First off, I held off on making this because As Told by Ginger is practically a dead and obscure topic. What's there to bring up? Well, if I don't talk about this, who will?
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If you watched Nickelodeon in the early-2000s, chances are you've seen As Told by Ginger. Compared to the general insanity previous Nickelodeon shows proudly enforced, this was a nice change of pace. It had a nice balance between drama and comedy, (mostly) likable characters and an overall decent premise. At first I thought it ended at Butterflies Are Free, come on, they're leaving their established school for an unforeseeable future, that's a perfect conclusion right there, but after doing some research, it turns out that more episodes were made.
I have this psychological complex where I get into a show, forget about it within a month or so, then some time later I get back into it. As Told by Ginger is obviously an example of this. I looked up the show on KimCartoon.me, saw some episodes I recall watching when they were new... then I looked into the newer episodes.
While pre-Butterflies are Free episodes had a sense of consistency (quality wise), the latter episodes were more hit and miss. One episode, Stuff'll Kill Ya, in my opinion, has to be the worst offender. Bar none. Not because of the stereotypes brought up in low-quality cartoon reviews, no. It's a whole new breed of bad, a sensible kind of bad mind you. To what extent? This was originally supposed to be a review of that episode.
Yeah, I won't be doing an in-depth review of that episode because if I did, chances are that I'd be repeating myself a lot, so allow me to break down what I would've said about this episode if it were a bonafide review. (do note that I'm focusing on the A-plot, which holds more importance than the B-plot in this episode.)
- Nothing felt right in terms of the writing. When compared to other ATbG episodes, this felt a bit surreal. I guess this was done to show the transition from Jr. High to High School and maybe it would keep an otherwise more tense atmosphere for future episodes. Nope, I've seen a few episodes after this and they were more in line with older episodes. It's interesting to note that this was the first ATbG episode to air on Nicktoons. I'd say this is one hell of a way to debut on a new network, but for all I know, I'm just a very vocal minority.
- They felt the need to implement Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts' hipster cousin into this. Seriously, is grande the hip new way of saying a large coffee?
- You could remove most scenes and it won't distract from the episode. There isn't much to the episode but that's not the point.
- As mentioned right before, the episode has little meat to it, and has so many missed opportunities. Ginger relies on a new over-caffeinated beverage to allow her to keep up with mounting schoolwork. So what's going to happen? Is she going to drink so much that she becomes a cow to whoever tries to help her? Will over-drinking give her severe health problems (if this was the cause of her ruptured appendix in A Lesson on Tightropes, then this episode could have some kind of purpose)? Will this end in a harsh yet effective confrontation? None of this happens. Ginger gets caught mid-way through and Ginger passive-aggessively gives up, abiding to the status quo is god trope.
- This is where that worst character I was sorta hyping up comes in.
For newcomers, in the previous seasons, Ginger's prime teacher was Ms. Zorski. I don't know if this was established in the older episodes but apparently, she has a cousin who teaches at Ginger's new school, and to say this cousin is so not a spitting-image of her is an understatement. (and for consistency, I will refer to the topical Ms. Zorski as "the other Ms. Zorski)
To put this into perspective, I'm going to refer to them in the vein of feminism. The original Ms. Zorski is an old school feminist, one who doesn't let her views overcome her better judgement, one who encourages people to be great and indirectly make them feel more comfortable in their own skin. She was a clear influence on Ginger, encouraging her to partake in more ambitious school events. She's the kind of feminist who encourages people and wants everyone to strive for greatness.
The other Ms. Zorski is the kind of person you could call a nasty bitch, but in an un-ironic way. If she were a lesbian, she would be on top in bed. If she were on Twitter, she'd put #BlackLivesMatter on her profile description. She's a creep for the sake of being a creep. I've only seen her exhibit cruel behavior towards Ginger, but that could open up a whole new can of worms. Was she a physical omen for modern day racial conflict, where people like her have an unrelenting hatred for white people because of what happened ages ago?
Near as I could tell, she only appeared in three episodes, but since what happens in one episode is undone by the next (more often than not), however a character acts in one episode compared to another doesn't hold much ground. One point you act good, the next you go back to being a bitch. The last I saw the other Ms. Zorski, she showed not even a slither of empathy for Ginger who in the previous episode, just got out of surgery for a ruptured appendix. Damn. In case you don't believe me, the scene went something like this.
To put this into perspective, I'm going to refer to them in the vein of feminism. The original Ms. Zorski is an old school feminist, one who doesn't let her views overcome her better judgement, one who encourages people to be great and indirectly make them feel more comfortable in their own skin. She was a clear influence on Ginger, encouraging her to partake in more ambitious school events. She's the kind of feminist who encourages people and wants everyone to strive for greatness.
