This is my first animatic, I do plan on making more in the future.
I started this in late September and didnt finish until early January so there is some minor art style changes lol (I was planning on redoing some panels but never got around to it)
I hope you all enjoy watching this as much as I did making it ❤️
I’ve noticed a lot of discussion in regard to orientalism lately and one thing in particular keeps getting overlooked.
Just a reminder that just because someone didn’t intend harm doesn’t make the impact of the harm disappear. Saying Punko didn’t initially base the designs on a real culture doesn’t address the problem. Orientalism isn’t about making a conscious intent, it’s about reusing harmful tropes and stereotypes that have been around media for a long time. Anyone can unintentionally recreate those harmful stereotypes without realizing where they came from.
Again this happened as well when people found out about Buddy’s past and called him a street rat not realizing it was a derogatory term because the word was used in lots of media and unfortunately normalized to describe people in his unfortunate circumstances. Sometimes stereotypes and tropes can be normalized through media, and it is important to be willing to recognize and learn from that.
So the question is not whether if it was unintentional or not. It’s whether that arc portrays orientalist stereotypes. If people, especially Middle Eastern readers, recognize those tropes and can point to specific examples, that’s a valid discussion to have regardless of intent.
This goes without saying, but this isn’t meant to attack Punko or anyone involved in the discussion. I simply wanted to share a reminder about intent and impact.
To whoever Zero_signal in art fight is thank you for including my keysona in your attack and thank you for the comment in Grow! It really means a lot to me. For some reason art fight isn’t allowing my to reply to comments so I hope you see this ❤️
Tagging: @sillyfuckrandomthoughts @5chaff @maizey-the-glaizey @selenicchronicles @yizhouluvv @starlight-and-thunder @sunnyheart175 @shiontemp @sugaroto and anyone else who may want to join!!
I do recall someone making a post similar to this awhile back so if anyone recalls who they were please let me know and I can credit them. This analysis will be exploring how the CB main characters struggle with belonging in different ways but a little more in depth as dissecting literature and lore is fun. Please keep in mind this is just something I did for fun and it’s not meant to be fully taken seriously.
CHASE: Chase within Cinderella boy is often overlooked when it comes to his problems while interacting with other characters. For the most part only Deacon notices these things but even he doesn't fully understand Chase. Chase as a character buries his true feelings as he doesn’t want others to see him down. To him he has to be perceived as happy and okay as he doesn’t want others to worry about him when they could potentially be going through something worse. This creates a barrier from showing others his full self. If they only see him on his highs and not lows they aren't fully seeing or understanding him.
Because of this he constantly minimizes his own struggles over and over again trying not to address them. For example he built the keys to a mini little water resort to help cope with Buddy being upset over his lying. This may seem like a different problem aside from belonging but by not allowing himself to fully process and stick with his negative feelings he is discouraging himself from engaging with such behaviors while letting others feel deeply about the same things. Very hypocritical. He is essentially disincluding himself from processing. Not allowing himself to feel negative emotions to their fullness (unless he is alone or at a breaking point.) So his belonging issues stem from his emotions.
Why doesn't he think he is allowed to hold onto hurt? He still has feelings both negative and positive but he will make excuses for others when he cares deeply about them and reassure him when he is upset himself. Yes Chase has had emotional outbursts in the past but he never holds too closely to those feelings. He was upset about his sweatshirt being missing but afterwhile he never brings it up after Goldie is revealed. It isn't until he sees Buddy wearing it that he brings up the fact that he was missing it.
When it was revealed that Buddy had been siphoning narratonin in it was the only time in CB where Chase allowed himself to be upset for a long period of time. (I would include the Pru incident in the vampire arc too although guilt isn't the same as melancholy.) but even then he kept convincing himself that Buddy didn't mean any harm which is fine although again repeatedly telling yourself that someone didn't intend harm while feeling hurt doesn't fully let you process through everything. The messy and negative emotions do belong as much as the positive bubbly ones.
I hope before season 2 ends Chase comes into terms of accepting and processing his negative emotions letting himself feel instead of minimizing them.
