Tag Archives: Character development

Skin Horse

Posted on May 7, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Perhaps one of the toughest characters to develop in any story is the straight-man. The very nature of the straight-man is that he plays a support role from which the humorous elements can expand upon. Unfortunately, this can impede on the character taking a central role in the story (unless the story puts aside its more humorous elements for a bit). But while this is a central element for the character Sweetheart in Shaenon Garrity and Jeffrey Wells’ Skin Horse, today’s update had me realize there is another aspect to her personality that helps to explain much of her behavior and her actions toward her teammates.

But first I need to rewind a little to a previous storyline in which Sweetheart was upset that her coworker and subordinate Unity was busy gorging on lab-grown brains… and in doing so, becoming more intelligent. She would become downright dismissive of Unity and do her best to ignore Unity’s perceptions as to what was going on; as a result, the Skin Horse team failed to realize what was going on until it was nearly too late.

Looking forward to the latest update, and I noticed this pattern was unfolding once more. Sweetheart was dismissive of Unity’s perceptions concerning WhimsyCorp (which Unity either hallucinated or was visited by). Further, the moment Unity comes up with a logical and reasonable reason for Skin Horse to try and save WhimsyCorp (in that corporations are persons but not human… and thus under Skin Horse’s jurisdiction), Sweetheart accuses Unity of being on brains.

This is the moment I realized Sweetheart is threatened by other people’s intelligence. Nor is this a recent thing; when Tip first joined Skin Horse, Sweetheart was threatened by his obvious intelligence (and disdainful of Tip’s eccentricities, despite the fact these “non-professional” tendencies have helped the group on multiple occasions). Similarly, when Unity becomes smart, Sweetheart immediately becomes dismissive and brushes off any suggestions Unity may make. This distrust of other people’s intelligence even can be found in her opinion of their boss, the sentient bee swarm Gavotte.

As to why Sweetheart is so distrustful of other intelligences, I have to wonder if part of it lies with the fact Sweetheart is just an intelligent dog. She’s not even necessarily brilliant by human standards; she seems to thrive in a structured environment where there aren’t a lot of surprises. Within that setting, she does quite well. Outside it, however, she becomes defensive and unwilling to consider the opinions of others. And she’s aware of her limitations… and may very well be afraid that if she’s revealed to be just ordinary, she’ll lose everything she’s built.

The question ultimately is, what’s next for Sweetheart? What are her motivations? Is she afraid of being shown up by Tip… and later by Unity? Does her rank as team commander mean so much to her? And if so, why? In time, Garrity and Wells will likely expand on this and on Sweetheart. In the meantime, it’s clear Skin Horse has room to grow, even as the Skin Horse team slowly learn more of the subversive elements operating in the background of their world and why the massive cover-up on the Old War. And perhaps along the way we’ll learn more about Sweetheart… and see if she can overcome her fear and disdain of other intelligences before it’s too late.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Webcomic commentary

Tagged , ,

El Goonish Shive

Posted on April 5, 2013 by | Leave a comment

There are times when I really feel guilty about my reviews of Dan Shive’s long-running contemporary fantasy comic El Goonish Shive. It seems like I can’t turn around without finding something contrary to snark about concerning Shive’s comic. Of course, most of my criticisms of late seem geared toward his love affair with magical hijinks and “empowering” every character with magical abilities (which I consider to be a waste of time and character development), but if you look back through most of the EGS reviews I’d be willing to bet I’m deriding some aspect of whatever comic I’m looking at.

Undoubtedly this will continue to be the case in the future, but for today I’m sitting back and giving Shive the slow-clap applause. Today he eyed the pitcher on the mount, anticipated the pitch, and nailed that ball. It’s gone deep into center field and while it might not have gone out of the park, Shive is definitely rounding second and heading for third with this comic. Naturally it’s a character-comic that has drawn this praise… but what’s interesting about it is that it focuses on the breakup of one of his core characters, Elliot, with secondary character Sarah (and let’s face it; Sarah isn’t part of the main cast by any stretch of the imagination).

Oddly enough, both characters are approaching this from opposite directions. Sarah has realized her relationship with Elliot is going nowhere. She just doesn’t know when to break up with him because of the holiday season. But it’s Elliot and his reasoning that has so amused me today as he finally (in talking to Tedd) figured out just what it is he feels for Sarah. She’s like a sister to him. Yes, this is a bit of a no-brainer for anyone who’s been reading the comic for a while, and it’s not why I’m applauding Shive. No. It’s Elliot’s expression after those words come out of his mouth.

