The Peculiar Olympians: Exedore Formo

“The Peculiar Olympians” is a series of blog posts about my most favourite fictional characters. They are each here for some combination of sympathy, empathy, inspiration, humour, quality, staying power, and/or significance to my relationship with fandom. These are not all the characters that I like, but they are the ones that have stood out to me the most. The list is also alphabetical and nothing more.

Like many nerds, I’ve fallen prey to the appeal of the “nerd surrogate”: a character with nerdy traits who puts them to high-ranked and significant use in a speculative fiction setting. Unlike many, I one of mine in the character of Exedore Formo.

Exedore Formo (also written as “Exsedol Folmo” or “Exedol” or just “Exedore”) is a rare non-combatant member of the Zentradi, an artificially-engineered race of giants created for the sole purpose of waging their creators’ war. It is not a proper “warrior culture”, but one without ceremony, ethos, or reward.

Exedore serves underneath his fleet commander in a multi-faceted role that includes aspects of historian, archivist, and tactician. He has a prim, intelligent personality, but is hardly incapable of emotion. In some continuities, his odd appearance is attributed to deformity.

Though Zentradi were warned by their now-absent creators to avoid contact with the smaller humanoids, their contact with humanity lead to an unprecedented upheaval. Fuelled by some male grunts’ infatuation with the human culture they had stumbled upon, a cultural revolution began in which the Zentradi betrayed their fleet leader to side with humanity.

Partially this was an act of preservation, as they were scheduled to die by being “contaminated”, but it is clear that contact with humanity appealed to something fundamental in the Zentradi they had been denied. (Usually) reduced to human size, Exedore continues to play a key role in the human military following these events.

Exedore is a creature of multiple portrayals and continuities, appearing originally in the anime Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, and then in the continuity for Robotech, in which SDFM and two other anime were redubbed to be a three-part series in the same continuity. Both of these franchises spun off into their own material, with very different treatments of Exedore.

Regardless, the best versions of Exedore are ones that represent a character with moments of both poignancy and comic relief, serving the basic role of “geek on the bridge” but with more personality than expected. The ideal Exedore also develops an increasing emotional range as time goes on, as a smaller aspect of the Zentradi revolution.

This portrayal tapped into some fundamental desire of mine, to break free of my own constraints and fulfill my ambitions, not to mention my general love of stories in which characters cast off a repressive society. At the same time, I embrace Exedore’s comical aspects, finding him an endearing figure, an example of “ugly cute”, and liking his funny-looking character design. 

Unfortunately, if we were to be specific, no one portrayal of Exedore involves all this. The ones that truly represent what I like best about the character appear in the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross, and its dubbed counterpart Robotech: The Macross Saga. Only the novel and comic adaptations of the aborted sequel Robotech II: The Sentinels portray Exedore’s later character development in a satisfying way, despite these books being obscure works that are riddled with many other problems.

The most known portrayal of Exedore today is his Macross-franchise version that is completely retconned into a new form and characterization, with no real explanation in- or out-of-universe--the end result is that the character loses a lot of his quirkiness and personality, and doesn’t look as interesting. It’s a cringe-worthy thing to think about, and one that strongly tests my desire to respect the creators. I wrestle with the surprise that this would happen, and the knowledge that there are no real answers, but also that the writers have the freedom to do whatever they want with the characters. Still, I know what I prefer.

The Peculiar Olympians: Dream

“The Peculiar Olympians” is a series of blog posts about my most favourite fictional characters. They are each here for some combination of sympathy, empathy, inspiration, humour, quality, staying power, and/or significance to my relationship with fandom. These are not all the characters that I like, but they are the ones that have stood out to me the most. The list is also alphabetical and nothing more.

In some cases, I pick a character for this list even when I find their series mediocre. In other cases, the choice is as much about the series as the character. Such is the case with the title character of Neil Gaiman’s. The Sandman. The Sandman is my favourite comic series (including manga, webcomics, and newspaper strips), because it resonates with me deeply as a writer and a storyteller. It is also what reminded me that western comics could be as great as manga.

Referred to as “conceptual entities” and “manifestations of primal truth”, the Endless are seven sibling beings who stand for various aspects of the living condition. Though technically not gods, they are sometimes worshipped as such, and may interact with mortals as well as with various supernatural entities.

Dream is the third oldest and part of the "Elder Three", with his older siblings being Destiny and Death, and his younger Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium, all of whom are known by other names depending on the language or culture they are interacting with. Also called Morpheus, Onieros, Kai'ckul, Lord Shaper, and Prince of Stories, he stands for dreams, nightmares, the imagination, and the act of artistic creation. His realm is The Dreaming, an intricate and dangerous world populated by fanciful beings and presided over by Dream's castle.

Though he can appear as virtually anything, the aspect of Dream seen most often in the series is a tall, gaunt man with chalk-white skin, a wild mane of black hair, and abstract black holes  for eyes (in which colour may flicker), who favours dark clothing of whatever era. This Dream initially appears as proud, stoic, and ruthless, though also devoted and thorough in his duties. He comes to learn more “humanity” slowly, even as he denies this change.

Dream might be less popular than his sister, Death, and not play a major role in every issue, but his is a felt presence, and without him I wouldn’t love the series as much. He is fascinating: what drove this callous but stoic character to orchestrate an elaborate suicide, if that was indeed what happened? Is it true that supernatural beings, unlike men, cannot change, and so must be made into new stories instead?

Naturally I mean the character of the “black” Dream. The “white” Dream, Daniel, is a character that I still like, but he is seen so briefly and more exists to prove a point (perhaps answering the questions I asked above), than to be a character in his own right.

