[TW: Rape]
Have you ever said to yourself, “my life won’t be complete until I see a reprehensible rage comic in which a ‘nice guy’ decides to solve his ‘friendzone’ problem by violently raping women?”
If so, it’s your lucky day! I found this lovely comic on the Tumblrverse; the dude who put it up has since taken it, and his Tumblr, down. Be warned: this really is the worst rage comic I’ve ever seen. Click here to see it. Or don’t click; that might be the better choice.
This is why “nice guys” can’t have nice things. BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT REALLY NICE.
Below, something of a palate cleanser. No trigger warning for this one. Just some lovely schadenfreude. (Thanks to blitzgal for posting this in the comments.)
EDITED TO ADD: I just noticed this lovely discussion in the Men’s Rights subreddit about my post. You may notice that many statements in the discussion are not what you might call “true.” Also, they deliberately misspell my name in a most hilarious manner! (If you are 5 years old.)
If I remember correctly, Xander was often shown imparting some manner of Profound, Down-to-Earth Wisdom on the rightness of other people’s actions, which was often complete bullshit.
Like the time he advised Buffy to chase down Riley, the guy she never even liked all that much who created on her with vampires, lest he run away forever.
Sorry, “cheated”, not “created”.
“Once More With Feeling”. He summoned a demon lord without getting all the information, and people died because of it.
Exactly.
And it was acknowledged as a bad thing if your undead boyfriend started stalking you.
Seraph: thanks, I forgot about that. But really I never saw the profound part of him.
And you’re right about the stalking part, the sexy vampire were often obsessive and Buffy relationships unhealthy, but nobody, including her, pretend that her boyfriends are Princes Charming.
But speaking of Sparkly, I can’t believe I forgot Jacob! “If I show her my abs a few more times and hold her hands when she cry about her boyfriend, maybe she’ll love me eventually!” “I know you’re married, but I’m in love with you so allow me to make a scene about your sex life”.
Are you Team Jacob or Team Edward, who’s the creepiest? I mean, Sparkly the Obsessive is a very good candidate, but Captain Puppy I-lost-my-shirt-again is playing Nice guy even though the girl is married, pregnant, with her husband and in her parents in law’s house. Then he falls in love with her baby, the kind of love who means “I’ll be by you’re side till the day I die, whether you like it or not.”
It was his relationship with Anya that made me stop sympathizing with Xander entirely. It kinda started out like “Oh, they’re so cute together!”, but she was fairly quickly relegated to role of emotional punching bag.
He could have responded to her lack of tact and social grace and her generally strange behavior with empathy and understanding of the fact that she hadn’t been human for a thousand fucking years, but instead he took every opportunity to put her down and humiliate her. In front of all of their friends.
And to top it all off, instead of making any attempt whatsoever to talk to her about his fears and insecurities regarding their upcoming marriage, he walks out on her on their wedding day, all because of a cheap ruse used by a demon who admitted to his face he was just fucking with Xander to break them up.
And how do his friends react to this? Do they tell him he’s being an asshole, and he should grow up already? No, they tell Anya that the person she should feel sorry for is the guy who broke her heart in the most devastating way he could manage.
Fuck that shit.
Another intersting character to look at, if you want to analyze Nice Guy-ism in popular culture is Ron Stoppable from the Disney cartoon Kim Possible. As best I can tell, he is not a Nice Guy. He and the title character are friends from nursery school – a simple friendship with no plotting to get in anyone’s knickers or deliberate drawn-out rejections. Indeed, several lines indicate that Ron doesn’t even think of Kim as a girl. Apparently they’re both in each other’s friendzone. Then, slowly, their feelings for each other change. Ron is the first to figure it out, he actually tells Kim about his feelings, she realizes she’s found someone who can keep up with her superheroing lifestyle, and all is well.
Thing is, a significant portion of the fandom was Nice Guy on Ron’s behalf. They were furious with Kim for not noticing him sooner, and her crush on the (perfectly amiable) popular boy Josh Mankey was considered a sign of her Alpha Bitch-ness. Never mind Ron’s own lack of interest in the early seasons, or his own relationships (for a guy that the MRA’s and PUA’s would probably consider a triple Omega-minus male, he actually didn’t do badly with the ladies – good thing no one was there to introduce him to Game during the episode where he was obsessed with figuring out the “Rules” of dating). Endless fanfiction was written where Kim came crawling to Ron, begging forgiveness for her shortsightedness, especially if she’d dared to have her first sexual encounter with someone else. It got pretty nasty.
Of course, where the fandom and even the show really went off the rails was in turning Ron into the Real Hero and Kim into a supporting character in her own show, but that’s another topic.
Dracula: SO MUCH YES. Though I can also completely see why Buffy and Willow sided with Xander there, since they were also abusers in their own abusive relationships and validating Xander justifies their own behavior…
…which would have been kind of an interesting story, and well in keeping with the overall concept of the show, if we the audience weren’t clearly supposed to be sympathizing with Xander/Willow/Buffy even when they’re being complete, utter assholes and experiencing no consequences for their awful behavior. Not unlike the difference between “this is a story about Edward the creepy overbearing stalker and manipulative and co-dependent Bella” and “this is a beautiful romance we should all aspire to!”
