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Weekly talkback for Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse! Read an issue and discuss it here!
My weekly article below.
WHY GILDA IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER
I am not alone in Gilda being my favorite Un-Iverse character, but plenty of people prefer Meek, The Piranha, or Bernadette.
As far as Meek and the Piranha go, I am always rewarded when anybody tells me they love them. Because they are the characters most like me and are my actual surrogates in the story. But because I'm not a narcissist that means the fact that they ARE the characters most like me (Meek inwardly, the Piranha outwardly) they could never be my favorites.
Why is Gilda? Is it because she's a buttkicking heroine? Because she's snarky and funny? Because she is insightful about other people? Because she is deeply flawed? All of these things are things a reader will be able to like, appreciate, and best case scenario, relate to, but they aren't why I love the character and am SO protective of her.
It's because I am the only person on Earth capable of writing her correctly. Nobody else would ever get the nuance.
Most creators of projects, specifically major franchises, understand they need to set aside their vanity when creating a comic, cartoon, or TV show, and understand somebody else is gonna have to play in the sandbox if the project is gonna get done in time, or at all. Some creators even LIKE the idea of other people interpreting their work, and that it will continue on past them after they're gone.
Believe it or not, I used to feel the same way. Especially when I was a shaky writer. I deep down hoped the arc I had planned since I was a teenager could be rewritten by a professional writer into something more manageable and less shitty. I found out later on I would grow the talent needed to do it myself, but when I did and developed b.s. detector Gilda as we currently know her, I realized nobody else was ever gonna write this character besides me. At least not correctly.
You could write an otherwise amazing Un-Iverse fanfiction and the only thing I would do in response is tell you every single thing you did wrong with Gilda. And you would do almost nothing right. No matter your talent nobody but me understands this character or how she works.
It's a little frightening to me that she is both a woman and a feminist while this is true (I am VERY uneasy to speak for both) but it still is. Camille Paglia would have fucked up Gilda. She would have written her feminism better than I ever could have, and it would still be all wrong. A woman writer would be very quick to empower Gilda's feminism. But I don't do that, at least not as often as I could or should, precisely because I understand Gilda is the type of person who repeatedly fails her ideals, and if I wrote her more feminist than she is, she'd constantly be failing the movement, which is wrong messaging, and something I won't do. A female writer would made Gilda's feminism more explicit. Which is fine. And they'd show her rocking it. Which is not.
Other examples? Nobody would understand where Gilda is coming from in popular culture. In "Late Night Conversations And Other Equally Important Occurrences" Meek casually asks her what her least favorite movie is. Because Gilda is kind of a pop-culture snob (as is her creator) another writer would have her talking shit about a terrible movie that does not get enough shit thrown at it, especially if it's dealing with women and relationships. Like say, My Best Friend's Wedding.
No, Gilda's most hated movie is GOOD movie, one I like, and one most of the readers will have liked too: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Gilda HATES the film because it venerates lying and bullshit and makes the person trying to uncover Ferris' scam the villain. And she especially hates the fun, enjoyable tone while it is portraying something she finds so despicable. No other writer besides me would understand that. I can say Gilda is anti-b.s. all I want, nobody would truly understand that she views everything through that lens, even fluffy 80's movies. For most writers the b.s. detector would be a gimmick. For me, it's who she is.
Other writers would spend time inventing ways to create exceptions for the b.s. detector outside of the firmly established rules without understanding the b.s. detector is awesome and perfect because it doesn't ever fail. The fact that a grand devastating betrayal would make great drama would be more important to most other writers than permanently destroying Gilda by doing that. They would refuse to understand it's part of who she is, and that making constant exceptions to the rule ala Emma Swann's lie detector on Once Upon A Time, doesn't just damage Gilda, it permanently damages and wrecks the entire story.
I'll give you a couple of other examples. In the second issue Bernadette quietly thanks Gilda for saving her life. Gilda instantly says "You're welcome." Bernadette, skeptical asshole that she is, believes Gilda is gonna milk it. They have an antagonistic relationship, even this early on, and Bernadette bitterly says, "What you're not gonna make me repeat that louder in front everybody else while looking you in the eye?" And Gilda instantly says "Just that was plenty. I would never ask you to give more than you were comfortable with." No other writer would have the two antagonists come to such an easy and wonderful understanding in the second fucking issue! But that's Gilda and Bernadette.
The other example I want to give is another Bernadette scene. When Bernadette confronts Augatha for the first time in "Enter Tork", she talks shit about her (as is her want) and she mentions that her friends may be lame but Gilda is still a thousand times cooler than Augatha is. And we pull back to hear the Narrator reveal Gilda has heard this entire exchange. And the Narrator says that later on she doesn't tell Bernadette she heard her calling her cool, or tease her about it, give her the business, or even let her know she was there. Why? Because Gilda is cool.
Once I wrote that out I was like, "Nobody else is EVER touching Gilda on my watch." We'll see how it looks 70 years after my death and this all is public domain. While I have ANY power in the franchise no-one else will EVER write it.
Bernadette is my second favorite character, and while I do think only I can TRULY write her properly, the truth is a hack writer could probably fake her for a couple of issues at least. Maybe more. Just write the character as negative and contrary and that's a LOT of it. But after a certain point, the reader would say "Hey, that is not ALL of it. Also, she's supposed to be always right. Why does every writer but Matt turn her into Brainy Smurf instead?"
So yes, I am very possessive of my characters. And I'm the only one who can write them properly.
The Archive on BlogSpot
https://gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/2020/02/welcome-to-gilda-and-meek-and-un-iverse.html
Latest Issue:
9. Lace Doilies "47%" (Un-Iverse #65)
https://gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/2024/03/9-lace-doilies-47-un-iverse-65.html
My weekly article below.
