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| LunarZero |
 Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:05 pm Post subject: Wiglaf |
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Powdered Milk
Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 14
Location: Michigan, USA
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This actually started in the comments for strip 167. I posted how I thought Wiglaf was uninteresting (in reply to Liliy's strip comments of "Don't hate Wiglaf. He doesn't know what he does."), then someone replied to me and then I was gonna' reply to them but Liliy's comments aren't the place to discuss stuff like that.
That's why we have a forum now!
So, here's the "thread" so far:
| Liliy wrote: |
…don’t hate Wiglaf. He doesn’t know what he does.  |
| Mike wrote: |
| I don’t hate Wiglaf, he’s just uninteresting… like every other “perfect at everything” character. Did anyone really expect him to do poorly when he got up there? He’s lucky to be surrounded by a relatively large cast of legitimately interesting characters (panels 7, 8, and 9 FTW). |
| Zypher wrote: |
| Pssh, I think the ‘not being able to keep friends’ helps on that. I think Lily makes it a weakness pretty well. In most stories with a ‘perfect at everything’ character, everyone loves the character. |
That's certainly a twist on how these types of characters are usually handled, but it makes him more annoying than endearing (to me). He's perfect at everything but can'e maintain even a single friendly relationship with anyone? Really?
I think that's actually more preposterous than a perfect character that everyone loves and says a lot about Wiglaf: if we agree that he is perfect at everything, he should have it within him to maintain at least one friendly relationship with someone. The fact that he can't means he's never really tried or doesn't really care (despite his desperate attempts).
He could be interesting eventually, of course; there's a lot of comic to go. So far, though, he hasn't really aroused my interest (or at least not nearly as much as the rest of the cast).
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| Veire |
| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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Butter
Joined: 28 Jan 2008
Posts: 210
Location: Limbo. It's boring here.
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I don't really see the whole not having friends thing as Wiglaf's doing. That relies too much on other people, none of whom are as perfect at everything as he is, so his perfectionism doesn't extend that far which is why he can't keep friends. Or in my mind, at least.
I've always hated perfect at everything characters because of their sheer lack of flaw. But I like Wiglaf because that feeling of dislike is how other characters react to him, thus he can't keep many friends, therefore he is flawed by being perfect. And that's just too amusing, so I can't help but love him. ;D
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"You turned me into a fast food restaurant. That's just not cool." |
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| Zypher |
| Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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Skim Milk
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 2
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Mike, I did not mean any insult with that reply... I'm worried you might have taken it as an insult.... I think I might not have phrased it as I meant to. ^^;
I personally like Wiglaf, because perfection IS a flaw, and I think Lily writes it as a flaw fairly well. But I can easily see your perspective as well. And as you also pointed out, he is not perfect at every little thing because otherwise he COULD keep a friendship, but he can't possibly be absolutely perfect at everything. He is human... right? |
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| LunarZero |
| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:44 am Post subject: |
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Powdered Milk
Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 14
Location: Michigan, USA
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If Wiglaf were really trying, he'd realize what the problem was and adapt. The fact that he keeps running people off means that he's either:
- Not perfect at everything, just anything the author needs him to be perfect at to make the schtick work, or
- Absolutely careless (at least when it comes to friendly relationships).
Ack! Sorry Mike!!! I clicked 'edit' instead of quote again and erased the rest of your post on accident. T_T -Liliy
Thanks Liliy; I didn't know you'd be destroying my posts for this. -Mike
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Last edited by LunarZero on Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:13 am; edited 3 times in total |
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| Zypher |
| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:03 am Post subject: |
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Skim Milk
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 2
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| You make some good points there. Although he has managed somewhat to get Mordred to start liking him, so he must be starting to do something right. |
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| Vorticus |
| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:55 am Post subject: |
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Powdered Milk
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 30
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| Wiglaf does seem to be lacking perfection at social skills. In fact I would go so far as to call him a complete idiot in the social arena. For me that's part of his charm. |
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| Veire |
| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:57 am Post subject: |
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Butter
Joined: 28 Jan 2008
Posts: 210
Location: Limbo. It's boring here.
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The only time I actually noticed that Wiglaf was "perfect at everything" was when he outright said it while waiting in line at the airport. Before that, I hadn't really noticed. So keep in mind that all my Wiglaf related theories on the matter are based on the fact that the character said it. The term "unreliable narrator" kind of sticks out in my mind in this case. Wiglaf could be wrong or, more likely, just generalizing the "everything" part. After all, there's plenty of other evidence that he's not perfect at literally everything. If he were he'd have noticed Driver was female right away, he wouldn't have a problem being separated from his chainmaille, he wouldn't have a problem hiding his chainmaille under his clothes for the concert, he would've known that he'd have needed to get a two bedroom room when he switched up his hotel arrangements to be with Mordred, he would never argue with anyone because he'd be perfectly understanding to everyone, etc.
Even taking into account that Liliy has said he's perfect at everything, well, it's human to generalize like that. It's a lot easier to say "perfect at everything" than "perfect at a great many things, so much so that almost anything you can think of he's probably perfect at."
In other words, for all intents and purposes, I'm voting for LunarZero's first option. Though I still stand by what I said before about the lack of friends issue not being dependent on Wiglaf alone so his whole perfect thing wouldn't help with that. Because it takes two people to be friends, not one.
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| Liliy |
| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:04 am Post subject: |
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M'lady Mod
Joined: 06 Sep 2008
Posts: 655
Location: With Gin & Kira
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| LunarZero wrote: |
If Wiglaf were really trying, he'd realize what the problem was and adapt. The fact that he keeps running people off means that he's either:
* Not perfect at everything, just anything the author needs him to be perfect at to make the schtick work, or
* Absolutely careless (at least when it comes to friendly relationships). |
Ha ha, that might be true. But sadly we haven't explored it as much - but he does try. He tries many different things to keep friends that end up usually backfiring.
If they're annoyed because he's perfect at everything - he fakes it and loses on purpose or sits out. That doesn't work because then it looks like he thinks he's better than them or thinks they're too low for him to participate, etc etc. So he ends up stuck. So he essentially ends up with a double edge sword.
And also he can be perfect at 'everything' as long as it has a 'perfect' item. For example - you can't be 'perfect' at making friends because there, in all reality, is no right or wrong way to have friends. Just because someone is a bad friend, doesn't mean most people stop caring about them. Stuff like emotions & human interactions are so open to interpretation that there really is no definition for 'perfection' so it doesn't fall into that category. Or that's how I see it.
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