For those that never saw this SyFy show, ‘Eureka’ was about a secret town where all of these scientific geniuses lived. They created advances in various technologies and there were always things running amok. Jack Carter was made the town sheriff and he’s typically shown as the ‘Everyman’, which makes him the audience surrogate. Things have to be explained to him as he helps fix whatever mess is going on. After rewatching the series completely for the first time since it first aired, I have some thoughts on this character type.
The meme says ‘most stupid man’, but you have to understand that he’s in a town where everyone has genius-level IQs. This includes a highly intelligent dog. So, he’s not stupid, so much as your average human. I think this is a key point to such a character because they can’t be the smartest person in the room. In fact, they really should be the least knowledgeable to allow the actual geniuses to explain things that the audience needs to understand the story. If everyone knows all of the facts then essential information will not be said out loud. So, this character already serves an essential purpose for setting and background info.
Another talent or purpose for this character is to show how those of average intellect can still be smart. Something that ‘Eureka’ demonstrates is that geniuses can overthink things or get tunnel vision. Many characters will stay within a strict mindset during a crisis and have trouble budging. They have all of this knowledge, which they can’t quickly sift through because they either miss a small component or are following a faulty path of logic. Carter would ask a ‘stupid question’ by connecting previous ideas or machines to the problem, which would get the genius characters to divert to a plan that works. So, he is proven to be smart even if his IQ is the lowest in the room. This makes the character useful and not overshadowed by their peers.
I think this also demonstrates a division of mental abilities that one sees in Dungeons & Dragons, but works with any character design. The 6 stats are divided into 3 physical and 3 mental, but we only care about the second pairing. Charisma stands on its own, but you have Intelligence and Wisdom. I used to have trouble discerning these, but someone explained it like this:
“Intelligence is book smarts and Wisdom is street smarts.”
So, a character with high intelligence can have all of this knowledge and be able to logically figure stuff out with ease. If they have low wisdom, they will miss social cues, have trouble connecting things out of context, and suffer from the previously mentioned tunnel vision problem. A character with wisdom might not have absorbed all of the detailed knowledge, but they can work off instinct and awareness to figure things out. Using ‘Eureka’ as an example, most characters have a high IQ and average to low Wisdom score, but Carter has a high wisdom and average IQ score. It’s all about putting puzzle pieces together, which is really more of a wisdom thing. Doesn’t matter how much you read about building a puzzle if you have trouble figuring out where the pieces go.
Personally, I really like having a character like this in my stories. Luke Callindor would probably fall into this archetype. He wasn’t the smartest, but he had instincts to help him figure out problems. I used him to ask questions to get exposition into the story without it being a bizarre info dump. It also gave me a character who I could use to put the plot pieces together if it didn’t make sense for the smarter ones to do so. Attention to detail might be something that all of these characters have in common, but they aren’t always aware of this skill. Oddly ironic there.
Here we have an excerpt from Legends of Windemere: The Merchant of Nevra Coil. I had fun revealing what the titular merchant has done to make a bit of accidental trouble for our heroes. This scene is mostly playful banter around some liberties taken with one of the objects at Nyx’s expense. Another hero ends up making the situation worse too.
This is a strange character type that I’ve noticed showing up in various shows. They are major fans of one of the heroes and will be nearly obsessed with them. Typically, they show up after a few adventures create a reputation for their idol. Personality-wise, people can find them annoying and their fervor can cause friction with those who don’t agree with their idol. Although, they can also be useful and friendly to anyone who is associated with their hero. In fact, I’ve seen a few versions of this character type:
Obsessed Fan
This is the one that I see a lot in American stories. The character is obsessed to the point of becoming a villain. They may attack others if they see them as a threat or try to do what they think their idol would. It’s always a skewed and warped version of the hero’s morality too, which is why they go villain. This kind of story teaches people that dangers of hero worship, especially when you don’t really know the other person. They follow an idealized, unflawed version of the real hero and it sets them down a dangerous path. Happens a lot in the real world too.
