Ana-Lucia characterization last night
May. 4th, 2006 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
escritoireazulI should have just stayed up last night and posted about Lost, storm or no storm (apparently a tornado touched down nearby, even though I still haven't heard anything on the news), because I had all these fantastic points last night, and now I have nothing. Well, not nothing, but it's neither as well-organized nor concise as it was in my head before. This will teach me to compose posts while in bed.
First, and not really having anything to do with the rest, when Sawyer said Kate wasn't in his head anymore, it reminded me of Xander talking about his connection to Faith and Buffy telling him Faith sees the guys she has a connection with as a joke. I don't know.
Also having little to do with this, I hate Sawyer, and yet I find it ridiculous we're supposed to believe he didn't notice the gun was gone. During the sex, sure, why not, but after? And for awhile after? WHATEVER. He keeps it at the small of his back, like he's not going to notice it's missing.
(Not to mention I am still waiting for these people to shoot their own asses off. I'm just saying, they all stick the gun in their trousers and none of them are very stable.)
I both like and dislike that Michael shot Ana-Lucia and Libby last night, for a variety of reasons.
First, I am in favor of killing characters, big time. The one thing I will never forgive them for in season one is not killing Charlie when he was hanged in the tree. I really felt it was a cop out, for Jack (and/or the island) to save him, and a disservice to the story. So on the one hand, I am pleased with the character killing.
On the other hand, and this is the bigger hand, and where some people will roll their eyes and say, "Oh, you feminist, why must everything be about the patriarchy subjugating women?" To which I must respond and say, "Hey, you and I would both be happier if the world didn't have these examples for me to get angry about."
The point is Lost makes me angry in the way they keep killing the women. Sure, Boone, and dozens of passengers about which we know nothing, but beyond that? All the survivors who have been killed have been women, interesting, strong women. Other interesting, strong women are ignored. (In favor of Kate, but I find her neither interesting nor strong, but that's not the point here.)
But even the overall problem with women isn't the point.
It felt like Ana-Lucia's character was slaughtered last night, and I don't mean by the bullet. Some of it works better than other parts.
I can see, and even appreciate, the character arc in which, after she has had her revenge and is left with that cold, bitter feeling in the aftermath, she refuses her mother's help and runs away to Australia, only to start seeing the things in herself she has tried to ignore. That's not weakness, that's growth as a person. I can see her calling her mother when she's finally ready to get help, which also isn't weakness, it takes strength to admit you fucked up and need help. I can see her wanting to take revenge on Henry for trying to kill her (and for exacerbating her own feelings of inadequacy and not being good), and I can believe she changes, while facing him down the barrel of a gun, and can't kill him. Because she's already coming around, has already called her mother for help, I can believe these things.
What I can't believe is that she gave the gun to Michael and just sat there and cried while he went to do what she couldn't do, like she was weak. I can't see her giving him the gun to go kill Henry in the first place, no matter what words he used (and sometimes Michael is very persuasive with his words), not after she is realizing she can't just kill for her own revenge. I can't see her just sitting there and crying while she hands over the gun. It feels like a complete one eighty for the character, and there is nothing which can make me buy it.
Not to mention, earlier, she has to be rescued by Locke. Now while Locke is cool, she's not really been the kind of character who needs to be rescued, and I feel that was a big disservice to Ana-Lucia.
As for the sex with Sawyer, and her sudden inability to fight (she can't beat up Sawyer when she's done it already? She can't take Henry, who is bruised and broken and hasn't eaten? Whatever!), while I thought they had chemistry back at the beginning of the season (much more than she has ever had with Jack, and despite the fact I dislike Sawyer), it really drives me nuts to see her reduced to using sex to get what she wants. If she'd just picked a fight with him which ended in sex because she was horny? I could get behind that (though, Sawyer? When there is Mr. Eko?), because I'd be wanting sex on that island, too. But to use it to get the gun? I find that extraordinarily hard to believe for her character.
As for whether this has anything to do with the DUI charges, I've stayed away from all the news on that as it has to do with the show because I didn't want to be spoiled, and now I am staying away from it because I think it will just frustrate me, and I have enough frustrations right now. But I've said this before and I'll say this again: I don't care what is going on, I don't care about fan favorites or the actions of the actors, the story should come first, and to write characters one way and then take it back--I find it ridiculous, cheap, and bad writing. The story is the important part, the story and the characters. The rest shouldn't matter.
So not as good as what I came up with last night, but it will do for now. Maybe I will rewrite it later. I wish I had taken off tomorrow, because I don't think there is any way I am going to sleep any time soon. Damn, Supernatural, damn.
