Dr.Horrible's Sing Along Blog appears to be an exaggerated aspect of all human dimensions. There is the "evil" Dr. Horrible who represents the desire for power, success and recognition. I would be curious to know what led him to pursue this avenue of "horribleness". He was probably a weakling, picked on by others, who has decided to seek revenge. With that said, he is still sympathetic towards other weaklings, children and elderly, that he refuses to kill. He attempts to grasp onto characteristics the media has assigned as "evil" (the evil laugh) which shows that he is merely an evil copy-catter.
Captain Hammer represents the ego we all have. He also symbolizes the person we envy, the person who seems to have it all, and the person we'd love to be and hate that we're not. Very few people are truly comfortable in their own skin the way Captain Hammer is. Even though he is vain and obnoxious, he is the envy of many. He appears to have it all. Most of us could find at least one thing that we love about ourselves but would never state it to others because that would be viewed as boastful. Captain Hammer doesn't care, he boasts about himself all the time and people do nothing but agree with his grandiose opinion of himself. Dr. Horrible envy's Captain Hammer too and that results in a love/hate emotion that fuels his need to destroy him.
Penny represents the goodness in all of us. She spends her life getting dismissed, ignored, and passed by unnoticed and yet she still has a motivational song to sing. As optimistic as she may seem she has a pessimistic view of her own capabilities. Even though she passionately believes in helping the homeless, she feels unable to make a difference on her own. Consequently, she relies on Captain Hammer. Unfortunately, Captain Hammer has his own agenda (and it's not helping the homeless). People like Penny can get taken advantage of because of their need for others and their belief in the goodness of humanity.
Although this is Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, I would argue that the most influential character in this blog is Captain Hammer. He is the reason Dr. Horrible has endeavored to transform himself into someone more powerful, and more evil. Captain Hammer is also the reason Penny accomplished her endeavors to open up a homeless shelter. He seems to be the key element for both Penny and Dr. Horrible.
Lastly, I wanted to make mention of the shift in the characters at the end of this blog. Dr. Horrible is finally able to descend into the pits of "evil" and Captain Hammer is left crying on a psychiatrist's coach. This shows that Dr. Horrible is finally able to steal the spotlight from Captain Hammer and Captain Hammer is feeling the pain and torture of inferiority in the way Dr. Horrible used to feel. I found it to be an ironically humorous conclusion to this story.
2 comments:
I especially love your third paragraph. I echoed those thoughts in my own post.
Oh, and your last paragraph is an astute observation that I hadn't considered before! That Whedon turns the tables on the Captain Hammer/Dr. Horrible dynamic.
A smart post, Angela. I like that you point out that Captain Hammer *does* get something done--he gets the shelter opened. In that way, he does--gulp!--make a difference, doesn't he?
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