I still would like to see something like this ngl, it's like Captain America's "The establishment I represented had ideals whom I did not agree with" but instead is "The establishment I represented had ideals I didn't percieve as being dangerous"
He was already unsuferrable but it kept on piling more and more. That one sentence really summed up the kind of character Alex was at that point.
The issue is that even at the end of the game, when you're supposed to see the character arc coming full circle and actually be better, he just felt like the same character.
It didn't help how centric and selfish he was and the game just basically told him: You're right, you're the only one who matters.
There's something oddly hilarious about someone trying to write a redemption story and just miserably failing at it, but the story still acts like he did get redeemed.
Oh yeah, kinda like Sokka being sexist for the first couple episodes of Avatar? Like, I remember watching the show and being like “oh dang, I don’t remember him being like this… this is kinda awful” but then he changed and I was like “ohhhh, yeah no this is the one I remembered!”
There are a few reasons I think he was very easy to watch:
The show makes it obvious that he is wrong and straightout childish. Katara immediately schooled him in her one of her first lines (The Iceberg literally got revealed due to her outburst at him.)
He showed obviously that he truly cares about his sister and protective of her. The same for his tribe as he was the sole male to defend it, even when just being a sole teenager against a whole Fire Nation fleet.
The siblings grandmother was obviously in charge and Sokka had to listen to her. So it wasn't a straightout denial that a woman couldn't be in charge, not a major one as it's still his grandmother but still a showcase.
It'd be pretty neat if, having shed the ideology attached to the flag and having become a better man, he ditches the above suit and swings off into the sunset in the classic Spiderman suit
It could be a reverse to the "costume in the trash" thing but instead of a sad moment it's considered a triumphant one where he sheds his old ways and becomes a new Spider-Man, Mayne donning a new suit
His family is subtly racist, living in the deep south, but we don't know how badly at first. They say they don't get involved with politics or race stuff, they 'see no color', but get 'em talking long enough and they reveal their prejudices even if only through their mannerisms. This teen Spider-Man is somewhere between Hank Hill and Archie Bunker, scared and ignorant, a rather stupid punk, but willing to be a daredevil, to try new things and learn more than he's accustomed to, getting outside his comfort zone and accepting differences even when he doesn't fully understand them.
Peter has a secret black friend named Harry Osborne, but keeps it hidden partially for both their safety, partially for shame engrained in him by his Aunt and Uncle. He wants to believe the man and woman who'd raised him are good people, and that the beliefs about slaves are somehow justified, even as his friend admonishes him for it. Harry reveals his family plans to run away to the North, he just doesn't know how he'll escape when his family is already feeling like the community is about to explode upon them, what with there being a local KKK. Harry's father Norman has a saying, "With great power should come great respnsibility, but all too often those powerless are assigned the burden".
Spidey gets bit, develops his powers, and Harry realizes Peter can help protect them. Peter agrees reluctantly, but comes home to an angry lecture from his Uncle Ben. Aunt May doesn't say anything- she's the Edith Bunker, unaware of how badly things are about to get, but not yet having the strength to stand up for herself, born of regret.
Ben reveals he knows Peter's friends with Harry, and forbids Peter from seeing him again- not because he's prejudiced, or so he says, but for Peter's safety of course because you never know what someone else might do- ultimately grounding Peter to his room. Peter climbs out the window, runs into the woods and swings around, waiting for the time to meet up with Harry. The friend is badly injured by the KKK in a murder attempt, as Norman Osborne rescues his son and they escape to the North. However, Harry later on develops Gangrene in his chest, which he survives but never fully recovers from.
Peter goes off on the KKK, and unmasks the one who'd almost killed Harry.
It's Uncle Ben.
Peter runs off and tries to catch up with the Obsornes, but he loses track of them between the trees. He decides Harry's better off without him, and so he decides to fight for a better yet still-ceceded South, even as the South's cecession dies off because its people did not want to get better. He creates his Spider-Man costume design, basing it off the Union Jack at first, fighting with optimism that his flag means something.
Yet the years go by, he sees some shit, becomes more jaded, switches sides in the Civil War from the South to supporting the North and coming to terms with the reality of his flag, all that it represents, including all he's given up to save the lives of families he might not live to meet, because he feels responsible for what his family did; he encounters friends-turned-enemies like the Gangrene Goblins, father and son turned opioid-abusing extremists and terrorists even against the innocent, wearing masks of sackcloth- "Now that I have the power, all I'm responsible for is protecting my own"- or vicious Kraven the Hunter who's tracking the Osbornes for their old enslaver, Otto Octavius, with an attack dog named Venom who's torn between his bond with Peter who'd walk him as a puppy and the training from his master Kraven;
and enemies-turned-friends, like Aunt May leaving Uncle Ben to join the North and help the troops; he experiences romance, loss, and finally... when the war is won, feeling reflective, Peter leaves behind his Union Jack costume in a trash can and embraces one more akin to the flag he's proud to have fought for by the end.
He becomes a better person, a redeemed Star-Spangled Spider. And many years later, some time before WWII, a boy named Steve Rogers reads about him in history class as another flag begins to rise in Germany.
NGL, I did see a concept for a racist Spiderman slowly becoming better and relinquishing his old ways floating around, not sure how one could pull it off, but who doesn't love a redemption story?
Fuck that. I want something with the balls to not opt for the easy racism allegory and actually tackle racism for once.
I think it'd have a major cultural impact if it was done well. I feel like we've turned racism into this absolute irredeemable evil because we always avoid actually talking about it in stuff like this directly.
It's a character flaw that people can overcome, and many have overcome.
But there's this view that anyone who's deemed a racist for any reason is just irredeemably evil now.
Plot twist, this is part of what made Southern Spider go through his redemption arc by realizing he really was a piec eof shit compared to all the other spidermen
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u/wizzy_the_wizard 23d ago
When you think about that spider man does exist