http://rhianwen-24601.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
rhianwen-24601.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ship_manifesto2007-06-01 06:36 pm
rhianwen-24601.livejournal.com) wrote in ship_manifesto2007-06-01 06:36 pm
Entry tags:
Without Words (Joker x Wendy; Read or Die/ROD the TV)
Title: Without Words
Fandom: Read or Die/ROD the TV
Pairing: Joseph Carpenter x Wendy Earhart
Spoilers: Ohh, lots and lots.From the OAV and TV series.
Disclaimer: Kurata's toys, I'm just borrowing them for a while. I promise, I'll bring them back, safe and sound, after I make them kiss for a while! ^_^
Notes: I reallyreally tried to stay serious and refrain from silly comments. I think I succeeded...mostly. Also, you may notice that the spoilers are from the OAV and TV series only, with no mention of the manga. That is because I have totally wussed out of discussing the manga. I can never, never wrap my mind around how the manga connects to the other two, so I've chosen to leave it out and spare myself - and anyone who reads this - a headache.
Word Count: 5427. See? The title is funny now! Just imagine if I'd been writing about a pairing with actual basis. ^_^
Additional Note: Images added after-the-fact. If this is not allowed, please just let me know, and I will get rid of them.
It Takes a Villain to Love a Villain: Joseph Carpenter x Wendy Earhart; Read or Die
Read or Die is the only anime I've ever been in fathoms deep in love with before I saw it.
While on a fairly routine search through some anime review sites, I found a review of the three-episode OAV. I blinked in utter bafflement at the summary: something about using a book to build another Beethoven, who would then wipe out the world with an apparently Very Bad Song. I squealed in delight at the description of the main character: a socially inept young substitute teacher and part time secret agent with a three-storey building full of books and the ability call paper to do her bidding. Paper swords, giant paper airplanes, cue cards as a lethal weapon, none were beyond the capabilities of this enchanting and unkempt little gal.
And I knew that I had to find this freakin' show.
A mad dash to A&B Sound followed, and two hours later, I was in love. Like, even more. In love with the plot, teetering dangerously on absurd and giving the impression that the creators had no end of fun with this; in love with the characters, even the ones who didn't do anything; in love with the charming and endearing way they all took themselves so deadly seriously, even when they really shouldn't.
But above all, I was madly in love with the heroine. The sweet, adorable, unkempt, bespectacled little heroine and her massive book obsession.
Her name is Yomiko Readman, and this essay isn't about her.
No, this essay is about two lesser-known characters; characters who probably don't deserve an essay; characters who rapidly became the bane of the fandom's existence when some weirdo named Rhianwen popped out of nowhere and insisted upon writing about them time and time again.
The characters in question are Joseph Carpenter, the lovely and talented Mr. Joker of the OAV; and his adorable, friendly, klutzy, and utterly cold-blooded little secretary, Wendy Earhart.
I'll start with Joker, because he comes first alphabetically, and anyway, I fully expect to receive an angry letter from him if I do not. “Putting me second?! Absurd!”
And so, here we go.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Carpenter: Calm and Cool and Evil All Over
Mr. Joker, practicing to be a cat owner
We are first introduced to Joseph Carpenter, or Mr. Joker, relatively early into first part of the three part OAV. We discover, when he randomly shows up in Tokyo after the giant bug attack that separated poor Yomiko from her book, that she reports to him when she’s wearing her Special Agent hat instead of her Unassuming Little Substitute Teacher hat. Soon after, we discover that he, in turn, reports to a giant wrinkle in a robe, creatively named Mr. Gentleman.
Mr. Joker, in the principal's office
So effectively, Joker is the second-in-command of the Special Operations Unit that the British Library apparently keeps on hand to go out into the world and kick a little ass when the situation requires. More or less, this seems to amount to Joker running the show, with the knowledge firmly in his pretty little head at all times that if he screws up, he’ll have a motorized wheelchair rammed into his knee at high speed, or be devoured by a vicious attack turtle, or something.
Even at this point, Joker is not a particularly nice man. He is very polite, he keeps his outward calm almost flawlessly throughout stressful situations, and he has a disturbingly small capacity for empathy with others. First, we see him argue fruitlessly with Yomiko, because she doesn't want to give up the substitute teaching job she's scheduled. Fair enough; if I'd just spent three months' wages on books, I wouldn't want to give up my primary source of income, either. But Joker, instead of trying to empathize and allay her worries, dismisses them. Surely there were other agents he could have called in, but instead of offering to go to the trouble, he jumps straight to the you're-letting-the-world-down guilt-trip. This is characteristic of a lot of Joker's interactions with others. For someone who seems so subtle, he favours the emotional battering ram above all other debate tools.
In the third episode, he shows no hesitation before going ahead and giving the order to destroy the I-jin fortress, regardless of the tiny little tidbit that a number of his employees, including the main character of the series and someone who seemed to be a friend, were still inside. He held off as long as he could – although it's uncertain as to whether this was to protect his employees or to avoid letting the Americans take all the glory while England sat ineffectively in the sidelines – but when he did it, he didn't bat an eyelash.
All in all, not a particularly warm n' fuzzy individual.
By ROD the TV, the 26-episode sequel series, his situation has changed drastically. He is no longer under the pressure of proving himself to Mr. Gentleman, as Mr. Gentleman has kicked the bucket in the five years between the OAV and the series. However, he is under the pressure of gaining back respect and credibility for an entire country that seems to have completely crumbled with Mr. Gentleman’s death. With just a little bit of help from a great big fire at the British Library that somehow led to the entire Special Operations Unit being booted out of the country, and the country being booted out of the big global sandbox. Clearly, it is not a good time to be Joker.
Mr. Joker, giving A Speech
In addition to trying to get people to take his country seriously again, he is trying to reassemble a collection of seven books into which Mr. Gentleman’s entire personality and knowledge was transplanted before he died, so that all this information can be injected into a new body, and they can have their leader back again. Apparently, he misses the pressure of that lined and wizened countenance peeking over his shoulder at all times.
But that’s not all, folks! Once Mr. Gentleman is alive again, he’ll rewrite the memories of everyone on the planet, and eliminate war by eliminating differences of opinion between people. If everyone knows everything, maybe people won’t feel the need to fight anymore! Or something to that effect. Personally, I think there was pot involved. And whiny 60’s protest songs. That's right; the Special Operations Unit was trying to turn the world into a big hippie commune. Personally, I think they just wanted to wear the bellbottoms.
Mr. Joker, lamenting the severe lack of bellbottoms in his life
It’s never made entirely clear if this plan came from Joker himself, or if it was one conceived by Mr. Gentleman before his death – perhaps while he was feeling the effects of the marijuana the doctors gave him to take the edge off the pain of being six hundred or so years old – but Joker, by working tirelessly for it when he could have just taken all the power he’d gained and run with it, proves that he is absolutely loyal to Mr. Gentleman. He is entirely ready to hand over not only the political power and influence he has acquired, but his own identity to the grizzled old fellow who was warning him, “Now, don’t embarrass me” just five years ago.
