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akinoame…I liked this episode better when it was called Fullmetal Alchemist. The original, not Brotherhood. Also when it was called Kamen Rider Ryuki.
That said, this review is essentially a preview of my Endpoint Analysis on Ryuki’s Shiro Kanzaki. Enjoy!
The story begins with Gwen returning to Hex’s house to return a book and borrow another. Apparently, she’s been doing this a lot since “Time Heals.” WHY? Hex confronts her, and she reveals she’s trying to rescue Charmcaster, who was left behind in Ledgerdomain back in “Where the Magic Happens.” Interestingly, Hex reacts with grief. This is…interesting. See, he rarely shows that he gives a damn about his niece. Also, he apparently hasn’t wondered why she hasn’t come back from going out to buy milk a few months ago. Well, Dwayne McDuffie said their relationship was complicated—that doesn’t even cover half of it.
So the team has to go into Ledgerdomain using the dialing computer from Stargate SG-1, where they meet the last freeJaffa rock monster, Ignatius, who I kept calling Teal’c. But that’s okay; I also kept calling Kevin “Jack O’Neill” because he’s totally his long-lost kid. Really. Watch a few episodes of SG-1 and then go back and rewatch Kevin. SAME GUY. They manage to rescue a depowered Adwatia, who now sounds like Dr. Drakken, and then they go looking for the usurper to overthrow, who is quite obviously Charmcaster. And then the plot goes into Charmcaster draining the lifeforce of every living thing in Ledgerdomain (well, obviously aside from herself) to resurrect her dad. Also, God apparently exists in Ben 10—he takes the form of a crack in the universe and sounds like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. And it takes 600,000 souls to resurrect one.
Wait. I get it now. That is why there are so many rumors of a reboot of Ben 10 and why we have a redesign. You’re doing a new version, featuring Vic Mignogna as Ben, Aaron Dismuke as Kevin, and Caitlin Glass as Gwen, and reimagining Vilgax as a green-haired guy of indeterminate gender. Redesigned Ben is just short.
Everybody who’s ever read or watched any version of Fullmetal Alchemist, say it with me:
“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. This is alchemy’s First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world’s one, and only, truth.”
Thank you, Alphonse. Now, this horribly Inequivalent Exchange means that Charmcaster kills EVERYBODY—ONSCREEN—to bring back Daddy. Who calls her Hope. Which is a massive letdown. Really? “Hope”? Whatever. Anyway, so Daddycaster is horribly disappointed in Hopecaster and tells her that because she sacrificed 600,000 people to save his life, he’s going to go back to Heaven or wherever and chill with Trisha Elric and Yui Kanzaki (I’m paraphrasing here). Dr. God gives a refund on all 600,000 souls (apparently, there is a money-back guarantee on resurrection), and everybody comes back to life while Charmcaster has no clue where to go. Ben wants a smoothie, and then he, Kevin, and Gwen argue about whether or not they can feel sympathy for Charmcaster.
Yes. This is LONG when I said I was only going to do minireviews from now on. But that’s because I have an analysis I want to get across. The plot I summarized very sarcastically is very similar to the journey of two characters, Edward Elric of Fullmetal Alchemist and Shiro Kanzaki of Kamen Rider Ryuki, two of my favorite series ever.
Let’s start with Ed. As a child, his mother died of a mysterious illness, leaving him and his younger brother Al alone. Instead of doing the sensible thing and moving in with their next-door neighbors and family friends, the Rockbells, Ed and Al designed to find an alchemy teacher and spend the next couple of years learning how to perform the forbidden human transmutation that could bring their mother back. When they finally returned, they did their experiment, only for it to horrifically backfire. Ed lost his leg to the Gate of Truth, and Al disappeared into it entirely, and the creature they brought back wasn’t even human—“pus-spewing organ pile sin against God” was used by VG Cats quite accurately. Regretting what he did, Ed sacrificed his arm to retrieve Al’s soul, bonding it to a suit of armor. They then swore that they were going to restore each other’s bodies, willing to commit the taboo again as long as they had the Philosopher’s Stone, which could bypass alchemy’s Law of Equivalent Exchange.
