It's really very simple to sum this up, but I decided to throw it out anyway on the basis of stirring up some discussion. This follows on from LightningFlash's discussion of why Kitt is in the Penn Crew; so as to not change the subject there, I decided to place it in a new topic. I have merely three main points, as follows:

1. Kitt is the only important female character. Hence, she must be taken as the DB example of How Women Should Be. And, as an example, is completely repulsive.

1.a. She's cliched. This is not a real person, this is SpunkyGirl McShallow. Great role model. Only not. (And badly written at that--her lines aren't witty in any real sense, and the attitude is meaningless as she does little else but follow Artha, our Chosen One of Canon Suedom.)
1.b. She achieves very little of importance in the context of the show. Artha's skills trump her specialisation and Parm handles tech; she's only marginally more useful than the ten-year-old.
1.c. She (and all other onscreen females) appear to be anorexic. Again. Not a good role model. At all. Downright DANGEROUS in fact. (And it's not as though there aren't larger-built males present in the show.)
1.d. She gives up her career to follow the guy she crushed on. Yay for subservient females. It would NOT harm the dragon-human war for her to be continuing to race in her own right and win a spot at the Academy; her following Artha is merely a cheap pretext to stick in the Token Girl, who of course is not permitted to outshine Our Hero.

2. Aside from Kitt, there are very few on-screen female characters. The mothers are dead/disappeared (because women are weak and just fade offscreen leaving only angst behind them). (Cf. Dead Parent Syndrome, Idealised Mother Figure, etcetera.) The women that are occasionally around tend to be sidekicks (eg. Spynn) or minor (eg. Marianis). Pyrrah is okay as a character, but again she's minor--and fairly cliched herself. While the WEBSITE implies that around 50% of Crew leaders are women and in the world, as would be logical, it's suggested women have an equal chance of succeeding as dragon control and not physical strength equal power, the ACTUAL SHOW gives us a primarily male cast with all the powerful characters as male. Armageddon, original DB, Mortis/Connor, Word, Artha. Boys' Club, girls not allowed.

3. Notice how the surnames of children are evidently inherited from their fathers? This is something that was lifted from our patriarchal society without a sign that the writers of the DB world truly bothered to consider. The Dead Mothers and Female Sidekicks are other examples of a society that is quite obviously masculine-oriented. It's heteronormative, too--something else lifted straight from modern-day America that wouldn't necessarily fit into the DB world as defined.

--

This representation of female characters is something that disturbs me greatly; masculine wish-fulfilment fantasies may be very well in their place, but masculine wish-fulfilment fantasies which ignore and stereotype women are horrible things indeed.

Thoughts, anyone?

Totally right on Kitt. After the Furox episiode, I started hating Kitt. She just faded into the background. things I was hpinh she'd do, but never did:
At least once smack Artha for his arrogance.
Stand up to Moordryd on her own. The locked in the cage bit doesn't count.
Kick Artha soundly in a race, she's supposed to be the best, right?
And maybe do something to end the shipping wars, but then, hey, they are fun! :D

I KNOW!!!! She used to be the UBER cool lone-racer with no crew who always won..... <_<

Yeesh ,what do you guys have against Kitt? I'm just saying that, not wanting you to answer it as a question or anything. Kitt and Artha are the ones who can actually fight with a staff or something. You saw Parm in Artha the Drac, he's a disastor. I don't hate any of the Penn Crew, just PArm's not very good at combat. Lance CAN use a mag-staff but i believe he usually prefers Flash sticks. Look at any eppie he fights in, and he will probably have a flash stick and is shown using it. Prohpet's Motive, Artha the Drac, The Choosing Part 2, etc.

I must agree with you Hunter. Kitt plays an important role....well IMO. Also she likes to help Artha, as we have seen in some episodes.

But also I agree with Mari, when is Kitt going to win a race where Artha is also competing??? We haven't seen that, well at least I haven't seen that.

Parm's skills are necessary as he's the only one of the trio gifted in tech, but Artha ends up with Kitt's skills plus thanks to the Speshul Dragon And Speshul Amulet, hence making Kitt somewhat surplus to requirements. (Eg. "All Is Not Lost"--she does nothing plot-relevant there iirc.) Not that extra warm bodies on-side to help in a fight are always a bad thing, but when the extra body seems there as a mere example of Token Love Interest and their skills are not unique, questions may be asked. It might even have been better to keep her as a largely offscreen love interest, if it was absolutely necessary to give Artha a Crush Object--at least that way she would have kept her career and insipid personality to one side.

