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#also darlene def was fucked by the dark army esp in s4 but idk
rue-bennett · 3 years
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How did you feel about Dom being given a huge wimpification in Season 4? I feel like she basically became Elliot's shadow archetype. While Elliot had willpower, rage and bravery towards the Dark Army, Dom basically lost all of those and became more docile and weak, which were a more traditionally feminine traits back then. And I honestly feel like they converted Darlene from a fearless leader to a constant damsel in distress at the hands of the Dark Army.
ALL THE MR. ROBOT SPOILERS AHEAD!
I think you touched on it here: they were really determined on making Elliot and Dom two sides of the same coin. They’re both lonely loners who live alone in sparse, dirty, dimly lit apartments. They both deal with social anxiety. However, they deal with it in very different ways. They’re opposites in this way. Dom turns to the law and throws herself into work, and Elliot throws himself fully into illegal hacking. I think they also were always very clear that there was one protagonist and it was Elliot. He was “the chosen one,” and you have to kinda suspend your disbelief and fully accept that he’s The Man For The Job and the best hacker ever. Which I can do and I love him. I think they also show how this Chosen One thing is bullshit and was *SPOILERS!!!!!* Whiterose’s downfall because even she believed it. I think they definitely showed Elliot get brutalized by the Dark Army, but they needed to have the people he loved (mostly Darlene and Angela, but many others too) get hurt or killed so that he’d have no choice but to act and fight instead of give up. I thought Darlene got more badass moments (besides the whole hostage situation with Dom in S4) and was more of a plaything of the FBI than the Dark Army (though I know that got muddled because of power dynamics but lol).
I definitely think they also ramped it up with Dom to show complete destruction and then growth. She was fully into the law, but she had to have that stripped away and become the thing she’s not at heart: a dirty, dirty criminal. Darlene had to think about how her actions affect others and be less selfish and rash. Elliot had to confront and ultimately accept and forgive himself. All the characters who survived had to be put through hell and destroyed (all had to be weakened) and then changed if they survived. Characters who didn’t change, for the better, specifically, usually died. (Whiterose clung onto her dream, and Angela clung onto that and revenge. Some characters who changed also died, but whatever fsjjcjd. Leon is an exception and an angel who should never change.)
So I don’t know if the show did it specifically to be too sexist (I don’t think so? Overall its track record with women isn’t too bad? Except Johanna but oh well) as much as it did to show a complete character teardown, to show the strength of the Dark Army, and to show the strength to rebuild and change and move on.
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