However, in spite of Joker’s single-mindedness with his goals, his ruthless trampling of anyone who gets in his way, his notable sadistic streak toward his enemies, and his obsessive admiration for Mr. Gentleman, he seems to have a heck of a soft spot for the cute little blonde girl who has been his closest companion and confidante throughout the whole sorry mess.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wendy Earhart: Sleep is For the Weak
Wendy Earhart, tea-fetcher extraordinaire!
When we first meet her, Joker's secretary Wendy is very young, very eager to please, very softhearted, and very clumsy. In her first scene, Wendy knocks on Joker’s office door, and when invited in, approaches his desk to drop off some files, and promptly trips, filling the air with papers. Joker is completely unsurprised by this, casually addressing the floor with a question about the case, so it’s safe to say that this is not a new occurrence. Nevertheless, despite her bubbly demeanour and her utter lack of coordination, she is a capable and intelligent young woman.
She’s confident in her own intelligence too, discussing the case in detail with Joker and offering her own thoughts with little prompting. The “special projects” Joker assigns to her suggest a decent amount of attention to detail, too; Joker doesn’t suffer fools or blunderers gladly, no matter how cute they are, so if she has been given these tasks, she is obviously capable of doing them well.
See? She finished her "special project" early, and now she's doing a crossword puzzle!
Her naïve and softhearted nature comes through in both of the times that she voices her disagreement with Joker’s decisions. She argues Nancy Makuhari’s trustworthiness, because she can’t understand not trusting someone you barely know, especially when her record is so spotless. She is also the only one to voice a protest to the idea of destroying the I-jin fortress while Yomiko is still inside. Both of these firmly established her warmth and empathy, along with the undeniable fact that she's got some growing up to do. Now, why might it be a bad idea to unquestioningly trust someone you've just met, when you're in the saving-the-world business? And what sort of silliness is that, sacrificing one person, who would have died anyway, to protect the rest of the world?
It's mostly likely this, combined with a cheerful demeanour and extreme enthusiasm for the simple task of fetching her boss some tea that has earned her the rather shortsighted label of “ditz”. Forget the part where she’s a trusted assistant to a very powerful man; she smiles and falls down, so clearly she has no brain, and Joker just hired her because she had pretty eyes and a nice ass.
Okay, granted, I'd hire her for those legs...
Perhaps this was the case in the context of the show as well as in the fandom, because when we see her in ROD the TV, five years after the series, her personality has undergone some minor renovations. She’s still more or less the same person – smart, intuitive, hard-working, dedicated – but in honour of her leap from Incidental, Yet Adorable Side-Character to Main Antagonist’s Second-in-Command, she’s abandoned the smiles and enthusiasm, learned that people cannot always be trusted, and somewhere along the way, learned how to keep her balance. There are hints that Joker encouraged this personality overhaul, as he tells Alex, “[these changes are] a good thing. People who don’t grow don’t deserve to live.”
Because the first step to becoming an effective villain is investing in a good pair of shades
In addition to the changes to her personality, there have been numerous changes to her job description, and a few significant changes to her personal life. Rather than spending most of her time around the Library fetching, filing, and occasionally snooping, as all three of these things are rather difficult to accomplish in a building that has been utterly decimated at the hands of an irate Paper Master, she now gets to fetch, file, and snoop in an entirely different country! And, now she gets to manipulate, hack into classified computer files, and periodically shoot people, too!
On the personal life end of things, she's been relocated to a (really freakin' big) apartment in Tokyo – which makes me wonder just how much Joker pays her, as I was under the impression that real estate wasn't exactly cheap there – and has been assigned to the task of raising the unimaginatively named I-jin superbaby, Junior.
Seriously! She's never home! What's all that wide-open space for? Is she running a yoga class or something?
And does he look like the kind of I-jin superbaby who takes up a lot of space?
It is hard to say if she's happy with these changes in herself and her situation. It certainly doesn't seem like it to me, and there are many moments to suggest that she's turning herself inside out with guilt over some of the means Joker and Friends are using to achieve their goals, even though the goals themselves make sense to her. But she does stay with Joker right to the end, so exactly what was going on in her head is left entirely up to interpretation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joker and Wendy: I Swear I'm Not Making This Up
Ahahaaaaaaaah, now we get to my favourite part of the essay! The part where I get to ramble about exactly why I've spent the last three years writing hudreds of pages of fanfiction dedicated to these two and the romance I insistently imagine between them.
But before I begin, I’ll stick in a little disclaimer. Read or Die is not the kind of show that lends itself to having one clear interpretation, particularly when you’re discussing side characters. Yes; a lot is left very, very ambiguous in this show. Therefore, it is pretty reasonable to assume that at some point in this section, and possibly at several in all previous – and following – there will be a statement that someone out there doesn’t agree with. As I may not always remember to precede every statement I make with “In my opinion” or something similar, let me just throw out a blanket statement right now, and assure everyone reading this that I do not, in any way, consider my interpretation to be the “right” one. It’s just what popped the fastest and most easily to my mind, and has been the most enduring, no matter how many times I watch the show. Therefore, it’s the one I’m going to write about.
Anyway, onto the point. It's sort of funny that initially, Joker x Wendy was my boyfriend's favourite Read or Die pairing (as I was busily obsessing over Yomiko x Nancy), yet I'm the one who ended up writing essays about them. Still, I did always think that the idea of the cute little klutzy blonde chickie having a slightly closer than professional relationship with her aloof, uptight boss was absolutely adorable.
The TV series is what really did it, though; I thought that it's the first time real romantic interest really comes out for either of them. Right from the OAV, they have some lovely interaction, and seem to get along very well and highly value each other, but in a way that could easily be construed as purely friendship, or even a familial relationship. They seemed a little like an uncle and his favourite little niece, or simply two people who are close friends despite a large age gap. Obviously, I liked the idea that there was something romantic going on, but I found the idea of a close, protective, loyal platonic relationship almost as appealing.
There are several little moments in both the OAV that suggested this relationship.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joker and Wendy in the OAV
The first time she appears, as mentioned above, it’s to knock at Joker’s door, creep hesitantly inside, and promptly trip over something, filling the air with a peaceful snow of papers. Joker, non-nonplussed by this, addresses a question casually to the floor, which suggests a few things to me.
One, they’ve been together long enough for him to be used to her random yelps of dismay as she goes plummeting to the floor.
Two, he kept her around, despite her terrible coordination, long enough to get used to it and discover the intelligent young woman under the smiles and sparkles and klutziness. Joker, who hates inefficiency – we see as much in his annoyance with Yomiko’s utter failure to focus on the mission instead of her book – deals happily with the minor setbacks created when Wendy has to take a time-out and reorganize the files she just sent skittering around the room. Surely there are plenty of potential secretaries out there who are bright and intuitive, and have the ability to go five minutes without falling down. But he stays with his cute little klutz and presumably encourages her to work on correcting her balance problem instead (getting to this later).
The second time we see Wendy appear, she knocks timidly at the door, and Joker mutters a sort of annoyed “Come in” at the unknown person who’s interrupting him in the middle of something important. Then he goes right back to his work, leaving Wendy standing rather foolishly in front of his desk, with nowhere to put down the giant stack of paper she’s bringing him.
