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eerieindianaSO like…I finished Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension and…I really liked it! The first episode was an uphill battle but the rest of them, for the most were very enjoyable. I think it deserves more love than it gets :-) I wrote this theory about why Mitchell acts the way he does in the last episode especially but also plenty of other ones. Enjoy.
When we first meet Mitchell in episode one, he seems to be a generally well-adjusted kid. Just listening to his first line basically tells you all you need to know about him. He’s young, adorable and soft on the edges.He’s presented as the anti-Marshall. He’s lived in Eerie his whole life. He stumbles over his words. He sees weirdness (‘Maybe that’s why downtown has that weird glow at night’) but doesn’t register it. He jokes with Stanley, who he hangs out with by choice, rather than because he's the only kid in town who doesn't think he's a weirdo.
By the end of the series, Mitchell is presented very similarly to Marshall. He’s very serious (The Last Laugh and I’m Okay, You’re Really Weird especially paint him as lacking humour//Marshall being serious was the reason Dash was introduced of course), He’s driven to the point of risking injury to study weirdness (Buddy Beep Beep, Jackalope, Perfect, Nightmare on Eerie Street//Hole in the Head Gang, The Loyal Order of Corn), His relationship with his father is strained because of his weirdness hunting (pretty much every episode but especially Send In the Clones, Jackalope and Mr. Lucky//Marshall’s Theory of Believability). Even in the last episode, his haircut is a lot longer, closer to Marshall.
Stanley on the other hand basically becomes the Anti Simon. He confesses to being greedy (Mr. Lucky), focused on money (Revenge of the Goody Two Shoes People, Mr. Lucky, Jackalope), a little aggressive (Buddy Beep Beep) and generally his own character. Still a kid, but not like Simon who is generally considered the Moral Compass of Eerie Indiana.
But Mitzi, you beautiful woman, I hear you say, what if your theory?
Well, I’m not saying that the writers of TOD are that smart but I like to believe that Marshall didn’t quite fix the problem of the rip between dimensions. Mitchell’s Eerie was already weird, (there’s proof in pretty much every episode that the weird stuff has been happening for years, Marshall and Simon just forced Mitch and Stan to acknowledge it) so this injection of weird from Marshall’s dimension could only make things weirder, possibly, weirdest.
Mitchell canonically lives in the center of the center of weirdness for the entire planet, where they tried to close their end of the portal. (Standard Deviation) It makes sense he and his family are weirdness magnets, they live right next to the portal of weirdness. Mitchell, who lives in the center of weirdness, experiences more weirdness than Stanley and most of the time is tasked with fixing weirdness alone.
(ROTGTSP, Buddy Beep Beep, Last Laugh, Nightmare on Eerie Street, The Young the Twitchy to an extent, Send in the Clones, and NMOES)
Now I know that the reused establishing shots in TOD were probably a time/money saving thing, but what if they were just a symptom of the bleed between dimensions?
If the show had continued, I like to think there would have been an episode or an arc where Mitchell starts to act so much like Marshall that Stanley notices and has to find a way to turn him back into Mitchell.
Or this could all be bullshit and I’m just a sleep deprived loser.
You decide.
When we first meet Mitchell in episode one, he seems to be a generally well-adjusted kid. Just listening to his first line basically tells you all you need to know about him. He’s young, adorable and soft on the edges.He’s presented as the anti-Marshall. He’s lived in Eerie his whole life. He stumbles over his words. He sees weirdness (‘Maybe that’s why downtown has that weird glow at night’) but doesn’t register it. He jokes with Stanley, who he hangs out with by choice, rather than because he's the only kid in town who doesn't think he's a weirdo.
By the end of the series, Mitchell is presented very similarly to Marshall. He’s very serious (The Last Laugh and I’m Okay, You’re Really Weird especially paint him as lacking humour//Marshall being serious was the reason Dash was introduced of course), He’s driven to the point of risking injury to study weirdness (Buddy Beep Beep, Jackalope, Perfect, Nightmare on Eerie Street//Hole in the Head Gang, The Loyal Order of Corn), His relationship with his father is strained because of his weirdness hunting (pretty much every episode but especially Send In the Clones, Jackalope and Mr. Lucky//Marshall’s Theory of Believability). Even in the last episode, his haircut is a lot longer, closer to Marshall.
Stanley on the other hand basically becomes the Anti Simon. He confesses to being greedy (Mr. Lucky), focused on money (Revenge of the Goody Two Shoes People, Mr. Lucky, Jackalope), a little aggressive (Buddy Beep Beep) and generally his own character. Still a kid, but not like Simon who is generally considered the Moral Compass of Eerie Indiana.
But Mitzi, you beautiful woman, I hear you say, what if your theory?
Well, I’m not saying that the writers of TOD are that smart but I like to believe that Marshall didn’t quite fix the problem of the rip between dimensions. Mitchell’s Eerie was already weird, (there’s proof in pretty much every episode that the weird stuff has been happening for years, Marshall and Simon just forced Mitch and Stan to acknowledge it) so this injection of weird from Marshall’s dimension could only make things weirder, possibly, weirdest.
Mitchell canonically lives in the center of the center of weirdness for the entire planet, where they tried to close their end of the portal. (Standard Deviation) It makes sense he and his family are weirdness magnets, they live right next to the portal of weirdness. Mitchell, who lives in the center of weirdness, experiences more weirdness than Stanley and most of the time is tasked with fixing weirdness alone.
(ROTGTSP, Buddy Beep Beep, Last Laugh, Nightmare on Eerie Street, The Young the Twitchy to an extent, Send in the Clones, and NMOES)
Now I know that the reused establishing shots in TOD were probably a time/money saving thing, but what if they were just a symptom of the bleed between dimensions?
If the show had continued, I like to think there would have been an episode or an arc where Mitchell starts to act so much like Marshall that Stanley notices and has to find a way to turn him back into Mitchell.
Or this could all be bullshit and I’m just a sleep deprived loser.
You decide.
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Date: 2017-09-25 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-28 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-28 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-28 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-25 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-25 08:51 pm (UTC)Dang, now I kinda feel like investing the time to watch TOD.
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Date: 2017-09-26 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-28 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-28 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-28 09:03 pm (UTC)