the property of hate: charicters and their designs
In the property of hate, it is immediately evident that the designs of the characters are some of the most visually interesting in the web comic genre. I believe that these designs also have a storytelling use as well. The designs of these characters, heros in particular, is (i think) a metaphor for how the burden of being a hero twists them, changing them away from who they were. I'm not going to cover every character in the property of hate, or even every hero, but even in just a few, it’s pretty evident that Jolley comics uses design as a metaphor for the character’s nature and their role in the story.
First is TOby, spelled capital T,O lowercase b,y. It’s my personal belief that the atypical spelling is a reference to the “to be or not to be '' quote from Hamlet when he contemplates whether it’s better to live and face life's suffering or to die. TOby’s form is a doll, unable to move, reflective of the apathy he shows in the comic. him not moving emotionally. TOby is intency sacrasic and shows little regard for hero, who he outright says he thinks will die. TOby also doesn't seem to care about the ferryman. When we first met him he’s laying on a dock that the ferryman usually stops at. We haven't seen the ferryman yet (i’m writing this partway through the cutting room) but TOby tells us that hate sank them and their boat. TOby has little reaction to this besides mocking rgb for not already knowing.
Next is click. He's a minor antagonist in his namesake chapter and the one immediately following it, “target audience”. he takes on the appearance of a toy soldier and The symbolism of this takes on two aspects, the toy part and the soldier part. The soldier part is his temper. Click is hot headed and violent. His introduction in the comic is him mock shooting at rgb. He is described by a passerby in the market as having “a hair-trigger temper” and his dialog with rgb is filled with click losing it and yelling at rgb. He also has quite the sadistic streak, attempting to force hero to kill rgb. Click embodys the violence, rage, and sadism associated with war and soldiers. The toy part comes in his role in the larger story. Click works for hate, the main antagonist of the comic. He's a pawn in hates game, her toy. Rgb outright says “always the henchman never the honcho”. Click is angry and violent but at the end of the day he’s somebody's toy.
Rgb is a television, a thing known for how it lies to you. television is constantly exaggerating things, whether it’s advertisements or shows or just an edited photo, few things are presented honestly and rgb is much the same, rarely saying his thoughts plainly or showing his emotions as they are. Everything is always a joke or a performance. But between the cracks in the mask we see an incredible guilt, because although rgb is a tv, he is also hollow. Rgb’s main role in the property of hate is taking people out of the real world and bringing them into the world of make believe so the story, the existence of the world of make believe, continues. Rgb feels incredibly guilty for not only his own failure as a hero, but that he now has to subject others to it. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, rgb has to either let the world end or keep sacrificing people, leading them to a battle they won't win. And the cherry on top, every single person he has brought to the world of imagination resents him for it, at best tolerating his presence. Click full on hates him for it and it acts as partial motivation for trying to kill him. There is no one on rgb’s side, no one that thinks that he will succeed in defeating hate, not even rgb himself. Rgb has basically no self worth, stating in the chapter “Arret” that his best quality is that he is a failure, that failing is all he has ever done. He thinks of himself as irredeemable. Way back in chapter one “the hook” he introduces himself first as a monster then as rgb later on. However hero, in chapter twenty six “Casting” says that they get it, they get why rgb made the decisions that they did and although it is not said whether Hero agrees with them or not, they don’t resent him for it. Even before rgb told them why he brought them to the world of make believe they said that while they are cross with him they don’t hate rgb, and in general rgb and hero seem to have a pretty positive relationship.
Hero themself has some pretty interesting character design. They start out as just a normal human kid but the longer they stay in the world of make believe the more they start to become a part of it. Getting gloves and four fingers and this rubber hose type movement. The thing that really does it for me is that each part, although creating a cohesive whole, a cartoon character, each element has a story behind it. They give up their hands at cell’s to get an outfit for asock, their hair and hands turn white in the desert, they get all goopy when they pull juline and melody out of the lake, and the gloves and nose come right after when rgb helps them pull themselves together after the lake almost melts them. We are seeing in real time someone becoming a part of the world of make believe. it opens up questions about how the other heroes got how they are. In “casting” we see a younger click, still mostly human but with a mechanical arm. Hero’s character design makes us ask about rgb’s tv head and tinker’s voice, TOby’s name and dial’s face. The farther hero falls into this world and their place in it, the more they change to become a part of it.I think that later in the comic, the hero will either try to resist this change. We have already seen rgb frame it in somewhat a bad light, or them to fall into it in a descent into madness type character arc. Also we have seen glimpses already but I think the main goal of rgb’s character arc will be returning to being human again. He's already had some weird dreams with him as a human. At least I think that's him, maybe not who knows. That or something with negative.