Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

So I've run across Robert Stack twice this week: first, when Mom suddenly took a notion she wanted to see Written on the Wind, and then this past night when we found a nice suspense film to watch, Murder on Flight 502. I realized in the first film that "... Oh my gosh, Robert Stack really is swoon-worthy, isn't he? ... And he has been ever since my days of watching The Untouchables." Apparently I had a crush on him then, but I never realized it until this week. Now I feel like going and buying some half-season sets.

After looking up information on him and finding out that he was married to the same woman all through the years, the crush only grew stronger. Few things are as attractive to me as that. And few things tick me off as much as infidelity in a marriage. I realized that out of everyone who is firmly in my top tier of "darlings", every one of them either didn't cheat on his wife or I don't know one way or another if they did. Known cheaters just don't make the top tier (or they drop out of it if they were there).

Another actor-related thing that happened this week was that I had a dream where I was watching something where one of the characters was played by Leonard Stone. Naturally, I woke up wanting to look him up, which I did. I like him because he's one of those character actors who can play anything from weaselly cowards to upright policemen and it's always believable. He was also married to the same woman all through the years, and he died in 2011, which I found surreal for some reason. I think it always feels a little surreal to me when someone from the classic TV era was alive all through this time and then died only a short time before I started discovering/re-discovering them. I feel the same about Milton Selzer, who died in 2006.

Of course, speaking of actor deaths, I can't not mention Robert Vaughn's passing. That was a sad surprise to me, especially since I hadn't known he was ill. I had an U.N.C.L.E. dream last week that I wanted to write a fic of, and after Robert's death, I tweaked some things about the planned dream-fic and turned it into a Robert/Napoleon tribute of sorts.

I was also sad about Leonard Cohen's death. I still love and adore his song Hallelujah. I must admit I don't know any of the other things he wrote, but I've been thinking I should look into them. If they're anywhere as good/powerful as Hallelujah, I'm sure I'd love them too.

This has been a big week for fics. I think I posted three fics, two of which were entirely written this week. I think I now have 500 posted fics at FF.net. I have many more fics that I haven't posted there, however, so that isn't the definitive number of what I've written by far. The fics have been flowing, which is thrilling to me since that doesn't always happen. I now have four posted fics in my Turtles timeline and have rearranged the next "episodes" in the list again. I'm doing the Twin Beaks-inspired one next, and have already started it. I'm hoping to have it finished by Thanksgiving, since Thanksgiving is a subplot in it. We'll see what happens.

My Turtles site is live now, by the way. https://sites.google.com/site/exittheflytmnt1987/ I'm still adding things to it, and it seems like I rearrange the episode list every time I finish a fic.

I also finally started making my Baxter plushie. Aside from a horrible fight with the coated wire I'm using for his glasses, it's been an uneventful and fun time so far. Making the shirt is always a horror to me, however, and that's what's next. Ugh, I wish I could just make the sleeves attached to the rest of the shirt to begin with.

And I fell in love with a purple teddy bear at Smith's this past week. I don't usually fall so hard for plushies that aren't either specific licensed characters or cats or fish, but I just really liked this one. (It may have been partially the influence of seeing many beautiful purple products on QVC, which I've meant to write an entry about for weeks. I am kind of nuts about QVC and I love it more than HSN, which I feel a little guilty about since HSN came first. But QVC feels so much more homey.) I seriously considered getting it, but didn't feel I should right then. I'd be willing to wait and ask for it for Christmas, but I worry they might not have any by then, as I've often watched stock fly out of Smith's long before a holiday comes. I'm thinking maybe I should get it this week, if the copy that looked the best is still there.

It reminds me of years ago when I fell in love with a white Christmas teddy bear at Smith's. I remember it seems like it was really late when we went to get the groceries the week when I had the money that I could get it (which was $2.99). I think it was 11 at night, oh gosh. We must have been up really late doing groceries that night. I was so excited to be able to get that bear. They had white and brown styles and it was the white one I really wanted. He became one of the sons in my polar bear family, which consists of two big white Christmas bears, him, and a little Valentine's bear.

... not to avoid something that everyone and their dog hates.

Over and over, I find that if I avoid something because of negative reviews, I almost always end up loving it. It happened with season 3 of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., with season 9 of Perry Mason, with TMNT 1987, with Equestria Girls, and with many other things. I also in general love things everyone hates, regardless of whether I initially avoided it myself or not. The Batman series is a good example of that. I enjoyed it from the start, compared to everyone who tears their hair out over it.

I finally got around to buying/seeing Ghostbusters 2, mainly because of the two cartoon episodes it comes with. One of them is a favorite. (The other was WTH territory and I sincerely hope that it isn't typical of the later seasons.) Honestly, I ... ended up loving the movie much more than the original. I think there were only four instances of swearing and a couple of naughty comments, compared to swearing practically every two minutes in the original (or it felt like it, anyway). It was creepy but wacky, had many more character-developing scenes, and Winston had a lot of good screentime. It felt much more like the series, and that may have been the point. They probably knew a lot of kids would be watching it because the series was running right then. Also, the plot point I really wasn't crazy about before I saw it, them being discredited and having gone their separate ways at the beginning, ended up in practice feeling a lot like TMNT, especially Ray and Winston at that birthday party. LOL. So I actually ended up not being too bothered by that after all. I can see myself rewatching this movie and enjoying it, whereas I'm honestly not sure I would rewatch the first movie, at least not in full. I have rewatched my favorite scenes from it.

I can't remember if I mentioned, but Build-a-Bear had a 30% off deal the weekend before this one and I was able to get Michelangelo with that. We were finally going to be in the area and I couldn't pass up a chance to get that much off of him. Then I discovered that the big Slimer plush was on clearance at a Wal-Mart other than ours. I couldn't get him then, but the other day I was able to go back and get one. Our Wal-Mart still isn't clearancing them. It was awesome to get him for $7 instead of $15!

It felt so good to get my 31_days challenge done last week. Some pieces I really enjoyed writing, but others were puzzling, and it was definitely frustrating to have to worry about the day's piece each day when I really wanted to be writing my Turtles fic. But I kept on because I wanted to do the challenge too; it was a story I'd wanted to tell for some time. I still think I'll also write the original Snakes and Chita story I was going to tell, though, which was a third-person narrative oneshot involving one of the last times Snakes put up with looking all over town for Chita when she deliberately ran out to make him find her after an argument. I have a very distinctive image of the opening lines of that fic and they have never gone away, so I need to write it.

