Shipping confession
No longer at Dragon*Con but not home yet, but there's something else I felt the need to put out there fairly quickly given some things I said at this con. No, it didn't accidentally cause a major drama-fest like some other things I've said, but still.
As has happened quite often in recent years, a childhood fandom has come back to haunt me- this one from the '90s instead of the '80s. It is, of all things, the PBS game show "Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?". I like the cartoon and original edutainment video game, too, but for my nine-year-old self the game show was the-- you know (though I didn't care for the "Where in Time" game show, just "World"). However, while the one thing everyone else remembers about the show is the a capella group Rockapella (at the time the house band and resident comedy troupe for the show) and their contributions (well, that and/or the late Lynne Thigpen as "the Chief"), awesome as those people were, I got into WitWiCS kind of the way I ultimately gave in to the Pokemon craze of the late '90s. In Pokemon's case, I saw the show and fell in love with Team Rocket (Jessie/Musashi, James/Kojiro, and Meowth/Nyassu)- the villains, which is rare for me. Well, same with WitWiCS- I took to Carmen and her minions (which were not the ones from the original game- they were created solely for the game show). Which of course is really weird considering it's, well, a game show and all (and makes no bones about that, especially in later seasons- even the villains refer to themselves as cartoons). The minions were never shown interacting with each other save for one occasion when a few of them celebrated a then-recent heist with a small dance party. The only time they really spoke was for one question during the game that involved the host and contestants listening in on Carmen telling the featured minion that day where to go next (this happened in all but very few episodes) and when they "betrayed" Carmen's location (i.e. which map of which continent would be used in the bonus round that day) to the winner. But, whatever, I loved 'em anyway, and totally wouldn't have minded a (granted, likely non-educational) spin-off for them.
With this revived interest in this old fandom came a reminder of a romantic pairing I shipped before I even knew what shipping was. My favorite of Carmen's minions was Patty Larceny, the blond schoolgirl. And I shipped her with another of Carmen's minions: Vic the Slick, the smarmy salesman with bad taste in fashion (and the only character, animated or otherwise, for whom that was emphasized on the show). Interestingly, this pairing kind of became canon in the show's final season- in two episodes Patty was shown taking what she stole back to her (heretofore unseen) bedroom, where pictures of Vic were visible. So apparently she at least had a crush on him. Vic for his part seemed to be constantly flirting with Carmen, but whether he was actually romantically interested in her or just brown-nosing was never made completely clear, and either way Carmen didn't seem to appreciate it. I suppose I should also mention the aforementioned dance party, where Vic was seen dancing next to (but not "with") Patty, but I'm not one of those people who ships any two characters who just happen to be on-screen together for more than a nanosecond, so for me that doesn't count. However, I shipped Vic/Patty even before the "canon" hints, and frankly wouldn't have cared if the pairing in any way became whatever passes for canon in a game show or not. And yes, even my nine-year-old self was aware there's a bit of an age difference (no one's exact ages were ever stated and hints were inconclusive/inconsistent, but Patty was definitely a teenager and Vic was clearly much older). When I was first recently reminded of this pairing, my thought was "OMG, I can't believe I shipped that!" Yet I've since fallen right back into happily shipping it like I did back then (or like I ship, say, Wolfstar now), go figure.
"But M, there's another pairing, canon at that, involving a young female with a much older male- and you hate that pairing!" Yeah, and that pairing involves the female having a crush on the male, who may or may not be interested in someone else, too. But let's look at the differences, shall we (and I'm not just talking the likely even larger age gap and the fact that one pairing involves cartoons here)?
In other news, pretty soon I embark on the long drive home. Don't think I'll do a con report this year, but whatever my next post is, it'll be from home.
As has happened quite often in recent years, a childhood fandom has come back to haunt me- this one from the '90s instead of the '80s. It is, of all things, the PBS game show "Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?". I like the cartoon and original edutainment video game, too, but for my nine-year-old self the game show was the-- you know (though I didn't care for the "Where in Time" game show, just "World"). However, while the one thing everyone else remembers about the show is the a capella group Rockapella (at the time the house band and resident comedy troupe for the show) and their contributions (well, that and/or the late Lynne Thigpen as "the Chief"), awesome as those people were, I got into WitWiCS kind of the way I ultimately gave in to the Pokemon craze of the late '90s. In Pokemon's case, I saw the show and fell in love with Team Rocket (Jessie/Musashi, James/Kojiro, and Meowth/Nyassu)- the villains, which is rare for me. Well, same with WitWiCS- I took to Carmen and her minions (which were not the ones from the original game- they were created solely for the game show). Which of course is really weird considering it's, well, a game show and all (and makes no bones about that, especially in later seasons- even the villains refer to themselves as cartoons). The minions were never shown interacting with each other save for one occasion when a few of them celebrated a then-recent heist with a small dance party. The only time they really spoke was for one question during the game that involved the host and contestants listening in on Carmen telling the featured minion that day where to go next (this happened in all but very few episodes) and when they "betrayed" Carmen's location (i.e. which map of which continent would be used in the bonus round that day) to the winner. But, whatever, I loved 'em anyway, and totally wouldn't have minded a (granted, likely non-educational) spin-off for them.
