Monday, May 12, 2014

Episode 5 - A Game of You



1 comment:

  1. Wonderful episode, and I don't have a whole lot to add to the great discussion, though I'll add apologies for how long it's taken me to get here.

    What bothers me about Wanda is that, while she's a great, captivating character, and I like the themes of transmisogyny Gaiman explores, especially with the punch of that ending, I feel she's very poorly served by the story. I like the commentary of the Moon rejecting her as a commentary on own old prejudices, and the interactions with George, but beyond that narrative denial, she's never allowed any other role in the story to compensate for it. She's Barbie's closest and most loyal friend, and she gets to do nothing except stand around and wait, use her lifting arms once, and then die in a natural disaster that I didn't even pick up until listening here was caused by Thessaly's summoning of the moon. It definitely should be sad that Wanda dies, but it feels especially undeserved because she never got to play any role or take any action leading up to it, and for all the focus it puts on how much shit people give her, I can't help but feel the story is just giving her shit, too, and thus the sudden focus on her fate in the epilogue becomes overwhelming in how unfair it is, even beyond just the social commentary.

    As for the broader story, I love the characters, a lot of the ideas, the setup, but it's another case of things never really coming together in the end, to the point I find the whole thing surprisingly anticlimactic. Thess, Hazel, and Foxglove go on this big quest, only to arrive, do nothing, and be chewed out for it before returning with their tails between their legs. For all the setup the Cuckoo gets, the final confrontation is a disorienting "That's it?" before she flies off. Dream shows up and unmakes this entire land, and Barbie has him just make it right back again. For everything that happened, not a lot actually happened, and what did just kind of flopped and laid there.

    As for what effect The Doll's House had on Barbie and her world, she says she hasn't dreamed since those events, leading not only to her state but to why her dream friends have been looking for her and the Cuckoo was able to rise to power. As to the Cuckoo's line about gendered stereotypes, I love how Barbie herself is kind of defying them as, even in The Doll's House, while she dreams she's a princess, she's not the leisurely sort who sits on a throne and goes to balls. She the adventurer princess, on constant quests with her loyal band of followers, often to keep her kingdom safe. I don't feel Gaiman sells it well enough, but she is that blur between the stereotypes which proves the deep flaws of the stereotypes.

    Also, this was another case of the constantly shifting artists never letting the illustrations settle into any form of consistency.

    I don't hate this volume, there's great stuff in there, but I do ultimately find it a frustrating letdown.

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