When he finally looks up to notice, he gives her this adorable, sheepish little smile, and apologizes. Normally, Joker’s apologies are only for Important People, and have more than a trace of insincerity running through them. Not only this, he ordinarily has no problem inconveniencing people if he’s in the middle of Something Important. In the first part of the OAV, for example, he tries to get in contact with the elusive Elias/Elliot/take your pick, has a thought while the phone is ringing, and leaves Elias dangling rather foolishly at the end of the line with no word of apology.
Then, once he’s cleared some space, she moves to put down her giant stack of papers, and accidentally knocks it over, which creates a substantial mess to pick back up, at a time when he's already feeling pressured. She starts to apologize frantically, and he just sort of waves it off with a kind smile. Again, Joker seems to be unable to tolerate inefficient behaviour and actions, in anyone other than Wendy. This could be simply because she’s otherwise a very good employee, and is obviously trying, and he appreciates it. But again, there are other girls out there who could probably do an equally good job, without the accident-prone aspect, and he still took the time to discover and utilize Wendy’s strong points. It could be that he didn’t have a choice and she was hired for him, but he still seems quite happy with her, in spite of her flaws. Whether or not their relationship contains any trace of romantic attraction, it seems pretty blatant to me that he enjoys having her around. He certainly seemed to go from stressed and annoyed to light-hearted and playful in a hurry when she showed up.
From this...
...to this...
...all by the power of Wendy and tea
As for Wendy, at this point she seems to have a soft spot for almost everyone, and as Joker, necessarily the center of her attention in the interest of doing her job well, treats her with kindness and respect, it’s natural that she would regard him highly.
It’s a little less natural that she would feel comfortable and confident enough around him to discuss the current case and objectives with him, offer her thoughts without prompting, and even provide a little light arguing. I think this shows that, again, they’ve been together for a while, and that he’s treated her in a way that has made her comfortable voicing her disagreements. She’s aware that he’s not perfect, that it’s entirely conceivable that he might misjudge a situation, and she respects him in spite of it.
He, in turn, does not seem to mind her asking questions and disagreeing. When he hears her suggestion, that he’s over-thinking the question of Nancy Makuhari’s loyalty, he responds quite considerately, explaining his reasons for suspecting the woman instead of just scoffing. Then he asks her with this lovely little smile to go try again, and authorizing her to use previously unavailable means (“dig deeper, and leave no stone unturned”, or “use dirty tricks” in the subtitled version).
Her reaction to this indicates, to me, that his opinion of her is very important, for personal reasons as well as professional: she looks absolutely devastated, and even though it’s my running gag that it’s because this is going to mean more overtime, I think it has a lot more to do with offering her opinion to someone she respects and having him explain, however kindly, that there are things she failed to consider. If Joker had shouted at her for saying something stupid, her teary, wobbly-voiced little “Yes, Sir” would have been one thing, but he just pointed out to her something that she could hardly be expected to know anyway, and asked her to try again with means that might bring greater success.
"Ohh, I'll never get home in time for 24 at this rate!"
Then, nearing the end of the third and final part, my very favourite OAV moment with these two occurred. Joker is breathing a sigh of weary relief and loosening his tie following a stressful and difficult mission. Wendy appears at his side, unbidden, with a fresh cup of tea, and all weariness seem to vanish into surprise as he looks at the mysteriously appearing beverage, and then into contentment as he looks up at his happily beaming little secretary.
A happy ending for everyone!
In a way, it's too bad they didn't stay this cute.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joker and Wendy in ROD the TV
By ROD the TV, things have changed between them quite a bit. They’re still working together, they still care about one another, protect one another, and he still displays more understanding and patience with her than anyone else, while she still sees his faults and respects and follows him anyway – more than it seems at times than she wants to.
And this is where one of the main differences in their relationship comes in: while he still trusts her implicitly, thanks her with sweet smiles and gentle pats and almost-hugs for her hard work, and makes excuses for her (admittedly very rare) failures, she seems to be veering wildly back and forth between gazing adoringly at him, and longing desperately to put a bullet in him.
Personally, I think this has a large amount to do with her not always agreeing with the means they’re using to achieve their goals; it disturbs her that he can send her off to shoot people, have his goons rough up civilians, and betray almost everyone he comes in contact with, all without batting an eyelash or losing his placid smile. I think that she was feeling tremendous amounts of guilt over all that she was involved in – she does admit as much to Junior in Episode 25 – and was likely terrified that she couldn’t stop herself from loving someone who saw absolutely no problem with any of it.
Meanwhile, Joker ignores his pretty little golden-haired shadow’s attacks of conscience as much as he can, and when he can’t, shushes them into nonexistence with assurances that she’s been a tremendous help, and he couldn’t have done this without her, and she’s been doing a kick-ass job. Perhaps not in those words, although that would have been funny.
Of course, it could be that he kept her and her guilt-attacks instead of replacing her, in the interest of retaining a good employee, but a few things make this unlikely to me. And bear with me; they're going to sound familiar.
The first is, even with her increased workload and expanded job description in ROD the TV, there was very little that she did that someone else couldn’t have done just as well. But once again, he chose to keep her, and work on her trust and guilt issues to ensure her loyalty.
The second is, her job description involved being the person closest to him, possibly the only one privy to all his secrets, and the person in the best position to send everything toppling down around his ears if she took it into her pretty little head to do so. Thus, it seems to me that even small cracks in her resolve would be something to remove from where they could do damage.
Joker isn’t stupid – crazy, sure, but not stupid – and he isn’t a softie, either. So why does he see Wendy’s little panic attacks, soothe them temporarily away, and continue to trust her implicitly even though he knows that her doubts are going to return? He seems to know just what she needs to hear to fix the problem temporarily, but it’s just that – temporary. She didn’t end up betraying him, but she was in a great position to screw him over pretty royally, and Joker seemed rather like the paranoid type to me, if his huge, complex security system is any indication. Yet he acknowledged and ignored the massive security risk that Wendy could have been if something had pushed her too far.
The only time he decided not to trust her with a job, and failed to tell her something important, was when he took her off the team scheduled to pick up Junior from Saitama. She got upset enough to suggest that he did it out of mistrust, but this is a man who thought that he was doing the world a favour by handing over their memories and pasts to Mr. Gentleman. It's entirely conceivable to me that he thought of keeping her away from Junior, away from Yomiko, and away from the danger of being talked onto the enemies’ side, as measures to protect her. Also, it could just as easily be that he wanted to keep her out of physical danger, with the added bonus of having her close enough to keep an eye on her.
I think he kept her around, closest to him in spite of the potential threat she posed, because he didn’t want to get a new assistant. He liked the one he had. And why not? He’d had her for years, they’d gotten used to working together, and she was about a cross-step away from being able to read his mind and anticipate everything he needed. But his neglecting to remove a possible security risk out of attachment to the aforementioned risk suggests to me that he harbours a lot more than a friendly affection for Wendy. I definitely believe that it was unacknowledged – they were hardly in a situation that suited romance and sugar-sweet kisses and cuddles, with their goals involving their own pasts and memories wiped clean along with everyone else’s – but I’m pretty convinced that there was a lot of feeling between them.