On a final quirky note, since Dream's realm is populated by creatures from myth and legend, it might be fair to infer that Dream rules over fictional characters as well, making him king and father of all the characters on this list. Furthermore, as a symbol of storytellers, of course I feel some natural affinity towards the character. I want to be a writer, and even if I’m not one yet, I’m engaged with writing and literature.

The Peculiar Olympians: Daria Morgendorffer

“The Peculiar Olympians” is a series of blog posts about my most favourite fictional characters. They are each here for some combination of sympathy, empathy, inspiration, humour, quality, staying power, and/or significance to my relationship with fandom. These are not all the characters that I like, but they are the ones that have stood out to me the most. The list is also alphabetical and nothing more.

Putting Daria on this list is a total cliché. Yes, I’m a brainy female social outcast who wears glasses, says sarcastic things, and is often frustrated with mainstream culture, there you go. Daria is still a combination of the person I was in high school, and the person I wish I was in high school. And long past that period, when America’s obsession with high school remains baffling, Daria is still an icon of mine.

 It’s not entirely accurate to call her a source of inspiration, since she has a lot of flaws. Yet that is part of Daria’s charm; viewing the series as a grown woman introduces that new layer of appeal, namely that she is and has always been a well-crafted character that any kind of writer can appreciate.

Daria lives in the America you know, only dumber. Originally a foil to Beavis and Butt-head (made to provide an intelligent and poised female student in contrast to the two male dumbasses), her family moved to Lawndale, as she moved into her own spinoff.

In between dealing with the stupidity of life, Daria enjoys books, the perpetually-airing TV show Sick Sad World, and the company of her best friend Jane Lane, who had similar sensibilities but is the artistic instead of literary type.

As college grows nearer, Daria finds her preconceptions and habits challenged through the introduction of Jane's boyfriend Tom Sloane, who would also become Daria's boyfriend after a mess. Tom led Daria to challenge her attitudes and explore the negative aspects of them, but she mostly remained the same character.

The series finally saw a DVD re-release in 2010, due to years of licensing hell over the many pop songs used as incidental music. In the end, this music was almost entirely removed. Like most, I would rather it kept the original music, but the series was so important to me that I was not going to resort to bootlegs for the rest of my life.

During the intial wave of reviews following the DVD release, there were a few people coming out of the woodwork to indulge in trite moralizing against Daria-the-character. They seemed to miss the point, however: Daria was never an invincible character or mere wish fulfillment for those who hated the mainstream culture of the 1990s. Instead, she was a multi-faceted, multi-layered character who could be wrong, or could be hurtful, but also not to the extent of condemning female nonconformity and independence. This is true of the early seasons, and in fact I think the later seasons sometimes try too hard to put Daria in the wrong.

No matter what else, there is still a value, a rightness to Daria. Characters should not be vehicles to teach lessons, of course, but it’s still wonderful to see a smart female character as a lead, especially when she isn’t put on a pedestal. In a culture where women are encouraged to downplay their brains and avoid speaking their minds, it’s nice to have an alternative.

The Peculiar Olympians: Andromeda Shun

 “The Peculiar Olympians” is a series of blog posts about my most favourite fictional characters. They are each here for some combination of sympathy, empathy, inspiration, humour, quality, staying power, and/or significance to my relationship with fandom. These are not all the characters that I like, but they are the ones that have stood out to me the most. The list is also alphabetical and nothing more.

For a long time now, I’ve been fond of the anime character design known as the bishounen (“beautiful boy”). There is no overall bishounen character type to go along with this appearance, but at best, perhaps by accident, certain bishounen characters show that male characters can be strong without being traditionally “manly”. It’s one of the few things I’ll still admit that anime and manga has over western works.

If my list of favourite fictional characters is meant to represent aspects of my fandom experience, then a bishounen character was a must for it. I decided easily on Andromeda Shun, from the manga Saint Seiya (know in various countries as Knights of the Zodiac). The character and premise goes a little something like this:

Since the days of myth the Greek goddess Athena has been surrounded by warriors who defended her and upheld the cause of justice in her name. Called "Saints”, they all wear Cloths, supernatural suits of armour that form a figure representing a constellation when at rest. There is a Saint for each constellation, and they are ranked Bronze, Silver, or Gold, as well as other side variants depending on whether it’s the manga or anime.

The continuing incarnation of Athena in mortal flesh ensures that Saints exist clandestinely in the modern day. The Bronze Saint Andromeda Shun is one of these modern Saints, an orphan who trained at the Grande Foundation with ninety-nine other potential Saints who would be sent off to remote locations for further instruction from a new teacher.

Shun's destination was Andromeda Island, a place of extreme temperatures off the coast of Ethiopia. Shun was trained by Silver Saint Cepheus Didaros. Shun's older brother became Bronze Saint Phoenix Ikki.
I didn’t choose Shun to represent my interest in bishounen characters primarily for his looks, as in the manga he’s drawn flatly, and in the anime his initial colour scheme is a clashing mess of green and pink--though in both cases he’s not exactly hard on the eyes. But it’s more because Shun represents the apex of “not manly, but strong”.

In my opinion, the most inspiring heroes are those who have to overcome something within themselves, in addition to their external foes. It’s a tricky thing to make a character’s pain convincing but not grating enough, so that the audience will not be inclined to wait for his rebirth, but Shun achieves it. For those not wiling to dismiss him, he proves to be very heroic. Even though he does not like to fight, he will stand and survive and make sure that others do the same.

However, the idea that Shun always needs Ikki to save him has become a meme of sorts in the series’ tiny English-speaking fandom. In reading the manga myself, I have not seen Shun save Ikki enough times for it to be approach meme status. I don’t know if my reading the manga instead of watching the anime makes a difference, but I just want to be clear that it’s manga-Shun that I base my study on, and that in that case, he very much holds his own.