MTMTE #43 - Commentary and SPOILERS

Earlier today, MTMTE reader Uniform Shark said to me via Twitter that the 'forced friendship' element of Camien society (Caminus was described, in shorthand terms, as 'the lady planet') was unncecessary; that the TF Universe needed more healthy 'BFF females'; and that it was a letdown that only one of Firestar's crew ended up joining the Lost Light.

All interesting points. I promised to think about them and respond, and soon realized that (a) I couldn't do so in only a few tweets; and (b) here was an opportunity to talk to *everyone* about these things.

First off - and this is a bit of an aside - I don't think of Caminus as a 'lady planet', on account of it being populated by male and female TFs. But I accept that it represents the introduction proper of female TFs into the storyline, and that's significant. Secondly, the 'forced friendship' aspect does not apply to the whole of Camien society: it's only an issue "for certain adherents of the Way of the Flame". So it's peculiar to a religious community (and I've probably just opened another can of worms by saying that).

All that said, I thought long and hard when writing this two parter about Nautica and Firestar's relationship, and whether presenting Firestar in a less-than-flattering light would be damaging in the sense that it deprived the readership of a positive female/female friendship - because we don't have too many of those.

Thing is, I really wanted to use this two-partner to explore Nautica as a character and to pick up on that throwaway reference to her stage-fright/stage-aversion back in #32. I wanted to explore why she can be socially awkward at times, and why she struggles with compliments. My favoured way of doing that was by having her meet an old friend - someone who knows her in a way that her LL crew mates (and we, the readers) don't. And here I'll be honest: in situations like this (imagine those four words underlined), crappy friends make for good narrative rocket fuel. And, of course, since you don't know Firestar, you're supposed to think she may be responsible for the deaths on board.

So, in short, in this particular story, Nautica needed a less-than-perfect friend. But I went into this knowing that, by story's end, Firestar would turn out to have nothing to do with the death of Countdown et al, and that she and Nautica would still be mates. She would be portrayed in a more sympathetic light. After all, she offers to take the blame for severing their friendship, knowing that to do so would make her a virtual pariah. She's prepared to make that sacrifice in recognition of having treated Nautica badly, and Nautica is a decent enough person to say 'it's not worth it; we can work this out'. So they both come off well (I hope).

Taking a step back, I really wanted to explore the idea of 'forced friendship' and 'official loneliness' in an alien society. Good old world-building, y'know? At the risk of opening up yet another can of worms, by exploring this idea I was passing comment, indirectly, on the real world stigma attached to being an unmarried woman of a certain age - and I guess in this context I *was* relying on the fact that Caminus is 'female-heavy' (it's late; I can't think of a better phrase). 'Spinister' and 'old maid' are derogatory terms for which there is no male equivalent. That's awful and misogynistic, obviously, and I recommend you read Robin Lakoff ('Language and Woman's Place', 1973), and it was very important to me that both Skids and Nautica criticise the concept. If I was worried about anything in this issue, actually, it was the fact that Nautica (rightly) considers the whole idea as "pathetic", yet ultimately, if reluctantly, bows to religious pressure and goes along with it...

[An aside: As further evidence of the extent to which I worried about this stuff, and about my treatment of the female TFs in this story more generally, I offer you the story's title, The Frail Gaze, which is a pun (the whole damn issue is full of puns) on Laura Mulvey's concept of the "male gaze".]

I'll tell you what else I worried about: being accused of implying that only the male TFs are charismatic. I was at pains to make Vertex - the Personality Ticks' first victim - female, to make it pretty damn clear that charisma is not a gender-specific trait.

Rambling a bit now...

Oh yes, positive female relationships. Yes, quite agree with Uniform Shark that the TF Universe needs more of those. What gave me the courage, in the end, to present Firestar as flawed was the fact that Nautica and Chromia have a good relationship (see #28) - albeit that this was before Chromia revealed herself to be, um, less than perfect. And more importantly, we've got a positive 'female BFF' relationship going forward: you can reasonably and confidently infer from the few scenes they have together that Nautica and Velocity have a 'normal' friendship and are mutually supportive. And expect more evidence of that as time goes on.

Finally, a word about The Other Female TFs and the fact that only Velocity ends up as part of the LL crew in the end.

You can't imagine how many times over the last eight weeks I've come *this close* to posting something designed to manage expectations around Javelin, Proxima etc. I knew ages ago that this was a story about Nautica running into her old mates, male and female. I knew Firestar and Co would leave at the end, because their decision to NOT partake in the LL's dangerous adventures was part of Nautica's character arc: on Caminus she's looked down upon because she's not a performer, but out here in space she's an adventurer.

When it came to issue #41, I knew I wanted mostly female TFs on the cover, because covers are designed to generate discussion and sell comics, and this would do that. Alex - because he's amazing - treated each of these supporting characters as A Listers in their own right, going to great lengths to give them considered designs and color schemes. He even came up with the names. When the world got a glimpse of the names and character designs, well... it set the internet alight, and some people, not unreasonably, assumed that Firestar and all her crew were here to stay.

I wondered what to do. Incorporating Javelin et al into MTMTE by making them part of the crew was very, very tempting, even if it complicated the resolution to Nautica's story. I resisted because the core cast is already big (too big, really; I guarantee that every reader misses someone each issue - some fans want Drift back, others Ratchet; some fans are unhappy that we haven't seen Whirl much lately, or that Rodimus seems sidelined. You get the idea.) And I was worried that if I added the new female TFs to the crew, I'd either have to shunt some of the main cast aside to make room for them (and I really can't do that - the Season 2 framework is bolted down too tight), or just have the female TFs glimpsed in the background occasionally until Season 3, which in all sorts of ways would have been far worse.

But listen: I think you'll see some or all of these characters again. We're populating the MTMTE portion of the IDW TF universe, and we do tend to revisit people and places... as you'll see (in all sorts of ways) going forward.

I think that's everything.

Thanks to Uniform Shark for giving me an opportunity to talk about this. I can't and won't do these commentaries after every issue, and I can't promise to respond in detail to queries and criticisms (Twitter-length responses are usually my limit), but elements of what I've talked about in this essay have been playing on my mind, so this was a good opportunity to hold forth.

Now I'm going back to writing about Crankcase's favourite toy. You think I'm joking.


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