Loyal, Evil Sidekick
Many henchmen who rise above the normal ranks fall into the fanboy/fangirl category, but they are more restrained. They hold the same level of loyalty and can get really obsessed with following orders. I’m talking about the characters who don’t question their leader or do anything to insult them. Even if they’re told to die for their leader, they will do so without question. We’re talking blind loyalty here, which is clearly a bad thing.
The Harmless Fanboy that I Really Wanted to Talk About
I threw the other two in because people might mention them, but this type is the one that had me wanting to right this post. Specifically, the character of Bartolomeo from ‘One Piece’ who is a pirate that shows up in episode 633. Initially, he is a crude and foul-mouthed character that one expects to go head-to-head with the heroes. The twist is that he’s actually a MAJOR fanboy of the Straw Hat pirates to the point where he is elated by any attention they give him. Even his ship is designed to an homage to the crew who inspired him to go from street thug to pirate. It gets both comical and fairly annoying for some people.
The reason I found this character type interesting is that I don’t think I see it very often outside of anime. Barto is an obsessed fanboy, but he isn’t a danger to those around him unless they are enemies of the Straw Hats. He becomes an important ally with his barrier powers and determination to help his idols. If he is about to go too far, Luffy or one of the other Straw Hats tells him to stop and he snaps back in line. This kind of shows the danger of idol worship, but it also demonstrates how such a person can be helpful as long as they respect boundaries.
I think another difference is that Barto doesn’t seem to have an idealized vision of his heroes. Anything they do that doesn’t match his expectations isn’t rejected or used to turn him against the Straw Hats. He accepts it and changes his own mindset in order to stay in the presence of his inspirations. There hasn’t been anything I’ve seen that could make him turn against them and decide that they aren’t the great pirates he believes them to be. The ultimate loyalty and how he will put himself in harm’s way to protect his idols really made me grow to like him. The obnoxious fanboy-ing he would do got silly at times, but I was fine with it when I saw he was so faithful to the heroes. No worry about him betraying them like other characters.
Going back to the general concept, the fanboy/girl can’t really be done right off the bat unless you have an established hero. I kind of did this with Morgan in the Ichabod Brooks stories. She’s a young monster hunter who idolizes Ichabod and gets to team up with him. The stories of his prowess and power end up shrinking when she sees he’s just a really skilled human with a lot of mileage. I think the only reason this worked is because I made it clear from the start that Ichabod had a reputation. Morgan being a fangirl wouldn’t work if I didn’t set that up. It would confuse the reader who would wonder why she’s excited to work with some guy that they just met. Aside from that, this really is a character who shouldn’t show up until halfway through a story or series. That way the audience can see why the heroes have such a fan.
A curious holiday since I don’t believe anyone from the future has ever come to celebrate it. Still, it does make me thing about the use of time travel in stories. If it’s the core mechanic from the start then I’m fine with. My issue comes from series that throw time travel in to either solve the on-going problem or change the status quo in order to keep things going. After watching ‘Eureka’, I’m definitely reminded of the latter, which made the last two series a little rough at first. ‘Endgame’ is another one that used time travel to solve the issue, but I’m not here to list things that I feel used it badly.
Instead, I’d like to know who everyone’s favorite time traveler is. Here’s mine:
Prince of Persia
Specifically, the Prince from the games and not the movie. I always liked how the games utilized the concepts of rewinding, fast-forwarding, and freezing time. This brought a new dimension to the acrobatic side of the game. This gave you a few extra chances to try again if you mistimed a wall run into a jump towards a bar, which you swung around in order to catch a tree that you slid down until you backflipped onto a ledge . . . All while dang bats were trying to bite you. A fun challenge that the time manipulation worked with very well through all 3 games.
There was a day where the temperature was 40 F, but the wind chill brought it down to 17 F. I didn’t realize how bad that would be, so I still went out to the park for 20 minutes. It didn’t go well even with gloves, hat, and a jacket. My hands were numb by the time I was done with Pokemon and back in my car. I would have gone home earlier, but an accident after I got to the park resulted in my way home being blocked. Had to wait for the cops to create a path before I decided to waste gas in traffic. I’m glad this weekend is better for when I go out in the afternoon, but I won’t be staying any longer than I have to. Finish the Pokemon research, get the shinies I want, and scamper back home.
