Black Hat Brigade: Episode 14
Sep. 22nd, 2015 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastEstablishing Shot focuses on The Beast's castle. Bright, shining, clean. The camera pulls back across dark forest and over to the nearby village. The camera lowers to focus on one specific house.
Susan Pevensie wears a peasant blouse, opened up to display some decolletage. Her hair is styled, worn up. Her face made up. She knocks on the door.
Gaston opens the door, taking in a deep breath to begin: Iiii-
Susan: None of that, please. It may come easily to you, but to most of us musical interludes are an endurance test and I have enough of those.
Gaston (disappointed): Hello.
Susan: I am Susan Pevensie. You may have heard of my organization, The Black Hat Brigade.
Gaston remains blocking the door: I have heard. I heard that you went to Scar before me. You find the brother-murderer a more sympathetic villain than me?
Susan: To be perfectly honest, I do.
Gaston: He knowingly murdered his brother, without a slightest way of missing the wrong. I had nigh every reason to believe The Beast was an evil monster.
Susan: Over and above Belle's own word on the matter?
Gaston: She was talking about a local lord who had, for ten years, completely abandoned all duty to his vassalage, was transformed into a creature with fur and claw and I'm supposed to be predisposed to viewing him positively?
Gaston: Do you know how many tales we have, in this vaguely mid-evil European setting, of beings that steal young, nubile, virgin girls to ensorcell their minds and turn them into slaves, meals, or worse?
Susan: Hmm. You make a possible point. But, that is all after-the-fact justification. None of that was your motivation. If you'll be a gentleman, we can discuss.
Gaston steps aside and motions for Susan to come in: It isn't fair, you know.
Susan: Truly, absolutely *all* of your decorating.
Gaston: All of my life, I was told things about manliness and male virtues. I worked hard to meet those virtues.
Susan rolls her eyes.
Gaston: Muscles like these are no accident. I'll admit to being lucky with my genetics, but this is still a lot of exercise. I can't eat like a college student and sit around to be like this. Maybe, if I grew up in a society that openly valued other-
Susan: Put a stop to that, right now. Gaston-as-victim-of-toxic-masculinity-culture might ring technically accurate, but it does not fill me with compassion.
Gaston: But, you admit to some accuracy.
Susan: Listen, your great tragedy is that you were the winner of your community. Women wanted you, men wanted to be you, then, suddenly, your virtues didn't work out quite as perfectly for you as you thought.
Susan: It's all very modern white-man's-burden. I'm sure that we're all very sorry that you're hurting from not being quite as privileged as you expected. We've just got injustices to deal with and your whining doesn't identify any of them.
Gaston: Are you here to just to tell me that I'm one of the villains you were glad to see suffer the standard Disney Death By Gravity?
Susan: No, there is a possible injustice done you, just not one that justifies your attitude of entitlement to other human beings or your rage when that entitlement was frustrated.
Gaston narrows his eyes.
Susan: The beautiful sorceress, the one who cursed a young prince to being The Beast, due to his own shallowness and vanity.
Gaston: The one that may have cursed the prince when he was eleven years old?
Susan: Doubtful, for all of the others under the curse, aging stopped while the curse was in effect and the stain-glass presentation indicated a full grown man. That is not the potential injustice.
Gaston: What is? Perhaps the lack of a Lord to organize an army or hire knights for common defense? Did her curse incidentally curse this entire village?
Susan: Possibly, she did seem remarkably callous to everybody in the castle as there's no indication of them doing any wrong. So, there's nothing to indicate that she would care one whit about harm done an unarmed populace that relies upon the flawed standards of feudalism for their defense from neighboring vassals. But, I'm just asking why it is that you went your entire life un-cursed?
Gaston: What?
Susan: The Beast refused an old woman who offered a rose in a time and place that, as you say, has a great many stories of horrors that can disguise themselves as harmless. Even if we assume that this was but one of many incidents of vanity and shallowness, of a life of judging by appearances, your own sins on that matter are far more openly shown.
Gaston: In mid-evil Europe, as with many other places around the same time, there was a tradition of hospitality. Unlike a local Lord or even a Prince, I rely far more upon the good graces of my local community. I wouldn't even need much more virtue to shelter an old woman for the night, even without the offer of a rose. It would even fit in with my notion of being the best man in all the village.
Susan: Potentially, that would only make the test all the more of a failure.
Gaston: Not necessarily. My song about how great I am, up to and including my rustic decor, didn't mention acts of cruelty.
Susan: Or kindness.
