So this is something that's been bouncing around in my head and I finally got the mental impetus to write about it.
I consider "Garfield Minus Garfield" to be a fail.
For those who don't know or follow it, Garfield Minus Garfield (which I'll refer to as "GMG") essentially removes the titular cat character from his own comic, making his owner, Jon Arbuckle, look like a depressed desperate loony (not that Jon really needed help with that).
I don't write "fail" on the GMG comic because I hate the idea of Garfield being removed from a comic, even if it is his own. I did like Garfield when I was younger, and the fat orange cat still has some small charm to him; but I like concepts where people explore the possibility of how things would go with change, so GMG has some intellectual merit.
The problems I have with "Garfield Minus Garfield" is that it doesn't bother going any deeper with the idea. Not to mention the person behind GMG cherry-picks the comics.
Garfield is a long-running comic with a multitude of characters. Keyword is "multitude". Jon isn't the only other character in the comic. There's Odie the dog, Liz the veternarian, Nermal the adorable cat, Arlene the cat who happens to be Garfield's girlfriend, etc. There's also been a number of cliche'd dates that Jon has been with. Almost all of whom have met Garfield and INTERACTED with Garfield. Garfield has even gotten Jon out of jams that Jon himself couldn't have on his lonesome. The excuse that Jon is just crazy actually starts to wear thin when his supposed hallucination is causing actual events to occur.
You can't just edit out the fact that other characters have acknowledged and interacted with a character without giving a solid reason. Now, ordinarily, you could say, "Jon's just more insane than you thought." But it's rather sad and lame if that's ALL you thought. Not to mention far more boring.
I mean, stop and consider your own life. Pick a random person that you have interacted with constantly, consistently or even someone who just had a powerful effect on your life. Now, edit them out of reality, but keep every interaction that you'd had with them the EXACT same. As in, you were standing there, talking and interacting with nothing, supposedly pretending or hallucinating that this person exists. How many physical objects have you exchanged with this person? How many times have they opened a door for you? Hugged you? Smacked you upside the head? Told you something meaningful that changed your life? How many times have they spoken to someone else while you were there or had interactions that you had no part of?
See, the concept wears thin, and while I don't doubt that there are mental disorders that could have people heavily re-editing their own memories to a massive extent ala. Edward Norton from "Fight Club" (sorry for the spoilers of a 17 year old movie, but you had your chance to see it by now), it's just not as interesting as the idea that it might not be "insanity".
One of the ideas that this rant has touched off was this:
Imagine Ranma 1/2 without Ranma Saotome.
If you were to think of it realistically, Genma wouldn't have bothered showing up without Ranma in tow. After all, Ranma's existence essential to Genma's free meal ticket at the Tendos. Or rather, Genma wouldn't show up without at least a kid to betroth. One that Akane clobbers quite a few times.
But we quickly get into a rather interesting problem really fast, since Ranma interacts with a lot of people throughout the series, eats food, picks fights, etc. without Akane being anywhere nearby, and in some cases, without Akane being aware that anything has happened.
Some or even a lot of this could be waved off as parts of Akane's newfound insanity, but then you'd have to explain the multitude of fiancees and enemies who showed up SPECIFICALLY because Ranma was there; not to mention you'd still need to explain Genma's presence; and there are times when Akane is kidnapped and rescued by Ranma after everyone else is knocked out or otherwise unable to help.
If it's not Ranma, SOMEONE has to be there.
Otherwise, she doesn't get rescued and a multitude of issues don't get resolved, and then that would mean Akane would be either comatose or mentally closed off from the world, which gets pathetically sad and depressing. So, I'm refusing to consider that route entirely because comatose/mental shutdown stories are just "bleah" to me.
And "She's just that crazy" is, again, a LAME excuse to get out of thinking further. You could get away with it, but you are going to disappoint most people unless you spark something along the lines of the "Tommy Westphall / St. Elsewhere Unification Theory". Which is another thing I would gladly accept because it starts to point towards something more deep and interesting than "Akane is just crazy".
