DEAR COMM, I'M AFRAID I'VE BEEN THINKING~ A DANGEROUS PASTTIME---I KNOW.
Hey guys!
Long time no see! Real life has been kicking my butt pretty good, and I SWEAR I'm still working on stuff for all you awesome people. Art, videos, animations, fic, etc. etc. etc. I SWEAR IT WILL BE COMING SOOOONNN ;A;
Anywhoooo~
IN THE MEAN TIME I was just really randomly thinking about something on my way in to work the other day and thought it might be a fun discussion. IT MAY HAVE already been discussed to death. I don't remember it being discussed as of when I was current in the comm months ago. *sob so much backlog to go through* so I'm HOPING it still hasn't been. If not, I'm sure this may be a different spin on it. Maybe. Possibly.
LET'S FIND OUT.
We established a while ago in some other discussions that the reason that a good majority of us are here are because we relate so strongly with Megamind. This is important because well, he's the main character, you're supposed to relate to him. It's his story after all.
What is interesting to me is that the majority of the community is made up of young adult females such as myself and we relate so very strongly to Megamind, but have a much harder time relating to Roxanne, the female lead. It may be Megamind's story but if Roxanne plays such a key role, you'd think girls might relate to the GIRL a little bit. But nope.
I mean, I know that several people in this community DO relate to Roxanne, but I know a majority DON'T and that's just fascinating to me.
Personally, I have trouble relating to female characters. I've always considered myself to be a girl, but I have NEVER once considered myself to be girly. (Which Roxanne isn't really all that girly but I'm talking in generalizations right now so we'll get to that later maybe.) In fact, doing things that might even remotely be considered "girly" make me uncomfortable because it's just so far out of my comfort zone.
I work in an office enviroment with a business casual dress code policy and I usually wear a bunch of dressy sweaters that have a fake blouse attached and blahblahblah. They're very comfortable. Problem is that it's summertime now and wearing those (although my office is VERY VERY cold and I had to put on my COAT yesterday) just isn't practical. I had bought a few dressy shirts that were more summer friendly and super cute specifically for the purpose of wearing them to work. But I put them on and I felt awkward but at the same time I'm sorta growing into them? My (female) coworkers complimented me on them so that helped my self confidence about the whole thing. And I'm finding myself you know, wanting to get my hair styled (because I'm sick of it just growing how I want it to grow) and all sorts of stuff and oh my GOD am I finally turning into a Real Girl? XD
But I digress, didn't mean to ramble (I do that a lot). But my point is that I relate more to this blue-headed male alien than the female lead who the female audience was probably SUPPOSED to relate to. It must be like the unexpected demographic of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. 23-26 year old boys. But we relate more to the alien boy for whom things always seemed to go wrong, more than the confident career woman for whom things seem to go right all the time. Minus kidnappings and incinerated not!boyfriends
In fact talking to other people and having taken many people to see the movie in theaters and showing many more people the movie on DVD/Bluray, several female friends of mine have expressed anger at Roxanne during the rain scene. This isn't uncommon even in the community, I know, but again it's just fascinating. That said, there are several reasons why that is.
1) We see the movie through Megamind's eyes so we're feeling for him way more in that scene than Roxanne.
2) We who relate so strongly to Megamind as being the kid that always fails because that's how our childhood was like and Roxanne is the kid who things seemed to have been just peachy (even though we have no proof of that) and was that kid that we wanted to be.
(A friend of mine is a prime example of this. She's not into the fandom, she shakes her head at me but is generally supportive of my crazy love because she's like that about GLEE. When I took her to see Megamind she laughed through the whole thing until the rain scene and then I totally heard her like "D:< I...I want to punch Roxanne in the face." and then I was like "*whisper whisper* oh but look she looked back" and she's like "...Yeah. >__> still want to punch her in the face." And while she was mostly joking. I know she feels that way for this very reason. Because this friend of mine WAS that kid and to some extent kinda still is that kid. And also she has been on the receiving end of many a "Did you really think I would ever be with you?")
3) And finally, I come from anime fandoms full of terrifying tweens (no offense if we have any tweens in this community. If you're here, then you probably act 20+ anyway.) who are all "fasdfkljdf NO. THIS CHARACTER IS MINE I'M GOING TO MARRY HIM AND AND--I MADE THIS PAPER MACHE REPLICA OF HIS HEAD JUST TO SHOW HOW MINE HE IS--IN FACT. IN FACT. MY UH....UNCLE. YES MY UNCLE WAS THE REAL ONE TO CREATE (insert show here) YEAH. (insert mangaka here) JUST STOLE HIS IDEA." <-- The terrifying side of fandom, paraphrased from a comic I found years and years ago.
Thankfully, this community seems to be free of the third one. XD But it could also be a reasoning behind this anger-at-Roxanne outside of the community or by lurkers perhaps.