DEACON: In the start of Cinderella Boy it is implied that Chase and Deacon aren’t as close as they used to be. For the record you can access Punko's reaction videos for free on Patreon for more context around this. It is revealed that Deacon and Chase used to be very close, then Deacon's family moved and Deacon eventually went to college so Chase didn't see him as much as he used to. So when CB starts they are already less close as they used to be. It is the keys that end up bringing them back together. Then there's Buddy…
To be frank Deacon has good reasons not to like Buddy. Buddy used to be a menace. And Deacons resentment towards Buddy only grew as Chase spent more time with Buddy and avoided his cousin in books.
The two of them Deacon and Chase were only starting to build back up their familial relationship and then Chase gets close to the person that was harassing Deacon and starts spending more time with Buddy in books unintentionally disincluding Deacon.
That must have been lonely and difficult to deal with. In the Absentee arc Deacon mentions that he feels like a third wheel to Wave. Wave being more observant then he initially appeared to be. He already sensed that Deacon and Pru were both outliers which is why he has been using them specifically to gain information and trust him. Its easier to gain trust from those who already seem to be lonely.
Deacons' struggle with belonging specifically stemmed from feeling disincluded when Chase engaged with Buddy rather than him. This loneliness has been filmed by Wave but who is to say it won't come back after learning who Wave really is (or isn’t.)
PRUNELLA: Invisible child trope? Throughout CB it is revealed that Pru struggles to make friends. She is heavily implied to be neurodivergent which most likely play part in her struggle. (TBH same) Goldie however encourages her to make friends despite her struggle and has been seen trying to help her overcome this.
Outside of the peer relationship challenges Prus' sense of belonging is also negatively impacted with her time with the Hollows. Within season1 it is revealed that she lied to her mother to be able to keep the babysitting money in order to live of the grid when she turns 18. (i love this kid) during her time as her own babysitter she would spend her time playing in the hollows yard when she wasn't at their house eating breakfast with them, but after Chase found out she was lying and started taking his babysitting gig into account she was still left alone on multiple encounters.
Deacon has mentioned on multiple accounts that they don't know buddy so Prunella should only interact with him when supervised by him or Chase but this suggestion hasn't been implied to Wave.
Whenever Prunella is alone, Wave always somehow manages to interact with her one on one. He is able to understand that she feels left out from the Hollows and uses that to become closer.
Prunella to me falls somewhere within the invisible child trope. She is a kid that others somehow manage to forget about or not fully notice to the extent that they should. She often goes through books independently and it seems to me like the others have forgotten she is just a kid. I wouldn't leave a 8 year old child alone in any setting that I wasn't familiar with (or anywhere in general as the world is a dangerous place.) Why are they allowing a kid to be alone?
Anyway Pru needs an apology from the men who are forgetting what their responsibility as babysitters entails. And to be honest she should be able to keep that babysitting money as well. They were only watching her when they were trying to hide her existence from Buddy. Let that girl save her off the grid money. (But honestly now that i think about it, its kind of depressing that a 8 year old wants to live off the grid. She's already preparing to live alone as no one has been reliable.) I hope when this all blows over they don't blame her for accidental reveals she's been saying in front Wave. She is 8.
BUDDY: While all of the main characters within Cinderella Boy struggle with belonging in different ways I noticed that Buddy’s alienation is unique as it has been structural, based on his lived experiences.Being a marginalized youth within the Gilded ages, and his transformation as a key have both served as a reminder that his struggle with belonging has become something perceived as dehumanizing and deeply internalized from his experiences.
Within season two it is revealed that before the keys Buddy had no one . He didn’t have friends nor family. Had to pickpocket in order to survive (and dipping is hard to do so kudos to him). Not much else is revealed about his past other than glimpses of him having to fight for whatever reason. It has been revealed by a Punko that Buddy isn’t a fan of fighting or violence and he only turns towards it when he needs to defend himself or doesn’t think theres another way. (Keep in mind Buddy still torments and used to physically harass Deacon and Chase, but never took it to the point of hurting them. Minus the wolfs-sorry Deacon, and the spear-which was accidental. And that one time with the chain and that guy, but Buddy probably filed that away as justifiable and I don't blame him.) So whatever he was scuffling for probably had to do with a resource, or self defense. It hasn’t been revealed when he started living alone so theres a chance he doesn't remember. Oftenly when people experience traumatic things (especially when they are young and their brains have not fully developed) they will unconsciously forget things in order to protect themselves. He says he has always been alone so maybe that is true to him as he doesn't remember. I'd assume he had to have some sort of parental or guardian from infancy to at least 5 years in order to physically survive but his brain cant recall anything past a certain point or memories are fragmented or dream-like. Without anyone he could recall and no friends growing up in poverty he would be very alienated from society in a very specific way.
