a personal aside.)

This of course does allow for some potentially powerful moments. The Big Bad of The Wotch has revealed his presence to Anne and admitted his plans to destroy all of creation. (I must applaud how cartoonists Anne and Robin handled their protagonist’s response: ridicule. I mean, destroy the world? Please. How many Bond villains have tried to do this? It makes sense for their protagonist to scoff at this relevation. It’s idiotic, at best! Insane at worse.) From what I remember, he plans on absorbing the power of the Wotch to do this… suggesting then that if we ever see Anne turned into a boy, then she has lost the power of the Wotch. And considering that even former Wotches seem to retain some element of being a Wotch….

Of course, such a scenario could happen without it being an End Game Scenario. Very few webcomics have looked into female-to-male Transformations, and this could allow for a glimpse into what it is to be a young man, seen through the eyes of a young woman who finds herself thrust into this world unexpectedly. How would she respond to her friends? How would they respond to a suddenly-male Anne? At the same time, a second plot would likely be running in the background as Anne’s mentor worked feverishly to figure out just what happened and how to restore her student to her old self. It might even silence some of the critics who claim Anne’s “blanket immunity” to being turned male is a form of sexism and Mary Sueism (though no doubt they’d find something else to gripe about).

In short, Anne’s gender-transformation immunity is fairly significant to the plot of the story. While there are some potentially fascinating story ideas possible if that immunity were removed (even if only temporarily), the comic isn’t hurt by the Wotches being female. Instead, it shows that some far-reaching aspects of this comic were planned quite early in the comic’s run. It also suggests that Anne’s favorite tactic might not work on the Big Bad when they finally fight. After all, if Wotches are always female….