Of Swords and Parasols

Post prompted largely by Paul Cornell’s post here, in which intelligent TV apparently didn’t exist before the current popular shows, and the only reason anyone wouldn’t like Dollhouse is if they couldn’t handle things not always being perfectly black and white.

So, “moral ambiguity,” also known as “grey areas” is pretty much the internet and media’s favorite thing these days. Well, the internet may still like slash and wank more. I’m not sure.

Anyway, I rather like grey areas, but I also hate how they tend to manifest and get defended.

The thing about moral ambiguity is that, by saying it’s ambiguous, you are saying that there are circumstances in which something is acceptable.

Take downloading material that is not in the public domain. This is illegal, and is theft, but I highly doubt there is anyone reading this who hasn’t done it at some point. However, what if you are downloading with the intent of only completing your consumption if it is something you will legally purchase. You stole, but you stole with the intent of still giving the owner money for it by proper means.

Take the other extreme, which is killing another person. Hopefully, everyone here thinks this is wrong. However, if you killed a person because they were trying to kill you, or someone else, was it still wrong? Either way, a person is killed, the question is if one “deserved” it more than the other, and if the action saved even more lives.

To apply it to media, you have shows* that are, to some degree, built up around the idea of moral ambiguity, or at least actively applying it.

Some of these shows can’t really be exactly compared to the real world and morality as we’re familiar with it, and are called things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural, and are about humans killing monsters to keep them from killing other humans, or are called something like Farscape and are about convicts flying across the universe to escape space Nazis. Some of the moral questions have real world allegories, but many can only exist in that particular fictional universe.

But then you have something like, say Remington Steele, where the core concept is that a female detective was fed up with taking orders from male detectives who weren’t as good as her, and wouldn’t advance her because she was a woman (remember, this was the 80s) so she quit and opened her own agency. Only people didn’t want to hire a female detective, so she created a fictional male boss, and was a success. And then a con artist discovered her scheme and blackmailed her into letting him pretend to be the fictional boss in return for a share of the profits, and she was even more successful. So, she achieved her goals-after a fashion-and her clients got superior service, but she did it by committing fraud and lying through her teeth to almost everyone she ever met.

Which brings me to Dollhouse. Dollhouse is built around the concepts of rape and human trafficking (and, increasingly, the battery of women, though that’s not as much a core concept as it is a steadily increasing trend) and each episode is designed to create some sort of sympathy for a rapist and/or human trafficker, while often glamorizing and fetishizing the actual rape and slavery. (Priya doesn’t have to deal with being drugged into a facsimile of insanity so a rapist can turn her into a fetishized sex toy, and then killing her abuser in self defense, she can remain a mindless slave of the people her abuser sent her to, continue to be sold for sex and various other illegal purposes, and eat banana pancakes. It doesn’t matter that Madeline was raped and deliberately driven to near suicide as a doll, she can think the guy who did that to get closer to the object of his sexual obsession is her savior. It’s ok to come up with multiple excuses to punch a passive Echo who cannot defend herself in the face if it will cure her of technologically induced blindness, or make her switch to an assassin imprint.)

So. Rape. Slavery. Physically abusing women. These are the things considered “morally grey” by Dollhouse and portraying, and describing, them as such, is saying that there are occasions when these things are acceptable.

There are plenty of things that do not have an exact moral assignation, or to which there can be exceptions. There are also things that, yes, are black and white.

*Not that this is in any way, shape or form the only or even best form of media that explores the subject, but it’s what prompted the post and, uhm, limiting myself to US TV will be better understood by more people than pages and pages on Blade of the Immortal, Fullmetal Alchemist, Saiyuki, and Basara.

(Icon is Robin Hood, and so totally appropriate for the topic!)

...I want to believe you that this really is something natural.  And that you aren't trying to make a statement.  Honestly, however, all I can do reading the pages and the interview is think that you think it's simply been too long since you were called progressive or revolutionary or a friend of the feminist movement.  I really should have more of a reaction than eye rolling.

Plus, we all know that if that was ever going to happen naturally, it would have in season 3.

(First link leads to several pages of Buffy S8 #12, second to an article with a crucial page.  May be NSFW depending on personal interpretation.)

Why is there no "unimpressed" mood?

Also? Clearly the maker of the meme managed to banish Kennedy's existance from their brain.

Willow so could have done better.

Completely and not-so-completely random findings.

( i take no responsibility for anything...if anything could be scarring in the first place )

Long-ish and maybe a bit ranty.


ETA: You disagree with my opinion on something, fine.  I have no problem whatsoever with debates. You tell me my opinion is bull because it's not the same as yours?  That's something else altogether, no matter who you are.

So tired...first cut will explain why...

First things first:

Buffy/Riley: loved them in the beginning. Loved the build up to their relationship(their doof/spaz view of each other) Liked the "secret identities" bit ("You want to use my crush as bait?") Unfortunately, once the Initiative was gone, Riley lost most of his focus, and it showed in season 5. While I liked where Riley went when he left, I hated the plotline leading up to it. Instead of letting Riley be the nice guy it didn't work out with, they had to make Riley be the one that cheated on her.

Tara/Willow/Oz: I know Oz left because Seth Green's contract was up, but I can't help but feel they didn't try to keep him around because they wanted to have a gay couple(note: I know nothing of the politics surrounding his leaving, just what it felt like while watching the show.) Tara started to grow on me around the middle of season 5, but I can't help but think that her only reason for being there is to be the other half of the gay couple, and that the only reason they're gay is to have a gay couple on the show. And...I wanna know how Oz got the werewolf thing somewhat under control.

Dawn: Really like her. If I hadn't known about her years in advance, it's possible that I wouldn't have, but she works well, especially w/ Srah Michelle Gellar and Kristine Sutherland. I've heard that some people regard her as a brat, and she is something of one, but no more so than any other 14 year old, and, judging by season 1 and the flashback in season 2, I'm inclined to say that Buffy was probably worse at her age.

Joyce: I can never watch the episode with her death again. Ever. If I hadn't been watching it at midnight, I would have embarassed myself and called my mother, just to make sure she was OK. I adored Joyce. She had her faults and didn't always deal perfectly with things, but she was a great character.

Hush: Creepy. Charming. Excellent. Probably the best episode of the series.(as of the first 5 seasons)

Now then...

Season 4: I'm told that they weren't sure the series would continue after season 3, and I think it shows. This season felt very directionless...much like season 1, I being hesitant to commit to anything becausethey weren't sure whether or not it'd be there long enough to go anywhere. Both Adam and the Initiative had lots of potential, but didn't really get to go as far as they could and should have. Main problem I had with this season, though, was WAAAY too much sex, both actual and symbolic. I think at least 3/4 of the episodes seemed to focus on sex for part of the episode, in one way or another. Still, much like a weak Harry Pooter is better than the majority of other movies, I'd rather watch a weak season of Buffy than the vast majority of other TV shows out there.

Season 5: Probably tied with season 3 for my favorite. Largely, I suspect, because of the focus on family. In season 2, it was her symbolic family, with Faith as her wilder sister and Giles being more firmly entrenched as her father figure, and in season 5, it was her "real" sister, Dawn, and her mother. Granted, again, if I hadn'tknown about Dawn for years, I probably would have viewed it differently. However, I loved the main and supporting storylines(except for what they did to Riley) and Glory was a blast. Poor, poor Ben, though. Really, Riley aside, I really can't complain about anything here.

There, see? Toldja I'd do the post eventually. Now for Angel 1 and 2 and the novels I've been reading the last few months...