There’s also Kanzaki. And this is major spoilers for Ryuki, if for some reason, you’ve managed not to be spoiled by my reviews for it already. As a teenager, his younger sister, Yui, died from neglect. In a moment of desperation, he struck a deal where his sister would live off the lifeforce of her Mirror World reflection until she turned twenty. So for the next several years, he dedicated his life to researching the Mirror World until he found that there was a power within it that could create one reality-warping wish. But it required thirteen people to fight and die inside the Mirror World to do so. So he created the Kamen Riders and set up a Rider War, manipulating their lives so that they’d have a wish they’d want to fight for, and on top of that, he had the Mirror Monsters attacking and eating innocent people.
The similarities are obvious, but do you notice the differences yet? No? Well, here it is: Ed wants to avoid the whole messy Equivalent Exchange issue, where Kanzaki is willing to sacrifice thirteen people to get his wish. When Ed learns that the Philosopher’s Stone is made up of countless souls, he and Al are torn. They don’t want to sacrifice anyone else for their wish. Kanzaki is perfectly willing to. The only reason he stops is because he realizes that Yui doesn’t want him to make that sacrifice for her.
Now, do you see the parallel to Charmcaster? In Linkara’s review of Power Rangers Time Force, he brought up the difference between a sympathetic character and a sympathetic backstory. A sympathetic character is someone you feel for, you watch them go through hell, and you understand why they’re doing this. A sympathetic backstory is a reason you feel for them. A sympathetic backstory does not justify a character’s actions. Those actions are what make a character sympathetic or not. What Ed’s doing is obvious from the start. Why he wants to do it, why he feels torn, why he feels like he can’t do it. Kanzaki—and by extension, Charmcaster—isn’t. They don’t show remorse for their actions, and they keep doing horrible things without a single thought for anybody else. And then they’re completely blindsided when it backfires on them. Ed would understand perfectly if Al told him not to save him. It’d hurt like hell, but he’d understand. Kanzaki didn’t. And Charmcaster didn’t. She still doesn’t. Gwen tries to argue that Charmcaster had a goal in life that she was trying to obtain and now she’s lost it. Ben and Kevin argue that it doesn’t justify a damn thing she did. She feels no remorse when they came specifically to save her. They were just souls in the Philosopher’s Stone or Kamen Riders in the Rider War as far as she cared.
So yes, you can feel bad for her, the way Gwen does. But does that justify her? Hell no.
“The Enemy of My Frenemy” was written by David McDermott. Thank you to Kapaychan for providing the episode.
That said, this review is essentially a preview of my Endpoint Analysis on Ryuki’s Shiro Kanzaki. Enjoy!
The story begins with Gwen returning to Hex’s house to return a book and borrow another. Apparently, she’s been doing this a lot since “Time Heals.” WHY? Hex confronts her, and she reveals she’s trying to rescue Charmcaster, who was left behind in Ledgerdomain back in “Where the Magic Happens.” Interestingly, Hex reacts with grief. This is…interesting. See, he rarely shows that he gives a damn about his niece. Also, he apparently hasn’t wondered why she hasn’t come back from going out to buy milk a few months ago. Well, Dwayne McDuffie said their relationship was complicated—that doesn’t even cover half of it.
So the team has to go into Ledgerdomain using the dialing computer from Stargate SG-1, where they meet the last free
Wait. I get it now. That is why there are so many rumors of a reboot of Ben 10 and why we have a redesign. You’re doing a new version, featuring Vic Mignogna as Ben, Aaron Dismuke as Kevin, and Caitlin Glass as Gwen, and reimagining Vilgax as a green-haired guy of indeterminate gender. Redesigned Ben is just short.
Everybody who’s ever read or watched any version of Fullmetal Alchemist, say it with me:
“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. This is alchemy’s First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world’s one, and only, truth.”
