【 Dr. Stephen Strange 】

Described by colleagues as stubborn, arrogant and ambitious, Stephen Strange excels at what he puts his mind to, helping him earn both his M.D and PhD concurrently and helped advance his rock star-eqsue career as a neurosurgeon. Stephen's relationship to and around medicine was a complicated one, a mix of of a genuine want to do the most good for the most people and obnoxious grandstanding where he could cherry-pick the most interesting cases and leave more mundane or life-risking surgeries to other people to perform. By Stephen's logic, why undertake a case that anyone in his field could do when he could attempt to discover something no-one else has before and further enhance the field. Saving individuals is only one instance of helping, whereas groundbreaking researching and new techniques save hundreds if not thousands. This ambition, a desire to help, and incredible hubris remain in Stephen today, though with adjusted priorities and ratio levels.

Where Stephen once had a narrowed and arguably immature and self-invested outlook on life and the world, Stephen's time spent on learning the Mystic Arts has allowed him to cultivate a wider sense of possibilities and an open-mindedness that allows him to push the boundaries of what it means to be a man and a sorcerer. In some ways, this means Stephen has developed a lot more chill and grown up a lot in a very short amount of time. In others... Well, he's still a bit of a cocky, lofty jerk. Now he's just got magic.

Highly effected by external stimuli, Stephen's demeanor can be flexible at best and unpredictable at worst. In some situations, he may show unending patience, while in others his tolerance levels can be exceedingly low. Where sometimes he may show great empathy, in others he is detached and cool. And where he may sometimes tread with care and great caution, in others he may take extreme risks seemingly on a whim. In a way, this flexibility can be read as Stephen reading situations and adapting his actions accordingly. At other times, really, he's just a hypocrite. Whatever his responses to are though, Stephen does very little without a good reason. Whether he shares his reasoning with others is another matter and that still leaves him looking like kind of a know-it-all... Which is true, Stephen does generally think he's right.

Intelligent, brimming with potential and ingenuity, Stephen's skill and passion lies in problem solving and working through puzzles. This served him well as a surgeon and now allows him to advance his skills as a sorcerer and find new, innovative ways to use (and bend) the ancient arts. There remains an open question about how far Stephen's renewed approach to life and his new re-training has or hasn't effected his hubris though and his tendency to push boundaries, break rules, and gamble with very high stakes remains very much in tact for Stephen. It remains to be seen how much bending the rules of the Mystic Arts will circle back around to him, but it seems a matter of when rather than if. In that sense, Stephen's core flaws remain very much in tact.

Dutiful to a fault, Stephen can and will endure great suffering and self-sacrifice for a greater purpose and the bigger picture and when he commits to something he does so with an unshakeable sense of resolve. If he has decided to subject himself to a loop of his own death for all eternity to stop a dark entity from destroying his world, Stephen will do it. He really does have that big dumb hero thing going on, unfortunately.

Positive Trait
• Creative Thinking

Stephen is highly intelligent and brimming with potential and ingenuity, with his skill and passion lying in problem solving, working through puzzles, and the process of discovery. This served him well as a surgeon, striving toward new techniques and working out possible methods to help patients in ways few other physicians would have been able to imagine and allowed him to gain both his M.D and PhD at the same time. In turn, his creative and flexible application of his intellect allows Stephen to advance his skills as a sorcerer and find new, innovative ways to use (and bend) the ancient arts. He has used this personal ability to advance far beyond his peers in just about every area he applies himself to, and in canon he's shown to advance his magical learning to a place where he out-grows his seniors and opts instead to teach himself. His creative thinking is also, ultimately, what leads to the defeat of Thanos; Stephen has the idea to use the Time Stone to look forward in time and witness all possible outcomes until he can find the single instance where they win. In finding this one possibility, he is able to tip the course of time in the direction most likely to lead to that desired outcome, while also knowing he can offer no guidance on this path or else risk it not coming to pass. Where Stephen once had a narrowed and arguably immature and self-invested outlook on life and the world, Stephen's time spent on learning the Mystic Arts has allowed him to cultivate a wider sense of possibilities and an open-mindedness that allows him to push the boundaries of what it means to be a man and a sorcerer, helping him to mature in many areas as well as show limitless possibilities for how his intelligence can be applied.

Negative Traits
• Hubris

Described by colleagues as stubborn, arrogant and ambitious, Stephen's greatest flaw remains his hubris. Stephen has a history of veering away from situations where he may be seen to fail, fearing that he may be seen as less of an expert in his field than he wishes to be seen. His relationship to and around medicine, for example, was a complicated one--a mix of of a genuine want to do the most good for the most people offset with obnoxious grandstanding where he could cherry-pick the most interesting cases and leave more mundane or life-risking surgeries to other people to perform. By Stephen's logic, saving individuals is only one instance of helping, whereas ground-breaking researching and new techniques save hundreds if not thousands, all with his name attached to it. While Stephen was learning the ways of the Mystic Arts, he not only reached a stage where he was teaching himself advanced magics, but also reached into areas of spellcasting that boarded onto reality-bending, believing himself ready irrespective of the warnings given to him by others. Wielding the Time Stone without knowing what it was initially, Stephen has been told in no uncertain terms that messing with things he doesn't fully understand have untold consequences and that everything has a cost. As a former colleague of the Mystic Arts has warned him: the payment, for his hubris, will come due one day.

• Stubborn

Dutiful to a fault, when Stephen has decided to do something then his will to do so is virtually unshakeable with his arrogance. In canon, this can manifest in several ways. One example a self-centered refusal to lend his medical skills in the ER rather than only taking high profile cases that he can guarantee success largely due to his own fear of encountering death and failure head on. His stubbornness can also make him incredibly arrogant--this stubbornness also lead Stephen to drain his personal funds and doggedly chase a medical solution to his hands being shattered in a car accident, but this also made him unable to hear or accept help from others suggesting he find a new path and resulted in him shattering his personal relationships. While he has arguably broadened his mind considerable since this time, his stubborn arrogance still remains in altered forms, often making him impulsive or resulting a martyr complex.

• Aloof

While Stephen has matured in many ways, he remains emotionally unavailable and unable to fully connect with others. Having lost his sister in childhood, Stephen entered medicine to help people, but throughout his career he maintained a clear emotional divide between himself and his patients and colleagues. This culminated with Stephen's own trauma of losing the use of his hands via an accident that lead to him lashing out at a friend and former lover, effectively pushing her away and leading to the end of their relationship almost entirely. Similarly, as keeper of the Time Stone, Stephen makes it clear to Tony Stark early on that if he is called on to protect the stone or any of the impromptu, temporary team mates he has, he will ultimately pick the stone. This leads Stephen to act in ways that make him difficult to read and inaccessible where he may often be sarcastic or dismissive toward others to maintain a careful line of distance between himself and them, leading Stephen to a life where he has very few close relationships.

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