Dr. Horrible and Gender and Race and All

[alixtii]

Well, it also not only fails the Bechdel test so badly that it not not passes it but flunks it so badly it could be sleeping with the professor and still not manage a D. Which is a function of the fact that there are only four speaking parts (at least so far) in the whole thing (and NPH, Nathan, and Felicia are all perfect for the roles)--but

Comments

[tacky_tramp]

I left a review on the official Facebook page, and I think I was the only person not to give it five stars -- I gave it four, and mentioned Penny's lack of agency as the reason. I'm crossing my fingers for a sweet turnaround in Act III. On dr_horriblesing, people have theorized that she might be Bad Horse!

And is it me, or are Pennys invariably sweet, frail, female love interests?

[alixtii]

Well, the first Penny I think of when I hear the name is Inspector Gadget's super-competent, take-charge-and-save-the-day-from-behind-the-scenes niece (I mean, obvious that hit my narrative kinks pretty hard back when I was six or whatever), so it's certainly not invariable.

I hope she's not Bad Horse--there's really no foundation laid for that, and it'd really invalidate pretty much everything we've heard Felicia sing so far. I mean, I'd love to watch Felicia rock a singing supervillain, but it'd be a cheap twist at this point. I think at the end of the day this forty-five minutes isn't a story about Penny's agency--or Capt. Hammer's, or Moist's, or anybody else's--and that's okay sometimes. Just not all the time.

[cereta]

explaining away the individual situation is always a bingo card response

I had a post written and never revised on the whole "individual versus pattern" thing, wherein one set of people keep asking "is this thing, taken solely on it's own, racist/sexist/etc?" and the other is asking, "is this thing part of a larger pattern withing which it is racist/sexist/etc?" I need to get back to that some day. It may be supplanted by a post entitled, "I'm criticizing Doyle, and you're defending Watson."

[kurosau]

Did you enjoy Superman: Doomsday? Or were you crying for that other reason?

[alixtii]

Well, I wasn't crying because it was so bad, if that's what you mean--although I suppose I did mourn the loss of the Superman animated series I remembered from the 90's. I'm not a purist, and I tend to get frustrated with people who object to adaptations on purist grounds, but I'm not sure I understood the purpose of the reboot, or the continuity into which this fit, which left me unsure of the significance of exactly what was going on--do supervillains other than Luthor exist in this 'verse? Which ones? Does Kara? Batman? The Justice League?

I suppose a film which makes me cry has affected me in some way, but since The Kid and Eight Crazy Nights both had me bawling I'm not sure "enjoy" is the right word--pretty much anything with the right mixture of will-to-poweriness and sentimentality will get me every time; I'm particularly susceptible to fictional funerals, with all that sudden outpouring of love and devotion. I get jealous of the corpse.

But yes, I enjoyed both Princess Diaries 2 and Superman: Doomsday, although of the two

[kurosau]

I was surprised that they managed to make it better than the comic book storyline. I'm just angry at it because the whole Doomsday storyline is a bad way to bring about the death of Superman. So many better options existed.

And yeah, crying because it was so bad was the other reason I was talking about.

[drifterskip]

Just happened to see this entry so I figured I'd put in a late vote.

[peasant_]

Given that no single story can tick the box for inclusion of every minority group I can never see the point in criticising any individual story for failing to include any one thing in particular. It would strike me as more productive for the criticisers to go off and write their own stories that do include the particular character or storyline or whatever that they wish to see. Otherwise it's really no different from people who complain there isn't enough unicorn fic - all they need to do to solve the problem is go write unicorn fic for themselves, Joss isn't beholden to write it for them. Because ultimately the only answer to why people aren't writing particular stories is because they aren't interested - so surely the place for the people who are interested to begin is by writing, or at the very least by engaging other authors' interest, not by criticising other people for lacking that interest. It seems to me it's better to do something positive rather than just negatively complain because other people aren't doing it for you. (