Personally. I love Roxanne and I wasn't angry at her during that scene. I didn't really connect why I wasn't angry with her. I blamed it on her adorable breaking down face and Tina Fey's amazing delivery of lines, but since then, I've been talking to several people about this and here's the low down on why.
Roxanne just had the possibly WORST night EVER. She takes it VERY well and that's why it's not obvious, but let us review the facts.
1) Megamind, villain she didn't take very seriously that managed to kill friend and Hero Metro Man has taken over the city and is plotting something.
2) She's very close to finding out what the plot is. Bernard has been helping her. They're going on a date tonight and she got aaalll dressed up for him. <3
3) Titan. What's a Titan? --Oh holy hell, that's a Titan.
4) She. Almost. DIES. THREE. TIMES. Dropped into traffic, flung over a skyscraper, and then backed to the edge of Metro Tower.
5) Titan. Megamind's plan. Hal. Cameraman. Sort-of friend. Trying to warn him, trying to reason with him, oh epic anger. Great.
6) She had to CLIMB DOWN FROM THAT TOWER YOU KNOW. Because there was no utility door up there. She was at the very top. So she had to climb down just to get to the door that opens out onto the roof.
7) She STILL goes to her date with Bernard. I would have been like "oh Bernard, I'm really sorry I just kind of ALMOST DIED can you come over instead?" ...and Invderlava and I are writing a fic based off of that premise actually.
8) Out of everything that just happened. Megamind's plan turning Hal into a superhero so he can kick his butt, BERNARD is still there Bernard is a constant. Bernard is normal.
9) ...Bernard is Megamind.
10) Megamind has been lying to her for however long the montage lasts. She has said things to him that she never would have said to him. She kissed him. He had been in her apartment, she cared about him.
11) She realizes during the rain scene that he kinda wanted to be with her. But she doesn't know that any of that was real. We know it was him being himself, but for all she knows he was just lying about EVERYTHING.
In conclusion. I relate to Megamind more than I relate to Roxanne, this is usually the case with me, though. But we have all, all said things we didn't mean to hurt the someone who hurt us at one time or another. It could have had an effect, it could have been utterly pointless, but we've all done it. And you know, after that night I can forgive her for snapping at the villain who has been kidnapping her for years and then lied to her. Even if I relate to him. XD
And just to clarify, this hasn't been brought on by anything. I honestly have no idea where this even CAME from in MY head. So...
I guess this is kind of a two part discussion.
1) Relating to characters
2) Roxanne and her craptastic night.
=D AAANNNDD GO! <3<3<3<3
Long time no see! Real life has been kicking my butt pretty good, and I SWEAR I'm still working on stuff for all you awesome people. Art, videos, animations, fic, etc. etc. etc. I SWEAR IT WILL BE COMING SOOOONNN ;A;
Anywhoooo~
IN THE MEAN TIME I was just really randomly thinking about something on my way in to work the other day and thought it might be a fun discussion. IT MAY HAVE already been discussed to death. I don't remember it being discussed as of when I was current in the comm months ago. *sob so much backlog to go through* so I'm HOPING it still hasn't been. If not, I'm sure this may be a different spin on it. Maybe. Possibly.
LET'S FIND OUT.
We established a while ago in some other discussions that the reason that a good majority of us are here are because we relate so strongly with Megamind. This is important because well, he's the main character, you're supposed to relate to him. It's his story after all.
What is interesting to me is that the majority of the community is made up of young adult females such as myself and we relate so very strongly to Megamind, but have a much harder time relating to Roxanne, the female lead. It may be Megamind's story but if Roxanne plays such a key role, you'd think girls might relate to the GIRL a little bit. But nope.
I mean, I know that several people in this community DO relate to Roxanne, but I know a majority DON'T and that's just fascinating to me.
Personally, I have trouble relating to female characters. I've always considered myself to be a girl, but I have NEVER once considered myself to be girly. (Which Roxanne isn't really all that girly but I'm talking in generalizations right now so we'll get to that later maybe.) In fact, doing things that might even remotely be considered "girly" make me uncomfortable because it's just so far out of my comfort zone.
I work in an office enviroment with a business casual dress code policy and I usually wear a bunch of dressy sweaters that have a fake blouse attached and blahblahblah. They're very comfortable. Problem is that it's summertime now and wearing those (although my office is VERY VERY cold and I had to put on my COAT yesterday) just isn't practical. I had bought a few dressy shirts that were more summer friendly and super cute specifically for the purpose of wearing them to work. But I put them on and I felt awkward but at the same time I'm sorta growing into them? My (female) coworkers complimented me on them so that helped my self confidence about the whole thing. And I'm finding myself you know, wanting to get my hair styled (because I'm sick of it just growing how I want it to grow) and all sorts of stuff and oh my GOD am I finally turning into a Real Girl? XD
But I digress, didn't mean to ramble (I do that a lot). But my point is that I relate more to this blue-headed male alien than the female lead who the female audience was probably SUPPOSED to relate to. It must be like the unexpected demographic of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. 23-26 year old boys. But we relate more to the alien boy for whom things always seemed to go wrong, more than the confident career woman for whom things seem to go right all the time. Minus kidnappings and incinerated not!boyfriends
In fact talking to other people and having taken many people to see the movie in theaters and showing many more people the movie on DVD/Bluray, several female friends of mine have expressed anger at Roxanne during the rain scene. This isn't uncommon even in the community, I know, but again it's just fascinating. That said, there are several reasons why that is.
