Batman spent a number of years in the late-90’s and early-00’s acting like DC’s less-effective version of Dr. Doom who got a pass because he spent some of his time beating up mental patients who tried to rob banks.
He kept a list of ways to kill his co-workers in his “secret” hideout (which is broken into every other week), created a spy satellite that kept track of everybody on earth, ignored obvious warning signs that things were about to go poorly with said satellite by a trusted co-worker (Blue Beetle), and was negligent enough in regard to Robin IV that she wound up tortured to death. All of this on top of acting like a colossal jerk to pretty much everybody for no reason.
He should have been locked up in Arkham by an actual superhero immediately after this incident with the JLA and his “protocols.” Anybody else would’ve been.
What actually happened to him was… pretty much nothing. He was vaporized by Darkseid last year, but not for any reason related to him being less of a superhero than a supervillain with good connections for years.
Well, no she didn’t - she (and Dr Leslie Thompkins) faked her death. Presumably the torture was real, though, so the Bat doesn’t get THAT much of a pass here.
And, just to add another note to the Bat’s resume of jackassery - after Steph’s return, Robin (Tim, again, at that point) asks if he knew.
‘I suspected.’ Never in the 2 years+ since her apparent death did he ever think to tell Tim - her boyfriend at the time - that he had reason to believe she was alive.
Now, if Steph’s death hadn’t been faked, Dr Thompkins would belong on this list, since she supposedly actively let her die. And nothing major came of it.
She “found” the summoning doodad IN HER OWN HOUSE.
Why would Xander do the ritual there? He’d do it in either the Magic Shop, his and Anya’s apartment, or at work.
If I recall aright, Dawn picks up the doodad during her single, abortive solo song; she take it out of a jewelry box and puts it on. Clearly she did the ritual and, being a teenage girl in danger of being dragged to Hell for a lifetime of rape, lied about it. Xander, either chivalrously or deviously, lied to protect her.
She actually swiped the doodad earlier in the episode. There’s a shot of her grabbing it off the counter at the Magic Box. IIRC, this is right near the beginning, after Buffy’s opening number and before the “I have a theory” song. Dawn certainly seems confused when Sweet keeps saying she summoned him.
I will agree that it seems wildly out of character for Xander to be behind the summoning.
You are correct. And I’d say she was confused because she thought that, by summoning the spirit of musicals or whatever, she would be creating the environment in which all emotions were expressed as in Sondheim, not an actual horny male interested in exploring her orifices. And as she frequently goes to the Magic Shop (Box?), she might have performed the ritual one day and decided later to steal it as well.
Jack in Torchwood is a lot different than the Jack we first met in the WWII episodes of Doctor Who. He was a self-centered opportunistic jerk who thought nothing of screwing up history as long as he could make some money out of it.
His travels with the Doctor and Rose, and then later with Martha, mellowed him and made him less self-centered, more noble. He really wasn’t an integral part of Torchwood until after the Daelick/Cybermen showdown destroyed that organization. It seems to me, in the flashbacks of Jack interacting with Torchwood since the 19th century, that he is someone who that organization finds useful but not trustworthy.
As a result, he’s still really learning how to be a leader of an organization (or should I spell it organisation?) with a worthy goal.
He hasn’t developed boss skills, and is still coming at the whole thing as one of the gang, so discipline for things that he could easily see himself doing isn’t going to be harsh.
He ran off with the Doctor and Martha to find a cure for his immortality, and he only had a very short space of time to act on the Doctor being in Cardiff - no time to leave even a hastily scrawled note for the gang.
As for my input to the topic: ilton Drysdale, The Beverly Hillbillies - how many counts of bank fraud and other SEC violations is that guy guilty of?
Plus they needed somebody to keep an eye on the rift and head up the Cardiff base.
Except he wasn’t alone in the base a the time, all he had to do was tell Gwen that he’d be gone for a bit. He would have left without a word a second time had it not been for Ianto’s prodding.
For what it’s worth, the Enterprise-E is slightly smaller than it’s predecessor. And, from the looks of things in the last few movies, Picard might have started “falling out of favor” in Starfleet—in TNG, he was said to have picked Riker as his first officer from several candidates. In Nemesis, after Riker accepts a command of his own, Picard is sent a new first officer that he’s never even met. Or apparently even talked to. Ouch.
Okay, for my own suggestion? Raising the bar for pathetic geekiness…“Impmon,” from Digimon, season 3 (aka “the darker, violent season that no one liked,” aka “Neon Genesis Digimon”). Guilty of: murder. What really makes it worse is that it was of a (good-guy) character who it is established would have been able to regenerate/reincarnate, but now can’t because of the way he was killed. Double ouch. Cold, man.
To be fair, he (Impmon) later switched sides, and had a “good lord, what have I become”-thing going on, so at least he felt bad, and the only reason he didn’t get summarily executed was because the dead guy’s headcase girlfriend hippie’d out and begged that there be no more killing…but still, if he’s not going to make a Heroic Sacrifice™, see any jail time or commit seppuku out of shame, the least he could have done was chop off his own gun hand in contrition, or somethin’.
