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MagerBlutooth β A Dazzling Glaring: Lucifer
#cat #cinderella #collar #dazzle #evil #hesitant #kitty #lucifer #mouse #oc
Published: 2015-05-03 20:00:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 1948; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 17
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Description
Lady Tremaine's beloved pet from Disney's classic CinderellaΒ has always been a strong role model for little Dazzle. That might seem like a bad thing, but it helps to understand why that is the case. Lucifer is proud, witty, determined, and sharp. As an antagonist, he is a threat to be taken seriously, even by Cinderella herself at one point. He's maligned by evil intent, and he's certainly not the least lazy cat you could find, but sometimes a character with that much skill can't help but inspire great things. Of course, if Dazzle were to take issue with anything about Lucifer's lifestyle, he could do without Luci's favorite meal.Related content
Comments: 23
Shoot, isn't a name like Lucifer a bit too on the nose? That's like naming your villain Murderer or Rapist. It just tells you right out "I'm evil! Wooooo!" A little subtlety goes a long way.
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It's not quite the same because "Lucifer" is an actual name. It's more like naming a traitor character "Judas" or a giant character "Goliath". Obvious connotations if you know the Biblical significance but just a name if you don't. If they named him "Evilcat", then I'd agree that it's too on the nose.
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I'm kinda on the fence about this, since appearance plays a huge part in how a character is perceived. Sometimes you can take one look at a character and say "That's the bad guy," since their design is set up that way. Though sometimes that's deliberate, because the real evil person is the one designed to look good.
The connection I was trying to make is that is it really that different to have an obviously evil appearance than to have an obviously evil name? Though at the same time that can be a red herring. You're led to believe something based on first impressions only to subvert your expectations. Assuming you know the reference, you'd immediately designate a character as evil if they have the name Lucifer, regardless of their appearance. Though maybe, for example, they gave themself that name as a constant reminder of human weakness and the need for God's help in overcoming temptation.
Given that this is Disney, though, there really isn't much ambiguity. You're usually hit over the head with who's good and bad. Or, at the very least, who's the protagonist and who's the antagonist.
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There's room for analysis to be sure. Personally I find something of value on both sides of the fence. Giving your characters more gray in their morality is generally seen as the optimal decision, since it makes for more complex and nuanced characters. I'd compare it to visually adding more detail to your character design in order to make a character look more realistic or human. In art, the trade off to a more difficult character is making them more difficult to animate. In writing, the trade-off is that making them a more complex character makes them more difficult to use as a tool in the narrative.Β
Lucifer was designed purely to be a narrative tool, and everything about his design was streamlined to meet that end. While mostly a comic relief character, he serves as an obstacle to Cinderella's comic relief sidekicks, displaying a degree of competence and power that makes most of their encounters close shaves and near-defeats. His main role is to add to the atmosphere of Cinderella's house as an additional element that makes living there so awful, and they anthropomorphized him just enough to show that there's intention to it, allowing for karmic retribution. If Lucifer were given more positive traits, it would make him a more complex character while at the same time limiting how he can be used. Say Lucifer chased Cinderella's mice because he felt it was his duty to protect the house from vermin. This sense of duty makes him less villainous than he would be otherwise. If he were put into a situation where the house were under attack by a greater threat, he would have to ignore the mice to put a stop to it, whereas canon Lucifer might or might not ignore it and still go after the mice. The simpler you make your character, the more leeway you have to do what you want with them. The more the viewer knows about the character, the more they'll know what the character would and would not do.Β
While I prefer to have gray in my characters myself, I do think there's merit in stories that go full black and white with their morality. I think it falls back to the idea that simple is not always bad and complex is not always good. If you're looking to find a tool for a job you need, you'll only want it complex enough to get the job done and as simple as it can be from there.
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I don't remember the film (I was kinda little last time I saw it), but based on your description I can understand Dazzle wanting to learn to Lucifer.
Apart from anything else, he's smart, and strong. Many people fear and/or respect that.
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I never watched it until about two years ago. When the live-action one came out, all I cared about was Lucifer's role. I was disappointed.
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I guess the classics can be hard to live up to. I can understand your disappointment.
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It would have been better if Lucifer actually had a role. Almost the entire movie was about Cinderella.
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Lucifer is definitely one of my favorite villains in the Disney universe. Β In some ways, he was a bigger threat to Cinderella then Lady Tremaine. Β Granted, he wouldn't be doing what he is doing without her, but the fact that he knows about the mice and birds and what they do to help Cinderella, and he even did this to help Lady Tremaine succeed in her plan, it really shows how dangerous he is. Β Heck, in Cinderella 3 (which I prefer to see as the actual 2 as the failed pilot shorts of a movie was horrible and ruined Lucifer in the final act), he actually was charged with the task of killing Cinderella. Β That is how much Lady Tremaine trusted her demon of a kitty. Β I have a plush of this pure evil fluffball and I love how it reminds me of how far this cat went to make not only Cinderella miserable, but also all her friends miserable or dead as well.
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Cinderella 2 didn't ruin Lucifer. If it did, he couldn't have been good in Cinderella 3.
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Of course it didn't because it was retconned into never happening.
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That's okay. At least I can still enjoy it.
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To each their own and I will respect that.
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They probably wouldn't get along that well.
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Oh yeah, I remember him.Β
Hehe, at least his rolemodel isn't Red from All Dogs Go To Heaven 2...
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If Dazzle started hating dogs, that would seem a bit hypocritical.
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He's one of my favorites.
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I suppose I don't hate him. I just hate what he does, and how he behaves. I guess he was just raised wrongly.
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It's all Nature vs. Nurture.
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