Cinderella in Combat Boots

“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”     - Frank Herbert, Dune

“The Last Stand” [1/100 Fighter Gundam Heavy Arms weathered]. Modeled by Robert Liem Cun [Indonesia]

Dorothy vs. Quatre Part II (Episode 48: Take Off into Confusion) Part I (Episode 44: Go Forth Gundam Team) is here

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She fills the role of the antithesis. She knows peace is needed, but she also needs to challenge the world. Once her eyes open to the realities before her, she unwittingly accepts the role of being the Devil’s Advocate. A role left unfilled upon the deaths of several characters, most prominently Treize.

Even though she wins the match, she’s still the one left alone and on the losing side with a lot of her ideas shattered. She’s forced to realize that maybe the things Quatre said to her have merit and that maybe she is the bad guy in this situation. Especially after getting the news about Treize (I think she honestly thought he would win and certainly that he was invulnerable).

This is what I mean too when I say we didn’t get to see a lot of growth from her, because Dorothy’s most important lessons come so late in the series. I don’t recall that we even saw her after this scene–not until Endless Waltz? It’s easy to dislike her throughout and then to have this as a last impression? It certainly makes it hard to look at her as anything but a villain. Even if you like her, it’s not a moment that can be easily defended or justified. If at all.

I think she is extremely multi-faceted and a fascinating character to explore and a lot of fun to write. I felt sad for her at the end of the series. She was hurting badly and yeah, I don’t agree with hating her just because of that scene. I did for a long time until I rewatched the series. I figure, if Quatre could forgive her, so could I. :D

It is easy for a lot of people to see her as a villain and I can understand that on the face of it. You have to look deep into her psyche to try to figure out where she is coming from. Like all of the characters, she is deeply flawed and I think that’s what makes this series so amazing. 

I would like to agree with everyone about Dorothy’s flawed and antihero character. That’s what’s so appealing about her and the reason why I’ve recently become interested in her character. I’ve avoided her for years just because I couldn’t understand her, but growing up changed that, I guess. ^^;

To me, Dorothy is the most intriguing female character in the show, (rivaled only by Lady Une, perhaps). Relena is in many ways too ideal of a woman, and while there’s much to admire about her, I find it easier to relate to someone as misguided yet hardheaded as Dorothy. She’s wrong and she couldn’t be more right! That makes her real to me. Plus, she’s such a flirt and hence fun to write!

There are more profound sides to her too. She has a very painful and complicated past. She comes from a very toxic family, and as someone who grew up with toxic parents, I can understand where she’s coming from and how it might have affected her point of view on life. She does learn and grow, as we see in episode 49 and then EW, which makes her all the more admirable and fascinating.

Dorothy is certainly a challenging character. That’s why I’ve been shipping her so hard with Heero lately. I think he can learn a lot from her, and she from him. I don’t think 1xD (or Dx1…) is all that far-fetched. I’ve certainly seen other ships between characters who barely even met during the show and they worked wonderfully. I won’t try to justify where, when and how Heero and Dorothy might connect. One thing is for sure - it would be years later and by pure chance. And I think it would work. Why?

Well, Relena is someone Heero would like to protect and turn to for comfort, but Dorothy is someone who can understand him to the depths of his dark soul. Relena might never flinch at the sight of the ugliness he holds inside, but she can never understand it the way Dorothy can. She can comfort him, heal him to a degree, but he would never allow himself to let the demons out completely in front of her. He won’t let her get too close because Relena is someone Heero wants to shelter from the beast still dwelling inside of him. Dorothy, however, is capable of taming this beast. She will force those demons out of him, healing him in a way Relena could never do, no matter how deep is her love for him.

Heh. This makes me think of this song:

I think what we’re forgetting is that we’re talking about a kid–a fifteen-year-old girl, to be specific. She is the way she is because she is shaped by her past (which I would argue is not as dark as that of kid soldiers deployed to fight like war machines, but I’d say it’s very twisted that it skewed her philosophy about war and peace and life as a whole). The other fifteen-year-olds in the show are given 49 episodes to showcase their character development, whereas Dorothy is given less than half of that. Scenes with her are short, too, as if only added there as afterthoughts. I often think the creators went like, “Oh, right, I remember throwing this character in, but we’ve zeroed in on so much of the main heroes these past few episodes. Let’s just add this and that to show she’s somehow changed, blah blah.” This is a shame, because she is introduced as a very intriguing character and then was dropped to do most of her own growing-up offscreen. I’m saying that because she pops up with a different attitude the end of the show and at EW, hinting at probably some kind of behind-the-scenes introspection or self-realization on her part.

Frankly, there is so much about her that was left for the fans’ sandbox to play with. For instance, it is somehow hinted that there’d been a paradigm shift for her and that she didn’t initially share her cousin’s views on war (Ep48). The creators didn’t give us enough canon stuff to back or prove or even bluntly show the transformation she’s underwent, but it is there.

Agreeing on the part about the scene above being not the only thing that makes most people hate her. I’d argue, though, that it’s the best card Dorothy-haters pull out when laying out reasons to dislike her. I’ve seen people get annoyed at her very first appearance in the show, mainly because of how she behaves and talks, but they begin the hate and bashing because of the Quatre-stabbing thing.

This shit’s been going on since time immemorial – before movies, it was wives editing and proofing books, sometimes putting in enough work that, had they been male, they would’ve been credited as co-authors.

That’s why having George Miller rhapsodize about how amazing his wife Margaret Sixel is and how important she was to Fury Road was so unusual and important – too often, women’s contributions to their husbands’ creative endeavors are viewed as a sort of marital obligation, not achievements in their own right.

Also, there’s this:

“You can see the huge difference in the films that he does now and the films that he did when he was married,” [Mark] Hamill pointed out in the 2005 interview, in a not-so-subtle dig at the prequels.