Implicit mental illness
What do people think about the portrayal of characters that seem to have a mental illness that is never actually described or talked about?
On Stargate Universe one of the soldiers (Sgt Spencer) is very agressive and, it seems to me at least, we're not meant to like him. Some stuff happens and he dies, not very sympathetically either.
In one episode, it comes out that he hasn't been sleeping because he has run out of sleeping pills and is beginning to come unraveled, which is either the direct cause (suicide) or contributes to it (pissing someone off enough for them to kill him). As someone with bipolar, his behavior screams to me that Spencer has it as well. It's not stereotypically bipolar, dysphoric ragey mania or mixed symptoms as opposed to euphoric mania or depressed as fuck.
ETA: a spoiler warning and a phrase that i forgot
On Stargate Universe one of the soldiers (Sgt Spencer) is very agressive and, it seems to me at least, we're not meant to like him. Some stuff happens and he dies, not very sympathetically either.
In one episode, it comes out that he hasn't been sleeping because he has run out of sleeping pills and is beginning to come unraveled, which is either the direct cause (suicide) or contributes to it (pissing someone off enough for them to kill him). As someone with bipolar, his behavior screams to me that Spencer has it as well. It's not stereotypically bipolar, dysphoric ragey mania or mixed symptoms as opposed to euphoric mania or depressed as fuck.
ETA: a spoiler warning and a phrase that i forgot