Alternative Character Interpretation/Newspaper Comics
Examples of Alternative Character Interpretations from Newspaper Comics include:
- The author's viewpoint in For Better or For Worse is that Therese is a cold, calculating shrew with severe and unreasonable jealousy problems who, despite Anthony's being a loving and supportive spouse, distanced herself from him and their child, cheated on him, and cruelly divorced him. But it's possible to make a solid case that Anthony was manipulative and overbearing, pushing Therese towards things she didn't want (a house in the suburbs, a baby) and being a whiny little bitch when she insisted on doing what she'd planned to do, such as go back to work after Francoise was born. There's textual evidence to support the thesis that Therese's "distance" was postpartum depression which Anthony did nothing about. Additionally, Anthony was emotionally unfaithful to Therese from the get-go, pining after his ex-girlfriend Liz for his entire marriage. Anthony and Liz's wedding occurs at the end of the strip's run and would seem to justify Therese's jealousy.
- Word of God is that childless career women are cold, selfish, self-centered wastes of space and that the only women who matter are full-time wives and mothers. The character of Connie (Lawrence's mother) was originally created to show this, but the author soon saw her in a sympathetic way and abandoned her plan - only to revive it with evil, evil Therese. Therese may also be evil because she is French-Canadian and attractive.
- Similarly, Anthony is seen by other characters as steadfast, loyal, and unfailingly devoted to Elizabeth. Since he maintained that loyalty and devotion to Elizabeth throughout his engagement and marriage to Therese, those traits aren't quite as admirable as they sound.
- Is Elly Patterson a long-suffering mother who never receives due praise for holding her home and family together, or does she deliberately make things more difficult for herself because she has a martyr complex? Are her children completely uncontrollable brats, or is she too self-absorbed and caught up in self-pity to tend to their emotional needs? Is she a complete Control Freak, a pillar of negativity and hatred imposing her twisted vision of what's 'good, true and right' on everyone around her? Or is she the Only Sane Man and a true gift to her community? Did she raise her family well, or cause them to turn out as nasty and self-centered as she? Sympathetic Sue, or Villain Protagonist?
- April Patterson: bratty teen, or remarkably well-behaved girl whose biggest sin is being too young to move out when her parents want to retire? Also, some blame her for Farley's death by drowning when she fell into the flooded creek. Others blame her parents for being almost criminally negligent, leaving a four-year-old unattended while they chatted with friends about their recent vacation. One could call her the Only Sane Man because she was the only one who seemed to think that Anthony and Liz were being unfaithful.
- Is Michael a delicate genius, or a spoiled brat who uses his work as an excuse to avoid any contact with his children? Is he in love with his friend Weed? Did Deanna make a mistake with her contraceptives, or did she do it deliberately to keep Michael from going on a trip?
- As you can see, the Hatedom has taken this trope and run with it, inventing various interpretations of all the different characters. For instance, one Fanon theory claims that Elizabeth was constantly making Deanna refit the wedding dress because she was trying to hide a baby bump.
- Garfield Minus Garfield depicts Jon Arbuckle as "an isolated young everyman [fighting] a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb," with Garfield the cat being little more than a depressing hallucination. Oddly, Jim Davis, the series creator, seems to support a variation of the interpretation; he's stated in interviews that Garfield cannot speak and Jon cannot read his cat's thoughts.
- Jim Davis has giving his blessing to G-G, and contributed some strips to it.
- There's a similar series more along with Davis's comment which simply removes Garfield's thought bubbles. Yes, Jon is even more pathetic than he looks.
- Another is based on series of five strips from October 1989, which suggests that the comic is a series of hallucinations by Garfield, driven mad by hunger and loneliness as he is trapped in an abandoned house. This became so popular that Word of God specifically denied it.
- Yet another altered strip posits that Garfield isn't just lazy; he's a genius--at doing as little as possible.
- Some strips hint that Odie might be smarter than Garfield thinks.
- And Garfield has had slightly different temperaments and personalities depending on the era and medium:
- Most notably, in the comics, he went from just a fat, grotesque cynical lazy cat to a more more merchandisable kid-friendly feline with lots of imagination who drove Jon up the wall with his crazy antics. Currently, he's playing the Straight Man to Jon, who is now engaging in his own antics. At least he's consistently been a Deadpan Snarker.