I tried to basically keep to the prior versions of the Snakes and Chita tale that Snakes related in two earlier fics. When I realized I had some details wrong in a couple of pieces, I went back and redid those parts. For a couple of other parts, however, I decided that I wanted to tell it slightly differently and that would either make more sense or be closer to what I wanted, so on a couple of points I deliberately made it different from the earlier accounts. Like, I didn't have Snakes and Chita go gambling all night long the first night they met. I mean, they'd been beat up in the first casino when Snakes tried to defend her. It seemed much more likely that they'd go try to take care of their battle wounds. And then at the end, I changed the point where Snakes lost track of Chita's trail in 1910. I wanted Chita to turn up again, but not decades older. I drew inspiration from both a role-play where I'd used her and from the fact that she was always intended to be characterized as sort of a flapper wannabe, and had Snakes lose track of her trail in the 1870s. She found a portal to the 1920s, where she fit in and was happily staying for the most part. (I will speculate that the portal was another result of Dr. Faustina's experiments.) But then she returned to the 1870s once, heard that Snakes was alive, and found the portal to the present-day to see him again. They were able to converse and have some closure at last.

Chita was very interesting to characterize in that last piece. Unlike other versions of her, including the role-play version, this Chita actually did mature a little bit. She wasn't as superficial, was willing to touch the scar that she had always avoided before, and felt badly for how her past cruelty had negatively impacted Snakes. But she wasn't ready to settle down and she recognized it; she had finally opted to stay single. She wants parties and material objects and yet she knows they're not what truly bring happiness. Still, she can't make herself not want them. I drew some inspiration from my own feelings regarding her love of material things and not feeling ready to settle down.

She was never meant to really be a likeable character, so I am amused that I kind of got fond of her and developed her a little. Even some of her superficialty is endearing to me. But since she has plenty of negative characteristics, I would totally understand anyone not liking her. What she did to Snakes was horrible. Not that it was worse than things Snakes did canonically, of course, and so there is definitely the possibility of redeeming her. That was kind of where I was going with the final piece.

I would never have her and Snakes get together again, but they parted on civil terms, and this past night I ended up drawing a cute picture meant to take place around that point where Snakes is standing watching her dance as she whips her boa around him. I sketched the whole thing out very quickly and I quite love it. I might ink it before I scan it, though.

Apparently I had Snakes on the brain after that themeset, because yesterday I had a weird dream involving him. It seemed to take place in the Old West, before The Poisonous Posey episode, even though some things ended up not making sense. Dr. Loveless was there too, and Snakes seemed to be working for/with him and there was some explosion planned for Jim West. Snakes seemed all into that, the little weasel (despite the fact that he seemed to not know Jim in the episode, so there's where it doesn't make sense). Then the tables were turned when Jim escaped and Dr. Loveless chained Snakes to a bomb that was set to go off in a couple of minutes. He was begging and pleading to be set free, and finally someone did. His characterization felt very similar to what's seen in the actual episode: pretty much a pathetic coward who likes to set bombs as ways out of his problems and ends up digging his own grave by doing so.

I never at all intended to become intrigued by him with that characterization, and yet it happened when I was fleshing out his character out of necessity in The Night of the Deadly Codename. And of course, that also led to Christopher rightfully taking his place as one of the darlings when I studied the episode more. I wonder if there's any chance at all that I could have seen that episode when I was very young. Mom insists that Dad used to watch WWW in reruns, so I wonder if there's any chance I saw it back then. That would be hilarious. And it would mean I did encounter Christopher years ago, just like all the other darlings. I want to say I have a vague memory of watching that episode in bits and pieces when I was a kid, but I'm probably just inventing something in my mind because I want so badly for there to be a time when I saw Christopher years ago. Still, wouldn't it be interesting? Snakes is one of my favorite characters to flesh out and develop, and if I actually saw him many years ago and just don't remember it now, that would be rather intriguing.

I also started thinking again about maybe making a Snakes plushie. I'd have to learn some basic embroidery so I could make the scar raised up, but that would be an interesting challenge. Now that the weather's cooled down, I feel like working on my other projects too. Maybe I can finish Barry's clothes at last and also make Mike's jacket!

I just love autumn so much. As always, I celebrate meteorological seasons and not calendar seasons, so for me Fall started on Thursday. It was a beautiful cloudy day too, perfect for the first day of Fall. When the sweltering heat of summer fades, my sewing creativity seems to wake up again. I am excited for what this autumn will bring and hope that it will be happy and enjoyable.

I think I'm almost done with the Turtles fic. I have the climax largely written, or all written, unless I add more to it. Then I just need the epilogue stuff. The story will definitely end where I decided it should. And I may or may not continue it in oneshots or other multi-chapters. We'll have to see. One thing I do know is that while I'm totally cool with watching the series in all its formulaic glory, I don't think I could make myself write stories that are all so formulaic like the series' nonsense, with Shredder's crazy plans failing, etc. I think I could only do a handful before it wouldn't feel believable to me any more. It's easy to watch nonsense; not so easy to create it yourself time and time again.

I kind of have a vague idea of the alien computer still being around after all and discovering that Baxter is finally human again. That would be kind of cute. And it would be interesting to see how Baxter would react to the computer while sane, and whether the computer would want to help him like before. That might be one of my oneshots. And if I do continue things, Baxter and Barney need to have a proper conversation again. Maybe Baxter can finally tell him that Krang was trying to murder him when the cross-fusion happened.

One problem I discovered while writing is trying to keep Barney from feeling too much like a Kylo Ren trope of wanting to go to the dark side/not caring if he has to kill a family member to do so. I fleshed out some of his scenes in chapters before I put them up and had him monologue and have doubts and wonder if he's just acting tough to impress Shredder when he appears as though it doesn't bother him, what he might have to do. I don't really want Barney to be sympathetic, exactly, because really, how much sympathy can you have for someone who willingly joins a megalomaniac while sane because he wants power and recognition? But when he's only in one episode and we just don't know much about him, I don't think it would be fair to paint him as irredeemably evil just to contrast him with Baxter being redeemable because of wanting to be honest at first and then having gone nuts. (Seriously, compare him in season 1 with the season 2 opener. He is sane in season 1 and just wants to invent something that would be helpful to the city's population. He really doesn't know what Shredder's up to. He thinks the guy just really hates rats in the city. He doesn't know Shredder is marketing the Mousers in order to murder someone, nor that Shredder is stamping Baxter's name on them so he'll take the blame. And Shredder is going to kill him just because he saw Shredder and could say that Shredder offered to market the Mousers and was using an old house as a hideout. By season 2, after he's been framed for attempted murder, blamed for the damage the Mousers caused, and thrown in the insane asylum for talking about the Turtles, Baxter is cackling madly about giant talking Turtles and is clearly insane. It is very sad, actually.)

