Matt and I have had a few people question us as to why Gadel didn’t get a briefing when she arrived in RCSI. The truth of the matter is…
She did. The intermission after this shows her with a RCSI Employee Handbook and she mentions talking with the Commander. She’s just chosen to ignore certain things she was told, mostly because the concepts seem so strange to her. It’s going to take a bit for her to adjust.
Because of how long it takes to draw compared to how long it takes to script, we don’t show everything that happens in a sequence. Some things are not drawn but are referenced later… such as the fact that Todd is actually in a committed relationship with a young bunny woman named Melissa – they’ve been dating for over two years now – which puts a different spin on his “courting” Gadel. In other words, the courting was all in Gadel’s head… there was no interest at all.
I hated having to read Nabokov’s Lolita in college, but I loved the idea of an unreliable narrator that the book used. The only opinion and voice you had in the story was that of the protagonist, Humbert, who becomes obsessed sexually with a 12-year-old girl. Throughout the book, he makes excuses for his behavior and, since he’s the protagonist and the only voice you have, you feel compelled to believe him. Yet, you don’t want to believe him because what he’s describing, the idea that the young girl is to blame and not him, makes you uneasy.
Why does what Humbert say in Lolita make us uneasy? Because our social norms state that you do not do such things to a minor. Not to mention, we believe that adults are the ones in control, not pre-teens, and that a responsible adult takes the blame for his/her own actions. To have an adult lay the blame for his actions on that of a pre-teen girl makes most of us uncomfortable. It’s a shift in power and responsibility of self that our social norms balk at.
Now, none of our characters are going after minors, but we do have unreliable characters. Everyone’s view on life and the events they experience is colored by their own thoughts and past interactions. Gadel is not a reliable person in certain instances. Neither is Max. Or Ruby. Or the Commander. They may not even be intending to lie at the time. They’re just acting on what their world view says is correct.
Gadel didn’t consider that Todd may have just been making conversation, because where she comes from, people don’t do that. Astorians don’t have a short chat about the weather when they first meet, nor do they stick their hand out in front of a person and say, ‘I’m so-and-so, who the hell are you?’ It takes time for a person to adjust and change their ideas of what is “normal”. More importantly, that person has to want to change.
I like trying to show things from the character’s point of view. One thing I see the cast doing is communicating more with other characters they know and like. Gadel didn’t announce that she’s been to a briefing because she doesn’t know anyone enough to share what she considers unimportant information yet.
Todd didn’t think anything of offering what he sees as a standard greeting – “Hello, you look pretty today, missus.” – to someone whose name he doesn’t know. He’d offer the same greeting to Mrs. Pennyworth, the Commander’s secretary. Even though he does know her name, he doesn’t know her very well. Meanwhile, Todd wouldn’t tell Gadel that he’s in a relationship since, again, he doesn’t know her.
Todd knows Eric and Eric knows Todd, but they’re not good friends, just acquaintances. As a result, Eric is aware that Todd’s dating someone, but not how seriously. And, Eric wouldn’t mention the personal business of an aquantaince to someone he doesn’t know at all – Eric hasn’t even learned Gadel’s name yet.
Meanwhile, Todd and Max are good friends, so Max knows how committed Todd and Melissa’s relationship is and may even venture to ask about it.
Smiley is Todd’s best friend so, he knows quite a bit about Todd and Melissa.
And you, the reader, don’t know about Melissa yet because you haven’t seen Todd interacting with anyone enough to where the conversation could turn towards Melissa. (Though you got a glimpse of her in the pub scene on page 21 of Issue 7. She’s there with Todd in the background.) You will learn about Melissa in the comic when the “camera” focuses more on Todd for a bit. I’m not willing to shoehorn her in when the time isn’t right.
Why? Because I hate seeing everything about a character dumped on me as soon as they pop onto the screen. I want to learn about that character as if I was actually meeting them in real life. And, we learn about people slowly. Also, when we interact with others, they don’t tell us everything of their day. Even people we care for and are intimate with don’t share every nuance of their daily activities. If they feel it was unimportant, they don’t voice it. And, if someone tells them something they think is useless, they ignore it. You will learn about these characters just like you learn about people in your life, in stages, not all at once. Why? Because that’s how I’ve notice people operate.
The danger comes when you try to insert your thoughts, feelings or ideals onto another person’s character. Your experiences are not mine. When reading someone else’s story, you have to listen to their voice, not yours. If you want to hear your voice, then you’d do best to write your own story. Because trying to impose your voice onto someone else’s work usually doesn’t end too well. Yes, there are some people out there who will cater to your desires when it comes to their comic, even going so far as to add extra arcs and storylines. And if this series was a bit smaller, I might be willing to do such things. But, it’s not and I’m not.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, I know my characters inside and out. I also know what happens in between pages and segments. And, quite frankly, I’m going to manipulate that knowledge to my advantage because… I’m an evil little thing at times. If I don’t show you something right away, please don’t assume it’s because I foolishly didn’t think of it. Not every writer writes using the same methods. Some of us like to keep you in the dark for a while.
“During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.”
– Bernard Baruch
