Black Hat Brigade: Episode 26
Feb. 4th, 2016 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastSetting: The Evil Queen's office. The walls are done in faux brick, with red curtains over the window. An ornate mirror hangs on a wall. To the left of the mirror hangs a burning torch. To the right of the mirror are a number of framed sociology and psychology degrees.
The Evil Queen wears a black pantsuit with red pinstripes, standing before the mirror.
Evil Queen: Mirror mirror on the wall, what's the point of it all?
The mirror displays flames that then fall away, leaving a mask-like face hovering among the remaining smoke.
Mirror: I appreciate not referring to me as a slave anymore, but the rhyme isn't entirely necessary.
Evil Queen: It wasn't even intentional. It just happened.
Mirror: What's wrong?
Evil Queen: The Case. It was supposed to be a tool for justice.
Mirror: It is.
Evil Queen: Then where was my justice?
Mirror: In this case, it wasn't about you. It was about the injustice of classism and monarchy.
Evil Queen: I know, but couldn't it have thrown a little bit of deconstruction my way? The previous Case at least gave a couple lines to how the sorceress ignored Gaston.
Mirror: That relates directly to the injustice of classism. What was the classism based injustice against you in our canon?
Evil Queen: It might not have been, necessarily, based in classism. But, do we really expect a woman to develop an obsession with being the most beautiful in the land without any reason, whatsoever?
Mirror: No. And, it's fully understandable in a world where, in women, a lack of femininity is associated with a lack of morality, as per things like "ugly stepsisters".
Evil Queen: Exactly. I could be suffering under the weight of patriarchal demands for femininity. Being a strong and resolute leader would be needed, but not accepted under those demands, so my position would demand that I outdo all women in the femininity of appearance.
Mirror: That's all well and good, a believable and even sympathetic motivation. But, the thing about attempted murder is that it's attempted murder. Sympathetic motivation doesn't undo that.
Evil Queen: Then, what is the point.
Mirror: The point is justice. And, justice isn't always going to be in your favor. Just because you have sympathetic motivations doesn't eliminate justifiable consequences for your actions.
Evil Queen: They do for Regina in Once Upon a Time.
Mirror: And, that's a major problem with that show. It started off not only with the promise of a return to the darkness of the original fairy tales, but also with a promise of moral complexity. Then, it got lost in all of this binary morality of light-side/dark-side stuff with things only mattering in so far as getting people to the right "side".
Mirror: Listen, my Queen, there is a social context in which you, even after all you've done, can be, for lack of a better word, "good". At the very least, you can be harnessable for good, with proper regulation, such that you don't conflict with good. You can easily be something of a Neutral character.
Evil Queen: We're going with D&D morality scales, now?
Mirror: If nothing else, it's language in easy grasp. And, the point is to show that, yes, you are a victim of the same forces that made it so easy for you to victimize others. But, justice means justice and, in a complex world, justice can be complex. In your case, justice may well demand sympathy, but it cannot demand an elimination of consequences.
Evil Queen: I suppose you're right. But, I don't like it. I don't like having the opportunity to give me that sympathy being passed by.
Mirror: In that much, you're right. The opportunity came and it went without a thought your way. That is wrong and that should be acknowledged. But, hey, maybe things will come out better if there's ever a Case regarding Disney's Descendants.
Evil Queen: You honestly think the author will watch that?
The Evil Queen wears a black pantsuit with red pinstripes, standing before the mirror.
Evil Queen: Mirror mirror on the wall, what's the point of it all?
The mirror displays flames that then fall away, leaving a mask-like face hovering among the remaining smoke.
Mirror: I appreciate not referring to me as a slave anymore, but the rhyme isn't entirely necessary.
Evil Queen: It wasn't even intentional. It just happened.
Mirror: What's wrong?
Evil Queen: The Case. It was supposed to be a tool for justice.
Mirror: It is.
Evil Queen: Then where was my justice?
Mirror: In this case, it wasn't about you. It was about the injustice of classism and monarchy.
Evil Queen: I know, but couldn't it have thrown a little bit of deconstruction my way? The previous Case at least gave a couple lines to how the sorceress ignored Gaston.
Mirror: That relates directly to the injustice of classism. What was the classism based injustice against you in our canon?
Evil Queen: It might not have been, necessarily, based in classism. But, do we really expect a woman to develop an obsession with being the most beautiful in the land without any reason, whatsoever?
Mirror: No. And, it's fully understandable in a world where, in women, a lack of femininity is associated with a lack of morality, as per things like "ugly stepsisters".
Evil Queen: Exactly. I could be suffering under the weight of patriarchal demands for femininity. Being a strong and resolute leader would be needed, but not accepted under those demands, so my position would demand that I outdo all women in the femininity of appearance.
Mirror: That's all well and good, a believable and even sympathetic motivation. But, the thing about attempted murder is that it's attempted murder. Sympathetic motivation doesn't undo that.
Evil Queen: Then, what is the point.
Mirror: The point is justice. And, justice isn't always going to be in your favor. Just because you have sympathetic motivations doesn't eliminate justifiable consequences for your actions.
Evil Queen: They do for Regina in Once Upon a Time.
Mirror: And, that's a major problem with that show. It started off not only with the promise of a return to the darkness of the original fairy tales, but also with a promise of moral complexity. Then, it got lost in all of this binary morality of light-side/dark-side stuff with things only mattering in so far as getting people to the right "side".
Mirror: Listen, my Queen, there is a social context in which you, even after all you've done, can be, for lack of a better word, "good". At the very least, you can be harnessable for good, with proper regulation, such that you don't conflict with good. You can easily be something of a Neutral character.
Evil Queen: We're going with D&D morality scales, now?
Mirror: If nothing else, it's language in easy grasp. And, the point is to show that, yes, you are a victim of the same forces that made it so easy for you to victimize others. But, justice means justice and, in a complex world, justice can be complex. In your case, justice may well demand sympathy, but it cannot demand an elimination of consequences.
Evil Queen: I suppose you're right. But, I don't like it. I don't like having the opportunity to give me that sympathy being passed by.
Mirror: In that much, you're right. The opportunity came and it went without a thought your way. That is wrong and that should be acknowledged. But, hey, maybe things will come out better if there's ever a Case regarding Disney's Descendants.
Evil Queen: You honestly think the author will watch that?
