Incredibles Rant
Hi, all! Today, I'm rabidly defending my favourite character from The Incredibles: the villain's totally hot assistant/possibly girlfriend, Mirage.
Picking a favourite from this cast is admittedly difficult, as nearly every character is made of pure awesome. But for whatever reason, possibly my dual obsessions with side characters and sexy wimminz of dubious morality, Mirage was still my favourite. And naturally, seems to be the bane of the rest of the fandom's existence.
Now, the dubious morality bit hasn't escaped me; I am well aware that switching sides AFTER most of the Supers have been messily killed doesn't excuse her part in Syndrome's plans, particularly when it's left a little ambiguous as to WHY she switched sides. It could have been Syndrome's utter lack of hesitation to murder a couple of kids to get back at their father, or it could have been his total lack of regard for her continued survival when she'd just put herself out there to protect him. Personally, I think it was both, which means that at least half her motivation can be seen as pretty selfish, even though I'd like to think that there are very few girls out there who would stick with a guy after he pulled a stunt like that.
Anyway, point being, no, she isn't a good person, and I totally accept this and find it a little hot. From what we know of her, she was a pretty integral part of the deaths of lots and lots of people, or at least the shiny thing that lured them to their deaths. She knew what Syndrome's plans were, and (possibly) the motivation for those plans, and she still went along with them, which means she's either not too bright, as crazy as he is, or simply didn't give a crap. She lied, manipulated, came onto a married man (not to mention, one slated for an encounter with the business end of an Omnidroid) like a drunken prom date, and showed no sign of remorse for her actions until her own safety, and that of a couple of cute little kiddies, was put at jeopardy. Even with the soft spot for kids, there's something seriously wrong with this girl.
However, this is all kind of moot, as none of it is why she gets the bashing. From what I've seen, most of the bashing Mirage gets comes from the Syndrome/Violet and Syndrome/Mary Sue sets, which really doesn't surprise me, as shipping seems to be the root of most of the character bashing out there. And, with this in mind, the reasons that she gets bashed are about as idiotic as one might expect.
1) She betrayed my poor Synnie-Wynnie! He's dead 'cause of her!
Uh...huh. And WHY is it okay for him to leave her to the tender mercies of a guy whose family he just presumably murdered, but it's not okay for her to get a LITTLE bit annoyed over it and grow a conscience as a result? And no, her lack of penis doesn't count as a valid reason. I know that Syndrome said he knew that Mr. Incredible wouldn't actually kill her, and he is kind of prone to playing chicken with people's lives, but I'm still having a hard time seeing where her anger was unjustified. Particularly when it nudged her into taking that tiny little baby-step towards something resembling redemption. Yup, girl leaves indifferent and mentally unstable lover after he attempts to murder children, girl gets promptly jumped on by shrieking fangirls with a fetish for watermelon-sized chin tumours. Only you, Internet. Only you.
And moving onto the second part: bitch, please. Syndrome pretty obviously forged his own path. His entire motivation was that a grown man with a duty to PROTECT PEOPLE wouldn't let him go charging into battle to very possibly get himself injured or killed.
(As a side-note, I fully accept that I'm in the severe minority here, but I was kind of baffled when I found out that the general fandom consensus saw Mr. Incredible as ABSOLUTELY FREAKING HORRIBLE for this heinous display of common sense. Seriously, what? He didn't let an unarmed, untrained kid go charging into battle, and he showed a slight shortage of patience while under a great deal of stress, so it's immediately his fault that the kid happened to be severely unbalanced? I mean, it's tragic that poor Li'l Buddy apparently had the kind of childhood that left him in that mental state, but my brain just isn't making the connection on how that's Bob's fault.)