Thank you, Alphonse. Now, this horribly Inequivalent Exchange means that Charmcaster kills EVERYBODY—ONSCREEN—to bring back Daddy. Who calls her Hope. Which is a massive letdown. Really? “Hope”? Whatever. Anyway, so Daddycaster is horribly disappointed in Hopecaster and tells her that because she sacrificed 600,000 people to save his life, he’s going to go back to Heaven or wherever and chill with Trisha Elric and Yui Kanzaki (I’m paraphrasing here). Dr. God gives a refund on all 600,000 souls (apparently, there is a money-back guarantee on resurrection), and everybody comes back to life while Charmcaster has no clue where to go. Ben wants a smoothie, and then he, Kevin, and Gwen argue about whether or not they can feel sympathy for Charmcaster.
Yes. This is LONG when I said I was only going to do minireviews from now on. But that’s because I have an analysis I want to get across. The plot I summarized very sarcastically is very similar to the journey of two characters, Edward Elric of Fullmetal Alchemist and Shiro Kanzaki of Kamen Rider Ryuki, two of my favorite series ever.
Let’s start with Ed. As a child, his mother died of a mysterious illness, leaving him and his younger brother Al alone. Instead of doing the sensible thing and moving in with their next-door neighbors and family friends, the Rockbells, Ed and Al designed to find an alchemy teacher and spend the next couple of years learning how to perform the forbidden human transmutation that could bring their mother back. When they finally returned, they did their experiment, only for it to horrifically backfire. Ed lost his leg to the Gate of Truth, and Al disappeared into it entirely, and the creature they brought back wasn’t even human—“pus-spewing organ pile sin against God” was used by VG Cats quite accurately. Regretting what he did, Ed sacrificed his arm to retrieve Al’s soul, bonding it to a suit of armor. They then swore that they were going to restore each other’s bodies, willing to commit the taboo again as long as they had the Philosopher’s Stone, which could bypass alchemy’s Law of Equivalent Exchange.
There’s also Kanzaki. And this is major spoilers for Ryuki, if for some reason, you’ve managed not to be spoiled by my reviews for it already. As a teenager, his younger sister, Yui, died from neglect. In a moment of desperation, he struck a deal where his sister would live off the lifeforce of her Mirror World reflection until she turned twenty. So for the next several years, he dedicated his life to researching the Mirror World until he found that there was a power within it that could create one reality-warping wish. But it required thirteen people to fight and die inside the Mirror World to do so. So he created the Kamen Riders and set up a Rider War, manipulating their lives so that they’d have a wish they’d want to fight for, and on top of that, he had the Mirror Monsters attacking and eating innocent people.
The similarities are obvious, but do you notice the differences yet? No? Well, here it is: Ed wants to avoid the whole messy Equivalent Exchange issue, where Kanzaki is willing to sacrifice thirteen people to get his wish. When Ed learns that the Philosopher’s Stone is made up of countless souls, he and Al are torn. They don’t want to sacrifice anyone else for their wish. Kanzaki is perfectly willing to. The only reason he stops is because he realizes that Yui doesn’t want him to make that sacrifice for her.
Now, do you see the parallel to Charmcaster? In Linkara’s review of Power Rangers Time Force, he brought up the difference between a sympathetic character and a sympathetic backstory. A sympathetic character is someone you feel for, you watch them go through hell, and you understand why they’re doing this. A sympathetic backstory is a reason you feel for them. A sympathetic backstory does not justify a character’s actions. Those actions are what make a character sympathetic or not. What Ed’s doing is obvious from the start. Why he wants to do it, why he feels torn, why he feels like he can’t do it. Kanzaki—and by extension, Charmcaster—isn’t. They don’t show remorse for their actions, and they keep doing horrible things without a single thought for anybody else. And then they’re completely blindsided when it backfires on them. Ed would understand perfectly if Al told him not to save him. It’d hurt like hell, but he’d understand. Kanzaki didn’t. And Charmcaster didn’t. She still doesn’t. Gwen tries to argue that Charmcaster had a goal in life that she was trying to obtain and now she’s lost it. Ben and Kevin argue that it doesn’t justify a damn thing she did. She feels no remorse when they came specifically to save her. They were just souls in the Philosopher’s Stone or Kamen Riders in the Rider War as far as she cared.
