What is a friendship—as presented by cartoon characters
SO yesterday in an attempt to unwind and slowly cool down my boiling over and emotionally volatile center, I watched some Tron: Uprising and Motorcity with Hannah. We saved Motorcity for last and we finished up with Ride of the Fantasy Vans before I finally collapsed due to sheer exhaustion. The whole time I was basically just smiling at the perfect friendship that exists between Mike and Chuck but since I was basically inebriated (half due to sleep deprivation, the other half due to too much social interaction burning me out), I couldn’t really put it into words at the time.
But really, it just goes to show how great a show this is, with amazing characterization that goes above and beyond what you might expect from just glancing at it. So the title can also be changed to, What is friendship and amazing characterization.
There’s a point right in the beginning, after Chuck’s showed the Burners around Raymanthia. At the same time, he and Mike both say, “We should split up.” This shows that, despite his concerns voiced later on in the episode, Chuck really can think like a leader. What makes Mike a leader besides his fighting prowess, blatant self-sacrifice, and general concern for not just all of his friends, but all of Motorcity, is that he has the sort of strategic mind to figure out how to divvy people up to get shit done. In that small second where they both say the same command, you see that although Chuck might be relegated to riding shotgun and may not be able to hold his own as well as Mike can in a fight, he thinks along the same lines. Whether it’s Mike’s influence or not, Chuck shows that he’s totally got the capability to lead.
As for the FRIENDSHIP aspect—Mike absolutely is one of the most humble characters I’ve seen, ever, and it’s not a trait that’s shoved in our faces. That’s amazing. So many times humility is toted around as being this ~amazing thing~ that this character ~needs to be appreciated for~, but for Mike, it’ s just so second nature that he doesn’t need any patting on the back. So when Darkslayer gives him that look of “who do you think you are, it’s Chuck’s call on this,” Mike has no problem just turning to his best bud and saying, “Hey, my bad, what do you think we should do?” If, for some strange reason later on, Mike’s hubris is made apparent, then the point still stands that when it comes to his best friend, he’s got no trouble at all stepping down and hearing him out. (This also applies to all the Burners—in Going Dutch, you see that no matter what, he has no problem hearing out Dutch’s problems and letting him take time off. Good Leader right there. Aware of the traits and hobbies and interests of all his bros and not letting them get burnt out in doing this voluntary thing of being a Burner.)
(this kind of turns into an essay, whoops, so the rest is under the cut!)