Back to Why Syndrome's Bitsification is Not Mirage's Fault, the guy knowingly put people in a lot of danger so he could sweep in with his remote control and get the glory for "rescuing" them. Then, when he couldn't control the thing the easy way, he was swatting people out of the way left and right to escape. He didn't bother to, you know, expend a little effort to figure out what went wrong, or actually help people like he said he wanted to, or help the Incredibles + Frozone with his knowledge of the thing or anything like that - he just wanted to save his own ass. So then, when he realized that oh darn, someone else managed to take down his indestructible and unstoppable robot thingy, he threw another tantrum and tried to kidnap the offspring OF TWO SUPERHEROES!!! As long as we're assigning blame where it doesn't belong, why not blame Jack-Jack for objecting to being kidnapped? Or for being born in the first place? It makes about as much sense.
I guess Mirage could have made more of an effort to either get her seriously nutcase boss some help before all this happened, or stuck with him to keep him safe, but we don't know what their history was. The way he tried to get all cuddly-wuddly after she snapped at him, and the way she just swatted him off with no trace of surprise at the gesture, suggests to me that there was something romantic going on, but we don't know that for sure. Maybe she was just a hot employee that he liked to flirt with on occasion, and she cared about him enough to try to protect him, but not enough for her feelings to survive a blow like "wow, he really DOESN'T give a shit!" Because after all, why should she give a shit if he doesn't show any signs of it? Maybe they had a physical thing with no real emotion behind it (aside from her apparently caring enough to not particularly want to see him dead if she could do anything to stop it). Who knows, maybe she tried to get him help, and got shot down repeatedly. At any rate, she's not exactly the most mentally healthy person out there either, if she honestly saw nothing wrong with his plans until hurting kids became involved. Why is mental illness an excuse for Syndrome doing everything he did, but not for Mirage not stopping him?
2) She's trying to keep Syndrome from his true love, Violet!
Rrrrrrrright; I'm not going anywhere near this one - I don't want to get any crazy on me.
...No, I just can't resist. It's like poking around at an open wound: I know it's going to hurt and make a mess, but I just can't seem to resist. Yes, I'm seeking help.
Now, where the frilly heck does this accusation come from? Is it because she was trying to help the family escape the island? Because it's been a long time since I watched the movie and all, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't doing it to get Violet away from Syndrome, except in the sense that she didn't want to see Violet (or the rest of the family, remember them?) stuck on the island while the Omnidroid turned Whatever the Heck the City Was Called into a smoking crater. But hey, wasn't Syndrome on his way to the city by that point? OMG, she was trying to set them up! See? She's a Synlet shipper, too! You can pull your heads out of your asses and stop bashing her now!
But seriously, I've seen story after story where Mirage gets shoehorned into the role of the possessive bitch girlfriend, and it doesn't make a lick of sense. Judging from the movie (although, I'm starting to think there are two versions out there, and these kids are working with the one I never had the dubious pleasure of experiencing), if Syndrome ever actually became interested in Violet as a romantic prospect (which strikes me as pretty unlikely, as being bits does unfortunate things to a guy's sex drive), I'm pretty sure that Mirage would be intervening more in the interest of Violet's safety, even if it was just a mild warning that this guy doesn't really have a lot of regard for women (or men...or, like, anything other than himself), than because she wants the guy for herself.
3) She was OBVIOUSLY just with poor Syndrome for his money!
And...where does the movie indicate this? Like, at all? I mean, presumably he's paying her for working for him, so yeah, in that sense, she's there for the money. I'm pretty sure that if I ever ended up working for my sweetie (unlikely, as I'm in insurance and he's...still looking for a full-time field), I'd still be expecting to get paid. Other than that, until someone can show me any indication whatsoever that Mirage's loyalty was for Syndrome's bank account rather than for him, I'm going to continue to roll my eyes and make rude gestures every time someone brings this up as a reason for hating on her. Oh, wait, I know! She only shoved him out of the way of a homicidal Mr. Incredible because she knew he was concealing his wallet somewhere in that skintight outfit!
*blink*
Wow, I think I just gained some appreciation of what it's like to be braindead...