So yes, you can feel bad for her, the way Gwen does. But does that justify her? Hell no.
“The Enemy of My Frenemy” was written by David McDermott. Thank you to Kapaychan for providing the episode.
(frozen) (no subject)
Date: 2013-12-31 09:43 pm (UTC)And Charmcaster will have follow-up too. She may not be a regular, sadly enough, but her arc goes on. Heck, it already did with "Couples Retreat", which had her trying to be a rightful ruler to her realm and horrified over Darkstar's rantings of wanting to take over Earth. And she refuses to join him in this when he offers it to her, even though she has feelings for him. That's development: she shows concern for other people and matters beyond herself and her own desires. Yet you never really spoke of this in your review of that episode.
I notice that you were never so hard on her character before this episode, only when this episode happened, but I don't get why. Don't you want Charmcaster to be a complex character with a redemption arc? Because for that to happen, she needs something worth redeeming herself for. As I listed before, Charmcaster never really did anything substantially evil, she just tried to hurt/kill the heroes and always failed with no lasting damage done. Every villain has done that. Kevin, meanwhile, tried to kill hundreds of innocent people in his debut, and he actually murdered and created lasting damage to people in his three subsequent villainous outings.
You say Charmcaster's development is a "miss" due to this episode, but the truth is she HAD to cross such a serious evil line like this or else there's no weight to a redemption arc. IMO, it's one thing being done with her better than with Kevin. We know and understand where she's coming from when she crosses the line, whereas we waited until "Vendetta" and the first season of UA to learn where Kevin was coming from in his line-crossing: we got him crossing the line and then trying to make up for it, but the reason why he did what he's redeeming himself for came way too late in the game.
There is much more room to make up for writing mistakes in Kevin's case and maintain him as a sympathetic character than there is for a character who appeared in 12 out of almost 200 episodes.
OK, so literally if nothing in "Enemy of My Frenemy" changed, but Charmcaster was a regular character who appeared frequently, would your view on her and the writing of her changed?
But in that moment, at that pivotal moment where she kills 600,000 people to bring back her father, I did not have the material to feel sympathy for her. There was not enough to build to that.
But you did have the material. You just chose to ignore it. You had her backstory and her love for her father, you had the information about the war-filled Time of Chaos that corrupted everyone in Ledgerdomain that would have corrupted her too and understandably embittered her toward the other denizens of the realm (again, this is something you don't seem to talk about even though it's a BIG thing ) and you had the basic knowledge that she's someone who used to be innocent but is now pushed over the moral line due to inner pain just like Kevin was. If you know someone is just like Kevin, you should know that's appropriate build-up to her making the wrong choice. You're letting the wrongness of the action overrule all else, and honestly, I don't get it, especially when Spellbinder quite literally gave Hope a second chance by pushing the Reset Button on the action. Yes, she didn't revive them herself, but still, she's redeemable now.
when somebody says "There's something wrong with this writing," then that needs to be examined. Just as every criticism of Kevin's development or Ben's or Gwen's. And I have made, point for point, my case on why I do not believe this worked, and no amount of love I had for the series or love I still have for the writing staff can change that.
I understand and agree, but there are people who will examine the examination and try to make, point for point, why it's flawed. And the main flaws I've found are:
1. Your ignoring of the Time of Chaos' effect on Charmcaster
2. Your ignoring of her similarities to Kevin and why that makes this event not so surprising or unsympathetic
3. Your blatant incorrect statement that Kevin argued against sympathizing with Charmcaster when literally all he did in that scene is share Gwen's grim facial expression and make a remark amounting to "I feel her pain."
