10 votes

Rage 2 uses my birth defect as a crude shorthand for mutant freak

Posted by dubteedub
Tags: cleft lip, deformities, id software, rage.2, disabilities, characters, gamedev, author.chris plante
https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/13/18617783/rage-2-impressions-characters-enemies-mutants

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Title
Rage 2 is a fun game that makes me feel like garbage
Published
May 13 2019
Word count
1340 words

8 comments

  1. [7]
    Bamans
    Link
    Just out of curiosity, does anyone have an example of this? I want to believe the author but it’s an association I would have never thought to make.

    Fiction has long associated clefts with both villainy and mental health disorders,

    Just out of curiosity, does anyone have an example of this? I want to believe the author but it’s an association I would have never thought to make.

    5 votes
    1. [5]
      dubteedub
      Link Parent
      It is a pretty common film shorthand to code "good people" as pretty and beautiful, and "bad people" as ugly or deformed. Here is are a couple TV Tropes pieces on the phenomena: Beauty Equals...

      It is a pretty common film shorthand to code "good people" as pretty and beautiful, and "bad people" as ugly or deformed.

      Here is are a couple TV Tropes pieces on the phenomena:

      If a character is beautiful, then that character is a good person, either publicly or secretly. If a character is good, then that character will either be beautiful or be treated as beautiful.

      Or to put it another way, every hero worth his salt must be physically attractive, or at the very least, better-looking than half of other people his or her age. This standard is more relaxed for side characters who can be truly ordinary-looking or even literal aliens, but expect the lead character to be pleasing to look at, even if he is the alien.

      There are heroes and then there are villains. And the audience needs to know which is which, even before anyone gets to Kick the Dog or Pet the Dog or does anything involving the metaphorical dog. The hero, in order to be properly heroic, will be handsome, possibly to a sickening degree. The villain may be good-looking as well, but if they are, they will often have some type of physical defect or tip-off to their monstrous nature.

      People sympathize less with others who have a physical defect. This is in essence a deliberate trip to the Uncanny Valley, using the minor defect to provoke a negative audience response.

      7 votes
      1. [3]
        cfabbro
        Link Parent
        It's also an increasingly common trope for "ugly" people to be "good" and "beautiful" people to be "bad" as well though. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UglyHeroGoodLookingVillain...

        It's also an increasingly common trope for "ugly" people to be "good" and "beautiful" people to be "bad" as well though.

        https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UglyHeroGoodLookingVillain
        https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeautyIsBad
        https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside

        7 votes
        1. [2]
          dubteedub
          Link Parent
          Yeah, but as those first two links mention, that is more of a subversion of the typical trope.

          Yeah, but as those first two links mention, that is more of a subversion of the typical trope.

          2 votes
          1. cfabbro
            Link Parent
            Sure, and both are essentially derived from Personification. Neither instance of the trope is particularly creative or productive to society to continue to foster, but while I can understand the...

            Sure, and both are essentially derived from Personification. Neither instance of the trope is particularly creative or productive to society to continue to foster, but while I can understand the author's frustration, it also seems a bit weird to me to attack one particular game for utilizing what is ultimately an rather common and already established trope rather than address the issue of that trope's use as a whole.

            2 votes
      2. mrbig
        Link Parent
        The opposite is also common, with beauty of a certain kind simbolizing evil. Examples: Sleeping Beauty’s witch, Hella (Ragnarok), the femme fatales from film noir etc

        The opposite is also common, with beauty of a certain kind simbolizing evil. Examples: Sleeping Beauty’s witch, Hella (Ragnarok), the femme fatales from film noir etc

        4 votes
    2. Diet_Coke
      Link Parent
      I think it's Red Dragon, at least definitely one of the Hannibal movies, where the serial killer guy has a cleft lip and is driven by rage at the world over his lip.

      I think it's Red Dragon, at least definitely one of the Hannibal movies, where the serial killer guy has a cleft lip and is driven by rage at the world over his lip.

      4 votes
  2. ThatFanficGuy
    Link
    ...ah, shit. I clicked on the link, not paying attention to that it leads to Polygon. So, naturally, I haven't read the article. Cobra Kai, the Karate Kid YouTube Original sequel, has one of the...

    ...ah, shit. I clicked on the link, not paying attention to that it leads to Polygon.

    So, naturally, I haven't read the article.

    Cobra Kai, the Karate Kid YouTube Original sequel, has one of the kids that come to the Cobra Kai dojo who has a scar on his upper lip – one that doesn't slip his lip but remains noticable enough for him, a nerd, to get bullied over it.

    SPOILER ALERT FOR SEASON ONE UPWARDS

    The kid eventually gather enough confidence to overcome the adversity... and after that, goes overboard and becomes so cocky he develops into a completely different person: the Hawk – complete with a full-back tattoo of the bird, and a mowahk – first bright-blue, then bright-red.

    At the beginning, his growth is treated as progress, but at some point, he becomes a massive jerk, sometimes even to his dojo-mates. In season 2, they show just how big the difference is: they show a flashback to the day his mother called the school in order to (very limply) deal with her son's bullies, effectively making the kid a bigger target. After hearing what his mother and the dean talked about, he yells at her for making his life worse and runs to his room, where he buries his head into the pillow, crying his eyes out.

    Flashforward to the present moment, where he commands two dojo newbies to carry his bags for him after he (still underaged) had his full-back tattoo recolored to the red mohawk, to match his own hairstyle, as he strolls out with two girls under his arms, ostensibly feeling like a million bucks.

    END SPOILERS

    The kid's not a villian, nor is he portrayed as particularly evil because of his scar. Instead, his issues are shown to have been rooted in a long history of bullying and the anger that kept piling up, year after year – and then he got the opportunity to express this anger, and to feel superior, and it was intoxicating for him.

    Doesn't seem that unrealistic if people with physical deformities develop issues because of how others mistreat them based on that feature. Maybe they grew up in an unsupportive or even hostile environment.

    There sure as shit is no reason why someone with a physical deformity would be in any way mentally-troubled just because they have a deformity that doesn't affect their brain. A cleft lip? Fuck you. You people are supposed to make compelling stories, considering how much the game you wrote for costs. Do better.

    4 votes