The other Ms. Zorski is the kind of person you could call a nasty bitch, but in an un-ironic way. If she were a lesbian, she would be on top in bed. If she were on Twitter, she'd put #BlackLivesMatter on her profile description. She's a creep for the sake of being a creep. I've only seen her exhibit cruel behavior towards Ginger, but that could open up a whole new can of worms. Was she a physical omen for modern day racial conflict, where people like her have an unrelenting hatred for white people because of what happened ages ago?
Near as I could tell, she only appeared in three episodes, but since what happens in one episode is undone by the next (more often than not), however a character acts in one episode compared to another doesn't hold much ground. One point you act good, the next you go back to being a bitch. The last I saw the other Ms. Zorski, she showed not even a slither of empathy for Ginger who in the previous episode, just got out of surgery for a ruptured appendix. Damn. In case you don't believe me, the scene went something like this.
- (the other) Ms. Zorski: You're nine seconds late.
- Ginger: I just got out of surgery.
- (the other) Ms. Zorski: That should be no excuse. (somewhere along those lines)
Seriously, that's an exchange that actually happened. It occurred in Dodie's Big Break if you want to know where it came from. Episodes will be linked in the description.
Now for the ultimate question, so she's a bitch, does that really warrant her being deemed the worst character ever? It's not so much her being a bitch, it's the fact that there's nothing to her character. All we've seen of her is potential closeted racism and a militant perspective on rule enforcement. Other than that, she's more like a dog turd that you can't do anything about. You could accept the smell, but you still cringe at the sight of it.
This is coming from someone who prefers diva/bully/cynical/gothic archetypes to the plain-jane goody-good types. A lot of you should know this, but to catch you up to speed, I always felt that characters that fuck up, characters that are cynical and often opposed to most things and those in the vein of bullies and divas have the most flavor to their personality. They often have more complicated motives and have a decent sense of complexity, they have a unique view of the world, some have seen it all and are subtly warning younger ones that nothing will remain on their terms forever.
What I'm saying is, compared to other people within her archetype, the other Ms. Zorski is the bottom of the barrel. There is nothing to her that sticks out to me, there is nothing that could be said for why she is more strict than anyone else on the show, she exists solely to be a temporary hinderance and further a plot. She can't exist independently from that and even with some development within the episode, it'll be undone by the next.
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While the topic of other lesser characters is fresh in your mind, I'd like to compare Ms. Zorski to some other polarizing characters, and for the record they'll be characters in the show and characters from different shows.
Now for the ultimate question, so she's a bitch, does that really warrant her being deemed the worst character ever? It's not so much her being a bitch, it's the fact that there's nothing to her character. All we've seen of her is potential closeted racism and a militant perspective on rule enforcement. Other than that, she's more like a dog turd that you can't do anything about. You could accept the smell, but you still cringe at the sight of it.
This is coming from someone who prefers diva/bully/cynical/gothic archetypes to the plain-jane goody-good types. A lot of you should know this, but to catch you up to speed, I always felt that characters that fuck up, characters that are cynical and often opposed to most things and those in the vein of bullies and divas have the most flavor to their personality. They often have more complicated motives and have a decent sense of complexity, they have a unique view of the world, some have seen it all and are subtly warning younger ones that nothing will remain on their terms forever.
What I'm saying is, compared to other people within her archetype, the other Ms. Zorski is the bottom of the barrel. There is nothing to her that sticks out to me, there is nothing that could be said for why she is more strict than anyone else on the show, she exists solely to be a temporary hinderance and further a plot. She can't exist independently from that and even with some development within the episode, it'll be undone by the next.
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While the topic of other lesser characters is fresh in your mind, I'd like to compare Ms. Zorski to some other polarizing characters, and for the record they'll be characters in the show and characters from different shows.
- Since 2016, people have decried Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls) for some relatively questionable decisions, which... sorta led to the show's own armageddon (Weirdmageddon to be exact). I only bring this up now because YouTube thought I was interested in seeing something like that... in 2018 (then again, they believed that I was interested in Vailskibum94 and AlphaJayShow.) Anyway, I just want to get this out of my system. Yes, Mabel fucked up considerably, but what people seem to be forgetting is that it didn't come out of nowhere. There were episodes building up to it, where she felt hopeless and afraid of growing up, especially since she got the full blunt of what her teen years may entail, as well as the fact that she wouldn't even see her friends before she returns home at the end of summer. This isn't a terrible character, this is a character who's consumed by fear and uncertainty, a character who fell for Bill Cipher (who pulled a convincing disguise by the way), and all she did was take refuge in a prison where she wouldn't have to worry about growing up, and not for nothing, but she made up with Dipper and helped him save the world. If she didn't have that one major moment of screwing up, Bill Cipher would never have been completely destroyed and Gravity Falls would've probably remained as it was, albeit less crowded with crazy bullshit. At least you could say there's more to her character than a mean teacher stereotype, hint hint.