With this revived interest in this old fandom came a reminder of a romantic pairing I shipped before I even knew what shipping was. My favorite of Carmen's minions was Patty Larceny, the blond schoolgirl. And I shipped her with another of Carmen's minions: Vic the Slick, the smarmy salesman with bad taste in fashion (and the only character, animated or otherwise, for whom that was emphasized on the show). Interestingly, this pairing kind of became canon in the show's final season- in two episodes Patty was shown taking what she stole back to her (heretofore unseen) bedroom, where pictures of Vic were visible. So apparently she at least had a crush on him. Vic for his part seemed to be constantly flirting with Carmen, but whether he was actually romantically interested in her or just brown-nosing was never made completely clear, and either way Carmen didn't seem to appreciate it. I suppose I should also mention the aforementioned dance party, where Vic was seen dancing next to (but not "with") Patty, but I'm not one of those people who ships any two characters who just happen to be on-screen together for more than a nanosecond, so for me that doesn't count. However, I shipped Vic/Patty even before the "canon" hints, and frankly wouldn't have cared if the pairing in any way became whatever passes for canon in a game show or not. And yes, even my nine-year-old self was aware there's a bit of an age difference (no one's exact ages were ever stated and hints were inconclusive/inconsistent, but Patty was definitely a teenager and Vic was clearly much older). When I was first recently reminded of this pairing, my thought was "OMG, I can't believe I shipped that!" Yet I've since fallen right back into happily shipping it like I did back then (or like I ship, say, Wolfstar now), go figure.
"But M, there's another pairing, canon at that, involving a young female with a much older male- and you hate that pairing!" Yeah, and that pairing involves the female having a crush on the male, who may or may not be interested in someone else, too. But let's look at the differences, shall we (and I'm not just talking the likely even larger age gap and the fact that one pairing involves cartoons here)?
- Yes, the "canon" hints for Patty/Vic didn't show up until the shows fifth and final season, and in only two- three if you count the one with the party- episodes (and Patty appeared in more than just those episodes that season). But remember, they're from a game show, and an edutainment game show for kids at that. Things like character development and romantic hints/development aren't expected in children's game shows the way they are expected in young adult literature, so it's kind of difficult to argue the "out of nowhere" point one way or the other in the case of Vic/Patty.
- Throughout the entire series, Patty was never reduced to a whimpering fangirl so consumed by her love for Vic she became useless to Carmen. Granted, Patty was shown getting upset, but it was over going to prison (though you'd think she'd have gotten used it to by the end of the series), and she continued to steal things and run all over the world with them just the same even after her crush on Vic was revealed. Also, Patty was never forced completely out of action by a sudden (and a little too conveniently-timed) pregnancy only to leave the resulting baby to march into a situation with Vic that she should very well have known the odds of her making it back (which she doesn't) weren't good. (Of course, PBS sure would've gotten a lot of flack had Patty been shown or even hinted to be pregnant, even if they only showed her faking a pregnancy to smuggle her stolen goods as female thieves often do.)
- Meanwhile, it doesn't seem like Vic was ever aware of Patty's apparent love for him (well, depending on how you view his dancing next to her). Even if he was, he was never shown rebuffing her advances (not that she was shown making any advances towards him or anyone else), then suddenly holding hands or anything with her, even more suddenly married to her, being unhappily married to her, trying to actually do something conducive to the plot only for someone to scream at him to go back to the rendered-even-more-useless-because-she's-pregnant Patty, or later (once he had indeed gone back to Patty) publicly grovelling to the person who yelled at him. Nor was Vic ever shown being a bit too happy over the birth of the child he didn't seem to want earlier, and of course leaving that child to basically go get himself killed together with Patty (FYI, yes, both Patty and Vic were still alive, albeit in prison apparently for good, at the end of "WitWiCS"- nobody really died on that show, not even the recurring "dying informant" character).
- Okay, so Vic was the first of Carmen's minions to "retire"/get sent to prison for good/whatever, and Patty's last crime was just two days/episodes after Vic's (the show went on for about another month and all the other crooks got at least two more heists in, but those two never appeared again except in the closing credits). However, there was no indication that pregnancy and/or death was involved- they just happened to no longer be used beyond that point (and throughout the series who stole what seemed to be decided mostly at random, so their lack of subsequent appearances wasn't all that glaring- seriously, if it weren't for TV.com I would've never realized who committed their last crimes when).
- The closest the show came to adding a new baby to the cast was having one of Rockapella dress as one (in a basket left on the dectective agency's doorstep no less) to act as one of the shows many wacky recurring informants starting in season two. Never was it even hinted that this character was supposed to be the biological child of any previously established ones (crook, informant, or otherwise), and was only added because somebody in charge thought a doorstep baby would be a fun informant (i.e. nobody "needed" to be a godparent, neither Vic nor anybody else "needed" to become a father so a father could be killed off, and no pairing- not even Vic/Patty- "needed" to be vindicated by the writers/producers/whoever).
- The odds of an already teenage or (more likely) adult Vic holding or in any way interacting with a baby Patty is highly unlikely. There is no indication that any of Carmen's minions knew each other at all before they started working for her. Okay, she obviously recruited them (at least the ones who were around since the beginning- both Vic and Patty being among that group) at some indeterminate point prior to the start of the series, but I doubt she'd have had much use for an infant or very young child. Thus, whatever age Patty was supposed to be during the show's run, she couldn't have been part of the gang for very long prior regardless of how long Vic may have been working for Carmen.
- Nobody, not even Carmen, tried to force Vic to reciprocate Patty's feelings whether or not he really wanted to do so. And did I say I doubted Carmen would've had much use for an infant or very young child? Not only does that indicate it's unlikely she recruited Patty that young, but also that no two of Carmen's minions (or Carmen herself) ever "needed" to procreate.
In other news, pretty soon I embark on the long drive home. Don't think I'll do a con report this year, but whatever my next post is, it'll be from home.