Half-Masked

Before I get started on this set of articles, I think I should get the bad parts out of the way, beginning with the worst.

The worst.

This is Rika. She is the only thing keeping Digimon Tamers from being the best television you’ll ever watch.

She is supposed to be a stubborn character facing difficulty dealing with inner turmoil, but mostly comes off as an unlikeable bitch. She’s self-absorbed and cold to everyone and everything that cares about her, long past the point where she has any reason to be. She pushes her ideals onto others without considering if what’s right for her is right for everyone. This is even the catalyst for all of the misery that happens in the last half of the season. She pushes an infinitely more likeable Tamer named “Jerri” to be as strong as her. When this girl loses dearly, she thinks it’s because she wasn’t strong enough. A malicious entity feeds on this self-loathing. Sure, this girl had other issues of helplessness too, but if Rika hadn’t been there to force her into a line of thought that doesn’t suit her, then this show would have been over 20 episodes sooner. That makes her personally responsible for most of both worlds being totalled by a blob-like monstrosity that got its powers from insecurities and heart-ache Rika provided.

Normally when a character acts out of line, they get their own episode to be confronted by this failure of self, learn their lesson and are stronger for it. Rika is the only character that needed multiple episodes just to become tolerable. When a third of the main cast takes 47 episodes(out of 51) to get me to stop despising her, something is wrong.

DUH-OH!

Don’t call double-standards. Ken was an ass too at first, but he had an excuse. And even if he didn’t, you could say that all of that was a direct result of a dark spore embedded in him by an evil Digimon(all of this is true). And he actually makes the effort to be a better person without changing who he is at heart. Rika just decides to continue treating everyone, and herself, like shit. By the time she straightens up and flies right, it just feels disingenuous and at odds with her established character(the same way making Henry suddenly turn into a saucy Latina would be hard to take seriously).

I understand that sometimes a character being unlikable is sometimes exactly the point of that character, and/or why they’re likable. I do not confuse this purposeful character trait with a failure of character design. But Rika isn’t one of those Dr. House, “awesome for being a jerk” characters. She’s just a jerk. A good jerk has a supply of wit that she lacks. She is a crude and failed attempt at this paradox of character design. Against my own personal feelings, I must acknowledge that Davis is universally hated. But I propose that he’s still got a lot more going for him than this insufferable wench.

If you're wondering why I'm only using pictures of Renamon, it's because every picture of Rika is just her scowling.

She’s not just a “tomboy”, or “headstrong”. This character could have worked, but they go far past the point where it’s possible to care about her. She’s needlessly mean-spirited to no benefit to her or her show. I’m sure she has apologists who feel this somehow emboldens her, but I had just about enough of her dumpy attitude when she single-handedly invited her planet’s near-destruction. Calling Rika a cunt would be an insult to vaginas everywhere.

"Denying others happiness is a crime. Denying yourself happiness is where all crime starts."

Shame too, because her partner “Renamon” is the epitome of Kickass.

AWESOME

END OF LINE

~A.H.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 9:23 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.