And I certainly wouldn’t exclude the possibility of a “friends with benefits” relationship. For example: in Episode 14? He tells her to keep next weekend open for “dinner”. Now, what kind of “dinner” takes all weekend? Exaaaaactly. The kind that is actually Evil Goings-On. ^_~
Break out the black silk and lace! It's time for that dinner-date!
Wendy’s feelings for Joker are a lot more obvious, since she, like, shows emotion and stuff. She doesn’t like what they’re doing to accomplish their goals, but she stays anyway. All it takes to alleviate her guilt and worry – at first, anyway – is a comforting word from him. The one time she doesn’t seem to feel any guilt over her less-than-honest actions is when the purpose is to rescue him from danger.
In Episode 13, he sends her to shoot those Dokusensha people so that they can steal classified files uninterrupted, and she spends the rest of the episode trembling pretty violently. Then he gives her shoulders a little squeeze and tells her how well she’s doing, and she flashes him this absolutely adorable, sparkly-eyed smile.
In Episodes 16-17, she lights a giant pile of books on fire to lure Yomiko into the open, shoots her, and almost flips out about it in front of Joker. This time, his comforting has a slightly less pronounced effect on him, but she nevertheless slinks obediently back to the car to rest. He, meanwhile, has no word of reproach for her minor breakdown in public, and seems far more concerned convincing her that her failure to capture the Paper Masters, Nancy, and the Book of the All-Seeing Eye wasn’t her fault.
Wendy, who is either having a guilt attack, or desperately needs some Advil
Joker, assuring Wendy that there's some Advil in the car
Then, in Episode 21, Joker is put in danger, and suddenly she has no problem lying, blackmailing, manipulating, and counterfeiting a Nenene. Recovering Joker was no more necessary for the success of their plans than leaving Yomiko alive was, but she put everything else on hold to do it. Going to great lengths to protect someone they cared about kind of seemed like a running theme for multiple characters throughout the show, and I thought it was really nice that a villain (or at least, a villain’s smokin’ hot henchgal) was allowed to embody it.
"Mua-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaah..."
Even Joker gets into the spirit, if only a little; shortly after Wendy has retrieved him, duping their enemies into releasing him with no loss of advantage for his side, the aforementioned enemies send a giant paper boulder bouncing merrily down the hill toward them. Joker, instead of moving to avoid being flattened himself, jumps across the thing’s path to knock his little cutie out of the way. It amused me to no end that, from numerous re-watches, she seemed to be in no real danger, as the boulder’s giant path would have missed her by about a foot. He neglected the immediate safety of his precious, precious self, in order to remove her from danger that she wasn’t actually in. This might not be significant in anyone else, but this is Joker. This is the guy who sank a whole city, just to make sure no one from Dokusensha survived to thwart his plans, and ended up recruiting the only survivor. The guy who just sort of shrugged and said “Well, okay, let’s use the other potential carrier, then” when Junior, a child he's watched grow up (very quickly) and helped to raise, was reported dead and scattered messily amid the remains of an exploded helicopter. Yet he puts himself in danger for the sake of some girl.
And boy, was she grateful
Throughout the TV series, their potential romance seems tinged with frustration, guilt, and conflict on her side; controlling, manipulative, and with a decided sense of ownership on his; and laced with a hint of tragedy in the inevitable result, had their ultimate goal succeeded. Which is why the very end of the last episode made me squeal like an over-caffeinated Chihuahua.
An over-caffeinated Chihuahua
We find Joker sitting motionless in a rocking chair on the front porch of a nice little cottage in the country, staring unseeingly into space, until a dog in a rosebush snaps him out of his daze. Wendy, in a frilly little pink apron and bearing a teapot, emerges from the house to find him gone. Then she does this little 'kids these days' smile, tosses her apron over the back of the chair, and heads off, presumably to find him.
So, we know that by the end of the series, they’re living together, and we find out from a news report in Toto Books that the rest of the Special Operations unit was taken into custody, and were refusing to divulge Joker’s whereabouts, or his existence at all. Therefore, leaving is out of the question, as I would assume they would want to stay undetected until they could make some new plans. Meanwhile, Joker has (possibly) just woken back up from his three-month daze, and Wendy is back to being chirpy and cute and dropping things. Even considering the whole hiding-from-the-law bit, this is by far a nicer ending than I would have expected them to get. They may have to stay hidden, but they’re free, they’re together, they’re comfortable, and hey! They have tea! As long as they have tea, all is not yet lost.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Conclude... (Hey! Stop cheering!)
I think part of the reason that I love Joker x Wendy so much in ROD the TV is that it’s so darn weird. She’s at her happiest around him, smiling, laughing, blushing, generally being her cute, cheerful OAV self. But then, I swear there were a handful of times that she almost clocked him. He’s sweet and protective with her, and it’s nice to see him that way with someone, but he handles emotional attachment the same way he does everything else: carefully calculating, doing all he can to limit her freedom and keep tabs on her.
They've been together for years, they're good friends, they work flawlessly together, and they can nearly read each other's minds, but sometimes you get the sense that there's a lot of distance between them. She’s a more effective villain than he is - doesn't have the sadistic streak to distract her, or the irresistible urge to gloat and get herself beaten up - but she’s more worried about him than about the Evil Plot. He has a tendency to ignore her for long stretches of time, but he certainly pays attention when he sees a chance of losing her.
They go from sweet, to creepy, to loving, to sadistic, and right back again, and it's really hard to get a handle on them. And all in all, they're the kind of pairing that makes Rhianwen a happy little weirdo.
Fandom: Read or Die/ROD the TV
Pairing: Joseph Carpenter x Wendy Earhart
Spoilers: Ohh, lots and lots.From the OAV and TV series.
Disclaimer: Kurata's toys, I'm just borrowing them for a while. I promise, I'll bring them back, safe and sound, after I make them kiss for a while! ^_^
Notes: I reallyreally tried to stay serious and refrain from silly comments. I think I succeeded...mostly. Also, you may notice that the spoilers are from the OAV and TV series only, with no mention of the manga. That is because I have totally wussed out of discussing the manga. I can never, never wrap my mind around how the manga connects to the other two, so I've chosen to leave it out and spare myself - and anyone who reads this - a headache.
Word Count: 5427. See? The title is funny now! Just imagine if I'd been writing about a pairing with actual basis. ^_^
Additional Note: Images added after-the-fact. If this is not allowed, please just let me know, and I will get rid of them.
It Takes a Villain to Love a Villain: Joseph Carpenter x Wendy Earhart; Read or Die
Read or Die is the only anime I've ever been in fathoms deep in love with before I saw it.
While on a fairly routine search through some anime review sites, I found a review of the three-episode OAV. I blinked in utter bafflement at the summary: something about using a book to build another Beethoven, who would then wipe out the world with an apparently Very Bad Song. I squealed in delight at the description of the main character: a socially inept young substitute teacher and part time secret agent with a three-storey building full of books and the ability call paper to do her bidding. Paper swords, giant paper airplanes, cue cards as a lethal weapon, none were beyond the capabilities of this enchanting and unkempt little gal.
And I knew that I had to find this freakin' show.
