We3 gets into that debate that has been popping up persistently throughout the semester: what does it mean to be human? Something that really caught my interest after reading We3 was just how much more relatable the We3 (is that how you address them? I’m pretty sure that’s what the team is called) are in comparison to their human counterparts. For example, when Doctor Trendle is explaining to biorgs to the senators, none of the humans are given faces. Even when there’s a wide angle shot of them all standing over a turbine, the humans are all cut out of the frame above their mouths, while readers have no shortage of excuses to look into the eyes of the different animal characters (even the rabbits in the very beginning of the second volume have more faces than the humans). In fact, the only humans to get faces are the ones that side (more or less) with the We3. Rosanne Berry gets some of the most ‘face-time’ as she is the intermediary between humans and the We3. Doctor Trendle also has a face, but his role seems to shift throughout the story.
As I said, Dr. Trendle’s role in the story of We3 is an incredibly interesting topic for me. At first, I thought that the scientist who made the rat drill the other rat’s face off in the beginning was some kind of crazy person, and the scientist with the glasses is reluctantly assigned to bring the We3 back. It really does seem as though there are two different characters inside of him. Sometimes he seems almost compassionate to the We3 (especially in the end), but then he turns around, get’s a grin-frame (one of those frames with only his sickly grinning teeth) and he acts like a crazy person (Vol. 2, page 8). Maybe this could be a long-shot allusion to Dr. Frankenstein’s wild obsession? That his creation controls him? I don’t really know, but I DO know that Dr. Trendle is a very complex character for me. Am I crazy for thinking that?