So a while back, I went out to grab a new
mouse. Found one, too; it’s pretty
sensitive, but its battery life is much higher than my last one, and it’s got a
cool design on it. But I started looking
around the store, and wouldn’t you know it?
I spotted a DVD box set of Adventure
Time. Well, probably a DVD set. Could’ve been Blu-Ray. I paid more attention to the fact that it was
just Jake the Dog in box form.
The important thing is that I paid just enough
attention to the box to notice that I would’ve grabbed the complete fifth season of the show -- which is a
problem, because I couldn’t even tell you where the first season starts and stops.
So I put it back, in the hopes that one day I would know enough about Adventure Time to dive into any given
segment of the canon. That day has yet
to come, unfortunately. My loss, of
course; I wouldn’t mind learning more about Finn, Jake, Ice King, Beemo, Fire
Princess, Lemongrab, Marceline the Vampire Queen, and all the rest. (Also, Cinnamon Bun is god-tier.)
So indulge me for a moment. Let’s chat about Princess Bubblegum.
As you can guess, there’s a difference between
knowing the names of characters, and knowing what they actually contribute to a
story. So my knowledge of Adventure Time is embarrassingly
limited, to the point where I feel like I should apologize. What I’ve seen of Princess Bubblegum,
however, is still plenty entertaining.
Engrossing, even. She’s a
princess! But she loves science! She’s not to be trifled with! She’s got strengths and weaknesses! And so on, and so forth. She seems pretty cool, is what I’m trying to
say here.
In the past, I’ve wondered if there’s a genuine
stigma against overtly-female characters -- princesses
well among them, and feminine types following shortly behind. Obviously there’s no conclusive or ironclad
evidence of one preference over another, so I’d like to think that I’m just
raising hell over a problem that doesn’t really exist. It certainly
doesn’t exist in the face of well-rounded characters like Princess
Bubblegum, even if her appearance would be an instant red flag for
princess-haters. My assumption is that
being a girl doesn’t have to mean being a failure of a character.
You may be wondering why I would bother to go on
for so long about such a random character.
And the answer to that is simple: I don’t know a lot about Princess
Bubblegum, but I know that her voice actress, Hynden Walch,
would be perfect for the theoretical
role of Kaylee Hazlett, the deuteragonist of Dead on Prime.
Well, if you ever wanted to see some of my “art”
in its super-rough form…
Alright, so
who is this girl?
She’s the number-two character in the story (and
quite literally gets this designation at one point via magic cell phone). As you’d expect, she’s the partner -- friend,
confidant, comrade, and more -- to Arc Siegel, the story’s number-one character
(pictured left in the above, in case it wasn’t obvious). Likewise, the two of them are out to discover
firsthand what happened to their high school -- which at the outset is
basically a landfill for reasons yet unknown.
Well, to the untrained eye, at least; the truth is that Kaylee and Arc
can both see the remains of the school have been swarmed by freaky graveyard
stuff. That, and floating numbers.
So you could say that they’re both driven by a
sense of personal responsibility. But
there’s a slight difference in motivation; Arc’s out to solve the mystery,
while Kaylee’s out to make sure no one gets hurt by something that could be
dangerous (and it is, by proxy of the cause).
That’s kind of to be expected; Arc’s more or less a sourpuss who
occasionally acts like he only tolerates the human race, while Kaylee’s the
genuine altruist of the two.
No,
really. Who is this girl?
In
the last post, I compared Arc to something along the lines of Batman (or an
anti-version of him, at least). If we’re
sticking close to that interpretation, then Kaylee is something along the lines
of Superman. She doesn’t need a reason
to fight for justice and love; she just does it, because that’s what a good
person would do. And she IS a good
person -- kind, sweet, friendly, and a joy to have around. That’s not to say she’s a pushover; hanging
around with Arc has made her exceptionally good at tossing out the snark, and
she’s more than willing to show off her iron will.