4. Your denial that she feels remorse for what she did
5. Your ignoring of her change of behavior in "Couples Retreat" that does show that she feels remorse and is trying to better herself
(PS: What did you think of the essay I linked to you? Agree? Disagree?)
(frozen) (no subject)
Date: 2014-01-01 01:10 am (UTC)Let's say that Charmcaster was a regular character with 100 episodes under her belt. I'd still say that her actions in "Enemy of My Frenemy," everything else the same, would be hard to find sympathetic. 600,000 people. That's a small country's worth of people, gone. And not just any people--her people. Not everyone participated in the war. There were just as likely as many innocents. There were people who came originally to help her, even though they had once called her an enemy. There was someone who was beginning to think of her as a friend. All killed.
And before you even make the argument, what would my reaction be had it been Kevin, my favorite character? My response would have been to scream, "WHAT THE FUCK?!", flip out, spend a day in an incoherent rage, write an extremely nasty review, and then swear off the show altogether. And this is with Kevin having many more episodes of development. With that much more about him known and revealed to the audience.
This is an extremely hard crime to walk away from. You can't just say, "I'm sorry." You can't just go to nicer behavior after. It takes much more time to get beyond this, and that wasn't even the point of my argument. My argument was regarding the moment. Does everything we saw in her past justify her actions? Does it make me feel for her? Can I feel like I've gone with her all this way? No. No, it doesn't, and no, I can't. Because in the episodes leading up to that, I saw a young woman who might have been able to change sides. She was antagonistic, yes. She was a criminal, yes. But she wouldn't have resorted to nigh-genocide, at least as far as I knew at that point. And once you play that card, there's no going back. You have to deal with it. And they failed to adequately deal with it. She got told off by her father. She felt awful, yes. But they never addressed her remorse. Sure, she won't do it again. But the reason why comes off as "Because my father wouldn't want that," rather than "Because it's wrong." And that is why I cannot find her sympathetic and why this argument is falling on deaf ears.
(frozen) (no subject)
Date: 2014-01-01 04:39 am (UTC)But I like discussion about opposing viewpoints! You learn alot from it, even if nobody is convinced of any points. : )
OK, so all the valid in-universe similarities between them are moot because of this one difference in status? I and other fans don't care how much airtime she has in comparison to Kevin: the sympathy angle is not a huge difference because their cases are so damn similar. Any sympathy built toward Kevin across 100 episodes is easily transferable to Charmcaster because she's in the same boat with only a few differences to distinguish them and their connection to their rivals.
Also, it's really unfair to critique Charmcaster not being a regular because she never had a chance at becoming one. You want to know why Kevin became a regular even though similar fan favorite Charmcaster did not? Because Charmcaster is:
A. Magic
B. A girl
And the show is run by the CN executives, not the writers. And according to them, magic and female characters don't get ratings and toy sales: to them, boys are the target audience and they want more male characters and more aliens / sic-fi. That's why Kevin became a regular, Gwen's magic became alien-based, and Charmcaster gets screwed out of appearances even though McDuffie and most of the writers liked her. Executive meddling and sexism.
That's why I will always stand that the series should have been an ensemble show. Not just Ben, Gwen and Kevin, but a real team: the team they gathered in "War of the Worlds" full-time (minus Darkstar), allowing additions along the way, including female characters like Eunice and, indeed, Charmcaster. But as you yourself said, "what's done is done."
600,000 people. That's a small country's worth of people, gone. And not just any people--her people. Not everyone participated in the war. There were just as likely as many innocents. There were people who came originally to help her, even though they had once called her an enemy. There was someone who was beginning to think of her as a friend. All killed.
First off, the vast majority save for Ben, Gwen and Kevin were creatures, not exactly "people". It was established that all humans save for Hex and Charmcaster were killed by Adwaitya. It would be very easy for a corrupted, embittered Charmcaster to devalue their lives based on that, even though this is wrong since they are clearly sentient. She also could have devalued their lives under the "1 death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic" law. She loves her father, she doesn't love or know most of these 600,000 beings, so heck yeah she'd trade them for him.
