Monday, October 6, 2014

Further Thoughts on Defiance

As a follow-up to this post, where I mention that I've been enjoying the TV show Defiance, I am now far enough along in the series to where virtually everything about the Nolan character is irritating to me.

I don't like that he, the white human guy, gets to be the city's Lawkeeper practically his first day upon arriving in Defiance and run about with virtually no checks and balances just because....um? There aren't any other qualified candidates around? However did the city survive before his arrival?

I don't like that he's always there to Save The Day, just because of course he is.

I don't like that the Season 1 DVD image literally centers Nolan, just because of course it does, even though dozens of more interesting characters than the "angsty white badass dude who plays by his own set of rules" exist on the show. At least 4 alien races, so far, exist in Defiance, along with a female mayor, and New Guy Nolan is the centered star of things?

 

And then, when you put the DVD in your DVD player, the home screen image is Nolan's face taking up half the screen, with the Gateway Arch taking up the other half.  Because of course.

Nolan is basically every male character in every video game ever.  Yes, I realize that's an exaggeration on my part.  I mean, I recognize that it's progress for science fiction to have multiple female characters, I'm just expressing my frustration with this constant catering to, and centering of, white men within the genre even if they are surrounded by characters who are, by far, more interesting than them.

That is to say, Nolan is not my avatar.

Yet, I think it would be a startling news revelation to some creators of science fiction games and media that fans would maybe identify with, and find interesting, characters other than him (and the zillions other like him).

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