RedPiggy's Realizations

[The Count]

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And since today is Pi Day, you get a vonderful piece of cheery pi. Do you want the 4 and 20 Blackberry or Adam's Apple pi?

batty: *There has to be something I can do to repay this reddened Piggy person, though I apologize if she got her coloring from the smoky barbecue sauce used for those messages.)

 

[RedPiggy]

ADVENTURES IN PANGAEA

Let's take a look at some fanfiction, shall we? Fanfiction.net has a Dinosaurs category under "TV shows". At the risk of tooting my own horn, I'm the one who requested it. I was kind of hoping there would be more traffic there, but as of this writing, there are ONLY nine stories and most of them are mine. I welcome any fans of this show to put in their two cents, whether a review or an actual story of their own. I believe this was an amazing show, imagined by Jim Henson himself, and is one of two of what I consider the lone masterpieces to come from the Post-Jim era.

Friend in Need by Shopgirl152
A nice scene that fits in the episode "Steroids to Heaven", starring the Scavenger Spike and Buff Robbie Sinclair. You almost really don't need to see the episode to appreciate the characterization.

Friends by Shopgirl 152
Another scene regarding Spike and Robbie (I definitely have to review this author, big Spike fan that I am). I dunno about this one, to be honest. It's almost a little out of character for Spike. I personally don't think he'd admit the things he does here.

Not the Baby by Pirates Sparrow and Turner
A VERY short scene. Personally, I feel it could've used more, but it gets its point across.

NAGGING TIME: One thing I've noticed is how short Dinosaurs fanfics are. I know that when I try to write them, it's difficult to keep the pace of the show. I guess that's why there are a lot of short one-shots. Writing scenes is one thing. Writing an entire story is another. Part of the problem, I think, is that the show relied on lots of jokes that work best in the TV medium, such as using flip transitions to juxtapose conflicting ideas. It's hard to pull that same impression off in print. Anyway, back to the list....

Love or Infactuation by carlagodfrey
This is a one shot of Robbie debating his "type". Does he go for the stuck-up popular chick or the sassy and sarcastic outcast?

The Mighty Megalosaurus by ImJessieTR
This story of ten chapters is designed to be a prequel to the show. Young Earl is struggling with a detached mother and an abusive step-father. His sister seems shallow and willing to dump them all at the drop of a hat. He is a complete loser, but he takes it all in stride because he feels it is his duty to work hard for his family. However, the daughter of a rich couple in the education business has caught his eye. Torn between old family and potentially new, Earl must settle on an identity he's comfortable with.

Fridge Day by ImJessieTR
Another Fridge Day rolls around. You know, General Chow, a partially dismembered foodstuff, vowed revenge after Baby Sinclair defeated him and his crew of not-yet-eaten mammals who live in the fridge. It brings up the point that one's sacred object is another's nightmarish device.

I think that will be all for now. There aren't a lot of Dinosaurs fanfics out there ... but, yay for me, there ARE tons of fics for that second Post-Jim masterpiece I mentioned....

 

[The Count]

You know, I have to give you the credit owed... It's mostly due to your fics that I've shrugged off the not-caring that I used to have for this particular show. Yes, many could see Baby as the harbinger of what Elmo was to become later, but there is an eventual growth of character as the series reached its latter episodes/seasons. Will have to check out some of the ones at FFN I'm not familiar with. Thanks for an interesting new article.

*Sails down the Tuber River in a gravy boat, off to the city of Aroma to devour Caesar or bury him in roasted red humus—the calendar did warn him to beware the Chives of March yesterday (Beetlejuice Animated Series reference).

 

[RedPiggy]

Baby could mislead one to think of Elmo, but I really don't think Elmo has nearly the depth of Baby's character (at least, in Sesame Street itself ... he has a more interesting personality in interviews and cameos in other shows). Baby learned early on to exploit his fame. I don't get the impression that Elmo is tongue-in-cheek whenever he sings Elmo's song, but you very quickly grasp that Baby fully understands the marketing powerhouse he is and ate it up. While Elmo is mindlessly singing about whatever, Baby betrays a genius-level intellect. He's roughly the same age as Elmo (maybe slightly younger), but he can speak well for the most part (except when it's funny to use toddler-speak) and can spell and can make rather complicated plans even when he's being as impulsive as a toddler.

 

[RedPiggy]

A link to a chapter of a fanfic of mine

If you'll permit me ...

Jareth is God
By Moulinofmoraine/RedPiggy

This is just a musing, a thought, a concept, so bear with me: Jareth is God. The Boss. The King of the Universe.

