Of Peril and Batgirl Spoiled.

Wanted to make a brief rant about Peril in this genre This is a topic that’s been around a lot-usually in the context of "Scuzzy videos that you buy for 20 bucks somewhere". These are easy to dismiss for anyone.

But Yesterday i watched the video series Batgirl: Spoiled. Its a two episode fan web series about Batgirl. I'll get into more detail-but it is free on youtube, ad free as a fan movie. I will also comment its not the best fan film ever, but its very well made comparable and better then a lot of stuff on youtube(okay sounds a little bad in spots but that’s nitty).The fight choreography is generally good, the costumes are great It was also co created by a woman. There’s a lot of women in the credits. The audio commentary(which i listened to) brought up the fact that no one made money and no one intended to.





Yet well..its called Batgirl Spoiled so got any ideas what its like?

The plot of the first episode involves batgirl fighting a gang-then the gang after a hard fight beats her up, and really bloody her. They them attempt to rape her in order to scar her mentally. She is saved by a group of Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Catwoman...who the abuse her a little bit then let her go to be saved by batman.

In short...well its a bit like a Peril Video. Its A little bit tamer but yeah.

However i have watch bat videos before- you get stuff like question of the riddle-which is all about Huntress being tied up- you get The spoiler from years ago, which isn't very good but involves similar ideas. At the same right now a series based on Nightwing is coming out which is more or less a straight action series. Prior to that there was a Grayson series, as well as several batman videos.



but In short when people considerable time and effort to bring female characters to the screen....this is what they do.

Why?

This isn't a video made in a warehouse for quick money(and has been brought up i doubt those peril videos are all that profitable). I can't imagine that people at home are perving up on this..but yeah. This a volunteer effort. by people who express the frequently held belief in mass media that-hey lets make a female superhero movie-so well they spend a 1000 dollars on a suit to make one.

Now this is Batgirl. Her first big bit of mass popularity was the old Batman TV show which played Peril for humor, but was and is probably the only mainstream peril. I would also state The focus was very strongly on well she is in peril one episode...and the next she gets out of it the next , because she was smart clever and had access to Bat antishark spray (ask for it by name).

You see bits and pieces of it in modern comic-but not much. Batgirls current iteration seems to be about making her a relatable young woman with realistic problems-who also kicks ass.

Not here. Definitely not.

There is a lot of discussion here, and a fair amount in comic, feminist, and even mainstream media about the need to do a female superhero movie. i have written about it elsewhere as have others. and in fairness when you see them on Big screen they do okay- Black Widow is pretty competent and Avengers take on Peril is kind of Funny. Hit Girl Kicks Ass(if anything i think she does it a little to much as it misses a lot of the subtleties of the comic). On TV we have the Black Canary, and Agents of Shield. Next year we are going to have Supergirl. Cartoons like Young Justice have done a great job of creating powerful female protagonists... And when Wonder Woman gets to the big Screen, we may bitch and moan about Gal Gadots Muscle Fibers but i don't think where going to get this. I'll give it that much credit.

But well..not on the web. Not by the fans that claim to want this. They make this.

I am not a person who is going to claim that Female Psychology is that different then men. I am not going to claim that Women are weaker then Men. I know these are popular conceptions, and i think they do enter a bit of this- you need to prove Batgirl strengths more then Nightwing. So they do. Boy do they ever.

Performers do it because well they enjoy it i think to a degree. i have worked with a lot of actors. They like to cry. they like to show the world that they can perform. They have it in them.

I may also give them some benefit of the doubt and say in the youtube world three actor structures are tricky. Not a lot of time for rising and falling action. But if anything this video seemed a little long.

Also Part of why i am going to guess is strangely Budget. They can't afford movie special effects. They can afford fights but you can't over do them. You see this sometimes in Low budget movies Thrillers horror movies - character brought to such extremities of tension that it becomes dour and grim. There is no once of fun left in it. People say Nolan movies are like this-but there not really. The Dark Knight in the last movie....Rises.

Batgirl is spoiled. She is Blind sided in the first Episode. She is a little (Girl) Lost.

I should mention that this is the first 2 episodes of a 12 episode series..that i am going to guess the rest are never going to come out. Fair enough-cause well its not great. But as i mentioned i did listen to commentary track. and it made an interesting point. The rest of the series isn't suppose to be peril-its designed to be kind of like the show brave and the bold, and each episode she either fights or teams up with a different superhero/Villain-but they strongly wanted here to give her a challenge-to beat her down, to make her suffer to show consequence.

