Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

The Artful Dodger

 The Artful Dodger
type
TVTItem
 The Artful Dodger
label
The Artful Dodger
 The Artful Dodger
page
TheArtfulDodger
 The Artful Dodger
comment
The Artful Dodger is a 2023 Australian series streamed on Hulu and Disney+. It is a sequel of sorts to Oliver Twist.After the events of the novel, the Artful Dodger escaped from prison in England, became a naval surgeon, and then moved to Australia to practice medicine. However, an old acquaintance of his, Fagin, resurfaces, forcing Jack back into a life of crime.It stars Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Jack Dawkins (The Artful Dodger), David Thewlis as Fagin, and Maia Mitchell as Lady Belle Fox.
 The Artful Dodger
fetched
2024-04-08T19:01:41Z
 The Artful Dodger
parsed
2024-04-08T19:01:41Z
 The Artful Dodger
isPartOf
DBTropes
 The Artful Dodger / int_1777688d
type
Genre Savvy
 The Artful Dodger / int_1777688d
comment
Sneed is a pompous, classist, egotistical jerk with terrible bedside manner who antagonises Jack (never mind that he all but abandons a patient he mis-performed a surgery on so he can be celebrated for said surgery, and later outs Jack's inability to read), and when Gaines questions him about Jack's gambling debt and possible involvement in the soldiers' pay, a Genre Savvy viewer might expect him to throw Jack under the bus, especially as they're both competing for head surgeon. Instead, he firstly defends the fact that the surgeons aren't paid and it's unfair to judge them for how they support themselves outside of it, and then insists Jack could never be involved in such sordid business. He also makes a point to state the surgery wouldn't be able to function without him, and while he does contradict Jack's alibi about how he got covered in guts, it's just him answering truthfully.
 The Artful Dodger / int_1777688d
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_1777688d
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_1777688d
 The Artful Dodger / int_19d1c1ae
type
Always Someone Better
 The Artful Dodger / int_19d1c1ae
comment
Always Someone Better: Jack is this to Sneed, being a far more talented surgeon. Sneed is incredibly resentful of this, due to Jack's station and poor literacy, but it's shown repeatedly that deep down, he knows he's the better surgeon.
 The Artful Dodger / int_19d1c1ae
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_19d1c1ae
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_19d1c1ae
 The Artful Dodger / int_20f689e9
type
Adaptational Villainy
 The Artful Dodger / int_20f689e9
comment
Adaptational Villainy: Oliver Twist, of all people. He's perfectly willing to frame Jack and Fagin, ruin the governor's career and steal the gold from his own employer so he can start a new life of his own. He even tells Fagin it was his fault for awakening his dark side.
 The Artful Dodger / int_20f689e9
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_20f689e9
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_20f689e9
 The Artful Dodger / int_21f60711
type
Good Is Not Soft
 The Artful Dodger / int_21f60711
comment
Good Is Not Soft: While good is perhaps a generous term, it's still a shock when Fagin happily lets Red gun down Gaines to save Jack.
 The Artful Dodger / int_21f60711
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_21f60711
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_21f60711
 The Artful Dodger / int_2629c82a
type
Breaking the Glass Ceiling
 The Artful Dodger / int_2629c82a
comment
Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Lady Belle Fox wants to become a woman surgeon. In the 1850s. Which isn't quite as far-fetched as it might sound given that the first female surgeon Mary Edwards Walker became a qualified surgeon around this time in real life.
 The Artful Dodger / int_2629c82a
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_2629c82a
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_2629c82a
 The Artful Dodger / int_29d26001
type
Spoiled Sweet
 The Artful Dodger / int_29d26001
comment
Spoiled Sweet: Belle's sister Fanny is an Upper-Class Twit to the core, distinctly not very bright, with shades of Cloud Cuckoo Lander. Nonetheless, at heart she's a kind girl who cares for her sister in her own strange way, even if she's constantly being rebuffed.
 The Artful Dodger / int_29d26001
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_29d26001
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_29d26001
 The Artful Dodger / int_2dc0d2bf
type
Hidden Depths
 The Artful Dodger / int_2dc0d2bf
comment
Hidden Depths: The governor is usually portrayed as a well-meaning but easily manipulated buffoon. And he is, but the start of "The Stitch Up" makes clear he's well aware he's trapped in a loveless marriage, with one daughter that essentially ignores him and another that's a semi-imbecile, and is depressed over all of it - which might explain why he's so massively apathetic most of the time.
