spoilers follow for Ms. Marvel episode three and all earlier episodes, read at your own risk.
It makes sense that I talk about Representation in the episode which began in 1942, pre partition, British occupied India and featured an entire south Asian wedding as a major part of the episode, but that's not why I talk about representation, I mean it's one of the reasons, but the two main reasons are, firstly because of the incessant commercialization and sensationalization of representation in media till date and secondly because of the change in Ms. Marvel's powers.
I have said in previous Reviews how much I adore Ms. Marvel's representation how its just presented as something normal and not something that's shoved in your face, and how it shows both the positive and negative sides of a culture, i.e. presents it as it is.
In my opinion both shying away from certain elements of a culture, or forcing certain elements of a culture when the narrative doesn't call for it is something a viewer can "smell" and both will equally turn the viewer off.
For example, Ms. Marvel episode three's plot featured a wedding, and that was an organic part of the narrative as it was her brother's wedding, it also narratively played the role of something positive that can be then interrupted by the antagonists, in this case if the creators tried to forcefully make the wedding "less Muslim" or tried to push the camera away from it, it would very much so take away from the audiences experience of how happy Kamala is when the antagonists attack, while also making the audience feel like there is something missing.
Simultaneously, if there was no wedding in the narrative, and Kamala and her friends just out of the blue went to a random wedding, with no set up or warning and Kamala or someone else just started giving a Ted talk on Muslim weddings, damn right I would smell the corporate machine trying to get brownie points!
This is how representation works, you don't weave a narrative to forcefully include or exclude any event or culture, and one would imagine, in a place where one meets all kinds of people such as America, Representation would come naturally? But what do I know, I'm not American.
Secondly, the change in the origin story of her powers, in this episode, it is revealed that she is a Djinn who according to Wikipedia are invisible creatures in pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic mythology and theology. who can be both good and bad like humans and are called upon for protection or magical aid, often under the leadership of a king.
In this sense, her origin is a lot like moon Knight, as Khonshu is also a real life Egyptian god, who was explained to be from an alternate dimension and was worshipped as a god by humans, same goes for the Djinn in this episode, they are from an alternate dimension and are hence treated as supernatural creatures and are also tied to a legend of a group of exiled Djinns, dunno if its a real legend though, it didn't feel out of place at all though.
So now, that I have said all this, who the fuck are the Djinns? Or as the Episode says their official name is, the Clandestines?
Well, in Marvel Comics, the Clandestines, or Clan Destines as the are referred to as throughout stories that feature them are, the immortal Human Adam Destine from during the Crusades, Elayth, the Djinn and their children, they are literally a "clan" of "destines" destine being Adams last name and hence the Family name. if you think about it, that seems very similar to Kamala's MCU story.
Her Great Grandma was a Djinn, and her Great Grandfather, was probably human, though I can't say immortal, as he s clearly dead, although, what do I know.
And the Clandestines are presented in this episode as a family of super powered beings that are extremely long lived, so that's pretty similar, although you don't need a genius to spot the differences.
Now, going on the idea of there being Similarities, in original Clan Destine lore, the Matriarch Elayth was kept trapped in a Gem of great power, from which she was released by Adam in the Crusades, which lead to Adam's death and revival, post which they became lovers.
I wonder whether, Kamala's Great Grandmother had a similar story? I say so because Najma says in between the episode, Why would I help someone who betrayed me? And tries to show her a vision of the train, before The Department Of Damage Control(DODC) shows up and arrests Najma and her Gang, along with Kamran.
It is not a great leap to assume that this was the train that would lead Aisha and her family to Pakistan during partition, so Aisha is considered a traitor by Najma and the others, and maybe that's why Sana was separated from her family in the train, Najma was responsible, heck maybe that's why they went onto the train in the first place! And why would Najma want to take Sana? Well, maybe being a toddler, they hoped she would be easier to manipulate, and so Aisha saved Sana using her powers and gave the Bangle away to Sana.
This will definitely explain why they at first were kind to Kamala, but later turned hostile, not only are they desperate to get back, they hate Kamala's guts because she is Aisha's descendant. And why did Aisha disappear? Well Najma and Aisha fought, but without the Bangle, she lost and is now trapped similarly to how Elayth was trapped in the comics.
Well as far as theories go, I'm pretty proud of this one.
Also, Kamran isn't related to Kamala so that's a relief. Although knowing his comics backstory, Idk about him and Kamala being a thing, I mean anyways, the show is setting up Bruno as the love interest innit?
Let's see where this leads, hope the show keeps up its Quality.
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