THE REAL ARCHIE

[peur_evol.insanejournal.com]

Lately, with all of the other Archie posts, the question was raised, "Was Archie always a Christian dickweed?".
The answer is NO, he's usually a secular dickweed.

from BETTY AND VERONICA #39, November 1958

Comments

Re: Lantis or Eagle > Betty or Veronica

[luxshine.insanejournal.com]

To be fair, there's a lot of shojo manga that has even more problematic relationships and female characters than Archie (And sorry to say, CLAMP and Yuu Watase are in that list), and while yes, there are a lot of stories that center around Archie choosing either Betty or Veronica to the despair of the other, there are also a ton of stories where both Betty and Veronica dump him, stories where Betty is shown as a very independent woman, Veronica makes her own choices, and Archie is a decent human being.

Hell, if I remember right, in the dreadful made for TV movie, it was clear that Archie ended up with neither, and both women were quite happy and successful with their lives, even if for the duration of the movie they returned to the old triangle dynamic.

Sure, it's not for everyone, but there is a bit more to Archie than there is to your run of the mill harem series.

Re: Lantis or Eagle > Betty or Veronica

[dejadrew.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, Archie occasionally has Betty and Veronica stepping out of their usual roles, especially these days, and props for that. But they keep going back to them, because this is Archie, and nothing can be allowed to change too much.

And status quo is that Betty and Veronica are both gaga for Archie, even though they are attractive and remarkable (Ronnie wealthy and sophisticated, Betty smart and kind and active in her community), and he is... not. At all.

And that really really bugs me, for some reason. Shoujo manga has it's own issues, OH MY GOD does it have issues. But at least the guys, while occasionally douchebaggy and messed up, are at least recognizably female fantasy objects. They exist for the female heroines and for the female readers. Not the other way around.

Re: Lantis or Eagle > Betty or Veronica

[luxshine.insanejournal.com]

But the fact is that the male characters in a lot of shojo exist not just as the female fantasy object, but as the stand in for what *Every single female must want or her life won't be worth a damn*. Especially in modern shojo. sure, you get the odd Utena from time to time, but in a sense, many shojo heroines only live to get married to a cute guy. Not to mention, that many of them only live to be *saved* by said cute guy.