introduce a bad that's badder than the existing bad

[kaigou]

Up to episode 17 on a series, and a new set of characters introduced have proven to be smug, condescending, and downright offensive. It's not like that's all an uncommon move by writers; if you're at all uncertain as to whether your main protagonists have full sympathy, bring in a character designed to be completely unsympathetic. It's peculiar, sometimes, how we -- as readers/viewers -- will fuss privately over characters we find less than sympathetic, but woe be to whomever voices that criticism out loud! Our original annoyance is subverted in favor of attacking the newcomer who doesn't have the 'history' we've developed with the character, whether the newcomer is a recently-arrived fan, an uninvolved friend, or even a new character inside the story.

It's a common move, alright, although I think some authors rely on it out of insecurity and not as a purposeful manipulation -- though sometimes the obvious intentionality of the latter can be even more annoying. (If I'm going to be emotionally manipulated by a story towards specific ends, then I'd like that manipulation to be seamless, please. Otherwise it's just a sledgehammer.)

Thing is, anytime I run across this kind of maneuver, I always think back to my freshman year in college. In my senior year of high school, I'd started the year dating jocks but spent the last semester dating a skater (who was, all other things aside, really a very nice and charming person). There were definite feather-ruffles going on, if slight sometimes, when D would appear with one or two or his friends in tow -- my parents could smell the reek of cigarette smoke on some of them, and severely disapproved, possibly more about that than about the studded army jackets or the spiked mohawk or the boots tromping across the nice rugs.

So when I went off to college, it seemed like the perfect card to send my father, halfway through my first semester. On the card's front, it said: "Dad! Guess what! I'm dating a guy who's got five tattoos, three piercings, rides a motorcycle, has a one-foot mohawk dyed bright green, and only has another two years on parole!"

On the inside, it said: "I'll dump him for fifty bucks." Which I thought was funny, and something my father would see the humor in.

Two weeks later, my father made a deposit into my bank account for a hundred dollars.

Go figure.

Comments

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I think they'd pay me to keep you, instead. Don't know what you did, but they're universally convinced you're all that and sliced bread. Must be the blue eyes.