Seriously, I can so envision this expression on Luke Skywalker’s face in his X-Wing fighter as he was leaving Dagobah after Yoda’s death and he realized he’d been kissed by his sister. I mean, while Elliot hasn’t had sex with Sarah, I can’t help but remember the time they were getting frisky on Tedd’s couch during Grace’s bizarre transgender birthday party. And don’t forget, Elliot has a “sister” of sorts, so no doubt he’s thinking “it’s like kissing Ellen.”

Addendum: As I was finishing this up, Friday’s comic had loaded. And while I normally can’t abide by a strip of someone in the same pose over and over again… it’s the facial expression. Well, that and calling up his “sister” on the phone to confirm an earlier discussion and then resuming the facial expression. Well done, Dan Shive. Well done.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged , ,

Weregeek

Posted on March 12, 2013 by | Leave a comment

I must admit I’m probably in the minority of Alina Pete’s Weregeeks readership who actually likes Mark’s girlfriend, Jessica. While I understand many readers feel Sarah is a better fit for Mark insomuch that she shares interests with him, in many ways I’m old-fashioned and feel that if a relationship has grown to the point that a couple are close, maybe even considering marriage (I could have sworn they were engaged, but my memory’s never been the best) then they should do their best to work through their differences. It is these differences that can make relationships interesting when you get down to it.

Thus I’ve watched the current fight between Jessica and Mark with tremendous trepidation. I’m not exactly fond of emotionally-charged situations like this (I always have that little voice in the back of my head blaming me for what’s happening, no doubt because as a writer I have caused my share of pain for my own characters). But what’s worse is that I felt this entire situation could have been avoided with a little bit of honesty and taking time to communicate. At least, I felt that up until today’s strip, when Jessica promptly fell off the sympathy wagon and got mud all over her outfit.

First, I should state for the record that Jessica was wrong to snoop in Mark’s e-mail. It wasn’t even so much that she opened the browser page to find the e-mail from Sarah as part of the Vampire Live Action Role Playing game they’re in which led her to thinking her boyfriend was cheating on her. But it was the final panel of todays’ strip that fully stripped any sympathy I felt for Jessica away, especially because it’s true! We’re talking about a guy who helped her out with her church, despite not being a member from what I can tell. He respected her interests and her beliefs. And yet she falls right into the trap he accidently set by making fun of his hobbies… right after claiming she didn’t.

One of the things I believe (and no doubt it’s foolish to think this) is that a healthy relationship isn’t comprised of attraction, but instead of loyalty, communication, and respect. Yes, Mark and Jessica are attracted to one another. Mark’s a decent man, and from what we’ve seen of Jessica, she’s usually a nice person. But she doesn’t respect him. She snubs his hobbies and ridicules him for it; it may not be the level of disdain that some people in the Weregeeks world hold for geeks, but she doesn’t make an effort to understand his interests and doesn’t understand why her interests aren’t good enough for him.

Honestly? At this point I can’t help but think this relationship is going to fall apart. Nor do I think Mark will end up with Sarah, seeing that she made an effort to befriend Jessica and does share interests with Jessica. Indeed, I could even see Sarah working to patch things up between Mark and Jessica, rather than pursue him for herself. I mean, that’s just not done. But given the greater world of Weregeeks and some of the truly insane elements within it (including a group of people who murder or brainwash geeks and get away with it), I doubt very much this will be the last we see of Jessica. The only question is what role she’ll play in the future.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged , ,

Unsounded

Posted on March 6, 2013 by | Leave a comment

While recent updates over at OotS have tempted me to comment once again on the comic (a testament to Rich Burlew’s storytelling skills), ultimately it was Ashley Cope’s epic fantasy webcomic Unsounded that drew my attention and demanded I follow up on my previous review of the comic. As I had mentioned previously, while the child thief Sette plays the part of the primary protagonist, it is her undead wizardly companion Duane who I find especially interesting, and whose past is starting to unfold in the most recent storyline. Along the way, Cope has managed to increase my sympathy for Sette and also reveal some disturbing aspects to the inner demons Duane struggles with.

One of these is the fact Duane is, in essence, a ghoul (in essence, a monster that consumes human flesh)… and would restrain himself every night to ensure he couldn’t act on those urges when his will was weakest. Unfortunately, during the last chapter a thug sent to capture Sette entered the room where Duane was being kept… and let’s just say I would not want to be the cleaners who have to clean up the room. When Sette tried to “wake” Duane by revealing the light of day to him, she ended up falling through his shadow and into the “khert” or magic of the world… which seems comprised of the memories and dreams of all of the world.

