repeat: I am not addicted
Feb. 12th, 2010 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingblossomYay for lightweight meta? cyanwitch assigned me three tropes (Absurdly Powerful Student Council, Color Coded For Your Convenience, Moral Event Horizon) to blather on about from the meme I posted yesterday, so you'll find more thoughts about them underneath the cut. The first two tropes she gave me were from Utena, and the last one was from Gankutsuou.
Absurdly Powerful Student Council
In real life, power at schools is held in the hands of the principal and faculty, and the highers up within the board of education. In the world of fiction, however, this is not so. In TV, comics, movies, books, student council is Serious Business, with power worthy of corruption and abuse in the hands of those with evil in their hearts.
Hahah, I don't think I've seen this trope too frequently? I had to look through the list of examples to try and remember if there was anything else that had this. After reading through, I can think of a small group of things I've seen with uber-powerful student councils: Fruits Basket, SKU (of course), Ouran, Code Geass, the CLAMPverse, and Veronica Mars.
During college, we had the Student Association, which was responsible for funding re: clubs and other related events, but it's really hard to believe how much power these fictional councils have. And when you think about it, really, this trope...is...so...ridiculous! Albeit a highly enjoyable one, especially when played straight.
If you look at the above examples, the series that feature this trope tend to situated within wonky or just plain dysfunctional environments. Furthermore, this trope tends to be used with a certain sense of irony. In Utena, Ouran, CLAMPseries, Veronica Mars, and Code Geass, the characters tend to be extremely wealthy, thereby allowing them to do any number of outrageous or bizarre things. The kicker, maybe, is that TEACHERS AT THESE SCHOOLS BARELY EXIST. So what's the moral of the story here?
As a contrast, Furuba uses this trope in a pretty low-key way, which makes me question its right to be listed on that page. :D
Color Coded For Your Convenience
In visual entertainment, who's good and who's evil is usually distinguished by the colors, and woe be to those who are colorblind. Colors can also be used to determine that kind of person's personality and powers as well. It should be noted, though, that many times it's not the actual color that's used to distinguish good and evil, but the tone or shade of that color.
A very, very common thing in animanga, and a trope that tends to drive non-fans up a wall. By this, I mean that anime is prone to giving characters polymorphic hair and eye colors for the purpose of differentiation. Sometimes this color theme can extend to wardrobe and other characteristics as well, but this varies depending on the series.
Non-fans tend to dislike this, their reactions being along the lines of, "If these characters are all Japanese, then how come they don't have dark eyes and black hair?" or "How can you tell a serious plot when everyone looks like they were dyed with a bag of Skittles?"
The answer is pretty simple, though -- it's a quick, easy way to convey personality by relying on audience expectations, and without having to use too much detail (especially when budgeting is an issue). It's vibrant. Another reason? Well, kids like bright colors!
As a result, this design principle is popular with younger audiences. Urasawa Naoki's work, for example, doesn't make much use of this trope, but nearly all the mainstream anime that I can think of does. In stuff aimed at older audiences, characters tend to have more subdued appearances, and thus fill out this trope less often.
If done well, it can be very, very effective. If not, it's just Anvilicious.
Since certain colors ARE usually associated with personality traits and roles, this trope can also be used to set up certain expectations and then subvert them. Sentai shows (like Sailormoon and Power Rangers -- this is where I admit that I never actually watched the latter) play it straight, while a show like Utena uses it for foils, symbolism, and deconstruction.
Wrt Utena, Ikuhara takes the color-coding so far it's downright trippy. It also fools the viewer...by having Ohtori Academy seem like a Happy Shiny Place when it's really not. In the manga, this was played differently by making Utena a blonde and giving everyone else relatively normal hair colors too. Yet for some reason, it just doesn't work as well. (Probably because the anime!colors are part of the thematics, and damn it, Utena's just a cooler character with pink hair.)
Besides Utena, I think the best use of this trope I've seen in recent history is AtLA. Everything in Avatar is completely color-coded, but in a way that never becomes too cliche or obvious. And if you have to know another show that comes to mind whenever I think of this design principle? See Captain Planet. XD
Moral Event Horizon
An "event horizon" is the boundary around a black hole which once crossed, there is no escape. The Moral Event Horizon is the metaphorical embodiment of this concept on a good/evil axis. Once a character reaches the event horizon, any lingering hope that the villain can be redeemed from his evil, that he may have some sort of Freudian Excuse are dashed to bits like so many rocks against the shoreline.