Whew. Anyway, that's my essay. It's not a good essay, but darnit, it was from the heart! Or...something around there.
Picking a favourite from this cast is admittedly difficult, as nearly every character is made of pure awesome. But for whatever reason, possibly my dual obsessions with side characters and sexy wimminz of dubious morality, Mirage was still my favourite. And naturally, seems to be the bane of the rest of the fandom's existence.
Now, the dubious morality bit hasn't escaped me; I am well aware that switching sides AFTER most of the Supers have been messily killed doesn't excuse her part in Syndrome's plans, particularly when it's left a little ambiguous as to WHY she switched sides. It could have been Syndrome's utter lack of hesitation to murder a couple of kids to get back at their father, or it could have been his total lack of regard for her continued survival when she'd just put herself out there to protect him. Personally, I think it was both, which means that at least half her motivation can be seen as pretty selfish, even though I'd like to think that there are very few girls out there who would stick with a guy after he pulled a stunt like that.
Anyway, point being, no, she isn't a good person, and I totally accept this and find it a little hot. From what we know of her, she was a pretty integral part of the deaths of lots and lots of people, or at least the shiny thing that lured them to their deaths. She knew what Syndrome's plans were, and (possibly) the motivation for those plans, and she still went along with them, which means she's either not too bright, as crazy as he is, or simply didn't give a crap. She lied, manipulated, came onto a married man (not to mention, one slated for an encounter with the business end of an Omnidroid) like a drunken prom date, and showed no sign of remorse for her actions until her own safety, and that of a couple of cute little kiddies, was put at jeopardy. Even with the soft spot for kids, there's something seriously wrong with this girl.
However, this is all kind of moot, as none of it is why she gets the bashing. From what I've seen, most of the bashing Mirage gets comes from the Syndrome/Violet and Syndrome/Mary Sue sets, which really doesn't surprise me, as shipping seems to be the root of most of the character bashing out there. And, with this in mind, the reasons that she gets bashed are about as idiotic as one might expect.
1) She betrayed my poor Synnie-Wynnie! He's dead 'cause of her!
Uh...huh. And WHY is it okay for him to leave her to the tender mercies of a guy whose family he just presumably murdered, but it's not okay for her to get a LITTLE bit annoyed over it and grow a conscience as a result? And no, her lack of penis doesn't count as a valid reason. I know that Syndrome said he knew that Mr. Incredible wouldn't actually kill her, and he is kind of prone to playing chicken with people's lives, but I'm still having a hard time seeing where her anger was unjustified. Particularly when it nudged her into taking that tiny little baby-step towards something resembling redemption. Yup, girl leaves indifferent and mentally unstable lover after he attempts to murder children, girl gets promptly jumped on by shrieking fangirls with a fetish for watermelon-sized chin tumours. Only you, Internet. Only you.
And moving onto the second part: bitch, please. Syndrome pretty obviously forged his own path. His entire motivation was that a grown man with a duty to PROTECT PEOPLE wouldn't let him go charging into battle to very possibly get himself injured or killed.
(As a side-note, I fully accept that I'm in the severe minority here, but I was kind of baffled when I found out that the general fandom consensus saw Mr. Incredible as ABSOLUTELY FREAKING HORRIBLE for this heinous display of common sense. Seriously, what? He didn't let an unarmed, untrained kid go charging into battle, and he showed a slight shortage of patience while under a great deal of stress, so it's immediately his fault that the kid happened to be severely unbalanced? I mean, it's tragic that poor Li'l Buddy apparently had the kind of childhood that left him in that mental state, but my brain just isn't making the connection on how that's Bob's fault.)