It has been a wild and mad ride that would have Alice wondering who spiked her tea with LSD. I’m also not entirely sure how Cope will adapt this over to a print version, seeing that she indulges in segments that break outside the traditional full-page format the comic normally takes. The world of the khert is insanity manifested and I must applaud Cope as I have no idea how she imagined such bizarre aspects as floating babies held to the ground by umbilical cords (and who thank Sette as she cuts them free), giant multi-limbed hairless dog-beings that seem oddly endearing, or the multitude of insane forms that float through this realm.

But it is the latest bit that has me truly impressed as Sette falls into one of Duane’s memories… back when he was alive and married to a woman named Leysa, with a family… and his conflict as he tells his wife he was selected to become a Spell Composer as part of a plan by the temple he works at to spy on the nobility. These glimpses help fill out the humanity in the monster, and help flesh out the tragedy of what he has become. No doubt in time we’ll learn just what it was that led him to be transformed into the form he’s become. Along the way, I suspect Sette may grow as well. And while I don’t know if I’ll ever truly like her, her character is intriguing enough to rise above that. To craft a character that is both unsympathetic and yet a joy to read is a sign of true storytelling skill.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged , , ,

Sequential Art

Posted on October 8, 2012 by | 2 Comments

Back in July Phillip M. Jackson managed to surprise me with a rather delightful plot twist by having the least sympathetic of his protagonists end up in bed with Sequential Art’s occasional antagonist Hilary. At that point I offered a rhetorical challenge (since I’m sure Jackson hasn’t heard of Tangents before and wouldn’t particularly care in any event) for him to take the road untraveled and to reform Hilary (if only a little bit) by having her and Pip remain a couple. In my opinion this would have allowed for a fascinating pairing with an Internet recluse and a social wasp (I’d say “social butterfly” but while Hilary may have looks (in theory), she’s also possessing a rather nasty stinger as well). Even better in my eyes was how this would antagonize Kat, who’d be expecting the worse.

Sadly, the worse is what happened. Outside of that initial encounter, Hilary used (and drugged) Pip and cheated on him while using her “affairs” to climb the business ladder until she found a married man whom she could blackmail after having slept with him. And now, having figuratively screwed Pip over, she took a moment to plunge the knife into Kat and twist the blade by having Kat be the one forced to tell Pip what had happened (though I truly hope Pip isn’t so naïve as to ignore the hints that have slowly accumulated). Not that this is the end of this storyline, of course; Pip has shown a devious side in the past, and I suspect Hilary may have stung the wrong person this time around. In short, the last couple of months have been watching a slow-motion trainwreck in progress.

The only real point to reading was waiting to see if Pip would wise up or if Hilary would screw up enough that she’d get caught red-handed. And to be honest, I’m not quite sure what purpose Hilary serves at this point. She’s an occasional antagonist who’s been shown to be mostly unsympathetic. Even the brief moments of humanity that have emerged are lackluster at best (I mean, declaring vengeance on Kat because of an idiotic lunchbox? Right. That’s a good reason to be antagonistic for most of your life). But perhaps the greatest disappointment is that Jackson had a brief moment to flesh out Hilary into a real character. Instead, he dumped her back into the one-dimensional antagonist bin. Barring some truly unexpected twist, the story seems to be heading to a formulaic ending and a lot of missed opportunities.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Secant

Tagged , ,

General Protection Fault

Posted on September 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Perhaps one of the most common calls of armchair critics is that a character is a “Mary Sue” (which to me is a very overused term, especially when you consider the original “Mary Sue” was a parody character poking fun at the character type as a whole). But while the term has lost any real value due to its overuse and abuse, there is a core aspect to “Suedom” inherent in a number of characters… because those characters can be seen as an aspect of the author (or at the very least a character mouthpiece). It’s easy for readers to believe a character’s prejudices and beliefs actually reflect those of the author, especially when a character is developed further than a shadow with minimal definition or personality. Thus unfortunately authors sometimes attempt to sanitize their characters to prevent any controversies.