- Is he a immoral asshole who cares nothing for anyone but himself (and his teddy bear, Pooky?) or merely a Jerk with a Heart of Gold? (This seems to depend on how kid-friendly the work is.)
- And then there's the question of him and Arlene. Merchandise = Official Couple. Comic strips = Belligerent Sexual Tension at best.
- Marmaduke is an asshole. Or is he just a big dog that was not properly trained by his owners?
- More recently, the same guy decided that Marmaduke is actually an avenging angel sent by an angry god to punish the family for their sins. Oh, and the owner guy with the moustache doesn't just look like Hitler...
- Calvin and Hobbes has plenty of food for thought, especially in the nature of Hobbes, who appears as a Funny Animal to Calvin and a stuffed tiger to everyone else. But the Toy Ship of Calvin and Susie becomes interesting when you consider that Susie seems to like Hobbes more. Inversely, Hobbes frequently shows interest in Susie, which Calvin attempts to rebuff. Are we looking at some kind of projection, or a weird Love Triangle?
- This makes the Alternate Character Interpretation of Fight Club more interesting...
- That could be a sign that Susie was more attracted to Calvin's nice side that he displays through Hobbes, rather than the asshole he fronts himself as.
- Cartoonist Bill Watterson has supported the ambiguity of Hobbes' existence by occasionally making strips which are difficult, but not quite impossible, to explain if Hobbes was not an independent and physical entity, by having him do such things as cut Calvin's hair, help him climb trees, and on one famous occasion, tie him to a chair. A popular third take on this paradox is the theory that Calvin is a Reality Warper, and that the things he imagines really do happen, as long as no one else is looking.
- Calvin's general obliviousness to the world around him, intricate, vivid fantasies and general inability to comprehend the motivations of other people are all consistent with descriptions of autism.
- Dad and Mom: Are they good people trying to raise a "difficult" child in the best way they can? Or are they boarderline abusive/neglective parents, who have no patience at all with a six-year-old with undiagnosed autism?
- The Comics Curmudgeon loves playing this trope with print comics characters. For example, Marmaduke is a carnivorous hellhound, Mary Worth is a meddlesome she-devil, Beetle Bailey is in love with Sgt. Snorkel, and The Family Circus is a bunch of fundamentalist Stepford Smilers.
- Peanuts: Peppermint Patty and Marcie. Both of them are quite tomboyish, and they have a very...close friendship, including Marcie calling Patty "sir". Schoolgirl Lesbians, anyone? To confuse things a bit more, they both have canonical crushes on Charlie Brown, meaning that they're either just Heterosexual Life Partners or bi.
- Perhaps Marcie had a one-way crush on Peppermint Patty, who despite her butchness is canonically interested enough in Charlie Brown that anyone who says she is strictly a lesbian is moving past Alternative Character Interpretation and into Fanon.
- Word of God has it that Patty is seriously interested in Charlie Brown. All the characters are about 9 or 10, so it could just be, you know, innocent.
- Mark Trail A man that cannot understand humans and can only emphasize with animals on an emotional level. Therefore all of his interactions with humans invariably end with violence. It's kind of tragic really.
- Get Fuzzy has Rob Wilco. Is he the Only Sane Man patiently suffering through his life with two nutty pets or is he almost as mean as Bucky but with a better understanding of how the world works. Many of the things he says to his cat seem to qualify as emotional abuse. Yelling, "For the last time, Take the Tuna Out of the Can First!" when multiple microwave ovens have been destroyed seems justified. Repeatedly calling your anthropomorphic pet an idiot or a 'fuzzy little fascist' does not. Satchel may be infinitely more likeable but Rob's blatant favouritism seems heavy-handed at times. Satchel can have friends over but Bucky can't. Bucky has to hold his hand on the subway but Satchel does not. They are both adult animals so the argument that one of them is 'mature' and the other is not doesn't really hold weight. Also, it may have been Bucky's choice to sleep in the closet but Rob doesn't do anything to make it more livable. The Unfavourite is sleeping on towels in the linen closet while the favourite has a nice room with beanbag chairs and posters. In any argument or fight he has a tendency to take Satchel's side before he even sees the evidence. Once Bucky even phones a telephone psychic, tells the woman that he is going through a rough time at home, he sleeps in the closet while the dog has its own room...and sometimes he goes through the trash at night so he doesn't go to sleep hungry. The woman is completely sympathetic until she finds out he is a cat. Bucky's still the personification of Cats Are Mean but you have to at least feel sorry for him.