A mad dash to A&B Sound followed, and two hours later, I was in love. Like, even more. In love with the plot, teetering dangerously on absurd and giving the impression that the creators had no end of fun with this; in love with the characters, even the ones who didn't do anything; in love with the charming and endearing way they all took themselves so deadly seriously, even when they really shouldn't.
But above all, I was madly in love with the heroine. The sweet, adorable, unkempt, bespectacled little heroine and her massive book obsession.
Her name is Yomiko Readman, and this essay isn't about her.
No, this essay is about two lesser-known characters; characters who probably don't deserve an essay; characters who rapidly became the bane of the fandom's existence when some weirdo named Rhianwen popped out of nowhere and insisted upon writing about them time and time again.
The characters in question are Joseph Carpenter, the lovely and talented Mr. Joker of the OAV; and his adorable, friendly, klutzy, and utterly cold-blooded little secretary, Wendy Earhart.
I'll start with Joker, because he comes first alphabetically, and anyway, I fully expect to receive an angry letter from him if I do not. “Putting me second?! Absurd!”
And so, here we go.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Carpenter: Calm and Cool and Evil All Over
Mr. Joker, practicing to be a cat owner
We are first introduced to Joseph Carpenter, or Mr. Joker, relatively early into first part of the three part OAV. We discover, when he randomly shows up in Tokyo after the giant bug attack that separated poor Yomiko from her book, that she reports to him when she’s wearing her Special Agent hat instead of her Unassuming Little Substitute Teacher hat. Soon after, we discover that he, in turn, reports to a giant wrinkle in a robe, creatively named Mr. Gentleman.
Mr. Joker, in the principal's office
So effectively, Joker is the second-in-command of the Special Operations Unit that the British Library apparently keeps on hand to go out into the world and kick a little ass when the situation requires. More or less, this seems to amount to Joker running the show, with the knowledge firmly in his pretty little head at all times that if he screws up, he’ll have a motorized wheelchair rammed into his knee at high speed, or be devoured by a vicious attack turtle, or something.
Even at this point, Joker is not a particularly nice man. He is very polite, he keeps his outward calm almost flawlessly throughout stressful situations, and he has a disturbingly small capacity for empathy with others. First, we see him argue fruitlessly with Yomiko, because she doesn't want to give up the substitute teaching job she's scheduled. Fair enough; if I'd just spent three months' wages on books, I wouldn't want to give up my primary source of income, either. But Joker, instead of trying to empathize and allay her worries, dismisses them. Surely there were other agents he could have called in, but instead of offering to go to the trouble, he jumps straight to the you're-letting-the-world-down guilt-trip. This is characteristic of a lot of Joker's interactions with others. For someone who seems so subtle, he favours the emotional battering ram above all other debate tools.
In the third episode, he shows no hesitation before going ahead and giving the order to destroy the I-jin fortress, regardless of the tiny little tidbit that a number of his employees, including the main character of the series and someone who seemed to be a friend, were still inside. He held off as long as he could – although it's uncertain as to whether this was to protect his employees or to avoid letting the Americans take all the glory while England sat ineffectively in the sidelines – but when he did it, he didn't bat an eyelash.
All in all, not a particularly warm n' fuzzy individual.
By ROD the TV, the 26-episode sequel series, his situation has changed drastically. He is no longer under the pressure of proving himself to Mr. Gentleman, as Mr. Gentleman has kicked the bucket in the five years between the OAV and the series. However, he is under the pressure of gaining back respect and credibility for an entire country that seems to have completely crumbled with Mr. Gentleman’s death. With just a little bit of help from a great big fire at the British Library that somehow led to the entire Special Operations Unit being booted out of the country, and the country being booted out of the big global sandbox. Clearly, it is not a good time to be Joker.
Mr. Joker, giving A Speech
In addition to trying to get people to take his country seriously again, he is trying to reassemble a collection of seven books into which Mr. Gentleman’s entire personality and knowledge was transplanted before he died, so that all this information can be injected into a new body, and they can have their leader back again. Apparently, he misses the pressure of that lined and wizened countenance peeking over his shoulder at all times.
But that’s not all, folks! Once Mr. Gentleman is alive again, he’ll rewrite the memories of everyone on the planet, and eliminate war by eliminating differences of opinion between people. If everyone knows everything, maybe people won’t feel the need to fight anymore! Or something to that effect. Personally, I think there was pot involved. And whiny 60’s protest songs. That's right; the Special Operations Unit was trying to turn the world into a big hippie commune. Personally, I think they just wanted to wear the bellbottoms.
Mr. Joker, lamenting the severe lack of bellbottoms in his life
It’s never made entirely clear if this plan came from Joker himself, or if it was one conceived by Mr. Gentleman before his death – perhaps while he was feeling the effects of the marijuana the doctors gave him to take the edge off the pain of being six hundred or so years old – but Joker, by working tirelessly for it when he could have just taken all the power he’d gained and run with it, proves that he is absolutely loyal to Mr. Gentleman. He is entirely ready to hand over not only the political power and influence he has acquired, but his own identity to the grizzled old fellow who was warning him, “Now, don’t embarrass me” just five years ago.
However, in spite of Joker’s single-mindedness with his goals, his ruthless trampling of anyone who gets in his way, his notable sadistic streak toward his enemies, and his obsessive admiration for Mr. Gentleman, he seems to have a heck of a soft spot for the cute little blonde girl who has been his closest companion and confidante throughout the whole sorry mess.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wendy Earhart: Sleep is For the Weak
Wendy Earhart, tea-fetcher extraordinaire!
When we first meet her, Joker's secretary Wendy is very young, very eager to please, very softhearted, and very clumsy. In her first scene, Wendy knocks on Joker’s office door, and when invited in, approaches his desk to drop off some files, and promptly trips, filling the air with papers. Joker is completely unsurprised by this, casually addressing the floor with a question about the case, so it’s safe to say that this is not a new occurrence. Nevertheless, despite her bubbly demeanour and her utter lack of coordination, she is a capable and intelligent young woman.
She’s confident in her own intelligence too, discussing the case in detail with Joker and offering her own thoughts with little prompting. The “special projects” Joker assigns to her suggest a decent amount of attention to detail, too; Joker doesn’t suffer fools or blunderers gladly, no matter how cute they are, so if she has been given these tasks, she is obviously capable of doing them well.
See? She finished her "special project" early, and now she's doing a crossword puzzle!
Her naïve and softhearted nature comes through in both of the times that she voices her disagreement with Joker’s decisions. She argues Nancy Makuhari’s trustworthiness, because she can’t understand not trusting someone you barely know, especially when her record is so spotless. She is also the only one to voice a protest to the idea of destroying the I-jin fortress while Yomiko is still inside. Both of these firmly established her warmth and empathy, along with the undeniable fact that she's got some growing up to do. Now, why might it be a bad idea to unquestioningly trust someone you've just met, when you're in the saving-the-world business? And what sort of silliness is that, sacrificing one person, who would have died anyway, to protect the rest of the world?