I should also mention something. Batgirl herself(in this case in her pre 52 identity as Stephanie Brown) is something of an asshole. For the first half of episode she spends arguing in a kind of intended to be funny manner with Oracle and making quips with thugs-that well make her a haughty bitch who thinks shes invulnerable. Well shes going to learn right? When peril videos bother to give there super heroines personalities, this is often how they do it-the proud made humble.

You can see naritively see that’s a hook, but its only really a hook in terms if you enjoy there suffering. Extremes and while i think we are suppose to empathize with Batgirl....well her suffering also makes it possible to go with her attackers. The give the nameless thug who attacks her a monologue about how he represents the little people(written the creators commented: Before occupy wallstreet)-which is kind of skin crawling really as his first impulse is to rape her.

I don't think most peril videos would do that. Because its kind of sick.

Yet i can't say that these people are sick.



i have spoken before about Wonder Woman this Wonderwoman Fan trailer which i thought was the best superhero fan film i have ever seen. That starts with the first minute being Wonder Woman tied up and beaten-well enough to establish the idea. She then spends the next 90 seconds really really kicking ass. This narrative is Tension and Catharsis.

You see the same thing in most every fight in movies, or in professional wrestling. the hero is beat down-then gets up and fights em off. I have certainly done this on my stories on the site. Mazing Girl gets punched, gets her powers used against her. Armada nearly dies when she is hit by an atomic bomb. You need to establish the characters vulnerability. Otherwise there is no conflict- and fundamentally no strength either .

In the last 'Mazing Girl story she gets ups- not because she is strong but the one defining element the character that is easy to see is a joke is that she refuses to see herself as one. She can't stand to have her arch nemesis treat it as a game. That is her Strength.

Armada is a character who seemingly wants to conquer and be a superqueen-but at the same time she can't just leave. She has responsibility to her city, and to the greater metropolitan area(excluding Vancouver Washington). That is her Strength.

In my most recent Story Now It is Time for.. The Sentinel is trapped by a predetermined fate- she knows when she is going to die saving the world--but has in the end the choice to leave it and be happy. She chooses Death. That is her strength.

Now you don't have to be that dramatic with this stuff-but the fundamental trick of doing a heroic fight is...the hero gets up. Shes stands enough and Can't stands no more. She defeats her enimies with power and grace. its a cinch in this genre to display outer strength this how you depict inner one.

And i think that’s probably what the makers of Batgirl where thinking.

But they never gave her inner strength.

In the second episode she spends a fair amount of time after getting rescued by a man.....whining about it. Shes still a bitch, but a different kind of one. She is still a weak character. you could argue this a moment of doubt-that's fair enough, but for that to work you need to have a moment of grace as well(and I will say that if this had been episode 10- I may not have liked it but I would hardly write ths). We don't get that. Batgirl ends Spoiled humbled and destroyed.-- "We want to ruin her" a character says.

this is an element of fetish here, of a desire to punish women for there slights, there weakness, there refusal to go to the dance with you. Its dark and its twisted, and it enters the consequence. Also perhaps to have strength taken away from you of a women-of a freedom to engage in your darkest impulses-to be the bad girl who has sex. But both of these are complexly mixed with "drama".

In the peril videos i have had the displeasure to encounter...you almost never see women who want to make the world a better place or help people, who seem humble kind or gentle. This is to much. I takes a real sicko to want to rape the cutie..But that's almost always a crucial element of a superhero-its not power or the costume but a desire to help- a reflection of our better natures. And One of the first elements of Tragedy(which i think they want to present this as) is the characters be Noble.

This is in short.. i think in the end Bad Writing. Bad Storytelling. I think if your going to do something for the "fans" you want to give them something harder more challenging.

Well as a fan...i would love to see a Batgirl series. Shes a fun character when done well in all of incarnations. I They got the martial arts down-fan films fights can be better then the stuff you see in mainstream movies. Everything is here.

but beyond that. What makes Batgirl character an interesting character is that she discovers the power inside of herself- shes a boring nerd who realizes she has the potential to be a badass all along-and loves it. Even someone like Supergirl you can't say this.

Which i guess is what fundamentally gets me about this. Batgirl when done right is a character about Joy. They totally miss the mark here on that.

Thank you.

I ask myself “Why do this?” about a lot of things on the internet. Seems like such a waste of effort for such a POS.