i'm doomed, you're safe

as time goes on, she goes through a monika-esque arc where she's grasping that the world she's in doesn't have space for her, and every attempt to fight that only makes her even more out of place. but she isn't looking for attention from the people beyond the screen; no, she's looking for attention from the characters she's with.

it lends itself to commentary, intentional or not. people have connected to her because they were once that 'annoying' autistic woman in middle school who tried and failed to make friends. there's also theories about how she's a commentary on women in male-dominated workspaces, or a symbolism of how the female characters in smiling friends are often put in the sidelines.

if you were to see the videos, you would know instantly that they were not actually created by a middle schooler with too much free time. kids can be amazing at animation, yes, but there's so much intentionality into her movement that i would believe it if the creator had dabbled professionally in 3d animation. the voice actress is no amateur either; she has range, she knows how to act. there has been attempts to identify this unknown voice actress and the fact that people would bring up professional voice actresses, including lizzie freeman funnily enough, shows her skill.

all of that to say; there's nothing stopping this creator from having one of the characters actually talk to her. if they have enough money to hire one voice actor for their shitpost, i think they'll have enough money to hire an impersonator for one line. a "dude, can you shut up?" from charlie would be hilarious. but the direction it's being taken in is that she's being ignored by the characters. even the camera shots are showing that she's not meant to be here.

is there a possibility that it's all for laughs and it really isn't that deep? probably. i am engaging with it in an angle of it being a satire of deviantart ocs and self-insert characters, and satire does commentary of the thing it's mocking. commentary can also be made purely unintentionally, believe it or not.

do i care about the lack of female representation in smiling friends? maybe. i do not care too much on a surface level; i understand that it is a comedy made by a group of guys who grew up on newgrounds. i do not think they are raging misogynists by any means, but i know enough about newgrounds humor that i am not also expecting much else either.

it does get alienating at times, and that's something i don't think male smiling friends fans will ever get, as most piece of media has been catered to men for a while.

something that adds another layer of irony into the entire thing is the audience reception to her. if someone wasn't already endeared by her, the other reactions are visceral hate (emphasis on visceral, i don't care if someone dislikes or hates this character for normal reasons lol), or fetishization. as much as i love smiling friends, it does attract a very specific type of people that doesn't make women feel welcome in their space, and especially doesn't make black people feel welcome in their space.

i've seen vile racist drawings of this character, and the sexualization gets uncomfortable when you know this is the female character that the smiling friends community focuses on — and she's not even canon.

basically; there isn't a kid behind the screen who's making this 'cringe' art, but there's still comments about how 'cringe' these videos are, and not even in a way that acknowledges it's a parody. as someone who had lived through cringe culture, it's ironic seeing it repeat. it's so ironic seeing the idea of a middle schooler's oc being reviled and sexualized like i have seen in the past for actual middle schooler's ocs. it's so ironic seeing that grown men are really itching for a chance to bully a ghost of a 13 year old. it's ironic seeing that no one is normal about black women.