Violet Parr, everyone. The true hero of this movie.
I want an Incredibles 2 where Violet suddenly wakes up and realizes, ‘Why did I think wearing pink sweaters and dating some popular kid was AN IMPROVEMENT?!’ Then she goes back to being the quirky, smart girl she was at the start, only now she’s more badass than before because she realizes there was NOTHING WRONG WITH WHO SHE WAS!!!
(Seriously, am I the only one who hates how they ended her story in pt. 1?)
You SEVERELY misunderstand Violet’s entire dang story arc, and her characterization at the beginning of the film.
Like, I think you need to rewatch the film. At the beginning of the film, she was scared, self conscious, etc. Those aren’t “quirks” those were her hiding her quirks because she was afraid.
Her story arc was about gaining confidence. The wearing of brighter colors was symbolic of that. If you look at concept art, she was meant to be huddled, scared, trying not to be seen, etc. Those dark clothes are meant to show her trying to “blend in” and be less noticed.
That’s also why in the beginning, she lets her hair fall in front of her face: She’s trying TO HIDE. Think about it, she wants to be “normal” instead of embracing her powers, she wants to fit in, etc.
Look at her body language during this scene. Notice how she doesn’t want to talk, she mumbles, she won’t even eat. Something is bothering her, but she doesn’t want to admit it. She constantly looks sad. Heck, I’m kind of mad at Helen in this scene for not acknowledging it. Violet’s body language is FREAKING OBVIOUS, any mother should be able to spot it, and ask what the frick is wrong, but Helen’s so preoccupied with trying to be a “normal” family that she completely ignores any signs that something is wrong.
And then we get to the problem: When Violet screams about how no one in the family is “normal”
“We ACT normal, Mom! I wanna BE normal!” and Dash even agrees, because of the pressure to act “normal” that is put on him.
She doesn’t want to “be herself” she wants to “fit in”
She has basically been told her whole life to hide who she is, hide her powers, etc to keep the family safe. She’s barely allowed to express herself, something Helen acknowledges later in the film indirectly by apologizing for putting pressure on Violet. She’s not just talking about the plane crash, she’s talking about what she’s basically done to Violet and Dash THEIR ENTIRE FREAKING LIVES. She basically did the same dang thing Elsa’s parents did in Frozen: “Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let it show” but she never gets called out on it, because she doesn’t die before realizing her mistake and fixing it.
That’s why after the talk with her Mom, it’s SO DANG IMPORTANT that she pulls her hair back: SHE’S DONE HIDING WHO SHE IS. She’s DONE trying to pretend to be normal. She realizes she is someone incredible, and is finally willing to embrace that.
Later, when she’s wearing bright clothes, it symbolizes she’s no longer afraid of being seen. She’s willing to stand out instead of blend into the background. Seriously, this is some basic cinematography symbolism, here, it’s one of the first things you learn in a film-as-literature class. Her outfit change didn’t mark a change in
Violet doesn’t become a different person. She learns to be confident with who she is.
She didn’t change who she was. She gained confidence. Confidence to talk to the boy without turning invisible. Confidence to ask him out. The moral of her story wasn’t “LOL those darn introverts need to be extroverts” the moral was “You can do whatever you set your mind to. If you can stop a literal supervillain, you can freaking ask the dang boy out.”
Character takes something for granted? Take it away from them.
Character loves something desperately and practically needs it to live? Take that away too.
My personal writing creed is “happiness is boring.”
If I may, from my own personal perspective on life and writing.
If people truly understood what it takes in life to become “happy,” they would understand the years of pain, the suffering, the regret, the struggle, the inherent and even natural violence in the acts that often stand as the price-tag for happiness.
If writers understand that happiness is at once a wonderful and fleeting thing, and that its impermanence is the cause of desires both noble and selfish, and how willing we are to sacrifice for it, whether we sacrifice ourselves or others (willing or unwilling),
If at last we understand that happiness is a temporary product of a life full of waves that crest below us and crash down upon us, and that the longer we live we are more likely to drown in life’s experiences than to consistently ride atop the waves,
We would say that happiness is many things, but it is NEVER boring.
I think what @emeralddodge is getting at isn’t that happiness itself is boring, but that having characters who are completely satisfied is. And even if they are satisfied, there should be currents of tension and fear of losing that happiness. Pure angst is also boring, as is pure grief or horror or romance or fear or excitement.
Like you said, the negatives are often the cost of getting the positives. One without the other is blergh. In my writing, whenever characters have happiness it is at the very least threatened.
My original point was that if they are taking something for granted, so is the reader. Nothing is sacred and taking it away reminds them that the danger the character is facing is real and makes their motives resonate more loudly.
On the flip side, if they desperately want and love something, I’m practically promising the reader that it is endangered. Taking it makes my threats ring true and when I threatened something again, they’ll really be scared I’ll follow up. It’s the reading equivalent of “how DARE you what ELSE will she do??”
Satisfaction is boring. Security is snooze-worthy 80% of the time in writing. But only fear/grief/angst is exhausting and, as you said in your tags, overdone.
Moral of the post: moderation in everything.
Continue shitposting, writers.
We would say that happiness is many things, but it is NEVER boring.
I know exactly what I meant, and I think you do, too. Fifteen years of honing my craft has taught me one thing: happiness is boring, and readers don’t want it. They generally want it at the end, but they won’t turn 300 pages filled with satisfied, happy characters.
@katekarl, thank you for elaborating. You’ve described the core of tension and stakes, something I wish more writers understood. 🙂
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