Progress was made in terms of writing. Not only getting a bunch of February posts set up, but with Darwin & the Demon Game. I got halfway through chapter 15, which I’ll definitely finish today. That leaves 2 more chapters and I might be able to finish 16 tomorrow. I’m sneaking in a few pages on the nights I don’t have my son, so it’s still feasible that I’ll finish the hand edits before holiday break. That means I’ll be typing things in during the break and printing out the last of the finished books in time for 2025. If things go well, I’ll be able to start writing Darwin & the Joy Path by the summer or even Memorial Day.
Mentally, I had a rough go of the week. Had body temp issue Monday night, so I woke up groggy and off. This led to a general feeling of not wishing I existed. Posted about it on Facebook and found that people had their own definitions of this. I made it clear that it wasn’t me saying I wish I was dead or in a rut. I was simply emotionally exhausted from things and wished to ‘not exist’ for a bit to recover. This doesn’t make a lot of sense because it’s not a coherent, clear thought. Maybe it’s just like wanting my psyche to get defragged like those old computers, but with me not aware of things. I’ve gotten a little better since then. Still drained and plan on using this weekend to edit until the Pokemon events that run from 2-5. That time gives me the morning and evening, which usually allows for most of a chapter. Not sure how that will go when I start writing things that are fresh, but we’ll see.
Now, the highlight of my week was rather silly. So, I try to order some snacks from a place in Oswego, NY called SNAX Enterprises LLC. They get various chips, cookies, sodas, and candy from other countries. Shipping/handling is pricey since it’s food, but I really enjoy what I get. Anyway, I made an order for stuff while on my lunch break. Later on, I went on Instagram and saw they posted a video where they were showing an order being put together. I watched it thinking it was funny how all of those things were what I ordered a few hours ago . . . Then, the guy said ‘Thank you, Charles’. It’s such a silly thing, but that really made my day and gave me the boost I needed for a crazy Friday.
I’m still working on holiday presents too. Got a secret Santa gift and two more things for my son to get. It’s rough spending this money when I had to spend around $1,100 on the new laptop and had car repairs before that. The snacks were a purchase I was holding off on, but figured I should get myself something that wasn’t a necessity. It’s rough spending money on things when you aren’t making as much as you used to. I know there’s the ‘live within your means’ crowd, but that gets difficult when you find that you can’t get anything fun. All food needs to be on sale, any entertainment things go to my son, and I have to suffer a pang of guilt whenever I spend money on myself. Heck, I spent 5 minutes debating on if I should buy a bag of pretzels to use as snacks this week. That can’t be psychologically healthy.
With all of that in mind, I’m going to stop after the final 3 presents if I even get 2 more for my son. I’ve already picked up 5, which includes the $40 worth of Pokecoins. Maybe just one more and going to see a movie that comes out during the break will be it. I mean, I really only have one more item in mind that I know he could use. Anybody else have trouble with present shopping? Stupid question there.
This coming week is going to be similar to the previous one. There are appointments every day, except Wednesday because my son has his Winter Concert. The weather is to be cold and rainy, so not much outdoor time unless we hit the mall. Plan on doing that Tuesday evening. I’ll get some editing done since 4 of the 5 appointments are for my son, so I end up in the waiting room. Can get 1-2 pages done at least in that time unless I’m called into the session. This means I have a better shot of finishing Darwin & the Demon Game before the break. I’ll probably take some evenings to post more for February since I have 12 days to cover. Guess it will be a busy week.
Goals?
Get to chapter 17 of Darwin & the Demon Game at least.
Finish holiday shopping. (Edit: Actually just did this when I checked two things and saw they were already at less than 10 in stock.)
Help son study for two tests when he is here.
Play Pokemon Go when I need to relax and weather permits.
Do a few February posts if possible.
Watch more ‘Arcane’.
Have fun at work where we celebrate one student’s birthday and end the week with a field trip. Try very hard to not let fatigue and one of the many diseases going around knock me out for a day.
Legends of Windemere 