the reason why i hate when people pit sonar and coupé against each other is that, more than anything, these two exhibit the same theme of loss of control amidst a capitalist society. the only difference they have is actually how the insecurities they have born from that loss of control due to their character profiles — sonar being a (presumably) white man, and coupé being a black woman.
as an afab activist of color, i and a bunch of my friends have a lot of experiences studying how today's gender dynamics and culture exist due to capitalism and its history of oppression. what we've noticed is that insecurity, especially self-esteem issues, amongst men and women differ in Why it occurs.
for men, it's the ego. this is because for the longest time, men, especially white men, are those who wielded most power. they were the forefront of imperialism, colonization, businesses, etc. which sets the general foundations for the notion of masculinity. working class men, then, possess insecurities about not having these kinds of powers. this is especially exacerbated today when anyone can be in positions of power due to capitalism.
i am not going to argue that men are oppressed, nor am i saying minorities aren't oppressed. in capitalism, racism is still a huge factor because white people globalized it. but, what i am saying is that, today, as we enter late-stage capitalism, some white men become frustrated that their promises of power do not become true. this explains why many men are characterized as abusers or violent, even if they aren't wealthy, because they feel powerless. frustrated. they need to Lash Out.
women, on the other hand, especially women of color, experience insecurity because their humanity is literally not even normalized within modern-day society. women will get nitpicked for every action they do, because they are taught to be Prim and Proper and Acceptable. because while men are born with automatic, societal, and systemic acceptance, women are unconsciously taught to prove their worth to be accepted. that's why women are described to be overthinkers or "overdramatic" — we are culturally taught to be deliberate with our every action in a way a man, especially a cishet white man, isn't expected to do so.
women under capitalism for the longest time have been assigned house labor so that the man — the presumable breadwinner — can be the perfect working man. and yet, what women do at home can be considered labor in the same way her husband would do labor at work. the difference is that women's labor at home is largely unpaid and unrecognized as labor. this concept does not even change when women supposedly had gotten more rights around the 1900s, because those were white women. they wanted the rights to be businesswomen, ceos, colonizers, the same kind of ultraliberal feminism people like jk rowling wants to forward.
LONG explanation of gender and history, but yes, gender dynamics has always been informed by capitalism and the systems we live in. i needed to explain all this before i explain both sonar and coupé's insecurities knowing how these would manifest in today's society.
sonar and coupé are two sides of the same coin. they are victims of the same circumstance. i've written abt dispatch and labor before, but to summarize (since it informs a bit of my characterization of sonar and coupé), sdn is a prime parallel of how companies today would boast their interest in human development and progress, but are actually driven by the profit motive underneath. ultimately, we work to earn money to live. for ceo's and private owners, they arrange how much money they deduct from their workers and earn for themselves. in the case of the sdn, they claim they reform heroes but we see how they genuinely do Not have a functioning system that works for their reform. if they cared, they wouldn't have fired sonar or coupé, because they would KNOW they'd have nowhere else to go.
so they're fired. because they're ex-convicts, living in a capitalist society is harder. part of why these ex-villains accept their job in sdn is because they Need it to Live. the other option is literally to be sent back to jail or continue committing crimes for survival. sonar and coupé live in that sort of uncertainty, which makes perfect sense as to why they turn to shroud, mister certainty himself. but what makes it fucked especially is that you have to remember that shround has the mindset that people are born villains. he essentially adopts people with this exact mindset so that he can solidify their position in the red ring. he preys on their insecurities, telling them they're damaged. that they have no other choice but to be a villain with him. and, well, he has the predicting tech so who are they to question shroud?
sonar and coupé are especially characterized by their insecurities born from a loss of control of their life. they are dehumanized as criminals, and they were dehumanized once more by being fired. for sonar, we must remember he is a conman. yes, he is a devotee of vanderstenk, the dispatch version of elon musk, but the point is he has admiration for capitalism in the specific ways you can cheese it. that's why he's only interested in fraud, crypto, and the stock market in such an obsessive manner. again, as a white man, it services his ego to be able to charm the system and get on top of it. when he finds himself in an embarrassing state or fucks up a task and mentions his portfolio will be affected, he gets dejected. he feels dejected when he doesn't exude a sense of prowess.
he's very similar to how a lot of white men do the same thing within the market. that's why pathetic white men like shitheads like elon musk or trump — it's that machismo. that power. that's also why he's obsessed with his image and how he projects to another person. and when you fire him, it's particularly a blow to his ego, because up until that point he was a pretty successful conman. in the gamble that is the stock market and investments and crypto, he was able to manage for himself. and then that system that he loves so dearly cuts him like it's not a problem.
that's why when you confront sonar in the end, the main difference between his dialogue and coupé's is that while coupé focuses on the hurt from losing trusted friends, sonar focuses on his ego, that he's on the "me team" now. he is offended you fired him because it is not what he's used to as a white man who has always loved conning the system.
speaking of, i find it so fascinating how much the zteam means to coupé compared to sonar in her final fight with robert. i'm not saying sonar doesn't like them, but rather the respect and acceptance coupé receives from the zteam means so much to her. while sonar finds control in being a conman to the system, coupé finds control on how she presents her skills to others. she is notorious amongst the group for having an unknown kill count while being an incredibly successful assassin. on the job, she always presents as mysterious, intellectual, and precise.
when she gets fired, she constantly refers back to her skillset to prove how wrong robert is to fire her over sonar. it's also incredibly interesting that robert describes coupé as someone that's still too much of a villain as a reason to fire her. returning to our point about women and insecurity, i find it genuinely so interesting that coupé's villain arc is framed in a way that suggests that robert demeans her credibility. that she, a black woman, is seemingly more dangerous and villainous than the rest of the team. there is such a heinous implication in the idea that sonar's supposed incredulity and lewdness is comparable to coupé's overskilled-ness.
i also think that her focus on her skillset can be read as a defense mechanism, because for woc, they'd have to work ten times as hard to get even an ounce of recognition a white man would get automatically. there is an interesting theme of masking — of forcing yourself to seem more intelligent and proper to become more accepted within society. that's why i also think it's fascinating that she has the theme of ballet! because ballet is notorious for being inconsiderate of woc (slicked back straight hair, the color of their slippers being called "european pink"). i also think she's incredibly autistic coded (monotonous speaking, hyperfixation on the book she's reading) which adds more as to that pressure of masking.
so yeah. tldr sonar and coupé are two sides of the same coin. while i think dispatch could have written more for them in general, i disagree with people when they say it makes No Sense that sonar would join shroud, while expressing a million microaggressions when conjuring a reason as to why coupé is more of a villain.
anyway, i wrote this in a daze because i genuinely love sonar and coupé and i have so much Thoughts. if there's any wording i have to correct pls tell me i promise i don't bite!
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