First, and not really having anything to do with the rest, when Sawyer said Kate wasn't in his head anymore, it reminded me of Xander talking about his connection to Faith and Buffy telling him Faith sees the guys she has a connection with as a joke. I don't know.
Also having little to do with this, I hate Sawyer, and yet I find it ridiculous we're supposed to believe he didn't notice the gun was gone. During the sex, sure, why not, but after? And for awhile after? WHATEVER. He keeps it at the small of his back, like he's not going to notice it's missing.
(Not to mention I am still waiting for these people to shoot their own asses off. I'm just saying, they all stick the gun in their trousers and none of them are very stable.)
I both like and dislike that Michael shot Ana-Lucia and Libby last night, for a variety of reasons.
First, I am in favor of killing characters, big time. The one thing I will never forgive them for in season one is not killing Charlie when he was hanged in the tree. I really felt it was a cop out, for Jack (and/or the island) to save him, and a disservice to the story. So on the one hand, I am pleased with the character killing.
On the other hand, and this is the bigger hand, and where some people will roll their eyes and say, "Oh, you feminist, why must everything be about the patriarchy subjugating women?" To which I must respond and say, "Hey, you and I would both be happier if the world didn't have these examples for me to get angry about."
The point is Lost makes me angry in the way they keep killing the women. Sure, Boone, and dozens of passengers about which we know nothing, but beyond that? All the survivors who have been killed have been women, interesting, strong women. Other interesting, strong women are ignored. (In favor of Kate, but I find her neither interesting nor strong, but that's not the point here.)
But even the overall problem with women isn't the point.
It felt like Ana-Lucia's character was slaughtered last night, and I don't mean by the bullet. Some of it works better than other parts.
I can see, and even appreciate, the character arc in which, after she has had her revenge and is left with that cold, bitter feeling in the aftermath, she refuses her mother's help and runs away to Australia, only to start seeing the things in herself she has tried to ignore. That's not weakness, that's growth as a person. I can see her calling her mother when she's finally ready to get help, which also isn't weakness, it takes strength to admit you fucked up and need help. I can see her wanting to take revenge on Henry for trying to kill her (and for exacerbating her own feelings of inadequacy and not being good), and I can believe she changes, while facing him down the barrel of a gun, and can't kill him. Because she's already coming around, has already called her mother for help, I can believe these things.
What I can't believe is that she gave the gun to Michael and just sat there and cried while he went to do what she couldn't do, like she was weak. I can't see her giving him the gun to go kill Henry in the first place, no matter what words he used (and sometimes Michael is very persuasive with his words), not after she is realizing she can't just kill for her own revenge. I can't see her just sitting there and crying while she hands over the gun. It feels like a complete one eighty for the character, and there is nothing which can make me buy it.
Not to mention, earlier, she has to be rescued by Locke. Now while Locke is cool, she's not really been the kind of character who needs to be rescued, and I feel that was a big disservice to Ana-Lucia.
As for the sex with Sawyer, and her sudden inability to fight (she can't beat up Sawyer when she's done it already? She can't take Henry, who is bruised and broken and hasn't eaten? Whatever!), while I thought they had chemistry back at the beginning of the season (much more than she has ever had with Jack, and despite the fact I dislike Sawyer), it really drives me nuts to see her reduced to using sex to get what she wants. If she'd just picked a fight with him which ended in sex because she was horny? I could get behind that (though, Sawyer? When there is Mr. Eko?), because I'd be wanting sex on that island, too. But to use it to get the gun? I find that extraordinarily hard to believe for her character.
As for whether this has anything to do with the DUI charges, I've stayed away from all the news on that as it has to do with the show because I didn't want to be spoiled, and now I am staying away from it because I think it will just frustrate me, and I have enough frustrations right now. But I've said this before and I'll say this again: I don't care what is going on, I don't care about fan favorites or the actions of the actors, the story should come first, and to write characters one way and then take it back--I find it ridiculous, cheap, and bad writing. The story is the important part, the story and the characters. The rest shouldn't matter.
So not as good as what I came up with last night, but it will do for now. Maybe I will rewrite it later. I wish I had taken off tomorrow, because I don't think there is any way I am going to sleep any time soon. Damn, Supernatural, damn.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-05 07:19 pm (UTC)I forgot about her just sitting there crying. She was weaker physically on the other side of the island and she managed to punch out Sawyer and take on that Other. Why would she give the gun to Michael? No way.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-17 02:29 pm (UTC)I know a lot of people didn't like her because of the way she fought so hard in the beginning, but if that's how you set up a character, don't drop it just because it's unpopular, especially without writing a good reason for the change. Damn.