1) We see the movie through Megamind's eyes so we're feeling for him way more in that scene than Roxanne.
2) We who relate so strongly to Megamind as being the kid that always fails because that's how our childhood was like and Roxanne is the kid who things seemed to have been just peachy (even though we have no proof of that) and was that kid that we wanted to be.
(A friend of mine is a prime example of this. She's not into the fandom, she shakes her head at me but is generally supportive of my crazy love because she's like that about GLEE. When I took her to see Megamind she laughed through the whole thing until the rain scene and then I totally heard her like "D:< I...I want to punch Roxanne in the face." and then I was like "*whisper whisper* oh but look she looked back" and she's like "...Yeah. >__> still want to punch her in the face." And while she was mostly joking. I know she feels that way for this very reason. Because this friend of mine WAS that kid and to some extent kinda still is that kid. And also she has been on the receiving end of many a "Did you really think I would ever be with you?")
3) And finally, I come from anime fandoms full of terrifying tweens (no offense if we have any tweens in this community. If you're here, then you probably act 20+ anyway.) who are all "fasdfkljdf NO. THIS CHARACTER IS MINE I'M GOING TO MARRY HIM AND AND--I MADE THIS PAPER MACHE REPLICA OF HIS HEAD JUST TO SHOW HOW MINE HE IS--IN FACT. IN FACT. MY UH....UNCLE. YES MY UNCLE WAS THE REAL ONE TO CREATE (insert show here) YEAH. (insert mangaka here) JUST STOLE HIS IDEA." <-- The terrifying side of fandom, paraphrased from a comic I found years and years ago.
Thankfully, this community seems to be free of the third one. XD But it could also be a reasoning behind this anger-at-Roxanne outside of the community or by lurkers perhaps.
Personally. I love Roxanne and I wasn't angry at her during that scene. I didn't really connect why I wasn't angry with her. I blamed it on her adorable breaking down face and Tina Fey's amazing delivery of lines, but since then, I've been talking to several people about this and here's the low down on why.
Roxanne just had the possibly WORST night EVER. She takes it VERY well and that's why it's not obvious, but let us review the facts.
1) Megamind, villain she didn't take very seriously that managed to kill friend and Hero Metro Man has taken over the city and is plotting something.
2) She's very close to finding out what the plot is. Bernard has been helping her. They're going on a date tonight and she got aaalll dressed up for him. <3
3) Titan. What's a Titan? --Oh holy hell, that's a Titan.
4) She. Almost. DIES. THREE. TIMES. Dropped into traffic, flung over a skyscraper, and then backed to the edge of Metro Tower.
5) Titan. Megamind's plan. Hal. Cameraman. Sort-of friend. Trying to warn him, trying to reason with him, oh epic anger. Great.
6) She had to CLIMB DOWN FROM THAT TOWER YOU KNOW. Because there was no utility door up there. She was at the very top. So she had to climb down just to get to the door that opens out onto the roof.
7) She STILL goes to her date with Bernard. I would have been like "oh Bernard, I'm really sorry I just kind of ALMOST DIED can you come over instead?" ...and Invderlava and I are writing a fic based off of that premise actually.
8) Out of everything that just happened. Megamind's plan turning Hal into a superhero so he can kick his butt, BERNARD is still there Bernard is a constant. Bernard is normal.
9) ...Bernard is Megamind.
10) Megamind has been lying to her for however long the montage lasts. She has said things to him that she never would have said to him. She kissed him. He had been in her apartment, she cared about him.
11) She realizes during the rain scene that he kinda wanted to be with her. But she doesn't know that any of that was real. We know it was him being himself, but for all she knows he was just lying about EVERYTHING.
In conclusion. I relate to Megamind more than I relate to Roxanne, this is usually the case with me, though. But we have all, all said things we didn't mean to hurt the someone who hurt us at one time or another. It could have had an effect, it could have been utterly pointless, but we've all done it. And you know, after that night I can forgive her for snapping at the villain who has been kidnapping her for years and then lied to her. Even if I relate to him. XD
And just to clarify, this hasn't been brought on by anything. I honestly have no idea where this even CAME from in MY head. So...
I guess this is kind of a two part discussion.
1) Relating to characters
2) Roxanne and her craptastic night.
=D AAANNNDD GO! <3<3<3<3