As you'll see if you peruse my link, I'm pretty much settled on the question: what is Jareth? You see, while I love reading about celtic folklore, my biggest dream is to unite into one universe the entirety of the Henson property list. Thus far, I've come up with a general chronology (however, it must be noted that the fic in the link is supposed to be a darker alt-universe to a previous fic of mine).

1. Jareth is basically the God of the Universe, called the King of the Universe by others (a phrase originating, I think, in Fraggle Rock). He is fatigued from all the constant and conflicting demands. Think about religion today, and how critics of religion claim that God just seems to be a kind of genie, where we simply demand wishes be turned into reality for our benefit.

2. He is torn into three pieces/ablations (continuing with a sort of Abrahamic tradition, where modern Hensonism, as it were, LOL, might have Christian overtones). If you've read my musings elsewhere, I submit that Hoggle is an ablation of Jareth. He represents not Sarah's vulnerability, but Jareth's. That is why Jareth appears to despise Hoggle so. However, in writing this alt-universe fic, a thought came to me: Jareth is also an ablation. He is the smexy powerful fulfiller (and feeder) of dreams. Hoggle is, again, the vulnerable timid one who believes no one truly loves him. To this I add a third party: Maldis of Farscape. Maldis has a similar fashion sense. He feeds off of nightmares and fear. His attacks are psychological metaphors, just as the Labyrinth is a psychological metaphor. He also has an arrogant sense of humor, making jokes that would make sense to the character in question. Jareth is the epitome of Sarah's 80s superstar dream guys. Maldis is like a balding, elderly Jareth who prefers Shakespearean clothing while riffing on all of John Crichton's pop culture knowledge from Earth. All three can manipulate reality to their needs. Hoggle can't, you say? How does he always appear to be at the plot-important moment? How does he form doors out of planks of wood? It's understated, but the power is clearly there. This concept forms a nice little Trinity of the King of the Universe: the dreams, the nightmares, and the seeming powerlessness. At any rate, my idea is that the inhabitants of the Universe, sometime deep into the ancient past, perhaps millions if not billions of our years ago, rebelled against the King of the Universe and tore him into three pieces, as they were upset that Jareth/the King could not easily grant gentle and hostile wishes both without nearly tearing the universe asunder. They basically modeled God after their own hearts to get what they want out of life. This left what was left of Jareth, his desire to give us our dreams, lost and lonely, desperate to get away.

3. Eventually, after studying on Thra at some point (the world featured in the Dark Crystal, which has a heavy theme of splitting good and bad from a central origin), he wound up on primitive Earth, long after dinosaurs had become extinct. He offered humans their dreams. However, as humans evolved, they too started to have conflicting notions of paradise. In an attempt to flee having to deal with this fate again (particularly after the first time turned out so badly for him), he created a portal to the "Underground", a parallel dimension where "fantasy" creatures, who were real at the time, could hide from human machinations in relative safety. He also gave up all title and rights to being King of the Universe/God, allowing a giant hairy beast called a Gorg (see Fraggle Rock's "The Tale of Sir Hubris") to become "King of the Universe", which became a rather figurehead position thanks to the Gorg naivety and inability to rule much of anything.

4. In such an exile, Jareth found a bunch of goblins who had no home. Re-inspired, and not particularly threatened by the humble if quirky nature of goblins, he formed the Goblin Kingdom for them, wistful but happy to rule something "easier" on a much more local scale.

5. This was all put at risk by meeting both Mizumi, who simply wanted the power of the King himself, and Sarah, who represented all he had come to despise of humanity in general. While the former didn't succeed in her attempts to take from him, Sarah succeeded in forcing Jareth to show the slightest hint of admiration for the potential of the human race. At the end of the movie, Jareth's owl form rides off into the night sky, the direction from whence he came originally. In the comic sequel, he tries to use Toby to get Sarah to join him in trying for the King of the Universe position again (not blatantly, though Uncle Travelling Matt has a cameo in volume 1, which shows that FR and Labyrinth might be related after all, and in the last volume, Mizumi shares my need to use the word "Hubris" to define Jareth). However, at the sight of her "real" loved ones in danger (both from her world and from her Labyrinth adventure), she balks. Jareth is rather miffed, but begrudingly agrees to accept that some people don't want all that frilly stuff and cosmic power and such.

Your thoughts?

 

[RedPiggy]

Sorry for the weird out-of-the-blue bump, but I didn't know where else this vid could go.

See here