Akril15 on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/akril15/art/Alexander-has-had-enough-41739833Akril15

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Alexander has had enough...

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I’ve gotten a little tired of this “angstifying” craze, especially when it seeps into King’s Quest. Sure, it was cool at one time, but once it becomes a trend, it starts getting annoying. Did I miss the meeting where angstifying became cool? Why? Is there so little angst in real life that you are obliged to inject it into other people’s characters? Yes, a character may have had a hard life, but he got over it, didn’t he? It’s just more of that “angst=character development” logic getting to me again.

To digress, I’ve liked Jasper Fforde’s concept of how fictional characters are different than real people, especially how the characters only exist in the present time, while their past is merely a backstory, the third-person characters only say what their authors write in the context of their books, while internally they can be thinking of whatever they want, and how they do pretty much anything they wish when they aren’t featured in the narrative. This explains how otherwise tortured characters live an endurable existence in fiction – no real person could survive what some fictional characters are forced to go through hundreds and hundreds of times as their book is reread.

I’ve loosely applied this concept to Alexander in this comic strip. In the words of one of Fforde’s more memorable characters, “Let’s make light of this darkness.”

What Alexander is about to do in the last panel is a concept taken from a piece of fan fiction I wrote when I was in a very bad mood.
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© 2006 - 2024 Akril15
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Hehehehe! :) I like this comic!

When it comes to Alex, personally, for me: I don't really mind him being angstified all that much, but I don't mind his self in the canon games either. As long as Alexander is made to be a likable person in general, smart, kind, studious and brave, it's all good with me.