bernice summerfield pet peeves
Okay, so I know that it seems like I bitch all the time about shows I watch/read/listen to, so I at least want to start off with the reassurance that as much as this problem bothers me, I still really enjoy Benny - it's kind of like Doctor Who for adults; so like Torchwood if Jack weren't shit and we got to visit other places that weren't Earth and there wasn't a token minority being token with emphasised minority, but anyway, before I get into a huge rant on that I want to get into a perhaps huge (I dunno I haven't written it yet, it's just been stewing in my head on my walk home) rant about my issues with Benny.
So I enjoy my angst. It's wonderful when it's done well (though it's rarely done well nowadays it seems) and I like the insight we get into the character. We all have our personal demons - even if our life doesn't seem like it's anything to complain about comparatively, our own insecurities and neuroses can make a banal life utterly hectic, and it's certainly not as if Benny doesn't have an already hectic life. And I understand that she has been though a lot - I mean every other story seems to have her getting tortured - but the writers for Benny don't seem to handle this very well.
Is it just a part of her character? This is a genuine question because I guess we all have our own ways of dealing with our demons, but Benny's seems to be suddenly monologuing for about ten minutes about how wretched she is, or about how one time she had to live through something horrible at some time or another and it taught her a valuable lesson, and most of these soliloquies seem to have morals at the end of it.
It's just that it happens so abruptly. And yes, I do feel sorry for Benny when she tells them, but a lot of the time I'm just "well, okay?????" at the end of it and I'm unsure what to make of it because I felt like the writers just slapped me in the face and went "BY THE WAY BENNY IS FLAWED WE JUST WANTED TO REMIND YOU" and I went "... er, well I knew that."
I just finished listening to The Poison Seas, the one where Benny talks about how her life is stupid and crazy and she could just leave but she doesn't because she's home and stuff - I first thought she was just going to tell Neda that her life does suck but it's good too (which was the general gist of it except in the speech she emphasised the sucky part a lot more), but about a minute in I realised she was still talking and didn't seem about to stop - which surprisingly enough I never even feel for the Doctor, and he's supposed to be the One That Never Shuts Up. I guess the Doctor is a lot more closed off about how he feels - usually when he does get around to emotions~*~ the word count of his sentences tend to drop by a billion and yet in those few words he says a lot more than he would have while rambling on for an hour.
It bothers me not because I feel Benny is a happy-go-lucky character, I certainly don't feel that, but the way they put these bits in, where we're all supposed to realise that Benny is a bit broken and human and angsty just like we are, it just feels shoehorned. It's that stupid difference between showing and telling, and with this, they're telling me. Again.
(I may also be frustrated because I started on The Poison Seas right after finishing Gallifrey: Annihilation again and I really hate the ending of Annihilation sometimes. Oh Destroyer of Worlds, blah blah wah wah AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NARVIN'S INJURY HAS NO WEIGHT BECAUSE HE'S JUST PERFECTLY FINE NEXT EPISODE ANYWAY. WE NEEDED TO WRITE THIS SCENE IN BECAUSE NARVIN HADN'T TOLD ANYONE ABOUT HIM NOT BEING ABLE TO REGENERATE YET AND THEN WE DECIDED NOT TO MENTION IT AGAIN MAKING ALL OF THAT COMPLETELY POINTLESS. Boohoo I am the Destroyer of Worlds - you're right writers, I would have been completely insulted by you stealing an idea from New Who's Human Nature [not that it seemed that you would've - the Doctor was human in those episodes, it appeared to me that you were implying that Romana, Narvin, and Leela's memories were just suppressed, not all turned human], but this OH NO GENOCIDE that you put on Romana is NOT FAMILIAR TO ME AT ALL. "Genocide on a global scale", Prydon? LIKE WHEN HAVE TIME LORDS EVER DONE GENOCIDE ON A CONTINENTAL SCALE. I'm pretty sure by Time Lord standards 'global' is a bit pitiful, really. Augh.)
So, it bothers me. But then, technically the whole universe falling in love with Benny bothers me because this feels like a genderflip of "everyone is in love with the main character" which I dislike but apparently it's justified, idk. To flip the Bechdel test (not that it's an accurate thing) too, I don't think we ever hear Jason, Adrian, or Brax really talk about anything that isn't Benny, but sigh. And honestly, what is with Benny getting tortured every other episode? I'm not saying I don't feel sorry for her, but er, I get it, writers. Benny's life sucks. I understand.
