Empathy for the Devil, by snake_easing
Empathy for the Devil
Or, Shamelessly Manipulating the Audience and You
My gratitude goes to mithen for her suggestions and comments; they led to significant changes and additions.
Stop me if you've heard this one:
You've always wanted to be part of something larger than yourself. Starfleet was a way to do something worthwhile and make your mother ( Read more... )
Or, Shamelessly Manipulating the Audience and You
My gratitude goes to mithen for her suggestions and comments; they led to significant changes and additions.
Stop me if you've heard this one:
You've always wanted to be part of something larger than yourself. Starfleet was a way to do something worthwhile and make your mother ( Read more... )
Condiment King is such a classic example of a Gotham rogue! Your essay reminds me that there are also times when writers put villains too far beyond the pale of empathy--the Toyman's obsession with toys could be a funny hobby, but make him a pedophile and no way. Dr. Light would be well-served by having a hobby beyond rape, yeah. Once you take away (even for one scene) our ability to feel for a villain, it's hard to ever get it back. Somehow murder isn't generally considered as something that puts a character "beyond the pale" as much, although obviously the less lethal villains have a better shot at being sympathetic.
"Gotham City Sirens" has a lot of flaws, but I'm finding it a really interesting read in how Dini finds ways to make Harley, Ivy, and Eddie empathetic without making them traditional good guys. There's a great sequence recently where Harley visits her family and we discover she's the only hard-working, motivated person among them, lol...okay, her motivations are weird and lethal, but who can't empathize with being exasperated with one's family?
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I could forgive Morrison (and the artist) everything, just for that.
I really don't get DC's death obsession. Who could look at this little bit of diversity and think that the DC universe would be richer if these two were removed?
Somehow murder isn't generally considered as something that puts a character "beyond the pale" as much
I've been thinking about that myself. I think it has to do with audience-identification with certain actions. I can conceive of a situation where I'd have to kill someone, for self-defense or whatever, and I can even conceive of a situation where it'd have to be done in cold blood. Torture is a further stretch, but the U.S. military managed to make that moral leap...
But, obviously, I'm never going to rape or molest someone. So I'm never going to identify with Dr. Light or gritty!Toyman. Yeah, sorry. Not happening.
That's really interesting, what you say about Harley. I might have to look that up.
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