Veronica Mars: Our Heroine
Dec. 19th, 2006 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowOne of the principal attractions of Veronica Mars is, of course, the title character. In the long tradition of schoolgirl sleuths, she is cute, smart, spunky, and tough-minded, but there's rather more going on than that. More under the cut.
Let's look at those traits again. "Cute" we can deal with briefly; she is cute, undeniably, though she mocks herself as flat-chested in one first-season episode.
She's smart. She's book-smart: in Season Two, she is a leading contender for a highly competitive scholarship. More importantly, she's canny; when she's on the job, she's wide-focused, noticing subtle details and building them into coherent explanations. She's aware of her talents; she especially delights in mocking the sheriff's department in this respect.
She's smart; but she's not as smart as she thinks she is. One of my favorite scenes from Season One comes when Veronica, believing that her father is withholding evidence in the Lily Kane case from her, breaks into his safe. There, she finds a temptingly labelled folder and pulls it out. Now, I knew the damn thing was booby-trapped even before the dye-pack went off. (Keith, that evening: "You okay, honey? You look a little blue.") She's smart, but she's not as smart as her father - not all the time, at least. Her repeated clashes with Clarence Wiedman make the same point, rather more seriously. Wiedman is the most seriously scary character the show has yet produced, and he is consistently one step ahead of her.
She's also rash. Too often, she jumps to conclusions and makes accusations based on inadequate or misleading data. One of those accusations leads to Logan's beating at the hands of Weevil's gang, and the repercussions of that incident are still reverberating in Season Three.
She's spunky; she's not afraid to put herself at risk, and resourceful enough to deal with risk most of the time. This is apparent from the first episode, in her memorable run-in with the PCHers. But she sometimes misjudges, and lands herself in more trouble than she can handle. The most vivid example of that comes in the final episode of Season One, as she finally confronts Aaron Echolls. She almost succeeds in escaping him, but not quite; only Keith's arrival on the scene, and a good deal of luck, keeps her from being killed. That is the most vivid example, I say, but there are others like it, in that and later seasons.
She's tough-minded: she'll do what she sees as being necessary, come hell or high water. Sometimes, though, that toughness is expressed as callousness. It would be stretching things to say that she has no friends, only allies, but it would not be too much of a stretch; at different times Wallace, Mac, and Weevil call her out for seeking them out only for the sake of their talents and resources. Her treatment of Leo is less than honorable, even after she begins dating him. She is not particularly concerned with the law, either - less so, I think, than her father; in the first episode, we see her connive to get some of Weevil's boys out from under a robbery charge, in order to gain their help on a case.
I have to think that much of this - much of the gray, and of the white as well, in Veronica's character - flows more or less directly from her experiences in the months before the show began. She was repeatedly betrayed: by Duncan; by the people of Neptune in general and Jake Kane in particular; by her mother; by her erstwhile 09er friends; and by the sheriff's department in general and Sheriff Lamb in particular. Because of this, her ability to trust anyone - even her father - is stunted. This contributes to her self-assurance: if she can't rely on others, she must rely on herself. It amplifies her rashness: she is quick to assume the worst. Her willingness to skirt the law may begin here as well; if the instrument of the law, the Sheriff's Department, is untrustworthy, why should the law itself be respected? (In fairness, there may be earlier roots to this; I get the impression that Lily often pushed her in, ahh, socially questionable directions. But I think that, even if the tendency was already present, her personal catastrophe must have worsened it.)
I don't want to make too much of this. Veronica is, at bottom, a good person, and her work usually is beneficial to her clients and to society. But she's been badly damaged, and that damage has consequences.
Let's look at those traits again. "Cute" we can deal with briefly; she is cute, undeniably, though she mocks herself as flat-chested in one first-season episode.
She's smart. She's book-smart: in Season Two, she is a leading contender for a highly competitive scholarship. More importantly, she's canny; when she's on the job, she's wide-focused, noticing subtle details and building them into coherent explanations. She's aware of her talents; she especially delights in mocking the sheriff's department in this respect.
She's smart; but she's not as smart as she thinks she is. One of my favorite scenes from Season One comes when Veronica, believing that her father is withholding evidence in the Lily Kane case from her, breaks into his safe. There, she finds a temptingly labelled folder and pulls it out. Now, I knew the damn thing was booby-trapped even before the dye-pack went off. (Keith, that evening: "You okay, honey? You look a little blue.") She's smart, but she's not as smart as her father - not all the time, at least. Her repeated clashes with Clarence Wiedman make the same point, rather more seriously. Wiedman is the most seriously scary character the show has yet produced, and he is consistently one step ahead of her.