 The Artful Dodger / int_2dc0d2bf
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_2dc0d2bf
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_2dc0d2bf
 The Artful Dodger / int_3545b7df
type
Proper Lady
 The Artful Dodger / int_3545b7df
comment
Lady Jane Fox, Belle's mother, who is a Proper Lady that is once described as a "Harridan" (essentially, an archaic way of calling her a Karen), yet is softly but notably supportive of her daughter's Spirited Young Lady nature, and is a touch less judgmental towards Dawkins than the rest of their class are (though only a touch, and when she realises that Belle and Jack are falling for one another, she firmly warns Jack to stay away from her as she cannot let her daughter marry below her station). She also lampshades how unreasonable Gaines' hangings are, points out the shoddy design of the port's sewer system, and in general is clearly where Belle gets her spirit from. Unfortunately, it becomes rather Subverted after she catches Jack in bed with Belle, due to the times she massively overreacts, and refuses to take Jack and Belle seriously about their diagnosis of her condition due to the less competent Sneed misdiagnosing her due to his sexism and reluctance to perform a delicate surgery.
 The Artful Dodger / int_3545b7df
featureApplicability
-0.3
 The Artful Dodger / int_3545b7df
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_3545b7df
 The Artful Dodger / int_3fe6a857
type
Public Domain Character
 The Artful Dodger / int_3fe6a857
comment
Public Domain Character: Jack Dawkins (a.k.a. The Artful Dodger), Fagin, and Oliver Twist
 The Artful Dodger / int_3fe6a857
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_3fe6a857
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_3fe6a857
 The Artful Dodger / int_4067bd4d
type
Spirited Young Lady
 The Artful Dodger / int_4067bd4d
comment
Spirited Young Lady: Lady Belle Fox, daughter of the Governor with a deep intelligence and interest in medical science, who is quickly bored by the Upper-Class Twit types she's being courted by.
 The Artful Dodger / int_4067bd4d
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_4067bd4d
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_4067bd4d
 The Artful Dodger / int_40bb59d0
type
Blatant Lies
 The Artful Dodger / int_40bb59d0
comment
Blatant Lies: Somewhat deconstructed in that while they're usually done humourously, the actual effect of both Jack and Fagin (usually the latter) doing this is usually just Digging Yourself Deeper with the already suspicious Gaines. A good example comes when Gaines unexpectedly turns up at the hospital asking questions and the two don't have time to coordinate stories. Subsequently, when he asks an innocuous question about Jack's siblings he plays it safe and says he's an only child. Fagin, on the other hand, can't help himself and says Jack has nine siblings of various ages with increasingly outlandish names, further raising Gaines' suspicions.
 The Artful Dodger / int_40bb59d0
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_40bb59d0
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_40bb59d0
 The Artful Dodger / int_4781adbb
type
Jerk with a Heart of Gold
 The Artful Dodger / int_4781adbb
comment
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Fagin; he's still an opportunistic conman who openly looks out for "number one", but he genuinely cares for Jack and is even willing to do time for him to make up for having abandoned him in the past. Jack himself is a Lovable Rogue of a surgeon, willing to join Fagin in various thefts, prone to anger and ego, and holds a lot of resentments. But he's kind to his patients, refuses to take a life or even be involved in such, and is a good hearted man deep down. Heavily downplayed with Sneed, to the point it's more brass than gold. He's a Smug Snake Upper-Class Twit who overcompensates for his resentment towards Jack by dismissing and antagonising him, never mind his demonstrated sexism streak; but he refuses to incriminate Jack in crime, and when the situation matters, he admits Jack is the superior surgeon.
 The Artful Dodger / int_4781adbb
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_4781adbb
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_4781adbb
 The Artful Dodger / int_47fea76b
type
Butt-Monkey
 The Artful Dodger / int_47fea76b
comment
Butt-Monkey: Jack in the first half of the series can't go an episode without being assaulted, blackmailed, humiliated, or scapegoated. In the second half, things turn more positively for him as he starts getting back at others and standing up for himself, regaining his dignity and will in the process. Meanwhile, Darius becomes the one targeted for pain, torture, and humiliation as his karma comes to hit him back hard. Belle's sister Fanny is always being upstaged by Belle, embarrassed, and being made the butt of some punchline or other. The man she crushes on (Sneed) loves Belle, her romantic dreams are repeatedly mocked by her sister and her parents essentially treat her as an afterthought. Even her fiance, Oliver Twist, turns out to be a criminal in the end.
