Hey so I see you talk a lot about the corruption of Townsville on both a political and police/prison level and how villains are treated. I have similar ideas floating around in my head for my fic I'm slowly chipping away at so it's fascinating to see somebody else talk about this. Townsville's police and politicians are canonically shown to be very incompetent and I've always been surprised to see how this is rarely included or dissected within fanon interpretations and stories. I'm curious about a lot of things and don't want to bombard you with questions (worried about being annoying lol), so I'll just ask you one for now:
Where do the Ruffs fall into all this in your head? In fanon interpretations, it's common to see people talk about how the Ruffs were failed on so many fundamental levels. Their creation, being used as weapons and tools as opposed to having their needs met by children (with them often being portrayed as homeless), being subjected to horrific abuse by the police and in prison systems. I feel like people talk about their experiences a lot in fanon, but they don't really dive into them outside of "oh it was traumatic" as opposed to dissecting how horrific Townsville's justice system is, especially for vulnerable groups. Especially in regards to them being paralleled to the Puffs and the (conditional) privileges they have from protecting the city.
I think a more nuanced look at the villains of the show is something I always really appreciate seeing in regards to fanon, wish it was explored more. Excited to see what ideas you end up coming up with, particularly for Sedusa who's tragically underutilized.
I think as the Puffs grow to become more and more critical of the system, the privileges that the do have start to slip and many start to be wary of them like they were in the Movie. The Puff/Ruff species legitimately facing discrimination for who they are as nonhuman inorganic creatures is something I also think should be explored more, and how the Puffs protecting Townsville gives them conditional privileges.
I am overthinking shit to the extreme lol but I love dissecting this show and the potential it has in regards to exploring it's villains and deeper satire about the police/prison industrial complex.
Anon, it is currently December 9th, 2023, sometime past midnight as I'm typing. I want to include a date to this post because it might take me a while to come down from the high I've received from reading this.
Okay, so first of all:
"I love dissecting this show and the potential it has in exploring its villains and deeper satire about the police/prison industrial complex."****
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EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! I wish I knew who you were, Anon, because you deserve a virtual hug. It is so nice to feel SEEN. This is the second ask I've ever gotten on this sideblog and it's already one of my favorites, you are not annoying at ALL. Secondly, I have no idea where to start so I'll just dive right into the meat of this question and hope to God that I hit all the talking points that I want to cover lol.
I didn't want to go into too much detail about the Rowdyruff Boys given the fact that they are a few of the main characters of the stories in my head but I'll GLADLY do so here.
In my fics, I have the Rowdyruff Boys adopted by Ms. Keane.
Stay with me on this, PLEASE, lmao. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. She finds them when they're eight years old. They're starving, and powerless; the Chemical X in their bodies are working overtime just to keep them alive as they're on the brink of death...thanks to HIM.
If you want a Puff/Ruff centered fic (or just hero/former villain) to work, regardless of genre, you need redemption and forgiveness. While forgiveness is easier to portray, redemption needs a foundation to build upon. IMO, the only way to do that, would be to get the boys out of the influence of HIM and Mojo Jojo. In these fics of mine, Mojo is a permanent resident of the Townsville Correctional Center (name pending, imagine Arkham Asylum), a newly built prison made, strong enough to contain the Powerpuffs (hint hint, wink wink). Meanwhile HIM leaves the boys high and dry then goes M.I.A after their declaration of not wanting to "destroy the Powerpuff Girls" (If you really look at the post movie scenes of the Rowdyruff Boys, you'll see that at the end of the day, they just want to live life and have fun in their own diabolical way. You can even see this in Bubble Boy when Bubbles, disguised as Boomer ((iirc, it was either her or Butch)) suggests to blow stuff up and Brick replies "Nah, we blew a bunch of stuff up yesterday". These are elementary school aged boys, eventually, they're going to get bored and no amount of hate toward the Powerpuff Girls is going to change that). The boys being adopted by Ms. Keane, lays down a certain groundwork to start from; they need some sort of positive, older female influence in their lives that aren't the Powerpuff Girls or other love interests (especially to begin challenging their post movie misogyny). Plus, I also think they'll challenge her to not view the world as black and white as she occasionally tends to, and she's one of the only canon characters I think who would actually give them a chance.