I consider "Garfield Minus Garfield" to be a fail.
For those who don't know or follow it, Garfield Minus Garfield (which I'll refer to as "GMG") essentially removes the titular cat character from his own comic, making his owner, Jon Arbuckle, look like a depressed desperate loony (not that Jon really needed help with that).
I don't write "fail" on the GMG comic because I hate the idea of Garfield being removed from a comic, even if it is his own. I did like Garfield when I was younger, and the fat orange cat still has some small charm to him; but I like concepts where people explore the possibility of how things would go with change, so GMG has some intellectual merit.
The problems I have with "Garfield Minus Garfield" is that it doesn't bother going any deeper with the idea. Not to mention the person behind GMG cherry-picks the comics.
Garfield is a long-running comic with a multitude of characters. Keyword is "multitude". Jon isn't the only other character in the comic. There's Odie the dog, Liz the veternarian, Nermal the adorable cat, Arlene the cat who happens to be Garfield's girlfriend, etc. There's also been a number of cliche'd dates that Jon has been with. Almost all of whom have met Garfield and INTERACTED with Garfield. Garfield has even gotten Jon out of jams that Jon himself couldn't have on his lonesome. The excuse that Jon is just crazy actually starts to wear thin when his supposed hallucination is causing actual events to occur.
You can't just edit out the fact that other characters have acknowledged and interacted with a character without giving a solid reason. Now, ordinarily, you could say, "Jon's just more insane than you thought." But it's rather sad and lame if that's ALL you thought. Not to mention far more boring.
I mean, stop and consider your own life. Pick a random person that you have interacted with constantly, consistently or even someone who just had a powerful effect on your life. Now, edit them out of reality, but keep every interaction that you'd had with them the EXACT same. As in, you were standing there, talking and interacting with nothing, supposedly pretending or hallucinating that this person exists. How many physical objects have you exchanged with this person? How many times have they opened a door for you? Hugged you? Smacked you upside the head? Told you something meaningful that changed your life? How many times have they spoken to someone else while you were there or had interactions that you had no part of?
See, the concept wears thin, and while I don't doubt that there are mental disorders that could have people heavily re-editing their own memories to a massive extent ala. Edward Norton from "Fight Club" (sorry for the spoilers of a 17 year old movie, but you had your chance to see it by now), it's just not as interesting as the idea that it might not be "insanity".
One of the ideas that this rant has touched off was this:
Imagine Ranma 1/2 without Ranma Saotome.
If you were to think of it realistically, Genma wouldn't have bothered showing up without Ranma in tow. After all, Ranma's existence essential to Genma's free meal ticket at the Tendos. Or rather, Genma wouldn't show up without at least a kid to betroth. One that Akane clobbers quite a few times.
But we quickly get into a rather interesting problem really fast, since Ranma interacts with a lot of people throughout the series, eats food, picks fights, etc. without Akane being anywhere nearby, and in some cases, without Akane being aware that anything has happened.
Some or even a lot of this could be waved off as parts of Akane's newfound insanity, but then you'd have to explain the multitude of fiancees and enemies who showed up SPECIFICALLY because Ranma was there; not to mention you'd still need to explain Genma's presence; and there are times when Akane is kidnapped and rescued by Ranma after everyone else is knocked out or otherwise unable to help.
If it's not Ranma, SOMEONE has to be there.
Otherwise, she doesn't get rescued and a multitude of issues don't get resolved, and then that would mean Akane would be either comatose or mentally closed off from the world, which gets pathetically sad and depressing. So, I'm refusing to consider that route entirely because comatose/mental shutdown stories are just "bleah" to me.
And "She's just that crazy" is, again, a LAME excuse to get out of thinking further. You could get away with it, but you are going to disappoint most people unless you spark something along the lines of the "Tommy Westphall / St. Elsewhere Unification Theory". Which is another thing I would gladly accept because it starts to point towards something more deep and interesting than "Akane is just crazy".