So anyway, this story already inadvertently inverts pretty much all the angles of the other Baxter fix-it fic. I also hope to invert the Kylo Ren trope when it actually comes time for Barney to follow through on his vow to kill Baxter if he interferes. I really like how I've written the climax.

Then I drew Leonardo for the first time since my childhood, and this time he actually looks pretty good! I think I'll be able to draw those Turtles pictures for my "opening" clips that I wanted.

And I always meant to muse on this thought: Coming back to things I like that everyone hates, I actually liked when there was a girl who was part of The A-Team. She seemed to be a reporter if I recall correctly, so I kind of equated the situation as April O'Neil and the Turtles. Heh. The girl seemed to fit just fine into the A-Team's plans and it was nice to have someone around that I could more easily relate to.

Along those lines, I also tried comparing members of The A-Team to the Turtles, but that didn't go so well. Naturally I got B.A. and Raphael, but then I kind of stalled on drawing any other logical parallels. I guess Murdock could be equated with Michelangelo, since they're both the most out there members of their teams. But Hannibal and Leonardo and Face and Donatello don't seem to make very good parallels. And I keep wanting to equate Murdock with Donatello because of their mechanical know-how. So ... heh.

I got some more inspiration for chapter 8 of the Turtles fic by reading back over my entries and realizing I needed to get back to Baxter's struggle with his humanity and the ghost of the fly continuing to torture him in his mind. Chapter 9 will probably still start the climax, but I don't want to get so caught up in that part of the story that I forget the other part. They are equally important. The deal with Barney and Shredder advances the action, while the other part advances Baxter's character development. And then of course, both things converge in the climax as Baxter tries to put what he's discovering about himself into practice.

I haven't actually wanted to come out and admit it, partially because I'm not sure how to without it sounding kind of bad, but I think the main reason I'm so intrigued by the idea of Barney working for Shredder is because part of me kind of likes seeing the "bad" side of the Baxter character in that scenario, especially when Baxter himself was vastly underused in it. Yet the other part of me wants to see Baxter being able to turn his life around, since he was the only one of the Baxters who actually wanted to be honest. The 1987 series enabled the possibility of, well, splitting the original character into two characters with the twin brother bit. Baxter himself can hence explore trying to reclaim his honesty, while Barney wanders down a villainous path and could be closer to the evil genius persona of the original Mirage and the later TV series' Baxters (albeit maybe not quite as treacherous as they were). In other words, the 1987 series is the only one with the possibility of really having it both ways at once and making it make sense.

The past night I saw that Wal-Mart only has one of the smaller Slimers left. Apparently he's selling much better than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man plushies. It was extremely difficult not to buy him, especially after coming from that adorable episode Station Identification, with Slimer so completely determined to save Peter and not seeming to hold any grudge for Peter treating him quite mean in that venture. But I have that problem of wanting to use that Build-a-Bear coupon too, and at this moment I can't get both. If I knew Wal-Mart would restock, and/or that they would keep having the Ghostbusters stuff for a while, I'd rather wait and maybe see about that on my birthday. But since I don't know, and since I had that weird experience with the DVDs being taken away just when I would have bought one at Wal-Mart, I'm rather paranoid about not letting that happen again. I can't seem to stop wanting a Slimer plush, especially as he just gets more and more adorable as I'm watching the show. And then I'm thinking that for only $5 more, the bigger Slimer (with original movie sounds!) is totally the best deal. Both of them are at horrible prices on Amazon, so if Wal-Mart gets them gone, I don't know that I'll have much luck getting one. I'm guessing Toys R Us and Target wouldn't have very good prices, if they carry the merchandise at all. They're usually far more expensive than Wal-Mart.

The breakdown between Wal-Mart and Amazon:

Smaller Slimer: $10 at Wal-Mart; $20 on Amazon (!!!!!)
Bigger, Talking Slimer: $15 at Wal-Mart; $25 on Amazon

At this particular moment, I have to admit that I think I want a Slimer plush more than to use the coupon. But it all hinges on how long the plushies will be around, sigh. And I hate to waste the coupon....

Still puzzling over The Real Ghostbusters. On the one hand, I'm so sure I didn't watch it, because I tend to remember everything I watched regularly even if I don't remember details about it. (I totally remember Mighty Max, about a human teenager, his anthropomorphic bird mentor, and a big strong guy.) On the other hand, the opening and ending are so dang familiar that I know I must have seen the show coming/going, if nothing else. Yet even though I wasn't the biggest fan of people shows back then, I think that one would have appealed to me because of subject matter. So if I saw it coming and saw what it was called, I'm sure I would have checked it out. I also have crafted the memory that if I saw it, it was during weekday morning reruns rather than on Saturday morning, but that could just be me wanting to think I watched it and making a memory to fit.

... And suddenly I got the giggles remembering probably one of the most bizarrely titled shows ever: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. What? Just what? ROTFLOL. I remember laughing and laughing about the title while Mom was in a general state of befuddlement.

I finally snagged one of The Real Ghostbusters DVDs on Amazon. They released five volumes with 11-12 episodes each, and next month they're going to do it again. I wanted the one with Adventures in Slime and Space on it, where Slimer apparently goes evil and they have to stop him/reverse it. I found a clip on YouTube when he grabs Janine and climbs to the top of the Empire State Building in a King Kong parody. LOL. (Apparently Evil Slimer is really big. And blue.) That only made me want it more. The disc also has A Fright at the Opera, where they discover the Phantom of the Opera summoned valkyries to the opera house. LOLOLOL. It should arrive on Tuesday.

I'm wondering if I'll really like anything beyond seasons 1 and 2, though. I think after that was when they changed some of the voices and Janine's character design, because apparently her glasses shape and her hair and her beautiful Brooklyn accent were thought to scare kids. WTH. I love Janine just the way she is and I abhor the thought of changing her! Although I'll give them points for actually explaining her character changes in-show, although it took them several seasons to do it. I do want to see at least a couple of the post-season 2 episodes, like the one where Egon gets stuck between planes or something and is pretty much a ghost and they have to get him back.