WHY GILDA IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER
I am not alone in Gilda being my favorite Un-Iverse character, but plenty of people prefer Meek, The Piranha, or Bernadette.
As far as Meek and the Piranha go, I am always rewarded when anybody tells me they love them. Because they are the characters most like me and are my actual surrogates in the story. But because I'm not a narcissist that means the fact that they ARE the characters most like me (Meek inwardly, the Piranha outwardly) they could never be my favorites.
Why is Gilda? Is it because she's a buttkicking heroine? Because she's snarky and funny? Because she is insightful about other people? Because she is deeply flawed? All of these things are things a reader will be able to like, appreciate, and best case scenario, relate to, but they aren't why I love the character and am SO protective of her.
It's because I am the only person on Earth capable of writing her correctly. Nobody else would ever get the nuance.
Most creators of projects, specifically major franchises, understand they need to set aside their vanity when creating a comic, cartoon, or TV show, and understand somebody else is gonna have to play in the sandbox if the project is gonna get done in time, or at all. Some creators even LIKE the idea of other people interpreting their work, and that it will continue on past them after they're gone.
Believe it or not, I used to feel the same way. Especially when I was a shaky writer. I deep down hoped the arc I had planned since I was a teenager could be rewritten by a professional writer into something more manageable and less shitty. I found out later on I would grow the talent needed to do it myself, but when I did and developed b.s. detector Gilda as we currently know her, I realized nobody else was ever gonna write this character besides me. At least not correctly.
You could write an otherwise amazing Un-Iverse fanfiction and the only thing I would do in response is tell you every single thing you did wrong with Gilda. And you would do almost nothing right. No matter your talent nobody but me understands this character or how she works.
It's a little frightening to me that she is both a woman and a feminist while this is true (I am VERY uneasy to speak for both) but it still is. Camille Paglia would have fucked up Gilda. She would have written her feminism better than I ever could have, and it would still be all wrong. A woman writer would be very quick to empower Gilda's feminism. But I don't do that, at least not as often as I could or should, precisely because I understand Gilda is the type of person who repeatedly fails her ideals, and if I wrote her more feminist than she is, she'd constantly be failing the movement, which is wrong messaging, and something I won't do. A female writer would made Gilda's feminism more explicit. Which is fine. And they'd show her rocking it. Which is not.
Other examples? Nobody would understand where Gilda is coming from in popular culture. In "Late Night Conversations And Other Equally Important Occurrences" Meek casually asks her what her least favorite movie is. Because Gilda is kind of a pop-culture snob (as is her creator) another writer would have her talking shit about a terrible movie that does not get enough shit thrown at it, especially if it's dealing with women and relationships. Like say, My Best Friend's Wedding.
No, Gilda's most hated movie is GOOD movie, one I like, and one most of the readers will have liked too: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Gilda HATES the film because it venerates lying and bullshit and makes the person trying to uncover Ferris' scam the villain. And she especially hates the fun, enjoyable tone while it is portraying something she finds so despicable. No other writer besides me would understand that. I can say Gilda is anti-b.s. all I want, nobody would truly understand that she views everything through that lens, even fluffy 80's movies. For most writers the b.s. detector would be a gimmick. For me, it's who she is.
Other writers would spend time inventing ways to create exceptions for the b.s. detector outside of the firmly established rules without understanding the b.s. detector is awesome and perfect because it doesn't ever fail. The fact that a grand devastating betrayal would make great drama would be more important to most other writers than permanently destroying Gilda by doing that. They would refuse to understand it's part of who she is, and that making constant exceptions to the rule ala Emma Swann's lie detector on Once Upon A Time, doesn't just damage Gilda, it permanently damages and wrecks the entire story.
I'll give you a couple of other examples. In the second issue Bernadette quietly thanks Gilda for saving her life. Gilda instantly says "You're welcome." Bernadette, skeptical asshole that she is, believes Gilda is gonna milk it. They have an antagonistic relationship, even this early on, and Bernadette bitterly says, "What you're not gonna make me repeat that louder in front everybody else while looking you in the eye?" And Gilda instantly says "Just that was plenty. I would never ask you to give more than you were comfortable with." No other writer would have the two antagonists come to such an easy and wonderful understanding in the second fucking issue! But that's Gilda and Bernadette.
The other example I want to give is another Bernadette scene. When Bernadette confronts Augatha for the first time in "Enter Tork", she talks shit about her (as is her want) and she mentions that her friends may be lame but Gilda is still a thousand times cooler than Augatha is. And we pull back to hear the Narrator reveal Gilda has heard this entire exchange. And the Narrator says that later on she doesn't tell Bernadette she heard her calling her cool, or tease her about it, give her the business, or even let her know she was there. Why? Because Gilda is cool.
Once I wrote that out I was like, "Nobody else is EVER touching Gilda on my watch." We'll see how it looks 70 years after my death and this all is public domain. While I have ANY power in the franchise no-one else will EVER write it.
Bernadette is my second favorite character, and while I do think only I can TRULY write her properly, the truth is a hack writer could probably fake her for a couple of issues at least. Maybe more. Just write the character as negative and contrary and that's a LOT of it. But after a certain point, the reader would say "Hey, that is not ALL of it. Also, she's supposed to be always right. Why does every writer but Matt turn her into Brainy Smurf instead?"
So yes, I am very possessive of my characters. And I'm the only one who can write them properly.
The Archive on BlogSpot
https://gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/2020/02/welcome-to-gilda-and-meek-and-un-iverse.html
Latest Issue:
9. Lace Doilies "47%" (Un-Iverse #65)
https://gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/2024/03/9-lace-doilies-47-un-iverse-65.html