This is a tricky one. During the time I've been in fandom, whenever a character crosses the MEH, reactions tend to range from: 1) reviling them for their actions to 2) lauding them for being a Magnificent Bastard. Sometimes the most monstrous of characters can be interesting, even fascinating, to watch -- but as in all cases, YMMV.
The MEH term implies that the "imaginary line" between good and evil is very clear, but the fact is, getting fandom to agree about a character's moral alignment can be nearly impossible. (See: Death Note.) Especially if that moral alignment is downright schizophrenic. Is it possible to have a character cross the MEH without being a Complete Monster? I think so, but conversely, that's more likely not to be the case.
From a narrative standpoint, crossing the MEH means that said character is completely irredeemable now, except perhaps by death. For this reason, the crossing of a MEH tends not to occur as frequently in idealistic series. In Gankutsuou, the Count crosses the MEH when he kills Franz, IMHO. It's also the action that immediately sets him apart from his book counterpart.
In the book, the reader tends to see everything happen from the Count's viewpoint, encouraging him to take (righteous?) revenge on the people who destroyed his life. In the anime, there's a perspective flip -- since we see everything unfold from Albert's eyes, we sympathize with the havoc that the Count is turning his life into. The Count remains an enigmatic figure in both, but in the former, he's a Byronic anti-hero; in the latter, he's been turned into the villain. Or to be more exact, Gankutsuou itself as the culprit, rather than Edmond Dantes.
Since I just finished watching Berserk recently, I also have to mention that [spoiler character] crossed the MEH horrifically at the end. I really don't think I've ever seen a Face Heel Turn quite like that before.
Lastly, I really have to think more about this trope! It's an interesting one.
cyanwitch assigned me three tropes (Absurdly Powerful Student Council, Color Coded For Your Convenience, Moral Event Horizon) to blather on about from the meme I posted yesterday, so you'll find more thoughts about them underneath the cut. The first two tropes she gave me were from Utena, and the last one was from Gankutsuou.Absurdly Powerful Student Council
In real life, power at schools is held in the hands of the principal and faculty, and the highers up within the board of education. In the world of fiction, however, this is not so. In TV, comics, movies, books, student council is Serious Business, with power worthy of corruption and abuse in the hands of those with evil in their hearts.
Hahah, I don't think I've seen this trope too frequently? I had to look through the list of examples to try and remember if there was anything else that had this. After reading through, I can think of a small group of things I've seen with uber-powerful student councils: Fruits Basket, SKU (of course), Ouran, Code Geass, the CLAMPverse, and Veronica Mars.
During college, we had the Student Association, which was responsible for funding re: clubs and other related events, but it's really hard to believe how much power these fictional councils have. And when you think about it, really, this trope...is...so...ridiculous! Albeit a highly enjoyable one, especially when played straight.
If you look at the above examples, the series that feature this trope tend to situated within wonky or just plain dysfunctional environments. Furthermore, this trope tends to be used with a certain sense of irony. In Utena, Ouran, CLAMPseries, Veronica Mars, and Code Geass, the characters tend to be extremely wealthy, thereby allowing them to do any number of outrageous or bizarre things. The kicker, maybe, is that TEACHERS AT THESE SCHOOLS BARELY EXIST. So what's the moral of the story here?
As a contrast, Furuba uses this trope in a pretty low-key way, which makes me question its right to be listed on that page. :D
Color Coded For Your Convenience
In visual entertainment, who's good and who's evil is usually distinguished by the colors, and woe be to those who are colorblind. Colors can also be used to determine that kind of person's personality and powers as well. It should be noted, though, that many times it's not the actual color that's used to distinguish good and evil, but the tone or shade of that color.
A very, very common thing in animanga, and a trope that tends to drive non-fans up a wall. By this, I mean that anime is prone to giving characters polymorphic hair and eye colors for the purpose of differentiation. Sometimes this color theme can extend to wardrobe and other characteristics as well, but this varies depending on the series.
Non-fans tend to dislike this, their reactions being along the lines of, "If these characters are all Japanese, then how come they don't have dark eyes and black hair?" or "How can you tell a serious plot when everyone looks like they were dyed with a bag of Skittles?"