Kyrie: I’m kinda torn. I mean, bonding with baby puts Jacob over the top for creepiness, by far, and I can’t believe Stephenie Meyer was actually surprised that people felt that way. On the other hand, that kind of creepy is so obvious that even Twilight fans notice it and are turned off by it. Sparkly the Obsessive’s creepiness is insidious, and a frightening number of people mistake it for romantic. That causes actual harm.
Don’t even get me started on what they did to Tara.
“Hey, we’ve got this awesome new character! Wouldn’t it fun if we ruined her entire fucking life and turned her nothing more than a plot device?”
*her [into]*
Speaking of Joss Whedon and Nice Guys, much as I do like the character, Dr. Horrible definately qualifies.
To me though, the whole story came off as a cautionary tale about not letting your frustration turn you into an asshole.
Hmmm…I’m not sure I can sign on with your analysis here. For one thing, by this point in Season Sux, Buffy had realized her behavior with Spike was wrong (though I’d argue she wasn’t the only abuser in that relationship), and broken it off, while Willow was serving long-term penance for her abuse. For another, I don’t recall exactly when B&W actually sided against Anya, and if they didn’t give Xander the reaming he deserved, well, see above re. Joss’s favoritism and Xander: moral center of the show.
Season Sux was literally all about Buffy and Willow experiencing consequences. Xander, of course, was the hero of the season, despite the aforementioned mass Criminally Negligent Homicide and the abandonment at the altar.
Joss. Favoritism. Not subtle.
The kid who wrote that comic needs to be committed to a psychiatric hospital for a long period of time, like a year. Very sick & very sad. I wonder if his parents have any idea.
Seconded. And he had to rub salt into the wound by choosing then to pull that stupid prank with the credits. I can’t blame Amber Benson for refusing to come back. I think they lost something that they never quite got back with that episode.
Wow. I guess it says something about the day I’ve had today that this comic and trollery has made me feel BETTER.
RE: the ‘le Noun’ thing, I presume it comes from that old flash cartoon ‘The End of the World,’ where the following exchange happens in France:
“FIRE ZE MISSILES!”
“But I am le tired!”
“Zen take a nap. And zen FIRE ZE MISSILES!”
OMG Kimpossible. That show brought so much happy joy funtime. As per other Nice Guys, yeah, I see Dr. Horrible in that category.
Oh, and Arks? I’m not a douchebag zombie cockbite. So no, I’m NOT fantasizing about raping everybody around me. Please keep your assholery to yourself.
PS: Hey Jumbofish, was that you who friended me on LJ?
Aaaaand this is why I am likely never to watch Buffy. The Sexy Broody Amoral Vampire trope is one I really dislike, and added on to the other issues I have with Joss Whedon… no thank you.
LBT – well, Angel is sexy and broody, but not amoral. He’s either heroic or utterly monstrous, depending on whether he has his soul at the time. Spike is sexy and amoral, but broody, at least not early on. By Season Sux and Season Sux Slightly Less, yeah, he was pretty broody.
Not trying to talk you into it, just setting the record straight.
Diane: that’s not a very cool thing to say, being a horrible person/doing horrible things and needing psycho logic help isn’t the same thing.
Tara and Anya’s stories: so much WTF. Is it possible that we’re in abusive relationships with Whedon? ^_^’
It’s nice to know even Twilight’s fans were shocked, though I had one (a geeky male friend that I wouldn’t have suspected to like that in a million years) defend the wolf/baby love as not creepy.
“…but not broody”, dammit.
wait, what?
Sharculese – in the final “Twilight” book, Stephenie Meyer resolved the Edward/Bella/Jacob love triangle by having Bella have a baby with Edward, and having Jacob form some sort of werewolf soulbond with said baby. In fact, if I understand correctly, the whole reason Jacob was attracted to Bella in the first place is because he was destined to bond with her daughter.
Stephenie Meyer was actually surprised when people found this creepy, and tried to argue that the bond wasn’t sexual. And to the extent that it won’t become sexual until the baby reaches sexual maturity, that’s true. Until then, Jacob will just be the most doting uncle ever. Which is in no way creepy in itself. Note that the baby’s parents are perfectly fine with this.
This is also the book that includes the infamous vampire-fang caesarian, and a sex session that doesn’t end when Bella passes out/is knocked unconscious. Many fans have written it out of their personal continuity.
that is… just…
awful
Yeah, Spike is just straight up Chaotic Evil when he’s introduced.
It’s an actual thing that happens in Twilight. Apparently Stephanie Meyer’s ideas of “super romantic relationships” include “I used to think I was in love with your mom, but having met you, newborn infant, I realize I was in love with you the whole time! So now I will be your best childhood friend and loving uncle figure who is totally going to fuck your brains out once you’re legal, and also you don’t get a say in any of this because destiny!”
Yeah.
There really aren’t words.
As a French Canadian I find the “le me”, “le mother”, etc… meme from rage comics to be funny as hell, in the same sense as watching a chimp failing at learning sign language. Maybe that makes me a bad person.