And there's a lot of episodes to enjoy before the changes, at least. Season 1 was only 13 episodes, but season 2 was 65 (I think). So if I don't like the re-tooling, there's a wealth of material to focus on instead.

I also wonder if I'd like the re-tooling of the show to Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters. Slimer is fun and cute and all, and his scenes are among my favorites of the movies, but he was meant to be a supporting character and I'm not sure I'd like him being center stage all the time.

And it occurred to me that if I get the Ghostbusters logo bear plush from Build-a-Bear, I'm going to have trouble naming it. Naming it after any of the darlings would be too sad/morbid, since you know, it's a ghost. So I most likely would either pick a random name or else name it after a ghost character, like Casper or maybe Gus or George, ghosts in cute kids' books of mine. I'd rather not choose George, though, since that would probably make me think of George Savalas more than the ghost character George.... Oh wait, the ghost was Georgie. I think. I'm leaning towards Gus. Maybe.

Then I've been enjoying the 1987 Turtles series more. Raphael really is similar to the other Raphs in many ways. In addition to the already-cited ways, he also seems to be the one to get angry the quickest (even though this Raph isn't angry/sullen most of the time in general). In the fic, I've depicted him as having the hardest time forgiving or trusting Baxter, and as I discovered after writing that, it seems to be canon-accurate. In contrast, Michelangelo seems to be the most forgiving and he and Baxter are having an interesting conversation. Despite what Baxter did to Mikey in one of the fly episodes, somehow I just can't picture Mikey holding a grudge about that. (Now, if it had been one of his brothers instead, hmmm....)

I'm in chapter 7 now. I had tentatively planned 10 chapters, but I don't want to limit myself if it looks like it will go beyond that. The story keeps flowing. Any time I get a little stuck, I soon think of another scene and it starts flowing too. I love when this happens, especially since it doesn't usually.

I also want to tinker with drawing a few fanarts for an imagined "opening" based on my story concepts. One would be a split-screen with Baxter and Barney glaring at each other, similar to the Yami Yugi versus Pegasus split-screen from the YGO opening. Then one of Barney with Shredder-tachi (a term I had to write out just once for the utter crackiness factor, LOL) and one of the Turtles ready to fight them, with Baxter standing somewhat apart from the Turtles yet still closer to their side of the fight. I don't think Baxter will actually join them; he doesn't want to and wants to instead try to get his life back to normal. But his brother being involved with Shredder makes everything complicated.

(And I wonder if I'll be able to draw the Turtles. I discovered Baxter is easy to draw, but I was never very good at drawing Leonardo as a kid. Of course, maybe it would be easier now.)

Also complicated is how to keep Irma from persisting in trying to snag Baxter, since she wants a man so bad, poor thing. There's someone else who's actually written Baxter/Irma, and while it is cute, I don't really want to write it too. But I can't imagine Irma not pouncing upon learning that Baxter is single. Although maybe knowing that he worked with Shredder for a while would keep her away ... but I can imagine her eventually making excuses or trying to decide that he's changed/could change. And while I don't think Baxter has been that interested in romance, he would probably be thrilled to have someone, anyone, to really care about him. So even though I honestly do not want to put a romance in the story, I'm a little concerned it may just end up happening without my express permission. I guess I'll just have to see what happens when I get that far in the fic.

(Side-note: I adore Irma. She's so cute! And she's played by Jennifer Darling, which is epically awesome. Jennifer played Oscar Goldman's secretary Peggy Callahan. Such a great character. A little person, but so full of spunk and determination and goodness. I read something about Irma's counterpart in the Nick series being a spy of the Kraang enemy aliens, and just ... boo. BOO! One more reason that I'm hesitant to try the Nick series now.

Of course, I could always mellow out in the future. I know I at least want to try the Nick series once. But it took me years to be ready to try the 1987 series. I just wasn't ready for it five years ago when someone was trying to convince me to give it a chance, and when I did try it, Bebop and Rocksteady's idiocy and Shredder's whining kind of made me go "... No." I definitely preferred the 2003 series at that point. Now I'm just having a ball with all of it. It could take another while for me to be ready to try Nick's.)

I wonder how old Baxter and Barney are supposed to be. Shredder makes a bizarre comment in an episode while trying to trick Baxter, that he thinks of Baxter like his own son. WTH. Shredder is fairly young in the 1987 series, 30s or so, and Baxter definitely doesn't seem to be any younger than that. I actually kind of get the impression he's older, maybe in his 40s. A puzzle.

And the hair color issue. In season 1, Baxter is clearly blond. By season 2, it looks more light-brown. I describe it as light-brown in the fic and will probably color it that way, but I've noticed that most people color it blond. And when they draw human Baxter at all, they usually seem to prefer the season 1 look. I kind of like the season 2 look better, because ... fluffy long hair! The season 1 look is more "respectable professor" while season 2 is closer to "cliche mad scientist." Makes sense, since in season 1 he seems to be sane and honest, while season 2 has him tip over the edge. He apparently grew his hair out while in the insane asylum and then left it that way when Shredder busted him out.

It's interesting pondering on the different Baxters. Usually he seems to be a character that crap happens to no matter what verse it is. Oddly, though, it seems like the comic versions escape that fate. Even though the Archie Comics version started as the 1987 version, they stopped adapting TV storylines and he never had the fly accident. (He also vanished from the series in general.) And then maybe the IDW version is okay; I don't know enough about his role in those comics to say. (I have a vague memory that things may have gone wrong for him too, though.) And then in Mirage, it's hard to feel sorry for him there, since he deliberately turns himself into a cyborg when he wouldn't have had to. WTH. Also, the current movies Baxter is fine, but the actor said that if there's a third movie, Baxter will probably get the fly treatment.

The TV show Baxters, though ... oy. 2003 and 2012 are both evil geniuses, I believe, and yet I can't really feel that they fully deserved the many horrible things that happened to them (the 2003 one being dismantled body part by body part, UGGGGGH, and 2012 getting the fly treatment and not being able to reverse it). 2003 actually did get a better ending than the others, though, apparently; at least he gets a humanoid robot body or something by the end (not the one with the creepy holo-projector head, but a better one.) Meanwhile, the 1987 one, the only one that seemed to actually start out wanting to be honest and cracked up, gets a total bum rap that never does get fixed in canon. And his show is supposed to be the funny one. Odd, isn't it?

