lashliftadelaide

[biomecharnotaurus]

It's always funny seeing people going "noooo our country is ruined!!" when they see any video of any troop doing something dumb.

Believed or not, humans are dumbasses by nature, and soldiers are humans.

They can be stupid and silly like me, you and everybody else.

[mylifeatwar]

Book 2, Chapter 2, Page 9

Archived Text Follows:

Hey Everyone!

First, sorry for not replying to everyone’s comments as much as I normally do. Things have been hectic at work and other boring excuses.

Now onto things that are actually interesting. Where the fuck did Amalia come from? I don’t just mean her country of origin (The Federative Republic of Salbhaca) but I mean her character from a writing perspective.

So, when MLaW was first starting out, we had forums. Later on we canned them because it was too hard to keep them spam free and forums are already going the way of the dinosaur, hence our comment system. However, when the forums  were still up a user called ‘Lemonade’ showed up and talked about the Bechdel test, which is basically a quick and dirty method of seeing whether or not there are meaningful female characters in a given story.

Now, I’m assuming that Lemonade is female because I’ve never heard a guy open with a discussion of the Bechdel test, but I could be wrong. Either way the comic was still in the intro phase and there was some confusion about where the comic was heading. Betsy-Ray’s antagonistic feelings towards Missy and Lulu-Belle for their attractiveness was supposed to show that Betsy-Ray can be insecure and petty, just like all people. This was also supposed to help set up the revelation that Missy and Lulu-Belle are actually pretty good folks who have their own reasons for the way they dress and act. Lemonade was asserting that our characters didn’t really have a proper voice and that they were falling into old, familiar ruts of fiction. Lemonade asked why I wasn’t trying very different characters.

We went back and forth on this and I asserted that characters different from the ones we had didn’t fit the MLaW-verse and that to request otherwise was unfair to the story we had planned. Not my proudest moment really.

Her reply basically boiled down to “This is fiction. You’re writing about giant fucking robots. This mercenary company could be entirely composed of latina lesbians if you wanted to. You can do anything you want.” I replied to this basically with the fact that MLaW was going to end up being very different from what it was at the moment, but I couldn’t reveal anything because Spoilers. This was kind of a ho-hum response in my opinion. I think really I said that because I didn’t think I could write that characters like that (more on that in a second).

A few days later I was alone and drunk in my kitchen (a lot of my writing revelations happen like this) and I was mulling that exchange over. “Wait a second, why couldn’t I write that character? I’m a writer, making things up is like… all I’m good at”.

Just as an experiment I started trying to write a hispanic, lesbian character within the context of MLaW and Amalia just kind of… happened. Before I knew it, it was very hard to think of MLaW without her.

I think that, at least initially, I was scared of writing a character like Amalia because she’s so different than myself that I’d have no point of reference. This means that she could be inaccurate at best or insulting at worst, which isn’t a possibility I relished. Eventually I just fell back on the things that Amalia and I have in common:

We both like girls (*rimshot*)

We’ve both spent time in unfamiliar cultures trying to fit in

We both use assertive behavior to mask nervousness about social situations

It became a lot easier after that and it made me realize that, in all frankness, I was being cowardly about the characters I was making.

Did I alter anything about the MLaW universe or story to make this character? No, Matt and I intended this to be a mecha comic with a lot of female characters from the get-go because it seemed like a cool idea at the time. Salbhaca was in the MLaW fiction from the beginning and always had a Brazillian/Mayan/1960’s Space Race feel to it

We imported a lot of the forum discussions, I think you can still find that discussion in the archives somewhere (it’s on Page 13). So, while I doubt Lemonade still reads MLaW I can still say “Lemonade, this one’s for you”.

Thanks for reading,

– Luther out

PS: Yes, I realize the humor of having a butch-ish lesbian character whose job title is ‘Bull’. That was not intentional, but fuck it, I’m keeping it.