Gaston: But, not being mentioned doesn't make them gone. And, no cruelty to others is shown in my interactions, except where I assume a very old man, already known to have cognitive difficulties that are often related to age, baring an outlandish story might be insane. For all that is shown, aside from my pride and self-confidence, carefully shown as my only character trait when real people are far more complex than that.
Susan: Really?
Gaston: For the most part, at least. If I were completely absent a conscience, I might be able to fool some of the people some of the time, but all of the village all of the time? Maybe, aside from how I viewed myself as the handsomest, I could have been the most generous.
Gaston: All to be dashed in a grizzly, though off-screen, death caused by my great weakness of pride. Quite a Greek Tragedy.
Susan (skeptical): Not entirely impossible.
Gaston: Gaston, the Tragic Greek Hero. It has a ring to it.
Susan: Not impossible, but not indicated by anything in your canon, either. No, there is a far more parsimonious explanation for why a Prince was tested and cursed, but not a peasant.
Gaston: Seriously? That is where you would go?
Susan: You aren't royalty. Therefore, the beautiful sorceress did not care enough about you to even consider you for virtue or failing.
Gaston: Nothing more than that?
Susan: You're a character in a Disney Animated Movie. If you're not a young girl who wants more or her prince, you barely exist as a person.
Gaston: It does seem that those songs could be interrupted by the odd peasant singing how he or she would like to not be mutilated when the next lord takes the vassalage.
Susan: Quite.
Gaston: But, what you're saying is that the reason I wasn't taught a lesson, given some kind of magical moral aid, was because I wasn't rich enough to be worth saving?
Susan: Or your blood not royal enough. We are talking about someone who cursed an entire castle full of servants, who had neither a choice in the matter of whether or not the Prince accepts a guest nor any freedom to openly disagree with his choice to do so. All set to die if he didn't learn his lesson. Why should you be any more important than the child forced into the body of a cracked teacup?
Gaston stands: Me, not important! I was the handsomest and strongest man in the village, beloved by everybody! Maybe they shouldn't have, if the movie's moral be true, but I was important to them. I influenced them. I had the power to make their lives better! Why should that be-?
Susan: And, there you have the injustice. It's the injustice of nearly all Disney Animated Films, I'm sad to say.
Gaston: But, what is there to be done on the matter?
Susan: Some things must change more than others. You can help. You'll need a dash more humility than you've displayed, but that can be handled with education.
Susan Pevensie wears a peasant blouse, opened up to display some decolletage. Her hair is styled, worn up. Her face made up. She knocks on the door.
Gaston opens the door, taking in a deep breath to begin: Iiii-
Susan: None of that, please. It may come easily to you, but to most of us musical interludes are an endurance test and I have enough of those.
Gaston (disappointed): Hello.
Susan: I am Susan Pevensie. You may have heard of my organization, The Black Hat Brigade.
Gaston remains blocking the door: I have heard. I heard that you went to Scar before me. You find the brother-murderer a more sympathetic villain than me?
Susan: To be perfectly honest, I do.
Gaston: He knowingly murdered his brother, without a slightest way of missing the wrong. I had nigh every reason to believe The Beast was an evil monster.
Susan: Over and above Belle's own word on the matter?
Gaston: She was talking about a local lord who had, for ten years, completely abandoned all duty to his vassalage, was transformed into a creature with fur and claw and I'm supposed to be predisposed to viewing him positively?
Gaston: Do you know how many tales we have, in this vaguely mid-evil European setting, of beings that steal young, nubile, virgin girls to ensorcell their minds and turn them into slaves, meals, or worse?
Susan: Hmm. You make a possible point. But, that is all after-the-fact justification. None of that was your motivation. If you'll be a gentleman, we can discuss.
Gaston steps aside and motions for Susan to come in: It isn't fair, you know.
Susan: Truly, absolutely *all* of your decorating.
Gaston: All of my life, I was told things about manliness and male virtues. I worked hard to meet those virtues.
Susan rolls her eyes.
Gaston: Muscles like these are no accident. I'll admit to being lucky with my genetics, but this is still a lot of exercise. I can't eat like a college student and sit around to be like this. Maybe, if I grew up in a society that openly valued other-
Susan: Put a stop to that, right now. Gaston-as-victim-of-toxic-masculinity-culture might ring technically accurate, but it does not fill me with compassion.
Gaston: But, you admit to some accuracy.
Susan: Listen, your great tragedy is that you were the winner of your community. Women wanted you, men wanted to be you, then, suddenly, your virtues didn't work out quite as perfectly for you as you thought.
Susan: It's all very modern white-man's-burden. I'm sure that we're all very sorry that you're hurting from not being quite as privileged as you expected. We've just got injustices to deal with and your whining doesn't identify any of them.