It's mostly likely this, combined with a cheerful demeanour and extreme enthusiasm for the simple task of fetching her boss some tea that has earned her the rather shortsighted label of “ditz”. Forget the part where she’s a trusted assistant to a very powerful man; she smiles and falls down, so clearly she has no brain, and Joker just hired her because she had pretty eyes and a nice ass.
Okay, granted, I'd hire her for those legs...
Perhaps this was the case in the context of the show as well as in the fandom, because when we see her in ROD the TV, five years after the series, her personality has undergone some minor renovations. She’s still more or less the same person – smart, intuitive, hard-working, dedicated – but in honour of her leap from Incidental, Yet Adorable Side-Character to Main Antagonist’s Second-in-Command, she’s abandoned the smiles and enthusiasm, learned that people cannot always be trusted, and somewhere along the way, learned how to keep her balance. There are hints that Joker encouraged this personality overhaul, as he tells Alex, “[these changes are] a good thing. People who don’t grow don’t deserve to live.”
Because the first step to becoming an effective villain is investing in a good pair of shades
In addition to the changes to her personality, there have been numerous changes to her job description, and a few significant changes to her personal life. Rather than spending most of her time around the Library fetching, filing, and occasionally snooping, as all three of these things are rather difficult to accomplish in a building that has been utterly decimated at the hands of an irate Paper Master, she now gets to fetch, file, and snoop in an entirely different country! And, now she gets to manipulate, hack into classified computer files, and periodically shoot people, too!
On the personal life end of things, she's been relocated to a (really freakin' big) apartment in Tokyo – which makes me wonder just how much Joker pays her, as I was under the impression that real estate wasn't exactly cheap there – and has been assigned to the task of raising the unimaginatively named I-jin superbaby, Junior.
Seriously! She's never home! What's all that wide-open space for? Is she running a yoga class or something?
And does he look like the kind of I-jin superbaby who takes up a lot of space?
It is hard to say if she's happy with these changes in herself and her situation. It certainly doesn't seem like it to me, and there are many moments to suggest that she's turning herself inside out with guilt over some of the means Joker and Friends are using to achieve their goals, even though the goals themselves make sense to her. But she does stay with Joker right to the end, so exactly what was going on in her head is left entirely up to interpretation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joker and Wendy: I Swear I'm Not Making This Up
Ahahaaaaaaaah, now we get to my favourite part of the essay! The part where I get to ramble about exactly why I've spent the last three years writing hudreds of pages of fanfiction dedicated to these two and the romance I insistently imagine between them.
But before I begin, I’ll stick in a little disclaimer. Read or Die is not the kind of show that lends itself to having one clear interpretation, particularly when you’re discussing side characters. Yes; a lot is left very, very ambiguous in this show. Therefore, it is pretty reasonable to assume that at some point in this section, and possibly at several in all previous – and following – there will be a statement that someone out there doesn’t agree with. As I may not always remember to precede every statement I make with “In my opinion” or something similar, let me just throw out a blanket statement right now, and assure everyone reading this that I do not, in any way, consider my interpretation to be the “right” one. It’s just what popped the fastest and most easily to my mind, and has been the most enduring, no matter how many times I watch the show. Therefore, it’s the one I’m going to write about.
Anyway, onto the point. It's sort of funny that initially, Joker x Wendy was my boyfriend's favourite Read or Die pairing (as I was busily obsessing over Yomiko x Nancy), yet I'm the one who ended up writing essays about them. Still, I did always think that the idea of the cute little klutzy blonde chickie having a slightly closer than professional relationship with her aloof, uptight boss was absolutely adorable.
The TV series is what really did it, though; I thought that it's the first time real romantic interest really comes out for either of them. Right from the OAV, they have some lovely interaction, and seem to get along very well and highly value each other, but in a way that could easily be construed as purely friendship, or even a familial relationship. They seemed a little like an uncle and his favourite little niece, or simply two people who are close friends despite a large age gap. Obviously, I liked the idea that there was something romantic going on, but I found the idea of a close, protective, loyal platonic relationship almost as appealing.
There are several little moments in both the OAV that suggested this relationship.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joker and Wendy in the OAV
The first time she appears, as mentioned above, it’s to knock at Joker’s door, creep hesitantly inside, and promptly trip over something, filling the air with a peaceful snow of papers. Joker, non-nonplussed by this, addresses a question casually to the floor, which suggests a few things to me.
One, they’ve been together long enough for him to be used to her random yelps of dismay as she goes plummeting to the floor.
Two, he kept her around, despite her terrible coordination, long enough to get used to it and discover the intelligent young woman under the smiles and sparkles and klutziness. Joker, who hates inefficiency – we see as much in his annoyance with Yomiko’s utter failure to focus on the mission instead of her book – deals happily with the minor setbacks created when Wendy has to take a time-out and reorganize the files she just sent skittering around the room. Surely there are plenty of potential secretaries out there who are bright and intuitive, and have the ability to go five minutes without falling down. But he stays with his cute little klutz and presumably encourages her to work on correcting her balance problem instead (getting to this later).
The second time we see Wendy appear, she knocks timidly at the door, and Joker mutters a sort of annoyed “Come in” at the unknown person who’s interrupting him in the middle of something important. Then he goes right back to his work, leaving Wendy standing rather foolishly in front of his desk, with nowhere to put down the giant stack of paper she’s bringing him.
When he finally looks up to notice, he gives her this adorable, sheepish little smile, and apologizes. Normally, Joker’s apologies are only for Important People, and have more than a trace of insincerity running through them. Not only this, he ordinarily has no problem inconveniencing people if he’s in the middle of Something Important. In the first part of the OAV, for example, he tries to get in contact with the elusive Elias/Elliot/take your pick, has a thought while the phone is ringing, and leaves Elias dangling rather foolishly at the end of the line with no word of apology.
Then, once he’s cleared some space, she moves to put down her giant stack of papers, and accidentally knocks it over, which creates a substantial mess to pick back up, at a time when he's already feeling pressured. She starts to apologize frantically, and he just sort of waves it off with a kind smile. Again, Joker seems to be unable to tolerate inefficient behaviour and actions, in anyone other than Wendy. This could be simply because she’s otherwise a very good employee, and is obviously trying, and he appreciates it. But again, there are other girls out there who could probably do an equally good job, without the accident-prone aspect, and he still took the time to discover and utilize Wendy’s strong points. It could be that he didn’t have a choice and she was hired for him, but he still seems quite happy with her, in spite of her flaws. Whether or not their relationship contains any trace of romantic attraction, it seems pretty blatant to me that he enjoys having her around. He certainly seemed to go from stressed and annoyed to light-hearted and playful in a hurry when she showed up.
From this...
...to this...
...all by the power of Wendy and tea
As for Wendy, at this point she seems to have a soft spot for almost everyone, and as Joker, necessarily the center of her attention in the interest of doing her job well, treats her with kindness and respect, it’s natural that she would regard him highly.
It’s a little less natural that she would feel comfortable and confident enough around him to discuss the current case and objectives with him, offer her thoughts without prompting, and even provide a little light arguing. I think this shows that, again, they’ve been together for a while, and that he’s treated her in a way that has made her comfortable voicing her disagreements. She’s aware that he’s not perfect, that it’s entirely conceivable that he might misjudge a situation, and she respects him in spite of it.