 The Artful Dodger / int_47fea76b
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_47fea76b
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_47fea76b
 The Artful Dodger / int_483152c4
type
The Resenter
 The Artful Dodger / int_483152c4
comment
The Resenter: Sneed towards Jack. It's painfully obvious Jack is the far better surgeon, able to perform delicate surgeries far quicker with a far better mortality rate, on top of having far better skill with the scalpel. But as Jack is a barely literate lower class sailor, Sneed, who was born into wealth, not only looks down on him, but he can't stand the fact Jack is better than him. Jack towards upper society in general, due to his experiences as The Artful Dodger Trope Namer in his youth, and the struggles he faces as an adult who, despite being the most talented surgeon in the country, is passed over for promotion in favour of the more well-connected Sneed purely due to his background, never mind other humiliations. When he's tempted to return to crime, much of it is motivated out of a desire to get revenge on the upper class. This makes his attraction to Lady Belle quite complicated, as he both loves her but also resents a lot of the privileges she was born into.
 The Artful Dodger / int_483152c4
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_483152c4
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_483152c4
 The Artful Dodger / int_4d1ac25b
type
Villains Want Mercy
 The Artful Dodger / int_4d1ac25b
comment
Villains Want Mercy: Shot in the chest by Red, a desperate Gaines begs Jack to save him. He doesn't oblige, though it's more out of shock at what's just happened than any explicit cruelty.
 The Artful Dodger / int_4d1ac25b
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_4d1ac25b
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_4d1ac25b
 The Artful Dodger / int_4f84cdef
type
Smug Snake
 The Artful Dodger / int_4f84cdef
comment
Smug Snake: Sneed, having been raised in the upper crust with everything provided for him, has an inflated view of himself, and his surgical abilities. A point is made that he's not incompetent, he's just a mediocre doctor, but one who is treated like he's a far better doctor than he is.
 The Artful Dodger / int_4f84cdef
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_4f84cdef
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_4f84cdef
 The Artful Dodger / int_51300dbf
type
Fat Bastard
 The Artful Dodger / int_51300dbf
comment
Fat Bastard: What Oliver Twist has become in the last 15 years.
 The Artful Dodger / int_51300dbf
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_51300dbf
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_51300dbf
 The Artful Dodger / int_64a45c81
type
Street Smart
 The Artful Dodger / int_64a45c81
comment
Street Smart: Jack. He is, after all, The Artful Dodger.
 The Artful Dodger / int_64a45c81
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_64a45c81
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_64a45c81
 The Artful Dodger / int_6ee10e0
type
My Greatest Failure
 The Artful Dodger / int_6ee10e0
comment
My Greatest Failure: Leaving Jack in prison is this for Fagin, as he's genuinely felt guilt for it ever since. His master plan in the series largely relies on roping Jack back into the criminal lifestyle not just because he needs his help, but because he plans to take Jack with him to riches as a means to repay what he did.
 The Artful Dodger / int_6ee10e0
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_6ee10e0
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_6ee10e0
 The Artful Dodger / int_7eebe99c
type
The Alcoholic
 The Artful Dodger / int_7eebe99c
comment
The Alcoholic: Professor MacGregor can put away a staggering amount of alcohol, with even Fagin commenting that he could practically drink the ocean. It's played for drama in that the Prof operates while drunk, killing one man in the first episode (and blaming Jack) and doing it again later on to his own friend.
 The Artful Dodger / int_7eebe99c
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_7eebe99c
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_7eebe99c
 The Artful Dodger / int_8984e5d1
type
Commonality Connection
 The Artful Dodger / int_8984e5d1
comment
Commonality Connection: Jack clearly empathises with the lower class in the colony due to his background, including the ones he performs surgeries on and the convicts sent to Australia whose fate he's to decide. When performing surgery, though he puts on a show due to it being largely how he's paid in the first place, he takes a moment to quietly, sincerely assure the patients he's performing on that he will save them and try to make the surgery go by as quickly as possible to reduce their pain. Meanwhile, when a convict arrives with a particularly empathetic story, he's quick to assign them a comfortable job they're not qualified for but can learn on the job. This is seemingly part of the reason his boss doesn't like him, as his sense of empathy for such types makes him come off as a liberal and a radical to a particularly conservative environment.
