If Scarlet Fever Were Composed of Scifi Characters - Part 2

Continuing with the Firefly trend...

Tyler Higgins - Wash

AQD: Wash is the pilot of Serenity and, because he's a laid-back and peaceful kind of guy, he's often overlooked when it comes to the Firefly's business. He would rather talk than fight, and that separates him from the continually rambunctious crew. He provides a voice of reason, however, and he often comes up with clever ways to get out of annoying situations. As the husband of Zoe, Wash constantly feels emasculated and yearns to be manlier but, as the show progresses, we discover what a brave and awe-inspiring man Wash truly is. We realize that, just as Wash is lucky for having a powerful and gorgeous wife, Zoe is lucky for having a determined and compassionate husband.

Comparison: Tyler's not married to Yvette, I get that. But I feel like Tyler has that same love in him. Whoever snags his heart will find a great source of support and devotion. Tyler's also a pretty reasonable, quiet guy, and he can sometimes be... overlooked... in rambunctious crowd meetings. But when you pay attention, you notice that Tyler is quirky, funny, loyal, and strong. I foresee Tyler doing great things in the future.

Lindsay Long - Kaylee

AQD: Kaylee's the ship engineer and, like Wash, she's not one for the violent and chaotic behavior of the rest of the crew. She's an incredibly sweet girl, but she's got more than enough backbone to stand her ground when she's offended or upset. One of the only female engineers ever to appear in the scifi world, Kaylee has an incredibly unique skill set, and she's stunningly good at it. She can walk you through the inner core of a spaceship with the patience and ease of a kindergarten teacher, but she never makes you feel foolish for knowing anything less than she does. She is a diehard optimist that's in love with being girly, but also totally comfortable being a grease-ridden crewman.

Comparison: Lindsay seems, at first, a sweet girl who can hit high notes and who wears lots of sparkly things. I'm not gonna lie, I get distracted by the sparkles quite often. She adores being girly and we love her for it. Hell, someone has to be, am I right? But Lindsay's cool, too; she'll play Pong and crack jokes with the rest of us. And fuck is she good at Pong. Even when she's top dog, though, Lindsay never makes you feel like less of a player, and she always encourages people to try harder.

Natalie Woods - River

AQD: Wow. This one'll be hard. River Tam is... probably the most unique person on the entire show. She's insanely intelligent, in fact I think her IQ is supposed to be somewhere in the 200s. River is so amazingly intelligent that she performs acts of "magic," like telling the future, simply by calculating the various probabilities involved in the scenario. But she's damaged. She went to this amazing school in which they're supposed to offer specialized curricula for brilliant children, but they actually treated her like a lab rat and literally messed around in her brain. She escaped by sending coded letters to her brother, Simon (he's also onboard), who used his status as doctor to sneak in and steal her away. He hid her in a crate, sedated, until he came aboard Serenity and the crew discovered her. So, that's her history. Told you this one would be hard. River, personality-wise, is a child. As everyone who knows someone smart knows, intelligence comes at a price. Many gifted children today are ADD, but many of them are autistic in some way. Although she knows more than everyone everywhere, River suffers from a combination of autism (not bad autism, though. It's more like a total lack of a filter combined with a child's morbid love of outlandishness) and fear of everything. She can't begin to process how horribly she was treated, and she often forgets that she left that "school."

River's also scary. She can tell you facts about yourself with absolute certainty. Oh, and she's a bit of a killing machine. Part of the treatment she got at the "school" involved making her deadly with just about any implement, but they hid it under "sleeper" style brainwashing. She's the most badass chick in the galaxy, and she's also the most innocent. She knows everything and nothing all at once. She's an enigma, but her life is an open book.

Comparison: Alright. This one's abstract as hell, especially because I did a shit job of explaining the character... but here goes. Like River, Natalie's this tiny little person and you think, "Well, she's harmless," but you're so, so wrong. Natalie is fierce and matter-of-fact about her opinions, and she won't hesitate to take you down a couple pegs when she feels it's necessary. Now Natalie and I aren't that close, so I'm sorry if I totally get this wrong... but I feel like there's a lot to Natalie that no one sees. While she's open about herself, she's also hiding a lot, and she's very good at it. You often know exactly how Natalie will act, but ask yourself, do you know why she acts that way? I'm not trying to pry into Natalie's life, here, but I do firmly believe that there's a lot more to Natalie than meets the eye.

If Scarlet Fever Were Composed of SciFi Characters-- Part ONE

Alright. No one get too offended-- everything is meant with love and positive energies. All of these characters are from Joss Whedon's TV show Firefly.

Alan George - Jayne Cobb

 A Quick Debriefing (AQD): Jayne Cobb is one of the veteran members onboard Serenity. Serenity is a spaceship in which the crew conduct illegal trade and general badassery. "Veteran" means that he's a crewman from the start of the show that's been working with the crew for a while. He's also my favorite character in Firefly. Anyway, Jayne's the "bad cop" in almost every scenario: he's intimidating and callous, the perfect combination for scaring someone into backing the hell off of his shit. That said, he softens up as the show progresses and we (viewers) realize that he's a huge teddy bear that keeps his trust and emotions under tight lock and key.

Comparison: Alan's a badass. He fucking swats bees out of the air and crushes them with his almighty fists of power. Bees, people. Jayne was the natural choice simply for that reason, but there's more. Alan's a teddy bear, too. Like Jayne, he tends to hide his teddy-beared-ness under a façade, but we at Scarlet Fever have come to appreciate the awesome, badass sweetheart that lays underneath that persona. Also, Alan would totally rock Jayne's hat.

