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COMICS-ERA Why is Poison Ivy often portrayed as a vegan?

deimosmasque

deimosmasque

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Apr 22, 2018
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It says it in the title.

I have been doing a rewatch of Harley Quinn and in that Poison Ivy, the eco terrorist who cares more about plant life than human life is portrayed as a vegan.

And it's not the only story she is portrayed this way.

But it doesn't make any sense based on her own experiences and her ethics.

If plant life is more important than animal life, wouldn't she be a carnivore?

I get what they are going for when writers, write her that way. She's an environmentalist, many environmentalist are vegan. Thus she is vegan.

But it seems really hypocritical of her.

I'm probably just over thinking it. Yet it bugs me a bit.

What do you go people of Comics-Era think?
 
Ashes of Dreams

Ashes of Dreams

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May 22, 2020
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I never thought of it before but you're right. She should literally be the opposite, exclusively eat meat and animal products.
 
tsmoreau

tsmoreau

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Oct 27, 2017
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I mean in that sense she should really be a fruitarian, where she only eats things that naturally fall from trees. Gifts from the plants and all that.

Full carnivore Ivy sounds cool in a way, but the way she's written in the show she'd prolly be wholly disgusted by the idea of eating meat.
 
Slayven

Slayven

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Oct 25, 2017
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I mean she is often shown hating all animal life, why would you eat something that you don't think should exist?
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

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Oct 27, 2017
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The woman is connected to a disembodied mystical plant consciousness. She probably doesn't even need to eat. But she probably just grows it herself with her plant magic.
 
echoshifting

echoshifting

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The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
14,693
The Negative Zone
She generally seems to view renewable plant life as disposable. There's an episode of TAS in which she grows plant/human hybrid children that are designed to melt into a pile of goo after a few days. The only time she really gets upset is when a plant that is special or endangered in some way is killed.
 
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deimosmasque

deimosmasque

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Apr 22, 2018
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TheMadTitan said:
The woman is connected to a disembodied mystical plant consciousness. She probably doesn't even need to eat. But she probably just grows it herself with her plant magic.
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Still she believes and is right that plants are sentient. Even the ones she grows.

She is literally eating sentient life.
Slayven said:
Her skin is the green stuff in plants, so yeah she doesn't really need to eat
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Depends on the continuity and you know that.

Green skin Ivy does usually still need to eat because photosynthesis isn't enough to keep her going, usually
 
RiOrius

RiOrius

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Oct 27, 2017
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In order for a pig/cow/chicken to survive to be slaughtered, it needs to eat a lot of food. More food than it ultimately produces. Food that's either plant based or meat that somewhere up the chain ate a plant.

Every step in the food chain is a huge waste of energy, which means more plants die. Veganism is thus the most efficient (ie least harmful to plants) way to live.
 
Poppy

Poppy

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Oct 25, 2017
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i dont think she has a problem with the cycle of life and death, it's mostly just the human tendency to control and snuff out nature
 
Slayven

Slayven

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Oct 25, 2017
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deimosmasque said:
Still she believes and is right that plants are sentient. Even the ones she grows.

She is literally eating sentient life.

Depends on the continuity and you know that.

Green skin Ivy does usually still need to eat because photosynthesis isn't enough to keep her going, usually
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Which continuity has Solomon Gundy as Swamp Thing's failed prototype?
 
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deimosmasque

deimosmasque

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RiOrius said:
In order for a pig/cow/chicken to survive to be slaughtered, it needs to eat a lot of food. More food than it ultimately produces. Food that's either plant based or meat that somewhere up the chain ate a plant.

Every step in the food chain is a huge waste of energy, which means more plants die. Veganism is thus the most efficient (ie least harmful to plants) way to live.
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That... Actually makes sense. Kudos!
 
lojo

lojo

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Oct 27, 2017
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A plant based diet doesn't necessarily kill the plant right? Like you can eat fruit from a tree and that doesn't hurt the tree.

Funny enough though the latest issue of her comic actually states she's not a vegan because of the environmental impact veganism has on the planet.
 
Old Man Spike

Old Man Spike

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Oct 29, 2017
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EDIT:

BrightLightLava said:
Current writer G Willow Wilson tweeted about this recently.


View: https://twitter.com/gwillowwilson/status/1544340243515510789?s=21&t=_COnrtxvDUJ_i0GgnpSrWg

More in thread
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JoztrR9.jpg


UqpXeQD.jpg


I imagine that it's similar to the reasoning behind making her more of an anti-hero than a outright villain. It's about vapid marketability.
 
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deimosmasque

deimosmasque

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Doukou said:
She should be solar powered
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As Slayven pointed out she technically is. She does preform photosynthesis through her skin.

But it has also shown to often not be enough (depending on the writer) especially when she is very active and using her powers. Plants tend to not move around alot unless they are Ents.
tsmoreau said:
I mean in that sense she should really be a fruitarian, where she only eats things that naturally fall from trees. Gifts from the plants and all that.

Full carnivore Ivy sounds cool in a way, but the way she's written in the show she'd prolly be wholly disgusted by the idea of eating meat.
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I did actually miss this post. That is actually a good idea. Doesn't work when she walks into a restaurant but I would accept that as well.
 
Xterrian

Xterrian

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Apr 20, 2018
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Clearly the solution is to have her eat like a carnivorous plant, trapping insects and spiders in her clutches and slowly digesting them.
 
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deimosmasque

deimosmasque

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Apr 22, 2018
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Old Man Spike said:
EDIT:



JoztrR9.jpg


UqpXeQD.jpg


I imagine that it's similar to the reasoning behind making her more of an anti-hero than a outright villain. It's about marketability.
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Yup reading that comic. She's eating vegetable soup.

An example of a great line, not matching what we are seeing.

Also if She's carnivore, she's wasting the meat of her kills. Which should also be against her ethics.
 
tsmoreau

tsmoreau

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Oct 27, 2017
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deimosmasque said:
As Slayven pointed out she technically is. She does preform photosynthesis through her skin.

But it has also shown to often not be enough (depending on the writer) especially when she is very active and using her powers. Plants tend to not move around alot unless they are Ents.

I did actually miss this post. That is actually a good idea. Doesn't work when she walks into a restaurant but I would accept that as well.
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I've not been up on continuity for like twelve reboots now, so I dunno what prismatic version they got going at the moment, but I definitely had the thought that making Ivy full carnivore would mean in practice she'd be a full on modern DC edgelord psycho. And yeah, some of the panels up there kinda confirm my suspicion.

But for the show version, if the intent was to make her more a modern hipster environmentalist type, having the even more niche reference of fruitarianism would've been absolutely *mwah* perfect, from both ends of the character work, genuine respect for the character, and poking fun.

Edit: "What kind of self respecting vegan restaurant doesn't have a fruitarian option?! Ugh."

"Babes, now don't worry, I saw an apple tree on the fly over. You people should be ashamed of yourselves."
 
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deimosmasque

deimosmasque

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Apr 22, 2018
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It was an Crisis on Infinite Earths retcon that didn't fit, thy tried to fix it and made it worse.

Also know as "The Comic Book Writer Solution"
 
Messi

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Oct 25, 2017
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There's lots of different versions of Ivy and how this is represented.
 
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