Weird dreams and I go hand in hand. I had a concourse of weird ones the last time I was asleep. My favorite involved us back in the creepy three-story haunted house that we can only live in about half of because of the ghosts. I had all my plushies in the living room for some reason and I took out a crocodile that looked like Vector from Sonic the Hedgehog, only it wasn't because it was a girl. Then we were having our kitty in the garage, and somehow the other neighborhood cats that hang around in real-life were in there too. One of them, a ginger tabby, kept getting in the house and we had to get it out. I kept calling it Ginger because of its color and because hey, I just wanted to name something Ginger. Dad was calling it Caruso. LOL. And my Hello Kitty plushie was in the garage for some reason. And she was alive. There were bunk beds out there and she was sleeping on the top bunk and leaned over upsidedown to look at me. She was bigger than the one I really have, she didn't have sprinkles, and she had a blue dress. She fell out of bed and I helped her up onto the bottom bunk.

Weird. But nice.

Then I've been reading a lot about all the different Ghostbusters series. There was that live-action series in the 1970s called that with Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch as the Ghostbusters. LOL. Then ten years later, the company that made that decided to make a cartoon based on it after the success of the unrelated Ghostbusters movie. But what I seriously don't get is that, of all the totally lame things, they made the main characters the sons of the ones from the live-action series. Uggggh, I honestly hate when shows do that. Gosh, only ten years later. They could certainly have had the original characters there instead, especially considering it was a cartoon and characters don't have to age in cartoons. Maybe there was some concern about celebrity likenesses, but cartoons can easily get around that. Look how they changed Egon from the movie. MeTV was doing an article about that and showed a picture of a figure line from that other Ghostbusters cartoon. One of them was this bizarre two-faced thing and I totally recognized it as a toy my brother had. I always wondered what it was, but I didn't think it came from anything specific. Anyway, that Ghostbusters cartoon is actually why the more popular one had to call itself The Real Ghostbusters. LOL. I always wondered why it was called that.

(LOL, and speaking of toys my brother had, I'm remembering the silliest and most random things. I have a couple of Gremlins, a big one and a little one he gave me later, and the big one was always the Federal Marshal when I played with figures and the little one was his son. Then we had a vampire figure who was our main crook until he fell behind the bed. Then I brought out a Penguin from Batman figure to be the crook, and I creepily named him Oswald without even realizing that was Penguin's real name.)

31_days has an interesting themeset for August. They're calling it "A Summer Romance, A Summer Horror." I like the themes so much that I'm tempted to try to write for all of them. I can't decide what my subject should be, though. I instantly thought of Paul Gantry from Mannix, the cutie in my icon. But it was so heartbreaking how he thought Sheila loved him and she ended up betraying him to the bad guys because she loved material things more. I want to write at least one piece with him because what happened certainly qualifies as a horror for him, but I'm not sure I could take writing that much heartbreak all throughout the month. Another thought was alternating themes between him and Captain Scofield, but that would also be sad since I've set Scofield up with Giovanna and they'd be happy while meanwhile Paul was being used by Sheila. Yet another thought would be Rumbelle. They would certainly fit with a lot of the themes. Or I could write about a whole bunch of different characters.

Next question is, Could I really write a whole month of romantic themes, no matter who the characters are? That's just not me. I'm lucky to be able to write one little Rumbelle piece every few months, and even at that, they're not really blatantly romantic pieces. What I'd really like is if the themes could be used platonically. Some of them could be, so I'm also considering using those themes platonically and then figuring out what to do with the rest of them. It feels a little like cheating if I don't use them all romantically when that seems to have been the themeset author's intention. But they always figure the themes are open to wide interpretation, so maybe it wouldn't be too terrible.

So I finished the 1987 Turtles disc about a week ago and greatly enjoyed the rest of it, although I think I like the earlier episodes the best (1-4-ish). The season 7 episode on the disc, where they have to fight a whole rogues’ gallery of past villains, seemed really familiar to me, so I think that must have been one I watched when it first aired on TV. I liked it, but I prefer the utter nonsense of earlier seasons. I went and read through an episode guide and decided that I want the season 3 discs first. Season 4 sounded kind of “eh” except for a few episodes and season 2 is filled with tropes I detest (shrinking, humans mutating, etc.). Season 1 was just a five-part mini-series/pilot-type thing, which I want, but not ahead of some other stuff. Seasons 5 and 6 sounded fun and I might plan to get Wal-Mart’s combined set of those. Also, season 7 sounded like a blast, especially with the Europe vacation arc that took place around seasons 3-4. Seasons 8-10 don’t sound as fun; I don’t think I’d like all the changes to the show. I know I watched some of those episodes on TV, though, but the only one I remember involved a biker gang and Donatello nearly getting hurt by one of the members as he speeds past. I couldn’t find it in the episode guide, but I know I saw it mentioned before. It seemed like any time I was actually awake and able to watch the Turtles, I always caught that episode. Heh. I saw it at least three times.

This week has been the saga of the Donatello plushie. I find it very sad that I don't have a Donny plushie yet, considering he was my second-favorite all through childhood and on into the 2003 series, until I somehow became super-fond of Raph. Without rehashing all the details, I basically decided I wanted the Donatello plushie the most that’s from the same line as my Leo. Only problem is, there’s suddenly a run on that plushie. Amazon is sold out and keeps changing the price and the date it will be back in stock, the only decently-priced one there right now is from a seller with 90% positive feedback and I don’t like to dip lower than 97% positive, Wal-Mart sold out (probably because people were mad about Amazon selling out; they were charging the same price), and Target has only three left. WTH…. Then I got mad and started thinking maybe I wanted the one styled like the 1987 series again, just to be able to get Donatello without waiting for ages. I do like it, but it’s just not stuffed as full and it’s not as soft. The other one has pros all around except for having the same expression as Leo, and I think I’d prefer that over one with a different expression but so many cons.

This year, the Scottish Festival was actually a lot of fun. I enjoyed it much better than some recent years and I actually found something I liked enough to buy that was decently priced. It’s a beautiful turquoise necklace that I thought had Celtic designs on some of the beads, but now I’m not sure and think it’s Native American designs instead. But either way, I love it. We also got to see a favorite band, The Fire, finally return after a three-year absence, and we got one of their CDs. We stayed on Friday until they closed up shop around ten, which was so awesome. I wanted to go back on Saturday and look around some more, even though I’d probably seen everything. But we weren’t able to make it until the very end, when The Fire went on again. That was when we got the CD. It was sad seeing all the booths close up while the concert was going on. I thought they might stay open until after the concert for one last hurrah, but no. After we got home, I took pictures of Christopher Cary as a Scot from Batman.