Yvette Purser - Zoe Washburne

AQD: Zoe's first mate onboard Serenity. She is a veteran both in the literal and contextual sense. She served with the captain, Mal Reynolds, in the war against the Alliance, a sort of futuristic dictatorship. Watch the show to know more. Anyway. Though all of the female characters are strong, Zoe's strength defines her in a graceful yet powerful way. She is an incredibly down-to-earth, pragmatic character, and her quiet authority often makes her the most respected crewman on Serenity.

Comparison: They both have epic hair. :)

Yvette is also a quiet person, though her personality spills out of her like a tidal wave. She offers a patience and tolerance that is incredibly rare in SF's often chaotic rehearsals. Her laid-back approach to the group is like a balm to soothe our crazy, and we love her for it. Yvette, however, is not all cool cucumber. As a fashion design major, Yvette must work diligently and continuously. She works hard not only in her studies, but also in her extra-curriculars. Yvette is dedicated to her dream and she has both the ambition and ability to see that dream flower to reality. I think I speak for everyone when I say that her work ethic, both in and out of the rehearsal space, is inspiring.

Ryan Jenkins - Mal Reynolds

AQD: Mal is the captain of Serenity, as he will tell everyone who looks momentarily uncertain of the fact... or anything. Serenity is his pride and joy, and being captain of such a fine vessel is both a privilege and a responsibility. Mal is a funny character. He runs a tight ship, but he's a brilliantly cool guy as long as everyone is on task and remembers he's the captain. He's a kind-hearted individual that was forced to be violent in the war, and that's left obvious scars. He, like Jayne, operates close to the heart, though he cares strongly for those he lets in. He is merciful to a fault, but betray him once and you may not see tomorrow. After all, he's the captain.

Comparison: Ryan is the broskiest bro is brodom. He has male siblings across America questioning their validity of broness. In fact, he is so bro, he can sing a beautiful, nostalgic love song and play piano at the SAME TIME, and still be bro. But we all know Ryan. He's amazing in his adorable-ness. Anyone who has seen him interact with Erica (I may do an Erica one, as well), his girlfriend, has seen how sweet he is. That's not to infringe on his masculinity, though. Don't forget, Ryan is a spectacular specimen of brohood.

If Scarlet Fever Were Composed of Science Fiction Characters--- Prologue

Most disappointing post ever, I know. Sorry.

So, because I may have someone eventually read this who DOESN'T know Scarlet Fever: we're one of several A Capella groups at The Ohio State University. More importantly, we're a band of renegade besties with a kickass group name. The singing is cool, too. :)

Everyone (Yes, YOU ANONYMOUS READER THAT MAY BE IMAGINARY) knows I'm a science fiction geek. I live and breathe the stuff. So when my good friend Julie started making lists about Scarlet Fever members as [insert noun], I said, "I'MMA DO A SCIFI CHARACTERS ONE!"

Side note: Tonight is a night of all caps. You may have noticed. I'm feeling especially spaz-tastic. I flirted successfully for the first time in months... okay, two years. Shut up. Be happy for me. /endsidenote

Anyway, I'm sorry SF members that are learning WAY TOO MUCH about me, I wanted to preface my SciFi musings with some context.

I'm only using three fandoms, both for ease of layman knowledge and because the SciFi world is just too big. Those three fandoms are: Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Firefly. As the average nerd will note, these are three popular TV programs. I apologize to Alex in advance about the Doctor Who spoilers. I shall try to keep my analyses completely plotless, so I won't be ruining much.

So... read on :)

Greetings!

So, honestly, I've wanted to blog for a long time. Usually I just post some ultra-long status in Facebook (which no one reads) and hope that it will sate my desire for words. Alas, I have reached the point where statuses (statii?) just don't cut it: I've made a blog. This blog, as those of you with keen intellect might have already realized. So welcome! This blog may/will include: rambling, lists of varying nonsense, pictures that I like/strongly dislike, references to people to may not know, fangirl-esque musings, and rants about sociopoliticalism. That's not a word, but who cares?

Now the title of this blog seems, honestly, awkward. Why would you revel in ineptitude? Well, I've spent my entire life being a socially awkward girl (I may get around to writing the stories about my childhood and its impact on my personality... someday) and for most of my life I've hated it. I mean, really hated it, to the point of forced seclusion. In high school, I would sit in class and write "Don't speak. Don't speak," in the margins of my notes so hard that I'd rip the paper. Feel free to psychoanalyze me, I'd love to hear your findings. Anyway, back to the point, it took me a long long LONG time to accept that, no matter how hard I try, I'm just socially awkward. But, as I came to terms with myself, I realized that a LOT of people were socially awkward in some way or another. Some people stay quiet. Some people talk continuously. Some people say weird shit at inappropriate moments and embarrass everyone. Still more people ostracize others and themselves because they can't function well in a conversational environment. I'm all of the above, but that's okay. It's okay because I embrace that social awkwardness and I make it my own. I find ways to maneuver through conversations that downplay (read: NOT hide, nor mask) my awkwardness, or highlight it in a comical way.

You may be sitting there, reading this blog, saying, "Well, yeah, but that means you're overcoming the social awkwardness. You're not awkward, you're just... quirky, or something." Yes, I'm quirky. Everyone in my life knows I'm quirky. But that doesn't really cover it. I can't talk to guys I like (when I do, it's just... horrible. I always feel like hitting myself afterward), I plan conversation starters in advance, and I replay conflicts (and interject that perfect line I couldn't come up with DURING the conflict) all the time. In fact, I know I'll be laying in bed tonight, thinking about this blog post and what I should have changed. That's okay. The important part is that, though I may be damaged in some deep psychological way that Freud himself would find troubling, I revel in my differences and my ineptitude because they make me human. They make all of us human.

So, welcome to Socially Awkward Revelry. Leave your inhibitions and coolness at the door, and enjoy the show!