In a way, you could think of Kaylee as the more
basic, more well-known type of hero -- main character material in her own
right. You know the sort: just a normal
guy or girl who gets swept up into something big. But he or she pulls through thanks to a
faultless resolve and enduring virtue -- as you’d expect. That’s not to say Kaylee’s ONLY the basic
hero (and I’ll explain why in a bit), but to put it a different way? If they were fighting game characters, Arc
would be a technical rushdown-type.
Kaylee would be a shoto, or at least more well-rounded. (Albeit with a lean towards power.)
Thinking back, it’s a hell of an improvement over
her previous incarnation. When it was Dead over Two -- and to a lesser extent,
D.O.X. -- Kaylee (then Katie) was
practically a non-character. Sure,
plenty of lip service was paid to her; she was Arc’s girlfriend, and formed the
backbone of his motivation. And sure,
that relationship ended up getting deconstructed over the course of D.O.X., to the point where A) Arc came
within inches of dooming the planet because he couldn’t quit her, and B) the
culmination of his character arc led to him giving her up. But I said it once, and I’ll say it again:
she shouldn’t have had to be the fall guy in that situation.
That’s especially true, because back then she
didn’t get the “screen time” she desperately needed. Pretty much every time I made an edit to D.O.X., it was to crowbar in a scene
that helped build Katie’s character. (I have
a list of added scenes written in a spiral notebook somewhere, but gut instinct
alone tells me a huge percentage of those scenes focus on developing her.) I’d bet, then, that a savvy enough reader
could intuit the hack job at work; even if Kaylee ended up as a stronger
character, she was built on a weak foundation.
She was barely a cut above the stereotypical Disney princess, reduced to
her worst traits.
So who is she now, then? It’s not enough for her to just be good at
fighting -- especially since she’s going up against enemies with supernatural
powers and forms by the third chapter. I
suppose the best way to describe her, at least on a surface level, is to call
her a good person. Though you could say the emphasis is on her being a person -- a fourteen-year-old
girl who has friends and family that she cares about deeply. Her friends count on her to be sweet and full
of cheer, while her family knows her as a mood-maker with a taste for burgers
-- well, that, and being the runt/baby of the Hazlett troupe.
Arc may be “the cool one” -- person-to-person, and
in the cast at large -- but by no means does that make him a joy to be
around. Kaylee is. True, that’s partly done by making her out to
be the average high school freshman (sans high school), but I don’t think
there’s anything grievously wrong with that.
If there was, then I’d imagine that there are a lot of women out there who’d be pretty cross with me. Prior to the story, Kaylee’s a person trying
to get the most out of life in the usual means.
There’s nothing reprehensible about wanting to hang with friends, or
enjoy family, or have school days go smoothly, or any of that day-to-day
stuff. In fact, that kind of gives her a
natural edge over Arc; she has the foundation and reason to be a hero, and
he…well, doesn’t.
I’m sure that won’t play into anything later on,
though.
Bold words,
but is he any good?
She’s a lot better than she was, that’s for
sure. Katie was barely even in the story
-- excised from most of the action, and thus denied the chance to synergize
with the rest of the cast or develop her character (even after getting extra
scenes jammed in). Kaylee, on the other hand, is the second member of the core eight
introduced, and stays within yards of Arc almost entirely throughout the
story’s first act -- or at least from Chapter 2 to Chapter 9. After that?
Admittedly, she gets “kidnapped” by certain forces, but Arc points out
later that half the cast ended up getting “kidnapped”, with two of them being
directly responsible for it to further admittedly-reasonable goals. Then other stuff happens, because plots,
amirite?
In any case, the important thing to remember about
Kaylee is that even if she’s got that basic nature, there are indeed
complexities. She has an arc of her own,
and goes through highs and lows on the way to the endgame. Since her school is a pile of rubble -- and
she’s campaigning to help reverse her city’s ill fortunes -- she doesn’t usually
get the chance to pal around with her friends or worry about science tests very
often. She’s forced to stay strong in
the face of an impending ghost apocalypse, and fight her hardest against the
inevitable. Though in this case,
“inevitable” includes “come to terms with the worst parts of your heart”.
