i hate this new narrative people have come up with where female character dying = fridging. fridging is specifically a misogynistic trope in which a woman is killed off in order to fuel the character development of a male character. rue was not fridged, she was just a woman who died.
It's not new. It's a tired, simplistic talking point which reveals the pattern recognition of an overgrown child.
"Rue was murdered via fentanyl-laced pills" and "Rue relapsed and died as a result" are two statements that co-exist. If Rue wasn't an addict, she wouldn't have been tempted and thus taken those pills. Rue isn't dying for the sake of a man. She is dying as a result of her actions, which includes being involved in drug trade and sex trafficking.
Her death is well-done. There's something poignant buried in the tragedy. Levinson, unfortunately, never digs deep enough to excavate it. That's the real pity: Rue deserved a better story leading to her death.
Many viewers perceive death as a punishment and not a natural culmination, which speaks to certain cultural attitudes towards death. In a world that increasingly looks to fiction to inform their reality, people take it as a personal affront. They're more invested in their sense of loss than actually understanding how and why the character got there. This is the response to Rue's death in a nutshell.
This negative response in pop culture is also somewhat trained by other show-runners who over invested in subversion, such as D&D. During the later seasons of Game of Thrones, they sought to "subvert expectations" to keep viewers engaged, sacrificing the realistic logic underlying the gritty consequences which made the show famous.
Daenerys' fate is a well-known for this exact reason. The thing is: her death could have worked if there were more seasons and better writers to set it up. Once again, there's something intriguing buried in that kind of story. However, the writers didn't have the skill or energy to uncover it, so we were subjected to a grossly disjointed and offensive final character "arc" instead.
It's this rushed incompetence and lack of skill which set up El for failure in Stranger Things 5. Like Rue, El's death isn't a surprise. What's shocking is the showrunners utter disregard for her personhood. As the physical manifestation of "childhood magic," she has to be killed to signify the end of her boyfriend's childhood. Her story, ultimately, isn't even her own.
This is one reason why it's bizarre when netizens claim El is similar to Claudia, whose personhood is so deftly considered and explored. Claudia, whose short life and long death is central to Interview with the Vampire. Because the book is founded on Anne Rice's grief for her daughter, Claudia is doomed from the start. However, this inescapable tragedy is part of what makes Claudia such a sympathetic, provocative, and well-constructed figure.
The point of me writing all this is to illustrate how much of a disservice it is to define female characters purely by them being dead. Not only does this action strip them of their individuality but it also overlooks the nature of their "lives," in which more pertinent commentary on their writing exists.
Women dying in film or television isn't the issue. It's women dying for nonsensical reasons.
We don't need female characters made into untouchable #girlbosses or left alone for "peace" to overcompensate for bad writing. We need better writers who are able to dedicate the empathy and the complexity for which these characters are owed. And, quite frankly, that requires less men running and writing these shows.
the thing about the overreaction to secondhand accounts or out of context details is once you’re writing a multi paragraph manifesto about how something is morally repugnant and people are excitedly jumping in to affirm your position I just know there’s no coming back from that. your incorrect position has become truth within the community because walking it back to a more reasonable place is outside the scope of most people’s emotional capabilities on and off this website. but instead of learning that lesson and not jumping the gun over literally every drip of info we just go through this cycle over and over and over again
glad we got the version of the bar scene that we did because if epilogue bf had been the one to buy will a beer people probably would’ve gotten on here and written essays about how he was coercing will into drinking and clearly their relationship is horrifically abusive
thinking about 90s will byers today. and his heartthrob middle part haircut. and his cunty little earring. and his pretty makeup under the lights of the gay bar. and his cigarettes. and his modelos and spiked cokes. and his disturbing paintings. and his gay lesbian solidarity pins. and his foam headphones playing nevermind and my loving (you’re never gonna get it) by en vogue.
2087
prguitarman
kianamaiart
