#ciboria's comic commentary | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ciboriaadastra · 1 year ago

Text

I would add that a lot of these important scenes between Bruce and Minhkhoa are written with Bruce's perspective in mind, not Minhkhoa's. The Argentina fight is in the Batman (2016) run. The origin of their relationship is told in a series called Batman: The Knight. Bruce is the main protagonist and so the narration is Bruce's internal monologue, the scenes are framed from Bruce's perspective. The "Ghost Stories" are Bruce's recollection of events. The point being that we're looking at Minhkhoa through the lens of a wealthy, white American man and the unexamined biases that someone of his status and level of privilege has.

People think Minhkhoa lashing out is a sign that Bruce is right about him...because they already think Bruce is right in this argument in the first place. He's the hero of the story, his story, so he must be right.

If you're like me and reading Bruce saying "You're sick. There's a part of you that's broken, and you're angry it's not broken in me." in context felt like a punch in the face, then Minhkhoa is more than justified for that punch. Maybe throw in a hit to the gut and kick him down. Just as a treat. As much as I love Bruce as a character, this was a horrible thing to read coming out of his mouth.

Because it is a pretty fucked up thing to say to somebody. That you think a core part of their personality, something that they struggle with and was formed by trauma, is "broken". You wanted to "fix" them, erase them and mold them into the kind of person you think is desirable. You realized it doesn't work that way, and so that must mean it's their fault for being "broken". That this piece of them is something you despise so much that you would throw away the relationship and declare you never want to see them again, because you cannot love them as they are.

Bruce insists upon conformity. He has these ideas of how people should act and behave, and he holds fast to them regardless of circumstance or other factors that should be considered. To quote Minhkhoa from BTK #6: "You care more about your stupid rules than the consequences of them!" Which is something Minhkhoa says because Bruce attacks him for "making" him shoot Luka, who was notably going to kill Minhkhoa for having a personality disorder.

Bruce says "I have no interest in not caring about people" yet demonstrates that if someone does not make themselves more palatable to him, does not choose to continue pretending to be someone they're not, then he will stop caring about them. Or at least stop caring enough that he hurts them and chooses to not have a relationship with them anymore.

There's deep ignorance and hypocrisy in Bruce's behavior, and that's something to be angry about. Minhkhoa has the right to be angry about that, just on principle.

Shifting gears here, though, I will say I disagree that Minhkhoa wouldn't have any feelings of unworthiness or low self-esteem surrounding his personality disorder and being a target of ableism/sanism. That's a limitation placed on his character due to his creator's and writers' prejudices. The writers hold those prejudices, so they cannot effectively criticize them in their work. By all intents and purposes, the text holds that Minhkhoa does not feel any emotions at all...which is just fundamentally false. I wouldn't declare definitively that Minhkhoa doesn't feel a certain emotion just because the text does not show it, when the writers don't want to portray Minhkhoa as a person who feels and implications that he does in the text are largely unintentional.

I also disagree with the implication that if Minhkhoa did feel a burst of self-loathing, that it would then mean Bruce is right in his accusations or assertions on Minhkhoa's character. Bruce is objectively wrong. He is wrong regardless of how Minhkhoa reacts to him. That is the reason why it is incorrect to claim Minhkhoa is admitting Bruce is right; there's nothing to admit. The reason is not that he can't feel the emotion, because that is also wrong.

And by definition, a disorder must cause significant distress to the client. Now, whether he is able to identify that distress, willing to dwell on or voice it, or desiring to confront it...is different. Minhkhoa has learned how to mask his traits while simultaneously viewing them as strengths. That is cognitive dissonance, and dissonance causes distress. Masking is exhausting and repressing who you are is distressing. And having your life constantly devalued and threatened is distressing. (And being dehumanized and depersonalized constantly would naturally lend to self-loathing, even if you fail to recognize it as such. Speaking from experience, mainly.)

I don't think in the Argentina fight that Minhkhoa hated himself in that moment (he wouldn't have time to process what's happening enough for that to even start), nor would he have thought Bruce was right. I do think he genuinely cared (despite his insistence that he doesn't care about anything) what Bruce thought about him and it simply hurts to be mistreated, especially when it's someone you thought was the One who was different from everybody else and wouldn't treat you that way. I'd say just as a person who does have personality disorders...the "obsession" is more like a lifeline. This is the Only Person you have who understands you; and when they are gone, you have no one. Other people have friends and family to fall back on. Other people have support systems, sometimes entire support networks. And you have just the One Person you can confide in, appreciate their company, receive affection from, and know that you're not alone. Humans are social creatures, we need socialization (even if we hate it), and we need others with us.

This phenomenon of the One Person is specifically seen in personality disorders—mainly with cluster B and C from what I've seen—and it goes by different names (i.e. AsPD ‐ Exception, BPD - Favorite Person, AvPD - Safe Person). These are community terms, not clinical ones, and each term's meaning is specific to the context of the disorder. [Disclaimer: more than one person can potentially fill these roles...it's just uncommon and not everyone with a personality disorder even has one in the first place.]

Being separated from, alienated by, and/or becoming disillusioned with that One Person is like cutting a lifeline. Getting real personal here but...being separated from mine sent me into a month-long depressive episode fraught with hallucinations, delusions, and anxiety attacks. And they hadn't done or said anything malicious to me before departing...I just didn't have any choice or say in the matter and then they were gone and there was an understanding that even if I could technically reach out to then, that it would be best not to do so regularly, let alone to what we had before. That was enough for everything to come crashing down. I didn't think I did anything wrong, because if I did, I would have been confronted about it. I didn't handle separation well regardless; it's rooted in trauma. It is much, much worse to be explicitly rejected and hurt and even more so when you are trying to hold onto them and there's nothing you can feasibly do to convince them not to leave you.

