Gray Goat the Teeth Enthusiast

@sandstonesunspear

Jesus Tapdancing Christ... THIS is a good welt pocket and the people who designed Simplicity 2895 ought to be blasted well ASHAMED of themselves for the crap way THEY wanted a welt pocket made. *SNARLS*

tbh im not entirely immune to a villain with a tragic backstory but i do think villain origins are a lot more interesting when the focus is less "here is the original sin, the first big bad thing that happened to them that made them who they are" and more "here is the first time a person who maybe otherwise felt powerless in their life realized that they could hurt someone and get away with it"

you can get a lot more mileage out of analyzing a truly abhorrent character through the lens of like. what sort of conditions would allow or even incentivize this kind of cruelty? what kind of person benefits from those conditions and how? over the more typical who hurt them type analysis. imo.

While Marsha's choice to repurpose the idea of "chivalry" for her role as a medic primarily represents how WWI led to the birth of many humanitarian organisations, and also the disillusionment from violence that drove many to support such causes instead, it's also nice to look at in context of her saintlike image. There are plenty of royal and military saints from medieval times, memorialised in legends, yet such canonisations waned over time; among modern saints, one is much more likely to find people who had dedicated their lives to humanitarian ends.