Archetypes

[korafox]

When I was younger and just really starting to find the stories that meant something to me, I imprinted hard on Dark Angel and Gundam Wing.  There were other things, too, but those were the shows whose threads I picked up and wove into my own narrative--Nanashi owes so much to them both. 

I can see the common piece between them now, and it's something reflected in many of the other characters I've fallen for the hardest over the years.  In both shows, you have these people who have been shaped and crafted into an ultraproficient tool--a supersoldier--and they are desperately trying to claim some scraps of identity/humanity for themselves.  There's something incredibly compelling about that tension between power and vulnerability.  Not to mention the struggle to belong to oneself rather than another.

So, yes.  This was a formative thing for me.  And that's also the major reason why Bucky just tears at my heartstrings.

Comments

[kilroy]

I can easily see this. But I'm trying not to psychoanalyze too much out of it.

I need to go back to Dark Angel again at some point. I hit it at way, waaaaay the wrong time.

[korafox]

I am amused and appreciative of the fact that my friends are trying to not analyze me too blatantly. ;)

I have the first season of DA on DVD if you ever want to give it another shot.

[kayote]

Is this related to the manga by Kia Asamiya?

(If so, do you happen to have the manga? I have 5 volumes, which have two "the ends" and I can't figure out if it's over and if it is, it's not a great ending.)

[korafox]

To the best of my knowledge, they're unrelated (this was a two-season TV show on Fox in the early 2000s). Alas, I don't have that manga.