 The Artful Dodger / int_8984e5d1
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_8984e5d1
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_8984e5d1
 The Artful Dodger / int_8d3349bb
type
Canon Character All Along
 The Artful Dodger / int_8d3349bb
comment
Canon Character All Along: The mysterious thug Fagin is working with turns out to be Monks, Oliver Twist's criminal half-brother from the original book.
 The Artful Dodger / int_8d3349bb
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_8d3349bb
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_8d3349bb
 The Artful Dodger / int_954ad71c
type
Evil Colonialist
 The Artful Dodger / int_954ad71c
comment
Evil Colonialist: Port Victory as a whole is viewed as this by Red, an indigenous bushranger targeting Governor Fox and Captain Gaines. It's not Gaines' defining trait, but he still definitely lives up to it.
 The Artful Dodger / int_954ad71c
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_954ad71c
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_954ad71c
 The Artful Dodger / int_99404851
type
Ladykiller in Love
 The Artful Dodger / int_99404851
comment
Ladykiller in Love: Jack Dawkins. He's shown sleeping with his nurse and outright states he's had a number of other trysts, but it becomes clear he has a mutual attraction with Belle.
 The Artful Dodger / int_99404851
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_99404851
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_99404851
 The Artful Dodger / int_9bcd82c0
type
Took a Level in Badass
 The Artful Dodger / int_9bcd82c0
comment
Took a Level in Badass: Jack Dawkins. While as The Artful Dodger, he was already the best pickpocket in London; fifteen years later he's now a qualified Navy Surgeon and former officer, indicating he's had a serious rank up. Oliver Twist appears to be a nice friendly man, still on an honest path. It turns out he set up this entire robbery against Fagin, noting that his experience made him realize Fagin and Dodger were right all along in how being honest is no way to make it in life. Fagin openly compliments Oliver on pulling off a scam he never saw coming.
 The Artful Dodger / int_9bcd82c0
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_9bcd82c0
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_9bcd82c0
 The Artful Dodger / int_9cc1a329
type
Upper-Class Twit
 The Artful Dodger / int_9cc1a329
comment
Upper-Class Twit: With exception to Lady Belle, this seems to be the vast majority of the upper crust in the colony, much to her chagrin as she's expected to marry one of them but finds each one boorish, unintelligent, and self-important. Jack also has to deal with this, both with some of his patients, and his colleagues; the head surgeon is an outdated misogynist and drunkard who thinks a 1 in 6 survival rate is a good record worth bragging about and that patients feeling pain is "God's will", and gets his friend killed by misperforming a surgery.
 The Artful Dodger / int_9cc1a329
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_9cc1a329
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_9cc1a329
 The Artful Dodger / int_a7aef9ff
type
Obfuscating Stupidity
 The Artful Dodger / int_a7aef9ff
comment
Obfuscating Stupidity: Oliver Twist plays up being a bumbling toff, as well as other tendencies like being a Big Eater and incompetent boss, and combines it into an act so good that Fagin doesn't realise he's the mastermind behind the gold theft until he directly sees him with Darius.
 The Artful Dodger / int_a7aef9ff
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_a7aef9ff
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_a7aef9ff
 The Artful Dodger / int_abc28948
type
Straw Misogynist
 The Artful Dodger / int_abc28948
comment
Straw Misogynist: Much of the Upper-Class Twit class express varying degrees of dismissal of women, and are consistently presented as idiots and assholes for it. Sneed actually views himself as a "modern man" because he believes women should be trained in firearms too (but still believes that Belle should marry him simply because he has money and has basically no awareness of her desires as a person, and misunderstands her sarcastic remark about men being the ones free to make fortunes as if she's stating a simple fact). Professor McGregor and his friend Tinkler, after heavy drinking, go on a long tangent about male superiority of women and "prove" it by lifting two heavy boxes, something they doubt any woman can do, resulting in obvious straining for the Professor and Tinkler developing a hernia that, due to the Professor's malpractice when attempting surgery on him, results in his death.
 The Artful Dodger / int_abc28948
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_abc28948
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_abc28948
 The Artful Dodger / int_aca32000
type
Armor-Piercing Response
 The Artful Dodger / int_aca32000
comment
Armor-Piercing Response: Near the end of "Bully in the Alley" Belle tries to remonstrate with Red (after delivering her baby) by giving her a mini-lecture on their thievery. Red shuts her up by telling her that her family are the biggest thieves in the whole port, given that they're ruling over land stolen from the natives.
