Glorifying Gangsters and Mafia · 3:16am Nov 12th, 2021
My two latest stories, The Runaway Bodyguard and Love, Friendship, and Gangsters, both include gangs and mafia as major story elements. Is this glorifying gang violence? No. It just shows it bald-faced. The characters starring in each of these works, Starlight Glimmer and Crystal Skies, suffer for their choices, and grow as a result. Nothing they do transforms bad to good, nor can it.
In the case of Starlight Glimmer, she will keep on being tested until she breaks and breaks again. She tries to stay above the fray, but gets involved to the point of doing horrible things for her mafia boss. Her attempts at penance and the scars from her mistakes will help her firm up her moral compass, but remember that these stories occur before the Our Town incident, so coping strategies also firm up her convictions that she is truly fighting evil when it is herself that is performing it. She only breaks completely when Twilight pokes irreparable holes in her worldview.
Crystal Skies is a different story. The star of Love, Friendship, and Gangster is earnest and understands friendship in ways Starlight will not until after she battles Twilight to a draw. He helps his friends. He fights for them. He likes to fight, but he also has the blood of friends on his feathers. He subtly accepts the violence and finds himself eased into the gang life. The sum of his actions doing his job cannot be labeled as good, even when he is defending his team and fighting other gangsters. His tale is one of a tainted soul. Not every action is black and white. In reflection, a savvy reader will realize that though he his a good person, he may also be a criminal.
These stories are cautionary tales.
I will admit that the action in these stories is fun, that the comedy is at times black and embarrassingly funny, and the characters are sometimes smart-asses. It is in service of a message. Stories should be enjoyable and entertaining. Otherwise, there are various sacred texts and ethical treatises that are neither enjoyable nor entertaining that you could read instead.