Being adopted for them also means having to deal with: β¨ Townsville's Child Welfare Systemβ¨
And if The Mayor and the police are anything to go by, I'd imagine it isn't great (and now thinking about it, looking at Mitch's family issues that I mentioned, we see that the welfare system is SHIT lol) (Hell, you can take one step further and look at Jack Wednesday, the incompetent truant officer who's definitely their parole officer now). Ms. Keane wants to get legal guardianship over the boys after caring for them for however long, and I can see whoever's in charge of that wanting the boys to answer for the crimes they've committed against the city first. Long story short, it's a quiet case, as to not upset the citizens of Townsville, and the boys have to live in a group home for two years before Ms. Keane is granted her guardianship. For one, it's a confinement of sorts without having to jail them *(because as Ms. Bellum, Ms.K's lawyer, puts it, they are children and victims of circumstance), but most importantly, this allows the city to test out Professor Utonium's newest **(and most reluctant) invention: Antidote X handcuffs.
It sucks. They're subjected to religious zealots who condemn the boys as demonic abominations for coming back to life (as if it's their fault), weirdos with a superiority complex over kids, short tempered adults who hit first and ask questions never, other bullies in kids who are also victims of circumstance, and they're powerless. And honestly, aside from MAYBE the Powerpuff Girls, who believe the boys are M.I.A, and Ms. Keane, who'd care enough about their condition to make a stink about it?
So once they're finally out into the real world, having to spend an extra few years in house arrest, watching people tremble in their wake feels nice. And they (mostly and especially Brick) can't wait to blow this sorry ass popsicle stand known as Townsville once they're 18. They're not under Mojo's or HIM's thumb anymore but they're still mean, cold, rebellious, snarky, and conniving. And even if the newest girls in school, the Powerpuffs, don't see it yet, who could blame them? (This is only for one specific fic, keep in mind.)
Something I feel is highly overlooked in these types of fics would be the outside perception of the relationships between the Puffs and Ruffs, whether that be platonic or romantic. Because, sure, in a perfect world, everyone would see them hanging out and think the girls would be such a good influence on the boys, who would finally start to turn their lives around. However, we've seen time and time again that the city of Townsville has turned against the girls (and the girls against Townsville, Buttercup assaulted numerous albeit criminal, citizens to exchange their teeth for money, Blossom stole a set of $1000 golf clubs, Bubbles released an entire zoo into town, and they masterminded the robbery of a toy store with the Professor, as well as comply with the robberies of Femme Fatale, not to mention what happened in the movie), and there's no doubt in my mind that there'd be quite a few citizens who'd see any of the boys with any of the girls and think that their "villainous ways" are contagious and that the girls are being manipulated yet again. I could see this as a slow starting point for the said privileges to be revoked.
The parallels between the Puffs and Ruffs are CRAZY too. You have the Rowdyruff Boys, who never successfully killed the girls (granted they are still villains but their only "bone to pick" with society is the Powerpuff Girls)***, treated as scum of the earth for being kids listening to two of the worst possible role models ever. Then, you have the Powerpuff Girls, who've committed crimes and killed the Rowdyruff Boys once before, living life on a pedestal with their amazing dad and loving support system. Sure, you have the Powerpuff Girls reel in the Rowdyruff Boys to the "good side" by showing them that they're not as evil as people believe them to be and that they deserve to be treated as citizens. BUT, you also have the Rowdyruff Boys showing the Powerpuff Girls that they're only given this camaraderie as long as they continue to be used as tools for every inconvenience the city faces, that the city is taking advantage of their people pleasing ways (which no one ever talks about), and that they deserve to live their lives.