She's also rash. Too often, she jumps to conclusions and makes accusations based on inadequate or misleading data. One of those accusations leads to Logan's beating at the hands of Weevil's gang, and the repercussions of that incident are still reverberating in Season Three.
She's spunky; she's not afraid to put herself at risk, and resourceful enough to deal with risk most of the time. This is apparent from the first episode, in her memorable run-in with the PCHers. But she sometimes misjudges, and lands herself in more trouble than she can handle. The most vivid example of that comes in the final episode of Season One, as she finally confronts Aaron Echolls. She almost succeeds in escaping him, but not quite; only Keith's arrival on the scene, and a good deal of luck, keeps her from being killed. That is the most vivid example, I say, but there are others like it, in that and later seasons.
She's tough-minded: she'll do what she sees as being necessary, come hell or high water. Sometimes, though, that toughness is expressed as callousness. It would be stretching things to say that she has no friends, only allies, but it would not be too much of a stretch; at different times Wallace, Mac, and Weevil call her out for seeking them out only for the sake of their talents and resources. Her treatment of Leo is less than honorable, even after she begins dating him. She is not particularly concerned with the law, either - less so, I think, than her father; in the first episode, we see her connive to get some of Weevil's boys out from under a robbery charge, in order to gain their help on a case.
I have to think that much of this - much of the gray, and of the white as well, in Veronica's character - flows more or less directly from her experiences in the months before the show began. She was repeatedly betrayed: by Duncan; by the people of Neptune in general and Jake Kane in particular; by her mother; by her erstwhile 09er friends; and by the sheriff's department in general and Sheriff Lamb in particular. Because of this, her ability to trust anyone - even her father - is stunted. This contributes to her self-assurance: if she can't rely on others, she must rely on herself. It amplifies her rashness: she is quick to assume the worst. Her willingness to skirt the law may begin here as well; if the instrument of the law, the Sheriff's Department, is untrustworthy, why should the law itself be respected? (In fairness, there may be earlier roots to this; I get the impression that Lily often pushed her in, ahh, socially questionable directions. But I think that, even if the tendency was already present, her personal catastrophe must have worsened it.)
I don't want to make too much of this. Veronica is, at bottom, a good person, and her work usually is beneficial to her clients and to society. But she's been badly damaged, and that damage has consequences.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-22 05:29 pm (UTC)"'Cute' we can deal with briefly; she is cute, undeniably, though she mocks herself as flat-chested in one first-season episode."
I would even go so far as to say that she *plays* cute, rather than *is* cute. A very good-looking young woman, adorable even, she is never so "cute" as when she is imitating the '09er girls. Think particularly of the interaction in the scene when she went to the house of the guy who had the plastic surgery done.
"She's smart; but she's not as smart as she thinks she is."
This is a very good point. Since we see it from her POV, we know that *she* believes she is right, but we can just *feel* the comeuppance heading her way.
"She's spunky; she's not afraid to put herself at risk, and resourceful enough to deal with risk most of the time."
In this, I would compare her to Clare in JSF's books. Like Veronica, Clare never hesitates to charge in to deal with a situation, never questioning whether she has the tools to cope.
As you say, luck has a great deal to do with Veronica's survival of hostile situations. When she is unwittingly taken into the Fighting Fitzpatricks' gang's bar, it is only Logan's foresight and quick thinking that saves her.
"Sometimes, though, that toughness is expressed as callousness."
It is. I remember watching season one, thinking why isn't she nicer to her best friend Wallace. And, why does she only seek Mac out for her computer expertise. Mac seems like the kind of person one would want as a friend. It seems to me that Veronica is deathly afraid of real commitment to any person, friend or boyfriend. Keep it superficial, and the cuts aren't as deep. I couldn't agree more about Leo. That was very painful to watch. Leo was a very decent, good character. It was distressing when he fell off the white hat brigade parade float.
"But she's been badly damaged, and that damage has consequences."
Indeed. It's partly that very inner vulnerability that Veronica tries so hard to squelch that keeps her real as a character.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-22 08:17 pm (UTC)Point taken. I seem to recall Lily (in flashbacks - Season Two?) urging her to dress more daringly; I get the impression from those scenes that she thinks of herself as rather plain, and "being cute" is as much of an act (for her) as pretending to be Inga.