October 25, 2013
Most of the Troubles we see rack up an unintentional body count like Paul’s this week, or the firefighter whose guilt immolated innocent people offering him words of kindness; or cause severe damage like Jordan’s pain power, or Vicky the Intern whose art power can kill or take apart the town and arguably the world if she decided to draw and destroy it.
The Troubles aren’t an imagined superiority complex. We’ve seen - over and over - Troubles killing people. Troubled teenagers kill other teenagers. That’s not speculation. That’s fact. It happened last episode when the Troubled teen kill his friend and girlfriend out of revenge. We’ve seen students taking out their peers as far back as season one - notably with the firestarter who blew himself up in the end.
Parents who are scared their children will be the next to die are not irrational. If they leave them around other students who could blossom into living weapons with no way to control who they kill or how at any moment then they’re taking a real risk. This school is what those parents think is the right thing to do to protect their kids; I’m not sure they’re wrong. I wouldn’t want a hungry wendigo, an angry pyrokinetic with a hit-list, or a girl who can wish me into the cornfield (snowglobe) near my child or heck, near me. I’m sorry, I’d be terrified.
I know the writers are trying to draw a parallel to segregation but I think they failed. There’s a difference between separating people because you think one group is superior to another (a few historical examples being: black/white, boys/girls, European/indigenous) and separating one group from another because they represent a true danger to others - there are reasons most states in the US have laws that allow them to separate people who are a ‘danger to themselves and others’ from the general public. I think a more important question that the people who do side with the Troubled - Nathan and his disdain for the school in particular - should ask themselves how, exactly, is this different from every time the trio or the Guard puts the Troubled in a van or a truck and ships them out of town?
Comments
monababi 10 years, 6 months ago
rate people who are a ‘danger to themselves and others’ from the general public. I think a more important question that the people who do side with the Troubled - Nathan and his disdain for the school in particular - should ask themselves how, exactly, is this different from every time the trio or the Guard puts the Troubled in a van or a truck and ships them out of town?
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