*I didn't speak on this before, but I also headcanon Ms. Bellum attending law school, passing the bar exam in flying colors, as sort of a back-up plan. It couldn't hurt to know the law if you're planning on working in politics, she's just that bitch. I'd like to think she took the case pro-bono as a way to make it up to herself for not doing the same for her estranged niece (granted, her father's money and connections got Princess acquitted of all her crimes and a court ordered therapist, but Ms. Bellum would've defended her in a heartbeat regardless).
**This is also another headcanon I haven't touched on yet. There has to be someone in the governing office of Townsville who realized that these girls are practically unstoppable and that they needed a backup plan in case they choose to "turn on [them]". As an agreement to "allow the girls to save the day", Professor Utonium invented three things: 1.) Antidote X handcuffs, which are regular handcuffs with spikes on the inside to inject the user with Antidote X, rendering them powerless, 2.) Mini Dynamos, smaller robot versions of Dynamo to operate like robocops, and 3.) Help with the construction of the new prison.
***Yes they're still villains who've caused massive damage to the city, but they're only ever worried about the Powerpuff Girls. If they were as evil as their creators, they'd have killed every innocent civilian in their path. As far as we know, the Powerpuff Girls have a higher body count than the Rowdyruff Boys do. An INTENTIONAL body count, might I add.
****I wasn't gonna say anything, because this is long enough as is and I could do a whole essay alone on this but YES EXACTLY. It's very interesting how these criminals in the show commit some atrocious acts (theft, vandalism, attempted murder, crime of treason, kidnapping, assault, life endangerment, etc.), yet they're always released. πΈβ
LMAO, that's it for now. If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to elaborate in another post.
I have a feeling sedusa was abused as a child. Her behavior when she was disguised as Ima Goodlady certainly wasn't just to keep the girls out of the picture, like when she LITERALLY STOLE OCTI FROM BUBBLES. Now, It's impossible to know where this pettiness comes from, but since she was acting as a parent, a past of abuse sounds like a VERY good guess.
While one's upbringing can play a role in a child's life to determine whether or not a child becomes an abuser as an adult, it's not the only determining factor. Plenty of abuse victims grow up to not be abusive. Plenty of abusers grew up in happy, healthy homes.
That being said, Sedusa's treatment of the girls in "Mommy Fearest" isn't at all indicative of how she was raised as a child. She's only being mean because she's a villain, and the Powerpuff Girls are her enemies. Of course she'll use whatever leverage she has on them and use it to her advantage.
I wanna take a moment to talk about the Trans Journalists Association.
The Trans Journalists Association, founded in 2020 from a Facebook group of trans and non-binary journalists, is a non-profit organization focused on accurate, nuanced media coverage of trans people and issues, while also aiding journalists with guides and tools to be more trans inclusive/friendly in their writing and/or in the workplace.
One of the resources available is their Trans News Initiative. This free, visual, data tool allows anyone to find, search, and filter through news articles (from January 2020 to present day) about transgender people in the U.S. Some of the categories to filter through include "trans people in sports", "health care and bodily autonomy", and "anti-trans violence and hate", with their most populated category being "pop culture and creativity". Within each category, articles are again grouped into events/topics; the most popular topic in "pop culture and creativity" is "Dave Chappelle's controversy". Once an event/topic is selected, users can find specific articles relating to the event/topic and can even link back to specific articles. You can even view how the articles are politically aligned.
I wanted to share this for two reasons. Reason #1, I think it's nifty and wanted to spread the word. Reason #2, one of the executive directors of TJA, author Tre'vell Anderson, had guest starred on a podcast I follow (called Quit Playin' with Jazmyn and Amber, two black female comedians who are also mothers, highly recommend, though I don't necessarily agree with all of their stances) and they had informed me of the fact that Dave Chappelle's controversy was the most popular topic in the most popular category of the Trans News Initiative. That information reminds me to remind everyone (including myself) to focus less on the hate of the oppressors/haters (or the disdain we have for them) and focus more on uplifting, supporting, following, and centering the oppressed, whether it be trans people, queer people, people of color, women, disabled people, or people of marginalized communities. And a great way to do that would be to subscribe to Trans Journalists Association!