I havent seen the episode you guys are talking about so I cant make an opinion.

Actually, we're discussing a character, not an episode.

Well, even if Kitt is a poor stereotype, at least we can be thankful for one thing: she isn't one of the new generation of women in cartoons with a bra size going into the 1000000's. Seriously, I've seen it before (Pigeon Boy, anyone?).

I completely agree with you Dragonide. Kitt plays a major role in the show. Like think of the parts she's supposed to play, but she doesn't. The show goes on exactly how it is now, but she just doesn't show up. What if Parm had to mag-jump off Beau in the Horn of Libris? Seriously! DISASTOR! No Kitt to show up in the Choosing part 2. No Kitt in Fanning the Flames. etc,etc,ETC!

...Way to miss the point. Obviously Kitt has been written into the show and by deleting every mention of her it would be much shorter. But how she's been written is problematic: she gives up her independent career to follow her boyfriend, said boyfriend dupicates and exceeds her skill set making her almost redundant. Yes, she has some moments of plot relevance, but think about how much she actually does in episodes like All Is Not Lost and Three Times a Hero. She doesn't add anything new to the team at all; she's only marginally more useful than Lance--and more irritatingly cliched. Tokenism is a wonderful thing.

Yes, I found it quite annoying that the only use for Kitt in Three Times a Hero was as "bait" for the Dragon Booster. She didn't do much to help get herself out, just sat in the cell wishing that Artha and Co. would hurry up and save her. (If she did do something, it would have been nice to be shown on screen...) Way to show that females could save themselves, too, huh? <_<

In All is Not Lost, she disappoints as well. She doesn't do much except stare in horror at the atrocity of what is happening and what the Muhorta is/doing. So helpful Kitt was... *Cough Hack Cough*

Yes, she obviously seems to have no dreams of her own, or hers aren't "important" enough for the "Cause."

Yes, quite so. They don't seem to worry about eating disorders, do they? According to the official site (Before they changed it), I believe that Pyrrah was listed as "85 pounds" and Kitt "100 pounds." *Cough Hack Cough*

Marianis and Spynn don't seem cliched, at least to the extent of Pyrrah and Kitt. Pyrrah seems to be an anorexic, fiery-tempered racer. Great role model, huh?

Kitt has played a few major parts, but none of them have ever made her the hero. Lance saved Artha and Artha called him a hero, but when has Kitt ever been called a hero?

Take Fanning the Flames, for example. She played an important part, yes, but what about when she was being attacked by the Furox? What kind of person just stands, hands held to face, screaming their heart out? Sure, just stand screaming and wait for your hero to come save you at the last possible moment...

I have nothing against Kitt, Artha, yes, but Kitt, no. She just needs more personality and to do more than "follow your hero to your demise." The only times Kitt has acted independently of Artha (or best interests in mind) were Chromatic Dragon and Fanning the Flames. And what little personality that had been shown was forgotten as soon as Artha/Dragon Booster showed up.

Yes, when she was acted independently, she actually did something, now it's just following every order given to her. I liked the fact that in Horn of Libris, she did save Parm and Lance, but of course, Artha needed no saving since he is such a speshul person...

Oh, yes, of course. *Cough hack cough*

I am not saying that Kitt isn't important; NOT AT ALL!! Kitt's seriously awsome, I just think she became less...... vivid. She's still important, but not as a sorta lone-rider-of-coolness. Now she's Really-important-sidekick-of-coolness... <_< But Kitt still seriously rocks! :lol: :D

You know, here's an interesting thing. Hunter, dRagOniDe, you two are also Artha fans (From your other post that's how it looks anyhow.) and you guys are the ones supporting Kitt. This could be to the fact that since you ignore Artha's sue-ness, Kitt becomes a different person, since she's not dealing with the uber-special-so-super-heroboy. In the eps when Artha needs Kitt's help or advice *searches through memory mumbling "There's gotta be one"* she's a much better character.

No offense meant, but are you blind? After the Furox eppie, Kitt gets fairly useless. Other than pep-talking Parm and Lance occaisilally, getting caught, and being the only one with sense in ep. 22, she could have been cut altogether.

Of course, if you did, the show would be very different. Kitt does play a major part, just not as useful. ;)

Mari, no offense, but are you insinuating that she had a major cameo or something?

Not really. I'm just saying she's a major role, but only as a side-kick. She's is sorta useless, but nethertheless, as a main character, she MUST have a major role. :lol:

S'okay, I suck at putting thoughts into words.