(this is a general point. Some of the more jaded cartoon analysts seem to hold the stigma that main characters are forbidden from fucking up. That's the impression I got in the previous bullet point. In truth, the best characters are those who're prone to fucking up. It shows that the heroes are not a beacon of perfection and that anyone could fuck up. I could be missing something here with the Mabel fiasco, but I repeat what I said. She came back to the heroes, and if she was that terrible, she would've stayed in her bubble.)
- I've talked about Trina Riffin from Grojband in my journal about Avatar: The Last Airbender, but for the sake of a comparison, I'm going to talk about it again. Trina Riffin is a cruel teenager and the main antagonist of Grojband. She is also one of the more endearing characters on the show. If you think hard enough, you could see the roots of her contempt with her brother and heck, the world. Even if you feel her motives are just petty (destroying her brother's band because she hates her brother's guts), her personality saves you from hating her outright. When she has an emotional outburst, it sticks with you, it defines her character, and the rest of the time she gives clever line delivery. No sale? Well if you had to pick with a teenager forever in her time of the month who still had a remarkable personality, or a bland militant modern-day feminist archetype, who would you go with?
- Now for something a bit more simple. Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. He should require no introduction. He's the prime antagonist, but like with Trina, he's still an endearing individual. Even at his worst, he's still a likable individual, backed by clever one-lines, physical humor that mends with his centenarian age, as well as the fact that he's just a parody of those stereotypical business tycoons like Donald Trump (hello Trump joke that actually doesn't break the flow of a presentation)
(now, let's get back to As Told by Ginger. Time to clear out some elephants.)
- Let's start with the show's prime antagonist, Miranda Killgallen. Right off the bat, of course you'd hate Miranda, she's the antagonist. But, insert what I said about Trina and Mr. Burns in terms of dialogue. There's also the fact that she is unable to make proper friends of her own, has a troubled home life (at least implied) and only went after Ginger vehemently because she felt the latter was destroying her friendship with Courtney Grippling, the one person who allowed Miranda to be within breath range. Long story short, she's the antagonist so of course she won't be taken in with open arms, and you could say a reason exists for her being such a bitch. I would say that people would probably like the other Ms. Zorski since she would hold the same strict grasp of the rules on her, but if my racism theory holds true, the other Ms. Zorski wouldn't even giver her the satisfaction of a slap on the wrist.
- Mipsy Mipson is more of the same, but of a slightly milder nature. She seems to mostly be along for the ride, and the worst thing she has done to Ginger through her own conniving was... send Ginger to a new school so she wouldn't be around Courtney. Ginger could still be happy, just not around. Only thing preventing her (and Miranda while we're at it) from being an irredeemable brat is if they connive to actually murder Ginger. But no, they keep it legal. Oh, and I do like the character, for some reason.
(elephants cleared, now for the mammoth)
- One of the most hated characters on the show is Dodie Bishop. Honestly, I could understand why, she hasn't been that good of a friend throughout the series, and as it progressed, she got worse. I don't hate her personally for that, in fact you might be saying that I'm hypocritically basing her on her actions when I defended Mabel for the same thing. Well, I don't hate her for her character, as always, the main characters aren't always the cleanest sheets in the pantry.
- I hate this character because of her wasted potential. When watching the series from start to finish, and seeing Dodie's frequent fuck-ups, some (aka, me) expect this to be building up to a major confrontation. Ginger would have to put up with Dodie frequently betraying her and making it easier for her to get antagonized by Miranda. Dodie is one of Ginger's closest friends, was there for her from the start, but is no longer able to hold her end of the deal. At some point in the second or third season, I feel it would've been interesting if Ginger and Dodie ended things wholesale. Dodie would screw up Ginger's day, it'd be the straw that breaks the camel's back and Ginger moves on to newer friends, perhaps taking up Courtney's frequent offers of friendship. That would be interesting and would show that sometimes your worst enemy could be the very person who walks with you to school. That never happens, and I'd like you to keep this factoid in mind.
Now you might be saying, does this have anything to do with the other Ms. Zorski anymore? Well to keep that connection alive, Dodie's a shit character, but she's an identifiable character and still has moments of humanity. The other Ms. Zorski does not, but still has that wasted potential stigma.
If you want to keep her as a tolerable recurring character, have her lay down the line less harshly and actually incorporate the plot of her first appearance in a much better way. To demonstrate, Ginger would put up with the other Ms. Zorski which would influence her caffeine binge so she could catch up on schoolwork, she would drink so much that something inside her shuts down (pancreas maybe, I'm reaching here), Ginger would break down and confront the other Ms. Zorski, they'd have a calmer heart-to-heart, Ginger would understand that not everything remains easy for everyone and that the harsh nature of high school is just prep for her future and she will find a better way to juggle schoolwork and her personal life. See what I did? I just came up with a better way to end Stuff'll Kill Ya while keeping it in the same vein as other As Told by Ginger episodes.
