Wizzard
The entry about Wicked seems to be overstating its case somewhat about the relative good and evil of the characters in the original. If the Witches were good and democratic rulers, wouldn't their subjects' reactions to their deaths be something other than And There Was Much Rejoicing?
Edited by 86.165.129.167 Hide / Show Replies
Seriously, could someone show me the list of sins that includes "an obfuscated description of implementing democracy", because all I can find is statements that the Witch of the East "held all the Munchkins in bondage for many years, making them slave for her night and day" and that the Winkies "had been made to work hard during many years for the Wicked Witch, who had always treated them with great cruelty".
Further to the the above, I've pulled the following:
- A good example of a perspective flip not even requiring rewriting the characters. Baum's original Wizard was a petty third-world dictator sending child-soldiers to assassinate his political rivals and attempting to make the endeavor a suicide mission so he wouldn't have to actually pay his debt or reveal his lack of legitimate (magical) power. The 'wicked' witches of the west and east were already the legitimate (read: magically powered) leaders of their respective realms, and their list of sins reads like a tongue-in-cheek list of the goals of contemporary civil rights movements, with the greatest sin being an obfuscated description of implementing democracy. There is still a perspective switch because, while Baum couched these elements of the story in a thick layer of the era's characteristic straight-faced sardonic irony, Maguire presents them straightforwardly, and in fact tones it down a bit— the wicked witches are, from a perspective outside the narrative, less unambiguously good than in Baum's work under the layer of in-universe propaganda, and the good witches substantially less outright evil.
- This has actually been one of the major sources of criticism of Wicked and Maguire's work in general, because while it heartily debunks the watered-down, bowdlerized recent versions of the story, to those familiar with the original work it can read like three hundred pages of explaining a joke they got the first time.
- A good example of a perspective flip not even requiring rewriting the characters. Baum's original Wizard was a petty third-world dictator sending child-soldiers to assassinate his political rivals and attempting to make the endeavor a suicide mission so he wouldn't have to actually pay his debt or reveal his lack of legitimate (magical) power. The 'wicked' witches of the west and east were already the legitimate (read: magically powered) leaders of their respective realms, and their list of sins reads like a tongue-in-cheek list of the goals of contemporary civil rights movements, with the greatest sin being an obfuscated description of implementing democracy. There is still a perspective switch because, while Baum couched these elements of the story in a thick layer of the era's characteristic straight-faced sardonic irony, Maguire presents them straightforwardly, and in fact tones it down a bit— the wicked witches are, from a perspective outside the narrative, less unambiguously good than in Baum's work under the layer of in-universe propaganda, and the good witches substantially less outright evil.
I'd also add that the sequels reveal the wicked witches overthrew the actual rightful ruler, thereby creating the power vacuum the wizard occupied. But doubtless Baum intended us to read that the Ozma line were terrible rulers and kidnapping the heir and raising her as a boy was entirely justified and a Good Thing.
Regarding the Code Geass entry, wouldn't it be more appropriate to say Code Geass is what would happen if the Char Clone joined/led the Resistance against The Empire instead of the Wide-Eyed Idealist hero?
It's been ages since I watched Mobile Suit Gundam, but IIRC, Suzaku actually does strongly resemble Amuro Ray and Lelouch's Zero getup is very evocative of Char's uniform, now that I think about it.
The description makes it seem like this trope is exclusively for when the perspective flip changes the protagonist/antagonist dichotomy as we know it, but a number of examples say differently. Roz and Guil, for example, are no more heroic or villainous in Hamlet than they are in Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies. Hide / Show Replies
If the protagonist/antagonist dichotomy isn't changed, then what's the difference between a perspective flip and a P.O.V. Sequel?
The description for Perspective Flip says it's an External Retcon (ie unofficial). The P.O.V. Sequel is an official continuation of the franchise.
Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Ambiguous Name
, started by HiddenFacedMatt on Jun 3rd 2012 at 9:06:18 PM
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