After the festival on Friday, I bought the second Turtles movie, which I shouldn’t have done. But I’d wanted it for at least seven years and was exasperated at never being able to spare a few dollars to get it. I’d never seen it in full and it was a blast. I still like the first one best, but the second one has lots of cute and funny moments and the nightclub scene and the ending scene are still priceless.

Also, Build-a-Bear sent me an email about a Boba Fett-themed bear. That is … kind of awesome. I have to say that if the character hadn’t intrigued me as a six-year-old child, he probably wouldn’t interest me now. But that six-year-old child never stopped being fascinated by him and there's nothing I can do about it. Dad would probably go through the ceiling if I bought that plushie, and I can’t get any there anyway without some coupons (which they hardly send anymore, waaah), but I am definitely considering it. First priority is looking at their Turtles up close and personal, though, and deciding whether to get the Mikey from their line. But there’s still that problem of not liking their second run Mikey's expression. He looks so cheeky instead of just cute like the first one.

The A-Team is such a cheesy, silly, ridiculous show. But still probably way better than almost anything currently on TV. It's so outlandish, how there's so many wild crashes and bullets flying and no one even gets hurt. But it's escapist entertainment. The good guys win, the bad guys lose. And I have to admit to having a soft spot for it because my brother apparently liked it. He had an activity book for it that he gave me. I used to like having Mom read it to me. No, I don't know the logic of reading an activity book like a storybook, but there you go. Also, apparently at least some of my other siblings liked it; Dad has a book of it that I think is an adaptation of the pilot and probably belonged to one of them. I'm sure it wasn't Dad's book. LOL. But he seems to have a soft spot for the series too; he'll let the TV stay on it when it's on Cozi and sometimes he'll even watch it.

I don't like George Peppard much, though. He seemed so juvenile! When he got invited to some thing in ... Hungary, I think it was, he thought he was the only cast member invited. When he knew the others had been invited too, he refused to attend. WTH. And then he had problems with Mr. T at times and wouldn't even talk to him except by other people relaying messages. **headdesk.** That's what children do when they're mad at each other! It did sound like maybe he matured later in life, though, so I'm trying to give him the benefit of a doubt. Anyone can change. I liked when I read that he overcome his alcohol problems and tried to help others do likewise.

Also, I always thought the pilot was ... well, not very "with it" since the poor guy has so many screws loose. But he really shined in the episode I saw on Monday night. And it was one of those kind where the character is on a game show, and usually I hate those because they think it's funny to have the contestant lose everything, but he won and he also apparently got the girl of the episode. The show's standard Casanova looked pretty frustrated that she was more interested in the pilot than him. LOL.

The Casanova is played by Dirk Benedict, whom I know from the original Battlestar Galactica. And then of course Mr. T. Everyone knows Mr. T ... right?

I don't think I'd ever watch the show religiously, but I do like having it on while we're putting groceries away. Classic '80's.

Also, I always thought it strange that plushies weren't made of the ghost character in the Ghostbusters' logo. That would be a really cute plushie! I'd much rather have that than one of the Stay Puft thing. The mascot itself is innocent, but since the evil ghost used its form to try to destroy the world, I'd always be thinking of that. A Stay Puft plushie would hence creep me out.

I realized that the logo ghost is actually in Build-a-Bear's new Ghostbusters plushie collection. It's a ghost bear and it's actually way cute. And I don't understand the logic of dressing it in the Ghostbusters' uniform. (Or the logic of Stay Puft being online-only. WTH? He's probably what most people would want the most!) I kind of want that ghost bear. And I think the Ghostbusters uniform is clothing I might actually buy. Not for the ghost, but for one of my other plushies.

Also, I apparently have a Slimer fingerpuppet. I always wondered what that thing was; my brother gave it to me and I liked it, but was puzzled by it. When I saw pictures of Slimer in the first movie, I realized that's what it was. I also have a pinball game based on the TV show, which is weird because I don't think I ever saw the TV show. I really want to see the reboot movie when it comes out next month, and that will be my first time seeing any of the media for the franchise (unless I watch the older movies between now and then).

Ty's small Twilight Sparkle plushie suffers from the great indignity of the wings being placed too far down on her back. Apparently, however, some particular copies get it right. In Walgreens on Monday, I found one Twilight out of the four they had where the wings were placed in the correct position.

I kind of want to go back and buy her, if she hasn't been sold yet.

I already have two Twilight plushies. Indeed, I have two of almost every character, in both Funrise and Build-a-Bear sizes. (My medium Twilight is the talking one instead, however.) It is highly unusual for me to have two of any character, but I make exception for many of the Pony characters because the brands make them so differently. (And I still wish I had a third Shadow the Hedgehog that is both a decent cuddling size and furry....)

Twilight is my absolute favorite; I only love Sunset Shimmer anywhere as much (and possibly more). The Ty Twilight is tempting because she's small and would be a good traveling size, if I wanted to take a plushie with me on the go somewhere. I am still frustrated with myself for passing on the sitting down Aurora Twilight when Smith's had her for $10. I thought it was too much for the size, and it was, but after seeing other prices I've realized she was a bargain. I keep checking Smith's floral department in case they get one again, but I haven't seen any more of her. (The Ty Twilight is smaller than her, costs $7, and has brushable hair instead of cloth-sculpted.)

Also, I watched The Friendship Games in the morning and I renewed my feeling that I really like Sugarcoat and I want a doll of her. She intrigues me because while she's blunt and kind of rude, I kind of had the impression that maybe she was trying to help human Twilight improve herself, at least at first. (I grimace at some of her later comments and actions.) And then by the end of the movie, the students from both schools seem to be getting along better.

I'm not sure which doll, though, because the basic one is styled better, leg-wise, but the deluxe ones with bendable limbs are so nice. But of all the idiocy, instead of giving her real tights or even leaving her legs skin-color below the cloth shorts, the deluxe doll has tights painted on, which looks really stupid on a bendable fashion doll's legs. And in addition to just looking stupid, it irritates me because another intriguing thing about Sugarcoat is that she apparently has no desire to have her legs mostly bare; she wears what looks like the boy's uniform trousers underneath the short skirt. The doll having really short shorts kind of spoils that aspect. (And then the Basic has a short skirt, if I recall.) If I had some extra tights from a different doll, I could give those to her and that would disguise the awful legs. But I don't want to take the tights from any doll currently wearing them and there are no extra pairs.