Back to Why Syndrome's Bitsification is Not Mirage's Fault, the guy knowingly put people in a lot of danger so he could sweep in with his remote control and get the glory for "rescuing" them. Then, when he couldn't control the thing the easy way, he was swatting people out of the way left and right to escape. He didn't bother to, you know, expend a little effort to figure out what went wrong, or actually help people like he said he wanted to, or help the Incredibles + Frozone with his knowledge of the thing or anything like that - he just wanted to save his own ass. So then, when he realized that oh darn, someone else managed to take down his indestructible and unstoppable robot thingy, he threw another tantrum and tried to kidnap the offspring OF TWO SUPERHEROES!!! As long as we're assigning blame where it doesn't belong, why not blame Jack-Jack for objecting to being kidnapped? Or for being born in the first place? It makes about as much sense.
I guess Mirage could have made more of an effort to either get her seriously nutcase boss some help before all this happened, or stuck with him to keep him safe, but we don't know what their history was. The way he tried to get all cuddly-wuddly after she snapped at him, and the way she just swatted him off with no trace of surprise at the gesture, suggests to me that there was something romantic going on, but we don't know that for sure. Maybe she was just a hot employee that he liked to flirt with on occasion, and she cared about him enough to try to protect him, but not enough for her feelings to survive a blow like "wow, he really DOESN'T give a shit!" Because after all, why should she give a shit if he doesn't show any signs of it? Maybe they had a physical thing with no real emotion behind it (aside from her apparently caring enough to not particularly want to see him dead if she could do anything to stop it). Who knows, maybe she tried to get him help, and got shot down repeatedly. At any rate, she's not exactly the most mentally healthy person out there either, if she honestly saw nothing wrong with his plans until hurting kids became involved. Why is mental illness an excuse for Syndrome doing everything he did, but not for Mirage not stopping him?
2) She's trying to keep Syndrome from his true love, Violet!
Rrrrrrrright; I'm not going anywhere near this one - I don't want to get any crazy on me.
...No, I just can't resist. It's like poking around at an open wound: I know it's going to hurt and make a mess, but I just can't seem to resist. Yes, I'm seeking help.
Now, where the frilly heck does this accusation come from? Is it because she was trying to help the family escape the island? Because it's been a long time since I watched the movie and all, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't doing it to get Violet away from Syndrome, except in the sense that she didn't want to see Violet (or the rest of the family, remember them?) stuck on the island while the Omnidroid turned Whatever the Heck the City Was Called into a smoking crater. But hey, wasn't Syndrome on his way to the city by that point? OMG, she was trying to set them up! See? She's a Synlet shipper, too! You can pull your heads out of your asses and stop bashing her now!
But seriously, I've seen story after story where Mirage gets shoehorned into the role of the possessive bitch girlfriend, and it doesn't make a lick of sense. Judging from the movie (although, I'm starting to think there are two versions out there, and these kids are working with the one I never had the dubious pleasure of experiencing), if Syndrome ever actually became interested in Violet as a romantic prospect (which strikes me as pretty unlikely, as being bits does unfortunate things to a guy's sex drive), I'm pretty sure that Mirage would be intervening more in the interest of Violet's safety, even if it was just a mild warning that this guy doesn't really have a lot of regard for women (or men...or, like, anything other than himself), than because she wants the guy for herself.
3) She was OBVIOUSLY just with poor Syndrome for his money!
And...where does the movie indicate this? Like, at all? I mean, presumably he's paying her for working for him, so yeah, in that sense, she's there for the money. I'm pretty sure that if I ever ended up working for my sweetie (unlikely, as I'm in insurance and he's...still looking for a full-time field), I'd still be expecting to get paid. Other than that, until someone can show me any indication whatsoever that Mirage's loyalty was for Syndrome's bank account rather than for him, I'm going to continue to roll my eyes and make rude gestures every time someone brings this up as a reason for hating on her. Oh, wait, I know! She only shoved him out of the way of a homicidal Mr. Incredible because she knew he was concealing his wallet somewhere in that skintight outfit!
*blink*
Wow, I think I just gained some appreciation of what it's like to be braindead...
Whew. Anyway, that's my essay. It's not a good essay, but darnit, it was from the heart! Or...something around there.