 The Artful Dodger / int_aca32000
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_aca32000
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_aca32000
 The Artful Dodger / int_acecb17d
type
Chekhov's Skill
 The Artful Dodger / int_acecb17d
comment
Chekhov's Skill: At one point Belle has to walk Jack through a very risky aneurysm surgery - something that comes in very handy when Belle develops an aortic aneurysm and needs an operation in the finale.
 The Artful Dodger / int_acecb17d
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_acecb17d
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_acecb17d
 The Artful Dodger / int_ad1db87c
type
Oh, Crap!
 The Artful Dodger / int_ad1db87c
comment
Oh, Crap!: In the first episode alone, Dawkins reacts this way to seeing Fagin again, seeing his debtors in the street, and then seeing Belle holding the necklace Fagin lifted and put in his pocket. The reaction of Dawkins and Fagin when they see that of all the people in the world to oversee the shipment they're planning to rob, the bank just had to send Oliver Twist.
 The Artful Dodger / int_ad1db87c
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_ad1db87c
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_ad1db87c
 The Artful Dodger / int_b4a6ae4c
type
Everyone Has Standards
 The Artful Dodger / int_b4a6ae4c
comment
Everyone Has Standards: Sneed is a pompous, classist, egotistical jerk with terrible bedside manner who antagonises Jack (never mind that he all but abandons a patient he mis-performed a surgery on so he can be celebrated for said surgery, and later outs Jack's inability to read), and when Gaines questions him about Jack's gambling debt and possible involvement in the soldiers' pay, a Genre Savvy viewer might expect him to throw Jack under the bus, especially as they're both competing for head surgeon. Instead, he firstly defends the fact that the surgeons aren't paid and it's unfair to judge them for how they support themselves outside of it, and then insists Jack could never be involved in such sordid business. He also makes a point to state the surgery wouldn't be able to function without him, and while he does contradict Jack's alibi about how he got covered in guts, it's just him answering truthfully. Later, though Sneed is willing to kill Dawkins in a duel after the two's rivalry and mutual hatred gets out of hand, he immediately backs down once Governor Fox instead orders their Secondsnote the individuals they both bring as witness, to negotiate a last minute amicable resolution, and to inspect the weapons prior to the duel to take their place, as while he might resent Dawkins for his station and attitude enough to be willing to kill him, he's not willing to see Fagin or his own second suffer for their rivalry. He also recognises that the Professor is too incompetent to be trusted with his own amputation after Fagin "accidentally" shoots him in the leg during the duel, and not only reinstates Jack as co-surgeon but also gives permission for the modern procedures he's refused to adopt to please the Professor. Sneed again, in the finale. Though he condescendingly misdiagnoses Belle's aortic aneurysm for, firstly, "womanly troubles" and then a simple ulcer (both due to sexist dismissal of her symptoms and the fact he knows if he were to perform the needed surgery on her he'd kill her), when he's pushed by Jane to interrupt Jack's attempt at saving her life, he point-blank refuses and insists Jack finish because he knows Jack is better than him. When Jack is dragged off immediately after finishing her stitching, he pointedly tells Jane that she's sentencing the best surgeon he's ever seen to his death. Professor McGregor, meanwhile, is even worse than Sneed in every way; aggressively sexist, proudly old-fashioned, takes pride in his ridiculously small success rate at surgery, regularly performs surgery while drunk and refuses basic patient care like cleaning and anesthetic, on top of blaming others for his own mistakes. However, when led to believe a pregnant woman and her child died during a C-sectionnote in-actuality, she was swapped out for a male cadaver, he's heartbroken over the tragedy despite her being a notorious criminal sentenced to hanging, and aggressively kicks Gaines out of the hospital for his lack of sensitivity. Fagin might be shady beyond belief, but he draws the line at grave-robbing after his attempts at hiding the payroll land it in a body. Downplayed, in that he's still happy for Jack to do it. Jack flatly refuses to frame Darius for the payroll robbery if it means he'll be hanged, despite his utter suitability for the role. Later, he immediately attacks Monks for trying to kill Oliver earlier in life, as while he hates Oliver he definitely didn't want him dead.