Another problem is that I think Toys R Us is the only store in the area that carries either doll at all, they only have the deluxe, and they often don't have good enough sales. I don't think they'd be clearancing anything, since they tend to keep the dolls from the previous movies even when the merchandise for the new ones starts coming in.

Sigh. Well, I'll keep thinking about it.

So I've been thinking a lot about Mike Trevino lately, as evidenced partially by the long post I did on Tumblr this past week. He's figured a lot into some of my recent Ginger and Lou pieces. It's been very interesting developing Mike and Ginger's interaction throughout the past three years and actually getting them to a place where they actually like each other and are comfortable being around each other. They don't confide in each other and probably never will, but Ginger finally apologized to Mike for the shooting (whereas previously he had only apologized to Lou).

I've thought off and on for years that I should probably make a Mike plushie to go with my Ginger and Lou plushies, but sewing is such a pain that I've always put it off. I decided I should really do it, so I used a coupon on Friday to get another pre-stuffed doll at Jo-Ann's for half-off and am planning to start work on the plushie this week, since I have materials for ears, hair, and pants already here. I'm already trying to start by finding a good picture of 1970's Joe E. Tata that I can use as a guide in making the expression, which I practice many times on paper before actually applying to the plushie.

On that, I'm running into some trouble, as it seems like most of his 1970's characters don't have much to smile about. I can't use a more recent picture as a guide. And the only 1970's shots I've got of him, save one, are side views. I'm going to need to get out everything I have with him guest-starring and study it for possible shots. If I don't draw the expression from an actual picture of the person, it never looks as accurate.

I finally solved my Amazon problem by waiting for another gift card that was just about ready to come and then using all of that plus a little cash to get the complete Cannon boxset. I waffled a bit on whether to really do that, since I'd end up having to pay a little more cash than before and I'd been hesitant to add that much cash. But the price was right and Cannon is a show we love in general and not just when darlings guest-star, so it seemed like a very wise investment. I don't have a lot of episodes recorded compared to how many there actually were, and I don't know if the ones I have might be cut. Some of them look like they might be. Crystal encouraged me to get the boxset and last Saturday I finally did, with no regrets. It came yesterday and Mom was thrilled. We watched a couple of episodes, including Don Knight's and the second one with Joe E. Tata.

Joe had a pretty big part, unlike a lot of the times when I see him. He appeared to work for an old man who did a lot of crooked things but had never been caught at it. I say "appeared" because he really seemed to be so much more than just an assistant. They'd been together for years; Cannon mentioned a drug operation that both Joe's character and the old man were involved in eight years ago. He spoke as though they were more like equals or partners in the operation, although I admit that could have just been my interpretation. But there was much more as evidence; it seemed like they lived in the same house, either that or Joe's character Higgins was just over there all the time. And when the nutcase in the episode sets a bomb in the old man's car and he's seriously hurt, Higgins is extremely distraught. He goes to the hospital and is there for hours waiting to hear if he'll be alright. Of course, an assistant or other employee could be that devoted to their boss, but all in all, I got the vibe that maybe even if he technically was an assistant, the relationship was more like a surrogate son and father or extremely close friends. We actually never learn the old man's final fate, but I like to think that he did pull through since Higgins would be so sad if he didn't.

In thinking about it in the hours since, I determined that there are two basic criteria that need to be met, in general, if I'm going to be intrigued by antagonist characters to the point of wanting to write about them. #1, For them to show some indication of caring about someone, and/or #2, That there is some indication that redemption is possible.

Of the two, #2 is the more important reason for me. That could manifest in several ways, including reason #1, or by them doing something decent, or even just by the idea that they will be going to prison and maybe they can be rehabilitated. In this case, while #1 is definitely present, there didn't seem to be any indication that either Higgins or the old man would be or could be interested in changing the way they handled life, so despite being curious and interested in their interaction, I seriously doubt I would write about them.

In the past I somehow got so intrigued by Gin and Vodka that I ended up being willing to write about them performing their jobs as assassins, although the stories were more about them as characters than about what they were doing. But I am still appalled that I did that. That just isn't me. More recently, when writing about Ecks and Wye, I did have to touch on their canonical jobs a bit, but mostly the stories were about them running for their lives after canonically betraying the organization and trying to start over and go straight. I still had to write Wye as having some darker views than I am generally comfortable with writing, but I tried not to touch on that as much and I did have him finally determine, at least, that the organization with which he had been affiliated did do things worse than most governments.

Sometimes I don't intend to get intrigued by a character and I end up doing it anyway because of what I'm writing about them to flesh them out. That was what happened with both Sephiroths (especially KH Sephiroth) and Snakes Tolliver. It also happened with Baby Face Morales. I had honestly originally intended that he would be the dark foil and counterpart to Micky and nothing more. I wrote The Return of Baby Face Morales with that idea in mind and I did not have the character show any redeeming qualities at all, that I recall. But then when I wrote the sequel and had to have Baby Face work with the good guys and later when I wanted him and Tony to patch things up, I got myself intrigued by the idea of him being more of an anti-hero and also developing his interaction with Tony. That was how and why I ended up changing how I wrote for him and started diving into his past and trying to flesh out possibilities of what could have made him such an angry and dark person. Some of it probably went into sob story territory and I might not follow that exact backstory now. I seriously doubt that I'd write about him at all anymore, really, both since his and Tony's story is probably as a standstill and since he really is a dark character and not one I'm that comfortable writing for anymore. If I were to do anything with those characters again, it would probably be to finish that hanging story about them and the Monkees held captive by mad scientists, and/or to keep writing that crossover with Kolchak. Tony Ferano would be the main character in the latter. I toyed a little bit in my last burst of Monkees stories about Tony and whatever goodness he still has in him. If I were to write about him again, I might further that angle and have him finally break away from Baby Face and try to get his life back in some semblance of order again. Even though I'm probably not comfortable writing for Baby Face, I have to admit that I do still love Tony. Jimmy Murphy's portrayal of him was classic.

Of course, Ginger is really quite a dark character too, so it's possible that in the future I will also not want to write about him anymore, either. But in his case, there was that actual chemistry I sensed between him and Lou (which could have been chemistry between the actors) and that is really what set the whole intrigue off. The fact of that chemistry combined with their interaction in general just fascinated me for some reason and led to me being unable to stop writing about them. And in their case, they really are trying to go straight after their stint in prison (something Baby Face would likely never do), so it's not uncomfortable writing about them. So I really hope that I will never feel differently about that, especially now that I've learned some more information that might possibly put a different spin on the elephant in the room of the shooting. I went into that in detail on Tumblr. http://lucky-ladybugs-lovelies.tumblr.com. Of course, as I say there, I will never be fully satisfied on that, but this is the best I can do to handle it. And in my timeline, as I mentioned, Ginger finally has apologized for that.