Gaston: Are you here to just to tell me that I'm one of the villains you were glad to see suffer the standard Disney Death By Gravity?
Susan: No, there is a possible injustice done you, just not one that justifies your attitude of entitlement to other human beings or your rage when that entitlement was frustrated.
Gaston narrows his eyes.
Susan: The beautiful sorceress, the one who cursed a young prince to being The Beast, due to his own shallowness and vanity.
Gaston: The one that may have cursed the prince when he was eleven years old?
Susan: Doubtful, for all of the others under the curse, aging stopped while the curse was in effect and the stain-glass presentation indicated a full grown man. That is not the potential injustice.
Gaston: What is? Perhaps the lack of a Lord to organize an army or hire knights for common defense? Did her curse incidentally curse this entire village?
Susan: Possibly, she did seem remarkably callous to everybody in the castle as there's no indication of them doing any wrong. So, there's nothing to indicate that she would care one whit about harm done an unarmed populace that relies upon the flawed standards of feudalism for their defense from neighboring vassals. But, I'm just asking why it is that you went your entire life un-cursed?
Gaston: What?
Susan: The Beast refused an old woman who offered a rose in a time and place that, as you say, has a great many stories of horrors that can disguise themselves as harmless. Even if we assume that this was but one of many incidents of vanity and shallowness, of a life of judging by appearances, your own sins on that matter are far more openly shown.
Gaston: In mid-evil Europe, as with many other places around the same time, there was a tradition of hospitality. Unlike a local Lord or even a Prince, I rely far more upon the good graces of my local community. I wouldn't even need much more virtue to shelter an old woman for the night, even without the offer of a rose. It would even fit in with my notion of being the best man in all the village.
Susan: Potentially, that would only make the test all the more of a failure.
Gaston: Not necessarily. My song about how great I am, up to and including my rustic decor, didn't mention acts of cruelty.
Susan: Or kindness.
Gaston: But, not being mentioned doesn't make them gone. And, no cruelty to others is shown in my interactions, except where I assume a very old man, already known to have cognitive difficulties that are often related to age, baring an outlandish story might be insane. For all that is shown, aside from my pride and self-confidence, carefully shown as my only character trait when real people are far more complex than that.
Susan: Really?
Gaston: For the most part, at least. If I were completely absent a conscience, I might be able to fool some of the people some of the time, but all of the village all of the time? Maybe, aside from how I viewed myself as the handsomest, I could have been the most generous.
Gaston: All to be dashed in a grizzly, though off-screen, death caused by my great weakness of pride. Quite a Greek Tragedy.
Susan (skeptical): Not entirely impossible.
Gaston: Gaston, the Tragic Greek Hero. It has a ring to it.
Susan: Not impossible, but not indicated by anything in your canon, either. No, there is a far more parsimonious explanation for why a Prince was tested and cursed, but not a peasant.
Gaston: Seriously? That is where you would go?
Susan: You aren't royalty. Therefore, the beautiful sorceress did not care enough about you to even consider you for virtue or failing.
Gaston: Nothing more than that?
Susan: You're a character in a Disney Animated Movie. If you're not a young girl who wants more or her prince, you barely exist as a person.
Gaston: It does seem that those songs could be interrupted by the odd peasant singing how he or she would like to not be mutilated when the next lord takes the vassalage.
Susan: Quite.
Gaston: But, what you're saying is that the reason I wasn't taught a lesson, given some kind of magical moral aid, was because I wasn't rich enough to be worth saving?
Susan: Or your blood not royal enough. We are talking about someone who cursed an entire castle full of servants, who had neither a choice in the matter of whether or not the Prince accepts a guest nor any freedom to openly disagree with his choice to do so. All set to die if he didn't learn his lesson. Why should you be any more important than the child forced into the body of a cracked teacup?
Gaston stands: Me, not important! I was the handsomest and strongest man in the village, beloved by everybody! Maybe they shouldn't have, if the movie's moral be true, but I was important to them. I influenced them. I had the power to make their lives better! Why should that be-?
Susan: And, there you have the injustice. It's the injustice of nearly all Disney Animated Films, I'm sad to say.
Gaston: But, what is there to be done on the matter?
Susan: Some things must change more than others. You can help. You'll need a dash more humility than you've displayed, but that can be handled with education.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-23 04:48 pm (UTC)*wicked giggling*
For a character whose main perceived trait is self-importance, Gaston's sure got a lot to learn. I'm interested to see where you take him.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-23 07:57 pm (UTC)