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I'm not saying I do, but I've known certain parties who may remain nameless to play that card when in truth they just aren't interested in other people's perspectives, or hard reality for that matter.

Now cat, let me see if I'm getting this right. One scene at the telegraoher's would have made Jenna less "useless"? Sorry, just because her contribution to the plot was poorly conveyed does not mean it's not important. There are any number of reasons to omit a small scene. Besides, your oft-portrayed views on what Jenna should have done are even worse, reducing her to a brainless, hormonal bimbo.

Then there was no reason for you to say that at all. Because you weren't referring to "certain parties who may remain nameless" in your earlier statement.

Ummm what exactly did I change about her to make her come off as a bimbo? I stated everything she did, I didn't twist anything hahaha. She adds nothing to the movie but fight off the bear and then nothing else. She provides romance, sure. (And call me a prude, but I think an epidemic is a bad time to become romantically involved with someone. But that's just me.) But yes, she suffers because of poor writing. Not her fault, but hey. Such is the problem of all contrived love.

And yes, that small scene could've added that much more. You don't know structure to movies like a lot of people do, and you'd be surprised how powerful a small scene could be. You experience this in The Lion King quite often: small scenes that add to the movie.

You can keep defending her all you want, but you're not exactly changing my opinion xD you and I have different perspectives on characters and for some reason that reeeeaally cheeses you off. That's why you keep not referring to me directly, when we all know I'm who you're talking about. So stop trying to indirectly cause trouble in a topic that's hardly speaking of sensitive subjects.

I'm talking about your writing, art, and activity and general. Shall we start with the "She should have puppies with Steele because he's so smexy and hawt" routine?


I'll grant that an epidemic would be a lousy time, but...

1) She seemed to at the very least enjoy his company before anyone got sick.

2) Crises have a tendency to bring people together in a platonic sense, and it's perfectly natural for further progression to build on that.

3) Given that you would have had Jenna fall for Steele after all the stuff he pulled and the way he treated her, you'd hardly stand out as an expert for what makes the ideal starting point for a relationship.

4) Don't worry, you're just about the last person I'd ever call a prude.


Again, you mean like your irrepressable delight in saying she should have ended up with Steele? Now that's contrived, and there's no telling where to start listing the ways she would have suffered. And while we're on the subject of contrived, I seem to remember you saying that when you first saw trailers for Wolf Quest you were hoping (before the matter was made clear) that Aleu would turn out to be a new love interest for Balto in place of Jenna. Now that would be contrived; end off the movie with him making eyes at Jenna, then have him dump her for some (to the readers) stranger in the next one? Or do you just want the star to be shallow and fickle?


Again, there are any number of reasons to omit a scene from a movie. I know a lot more than you think I know; I also have a fairly good grasp of what I don't know.


On the contrary, I have many friends with whom I have different perspectives on characters. Besides, anyone who knows our history knows you've been far more aggressive and antagonistic toward me than the other way around. And I'm not going to get into specifics there because that really would be asking for trouble. Suffice it to say that from you, I never have to ask.

As for changing your opinion, throw me some Q-tips. I could have sworn you said I was trying to change your mind. After all these years do you think I'd be so daft? Even a brain surgeon couldn't hope to pull that off, and we both know it.


I kept referring to you indirectly so that at least some of the newcomers who happen across this little repartee might not know of your history of ignoring any information that doesn't suit you. I was trying to give you a cahnce to save face; don't ask me why.

^ This? Incredibly off-topic and uncalled for.



1) No, she was creeped out by him and was openly offended by Steele suggesting she had taste in wolves.

2) True as that may be, hardly a moment between them was platonic. Except for when she asked Balto what was wrong with Rosie and he said "I'm not sure." Everything else after that was him flirting with her, and her becoming exponentially weirded out, insert some more inappropriate romance placement and then a word of gratitude on Jenna's part. I'm just wondering when in her worrying about Rosie that she found the time to take romantic interest in Balto.



Again... off topic. As a matter of fact, the movie would have been better if Steele was Balto. Not in the sense that Steele is the victim, but that Steele was literally Balto. Throw in a character arch similar to that of Charlie B. Barkin, and the movie probably would've made some money.

And, even as a child I found Jenna to be quite boring and distracting. Unlike most people, I was actually concerned about Rosie, not if Balto and Jenna's romance progressed.

Besides, she just gave him "purdy eyes" at the end. You can take that however you want. Most people think it was a sexual advancement on her part, and I can totally buy that.

And nothing's wrong with Balto finding a girl who's better suited to his personality (heck, Scooby Doo has had multiple girlfriends in his lifetime. What a two-timer! Why didn't you stay with that poodle from that one episode, she loved you for who you were, Scoobert! Whyyyyy!!!!). I don't know if you've noticed, but dating other people doesn't make you shallow and fickle. I actually find that quite offensive.



Again... off topic. Jenna isn't the only character in history who's ever suffered from love-interest syndrome. Mary Jane was subjected to that in the earlier Spiderman films, Nera from Disney's Dinosaur, Vixie from Fox and the Hound, Madellaine from Hunchback of Notre Dame 2, all the princesses from Mulan 2, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Dark Knight. Heck, Harley Quinn exists literally for the Joker, but she's so freaking endearing no one cares LOL



You don't have to do me any favors

Can't you guys just live with each other having a different opinion?
This is starting to get out of hand. Let it go before this gets locked.

By the same logic I'm seeing, almost everyone on Earth is pointless because they don't directly affect how you live. They're there because they need to be. Purpose isn't defined by being involved in everyone's life--that's impossible.

Well life isn't a movie either hahaha. People don't seem to understand that. A movie is a visual telling of a story. In stories characters play roles, and then there's nothing for the characters to do, there's no point in them being mentioned. Take a look at Genie in Return of Jafar and King of Thieves.

So it depends on where you draw the line that determines when a character has "nothing to do." Some characters are only for comic relief (take Muk and Luk in WQ for example) even though they may have no effect on the plot in itself.

You seem to draw the line of "nothing to do" higher than most of us, that's all.

Thank you for giving a name to my concerns.

Cat, as much as I'd like to continue, I'm pretty sure Juuchan wouldn't appreciate having her topic closed. Nor would anyone else, except maybe you (hey, you said not to do you any favors). So I'm just going to put forth my final statement and set you to Ignore on the forums as I probably should have done much sooner (how it was disabled the first time I did it, I'll never know).

Where do you get the notion that Jenna was creeped out by Balto. Who on earth stops smiling when they realize that someone who creeps them out is gone? By contrast, the only time Jenna smiled at all when Steele was around was when she was either being polite (as anyone with more people-sense than Steele, which is to say any at all) or setting him up for a trap. If anything, she was creeped out by the big muscledog with a heart and brain totaling the size of a pea.

Movies are, by nature, much more transient in their content than books; therefore it follows that the characters are not as developed. Ergo, logic (gag, i sound like Spock now) dictates that supporting characters do not need as much background information in movies as they do in books. Look at Itchy from ADGTH, since you consider that such a sparkling example of movie-making. We know nothing about his background, what friends or relatives he might have had except for Charlie. Pretty much all we know about him can be summed up in that he's Charlie's best friend, sidekick, and oft-ignored voice of reason. Comparatively, we know about Jenna's background, little as there is to it. In Spider-Man, one sees plenty of glimpses of MJ's family background, sordid as it is, and her struggles to make it on her own as she tries to balance her dream career with making ends meet. As for the other examples, I haven't seen even the first Hunchback, much less the second. But again, as JC has already pointed out, supporting characters are not as developed as main ones. Vixie was a total stranger to Tod, so it only makes sense that she be depicted as a stranger to the viewers as well. The rest I have not seen recently enough to remember in detail, but I recall seeing a fair bit of Nira's character for someone suffering from "love interest syndrome." As for Harley Quinn, I'll give you that one, but let's face it, she was designed to be dimwitted and driven by emotion rather than sense. Kind of like your version of Jenna.

Which brings me to my concluding point (and here is where your repetitions of "Irrelevant" are put into context, AUTO): you have an incessant tendency to contradict yourself. You say that Jenna's role is contrived, yet you delight in making her even more so and a senseless twit to boot. You talk about finding someone suitable for oneself and put her with arguably the least suitable character in the movie. You act as if you know all there is to know and how these professional animators and scriptwriters are so ignorant, and use downright suicidal examples to support your point. I could go on further, addressing your comment about dating, but you wouldn't change your mind anyway and that matter is so trivial that addressing it would just be overkill. My whole point in dissecting your arguments here has been to show that to everyone else. As an old saying goes, "Any case sounds reasonable until the cross-examination begins."

In other words, I was debating for the crowd, not you.

Frankly, I think she was waving a moderating finger at both of you. Just hazarding a guess here...

I realize that. I mainly meant that I was starting to worry. Had she not intervened, I was planning on asking Juuchan before posting more anyway.

As I explained earlier, I draw the line if uselessness if the movie could continue without a character being around. In Jenna's case she fought the bear, but after that and before that she didn't do much if anything at all. So we get a glimpse of her life, which people apparently consider that as important enough to warrant her an "important role" in a film. But like many other characters in movies, they give the love interest one small task that could've been done easily by any other character and then nothing else to do.

Now this idea of uselessness isn't just applied to females, but quite a few males too. It just happens to apply to all girls, but Aniu. Just because we know a character's family, doesn't necessarily give them a purpose in a movie. Characters like Star, Itchy, Timon (I think we can include Pumba), Dawson from The Great Mouse Detective, and other such characters we know next to nothing about their personal life, but they're still active and doing or saying something to enhance the plot.

If you can find my first couple posts, it explains it a lot better. I advise it since this went from a "are the balto females useless" topic, to a "stop hating Jenna, she not tupid" topic.

I honestly don't see how it would make much of a difference if a given character was "useless." Even if they don't have much role in the plot, it gives fans more choices on who to like, so they're naturally more of a fan. To the producers, more fans equals more money. That's all the producers care about, not giving every character a major role in the storyline.

Not entirely sure I agree. I produce stories for people to enjoy, but I don't go making characters just for the sake of giving readers more to love. And I don't see how money makes a difference in the regard you're talking. At most it would be in regards to merchandising, having more toys to sell. But even that doesn't seem too solid to me.