#coping through fandom

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Coping characters (for writers and roleplayers)

1) What character(s) do you identify with?

2) What character(s) do you aspire to be?

3) What character(s) who do bad things do you use to vent?

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BONUS: What characters do you write because you hate them and want to see them suffer? #wait that’s not a coping character #oops

@pinkskyredclouds, @captainpeachesndreamsblog, @huntingforpeace, @kokohamstar, @nicholas-wolfwood, @mrhyde786,

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Coping through Fiction

I am one who sorts out problems and deals with feelings through fiction.

That’s supposed to be weird, but I need to see “what it’s like” for someone to act on my feelings and ideas. 

And you know what? Maybe that’s an OK way to cope.

Especially now that I’m stuck at home, lack the life experience I need, and don’t know anyone who does.

Like, right now, I want to understand characters I consider truly good people to an almost saintly degree. What’s it like to be them? What does it take to do good in an evil world? 

So of course, I thought of Trigun first. 

Then Dragonball, because baby!Goku converts all of his opponents into the good guys of Z. I might not watch it, though. I don’t want to be like baby!Goku the same way I want to be like Vash, so it might not suit the purpose. Bonus points for dinosaurs, though.

I’m also reading The Idiot, because of Prince Muishkin. 

Next, I’ll re-read Brothers Karamazov for Alyosha. 

Got any other recommendations?  

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Mental Health Month: Coping Through Fandom (Gunslinger Girl)

With my mental illness, one of the the better coping mechanisms I’ve found is to become interested in things you can relate to. Be it the lyrics in a song, the image on a canvas, your own words, or those of others.

I was originally going to cover the topic of "finding relatable fandoms helpful for coping" in one post with six fandoms. That was a long arse post, so I’m doing each fandom individually instead, starting with the ones I’m featuring as eligible for prompts on this site. Next year, I may do this again with other fandoms.

What It Is

Anime/manga series, though I haven't read the manga. The anime is done as two series, Gunslinger Girl and Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino. The story is about young girl's in Italy who, after tragic and near fatal pasts, are turned into cybernetic assassins. These girls are partnered with men from their agency into a two person unit called a Fratello. Together fratellos fight terrorists, and other threats. Among those in the agency, there is debate on how the girls should be treated.

Why I Noticed

Sometime around 2007 I was in a store looking at their small selection of anime. They had the first series of Gunslinger Girl, Azumanga Daiho, and Gravitation. The animation on Gunslinger Girl was different than whAt I usually watched, I wasn't sure about it. Honestly,the story was a little iffy too. I picked if because I didn't think my dad would like my having a shone ai in his house (I was an adult, but it was his house, and I would be watching on his TV, it could get awkward if highly conservative dad walked in and I'm watching boy love), and I had already seen a good portion of Azumanga Daiho because a friend had it. It was while watching the spur of the moment pick that I fell in love with these preteen girl assassins who just wanted to be told they had done well.

Recurring Characters

There are four main girls in this series, three of them in active fratello (so that's three main men): Henrietta and Jose, Rico and Jean, Triela and Hilshire, and then there is Claes. Recurring characters from the agency and from the terrorists also appear. Among the most common are Angelica (who is in the picture above with Claes, Rico, Triela, and Henrietta), and (in the second series) Pinocchio.

Three Characters I Connected With

Rico:

Rico wants to make people happy. She wants to smile and make friends. But most importantly to her, she wants to make her handler Jean happy. When she doesn't, he punishes her harshly, because he sees her as a tool to be used by the agency. While I have never been so harshly treated, her need to please her fratello is similar to how I feel an obligation towards pleasing my father by following his rule and making sure I don't disappoint him.

Henrietta:

Henrietta is also afraid of letting down her fratello, Jose, but for very different reasons. He is extremely kind to her, rewarding her for a job well done and  speaking out in concern if she makes a mistake. She knows her mistakes could hurt this precious person, and she can't allow that. I don't want to hurt or disappoint anyone. It gets to the point of an almost paranoia over how I am perceived, at times. I can work myself into a tizzy wondering why or if a stranger online dislikes me.

Jose:

Though they are of very different mindsets about their partners, Jose and Jean are brothers. If you look at the way these cybernetic girls get trained as a symbol for parenting, my thoughts are closely aligned with Jose's. Rewarding things done well and acknowledging a child's interests, thought, and motivations are the best way to encourage positive growth; even if you lose you temper from time to time. 

I wish I had more of that growing up. I wasn't a child who was beaten or anything, I was scolded and that can be devastating if done in certain ways. There was no gentle concerned inquiries of what i thought I was doing or what I did it. There was telling me my motives as they saw them as part of a fifteen minute to half an hour rant. And should I try to explain differently, there was telling me that I was wrong about my own motivations. I suppose that leads me to lean more toward the gentle style Jose would stand for. This was a very long explanation...

Character I Least Relate To

Jean:

If I connect with Jose, then I am much less connected to his brother. Again, I look at the treatment of the girls as a metaphor for child rearing. He takes a very harsh approach with his fratello, Rico; which includes physical punishment, berating and increased "conditioning" (a term from the show that means basically brainwashing). Rico acts content, as do many abused children. That doesn't make the treatment correct. I know even the best parents will lose patience and be more harsh than they should at times, using a routinely critical, violent method is detrimental to the child and the relationship, however. At this point, I should note I have no children. I still remember what certain things made me feel as a child, and that is where i am speaking from.