 The Artful Dodger / int_b4a6ae4c
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_b4a6ae4c
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_b4a6ae4c
 The Artful Dodger / int_b89938b1
type
Frontier Doctor
 The Artful Dodger / int_b89938b1
comment
Frontier Doctor: Jack Dawkins is a doctor in a small hospital in colonial 1850s Australia.
 The Artful Dodger / int_b89938b1
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_b89938b1
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_b89938b1
 The Artful Dodger / int_c02f148d
type
Both Sides Have a Point
 The Artful Dodger / int_c02f148d
comment
Both Sides Have a Point: In "Bully in the Alley", this is how Belle sees the conflict that rises when Gaines's Police Brutality hospitalises most of the colony when raiding the tavern/brothel for bushrangers and other criminals. Her father, partly thanks to Gaines' influence, sees it as an ugly but unfortunately needed excess of force due to the fact the populace are, for the most part, convicts. The arrests being made are against bushrangers, whose holdups have resulted in the murder of soldiers during many robberies, so while their deaths are tragic, they're not simply innocent victims. Dawkins, meanwhile, believes all lives are worth saving and simply being a criminal does not mean they deserve to be beaten to death by guards, especially as they assaulted far more people than the ones they arrested. Furthermore, there is an obvious class divide at play, as said bushrangers are largely from the lower class and motivated by both survival and rebellion against an authoritarian military occupation, with many only stealing because they can't afford to live any other way. Red, also, brings up the fact many are actually indigenous Australians who are in the midst of having their land and culture taken from them, and their crimes are largely acts of guerrilla warfare to defend themselves from what they see as an Evil Colonialist invasion. Though Belle takes the moral stance that theft is theft, Red bluntly points out Governor Fox and her family are the biggest thieves in Port Victory for invading their country and stealing their land.
 The Artful Dodger / int_c02f148d
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_c02f148d
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_c02f148d
 The Artful Dodger / int_c235ac60
type
Ill Girl
 The Artful Dodger / int_c235ac60
comment
Ill Girl: Lady Belle, who from the beginning is shown suffering chest pains and bouts of dizziness. Her interest in medicine and surgery specifically is seemingly born from her attempts to understand her condition, which in turn turned into an interest in helping others.In the finale, it's revealed to be an aortic aneurism, which at the time was still yet to be treatable, though between Belle's research and his own invention, Jack is able to successfully perform.
 The Artful Dodger / int_c235ac60
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_c235ac60
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_c235ac60
 The Artful Dodger / int_c3286b8e
type
Uptown Girl
 The Artful Dodger / int_c3286b8e
comment
Uptown Girl: Lady Belle Fox, daughter of the colony's governor, and Jack Dawkins, a lower class doctor who is also a former sailor and escaped convict.
 The Artful Dodger / int_c3286b8e
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_c3286b8e
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_c3286b8e
 The Artful Dodger / int_c866231c
type
The Mentally Disturbed
 The Artful Dodger / int_c866231c
comment
The Mentally Disturbed: Captain Gaines, who mixes this with The Fundamentalist to a scary combination. For the most part, he's an overly noose-happy and uncomfortably intense Inspector Javert. But in his confessions, which he apparently makes so often he at one point claims it's been fourteen hours since his last one, he expresses delusional and paranoid beliefs, which fuel his murderous desire to hang pretty much everyone in Port Victory under some degree of criminality. He also shows a weak grasp of reality, believing his adulterous wife was a pious and innocent woman until the influence of the port turned her into an adulterer, and that the smell seeping into town is the result of all the "evil" in the port, rather than the poorly designed sewage tunnels and Ambergris being smuggled underneath. Most problematically, however, is he becomes obsessed with Jack Dawkins, believing him to be at the heart of every crime going on (which is overestimating both how involved Jack actually is and how willing his involvement is), and as his mental state degrades he becomes even more obsessed with hanging Jack.
 The Artful Dodger / int_c866231c
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_c866231c
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_c866231c
 The Artful Dodger / int_d013cd12
type
Lovable Rogue
 The Artful Dodger / int_d013cd12
comment
Jack himself is a Lovable Rogue of a surgeon, willing to join Fagin in various thefts, prone to anger and ego, and holds a lot of resentments. But he's kind to his patients, refuses to take a life or even be involved in such, and is a good hearted man deep down.
