Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about something else. ‘Ant-Man 3’ is due only in nine more days, so let us find a more mundane topic. Since this is my first entry for Feb 2023, let us talk about PJ Masks once more.
Now, you may be asking yourself: why? Because, I
answer, after my initial discussion of them, people have been calling me out
and explaining that PJ Masks are a fable; each – or almost each – episode has a
punchline or a moral that explains everything that happens, more or less. And
to this, I answer: you are correct… but mostly for the first two or so seasons,
and then it all goes wrong. Why?
Let us start from a distance: what is a fable? The
answer to this question may vary, but in the West, it is usually a short story
with a moral at the end. ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ is a typical fable, as is ‘The
Lion and the Mouse’. They, ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, ‘The Ant and the
Grasshopper’, ‘The City Mouse and the Country Mouse’, are all built along
similar lines: a short story, only a few paragraphs long, (on paper, in other
media this may be different), with a moral at the end.
From the characters’ point of view, the characters are
barely there: their depiction is minimalist and follows from fable to fable:
the fox is cunning, the lion – noble, the wolf – greedy and gluttonous, the
hare – cowardly, the cat – sly, the mouse – tricky but weak, the donkey –
stubborn, and so on. Conversely, they may not even have characteristics, or appear
only once or twice in all of the fables, (we are talking mostly Aesop’s fables,
for simplicity): i.e. the titular characters of ‘The Oak and the Reed’ fable
appear only in ‘their’ fable, and nowhere else.
However, in case of ‘PJ Masks’, the situation isn’t
like that of the oak and the reed – rather, the titular characters are the main
characters, as are their archenemies – Romeo, the Night Ninja, and Luna Girl.
Those half-a-dozen characters are the primary characters, and most of the ‘PJ
Masks’ episodes are about their interactions… so where do the fable elements
come in?
In the first seasons, they were obvious. For example, if
the moral was Slow and Steady Wins the Race,
or rather You Must make a systematic plan
to succeed, then the PJ Masks had to do exactly that – make a systematic
plan in order to defeat Romeo. Yes, part of that plan was to befriend Luna
Girl, however temporarily, but because the latter barely had any personality to
speak of, that was no problem, especially since at the end of the episode she
just leaves, without any hard feelings – no one cared hard enough about her,
especially the followers of canon… so, where did it go wrong?
When the show owners began to make the episodes more
complex. On one hand, they introduced new characters into the mix, such as the
wolfies. On the other, they tried to make the episodes more complex and less
fable-like, pardon the pun. Armadylan is a good example of that.
Armadylan was a hero/anti-hero, and the first of PJ
Masks’ allies, (Luna Girl is a special case). He was big, he was strong, and he
was easily angered. Throughout S2 (and 3, I think), PJ Masks did their best to
teach him the ‘right way’ of being a hero, until they succeeded… and Armadylan
became a much less recurring character… who seemed to have learned nothing… and
the PJ Masks don’t appear to be caring… Armadylan is stuck somewhere between
being a character and a prop… as characters in fables are.
No, seriously – on screen, the titular characters of a
fable, (say, ‘The Lion and the Mouse’), can come across in any way, but on
paper, the lion is noble but arrogant, (hubris), while the mouse is weak, but
helpful; they are stereotypes, clichés, little else. And ironically, for the
first seasons, for as long as the PJ Masks and their foes were stereotypes
themselves, the fable elements of their show worked. Both the PJ Masks and
their foes were little more than stereotypes, they were practically interchangeable
within their teams, and the main way as to how they differentiated from each
other were their depictions – physical depictions. Each of the PJ Masks has their
own unique abilities as do their enemies; the main difference here being that
the PJ Masks need to solve problems, and their enemies ARE problems, or rather –
part of them. The PJ Masks need to heroically solve them, and so they do…
…And then the creative team began to move away from
the fable format into the regular show one: the PJ Masks, their enemies and
allies began to stop being just clichés and began to be more full-rounded
characters…while sticking to their initial depictions. Just like any attempt of
trying to sit on two chairs at once, the result is a failure rather than a
success.
Look at Luna Girl: as a villain stereotype, (the bad
girl one), she worked without any questions or doubts. As a character she is all
over the place – she goes from being a foe to the PJ Masks, to an unnecessary
drag-along to an ally from an episode to an episode, from one season to
another, and-?
And it does not exactly work. The Western culture,
especially their mass media, have the concepts of ‘frenemy’ and ‘wild card’,
among others, and this may be who Luna Girl now is, but still, you would think
that sooner or later the PJ Masks’ temper would fray and they would ask Luna
Girl if she is with them or not – regardless of how long a rope is, it will
still end. However, this does not happen, as neither the PJ Masks nor Luna Girl
apparently care if Luna Girl is good or bad, if she is a friend or foe… and if
that is the case, then the PJ Masks themselves are less heroic and more
mercenary in their approach to other people… the Speed twins, (a couple of
gearheads), have helped them to defeat Luna Girl, Romeo and the Night Ninja,
and the heroic trio doesn’t even acknowledge them… Hell, they disappear from
the show after this… ‘PJ Masks’ the show treats its’ characters worse than PJ
Masks the characters treat their erstwhile allies and friends… They are no
longer fables, but neither are they proper characters – not yet. This is why I do
not like ‘PJ Masks’ and me don’t think that they are a good show – at least not
anymore, not at the moment. This may change in the future, but I do not hedge my
bets either…
Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!
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