I agree with that. Do we really have seen her in action? I have never seen Kitt fighting.
Pyrrah since Fanning the Flames it disappear almost completely and Marianis we see it her in just one episode. And what with Embyrr, she always lose in the competitions and in the Leap of Lorius she never arrives at the finish line.

Pssh, she was only in that one scene and occasionally around Dragon City.... <_< I do hope, however, that we see more of Chute and Marianis. :D

Marianis I'm not so sure, but Chute we might definitely be seeing a lot more. Being an Elite Academy racer, I bet ten drakkals we're gonna see more minor characters than before.

Now...as for Kitt, she needs more glory on-screen than Artha.

Yes! MORE GLORY FOR KITT!!!! :lol:

I thought I'd revive this topic with something I noticed in The Mechanist. We've got four female Crew-leaders compared to eight male to start with (not including Artha), which is just enough to assume that 50% parity is possible in the world. Except two of the four have male sidekicks ‘better’ than them: we see Rivett rather than Machina, and Dorsul not Marianis is the racing champion. Whereas Spynn and whatshername from the Dragon Eyes are distinctly secondary to their male leaders. Which gives us ten more visible male Crew-members. And Chute's only been in one episode so far (helping out the male hero at that rather than pursuing a goal of her own!), and Pyrrah's usually doing Word's bidding.

Yeah. Total equality.

Also, in Slithercorp we (according to spoilers) see Kitt finally get fed up with trailing along after Artha and do something on her own--and nearly destroy the city because of it. (Independence is WRONG for women, evidently.) And from Professor Stubborn it appears Parm will beat her to getting an amulet--when he's already got a plot role as the source of information, and she has so little to do.

Kitt started out really cool: sarcastic, loner, brilliant racer that beat Artha AND Moordryd AND everyone else. And then she Artha became friends and she stopped winning, I still don't get it, how did Artha magically become so fabulous that he is the only one who can win a race? I mean I know Kitt one at least one race since she joined Artha but that was only because Beau ran out of power and Rivett took away Moordryd's gray gear. (anyone know the name of that episode?) And you know what Kitt does afterwards? She apologizes to Artha for winning,

"Oh Artha I'm sooo sorry you didn't win."
"Yeah but you did."
"You noticed!" giggle

(That's not the exact quote but you get the idea) But seriously, since when did Kitt start giggling? I thought she was all just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't take care of myself. (Which is how her character started out)

The ep was The Mechanist. :) I read that bit as Kitt fishing for compliments, because it's not like she gets 'em often, but you're right, it could be interpreted that way.

And though in The Choosing Kitt's name gets introduced as the racer currently ahead in the points standings, the show after that is all about the Artha/Moordryd rivalry. Also in The Mechanist, Khatah says to Moordryd that he wonders why he hasn't given up racing since Artha and the Dragon Booster made it so tough for him--but what about the Best Street Racer In Dragon City, who was ahead of Moordryd at the start of the series? (Khatah himself is more experienced and qualified than Artha, too, apparently at the top of his Academy classes as per Horn of Libris--but evidently the Academy doesn't do so much!)

Thanks to Artha, Kitt eventually gets knocked out of the Academy competition (teaming up with him worked so well). Here's another Kitt Hypothesis that would have improved her role in the series: she won the last Academy competition and received a place, but she decided to defer enrolment to race Down City for a bit longer, earning some extra cash and waiting for the term to start. As in the series, she meets Artha in the first few episodes and has those moments where she's actually useful, becomes an official member of Penn Racing, and goes off to the Academy before her plot uselessness becomes too obvious, resolving to still help him out. She keeps her promise and is only seen on-screen when she has something to contribute to the plot, teaching Artha new Academy tricks and helping out the DB. You've still got off-screen female characters who aren't as plot-relevant as male, but at least you've got her doing something more interesting than Trailing After Her Man.

How is it that she had only one racing move to teach Artha that he didn't already know? I mean he's really still a rookie, did the DB suit give him some vast library of knowledge?

He plays VIDDgames, is Naturally Talented *eyeroll*, and has Mortis on-side. On the official site it says that Mortis is an elite racter, so although it'd be nice if we saw more on-screen training it's not implausible that Artha's learning from him, but it'd be nice if we'd seen Kitt teaching him more--and Mortis and Parm actually helping Kitt out as well, because it doesn't look like she gets any advantage from being a member of the Penn Crew other than the opportunity to cling to Artha's coattails (cf. this topic).