Character Conversation #6: Belinda Giolla

Discuss "Metrobay Comix" and other stories with Doctor Robo!

On a scale of 0-5, with 5 being the best, how do you rate Belinda?

0
0
No votes
1
0
No votes
2
2
13%
3
0
No votes
4
7
44%
5
7
44%
 
Total votes : 16

Re: Character Conversation #6: Belinda Giolla

Postby bluemax2 » June 7th, 2010, 11:32 am

Fellow fans:
I sure would love to see Belinda robotized or droned soon. She's overdue since Hostile Takeover. Perhaps some real mind alteration and breast expansion is called for (no dreams or fantasies this time).
Maybe Max has had enough of her double dealing and back stabbing and he wants to be the only top dog?
Or perhaps Belinda gets taken in the next Unity installment when that returns some day (soon we all hope)?

Looking forward to devious and exciting happenings from our genius team at Hipcomix.
Thank you all.

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Re: Character Conversation #6: Belinda Giolla

Postby bluemax2 » June 7th, 2010, 11:34 am

Fellow fans:
Sorry for the slip of the toungue:
From our fantastic team at McComix and Hipcomix of course.

regards,

bluemax
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Re: Character Conversation #6: Belinda Giolla

Postby Trishbot » January 20th, 2011, 1:38 pm

Belinda continues to be my personal favorite mad scientist (no offense to Ring Mistress, Dr. Digitalus, Dr. Twisted, Dollmaker, etc.), because more than any of them, she just strikes me as a classy, driven woman. Everyone else seems to have had success given to them by luck, while Belinda has always been the person to fight and claw for everything she's had, only to lose it all, again and again, and having to fight even harder just to stay even. Sure, she's the villain, but she's also the underdog with the talent, brains, and ambition not to let things like a blown-up lab, a robot brainwashing, being fired, and landing in jail stop her from doing what she loves and dedicated her life to doing.

Also, more than any other character, Belinda is, to me, rather tragic. She's possibly the biggest "bitch" in Metrobay, but she was made to be that way. Her past is rarely hinted at, and we tend to focus on her present here-and-now, but everything that has been shown has implied she had a miserable time getting to where she is. Personally, I would jump at the chance to do a Belinda origin story, showing her go from a bright-eyed, optimistic college student ready to take on the world to the cynical, world-weary, yet hardened and twisted woman that she exists as today.

A lot of things, important things, simply get glossed over with her, and yet they DEFINE who she is. And I'd like to just look at these parts of her momentarily.

Belinda and Valient Grrl. These two have a pretty twisted history, and it's actually the only one we've seen the beginnings of and fallout from. For starters, Belinda possibly had a hand in Valient Grrl's very creation, having been an employee at APEX during the cloning process. It was, in fact, this very same cloning procedure that lured Ms. Metrobay into Belinda's hands and had Kelly's entire life compromised when she became Belinda's slave and maid. When Belinda saw Valient Grrl in the wild, it was because she recognized the control helmet she worked on with Ted and immediately plotted to abduct her, which she succeeded in doing. Belinda then stole Valient Grrl's features and powers to help make Mechana, while Valient Grrl awoke and managed to break free and destroy Belinda's lab, planting the seeds of their resentment towards one another. It was literally a battle of brains vs. brawn, and it was Valient Grrl's sheer brute strength that stole Ms. Metrobay from her, destroyed her lab, helped stop Sentius, and sent her to prison. Of all the women she could have blamed, she blamed Valient Grrl for taking everything from her: her robot lover, her lab, and ultimately her freedom. Coincidentally, she followed the exact same path as Ted did (who instead blamed Alpha Woman for taking away his work, his job, and his freedom and dedicated his life towards revenge). And yet, while Belinda simmered and hated Kristen for it, she obviously lusted for her as well. She greatly enjoyed having her as a slave, and she picked her to be the template for her robotic lover, Mechana. It's been hinted she liked big, tall, strong women (like Mechana and Kristen), and once she managed to get Kristen back through Crissy's betrayal, she's been almost the complete opposite of how she was before. She compliments Kristen, lovingly calls her by real name, delights in her company (especially where her ass and Kristen's tongue is involved), and almost acts like a blushing teenage around her (even so far as to say they're going on a "date"). She supersedes Alpha Woman as the one and only woman in Kristen's life, and in a twisted way gets her revenge on Kristen and gets her amazon back. We know that when/if Kristen gets her mind back, she'd hate Belinda forever, but when conditioned to be what Belinda wants, Belinda couldn't be happier.