It’s either slightly sad or really good that I don’t write for children’s television, I figure.
The Beansie incident was nothing compared to what Ralph did to that stripper in Season 3. He beat her to death by smashing her head against a guard rail, and Tony punched him - and then for the whole rest of the season he has the nerve to bitch about Tony punching him - “he raised his hands to me! I can’t believe he raised his hands to me!” At one point he even says, “I could understand if it was his wife or daughter or something, but a whore?” This statement shows just how insane and out-of-touch Ralph truly was. “Maybe” if it was his wife or daughter? If Ralph had beaten Tony’s wife or daughter to death, he wouldn’t have gotten punched by Tony; he would have been tortured in the most horrific way possible, and then brutally killed. His idea of ethics was so profoundly out of whack, it was amazing that he was even able to function in society. Yet he was never really punished for what he did; in fact, during the fourth season he was even promoted in rank!
Ralph truly was an absolute psychopath and he also had no social skills whatsoever; he insulted all of his peers over and over again; he had no sense of tact whatsoever. He was almost killed because he made a joke about Johnny Sack’s wife; he was constantly making inappropriate jokes, like when Brian Spatafore was in a coma after getting beaten with a golf club and he said “well, he wasn’t that smart to begin with” (!) The only reason he was tolerated at all was because somehow, he was able to bring in a lot of money through a construction business (whose relationship to him was never really clear.) Honestly I never really understood how Ralph was able to accomplish what he did. Where did he come from? The character just appeared out of the ether, at the beginning of Season 3, with no backstory and no explanation at all.
As I understand it, season 3 was originally meant to be focused on Livia Soprano and her possibly revealing information on Tony Soprano to the federal agents, as hinted by the cliffhanger finale of season 2. However, Nancy Marchand, the actress behind Livia Soprano, died in-between filming the seasons and so the entire season 3 was a bit scrambled.
Ralphie, I think, is Richie +. Their names are similar, even, and Ralphie even gets it together with Janice Soprano, just like Richie did. Ralphie’s character fills the void of Richie and replaces a lack of a Livia plot. As you mention, the prostitute killing is akin to the Beansie incident, only a whole lot more gruesome.
Yeah, I do remember reading that. I think Ralph was a great character; in some ways he was actually a much more interesting character than Richie. Richie had one mode, old-school tough guy, like a poor man’s Al Pacino. It was good for Season 2 but I don’t think it would have held up well for any longer.
Ralph, on the other hand, was way more dynamic and multi-dimensional. He was a real oddball character who was a true wild card even within the crazy world of the Soprano family. I think he was quite deliberately written by the show’s writers to stand out from everyone else in weird ways - his red hair and preppy hairstyle; the fact that he dressed like an English country gentleman instead of wearing flashy goomba suits; and yet his manufactured image of a dapper dandy was completely undercut by his exceptionally rude, abrasive and tactless personality and his grating, nasal whine of a voice.
Instead of being physically intimidating, he was menacing precisely because of his extremely neurotic, narcissistic personality, and totally unpredictable temper. His utter lack of social graces ensured that he got under the skin of every single person he worked with; he was almost universally despised; he was the only character on the show who really managed to drive Tony up the wall, I think, and that is saying a lot.
There are really not a lot of characters with the unique mannerism of Ralph that appear in movies or on television. The only one who really comes close that I can think of is Steve Buscemi’s character in Fargo, Carl Showalter. “Weasel” is the word that comes to mind - but a weasel with very sharp teeth.
What makes it work, of course, is Joe Pontaliano. I think the character of Ralphie could really have fallen apart under a lesser actor. The single most haunting experience I’ve had with the Sopranos so far (just started on season 5) was when Sil beat up that prostitute outside of Ralphie’s house and Ralphie watched from inside, laughing so hard he had to wipe tears. An absolutely chilling moment.
I just now realized that Joe also played Teddy in Memento. He definitely stole the show in that movie.
I completely agree with the Eureka example. She should have been led away in cuffs never to be seen again.
I’m rewatching Saw II and the @$$hole Xavier. In real-life he would have been killed in the first 5 minutes if for no other reason that pre-emptive self-preservation.
I liked Season 3!
That’s a great example. I don’t think you can jail a Digimon and Impmon’s redemption was good plot point, so I would be upset if he committed seppuku. Cutting of his gun hand seems like a good idea. It was dark enough season, I think they could have gotten away with it, even if it was a kid’s show. It would have been cut from the American version, but still is a good idea.
Glad to meet ya! I think this makes at least three or four of us by now.
Thank you! Well, maybe I have a future in the field after all…
(So if Saturday Morning Cartoons ever make a big comeback, and you run across some series with an episode that’s basically a love letter to Herman Kahn, you’ll know who to blame. )
from the American version, but still is a good idea.
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