As it turns out, we actually do get "Fairly OddParents" up here! Maybe when I was flipping through all the TV channels yesterday, I forgot to account for the time zone difference. I thought I did, but apparently not.
It's true that the newer episodes of this show definitely have a different feel to them than the older ones, and seem to be following a theme of "less character development + more action scenes + more cartoon physics that are very difficult to explain in terms of previously-established universe realism", but that can happen when the show's been on air for fifteen years and the writers have been swapped out several times. I still enjoy them. I've been waiting for "Blue Angel" for awhile now and it did not disappoint. Not much, anyway. Villains pretending to be friends with the heroes to manipulate them are always fun to watch- especially when that villain is a toddler with awful social skills masquerading as a popular schoolgirl.
Season 10 introduced a new major character named Chloe, who is fascinating in herself, and whose creation reminds me of another cartoon story. Several years ago, there was apparently a boy who wrote a fanfiction about the show "Total Drama", and wrote all the characters out of character (although in his defense, I believe only one season of the show was out at that time). His story grew popular, however, and dozens upon dozens of fans wrote to the producers insisting that they make their version of Ezekiel more like his Ezekiel.
This went on for awhile. It got to the point where the show creators were so annoyed by the criticism of canon Ezekiel "being out of character" and being "poorly developed" and "a waste of opportunity" that in Season 3, Ezekiel underwent some character development just as drastic as the fans had demanded. Only... in the negative direction. As in, Ezekiel was so desperate for attention and friendship (which was always his biggest personality trait) that he hid himself in the cargo hold of the jet for the entire third season, surrounded by animals... and episode by episode spiraled into a semi-feral state.
Lots of fans were furious, but I found the psychology of Ezekiel dissolving into insanity incredible, and I especially thought it was hilarious that this was the creators' response to fans demanding that they change this character that they had designed and worked so hard on. Sounds like something I would do. Anyway, I feel like a similar thing happened to Chloe. When her design was revealed about a year ago, apparently there were tons of fans who complained that "they could already tell she was going to be a Mary Sue" (a relatively flawless character whom all the other characters shower with love and anyone who doesn't is portrayed as just a jerk) and they were going to hate her no matter what.
So Butch Hartman pretty much made her the most absolutely nicey-nice and stereotypical Mary Sue girl he possibly could.
On the surface, anyway. Here's the amazing plot twist: Chloe isn't actually a Mary Sue. She seems like one at a glance, and lots of people still insist she is, but if you really watch her, you can tell that she isn't. She does bad things. She outright ditched her best friends when they were being mauled by magical beasts and needed her help. She was responsible for the deaths of her friends and other acquaintances back in her home city (which is why she had to move to Timmy's town in the first place). I've been keeping tabs and when things go wrong, she will pass easily through every stage of grief, including Acceptance, but she gets completely hung up on Denial. When bad things happen, she denies and denies and denies. Very unhealthy.
Her parents haven't appeared on-screen yet, but they obviously don't care about her very much. They didn't even throw her a birthday party. No presents, no cake- apparently they didn't even notice that she didn't go to bed the previous night because she wanted to one-up Timmy and that she was super delirious and tired that entire episode. Then, she's been raising herself on a "Barney"-esque TV show meant for five-year-olds her entire life (Second plot twist: In Season 8, you find out that Timmy wished for time to stop back around the tail end of Season 4 so that he wouldn't ever have to grow up and lose his fairies... and he's been keeping this secret for fifty years).
So you have Chloe, who for fifty-five years and counting has worshipped a show that flat-out preaches, "You're not good enough unless you're perfect, and if you make mistakes then you're a horrible person", and it's so terrible and amazing because it totally explains why she tries so hard to be good and I can't help but love that, and it's hilarious to me that the other fans of this show seem to be oblivious to these pretty major details and write her off as Sueish and perfect and all that.
Because she's not. Chloe has blatantly committed multiple illegal acts (one of them being participating in insider trading to make her friends rich) in addition to other not-illegal but still problematic acts (such as outing Timmy's best friend in tonight's episode - against their pleas - as an alien in disguise so she could get a good score on her extra credit project, and consequently getting him captured by the government for testing).
It's just super fascinating to me, since I'm hoping to major in psychology, to see how much she's focused on "following the rules"... despite the fact that she's hurting people and rarely seems to care (Supposedly she's also a super fan of their universe's version of the Hunger Games and in one of the upcoming episodes she's going to wish it was real, so this should be interesting).
And on top of all this, it's been vaguely hinted that Chloe has a darker past to her, and that she was guided to Timmy specifically to wean him off his fairy godparents and teach him how to actually function in the world without magic as he gets older. And that he may not even be the first one she's done this to. I dunno, man, but something's not right about the way she has all those weird animals at her house when godkids who lose their fairies get their minds wiped of all memories involving magic and have their fairies replaced with mortal pets.
And on top of all this, it's been vaguely hinted that Chloe has a darker past to her, and that she was guided to Timmy specifically to wean him off his fairy godparents and teach him how to actually function in the world without magic as he gets older. And that he may not even be the first one she's done this to. I dunno, man, but something's not right about the way she has all those weird animals at her house when godkids who lose their fairies get their minds wiped of all memories involving magic and have their fairies replaced with mortal pets.
... Other than TV shows, today was really a normal Tuesday. I did some writing, homework, and laundry, and of course attended class, and that was really all.