Belinda and Max. Belinda has openly shown resentment towards her former boss. She often spoke poorly of him and undermined his authority. Any woman without her brains and talents would have quickly gotten the "Franbot" treatment, but Belinda wasn't just "any woman" and even Max knew it. More so than any others, she's a twisted genius whose wild side has just as many perks as it does setbacks, which is why Max secretly funds her prison operations. But that doesn't change the fact that Belinda hates him. One of the most important things about her was briefly covered in Project: Metropolis, where it stated she herself had to sleep with people to get promotions and endure great humiliation during ROPE sex games, not as an observer but as a participant. She hates and resents them, especially Max, for putting her through this, but she's a woman of intelligence, not uncontrollable passion, and she was smart enough to know that doing what they wished would get her the promotions she desired. It shows just how much she would compromise to fulfill her dreams and how twisted Max is to put her through this. Their relationship is one of mutual disgust yet admiration, and it's a quirky balance unseen of between any one else.

Belinda and Ted. This one continues to be the one that fascinates me the most. Again, I'd love to see a comic focusing on her earliest encounters with APEX and Ted. The woman she is today is almost directly because of the relationship she had with Ted. It's implied when they first started that she was Ted's superior and partner on many experiments, and together they created many wonderful machines and devices. But as they worked together, they grew close, and ultimately became lovers. This is important because, unlike her and Max and ROPE, she got nothing out of this relationship; she was his superior, so she couldn't expect any promotion or salary bonus. He didn't make her do it. She did it because, at one point, she loved him. Even Ted speaks fondly of those days with a hint of sadness. Belinda was such a closed-up individual, hardening herself for the humiliation she endured to get to where she is, and Ted was probably the very first person she expressed her vulnerable and unshielded side towards. Which makes the fallout all the more powerful and tragic. Project: Metropolis shows that when she and Ted were out drinking, and his inhibitions were lowered, rather than reciprocate her feelings towards him, he instead inverted them and gushed about how he'd prefer, not a smart, beautiful, natural woman like her, not his equal, but instead a mindless, bimbo-bodied obedient robot woman. And I like to think this shattered her world and changed everything. The man she opened up to gave her a proverbial slap to the face and said "I don't want YOU", and her world crashed down. Her love turned towards resentment, her heart hardened once more, and she even turned to other women and became a self-professed lesbian after having been spurned by a man she cared for. A jilted lover, she sought to hurt Ted and their relationship soured, culminating in her blowing the whistle on his experiments, sending him to jail, taking credit for his work, and even taking Ted's fantasy and twisting it into her own. One moment in time causing a ripple effect that guided her down a path that ruined lives and continues to haunt them both. Really, if you think about it, that's really powerful stuff, and it's been relatively glossed over.

The woman she has become, however, is still extremely compelling. She isn't purely "evil". She has no grand desire for money or power, but rather a medium to prove to herself, to Ted, and to the world what she's capable of. She's sacrificed so much, yet still has managed to tackle every obstacle head on with sardonic wit and deft skill. She's proven herself a ruthless foe, yet a kind and loving mistress. She's messed up and broken from her experiences, and that cause her to do twisted and messed up things, but she's not entirely unsympathetic. She's unpredictable, cunning, and potent, and for a woman with an average build, graying hair, and a life-long prison term, she's made the best of a bad situation, enough so that many consider her quite sexy and attractive, possessing an appealing personality, and somehow always managing to overcome her hardships and trudge on to find her own twisted glimmers of happiness.

Belinda's great, and hopefully we can dive into who she is and what makes her tick in further issues.
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