The Thea Sisters Graphic Novels: Making kids woke since 2009
Me and @e-adlirez were rereading the first four graphic novels, as you do because they're peak, and we realized something big about why the first four are so much better than the last four.
It all comes down to one character.
The billionaire cosmetics giant of the series, the main villain of the graphic novels. Obscenely rich, conniving, knows how to work a crowd. But there is a big difference between her in novels 1-4 and in 5 and 6 (since she isn't in the last two in any meaningful way).
Early series Vissia was intimidating because she was untouchable.
Her PR is perfect, her business is booming, and her image is one of an environmentally conscious green-thumb. No matter what the Thea Sisters would have done, they wouldn't be able to change years of experience, money, and manipulation.
That's what makes her so compelling. She's not a mustache-twirling villain to be fought and taken down. She's an insidious force working behind the scenes to make sure things go her way, using anyone; employees, politicians, her supporters as mouthpieces, and as fall guys in case a plan goes awry, so she has someone to blame. With most people never being the wiser.
Take book four for example. Romeo Guymouse is campaigning to be Whale Island's mayor, and as a local, people trust him, even when he comes out all of these blatantly tourist and rich-pandering proposals. Of course everything is foiled and none of those plans come to pass, but what they don't know is that all of those ideas were not his, but the agenda of his sponsor for his entire campaign, Vissia.
She plans to use his campaign as a bid to make the surf center and hotel, presenting them as competition to her, making it all look kosher. Undoubtedly all with the intent to rake in a commission cut of the profits.
Hm, a big-mouthed morally dubious politician being used as a smokescreen for a CEO pulling the strings? Surely that doesn't sound like anything that happens in real life :))
Which brings me back to my main point. Vissia was such a fantastic villain in the first four graphic novels because she was terrifying in her realism. Because just like Vissia, real life billionaires, no matter how much bad press is hurled at them, they cannot be touched. They're still mega fuckin' rich.
So... how do the Thea Sisters always manage to change things for the better despite Vissia remaining out of their reach.
Simple. They don't attack Vissia's image. They attack her wallet.
Draining funds to release all the animals that she captured, making sure Vissia can't discard waste in the ocean ever again, getting as much money as they can out of her for a good cause, and putting a stop to the artificial reef and the subsequent surf center plan.
They may not be able to win the war anytime soon, but these small victories are important, and they will eventually add up. And that's an important lesson for the kids reading these books; the war of injustice is always long and hard, but fighting these battles matter.
2009, ladies and gents :) This all came out in 2009
izzy806
yousharknotpass
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