Bottom line is, I usually really don't want to like or get intrigued by certain characters, but sometimes I do because of those criteria.

Occasionally, I suppose, I can also get fascinated by a character for one other reason: if it feels like they got a bum deal in canon. Dutch Ingram would fall in that category, because the idea that he committed a murder was just shoehorned in, said by Ken Swofford's highly questionable character, and there was no proof it was true. I still don't believe it is, and that is the basis of my Rockford fic featuring him. But if it weren't for feeling like he wasn't the murderer, I doubt I'd write about him. He isn't really the type of character I like either. I don't think just the fact of Christopher playing him would have made me want to write about him, since I don't want to write about every character played by a darling.

And I need to decide what to do about another Amazon gift card I got. There's no chance of any other one coming soon, so with their changed policies I'm thinking maybe I should get a few books with this one. I considered that recent set of Kolchak short stories, which I want to get since I know the author of one of the stories, but I keep hesitating on getting it since I don't know if any of the stories deal with Tony (Vincenzo now and not Ferano, heh) and his and Kolchak's intriguing relationship. I know that in general, the prose stories do not. That collection of 43 short stories I have only has one where Tony really gets to shine, so in a set of 14 stories, there's not much chance Tony will have good screentime. The comics are better than the prose at giving Tony stuff to do, but I don't know if there are any graphic novels out that give him a lot of "screentime" since there are also some comics where he doesn't appear much. If I knew of any I don't have with good Tony content, I would jump to get them.

Other possibilities are Miles Edgeworth manga or Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books or some combination of several things. There are also a couple of new Pony/Equestria Girls books I want, an artbook for the series and a new Equestria Girls novel that will be out a week from ... Monday, I think. I almost always ponder for ages on what to spend gift cards on, since it's a treat I only have several times a year and I want to make sure I get what I really want and what will be meaningful for years to come. Hopefully I'll come to a decision this week.

Last week was interesting. A couple of weeks ago I'd contacted the script people to see if they had scripts for Riptide's The Pirate and the Princess and Rockford's The Hawaiian Headache. I heard back several days ago and they have both. I ordered the Riptide one, since Christopher's character is a main guest-star in that instead of being regulated to two scenes in the Rockford episode (and since that episode is a complete mess. I know the series wasn't cancelled because of bad scripts, but you can just tell so much that the quality had gone down in that last season).

I didn't like to have them wait on my decision once they replied, and I sort of felt like having asked in the first place committed me to get something immediately following their reply, which is the same way I feel about buying Ponies from people on the Arena too, but I probably should have waited until this weekend to get the script. My sister finally cashed the check I gave her for the Sunset Shimmer plush, and even though she turned out to have cost less than I thought she would at her size, that left me $10 shorter than I thought I had. And I'd been spending most of the week trying to figure out how to get to Build-a-Bear, because they finally sent a coupon like I've been waiting for since January and it was for $10 instead of $5!

It was only Saturday when I saw that the check had been cashed, and I knew that getting the plushie would then drain most of the account until I get paid this weekend, so I really knew I should give up on the plushie since Dad didn't want to go anyway, even after I offered to pay the $2.79-ish it would have cost in gas money. But since I had almost $15 in discounts (including the last bit of one gift card), I figured that even paying the $5.99 for shipping on the site would still make it worth it in this case. After all, it was only about $3 more than the total would have been with gas money included. (The Build-a-Bear website has to charge state sales tax, ugh. So I wouldn't save anything in that respect by ordering online.) I just couldn't bear to waste a $10 coupon, especially since I'd been waiting for months for a coupon and since I wanted it to get something specific.

I had earlier tried to get Muffins with the coupon, since she's online-only anyway (grrr). But I couldn't do it, because they decided to run a sale on Ponies that wasn't as good as my coupon and I couldn't combine my coupon with it. Then I searched a couple of times for the cheapest plushies possible, but nothing really appealed to me like the other Lalaloopsy doll I'd wanted. So I decided that if I was determined to get something online so as not to waste the coupon, I should just get what I really wanted.

I got the order all set up and still hesitated, since I really knew I shouldn't do it, but about five minutes before the coupon expired I took the plunge and clicked the Complete Order button. And then spent the next several hours worrying about having done it and wondering if I could cancel the order. I searched all over the website and finally found that it could be cancelled by calling them, but only if the order hadn't already gone to Processing. And it already had! I really didn't want to cancel despite my worries, so I switched to hoping that they would ship quickly.

After a good sleep, I wasn't worried about having ordered the plushie, but I did start worrying about having ordered the script several days earlier. I really should have waited on that, at least, but I had thought it would look bad if I had told them I needed until next weekend. Hopefully it will be worth my while. I certainly got a lot of mileage out of The Queen of Peru script (missing and altered scenes, first draft characterizations that were changed later, what Ginger calls Mike (I don't know why it didn't occur to me before reading it that he would probably say Michael. It just sounds so right), and the original physical description for Ginger that clearly showed David Chase had Christopher in mind for the role all along ... or possibly Don Knight, but I lean towards Christopher since Ginger is described as a physically small man and Christopher definitely was). I'm hoping for more goodies in this Riptide one that didn't make it to the finished episode.

I just hope the script won't disappoint me instead. In the episode, they never actually said in the end what the deal was with Captain Scofield. You were left to puzzle out for yourself whether he was honest or if he'd been mixed up with the bad guys. Taking all the evidence into consideration, I determined that he was honest and that he had been trying to find out who framed him for starting a fire when the real traitor surprised and shot him. Later, when he struggled up and stabbed that guy and took the knife to the main characters, I assumed he was bringing it so they could get untied. I did wonder why the bomb was left armed, but he was hardly what you'd call completely conscious and I assumed that he just hadn't realized it was armed and he thought that stabbing the traitor would prevent him from arming it. But normally they spell it out for you in an episode regarding whether a character is good or bad, so when they didn't, I was perplexed.

Also, Interrupted Melody arrived last week and I loved it! Roger had much screentime and there was sibling squee and overall depth and it had a lovely ending. So happy I was able to get it!