 The Artful Dodger / int_d013cd12
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_d013cd12
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_d013cd12
 The Artful Dodger / int_d5dfb30a
type
Professional Butt-Kisser
 The Artful Dodger / int_d5dfb30a
comment
Professional Butt-Kisser: Sneed, who backs the outdated practices Professor McGregor enforces despite them clearly being needlessly brutal and harmful, because he just wants to get ahead in his career. This cracks when he himself needs surgery, and he recognises that the Professor is liable to kill him on the operating table if he goes through with it.
 The Artful Dodger / int_d5dfb30a
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_d5dfb30a
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_d5dfb30a
 The Artful Dodger / int_dc8ba6d5
type
The Scapegoat
 The Artful Dodger / int_dc8ba6d5
comment
The Scapegoat: Jack, for Professor McGregor and Sneed early on in the series. In the first episode, the professor in charge of the hospital gets drunk and attempts to perform a delicate surgery on a patient, outright pulling rank on Jack to make him hand the surgery over to him; in his drunkenness, he nicks the wrong artery, and when Jack tries to intervene to save the patient (unsuccessfully), the professor then blames Jack entirely for distracting him and attempts to have him fired, despite Jack being demonstratively the best surgeon in the hospital.
 The Artful Dodger / int_dc8ba6d5
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_dc8ba6d5
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_dc8ba6d5
 The Artful Dodger / int_dca70c44
type
Reasonable Authority Figure
 The Artful Dodger / int_dca70c44
comment
Reasonable Authority Figure: Lady Jane Fox, Belle's mother, who is a Proper Lady that is once described as a "Harridan" (essentially, an archaic way of calling her a Karen), yet is softly but notably supportive of her daughter's Spirited Young Lady nature, and is a touch less judgmental towards Dawkins than the rest of their class are (though only a touch, and when she realises that Belle and Jack are falling for one another, she firmly warns Jack to stay away from her as she cannot let her daughter marry below her station). She also lampshades how unreasonable Gaines' hangings are, points out the shoddy design of the port's sewer system, and in general is clearly where Belle gets her spirit from. Unfortunately, it becomes rather Subverted after she catches Jack in bed with Belle, due to the times she massively overreacts, and refuses to take Jack and Belle seriously about their diagnosis of her condition due to the less competent Sneed misdiagnosing her due to his sexism and reluctance to perform a delicate surgery. Downplayed with her husband. Governor Fox himself is still something of an Upper-Class Twit who's got his biases who's clearly out of his depth, and is very much guilty of cronyism with how he runs the Port and is very easily influenced by Gaines and McGregor, but he still tends to listen to his daughter and his wife when they point out the obvious to him and clearly wants to be a reasonable authority figure. This is more apparent in their parenting, as Fox is willing to believe Belle about her illness and takes her and Jack's diagnosis more seriously, and when Jack performs the surgery to save her life, he's notably not threatening him or demanding the less competent Sneed take over.
 The Artful Dodger / int_dca70c44
featureApplicability
-0.3
 The Artful Dodger / int_dca70c44
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_dca70c44
 The Artful Dodger / int_de1a775f
type
Sentenced to Down Under
 The Artful Dodger / int_de1a775f
comment
Sentenced to Down Under: How Fagin meets up again with his former protege, Jack Dawkins.
 The Artful Dodger / int_de1a775f
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_de1a775f
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_de1a775f
 The Artful Dodger / int_e13156e1
type
Mama Bear
 The Artful Dodger / int_e13156e1
comment
Mama Bear: Deconstructed with Lady Jane Fox, despite being otherwise a Reasonable Authority Figure. She cares a great deal for her daughters, especially Belle, and so wants to ensure she marries someone "deserving" of her station. So, not Jack Dawkins. However, not only does her need to protect her daughter mean keeping her away from a genuinely good man in favour of pushing her towards Upper-Class Twit types, but she also refuses to accept her daughter's genuine medical condition, preferring Sneed's far less serious misdiagnosis because it's more comforting to hear. Her determination to protect her daughter nearly leads to her daughter's death.
 The Artful Dodger / int_e13156e1
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_e13156e1
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_e13156e1
 The Artful Dodger / int_e30c7ae1
type
The Artful Dodger
 The Artful Dodger / int_e30c7ae1
comment
Jack Dawkins. While as The Artful Dodger, he was already the best pickpocket in London; fifteen years later he's now a qualified Navy Surgeon and former officer, indicating he's had a serious rank up.
