This brings up a really interesting point about the perceived age of characters; I know for me and many viewers/fans, Dawn as younger-sister is really hard to shake, even though she's almost an adult by series end and can be aged up regardless, she feels like a younger-sister to me. Likewise Joyce-as-mother. We-as-viewers take the viewpoint character (Buffy)'s age to be the norm and point-of-identity... it's illogical but it's how I react to text. Like, in the BSC the viewpoint characters are 13, and yet I still cannot think of them as anything but Older Than Me (or maybe Just About My Age) since I started reading them when I was in 2nd grade. So when writing/conceptualizing BuffyversexBSC crossover, I find it hard to imagine that Dawn Summers when we meet her is actually older than the babysitters are.
Becoming an adult and a possible lover and thus equal to Giles-the-father-figure (the ultimate expression of her maturity) is for me a type of coming-of-age story, just as the romance Ari's painted between movie!verse Maltilda/Miss Honey is a coming-of-age story where Matilda earns her independece (rather than, Ari argues persuasively, merely transferring her obedience to a more palatable parental figure) and becomes an equal to the adult.
This is interesting! In a sense, Matilda is always-already earning independence/acting independently - she teaches herself to read, she learns, in the words of the movie's vo, "something most people never learn - to take care of herself," and as soon as she figures out how, she's punishing adults and changing the world to her liking.
Which is why Miss Honey's presence feels so odd. Matilda doesn't need a caretaker (the vo already told us she can take care of herself) and she doesn't need a teacher (she taught herself to read), so Miss Honey's role must be something different....
I think the ending montage is as much about Miss Honey reclaiming the happy childhood Miss Trunchbull never let her have than it is about Matilda.
Yup!
Hmm, now I really want to write movie!verse Matilda/Jenny and explore these dynamics.
My hypnotic powers are already taking effect Please do!
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Becoming an adult and a possible lover and thus equal to Giles-the-father-figure (the ultimate expression of her maturity) is for me a type of coming-of-age story, just as the romance Ari's painted between movie!verse Maltilda/Miss Honey is a coming-of-age story where Matilda earns her independece (rather than, Ari argues persuasively, merely transferring her obedience to a more palatable parental figure) and becomes an equal to the adult.
This is interesting! In a sense, Matilda is always-already earning independence/acting independently - she teaches herself to read, she learns, in the words of the movie's vo, "something most people never learn - to take care of herself," and as soon as she figures out how, she's punishing adults and changing the world to her liking.
Which is why Miss Honey's presence feels so odd. Matilda doesn't need a caretaker (the vo already told us she can take care of herself) and she doesn't need a teacher (she taught herself to read), so Miss Honey's role must be something different....
I think the ending montage is as much about Miss Honey reclaiming the happy childhood Miss Trunchbull never let her have than it is about Matilda.
Yup!
Hmm, now I really want to write movie!verse Matilda/Jenny and explore these dynamics.
My hypnotic powers are already taking effectPlease do!