I don't think that the separation after Argentina, when Minhkhoa has no control over it, would have bode well for him in terms of mental health. Already in denying Bruce the privilege to say his true name and see his face, he's not just demonstrating a loss of trust but a choice to depersonalize himself. I think he could have a period of low self-esteem following that incident...being able to rationalize feelings away, avoid confronting them, compartmentalize, etc. doesn't mean you don't ever feel things (something always slips through). Nor does struggling to identify and recognize your own feelings mean that you aren't feeling them.

Granted, people are different and react to things differently. The point I'm trying to make is that I approach Minhkhoa's characterization in the comics from the point of view that Tynion, Zdarsky, and the other writers that have worked on him lack a fundamental understanding of personality disorders and what it's like to live with them; that the portrayal and framing of antisocial personality disorder in these comics is harmful at its best; and Minhkhoa has the potential to be a more complex character than the text allows him to be.

A lot of people seem to mistake Khoa’s anger at being called broken by Bruce as some sort of personal admission that there is something “wrong” with him but I, personally, view it more as Khoa feeling an inherent sense of betrayal at the fact that the one person he thought understood him suddenly shifted his perspective on him.

He’s fully aware that he’s set apart from his peers & seemed to be content with that until he met Bruce— Bruce, who seemed to be a kindred spirit even when he and Khoa fought, who had consistently targeted Khoa’s actions instead of the thought processes behind them even when they did fight, who never once insinuated he needed to be fixed until that moment.

The moment of them on a bridge in Moscow in B:TK #5 is a testament to the level he places Bruce at in itself; by acknowledging that Bruce changed his mind about being alone, he’s accepting Bruce as an equal. Even after they fought and parted ways for the last time after Lazarus, the fact that Khoa kept Bruce alive solely for fighting still implies he views him on equal footing as him/“worthy” enough to spar with.

The scene in Argentina irrevocably shifts the narrative of them being equals when Khoa realizes that it’s Bruce who doesn’t seem them as equals anymore. Bruce seems to be the one thing he can never leave behind to the point where he suggests they work together even after all of the arguments they’ve shared over the years. He implies Khoa’s inability to care about people in a way that’s expected of him is wrong, and even goes so far as to assume what Khoa’s feeling.

It’s not the lack of initiative on Bruce’s part that sets Khoa off, nor is it the fact that he declined Khoa’s invitation in the first place— it’s the fact that Bruce implies there’s something fundamentally wrong with him which, as a result, means Bruce never wants to see him again. Khoa’s angry because he’s always seemed to have the upper hand in their relationship, but he never expected this. It’s always been Khoa leaving Bruce in some capacity, whether it’s him leaving after their first fight in the wilderness or him leaving after saving Bruce at Lazarus. He’s always left on his own terms. Bruce is the one person in the world who made Khoa feel like he was understood in some capacity and despite burning the bridges between them on numerous occasions, he never seemed to plan for the fact that Bruce would get to it first.

There’s a significant level of vulnerability in Khoa’s actions in the context of the Argentina argument and the larger scope of his appearances.

Khoa specifically emphasizes the fact that Bruce doesn’t get to utter his name or see his face again because the fact that he’d done both in the first place was a sign of trust, and that trust was lost the moment Bruce spoke Those™ words.

To me, his reaction in this moment isn’t an admission of self-loathing or hatred towards himself at the fact that he’s incapable of experiencing certain things, and I honestly don’t think Khoa has ever experienced intense feelings of unworthiness/low self-esteem surrounding the negative views on his personality disorder. His relationship with Bruce borders on obsession at some points, and the disillusionment caused by the realization that their dynamic has shifted significantly without him being able to control it is what angers him.

Khoa has been shown to have moments of possible guilt/regret at his actions such as the fact that he couldn’t save Phantom-One, but that could be chalked up to him being disappointed at failing as a crime-fighter. He never once puts the blame on himself for anything, so I don’t view his hurt in this scenario being formed out of a place of self-doubt or self-hatred.

#i think the issue is more that people don't take bruce's perspective on minhkhoa with a huge pinch of salt #or recognize the internalized ableism in minhkhoa's view and commentary on himself #& people aren't willing to let go of this fantastical trope of a psych/soci*****. that shit isnt real. put it in the trash where it belongs!#and I'm not saying minhkhoa would be all 'woe is me' and Edgar Allan Poe it when i talk about self-loathing. that's bruce. bruce does that.#i just take issue with the idea that he *can't* be self-loathing when he believes in social stigmas against him just bc he's not a wet mop #also this is a real disorder that real people have. you can like. talk to them. read about their experiences #it feels really weird to me when I've seen people with AsPD express self-loathing and pretty much every emotion under the sun...#...and then I exit PD spaces and see folks talk about how the disorder makes you not feel those emotions.#i guarantee you they do. they just don't like you and won't waste time talking to you about these things bc they know you think like that #and genuinely do y'all understand that cluster b personality disorders have high rates of suicide? ik we're talking about comics here but #like i genuinely need y'all to understand this is a serious disorder we're talking about that affects real people and makes life miserable #like im not saying all these things just bc i like this comic book character. i actually take issue with how AsPD is portrayed #and i feel like people are focusing too much on what the ableist writing is saying about AsPD and giving nothing to the reality of it #and I get that most folks do not have PDs and thus don't understand what it's like to live with one #but like...idk please be more mindful and deconstruct how you think about people with PDs #ciboria rambles

57 notes · View notes