The sad thing is, it can take very little to create such perceptions. One such example can be found in the recent Global Protection Fault comics, with Fooker and Patty talking about Tim (another of the tertiary characters)… and his reaction when she implies to Fooker that Tim might be gay and seems to be attracted to Fooker. Okay, I’ll admit that if I was trying to put computer memory into a server and was told that a coworker was gay and into me, I might break the memory as well. But mostly it’s Fooker’s facial expression and how he worked things that hints to me that while Fooker might say he doesn’t care what people do privately, he personally doesn’t approve of homosexuality. And while I suspect cartoonist Jeffrey T. Darlington may not intend to imply this, I think it would be an interesting path to take with Fooker.

Let’s be honest here; while there is growing acceptance of homosexuality and the LGBT movement, prejudice is an ingrained trait for people. We can overcome it, but deep down there is still that tiny germ waiting to sprout at the most unexpected moment. Thus I feel it would be interesting (and valuable) to see this potentiality with Fooker expanded upon. Let him have a personal aversion to homosexuality… and show his efforts to keep this from influencing how he reacts to Tim or to other homosexual men if Tim is in fact straight – I’m afraid I don’t recall one way or another, though if Tim is gay, then Darlington has done fairly well at subtly introducing this element, laying the groundwork until Patty launched a salvo to disconcert Fooker.

Of course, this could just be Patty trying to disconcert Fooker, who’d been needling her about her own semi-relationship with Dexter. And let’s be honest here; Fooker was out of place to press her about things with Dexter. But if it were just Patty “getting even” with Fooker, it was in rather poor taste. What’s more, I’d be interested in seeing this element expanded upon. Things such as hidden prejudices tend to be ignored by cartoonists due to the ease of internet drama and reader misconceptions. While Fooker has never been a “perfect” character, his relationship with Sharon is stable now, his distrust of Trudy is understandable, and his other “flaws” tend to be lackluster or laughable. And to be honest, it’s Nick that is the author’s mouthpiece, so any flaws Fooker show can be brushed off as storytelling elements.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic commentary

Tagged , ,

Exiern

Posted on September 5, 2012 by | Leave a comment

One of the things I enjoy about the fantasy transformation webcomic Exiern is its sense of whimsy. I will admit that when Thomas Knapp took over writing duties from Drowemos, I was a bit concerned that this element of whimsy might be misplaced as Knapp shifted the story away from its fanservice roots and closer to classic fantasy storytelling. Fortunately my concerns were misplaced, as the latest update with Tiffany and Princess Peonie shows; interestingly, Knapp used this moment to answer a question that honestly never crossed my mind: why Tiffany is able to ride the unicorn that was summoned at the start of the comic.

I find this amusing as I am quite aware of the mythos behind unicorns and how they only allow virgins to ride them. The thing is, in many ways Tiffany was reborn when Typhan-Knee was afflicted with the curse that transformed him into a woman (which actually brings about an interesting question: would someone transformed into a woman be virginal, seeing that their body is being recreated into a new female form… and the concepts of male and female virginity tend to differ on several levels). The thought that Typhan-Knee had never been with a woman prior to being cursed never really entered into my view of the character. Nor, honestly, did it matter.

What’s interesting is Peonie’s wording as she taunted Tiffany over her apparent lack of “conquests” – the concept that only those of “pure virtue” can ride a unicorn. I must admit that I don’t particularly consider “virginity” to being an aspect of virtue. Instead, I would see a person’s character as integral to that… and for all that Tiffany is from the barbarian tribes to the north of her world, she appears to be fairly honorable in her actions and in keeping her word. And for that matter, back when the dark wizard Faden regained his power, the unicorn abandoned Tiffany when she chose to pursue the wizard rather than save the life of a young boy whose hand Faden stole.

In short, she acted out of vengeance and anger, traits not associated with virtue… and the unicorn spurned her. And this also says something about Peonie’s character. We’ve seen she is weak of will and was subject to Faden’s control even when his power was at its nadir. She also has acted selfishly and without considering others (such as when she had Tiffany tied up so the priests could try and break the curse on her… despite the fact Tiffany distrusts the priesthood). Whether or not she’s virginal (and given that Peonie doesn’t deny the insinuation suggests she is not) ultimately doesn’t matter. What matters is the type of person she is; she is her father’s daughter.

While it would be easy to brush aside this comic as superfluous, it did serve an added purpose beyond answering the unasked question on how Tiffany can ride the unicorn: it provide Knapp with the opportunity to indulge in whimsy before the story starts to darken. In this it’s the artwork that pulls this off, especially with the conniving post of Peonie… and Tiffany’s open-faced innocent smile at Peonie’s shock. It also continues with the conflict between Tiffany and Peonie that flared up after Peonie followed them and once more entered into harm’s path.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged , ,