black widow and motoko.

ok so I have some good news and bad news for anyone reading through this blog.  good news, I have an actual post this week, bad news, it's more about the black widow and ghost in the shell. now before I begin I'd like to direct my readers toward a cap that my good friend Jennifer made. her post is here.  her website and the caps are adult oriented and related to BDSM and similar topics so just be aware of that going in.































black widow, and major motoko kusanagi, my two favorite fictional characters.  now I have no idea were the random brain wave came to start comparing them came from, but I began to realize they do have a lot in common.  now this isn't going to be an in depth character study or anything, in terms of psychology and past and motivations their isn't a lot in common, but in skill sets and how they interact with the world.  and just to be clear I'll be using the version of motoko from the stand alone complex anime, not the movie or the original manga (the three are best thought of as different characters entirely).

both characters live in a world, were super human abilities are everywhere, black widow see's the likes of thor, the hulk, iron man, motoko lives in a world were robots look and act like people but can have rifles in their arms or mini guns in their chest.  yet neither one exactly has super powers I'm stretching this with motoko since she is a cyborg with abilities beyond anything a human can do, but they don't seem rare in her world and at best their an exaggeration of human abilities, for example she can jump very high but not fly.  things work similarly for black widow, while she's more down to earth in her abilities no one physical trait she has seems impossible but she's at the peak of human physical ability.

in fights neither character uses brute strength instead both rely on acrobatic ability to outmaneuver their opponents and gain leverage, keep their opponents off guard, or attack parts they can't defend.

but most of all, their both extremely difficult to catch by surprise, they exist in a world were information means the difference between life and death and have become utter masters at gathering all the Intel they can. and generally have a very acute awareness of what's going on around them.  I feel this is particularly potent because that's the main strength of both these characters lie, and I have to admit I really like that aspect of the characters, probably my favorite part about them other then personality or history traits (I know that's a huge thing to remove, but hopefully you get my point.