If you want to make your own judgement on the other Ms. Zorski, here're the episodes she appears in.
If you want to keep her as a tolerable recurring character, have her lay down the line less harshly and actually incorporate the plot of her first appearance in a much better way. To demonstrate, Ginger would put up with the other Ms. Zorski which would influence her caffeine binge so she could catch up on schoolwork, she would drink so much that something inside her shuts down (pancreas maybe, I'm reaching here), Ginger would break down and confront the other Ms. Zorski, they'd have a calmer heart-to-heart, Ginger would understand that not everything remains easy for everyone and that the harsh nature of high school is just prep for her future and she will find a better way to juggle schoolwork and her personal life. See what I did? I just came up with a better way to end Stuff'll Kill Ya while keeping it in the same vein as other As Told by Ginger episodes.
If you want to make your own judgement on the other Ms. Zorski, here're the episodes she appears in.
I don't know if viewers of the show hold the same judgment as I do on the other Ms. Zorski. Maybe they did hate her but shoved her into the back of their minds because of how insignificant she was to the show. I could be overreacting, who knows? They're right and I'm wrong.
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Before I end off, I'd also like to get this out of the way, since I may never get another good opportunity to talk about it. You might not agree with me that the other Ms. Zorski has no business being on As Told by Ginger (and I don't mean this to be petty, you could remove her from the show and it'd effect the plot very little), but I think some might agree that Ginger isn't bringing home too many medals herself.
One reason for this is the fact that she practically enables people. Remember when I said to keep my idea for how Dodie and Ginger should end things off after mounting tension? The only reason they're still friends is because Ginger forgives her friends too quickly, and is hesitant to believe something's amiss and her friends are part of it. (examples of this are Cry Wolf when in spite of Dodie spilling a crucial secret about Ginger, she still allows Dodie to be within eyeshot, and Wicked Game, which I'd normally defend because it's something she'd never expect... even though it's been shown that Dodie is more than capable of throwing her friend under the bus if it means she could run with the cool kids.)
I have reason to believe that the creator, Emily Kapnek, seemed to lack self-esteem when she was younger, and it's reflected on episodes like those mentioned before where Ginger just goes about her business after going through something you can't look away from entirely. I have reason to believe Emily just stuck with people even if they're less than decent because she's familiar with them, and was too nice for her own good. The show is practically a spin on her younger years. Makes you think.
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So in conclusion, the other Ms. Zorski is that shit character that those who whine about mean-spiritedness practically beg for so they have something they could complain about, while Ginger is a whole other kettle of fish. This also goes to show how the protagonist isn't immune from any bullfuckery, and any character with a personality should be held to the same judgement as others, especially if we have to see them more than once.
Sometimes the worst person ever rests in the background, or they're the ones who stare right back at you.
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Before I end off, I'd also like to get this out of the way, since I may never get another good opportunity to talk about it. You might not agree with me that the other Ms. Zorski has no business being on As Told by Ginger (and I don't mean this to be petty, you could remove her from the show and it'd effect the plot very little), but I think some might agree that Ginger isn't bringing home too many medals herself.
One reason for this is the fact that she practically enables people. Remember when I said to keep my idea for how Dodie and Ginger should end things off after mounting tension? The only reason they're still friends is because Ginger forgives her friends too quickly, and is hesitant to believe something's amiss and her friends are part of it. (examples of this are Cry Wolf when in spite of Dodie spilling a crucial secret about Ginger, she still allows Dodie to be within eyeshot, and Wicked Game, which I'd normally defend because it's something she'd never expect... even though it's been shown that Dodie is more than capable of throwing her friend under the bus if it means she could run with the cool kids.)
I have reason to believe that the creator, Emily Kapnek, seemed to lack self-esteem when she was younger, and it's reflected on episodes like those mentioned before where Ginger just goes about her business after going through something you can't look away from entirely. I have reason to believe Emily just stuck with people even if they're less than decent because she's familiar with them, and was too nice for her own good. The show is practically a spin on her younger years. Makes you think.
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So in conclusion, the other Ms. Zorski is that shit character that those who whine about mean-spiritedness practically beg for so they have something they could complain about, while Ginger is a whole other kettle of fish. This also goes to show how the protagonist isn't immune from any bullfuckery, and any character with a personality should be held to the same judgement as others, especially if we have to see them more than once.
Sometimes the worst person ever rests in the background, or they're the ones who stare right back at you.
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