espanolbot: (Default)
[personal profile] espanolbot posting in [community profile] scans_daily
From the storyline where Mia Dearden is diagnosed with HIV
There are pros and cons in using your main character as an audience surrogate. On the one hand, as the experts explain the subject to them, it in a way allows time for exposition that they and the audience might not be familiar with. A good example of this would be the Slavers storyline in Punisher Max, where Frank Castle learns about a human trafficking ring via one of its victims and a social worker as he isn't as familiar with Eastern European sex slavers as he is with, say, the Mafia.

The downside to this is when a character is selected to be the audience surrogate in such a way that, a) they should know this already, or b) them not knowing it makes them look ignorant at best and dangerous at worst.

An example of this can be found in the Green Arrow HIV storyline by Judd Winick, where Mia's pre-Ollie life comes back to meet her in an exceedingly ugly way.
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Now, the information given is good and well researched, but it still leads to a moment of quiet horror in regards to Ollie apparently being ignorant as to what AIDS and HIV are. Namely, this is a guy who is shown to be a serial womaniser who has had spontaneous unprotected sex with numerous women in the past, resulting in several biological children (although Shado's kid wasn't made with Ollie's conscent and Arrowette wasn't confirmed as Ollie's, as such).

It's kind of bizarre that they chose Ollie of all people to relay this information to, as with Connor Hawke (who Mia was also close with) could arguably have more of an excuse to be ignorant of the subject than a guy who lived through the 1980s and 90s. And then there's the additional issue of Ollie sleeping with multiple women with the DCU superhero community as well, such as Black Canary, Huntress (yes, Winick again), and Manitou Dawn, who we've got to hope are more responsible than him otherwise things could rapidly turn unpleasant./lj-cut>

Date: 2013-06-26 10:00 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] omgwtflolbbqbye
I'm probably horribly derailing the tone of this post, but you commentary reminds me of a comedy bit by John Mulaney where he makes fun of Ice-T's character on Law and Order SVU for always being used as the audience surrogate; cause despite the fact that he's supposed to be a cop whose spent 5 years on a unit specializing in sex crimes, in every episode he acts like it's the first time he's heard of anything they're investigating.

Back on point though, I guess one way to rationalize Ollie's apparent ignorance here is that he is just thrown by the reveal, cause it's one thing to learn and hear about HIV/AIDS, and another to have it affect someone he's so close to and is responsible for. So he's sort of just second-guessing and double-checking all the information he may have previous known to make sure that he gives Mia the exact attention and help she needs.
Edited Date: 2013-06-26 10:09 pm (UTC)

Date: 2013-06-26 10:23 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] jlbarnett
Ollie's ignorance is based on this being a backup copy of Ollie.

This is after the real Ollie died, then Parallax/Hal did something to bring him back, but his soul was happy in the afterlife so he didn't come back until he absolutely had to.

This guy's memories predate Longbow Hunters by a significant degree if I understand the storyline right

Date: 2013-06-27 12:48 am (UTC)
skemono: I read dead racists (Default)
From: [personal profile] skemono
His soul came back at the end of Quiver, so it well predates this issue. He had all his memories and wasn't just '80s Ollie.

Date: 2013-06-26 11:59 pm (UTC)
jaybee3: Nguyen Lil Cass (Default)
From: [personal profile] jaybee3
I don't think Ollie ever slept with Huntress. That was Roy in Winick's Outsiders. If Huntress had ever been with Ollie it would have come up in BoP. Now we can add Joanna Pierce to that list and as for the Manitou Dawn thing - that was just gross, especially given she was from another time period and married to you know...Ollie's team-mate who saved his life and everything.

Date: 2013-06-27 01:49 pm (UTC)
jaybee3: Nguyen Lil Cass (Default)
From: [personal profile] jaybee3
Really? That's just....I have no words. He would be the last kind of person she would even be attracted to. It makes no sense.

Date: 2013-06-27 04:00 am (UTC)
q99: (Default)
From: [personal profile] q99
I didn't get the impression he was ignorant- he knew the difference between just having HIV and full-blown AIDS, after all.

I think he was just in denial for a minute.

Date: 2013-06-27 11:18 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] xamda
He's not actually asking stupid questions, either. I'd probably ask the same things. It's the doctor that's expositing everywhere.

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