this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2026
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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 2 points 18 minutes ago (1 children)

The comic may be a joke, but I feel like this is an issue in diversity.

Take an author who has three characters. They want better representation, so one white character becomes black.

But, it turns out that character gives a third-act betrayal. Now it’s playing up the theme that black people are deceptive and untrustworthy.

Or, they try making the second character a woman. In a key conflict, that character pulls a very stupid move that lets the bad guys get away and results in an exciting chase scene. Now it evokes the idea that women are stupid and ill-suited to detective/enforcement work.

I really want a world where we can safely set up characters for moments of failure, evil, etc, without large crowds either feeling offended, feigning offense, or worse, taking it as validation of their bigotry.

[–] Ryanmiller70@lemmy.zip 1 points 36 seconds ago

Yeah this tends to also create the problem a lot of writers fall into when having a more diverse cast where non white cis male characters come off as too perfect. They can't make mistakes, big or small, cause they're worried about the examples you gave (not saying you're implying this). I know I've heard from a lot of people on the topic of representation that they'd loveless perfect representation, but that's a hard thing to walk especially if funds aren't allocated to maybe get a consultant on the team that could help represent that group without it being stereotyped.

[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Also didn't Cruella employ two career criminals and literally stole the puppies and even complained that there were cops all over the place looking for her and her two stupid henchmen?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, sounds like capitalism to me

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 8 points 5 hours ago

The most shocking thing in this comment section is that there are people here who think the Emma Stome remake was "excellent".

No wonder Hollywood keeps getting away with making slop.

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 hours ago

I'm so glad that I haven't met a single person who'd say that. Cause it seems so specific, almost nonexistent.

[–] notreallyhere@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 2 points 2 hours ago

I understand their liking of her. Ursula basically makes a living taking advantage of insecure and/or highly vulnerable people and giving them extremely disadvantageous contracts and approaching them in their most vulnerable moment.

In short, she is everything every grifter is to a T.

[–] RedFrank24@piefed.social 47 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I wouldn't call her entrepreneurially minded. She fully intended just to make a single coat and keep it herself. If she were intending on making it a business, she should have been setting up a Dalmatian farm with the 101 puppies and then mass produce the coats. Inbreeding health defects don't matter all that much when you're just gonna be skinning any puppies born within weeks.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 14 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Ah, a player of Dwarf Fortress.

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 71 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

She is one of the best movie baddies, and her name is marvellous.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 59 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

I recently rewatched the original and had forgotten just how well they portray her evil. Even as an adult I was actively repulsed the same way I would be if I met her in real life. Classic Disney definitely had some incredible villain writing.

[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 1 points 2 hours ago

I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid, but I did rewatch clips of it and she does genuinely come off as an extremely unpleasant person.

[–] viral.vegabond@piefed.social 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

The cartoon or the live action

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 24 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Cartoon is the one I rewatched. I remember the old live action also being good though.

Glenn Close played it flawlessly.

[–] markz@suppo.fi 67 points 18 hours ago (5 children)

Didn't they make one recently where they tried to spin the villain solely known for turning puppies into purses as good?

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Gotta make content for new fascist taking over America. Everybody else will be in the famous American prison system in a short while, no need to make content for them.

[–] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 48 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Yep and they do that by making it not even believably the same character.

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 16 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

They explore an alternate story. Sometimes they do that and explore fun scenarios like "what if Cruella DeVil was a somewhat decent person" or "what if all the heroes lived together and operated a magical ghetto and also brought their enemies back from the dead specifically so they could force them to live in squalor in the ghetto forever". Fun little alternate stories.

[–] Not_Dav3@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Sorry, which movie is that second one?

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The Descendants series. The setting is basically as I described, except of course that the ghetto is heavily romanticized and the squalor mostly amounts to people having a vaguely punk aesthetic (as opposed to the preppy good guy kingdom). They're Disney movies for kids, after all, but they do acknowledge that their own setting is fucked up.

The premise of the story is that someone realizes that the villains had kids in there and that punishing the kids for their parents' misdeeds might possibly be kind of cruel so a few of them are selected to attend school in the good guy kingdom as an experiment. This results in a lot of choreographed song and dance routines, a romance plot, and some semi-self aware criticism of the "villains get punished harshly, heroes live happily ever after" trope.

The first one was pretty decent, the sequels were okay even if they effectively sidelined three of the four protagonists. They also made an animated series, which was a complete dumpster fire.

[–] Not_Dav3@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Right, I saw the first 2 movies (there's 3 right?). They just completely slipped my mind.

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I'm struggling to see the link between that and 101 Dalmatians.

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

The link is "Disney movie that recycles old characters in ways that have very little to do with their original story or characterization".

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 19 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It's probably how the real Cruela would tell her backstory, making herself the victim

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I think the real cruella would be too proud to make a sobstory about how much of a victim she is. She's the kind of narc who would brag and totally own how awful she is because in her mind, she's not doing anything bad and she's the best and coolest person ever.

In the original animated version, sure. Because that version had good writing, especially for villains.

Most well written villains are unapologetic and just naturally evil. They know they're evil and they don't care. For some reason, most movies nowadays (particularly Disney) now insist on their villains having some tragic backstory and thinking they're good

[–] viral.vegabond@piefed.social 9 points 18 hours ago

Cruella was excellent, in my opinion of course 😁

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 4 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Yeah and it's pretty good I thought. Shits on the old story but I care not.

[–] MimicJar@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

The movie itself is excellent. However there is one horrible almost meme like scene where dalmatians run into a fancy party and kill Cruella's mother. If you ignore that scene, it's a great movie.

[–] viral.vegabond@piefed.social 16 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

It might actually be a good thing that they made the dalmatians seem very mean/vicious.

The original movies were so popular that it actually caused a big problem for the breed. Many people got dalmatians without doing their research first. They're a very active breed, and require lots of exercise. Without proper exercise and socialization, they can become quite the trouble makers and this kind of gave them a bad reputation...

[–] Venator@lemmy.nz 8 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Without proper exercise and socialization, they can become quite the trouble makers

that's pretty much true of any dog... but I guess dalmatians even more so?

[–] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 12 points 14 hours ago

Not really "more so" just "more likely to become" as the minimum requirements are higher and thus easier to fail to meet.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 48 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

This is something Christi Noem would say about 101 Dalmatians….

[–] ruuster13@lemmy.zip 8 points 15 hours ago

You miss 101% of the shots you don't take.

[–] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 21 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I like how the recent movies had Cruella step on another villain-coded woman to get to the top. 

[–] bampop@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

How else are you going to do another pre-prequel where we find out the villain-coded woman of that movie was herself just a strong female and a product of harsh circumstances?

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today -4 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Valid, but the focus on it, uh...I'm increasingly getting the feeling that our wonderful, lefty heaven is actually incel.

Excuse me, someone please tell me Lemmy isn't incel.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 2 points 2 hours ago

Its definitely an extension of 4chan as much as it is reddit.
Neither of those are beating the accusations though.

[–] M137@lemmy.world 11 points 8 hours ago

Username relevant.