Jun. 7th, 2024

matt_zimmer: (Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse)
It's a big one. SO important, that literally the entire thing was already written. It is the first script in Un-Iverse history where I had to add no connecting tissues to ties the scenes together. I put them in the right order, added a couple of additional lines, and the script was done. I expect this to happen to several scripts in The Terran Wars.

Otterman: Quest For The Conduit #2 "The Terran Wars: Chapter Six: The Death Of Donna Demented" (Un-Iverse #77)

What can I tell the Dreamwidth faithful?

Mostly for The Terran Wars, I've been keeping the plots close to the vest, but strangely for this specific issue, I don't mind spoiling SOME details, even if it's a way's off. The title itself, which was already set in the Gilda And Meek "Groundwork" Table Of Contents, basically says what the issue is about. It's about Donna Demented dying. That's the ENTIRE purpose of the issue. Giving that character an unhappy ending and closure before we move on to direr, less jokey evil.

Donna Demented is my second least favorite of my characters (Vic Puff is third). You haven't met the least favorite yet. It's a character known as Saul a.k.a. The Gifter, and we meet him if I pull the trigger on the sequel The Supplements. If The Supplements DON'T happen (although they probably will) he's the reason why. I wanted to spare both you and Gilda him. But Donna Demented is my second most hated character, and I actually hate her FAR more than Vic Puff.

Vic Puff is necessary. He's the Wild Card. Perfectly fine to have a loathsome character fit that role. But Donna feels like some mean-spirited joke at the expense of feminists and women, which in a saga with Gilda and Bernadette is fucking unforgivable. The worst thing about Donna to me is that I suspect if Gilda And Meek ever gained a following, Donna would be VERY popular. She's the kind of character you'd find on a bootleg T-Shirt. Comic fandom mostly embraces trashiness, and doesn't really get the nuance of when they are being told a character is bad. Lobo, Rorschach, and Bill the Cat became instantly popular fan favorite characters, despite their creators doing everything in their power to show how much they suck. Donna is precisely the type of trashy vulgar character fandom could potentially get behind. And that fucking keeps me up at night. I worry that if Gilda and Meek happened, the fan favorite character wouldn't be Gilda or Bernadette. It would be Donna Demented. She is my greatest regret in The Un-Iverse, and will probably be my greatest regret in my entire professional career. Every empowering moment for Gilda and Bernadette would be completely overlooked for a gross Donna Demented T-Shirt quip. It fucking TERRIFIES me.

The worst thing is she's fucking necessary to Vic Puff's arc. She's needed to get him where HE needs to be, and I can't picture Vic falling for a serial killer unless she pretended to be a conservative publicly. And this issue is so amazing, and is Bernadette's finest moment in the entire saga, that Donna got SO wedged into the importance of the canon, I couldn't bear to get rid of her and her portions of the canon even if I wanted to. And because of this issue I don't. As repulsive as I find her, I think this specific issue justifies her inclusion in a way nothing else does.

One of my friends from Toon Zone, Chris Glennon, commiserated with me about my regrets about the character. He pointed out that I created Donna when I was a dumb and unpleasant teenager. She's been in the saga for over 30 years. Chris said it's HARD to kill your babies. But Donna Demented is not my baby. Donna Demented is my turd.

What can I tell you about her death? I think it's one of the most wonderful and cathartic deaths in the entire saga. In almost all other instances, death is designed in The Un-Iverse to either sadden the reader or make them uncomfortable. This specific death is joyous, and satisfying, and will probably make you feel good.

What else can I say? This issue contains Bernadette's greatest Crowning Moment Of Awesome of all time. It's SUCH an important, defining moment for Bernadette, again there is no way I COULD get rid of Donna even if I wanted to. I refuse to deny Bernadette this.

Part of the issue is overlong. The issue itself is not, but a certain segment might challenge the reader for how in-depth the prose in it is. It might even throw off some of the pacing of The Terran Wars' horror issue. Honestly, even if that's so, I think certain readers are gonna savor that part. Reread it with a fine tooth comb and enjoy every minute of it, messed-up pacing or not. It's like they'll stop reading the issue and caring what happens next just to absorb this perhaps overlong but juicy moment.

The issue is going to be the second issue dedicated solely to Candice. I say in the dedication that I did this because if I didn't Candice would probably first-degree murder me. And she'd be right to.

The Narrator hates Donna Demented as much as I do and hates this issue, which is interesting because I love it, and it shows we are two separate people with different thoughts and opinions.

Here is a brief bit of dialogue near the beginning of the Narrator describing his hatred of Donna Demented. It will sort of give you a feel for the entire tone of the issue.

Narrator's Note:

Ugh. Donna Demented. I freaking HATE Donna Demented! I complain about her to the Author ALL the time but she still shows up years later. And her being in the saga makes no sense. How is it that Meek can tell that the Chuck E. Cheese Rat looks like a sex offender but can't tell Donna Demented is a serial killer? I asked the Author this point-blank (hoping to catch his hacky ass off-guard) and he said there were 2 possible explanations for this glaring plothole.

1. Meek is an idiot.

2. Chuck E. Cheese's visual appearance is far more outwardly alarming than Donna Demented's.

I'll have to go with 2.

I freaking HATE it when the Author's right! Ugh!

Gilda And Meek

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