Minor quirks aside, Kaylee is the most normal
member of the cast. And she wants to be normal -- live a normal life, in a
normal world, with normal people all around her. And indeed, her goals are comparatively
normal; Arc’s got ambitions and wanderlust that don’t always sync up with
Kaylee (i.e. the usual “protect the innocent” end goal). But even if we take the plot out of the
equation, the question remains: would Kaylee be happy if she didn’t have to
worry about the potential end of the world?
Alternatively, would she be happy without Arc?
Maybe.
Maybe not. But they’re both
issues that she has to sort out as the story progresses. Like it or not, Kaylee is an abnormal person
living amongst normal people. Since
she’s the type that genuinely cares about people and the bonds she shares with
them, she doesn’t want a wall to be between them and her -- and by extension,
between her ideal life and her real life.
It’s to the point where, despite her airs of sweetness and honesty,
Kaylee’s actually kind of a liar. A
hypocrite, even.
She’s a competent fighter -- stronger and tougher
than most, for reasons revealed in-universe -- but the only one who really
knows that is Arc. Her friends can only
guess that she’s strong because she’s never lost to her peers at arm wrestling;
they have no idea that she knows how to fight.
And remember what I said earlier about Kaylee being sweet and cheery around
others? One could argue very successfully
that it’s all an act. She only does it
because it’s what people expect of her, or because that’s how she should be. That might explain why she’s different around
Arc and other cast members. There’s an
inherently fierce side to her, but she can’t bring it to the surface on a
whim. Why? Fear of rejection, or repulsion, or any of
those things. And yet she asks others to
trust her, and lay all their secrets bare.
Kaylee has a social advantage compared to Arc, but
in turn, Arc enjoys an inherent level of freedom and honesty. He’s open and plain with everyone around him,
even if he does things that confirm how much of an asshole he is. Kaylee doesn’t. She’s a pretender who tries to do what’s
expected of her, not what she wants -- and she has to come to terms with her
dark side or face the worst.
Well, I say that, but she has to deal with more
than just her inner turmoil. Eventually,
everything comes crashing down -- up to and including a reconciliation that
leads to blood being borne.
Not like that, though.
Okay, so
why should anyone care?
I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but if I
had to guess? I’d say “projection”.
It’s not like I’m saying every teenage girl in the
universe will glom onto Kaylee because she’s “identifiable”. But compared to Arc -- and the other six
members of the core cast -- she’s a lot easier to grasp. Again, she’s a good person deep down, and she
wants to do the right thing. That’s
admirable. Respectable. When the other cast members are freaks,
idiots, and madmen, someone like Kaylee helps keep things anchored and easily
digestible. And really, who wouldn’t want to fight for their
friends? And family? And home?
And future?
I’d like to think that the struggle is dense
enough anyone to want to jump in.
Kaylee’s pushing against something well beyond her depth, and despite
her best efforts things get progressively worse. How will she deal with that? What will she do when the chips are
down? That’s what’ll help decide her
worth as a character, and whether or not she can ascend to the pantheon of the
fabled “strong female characters”.
With all that in mind, I don’t think it’s worth
stressing about the basic details of Kaylee’s character -- i.e. if she’s
allowed to be girly, or cute, or want normal things. What matters is that there are more aspects
to her than what’s on the surface -- and I think I’ve managed to provide. She might change the most out of any single
character in the entire story, which is made possible thanks to her inherent
flaws and fears. The clash of ideals and
reality -- of her light versus her dark -- takes her to some unexpected places,
and unwanted by Little Miss Hazlett herself.
Every single aspect of her life comes into
question, and how she deals with each determines what sort of person she
becomes. And rest assured, she does
change; in fact, I’d go so far as to say that -- for a little while at least --
she becomes the darkest character in the entire story, independent of what Arc
says or does.
Speaking of?
It’s likely that those two are going to have to pound out their
differences. Literally.
Because I’m me, and I can’t help myself. But if I do this just right, then that’s
exactly what anyone would want to see.
But I could be wrong. Believe it or not, it’s happened before. I AM the guy who tried to see if it’s
possible to slip on a banana peel, after all.
(Spoilers: it is.)
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