Second, she never asked for help. She let them go before under the assumption she'd never see them again after the door closed. They had their battle to fight which they clearly valued more than her's, and she let them go fight it. She kept the door open long enough for them to get out. She was prepared to fight alone. And after years and years and YEARS of fighting alone, and finally getting to the point of victory, these guys come back to "help" her and she knows they'll inevitably try to stop her after she'd come so far. So yeah, she killed them. Again, it's bad, it's wrong, but it's understandable and that's why people sympathize with her.
Third, I repeat: years and years and YEARS due to Ledgerdomain's time stream. That's more than enough time of pain and misery for her good feelings toward Gwen to become forgotten, even if Gwen hasn't forgotten her since it's been shorter time on Earth.
And before you even make the argument, what would my reaction be had it been Kevin, my favorite character? My response would have been to scream, "WHAT THE FUCK?!", flip out, spend a day in an incoherent rage, write an extremely nasty review, and then swear off the show altogether.
So you wouldn't be interested in seeing him redeem himself for it afterward at all?
This is an extremely hard crime to walk away from. You can't just say, "I'm sorry." You can't just go to nicer behavior after. It takes much more time to get beyond this
And that's her arc. Spending a long time moving beyond it and becoming HOPE once more, hope for herself and for the future. Going to nicer behavior is only a first step. That you criticize the episode for starting such an arc and judge the character so harshly for the crime putting the arc in motion is ridiculous.
Because in the episodes leading up to that, I saw a young woman who might have been able to change sides. She was antagonistic, yes. She was a criminal, yes. But she wouldn't have resorted to nigh-genocide, at least as far as I knew at that point. And once you play that card, there's no going back. You have to deal with it. And they failed to adequately deal with it.
But again, they wanted a redemption arc like Kevin's for her, and being someone unwilling to resort to nigh-genocide like he was (nigh-genocide that, by the way, wasn't reversed) wouldn't make it work, hence this episode.
She got told off by her father. She felt awful, yes. But they never addressed her remorse. Sure, she won't do it again. But the reason why comes off as "Because my father wouldn't want that," rather than "Because it's wrong." And that is why I cannot find her sympathetic and why this argument is falling on deaf ears.
If she knows her father wouldn't want it, then she knows it's wrong. Period. She knows damn well what a good man her father was, she worships him like a saint, and she knows that if he says it's wrong, then it's wrong. Is it so hard for you to connect the dots here? Does Charmcaster have to lose all subtlety and deliver a "mass murder is wrong" speech?
The episode's ending and especially "Couples Retreat" is working off of Show, Don't Tell The writers assumed the audience would know that Charmcaster realizes how wrong she's been because her father, whom she holds as a paragon of virtue, said so. Her father's words about her crime making her worse than Adwaitya got through to her and she's trying to change not just for her father but for herself, so that she won't be like Adwaitya. They also assumed that audiences would note the similarities to Kevin based on his last line, and know where Charmcaster is headed now. It may take slow and she may still do some bad things, but that's the same as Kevin still committing felonies even after Q'arell got through to him, or even regressing to crime at times after joining Ben and Gwen.
Basically, what this amounts to is that most fans are able to get around Charmcaster's lack of appearances and connect the dots that are presented in said appearance and in the deliberate parallels to Kevin, and they see the full picture of Charmcaster's character and arc. This is what McDuffie and the writers intended, because they couldn't do the same with her as they did with Kevin due to the executive reasons listed above. If you can't do that even now, even though you are capable of it as "To the 10th Power" shows, I don't know what more to say.
(frozen) (no subject)
Date: 2014-01-01 05:09 am (UTC)I'm done. I'm just done. I've written every possible word, felt every possible emotion, and I'm just so damn burnt out that I can't bring myself to argue or care anymore.