Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

As is the case with I imagine a lot of the characters from Daniel Boone, the character in the Bitter Mission episode is a thinly-veiled version of a real person. I've definitely heard of James Wilkinson in history, but it didn't register with me in the episode because they modified his name slightly (Wilkerson). Although when I was first typing the first entry involving the episode, I originally typed Wilkenson.

Anyway, with that as the case, part of me feels a bit uncomfortable at the thought of writing fanfic involving the character. Which I suppose is ridiculous given that the titular character of the show himself is based on a real person. But it seems a little different with Boone, since he's passed so heavily into legend.

The real Wilkinson seems to have remained heavily involved in treachery up to his dying day. And he never was found guilty during his lifetime of the many charges brought against him. He would have also been younger at the time period of the episode than his fictional counterpart was.

The fictional Wilkerson seems to be very repentant at the end, and as mentioned, it was strongly implied that he was going to die for his crimes---or at least, that he thought he would. Despite the treachery he committed, overall he seems a much more admirable person than his real-life counterpart.

My question is, Should I feel alright writing fanfic involving him, since he is fictitious, even though he was heavily based on a real person? There seems to be enough fictional material in there that he really became his own person.

And I think Daniel Boone needs a tag now....

... Why is it that a character can go through nearly an entirely episode being a horrible, rotten creep, but if he still manages to turn around and give one important show of integrity at the end, I suddenly feel softhearted and pity him and don't want him to die even if he probably really deserves it?

I just watched the Daniel Boone episode Bitter Mission. General Wilkerson is horrid. He's supposed to be a friend to Dan, but he's grown bitter and jaded after fighting war after war and not receiving anything that really lasts in return. He decides to deceive both Kentucky and Virginia into trying to start a war with each other, all because he's going to help the Spanish get Kentucky and thinks that they'll give him land and wealth for doing so. He shoots Dan, who later takes him prisoner, and Wilkerson continually does terrible things during their journey to Virginia, where Dan wants him to tell the governor the truth. He even dumps out the water from the canteen so Dan can't get any to drink.

There are occasional moments where he shows that maybe there's still some semblance of a good person there. For one thing, I can't figure out why he kept bringing up Dan getting the bullet taken out before blood poisoning set in. He wanted Dan dead for his plans to work. So why not let the blood poisoning do its thing? Instead he brought it up more than once and even said Dan should let him take it out. Dan finally agreed. It makes me wonder if he did feel guilty about shooting Dan, especially after being Dan's prisoner and being around him hour after hour. Maybe it made him think about all the times they'd spent together.

Still, then he turns around and does something horrible again. He reminds Dan of a time from their past when they were hunting together and then tries to overpower him when he starts to fall asleep. Right up at the eleventh hour, after they had to form an alliance to defeat the Spanish, who have decided to shoot them both because they don't want to do business with a traitor, the General takes Dan's horse and says he's going to escape because if he goes back to Virginia he'll face a firing squad.

But ...

Dan goes to the governor as quickly as he can, hoping to avert the war. When he arrives, the governor says that he has already told his troops not to march. And there's the General, having gone there after all to tell the truth. He says to Dan, "Call it a sudden attack of integrity." Dan says, "Courage might be a better word for it."

In the epilogue, the General wonders if he'll make it to his own court-martial (apparently afraid that someone will be so angry with him for what he did that they'll shoot him down on the spot). A soldier salutes him, which he returns, stunned. Dan says, "Does that answer your question?"

"He's saluting the General," Wilkerson says. "The firing squad will deal with the traitor."

He certainly deserves punishment for what he tried to do, inciting a war for his own selfish reasons and turning against a friend. But because he finally had a change of heart and did the right thing, knowing that he would probably die for doing so, I ended up feeling really sad not wanting him to die. I wanted him to have a second chance instead. The episode touched me so much I'm close to crying over it. (Of course, that could partially be because it's that time when I have mood swings like nobody's business.)

Am I the biggest marshmallow ever? Sometimes I think I'm too soft. I feel like I shouldn't feel so much compassion for him. I feel like I should feel that he should die for his crimes.

So why can't I? Why?

I took 123 screengrabs from Jimmy's guest spot on the Daniel Boone episode The Spanish Horse. And I saw the episode two times (Jimmy's scenes, three times, since I watched them while taking pictures).

The first time I watched it, I had no intention of writing anything about his character. I also determined that his character was really quite a jerk! ... However, by the second viewing both opinions changed.

The main thing I thought was jerky was his character, Whipper, snapping at the guest-starring protagonist, a boy who was his opponent in a race. But during the second viewing I realized I felt I could understand his behavior. Here he is, a professional jockey who spent years in training to become successful. And then here comes some upstart teenager, who has never seen a horse race and his horse isn't even trained, and the kid's claiming his horse can beat any other horse. You know, in Whipper's position, I think I'd be mad too!

I especially think this is likely the explanation because part of what he said when he snapped was, "It's time you learned a few things." In other words, "I've been at this a lot longer than you. Just because your horse is fast doesn't mean you know everything you need to know."

It's really interesting how a show will always try to throw things in favor of the protagonist, whether regular or guest-starring, and sometimes if you look at things from the other person's point of view, suddenly they don't seem as bad as they might be colored to seem.

That being said, I do think Whipper was involved in his boss's scheme to subtly get the kid tricked into racing and placing a wager of all his money on the outcome. A lot of his dialogue and facial expressions during the tricking scene strongly point to that. But he could have easily been all for it/not really giving it a second thought at the time and then got mad later on, thinking about how cocky the kid was being. (Of course, he and his boss probably only made the kid more cocky with their subtle pushing.)

Anyway ... now I have a plunnie for this. And I haven't got to the Knight Rider one yet! Somebody stop me; I'm preposterous. I doubt this series has much of a fandom. If there is one, who the **blip** would care about a oneshot character, and one who isn't even the main oneshot character?

In spite of Whipper's probable knowing involvement in the con, I don't think he's really a bad guy. He possibly (probably) may have been involved in other, similar cons, however. And that thought provides the basis of the plunnie.

I have this idea of something taking place a bit after the events of the episode, and someone else who was conned and realizes it is furious. He comes with a couple of his men and threatens Whipper late at night, telling him if he races the next day, he'll be sorry. Whipper isn't about to be scared off and races anyway, but the guy wasn't bluffing. He had his men do something to the horse (what, I don't know; probably some kind of drug, if that sort of thing was going on that long ago) and it behaves erratically. Whipper is eventually thrown and injured. And I suppose Daniel Boone is in town and gets involved in what's happening and has to bring the guys who tampered with the horse and nearly killed Whipper to justice. Leastwise, if the main character is involved, there's a better chance of getting an audience! But the plot would be better if he's in it too anyway.

Off-topic, but one other thing I noticed was that in this guest spot, Jimmy tried to speak without an accent. He slipped up a few times, though. And I am still going mad wondering exactly what kind of accent it's supposed to be.