Buddy admitted he turned to burglary after he owed money to some dangerous people and pickpocketing wasn't efficient enough. This is what led him to the mansion that Ex Libris at the time resided in. When he ended up opening the cicada jar it transformed him physically. After being interrogated he manages to learn that he has been placed into the Villain key which was created like the other keys but never turned into a key person. Upon this realization Buddy thinks that he was chosen specifically for this transformation as he believes he exhibits traits that a Villain would have. This adds onto his struggle to belong and creates the problematic belief that he is a villain or a bad person. For reference the keys do have archetypes that are roles to the people who use them in stories, but neither Buddy or Violet are evil despite being Villian/ness keys.
He does eventually befriend Violet and is accepted into the Keybling family but he still feels like an outsider. He doesn’t want to be key. He longs to be human again. The keys do accept him as he is but what is to say if they met him before he turned into a key would they? His alienation continues- he comments on how the others don’t know what they are missing as they have never known anything more. He misses the wind, and the heat. Things metallic beings can’t feel. Going into books with Chase and co im sure helps him feel less dehumanized for the most part when it comes to his perception of his physical self but not with belonging.
As a kid who was originally from the gilded ages the way we speak is not the same as today. He doesn't pick up on the slang or more recent terms that came to be. Within his reactions with the others I noticed he doesn't react at all when he doesn't understand something. He will just go quiet and not acknowledge what was said. EX: Chase asked if Buddy would be his boyfriend. The term boyfriend was not around in the gilded age. Buddy probably assumed Chase was asking if Buddy would be his friend but Buddy didn't engage as he already thinks that they are on good terms or was confused by what Chase was saying and didn't want his confusion to be apparent as that would bring up questions. Rereading the webtoon I found other moments where Chase would say something and Buddy similarly would ignore what was said and continue on the discussion to where it was before Chase said something he didn’t quite get.
This communication barrier also plays a part in his alienation. As well as the fear of the future and what it holds. Currently in the story all that he wants is a future with Chase but he can’t imagine anything past that. In the Stardust arc he is faced with the genre of sci-fi. Not understanding that the majority of what the world holds in the story is fictional or over exaggerated drives him to the point of considering that maybe he is not equipped for the modern world. (and to be fair he really isn't equipped to handle the modern world at the moment but is pretty smart and adaptable, so with support im sure he would be fine.) Violet reinforces this fear when he brings up wanting to stay and become a human again. She doesn't indulge in his fantasies at that moment and says he doesn’t belong there and they need to go back to where they are from. Eventually Violet does come around to accepting the fact Buddy wanted to become a human again and that he didn’t want to go back but im sure that initial comment she made stung as she confirmed what he had been conditioned to believe.
As season 2 progresses we are coming closer to CB finishing off (Unless season 3 gets confirmed. Cross your fingers xp) I hope to see Buddy gain some closure in regards to his alienation and come into terms of acceptance. It's okay to accept others into your life and belong and I hope this is explored a little more as we near the final episodes.
WAVE: Good. You don't belong. Stay away from my children. Please? Anyway this isn’t exactly confirmed but I'm sure Wave is from a book. For those of you familiar with ‘The Elephant Book’ Punko has stated it takes place in the same universe as Cinderella Boy. Which means Wave could be a fictional character that was brought to life through someone's love. Before Wave was a confirmed back stabber i had a weird AU where he was brought to life through the love of Ro. Anyways i still find that funny but Rose should get a restraining order against Wave or dress him silly. I’m thinking tutu and taira next book with a crazy looking wig. Make him look stupid Ro. Or steal his sandals.
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