From one of the worst episodes to one of the best. But what will happen to Kriken? Does anyone really care?
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Character Analysis: Lisa Simpson
First off, I'd like to apologize for taking as much time as I did for this post. Real life really got in the way and one thing led to another but that's all besides the point. Here's segment two, I hope you enjoy.
Conventional wisdom would say that Marge would be next, however, I want to go in order of the characters who were changed the most from awful writing. And while Homer's character change was bad, I think Lisa's was worse. Then again, I actually liked Classic Lisa so that affects my view of her change. I really feel like she was affected the second worst (When a character gets the nickname "Jerkass" they automatically have fallen the furthest) but she sunk the lowest because she was already borderline as Classic Lisa, and just sunk down to liberal douchebag level.
Classic Lisa:
Smart and wise
Now there's being smart, and then there's being smart at the right moments. While Lisa is very intelligent, she never comes across as an asshole. She never acts like she's better than everyone else because of her grades... okay let me rephrase that: she never acts like she's better than anyone else unless it involves sibling rivalry. Lisa knows how to present her smarts, she wouldn't act like a smug walking dictionary constantly correcting people or defining words for them *Cough* To Surveil With Love SUCKS *Cough* If I could reference something else, she reminded me of Encyclopedia Brown; he was a smart, know-it-all kid, but if someone asked him a question, he'd take a moment to think about it even if he knew the answer immediately. Why, you may ask? Simple: he knew that making friends involved being humble. Nobody likes a know-it-all, they get annoying real fast. Lisa never came across that way and that was one of the reasons she was my favorite character.
Expressive
Lisa has ways of expressing herself, her saxophone is the one that people most associate with her. When she gets depressed, she goes to play her sax. People remember her and the sax because that saxophone is one of her defining traits (Although if you were to believe Google, apparently Lisa Simpson This Isn't Your Life (1 Million) is more important than "Lisa Simpson Saxophone" (94,000). Seriously internet, I'm losing faith in you guys). Heck, they even devoted an episode to the origins of her saxophone, and for me personally, it's one of my all-time favorites. However, Lisa can be expressive in more ways than just that. I point to Mr. Lisa Goes To Washington as a good example. Lisa writes up a great essay (Presumably, we never get the whole thing) and when she finds out that politics are nothing more than a sham (Must... not... insert... political... preferences...) she writes up a new essay based on passion and really moves everyone to the point where the crooked Congressman gets expelled from D.C. (Granted it's much faster than IRL, but I have a good enough suspension of disbelief to buy it). There are many examples of her being expressive, but I want to keep these short. But on a side note, FUCK! YOU! Elementary School Musical!
Outcast
Okay, when it comes to Lisa, being popular is not something she's known for. Like with Homer, Lisa is hardly perfect. She is far from being a social butterfly (Seriously, why did the writers not get this even to this day?). Lisa did have some consistent friends (Janey being the normal constant and Sherri and Terri occasionally as her friends) but the best way to describe her social life is "Bookworm". She has had friends over for a sleepover (Flaming Moe's) she's had friends to hang out with (Lard of the Dance, Bart's Comet, Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy, etc) so it's not like Lisa spends her lunch in the corner of the library with a stack of books taller than the bookcases. At the same time, she doesn't get bothered by not being popular (Again, see Lard of the Dance) so episodes like Father Knows Worst just miss the point of Lisa.
Zombie/Modern Lisa:
Liberal douchebag
*Sigh* I really HATE Modern Lisa, and this is one of the reasons why. It feels like no matter what the situation is, as long as Lisa is around, she needs to inject her opinion like it actually means something. A while back, Lisa used to be the voice of reason, she was like a mini-Marge per se (Seriously, go back and count the number of times Lisa and Marge groan together when Homer/Bart come up with a bad idea). Nowadays, her voice of reason is gone, replaced by a never-ending, annoying public radio host. Let's go a bit further back for this one, in I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can, she takes the time at the very end to just blurt out "Free Tibet!" Was it appropriate in context? No, it was just there to remind us of how "Shove my views down your throat" she is. Oh, but how could we possibly forget the episode devoted to this character in Lisa the Tree Hugger? An episode dedicated to her environmentalist, animal rights bullshit that we hear every other week ever since the writers Flanderized her that way. Basically this category covers everything from when she was that annoying pissant who splashed blood on Krusty and shouted "Fur is murder" (G-I-D'oh!) to those times where a whale was more important than humans (The Squirt and the Whale).
