Someone wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets 2014-10-14 04:22 pm (UTC)

Batman Forever - Dr. Chase only appears in scenes to flirt with Bruce Wayne or Batman, or when she's tied up at the end. As a psychologist her only role is to talk to Bruce about Bruce, her only character traits are 'punches a punching bag. Is a psychologist. Loves Batman, then falls in love with Bruce Wayne."

Probably the equivalent male character in the movie is Two-Face since his characterization is basically "Villain with gimmick." With no development and only a quick backstory.

Riddler, Robin, and Batman all get far more backstory and development.

For Chase, and for a lot of female characters, their role is literally love interest and was put in specifically for that purpose as the movie target audience is calculated. The thought is that women going to see a movie will go to fall in love with the main dude. Men will go to pretend to BE the main dude. So the Love Interest needs to be a Twilight Bella blank slate so the women can easily project themselves in her role, with no pesky character details to derail the fantasy for them. Or for the dude to project his wife/girlfriend/ideal onto because he's seeing himself as Batman.

Batman gets all the details because he's the escapist fantasy for both people, "I am not cool like Batman, I wish I was Batman." "I wish I could date someone cool like Batman."

And finally, just because you can't think of something that fits a trope doesn't mean it's not a common trope. People tend to watch things they like, and so if the blank slate Love Interest character doesn't appeal to you, you likely find yourself forgetting/ignoring media with it. Same as if you really dislike something, you'll notice it and it'll seem more common. I had someone tell me they were tired of superhero movies making up the majority of new releases. I pointed out that there was still over 100 romantic comedies released to every single superhero movie each year and that was hardly a majority and got "But it FEELS like that's the only thing they're releasing anymore."

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