Wilt

[jekylljuice]

Originally Posted by Vampyre

For some odd reason, I can't really picture there being much tension between Larry and Wilt actually. If you scrape off Larry's competitive side, then I don't think he's too bad a bloke. I mean TECHNICALLY him sitting on Wilt's arm WAS an accident; He didn't know Jordan was there in the first place nor did he know Wilt was pushing him out the way until he landed on his arm. Larry seems like the kind of guy who would get Wilt in a friendly head lock and give him a nuggie... I dunno, I can see them acting kind of... brotherly toward one another.

Well, given that Wilt and Foul Larry have the same basic interest (ie: basketball), I could see them being great pals under better circumstances. That Larry came around at the end of GWH was obviously intended to show that he had some good in him, and the actions which led to Wilt's being mutilated were, as you said, an accident. It's just that Larry was always willing to play so rough and had scant regard for the rules of the game, and even though he was moved by Wilt's reunion with Jordan, he never actually seemed to show any direct remorse for the way his actions had affected Wilt in the past (that's not to say that it didn't happen offscreen, but still), so I could still see where at least a little tension might come in. But then, as FailedShapeshifter says, Wilt's very forgiving, or at least manages to suppress a lot of his resentment. I personally think that Larry needs to work on his conduct on the basketball court if he's ever going to be a respectable opponent.

Originally Posted by pitbulllady

Fictional or not, I don't see why the issues of human psychology would NOT apply to Wilt, since they sure seem to apply quite well to the other characters on the show! Wilt, as well as the other IF's, were, after all, created by HUMANS, and intergrate themselves into human culture, and definately appear to suffer from all the emotional problems that can afflict us. Wilt is probably even moreso to have to go through all the same process of healing, that "it's gonna get worse before it gets better" phase, because he's more intelligent and complex, more like an adult human, than most of his fellow IF's, so his emotional issues are likely to be more complex, too. He's had this burden of guilt and pain bottled up inside him for 30 years, and like you said, there's no telling what else he's been through that we don't know about, and he's not just going to become all well and better overnight.

pitbulllady

Mmm…what I was getting at had less to do with Wilt’s status as a non-human but more the fact that which ever direction his character development ultimately depends upon the will of the writers, and there’s always the chance that it might not necessarily reflect exactly how a real person in his situation would behave. But don’t mind that statement – naturally, I’m just hedging my bets, since the writers have done a marvellous job thus far at portraying his anxiety disorders in a realistic and believable manner. It’s one of the chief things that I’ve always appreciated about Foster’s, and one of the foremost reasons why I wouldn’t want his personality to undergo too significant a transformation. There are far too many “adult” programmes out there which, whenever they want to establish a character as neurotic, will usually portray them as being very flamboyant and in-your-face about their anxieties and compulsions. Falling into that category myself I find this pretty irritating, particularly whenever specific disorders are assigned to them which their behaviours in no striking way match. Such portrayals only distort the public’s perceptions of such conditions, leading to a barrage of clinomorphisms and misconceptions. I can’t tell you how much that gets my hackles up. A lot of people miss the point of what it is to really be neurotic. It isn’t something cute, amusing and charmingly eccentric, and the majority people who have it wouldn’t dare to exhibit or even mention most of their problems in front of others because, in contrast to most psychotic disorders, you know damn well how irrational your thoughts and actions are, and that knowledge in itself is just an added layer of your anguish.

I don’t have much patience for the whole “cartoons are for kids only” standpoint, but nonetheless, Wilt was a character I was initially very surprised to find in a “kids” show on Cartoon Network. It took me a few episodes to completely cotton onto his anxious disposition, but when I did I thought it was magnificently done - most older viewers could probably pick up on his troubles and insecurities, but there is, for the most part, something pleasingly subtle about them. Other characters don’t really seem to notice, Wilt himself never makes much of an issue of them, and he’s constantly striving to keep his thoughts and feelings on sensitive matters concealed, which is a far more accurate and relatable portrayal of neurosis than you could find in most adult-orientated fare, for the reasons outlined above. His case also has the potential to illustrate to viewers to all ages that, whatever notions they might have about mental health issues, most people affected by them are perfectly ordinary individuals who suffer in silence. The Foster's writers have already shown that they have far more insight and sensitivity than a lot of other film and TV writers, and I'm sure they'll remain true and consistent to that.

Sorry for the long post, but when I really get going about this sort of thing I find it hard to stop.