He, in turn, does not seem to mind her asking questions and disagreeing. When he hears her suggestion, that he’s over-thinking the question of Nancy Makuhari’s loyalty, he responds quite considerately, explaining his reasons for suspecting the woman instead of just scoffing. Then he asks her with this lovely little smile to go try again, and authorizing her to use previously unavailable means (“dig deeper, and leave no stone unturned”, or “use dirty tricks” in the subtitled version).
Her reaction to this indicates, to me, that his opinion of her is very important, for personal reasons as well as professional: she looks absolutely devastated, and even though it’s my running gag that it’s because this is going to mean more overtime, I think it has a lot more to do with offering her opinion to someone she respects and having him explain, however kindly, that there are things she failed to consider. If Joker had shouted at her for saying something stupid, her teary, wobbly-voiced little “Yes, Sir” would have been one thing, but he just pointed out to her something that she could hardly be expected to know anyway, and asked her to try again with means that might bring greater success.
"Ohh, I'll never get home in time for 24 at this rate!"
Then, nearing the end of the third and final part, my very favourite OAV moment with these two occurred. Joker is breathing a sigh of weary relief and loosening his tie following a stressful and difficult mission. Wendy appears at his side, unbidden, with a fresh cup of tea, and all weariness seem to vanish into surprise as he looks at the mysteriously appearing beverage, and then into contentment as he looks up at his happily beaming little secretary.
A happy ending for everyone!
In a way, it's too bad they didn't stay this cute.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joker and Wendy in ROD the TV
By ROD the TV, things have changed between them quite a bit. They’re still working together, they still care about one another, protect one another, and he still displays more understanding and patience with her than anyone else, while she still sees his faults and respects and follows him anyway – more than it seems at times than she wants to.
And this is where one of the main differences in their relationship comes in: while he still trusts her implicitly, thanks her with sweet smiles and gentle pats and almost-hugs for her hard work, and makes excuses for her (admittedly very rare) failures, she seems to be veering wildly back and forth between gazing adoringly at him, and longing desperately to put a bullet in him.
Personally, I think this has a large amount to do with her not always agreeing with the means they’re using to achieve their goals; it disturbs her that he can send her off to shoot people, have his goons rough up civilians, and betray almost everyone he comes in contact with, all without batting an eyelash or losing his placid smile. I think that she was feeling tremendous amounts of guilt over all that she was involved in – she does admit as much to Junior in Episode 25 – and was likely terrified that she couldn’t stop herself from loving someone who saw absolutely no problem with any of it.
Meanwhile, Joker ignores his pretty little golden-haired shadow’s attacks of conscience as much as he can, and when he can’t, shushes them into nonexistence with assurances that she’s been a tremendous help, and he couldn’t have done this without her, and she’s been doing a kick-ass job. Perhaps not in those words, although that would have been funny.
Of course, it could be that he kept her and her guilt-attacks instead of replacing her, in the interest of retaining a good employee, but a few things make this unlikely to me. And bear with me; they're going to sound familiar.
The first is, even with her increased workload and expanded job description in ROD the TV, there was very little that she did that someone else couldn’t have done just as well. But once again, he chose to keep her, and work on her trust and guilt issues to ensure her loyalty.
The second is, her job description involved being the person closest to him, possibly the only one privy to all his secrets, and the person in the best position to send everything toppling down around his ears if she took it into her pretty little head to do so. Thus, it seems to me that even small cracks in her resolve would be something to remove from where they could do damage.
Joker isn’t stupid – crazy, sure, but not stupid – and he isn’t a softie, either. So why does he see Wendy’s little panic attacks, soothe them temporarily away, and continue to trust her implicitly even though he knows that her doubts are going to return? He seems to know just what she needs to hear to fix the problem temporarily, but it’s just that – temporary. She didn’t end up betraying him, but she was in a great position to screw him over pretty royally, and Joker seemed rather like the paranoid type to me, if his huge, complex security system is any indication. Yet he acknowledged and ignored the massive security risk that Wendy could have been if something had pushed her too far.
The only time he decided not to trust her with a job, and failed to tell her something important, was when he took her off the team scheduled to pick up Junior from Saitama. She got upset enough to suggest that he did it out of mistrust, but this is a man who thought that he was doing the world a favour by handing over their memories and pasts to Mr. Gentleman. It's entirely conceivable to me that he thought of keeping her away from Junior, away from Yomiko, and away from the danger of being talked onto the enemies’ side, as measures to protect her. Also, it could just as easily be that he wanted to keep her out of physical danger, with the added bonus of having her close enough to keep an eye on her.
I think he kept her around, closest to him in spite of the potential threat she posed, because he didn’t want to get a new assistant. He liked the one he had. And why not? He’d had her for years, they’d gotten used to working together, and she was about a cross-step away from being able to read his mind and anticipate everything he needed. But his neglecting to remove a possible security risk out of attachment to the aforementioned risk suggests to me that he harbours a lot more than a friendly affection for Wendy. I definitely believe that it was unacknowledged – they were hardly in a situation that suited romance and sugar-sweet kisses and cuddles, with their goals involving their own pasts and memories wiped clean along with everyone else’s – but I’m pretty convinced that there was a lot of feeling between them.
And I certainly wouldn’t exclude the possibility of a “friends with benefits” relationship. For example: in Episode 14? He tells her to keep next weekend open for “dinner”. Now, what kind of “dinner” takes all weekend? Exaaaaactly. The kind that is actually Evil Goings-On. ^_~
Break out the black silk and lace! It's time for that dinner-date!
Wendy’s feelings for Joker are a lot more obvious, since she, like, shows emotion and stuff. She doesn’t like what they’re doing to accomplish their goals, but she stays anyway. All it takes to alleviate her guilt and worry – at first, anyway – is a comforting word from him. The one time she doesn’t seem to feel any guilt over her less-than-honest actions is when the purpose is to rescue him from danger.
In Episode 13, he sends her to shoot those Dokusensha people so that they can steal classified files uninterrupted, and she spends the rest of the episode trembling pretty violently. Then he gives her shoulders a little squeeze and tells her how well she’s doing, and she flashes him this absolutely adorable, sparkly-eyed smile.
In Episodes 16-17, she lights a giant pile of books on fire to lure Yomiko into the open, shoots her, and almost flips out about it in front of Joker. This time, his comforting has a slightly less pronounced effect on him, but she nevertheless slinks obediently back to the car to rest. He, meanwhile, has no word of reproach for her minor breakdown in public, and seems far more concerned convincing her that her failure to capture the Paper Masters, Nancy, and the Book of the All-Seeing Eye wasn’t her fault.
Wendy, who is either having a guilt attack, or desperately needs some Advil
Joker, assuring Wendy that there's some Advil in the car
Then, in Episode 21, Joker is put in danger, and suddenly she has no problem lying, blackmailing, manipulating, and counterfeiting a Nenene. Recovering Joker was no more necessary for the success of their plans than leaving Yomiko alive was, but she put everything else on hold to do it. Going to great lengths to protect someone they cared about kind of seemed like a running theme for multiple characters throughout the show, and I thought it was really nice that a villain (or at least, a villain’s smokin’ hot henchgal) was allowed to embody it.