The answer is pretty simple, though -- it's a quick, easy way to convey personality by relying on audience expectations, and without having to use too much detail (especially when budgeting is an issue). It's vibrant. Another reason? Well, kids like bright colors!
As a result, this design principle is popular with younger audiences. Urasawa Naoki's work, for example, doesn't make much use of this trope, but nearly all the mainstream anime that I can think of does. In stuff aimed at older audiences, characters tend to have more subdued appearances, and thus fill out this trope less often.
If done well, it can be very, very effective. If not, it's just Anvilicious.
Since certain colors ARE usually associated with personality traits and roles, this trope can also be used to set up certain expectations and then subvert them. Sentai shows (like Sailormoon and Power Rangers -- this is where I admit that I never actually watched the latter) play it straight, while a show like Utena uses it for foils, symbolism, and deconstruction.
Wrt Utena, Ikuhara takes the color-coding so far it's downright trippy. It also fools the viewer...by having Ohtori Academy seem like a Happy Shiny Place when it's really not. In the manga, this was played differently by making Utena a blonde and giving everyone else relatively normal hair colors too. Yet for some reason, it just doesn't work as well. (Probably because the anime!colors are part of the thematics, and damn it, Utena's just a cooler character with pink hair.)
Besides Utena, I think the best use of this trope I've seen in recent history is AtLA. Everything in Avatar is completely color-coded, but in a way that never becomes too cliche or obvious. And if you have to know another show that comes to mind whenever I think of this design principle? See Captain Planet. XD
Moral Event Horizon
An "event horizon" is the boundary around a black hole which once crossed, there is no escape. The Moral Event Horizon is the metaphorical embodiment of this concept on a good/evil axis. Once a character reaches the event horizon, any lingering hope that the villain can be redeemed from his evil, that he may have some sort of Freudian Excuse are dashed to bits like so many rocks against the shoreline.
This is a tricky one. During the time I've been in fandom, whenever a character crosses the MEH, reactions tend to range from: 1) reviling them for their actions to 2) lauding them for being a Magnificent Bastard. Sometimes the most monstrous of characters can be interesting, even fascinating, to watch -- but as in all cases, YMMV.
The MEH term implies that the "imaginary line" between good and evil is very clear, but the fact is, getting fandom to agree about a character's moral alignment can be nearly impossible. (See: Death Note.) Especially if that moral alignment is downright schizophrenic. Is it possible to have a character cross the MEH without being a Complete Monster? I think so, but conversely, that's more likely not to be the case.
From a narrative standpoint, crossing the MEH means that said character is completely irredeemable now, except perhaps by death. For this reason, the crossing of a MEH tends not to occur as frequently in idealistic series. In Gankutsuou, the Count crosses the MEH when he kills Franz, IMHO. It's also the action that immediately sets him apart from his book counterpart.
In the book, the reader tends to see everything happen from the Count's viewpoint, encouraging him to take (righteous?) revenge on the people who destroyed his life. In the anime, there's a perspective flip -- since we see everything unfold from Albert's eyes, we sympathize with the havoc that the Count is turning his life into. The Count remains an enigmatic figure in both, but in the former, he's a Byronic anti-hero; in the latter, he's been turned into the villain. Or to be more exact, Gankutsuou itself as the culprit, rather than Edmond Dantes.
Since I just finished watching Berserk recently, I also have to mention that [spoiler character] crossed the MEH horrifically at the end. I really don't think I've ever seen a Face Heel Turn quite like that before.
Lastly, I really have to think more about this trope! It's an interesting one.
no subject
on 2010-02-13 12:53 am (UTC)THAT ASIDE.
That is actually where my MEH is for the Count, too. Mostly because I didn't actually have a problem with the whole "get revenge on the people who destroyed his life" thing, and though I was BOTHERED when other people got involved, IMO it wasn't quite as bad as when the Count was willing to kill an innocent just to hurt Mercedes. Like, the manipulation of Albert up to that point? I could forgive it, because it's not like Albert's life was OMG RUINED FOREVER. But his easy willingness to kill someone who never actually did anything to him personally, who idolized him, even, was just D: for me.
(The fact that it ended up being Franz who was killed just made it worse, but he was already way past it.)