Two of the most important aspects of storytelling are character development and character growth. While they are related, there are significant differences in the two concepts as well; characters need to have some level of development before they can truly grow. However, a well-developed character can end up fairly static and unchanging (and in turn risk becoming uninteresting). The converse is harder to prove in the story; if there is no firm concept of a character’s motivations and personality, actual character growth tends to be difficult to determine.
In many ways, Gunnerkrigg Court’s Antimony Carver spent the entire first year at school revealing her background and fundamental aspects to her before shifting gears to her growth as a person. Early on, Antimony was a fairly emotionless girl; it would not be until the chapter A Handful of Dirt that we’d come to realize that Animony wasn’t emotionless… she was in shock over the death of her mother. Even with that moment of grief, Antimony was still fairly withdrawn and reserved.
Still, some initial growth was visible. You can watch Antimony’s progress as she slowly recovers from the loss of her mother through the physical contact she initiates with her best friend Kat. Indeed, even before she cried by Kat’s side under the cherry tree, she was coming to the defense of her friend; using a judo throw to stop the antagonistic behavior of a classmate, comforting Kat by telling her she has a lovely nose after another classmate insulted her, and so on. Kat is in some ways a replacement for the family Antimony has lost, and she is quite protective of her friend.
This tendency toward physical contact appears to be a carryover from her relationship with her mother, Surma. Even when Surma was sick in the hospital, she wasn’t shy at holding her daughter close… and this tendency toward physical expressions of love is something that has manifested in Antimony as she recovers. One touching example happened at the end of the school year with Antimony reaching out and taking her friend’s hand as they talked in her room. While shippers wanting to pair anything that moves (and some things that don’t) might see this as the blossoming of young lesbian love, I suspect it is something much simpler: a bond of sisterhood between two girls who are best friends.
Antimony has also started to open up more with the new school year. She has shown a recent mischievous streak in her, in teasing Kat over her crush on her parent’s friend (and their teacher), Mr. Eglamore and in siccing Reynardine (a mischievous spirit that inhabits a stuffed wolf doll she owns) on several youths verbally antagonizing her and Kat. Indeed, the latter incident is troublesome in that it shows an expansion of Antimony’s tendency to break rules. We’ve caught her cheating by copying her friend’s science homework, leaving school bounds without permission, stealing a childhood picture from her best friend’s parents, and more.
Perhaps part of this was a result of Mr. Eglamore’s own behavior toward Antimony; when he punished Antimony for leaving the school bounds without permission, he told Antimony that her own mother broke the rules. The difference was that Surma didn’t get caught. When Antimony was told that, she scolded Eglamore for telling her this… but she still took it to heart. It’s not yet clear if Antimony is rebelling in homage to her mother, or out of a disdain for the adults who appear incompetent and who have proven unable to protect her or her mother.
Character growth doesn’t need to be positive. Much as a cancer grows yet kills, so too can character growth be unhealthy for the character. What will be telling is Kat’s own reaction to Antimony’s actions. She looked shocked at Antimony siccing Reynardine… and both her parents are teachers, and authority-figures. If her own best friend, the girl Antimony thinks of as a sister disapproves of these actions, it could temper Antimony’s own acts of rebellion. But whatever happens, seeing Antimony unbend enough to tease and have fun is a welcome change from a young girl who once hid her pain behind an unemotional mask.
Webcomic Commentary – The use of language in comics
Like millions of other Americans this weekend, I succumbed to temptation and went to see the Iron Man movie. While the movie did an excellent job of introducing the character and concept to a viewing audience which predominantly knows little of the character or concept, what struck me was a moment early in the film when Stark’s captors recorded a message in arabic (I think), without the benefit of subtitles. This actually was important later in the film when the translated message revealed just how deep the villain’s plans went. Unfortunately, it is far more difficult to transpose this audience confusion into the prose aspect of comics.
When it comes to language differences, webcomics borrow a page from their print brethren, with text often given in English, with a notation or brackets revealing that the language is translated. The more elaborate comics will go so far as to provide the original language, often presenting a translation at the bottom of the panel or page. However, sometimes an artist will feel the need to present the same confusion characters feel to the reading audience. Thus we get word balloons full of gibberish, coherent only to those people who know the language or willing to suffer through a translation program. Even then, it doesn’t always work well.
Of course, there are times when the art carries understanding better than the words, such as one episode of Megatokyo two years ago, and another from a little over a year ago. In these cases, it is the characters themselves that convey understanding with expressions and body language. Indeed, the best of stories can be told without even a word spoken, relying only on character facial expressions and body language to tell the tale.
When it doesn’t work, such as this update of Evil Overlords United (specifically the Thingie back story), the audience is left with no knowledge of what’s going on and a confusion perhaps greater than that of the character. For those people who don’t other visiting forums, the language is a phonic cutting of Quebecan French and English (which means that online translation programs would be completely ineffectual). Even translations given on the site’s tagboard proved too transitory for the casual reader, who would find the scene beyond their comprehension and result in them shrugging and moving on to another comic, rather than struggle to understand what’s going on.
Seriously. What harm would there be in presenting a translation at the bottom of the page? It’s obvious that Zworgue doesn’t know what’s being said. Keeping the audience out of the loop makes no sense. There is nothing vital being said here, no secret of the villain that will be revealed with a “translate” button on a computer later in the movie. Nor is there any great story shown, using facial expressions and body language to help reveal either what is being said… or what effect those words give even without understanding.
Is there a time for not revealing what is being said in a comic? Definitely. If, like in Iron Man, the words are so vital that concealing them helps present a twist later in the story, then the words should be concealed. Inevitably, someone will translate it… but most of the audience will have no clue. But if the foreign words are used just for atmosphere, then a translation below the comic will help keep the audience happy and interested. Otherwise you risk losing your audience to other comics that don’t dick with their readers to that extent.
Addendum note: Once the character Zworgue was given a “babelfish” the artist went back and translated the rest of the comics. I feel that the gimmick was not successful, and that it’s far better for the audience to understand what’s being said (unless it is absolutely essential for the story for the audience not to know what’s going on) than to risk alienating readers when they’re lost in translation.
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