#like how they are forced to see the ways in which trey subconsciously project their emotions into their fiction in a real and tangible way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dear-wormwoods · 7 years

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okay can we talk south park meta? bc i was reading some of your kyle meta and i'm super glad to have found someone who sees his character the same way as i do. have you noticed that somewhere along the way people (both in show and rl) have stopped giving kyle the importance that used to be given to him? like a great example would be his speeches. back then people actually used to listen and agree, now it's more like- shut up kyle no one cares. and the weird thing is that even people like (1/2)

(2/2) even people like stan are telling him to shut up with the speeches? idk but i feel like somewhere along the last few seasons people just stopped caring about what kyle has to say, or what he does, or what he goes through (humancentipad was so fucked up and no one cared??). the stuff gerald was saying to him in s20 kind of felt like trey was using him as a mouthpiece to say that stuff about kyle. kyle’s dynamic with basically everyone in the show has changed? why are the writers doing this?

Hey anon, I love getting Kyle-related messages! And I agree with this, for the most part. I feel like in recent seasons the boys in general (with the glaring exception of Cartman) have had their roles reduced, which I suppose is why I really enjoyed last season when a lot of people hated it… I was just so glad Kyle had such a prominent role, I could look past everything else. But I have a few thoughts on some of the specific things you mentioned:

Kyle’s thoughts and opinions have never held a ton of weight in the show. He has always been sort of the voice of reason that no one listens to, and that’s kind of the trope they most often used with him. I think the major shift between past seasons and recent ones is that, like… in the old days, even if no one actively listened to Kyle’s speeches, in the end he was always proven right, or justice was served, so we as the audience knew that the show was on his side and it was simply the townspeople’s and/or Cartman’s stupidity that caused him to be initially ignored. More recently, it seems like there hasn’t been any real karma in the show? Like, Kyle is ignored like always, but instead of things going wrong because no one listened to him, things just go fine for the people in the wrong and there is no real comeuppance. Like Cartman gets away with A LOT nowadays, as does Randy, or Gerald, or anyone else really. And that really bothers me, because like Kyle I’m a fan of cosmic justice, and it’s disheartening when it seems like the wrong side is prevailing disproportionately. It seems like they might be trying to turn this trend around though, by giving him a voice toward the end of last season and in this season (if this week’s episode is enough to go on, at least).

Re Humancentipad: I’m ALMOST glad that it was never addressed again, for a couple of reasons. First, that episode ruined my life when it came out and I hate thinking about it because it physically hurts me to do so. Secondly, I don’t think that Matt & Trey are really capable of dealing with that sort of trauma long term in a meaningful, effective way. I think if Humancentipad was in a more recent season and they attempted to weave the thread of what happened throughout a season for serialization purposes, it would NOT have gone well. They just don’t have the tools at their disposal to be sensitive about handling a character (a MINOR) who was kidnapped, mutilated, humiliated, horribly violated, told that he deserved it, and then given to his mortal enemy (who has a history of humiliating & abusing him as well) as a literal gift.

I do think that Kyle has shown very SUBTLE reactions to the long term abuse he’s gotten from various sources throughout the show. For instance, he constantly feels guilty for things that aren’t his fault and feels a sort of… responsibility, almost, to subject himself to additional humiliation and abuse because he feels it’s deserved, or that something good will eventually come out of it - not for him, but for his loved ones, or for the world. The most recent example of this is probably Ginger Cow, which is another episode that is uncomfortable to watch but is very important in Kyle’s character arc, I think. It definitely gives off the vibe that his spirit has sort of been broken down too much, to the point where he almost seems to SEEK OUT humiliation, perhaps in an effort to just get ahead of it? Like he knows it will happen anyway, he’s resigned himself to that fate, so he’s now trying to create the scenario himself so he at least feels like he has some control over it? It’s telling that Ginger Cow comes after Humancentipad, an episode where he was totally blindsided by the traumatic event and was helpless to do anything about it. So in that sense, I think Matt & Trey are, maybe subconsciously, weaving in the impact of trauma on him without explicitly talking about past events like Humancentipad. They sort of do the same thing with Butters, who is another character who suffers a LOT for no real reason, and Kenny, who is very clearly using Mysterion as an outlet for his darker reactions to his curse. I’m just not sure how much thought they’re putting into this. Maybe it’s purely coincidental.

Re Gerald: his reactions to Kyle last season did not surprise me at all. Gerald has a history of being a jerk. He’s always been a narcissist and always had problems with addiction and self-control, like many other adults in the show. He got away with it for a long time because sometimes it was fairly innocuous and when it wasn’t, it still wasn’t outright abusive. I think his issues went to an extreme last season, but it seemed like a natural progression to me, because I have spent too much time analyzing the Broflovski family dynamic, haha. It makes sense to me that he would react negatively to Kyle and project his own attitudes onto Ike, even though Ike isn’t interested in his shit either. Gerald is someone who feels like he lacks control in his life because he married someone who is very opinionated and has a strong sense of right and wrong. Sheila has always been the dominant personality in their relationship, and Kyle is A LOT like her. He has inherited her moral compass and her self righteousness. He isn’t afraid to call people out for being shitty, and this rubs people the wrong way because no one likes being told they’re shitty. He sees them both as total wet blankets, as does basically the entire town. The difference between Gerald’s relationship with Sheila and his relationship with Kyle is that he has authority over Kyle and can get away with bullying him. I’m not sure how much of what he said was about KYLE specifically and how much was him projecting what he wishes he could say to SHEILA onto Kyle, but either way, it was disgusting and abusive, and I don’t think their relationship will ever be the same.

Regarding Trey using Gerald as a mouthpiece… I’ve definitely gotten that feeling before, in recent seasons, whether it’s Gerald or Cartman or Stan or whoever else happens to be totally disregarding or outright shitting on Kyle for no reason. I think that there had to have been some turbulence in Matt and Trey’s friendship at some point that caused some resentment to build up on Trey’s end, because he’s the main writer/creative force and I do agree that his treatment of Kyle has been suspiciously bad lately (but again, it seems better this season so far). This resentment has manifested both in the unnecessarily frequent silencing and abuse of Kyle and in the constant, inexplicable friction between Kyle and Stan. I have a lot of thoughts on Trey’s sort of split personality situation regarding Stan and Cartman, and how it feels, lately, as if he relates far more to Cartman and is therefore (again, maybe subconsciously) trying to drive a wedge between Kyle and Stan to pull Kyle more toward Cartman. But I’ve already talked too much to open THAT can of worms in this post.

ANYWAY, I hope this is what you were looking for! I could talk about Kyle all day, haha. I have hope that he won’t be as sidelined in the future if their goal is to return to their roots, but we shall see.

#asks #kyle broflovski #south park #meta #rambling about kyle #anonymous #sp meta #my meta #contributions

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