so first and foremost, I don't hate bliss, i hate what they DID to her. to be fair, I watched the entire four-part finale with a seasick-addled brain, but now that I'm coming back to it, the reboot definitely doesn't hold a candle to the OG.
her very origin pisses me off because she was created as a part of a competetion between Professor Utonium and Professor NEWtronium, a female scientist that prof felt shown up by??? I don't know if that's lazy writing or deliberate but that is SO UNCHARACTERISTIC of prof. Canonically, he'd be the last person to feel shown up by a woman--- he does everything in his power to get the girls to EMBRACE their femininity and not be ashamed of it, (in members only, he reminds the girls that they are just as good, if not BETTER than the male members of the AWSM) heck he also embraces femininty himself (how many times has the man been in drag???)
also did we just forget about dick hardly
dick hardly would be the type to pull a stunt like this, and it would also make sense in correlation with the OG episode knock it off.
that's definitely annoying...
moving on, her origin, powers, and design and overall mary-sue-ness seem to be aspects of the main gripes people have with her character, but i don't see a lot of people talking about one major thing: she's listed as the first ethnic powerpuff girl.
now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with diversity, but i have a bone to pick with LAZY diversity. it would be different if bliss was a clean introduction to the powerpuff girls and had powers that synced well with the other girls, but her main character conflict is that she is highly voltaile and can't control her own powers. not only that, this instability is linked to her "overthinking and overreacting."
so we have the first ethnic powerpuff girl, who is supposed to lean black/hispanic btw, and the ISSUE you give her is that she's prone to overreacting and destroys everything around her? this SERIOUSLY pisses me off man, because this being "overreactive" is a stereotype that's been pushed onto POC in media a LOT.
I don't think this was deliberate, but it was definitely LAZY, and that strips away the positive impact she could have had in terms of diversity, imo
i was discussing her design with my sister and she mentioned that Bliss's hair and build actually leans more desi if anything, which just goes to show that the writers didn't put much thought into her ethnicity anyway. intention is so important--- diversity is more than JUST THE COLOR OF YOUR SKIN
another thing i don't like is how the reboot writers name diversity as something they're shifting focus to as if the original show had some kind of issue with it anyway
there were POC in the show!!! maybe the powerpuff girls WEREN'T but there was representation!
like in the AU i'm making i'm taking inspo from POC models for HIM but the important keyword there is INSPO. i actually find the style of those models interesting and i want to mimic said style and features, not just idk give him an afro and make him a darker shade of red or smth
speaking of which, they corrected my mans teeth and made him a lighter shade of red so there you have it folks
and the history behind those models is another thing that i'm looking into, not just their appearances
also, after the four part finale is finished we just kind of....forget about her? she's supposed to be a symbol of diversity but once her time in the spotlight is over, we just send her to join the space cadets or something. right....
i think this yet another example of lazy storytelling because not only is she listed as being the fourth powerpuff girl (sorry bunny, sorry bullet, and sorry bubbles professor utonium), i think her entire disappearance is supposed to mimic those of the temporary powerpuff girls in the OG series. which would be fine, if, you know, she wasn't marketed as the FOURTH LEGITIMATE POWERPUFF GIRL
this rant made me feel like this guy but it's ok 😭😭😭😭