Smug know-it-all
So Classic Lisa knows when to keep her mouth shut. Modern Lisa on the other hand doesn't know when to shut the fuck up. As I mentioned in the first point, Lisa is smart, but she does not know how to not be annoying. I mentioned this in my Lisa Goes Gaga "Podcast" that she has that one scene where she repeats "I denounce thee" about 5 or 6 times. For Four Great Women and a Manicure, I could easily cop out here and just say the whole thing sucked hard (It did) but Lisa's attitude for her story was enough for me to hate the episode as a whole (Her attitude also falls into the other two categories). Heck, even though I admit to liking The Monkey Suit (I'm kind of weird that way) Lisa's attitude made me feel like she thought that her thoughts were better than everyone else's. And while the idea of Creationism being taught in public schools is bat-shit stupid, the way Lisa took her approach did not make her an endearing character for the episode.
Did she tell you she's a feminist, let me remind you for the 1000th time, SHE'S A FEMINIST!!!
I think of this as a sub category of the first topic for Modern Lisa. Any time there's something "sexist" or the least bit gender related, Lisa just has to open her mouth to remind us all that she's a feminist and express her opinions. Look, we all have the right to express how we feel about something; however, when you're a broken record about it EVERY! FREAKIN! TIME! It gets old real fast. One example off the top of my head is in The Great Wife Hope where Lisa says the line: "This goes against every bone in my feminist body, but Dad, can't you control your woman?" Thank you for reminding us that you're a feminist, maybe next time you'll remind us that you're a Buddhist as wel- SON OF A BITCH!!! This isn't just limited to feminism, the writers like to constantly remind you about any other character traits they like to butcher as well.
Conventional wisdom would say that Marge would be next, however, I want to go in order of the characters who were changed the most from awful writing. And while Homer's character change was bad, I think Lisa's was worse. Then again, I actually liked Classic Lisa so that affects my view of her change. I really feel like she was affected the second worst (When a character gets the nickname "Jerkass" they automatically have fallen the furthest) but she sunk the lowest because she was already borderline as Classic Lisa, and just sunk down to liberal douchebag level.
Classic Lisa:
Smart and wise
Now there's being smart, and then there's being smart at the right moments. While Lisa is very intelligent, she never comes across as an asshole. She never acts like she's better than everyone else because of her grades... okay let me rephrase that: she never acts like she's better than anyone else unless it involves sibling rivalry. Lisa knows how to present her smarts, she wouldn't act like a smug walking dictionary constantly correcting people or defining words for them *Cough* To Surveil With Love SUCKS *Cough* If I could reference something else, she reminded me of Encyclopedia Brown; he was a smart, know-it-all kid, but if someone asked him a question, he'd take a moment to think about it even if he knew the answer immediately. Why, you may ask? Simple: he knew that making friends involved being humble. Nobody likes a know-it-all, they get annoying real fast. Lisa never came across that way and that was one of the reasons she was my favorite character.
 |
| This coming from the same person who berated Bart throughout the episode |
Expressive
Lisa has ways of expressing herself, her saxophone is the one that people most associate with her. When she gets depressed, she goes to play her sax. People remember her and the sax because that saxophone is one of her defining traits (Although if you were to believe Google, apparently Lisa Simpson This Isn't Your Life (1 Million) is more important than "Lisa Simpson Saxophone" (94,000). Seriously internet, I'm losing faith in you guys). Heck, they even devoted an episode to the origins of her saxophone, and for me personally, it's one of my all-time favorites. However, Lisa can be expressive in more ways than just that. I point to Mr. Lisa Goes To Washington as a good example. Lisa writes up a great essay (Presumably, we never get the whole thing) and when she finds out that politics are nothing more than a sham (Must... not... insert... political... preferences...) she writes up a new essay based on passion and really moves everyone to the point where the crooked Congressman gets expelled from D.C. (Granted it's much faster than IRL, but I have a good enough suspension of disbelief to buy it). There are many examples of her being expressive, but I want to keep these short. But on a side note, FUCK! YOU! Elementary School Musical!
