Yes, the Dreamfinder as we are looking at the main villain of Figment 2: A Legacy of Imagination. Something that you'll see with two of the blogs (this and next week's) you'll see something that I appreciate here is that there are stories that are willing to use characters that we know and love as it shows that even they can struggle. This is an idea that we see explored throughout this miniseries as Dreamfinder is such a jovial character that fans are usually seen as happy and insightful but consider this, here is a man that much like Captain America is a man out of time as we came from 1910 London to modern-day Florida. Dreamfinder is a man out of time and that in part is how The Doubtfinder came to be. With this introduction outta the way, let's begin.
First Appearance
The Doubtfinder makes his first appearance during the end of the second issue when Dreamfinder's fears and doubts overtake him during a presentation that goes awry. And poor Dreamfinder has lost all control of himself leaving Figment in a confusing time to go and find help.
This page does many things as it invokes the idea of fear by showing a character that fans love being in danger and losing control of themselves. I believe that this goes back to the idea that any and everyone struggles. This idea reminds me of Nightmare Rarity from the IDW MLP comics as she went through much the same.
Now, we don't get much of a feeling for The Doubtfinder here in this issue but he has been creeping throughout as Dreamfinder's fears and doubts consumed him even before this villain revealed himself.
Personality
In some regards, the personality of The Doubtfinder does not matter because as I have stated throughout, he is a manifestation of fear and doubt. He seems to feed off of making people scared and more importantly as his name implies doubt themselves. I'll let Figment explain this.
Okay, okay! Here’s what’s going on! Your great times three grand uncle and I traveled through dreamscapes to get to now, a hundred years after what we knew before. Dreamfinder got worried and that worried turned into doubt and that doubt turned into something dark and awful that crawled out of him, turned him into the Doubtfinder, and took over the whole school.
This is Figment explaining this to Dreamfinder's great-great-great grandniece Capri, who happens to idolize Dreamfinder and wants to be an inventor like him. So, she jumps at the opportunity to save her hero.
We can see this idea quite a bit when Capri and Figment enter Dreamfinder's mind and see bad memories from the young Blair (his name before becoming Dreamfinder)
This shows how dangerous Doubtfinder is and to quote my review here.
And things get worse, when young Blair’s teacher asks to see his homework and we see that he has been doodling. And his teacher tells him that these are a waste of time and soon, the students and teacher in the school turn into shadows of the Doubtfinder that attack our heroine and her two friends.
We may be looking at a manifestation of fear and doubt but you can remove that and just look at how dangerous it is to let fear and doubt consume us as it could hold us back or put out that One Little Spark.
Most Evil Deed
On the meta level, there is how he took over Dreamfinder and allowed Dreamfinder to believe that he has no value or how he turned the students at the academy where the story takes place into zombies but I think that I have to go with how he twists Dreamfinder's creativity to create an evil and demonic form to talk Dreamfinder's niece.
Now as you can see, Capri, Figment and her friend, Spark were able to free Dreamfinder but my point still stands that he used Dreamfinder's creativity as he is a part of Dreamfinder. And whereas Dreamfinder creates things that are joyful and happy, Doubtfinder created something meant to hurt and attack people. Which ties back into the idea of fear and doubt as when we are stressed, we can lash out at people we love. And while Dreamfinder has yet to meet Capri, his bond with Figment is unbreakable and would never do anything to harm him but Doubtfinder does not understand that. Consider this, from this blog about anxiety, can cause to say mean things.
Anxiety can make us say mean things, regrettably, no matter how nice we are
So, the Doubtfinder's transformation holds more weight than Maleficent turning into a dragon or Jafar becoming snake like
Also, let's take a closer look at that panel.
We have Dreamfinder and Doubtfinder on the same page and again, this is more than just hero facing down a villain. This is a man that has seen his inner demons come to life and how they have gotten out of control and he knows that he needs to overcome them.
Defeat
It's a hard defeat to pin down like a game of keep-away is played with the device that brought him to life.
Dreamfinder puts on the helmet as he wants to get to his device but one of the zombified students or doubtlings as Doubtfinder calls them takes the helmet from Dreamfinder but Figment gets it back but Chairman Auckley gets it and it becomes a game of keepaway
But Dreamfinder is able to defeat him as he destroys the thing that brought Doubtfinder to life. Doubtfinder cannot believe this but Dreamfinder has an important message to share.
It’s true. As long as we take risks, and try new things, we’ll have moments of despair, times where we wonder if it’s all worth it but as long as we keep dreaming, we’ll win in the end. Imagination is stronger than fear. Of that, there can be no doubt.
This line is so important and one that I think more people need to see, if you put yourself out there, you are bound to fail but you just have to pick yourself back up and not be afraid to try again. True, here it's tied to imagination but let's apply to this to a broader scope and just say life as you have to be willing to try.
Now, I wanna get personal here for a moment because years ago, I had my own personal Doubtfinder. Back when the Channel Awesome Forums were still a thing, there was a cyberbully that showed up around Halloween night of this year, he went by Evil Baron Battersby and had it out for any and everyone that was on the forums that were associated with Manic Expression in one way or another. Me, specifically he said I was talentless and wasting time on my blogs because no-one would get anything of value from reading them or oh, I was a pedophile because I like My Little Pony and Sofia The First. 🙄
About after setting up 15 accounts, he was finally banned from the forums but he never escaped my mind as for months after when I would go to write an MLP or Sofia review, his words would run across in my head and would cause me to not want to continue writing and make me believe that my writing was worthless but I've overcome that feeling and as you can see I haven't forgotten my Doubtfinder and I don't think that I want to. As while, I hate that person and what he put me through, in a way going through that showed me how strong I am and that I'm tough. I'm not saying I ever want to go through a moment like this ever again but I think I'll know how to handle it f I ever have to face another Doubtfinder in my life.
Why did I bring this up because this shows how outside thoughts from others can affect us and cause to fear and doubt ourselves and cause us to have struggles with inner demons. As that quote suggests, even the happiest people can struggle. Look, I try to be like Anna and be happy and want to make the people I care about happy but I struggle and sometimes the fear and doubt are going to overtake that mask of happiness.
I believe that is just a fact as to how people live and what we go through.
Is Doubtfinder A Good Villain?
Sorry for getting sidetracked there at the end but I hope my point was clear. As to the answer here, yes because he represents two of the greatest things that can hold a person back. I've said it throughout this blog and I'll say it again: fear and doubt. Doubtfinder shows what happens when we let those two things control us and we listen to those voices and how they can sometimes make us feel worthless or bring out the worst in us.
Well, what's up next on the journey through emotions. How about a look at how depression and addiction can twist the way that my favorite princess thinks. Yep, next time, we are looking at what is going to be one of the hardest reviews for me to do as I look at the saddest piece of media I'll be covering as we look at the season two episode from Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure titled Happiness Is...
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