Really.
(Also don't think I don't hear you talking flippantly about Jason's migraines there, Brax, you dick.)
So I enjoy my angst. It's wonderful when it's done well (though it's rarely done well nowadays it seems) and I like the insight we get into the character. We all have our personal demons - even if our life doesn't seem like it's anything to complain about comparatively, our own insecurities and neuroses can make a banal life utterly hectic, and it's certainly not as if Benny doesn't have an already hectic life. And I understand that she has been though a lot - I mean every other story seems to have her getting tortured - but the writers for Benny don't seem to handle this very well.
Is it just a part of her character? This is a genuine question because I guess we all have our own ways of dealing with our demons, but Benny's seems to be suddenly monologuing for about ten minutes about how wretched she is, or about how one time she had to live through something horrible at some time or another and it taught her a valuable lesson, and most of these soliloquies seem to have morals at the end of it.
It's just that it happens so abruptly. And yes, I do feel sorry for Benny when she tells them, but a lot of the time I'm just "well, okay?????" at the end of it and I'm unsure what to make of it because I felt like the writers just slapped me in the face and went "BY THE WAY BENNY IS FLAWED WE JUST WANTED TO REMIND YOU" and I went "... er, well I knew that."
I just finished listening to The Poison Seas, the one where Benny talks about how her life is stupid and crazy and she could just leave but she doesn't because she's home and stuff - I first thought she was just going to tell Neda that her life does suck but it's good too (which was the general gist of it except in the speech she emphasised the sucky part a lot more), but about a minute in I realised she was still talking and didn't seem about to stop - which surprisingly enough I never even feel for the Doctor, and he's supposed to be the One That Never Shuts Up. I guess the Doctor is a lot more closed off about how he feels - usually when he does get around to emotions~*~ the word count of his sentences tend to drop by a billion and yet in those few words he says a lot more than he would have while rambling on for an hour.
It bothers me not because I feel Benny is a happy-go-lucky character, I certainly don't feel that, but the way they put these bits in, where we're all supposed to realise that Benny is a bit broken and human and angsty just like we are, it just feels shoehorned. It's that stupid difference between showing and telling, and with this, they're telling me. Again.
(I may also be frustrated because I started on The Poison Seas right after finishing Gallifrey: Annihilation again and I really hate the ending of Annihilation sometimes. Oh Destroyer of Worlds, blah blah wah wah AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NARVIN'S INJURY HAS NO WEIGHT BECAUSE HE'S JUST PERFECTLY FINE NEXT EPISODE ANYWAY. WE NEEDED TO WRITE THIS SCENE IN BECAUSE NARVIN HADN'T TOLD ANYONE ABOUT HIM NOT BEING ABLE TO REGENERATE YET AND THEN WE DECIDED NOT TO MENTION IT AGAIN MAKING ALL OF THAT COMPLETELY POINTLESS. Boohoo I am the Destroyer of Worlds - you're right writers, I would have been completely insulted by you stealing an idea from New Who's Human Nature [not that it seemed that you would've - the Doctor was human in those episodes, it appeared to me that you were implying that Romana, Narvin, and Leela's memories were just suppressed, not all turned human], but this OH NO GENOCIDE that you put on Romana is NOT FAMILIAR TO ME AT ALL. "Genocide on a global scale", Prydon? LIKE WHEN HAVE TIME LORDS EVER DONE GENOCIDE ON A CONTINENTAL SCALE. I'm pretty sure by Time Lord standards 'global' is a bit pitiful, really. Augh.)
So, it bothers me. But then, technically the whole universe falling in love with Benny bothers me because this feels like a genderflip of "everyone is in love with the main character" which I dislike but apparently it's justified, idk. To flip the Bechdel test (not that it's an accurate thing) too, I don't think we ever hear Jason, Adrian, or Brax really talk about anything that isn't Benny, but sigh. And honestly, what is with Benny getting tortured every other episode? I'm not saying I don't feel sorry for her, but er, I get it, writers. Benny's life sucks. I understand.
Really.
(Also don't think I don't hear you talking flippantly about Jason's migraines there, Brax, you dick.)