Comment Text Follows:

Iarei - Poor Amalia, that is some spectacular lack of concerned over personal space. Looks like she’s about ready to swallow that cigaro. I do remember Lemon referencing the Bechdel test in the comments section. It was the first I’d heard of it, and really the test struck me as a bit old fashioned. It only really applies to that one ‘Blondie’ stereotype. (See: Chic Young) If you had a female character that talked about nothing but makeup and clothes that would be another sexist stereotype. If you had a man who is powered by nothing but adrenaline and voltage. . . see where I’m going with this? What’s important is that you have (and I believe you do, have) characters that act consistently according to MANY character traits and/or flaws, rather than falling back on easy/familiar formulas or getting hung up on one trait. Sexuality is both a hugely important trait, and an incredibly private trait, so it can be overdone or crammed into a safe, comfortable stereotype easily. So, for what my opinion’s worth, I think you’ve handled it well, thus far. As much as I love Limbs breaking heads I think I look forward more to your character development. Oh, and it’s amusing to have a character act consistently based on flawed premises. (see: Dizzy’s perspective on Dhuvallian soldiers.) Do you have like, a mini biography to reference for each character when you’re planing out a scene? Ooh! Zat reminds me! I wonder is [REDACTED] is still good or if it’ll turn to crap behind the filter of years of matured (or at least well aged) brain. Sorry, I ramble when it’s 5 am. g’night.

Gillsing -  I don’t see what’s ‘old fashioned’ about the Bechdel test, or how it would even apply to individuals. As far as I’ve understood it, it’s mainly supposed to show how rare women are in a lot of fiction, and not judge the female characters or the work itself, whether it passes the test or not. That thing about ‘talking about something other than a man’ is not there because the women would be incapable of talking about something else, but rather because the story might only care about that part of their lives, so that’s the only thing that gets shown. Again, as far as I’ve understood it. I’m not an expert on the subject. 

Iarei - Just that I interpret that part as stemming from the mercifully dated concept that women exist to support their men. Be good wives / daughters / sisters rather than, as you aptly put it, focusing on other parts of their lives.  

tkg - There is also the issue of the test being woefully limited. When you consider that in a good story a character may change or develop you have to ask when the B-Test is appropriate. More so if such a character changes then is it fair to label a story with the b-test based not on what the major characters become but what they were? Somehow the b-test seems like unnecessary stratification.

Iarei - “unnecessary stratification” Those are some pretty words. I believe I shall steal them and probably misuse them.

Beanman - The Bechdel Test has been described as ‘the standard by which feminist critics judge television, movies, books and other media’ It simply judges if the characters in the story a meaningful to an extent. A film/book/comic ect passes the Bechdel test if: 1.It has at lest two women in it, 2.who talk to each other, 3.about something besides a man I am not certain about this particular conversation as Betsy initially seems to want to talk about men, however she is shut down fairly quickly and on the next page the conversation takes a much more serious tone. Personally I think it passes the test, others may disagree. http://www.mylifeatwar.com/?p=319 This conversation I feel, passes without issue. Again a male character is mentioned but as nothing more than a co-worker and the conversation is certainly not about him. http://www.mylifeatwar.com/?p=432 So I would hope that feminists would applaud the efforts of the MLaW team for portraying meaningful female characters. I know I do.

dwwolf - I told ya’all I saw a pickup line coming up.

Matti - If anybody cares, I know good BattleTech fan fic about two all woman mercenary units working together: http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,12316.0.html No mechas in that story though (no ‘Mechs either), but good read anyway

Killercow - I love this page.

Plaintextman - Most interesting. As others have said, the Bechdel test is a very simple and concise test that can go a long way demonstrating lack of female characters with substance. But it is really inadequate for properly judging fiction. Kind of like the “is it dissipating an unusual amount of heat lately?” test for checking whether a transistor still works. A great way to scan for problems, but it won’t tell you whether the thing’s gain curve is sane or not. Heck, a lot of times the heat is just a normal part of operation. So I might be stretching the analogy a little there, but I don’t believe that ∀x(GendersOK(x)→Bechdel(x)); they say Mulan is an example of a work that fails the test. Anyhow, I read an article the other day with which I can’t disagree: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/i-hate-strong-female-characters . In my opinion, having various gendered/cultured/whateverd characters with proper _agency_ is the most important. And so far I think you guys are doing a good job with MLAW in this regard.

Plaintextman - Hey! That golden dot besides Amalia’s right eye… wireless transmitter or other tech implant? IIRC it was mentioned that Salbhaca has “big plans for space” so I assume they are technologically advanced. Possibly also situated close to Dhuvalia and sharing tech?

nweismuller - It just looks like a facial piercing to me. I’ve seen similar piercings before in Real Life.

Plaintextman - Oh… that makes way more sense. It looked to me like it was flat against her skin until you mentioned that.

Killercow - Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was mentioned in the comments by the author as such.