"Mua-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaah..."
Even Joker gets into the spirit, if only a little; shortly after Wendy has retrieved him, duping their enemies into releasing him with no loss of advantage for his side, the aforementioned enemies send a giant paper boulder bouncing merrily down the hill toward them. Joker, instead of moving to avoid being flattened himself, jumps across the thing’s path to knock his little cutie out of the way. It amused me to no end that, from numerous re-watches, she seemed to be in no real danger, as the boulder’s giant path would have missed her by about a foot. He neglected the immediate safety of his precious, precious self, in order to remove her from danger that she wasn’t actually in. This might not be significant in anyone else, but this is Joker. This is the guy who sank a whole city, just to make sure no one from Dokusensha survived to thwart his plans, and ended up recruiting the only survivor. The guy who just sort of shrugged and said “Well, okay, let’s use the other potential carrier, then” when Junior, a child he's watched grow up (very quickly) and helped to raise, was reported dead and scattered messily amid the remains of an exploded helicopter. Yet he puts himself in danger for the sake of some girl.
And boy, was she grateful
Throughout the TV series, their potential romance seems tinged with frustration, guilt, and conflict on her side; controlling, manipulative, and with a decided sense of ownership on his; and laced with a hint of tragedy in the inevitable result, had their ultimate goal succeeded. Which is why the very end of the last episode made me squeal like an over-caffeinated Chihuahua.
An over-caffeinated Chihuahua
We find Joker sitting motionless in a rocking chair on the front porch of a nice little cottage in the country, staring unseeingly into space, until a dog in a rosebush snaps him out of his daze. Wendy, in a frilly little pink apron and bearing a teapot, emerges from the house to find him gone. Then she does this little 'kids these days' smile, tosses her apron over the back of the chair, and heads off, presumably to find him.
So, we know that by the end of the series, they’re living together, and we find out from a news report in Toto Books that the rest of the Special Operations unit was taken into custody, and were refusing to divulge Joker’s whereabouts, or his existence at all. Therefore, leaving is out of the question, as I would assume they would want to stay undetected until they could make some new plans. Meanwhile, Joker has (possibly) just woken back up from his three-month daze, and Wendy is back to being chirpy and cute and dropping things. Even considering the whole hiding-from-the-law bit, this is by far a nicer ending than I would have expected them to get. They may have to stay hidden, but they’re free, they’re together, they’re comfortable, and hey! They have tea! As long as they have tea, all is not yet lost.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Conclude... (Hey! Stop cheering!)
I think part of the reason that I love Joker x Wendy so much in ROD the TV is that it’s so darn weird. She’s at her happiest around him, smiling, laughing, blushing, generally being her cute, cheerful OAV self. But then, I swear there were a handful of times that she almost clocked him. He’s sweet and protective with her, and it’s nice to see him that way with someone, but he handles emotional attachment the same way he does everything else: carefully calculating, doing all he can to limit her freedom and keep tabs on her.
They've been together for years, they're good friends, they work flawlessly together, and they can nearly read each other's minds, but sometimes you get the sense that there's a lot of distance between them. She’s a more effective villain than he is - doesn't have the sadistic streak to distract her, or the irresistible urge to gloat and get herself beaten up - but she’s more worried about him than about the Evil Plot. He has a tendency to ignore her for long stretches of time, but he certainly pays attention when he sees a chance of losing her.
They go from sweet, to creepy, to loving, to sadistic, and right back again, and it's really hard to get a handle on them. And all in all, they're the kind of pairing that makes Rhianwen a happy little weirdo.
no subject
Re: the manga. The first two volumes I've read look like a prelude to the OVA, if that helps. The relationship between Wendy and Joker is similar to the OVAs too, tho Wendy seems to be still "new" at the job.
no subject
I liked Joker and Wendy in the manga. :D The bit where she's talking to him on the phone about how worried she is because Yomiko seems all "squishy" was strangely adorable. &hearts
no subject
no subject
Ooh, but on the subject of stuff to ship because it's there, I wonder if anyone has claimed Sunny Wong x Mr. Kim yet... *ponders*
no subject
1. I am very glad that you really thought about this pairing and analyzed it closely, instead of just giving way to fangirl gush.
2. I agree--it's a shame they can't stay as cute as they seem to be at the end of the OVA. But Joker is the reverse of innocent, and Wendy (sadly, for me) becomes a fly to his spider.
3. That suggests a parallel to me, namely the relationship between Ikkyu Sojun and Nancy. Nancy, of course, does what Wendy can't bring herself to do, but she's so devastated by her own act of rebellion that she kills herself. Note that Joker knows just how far to push and manipulate Wendy without losing her loyalty.
4. I think one can exagerrate Wendy's innocence and qualms of conscience in the TV series. She does what she does as much out of conviction as out of loyalty to Joker. As she says to Yomiko, she's there voluntarily, and she doesn't hesitate to shoot YR. Much as I like Wendy, she's got a little evil bug of her own. The business with Junior seems to test her loyalty the most. She doesn't understand the kid very well, but she has some sense of responsibility towards him.
5. I was hoping you would include some pictures. And I am quite surprised that you didn't even mention THAT pencilboard!
But a great job overall. Maybe you should put this in the ROD media archive.
no subject
I'm still firmly of the opinion that if the creators had given Wendy a cute chick to fall in love with like they gave Nancy, she'd have reformed too. It's easy to be a good person when a nice set of big boobs to play with is your reward. Although, Nancy said she didn't give a crap about Ikkyu's goals, and Wendy made a Mini-Joker speech about how their plans were totally cool. You could nearly see him glowing with paternal pride. ^^
And hells yeah, Wendy was there by her own choice! That's one of the things I love about her: a female character with enough goddamn spine to follow a cause she believes in, instead of just because a hot guy's in charge? But I don't think that necessarily points to evil. Warped thinking, sure, but not evil. Lots of people try to enforce their warped thinking on others - politics, yo! ^^ When she was following Joker around to meetings and crap, doing reports and paperwork, then sure, she didn't show any guilt. But whenever it came to causing pain - and again, this is just an interpretation - I saw guilt.
Even shooting Yomiko, I didn't necessarily see as the great indicator of evil that people like to make it out to be. Particularly when the sight of Yomiko's blood on the ground made her look like she was either ready to cry, suffering extreme menstrual cramping, or experiencing some wicked indigestion about ten minutes later. Personally, I thought she had a lot of perfectly valid reasons to be angry with Yomiko, although I know this is an incredibly unpopular opinon. And hey, other people in this show exhibit desire for revenge at times; Yomiko just stops them.
But the counterfeit Nenene? Totally evil. &hearts &hearts &hearts
I'm really not trying to deny Wendy's sizable evil streak; it's one of my favourite things about her! :D It's just that, a lot of the time we saw her doing something particularly cruel in the show, she also did something that looked, at first glance, a lot like guilt. To me, "evil" generally means causing pain for the hell of it, and revelling in the pain you've caused. Which generally makes me unpopular amongst fangirls, where the technical definition is "being the canon love interest of the guy I think is kinda cute". ^^;;
no subject
no subject