 |
| Ah yes, Lisa was ahead of her time when she decided to express her anger to hundreds of people. Nowadays it's all on blogs... shit now I gave the writers an idea |
Outcast
Okay, when it comes to Lisa, being popular is not something she's known for. Like with Homer, Lisa is hardly perfect. She is far from being a social butterfly (Seriously, why did the writers not get this even to this day?). Lisa did have some consistent friends (Janey being the normal constant and Sherri and Terri occasionally as her friends) but the best way to describe her social life is "Bookworm". She has had friends over for a sleepover (Flaming Moe's) she's had friends to hang out with (Lard of the Dance, Bart's Comet, Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy, etc) so it's not like Lisa spends her lunch in the corner of the library with a stack of books taller than the bookcases. At the same time, she doesn't get bothered by not being popular (Again, see Lard of the Dance) so episodes like Father Knows Worst just miss the point of Lisa.
 |
| Social outcast will not prevent her from proving everyone wrong |
Zombie/Modern Lisa:
Liberal douchebag
*Sigh* I really HATE Modern Lisa, and this is one of the reasons why. It feels like no matter what the situation is, as long as Lisa is around, she needs to inject her opinion like it actually means something. A while back, Lisa used to be the voice of reason, she was like a mini-Marge per se (Seriously, go back and count the number of times Lisa and Marge groan together when Homer/Bart come up with a bad idea). Nowadays, her voice of reason is gone, replaced by a never-ending, annoying public radio host. Let's go a bit further back for this one, in I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can, she takes the time at the very end to just blurt out "Free Tibet!" Was it appropriate in context? No, it was just there to remind us of how "Shove my views down your throat" she is. Oh, but how could we possibly forget the episode devoted to this character in Lisa the Tree Hugger? An episode dedicated to her environmentalist, animal rights bullshit that we hear every other week ever since the writers Flanderized her that way. Basically this category covers everything from when she was that annoying pissant who splashed blood on Krusty and shouted "Fur is murder" (G-I-D'oh!) to those times where a whale was more important than humans (The Squirt and the Whale).
 |
| Lisa, GET THE FUCK OUT! |
Smug know-it-all
So Classic Lisa knows when to keep her mouth shut. Modern Lisa on the other hand doesn't know when to shut the fuck up. As I mentioned in the first point, Lisa is smart, but she does not know how to not be annoying. I mentioned this in my Lisa Goes Gaga "Podcast" that she has that one scene where she repeats "I denounce thee" about 5 or 6 times. For Four Great Women and a Manicure, I could easily cop out here and just say the whole thing sucked hard (It did) but Lisa's attitude for her story was enough for me to hate the episode as a whole (Her attitude also falls into the other two categories). Heck, even though I admit to liking The Monkey Suit (I'm kind of weird that way) Lisa's attitude made me feel like she thought that her thoughts were better than everyone else's. And while the idea of Creationism being taught in public schools is bat-shit stupid, the way Lisa took her approach did not make her an endearing character for the episode.
 |
| Lisa... nobody cares about what crossword puzzle you do so do us all a favor and STFU |
Did she tell you she's a feminist, let me remind you for the 1000th time, SHE'S A FEMINIST!!!
I think of this as a sub category of the first topic for Modern Lisa. Any time there's something "sexist" or the least bit gender related, Lisa just has to open her mouth to remind us all that she's a feminist and express her opinions. Look, we all have the right to express how we feel about something; however, when you're a broken record about it EVERY! FREAKIN! TIME! It gets old real fast. One example off the top of my head is in The Great Wife Hope where Lisa says the line: "This goes against every bone in my feminist body, but Dad, can't you control your woman?" Thank you for reminding us that you're a feminist, maybe next time you'll remind us that you're a Buddhist as wel- SON OF A BITCH!!! This isn't just limited to feminism, the writers like to constantly remind you about any other character traits they like to butcher as well.
 |
| If the writers are reading this, notice how Lisa can be a little girl AND a feminist in the first two acts |
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