 The Artful Dodger / int_e30c7ae1
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_e30c7ae1
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_e30c7ae1
 The Artful Dodger / int_e5fd8bc2
type
Hate Sink
 The Artful Dodger / int_e5fd8bc2
comment
Hate Sink: Darius Cracksworth, the harbour master, is a corrupt cheat who starts the show off cheating Dawkins at cards then trying to have his hand cut off as repayment of this debt, is sleeping with his best friend's wife, is abusive towards the town's sex workers (and even tries to kill Rotty for standing up to him), and treats his lackeys like shit. When Fagin realises they need to frame someone else for the robbery because there's no way to move the stolen cash, Darius is the first and only choice because he's so much of an asshole nobody would miss him. Notably, while Sneed and Professor McGregor are pompous and outdated they both demonstrate standards, while Gaines is an unstable fundamentalist who enjoys hanging people far too much but still genuinely believes he's righteous and that those he kills are guilty enough to deserve it, and Red, the local Bushranger, is motivated largely by fighting the Evil Colonialist military taking her home. Even Oliver Twist, though he steals the gold shipment while planning to leave Fagin and Jack implicated and left to deal with the fallout (on top of having Governor Fox blamed for losing it, and thus losing his position), we know from the canon he genuinely Used to Be a Sweet Kid. Darius however remains the only antagonist without some standards, or reasons behind his actions other than greed and cruelty. Which makes him becoming a total Butt-Monkey in the second half so rewarding to see.
 The Artful Dodger / int_e5fd8bc2
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_e5fd8bc2
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_e5fd8bc2
 The Artful Dodger / int_e9a3a1ed
type
Never Learned to Read
 The Artful Dodger / int_e9a3a1ed
comment
Never Learned to Read: Jack. Or at least, he can't read very well. (It's implied that he may be dyslexic.)
 The Artful Dodger / int_e9a3a1ed
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_e9a3a1ed
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_e9a3a1ed
 The Artful Dodger / int_f1ac9897
type
Female Misogynist
 The Artful Dodger / int_f1ac9897
comment
Female Misogynist: Belle's sister Fanny expresses these views, as part of her idolising the Proper Lady lifestyle. When Belle remarks about how men think they're better than women, she expresses that they're right, and that's why they're the ones in charge. Fanny is clearly kind of an idiot, and Belle is quick to point it out.
 The Artful Dodger / int_f1ac9897
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_f1ac9897
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_f1ac9897
 The Artful Dodger / int_f76842b1
type
The Fundamentalist
 The Artful Dodger / int_f76842b1
comment
The Fundamentalist: Captain Gaines. While most of Port Victory originate from Europe and thus are generally Christians, most view their faith rather casually, and even the local priest isn't so dedicated as to not be tempted to convert (and during confessions, he's mostly busy ogling the 1800s-era equivalent of pornography). Not Gaines, who brings up religious piety quite regularly, and views his duty as the commanding officer of the guard in the Port as a religious duty, to rid evils from the world. As he's also The Mentally Disturbed, this results in a deep level of delusion, paranoia, and a complete lack of mercy, hanging anyone he deems a criminal. When he learns that his best friend, Darius, has been sleeping with his wife and has the stolen soldiers' pay (due to Fagin framing him), even though he believes that he's been framed and instead thinks it was Fagin and Dawkins (but can't prove it), he still intends to hang Darius for "whatever charge [he] can think of" as punishment for sleeping with his wife (given Darius is a corrupt cheat who also tried to murder Rotty for mouthing back at him).
 The Artful Dodger / int_f76842b1
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_f76842b1
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_f76842b1
 The Artful Dodger / int_f909b16b
type
Dark Secret
 The Artful Dodger / int_f909b16b
comment
Dark Secret: Jack Dawkins' is that he's the Artful Dodger, the former leader of Fagin's gang of pickpocketing children from London, having escaped from prison where he was to rot for fifteen years. If his identity got out, he'd be executed as an escaped convict - something Oliver Twist holds over Fagin in the finale, having the evidence to prove it.
 The Artful Dodger / int_f909b16b
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_f909b16b
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_f909b16b
 The Artful Dodger / int_name
type
ItemName
 The Artful Dodger / int_name
comment
 The Artful Dodger / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Artful Dodger / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
The Artful Dodger / int_name
 The Artful Dodger / int_name
itemName
The Artful Dodger

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 The Artful Dodger
hasFeature
Series of the 2020s / int_33d5ff5f