#taobbated

[poparthuriana]

You know it's late at night when you get to thinking about how Clancy Brown and Jeff Goldblum's characters in Thor: Ragnarok are perfect contrasts to their characters in Buckaroo Banzai.

But hear me out...

The TaoBBatED characters are heroic sidekicks, the Marvel characters authoritative villains. Rawhide is down-to-earth, loyal, and not apparently ambitious beyond his current position; Surtur aspires to destroy Asgard itself. New Jersey is well-meaning, naïve, happy just to be included, and surprisingly insightful; Grandmaster is an entirely self-centered, enjoyment-focused tyrant and it creates blind spots for him. Both Surtur and Rawhide have some form of resurrection, and neither New Jersey nor the Grandmaster is in any real danger, in one case due to immortality and in both cases due to it not making sense within the structure of the plot. Their arcs mirror each other in reverse, with Banzai HQ as Muspelheim and Sakaar as the Red Lectroid nest, because let's face it, there's not much difference between Sakaar and a Lectroid nest writ large with the roof ripped off.

Was this intentional? I would be absolutely shocked. Is it fun to think about at 12:21 pm? For me, yeah.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[poparthuriana]

They're a mad scientist possessed by an alien dictator, the long-lost identical twin sister of the Queen of the Netherlands, and a physicist/neurosurgeon/rock star.

Why does this look like a shot from the Breakfast Club?

the literal definition of coolness

[poparthuriana]

Casting TAoBBAtED with Arthurian characters

A friend and I once spent a solid half hour coming up with a list of which Arthurian character best corresponded with which character from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension. This was the result:

King Arthur = Buckaroo

The False Guinevere = Penny Priddy

Bedivere = Rawhide

Gawain = Perfect Tommy

Hector de Maris = Reno Nevada

Percival = New Jersey

Dinadan = John Parker

Isolde of Ireland = John Emdall

Lucan = Billy Travers

Morgan le Fay = Lord John Whorfin

Sebile = John O’Connor

Nimue = John Bigbooté

Mador = Pinky Carruthers

Rationale:

Arthur, Bedivere, Lucan, and Mador are all pretty self-explanatory.

The False Guinevere and Penny Priddy are the identical twins (or, in one case, evil nearly-identical twin half-sisters) of Guinevere and Peggy, similar in name, appearance, and romantic entanglement with their sister's husband or former husband.

My friend and I strenuously disagreed about who Perfect Tommy would be. She believed that Lancelot and Tristan, particularly Lancelot, get the viewed-by-others-as-perfect treatment more often. I demurred on the basis that Perfect Tommy entirely lacks sad wet cat energy and I could see him ending up in situations like Gawain's.

We really couldn't figure out who Reno Nevada would be. Hector might be a bit too out there, but he is somewhat more reasonable than, say, his brother (this isn't saying much).

We were torn up about whether New Jersey should be Percival or La Cote Mal Taille. The costume weighed in favor of Brunor, but it didn't make sense for New Jersey to be John Parker's brother (they aren't even from the same planet), and Brunor is also a little edgier, so Percival won.

Morgan as Lord John Whorfin was funny, and if she was Whorfin, naturally Sebile had to be John O'Connor. Nimue as John Bigbooté is purely for the name joke--imagine her constantly protesting to Morgan that "it's pronounced Nih-moo-AY!"

With Morgan already taken, Isolde was our best candidate for John Emdall, and Dinadan as John Parker followed. John Parker might not joke around much, but he doesn't always see eye to eye with John Emdall and is a diplomat who failed flight school, and that fits. We almost changed it so that Mark was Whorfin, but Morgan was too funny in the role, and having Nimue as John Bigbooté would have made even less sense.