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Posted by jublke on 30-05-2012 at 16:00:
Jason & Chief Anderson
I've been wandering around Gatchfanfic and a question popped into my head. How much of the antagonism between Jason and Chief Anderson is canon and how much is fanon? I'd appreciate your thoughts. Personally, I've always thought that underneath it all, Jason drives Anderson crazy because he reminds him of himself at that age.
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Posted by amethyst on 30-05-2012 at 16:20:
I think the seeds are definitely set in Canon, but I think it is exaggerated in fanon and I think the root of it is undetermined in canon, but is a great thing to explore in fanfiction.
I'm trying to think of specific episodes, but am currently drawing a blank.
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Perspective Alters Reality
Posted by Daniella T on 30-05-2012 at 18:33:
There is some antagonism between Jason and Anderson in "The awsome ray force", and then between Jason and the world at large in "The fearsome Armadillo", "Strike at Spectra" and the one with Donald Wade. Although these are not exactly indications of antagonisms with Anderson only, Jason is certainly being antagonistic against everyone!
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Posted by amethyst on 30-05-2012 at 21:06:
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No but I think they do show that Anderson is less patient with Jason when he is in a mood than he is with the others, assuming the worst of Jason, a la "The Awesome Ray Force", but when Mark steps over the line in "Raid of the Red Scorpion" the Chief lets him know he is displeased, but not with the same impatience that he does with Jason.
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Perspective Alters Reality
Posted by clouddancer on 30-05-2012 at 21:25:
Another thought .... how much of that perceived impatience is due to Zark and Zark's negative "opinion" of Jason.
Zark keeps telling us how much of an arrogant "hot head" Jason is, so how much of the antagonism towards the Chief (and others) is also filtered or pointed out to us by Zark, to continue giving us a negative feeling about him.
Personally I have never thought of Jason and the Chief as being especially antagonistic towards each other, but then some how in my AU I seem to have missed (forgotten) a lot of things that others noticed.
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Posted by ChrisW on 30-05-2012 at 21:55:
Well, Zark might be picking up on the Chief's vibe. In general, I find the Chief to be cold compared to Nambu (not that Nambu's all warm, fuzzy kittens).
I think we like to play it up in part because it makes for good drama. 
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Posted by Becky Rock on 31-05-2012 at 01:08:
I've got to go look, but when Anderson jumps Jason's case in 'The Awesome Ray Force', Jason mentions he wouldn't beieve him anyway, or he nevers believes him or something like that. That was my first sign of a real problem between them.
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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 31-05-2012 at 03:13:
The bowdlerizers at BotP had a character with a (well-deserved) chip on his shoulder and a love of big red buttons to blow things up. Couldn't have that: it might traumatize the kiddies.
So they turned G2 into what TV Tropes calls 'The Complainer.' And 'The Complainer is Always Wrong.' Like many attempts, this didn't always work -- which is why Jason sometimes seems to have the clearest head in the team. But they stuck with it, even when they could have softened Anderson's reactions.
(Remember, these were the people who decided to transform a 10-year-old who acted his age into an artificial life-form. They apparently thought G4 was a bad role model.)
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Posted by ChrisW on 31-05-2012 at 03:19:
I always enjoy your insights on this stuff, UW.
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Posted by amethyst on 31-05-2012 at 05:35:
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Actually, that is open to interpretation. Since he was "grown from a single embryonic cell" suggests that he has human DNA and can be something as "futuristic" as a test-tube baby incubated in an artificial womb or maybe even a clone. However, his speech does suggest some sort of android.
Unlike the UK comic that has officially made him a robot or android of some sort, I prefer to think of Keyop as one of the former. Perhaps his speech impediment could even be attributed to the way he was gestated, if it was in a laboratory environment he quite likely heard machine noises and maybe even synthesized voices. If this kept up through his first few years after "birth" it would affect his sound house and speech. Somehow, I see Galaxy Security as being more interested in his technical and fighting skills and unwilling to spend the time and money for the speech therapy to correct that.
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Posted by ChrisW on 31-05-2012 at 05:39:
But doesn't Anderson at one point start to explain that "Keyop isn't a child"?
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Posted by Transmute Jun on 31-05-2012 at 14:12:
It's definitely made 100% clear in canon that Keyop was grown from an embryo in a lab. If you check out Jason's page about Keyop, you'll see this interesting information:
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Meanwhile, Jason's page on Jason doesn't specifically mention antagonism with the Chief, but does mention many instances where he is at odds with others on the Team.
http://www.battleoftheplanets.net/jason.html
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Posted by ElectricWhite on 01-06-2012 at 01:09:
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I know this is a bit off-topic, but (when my classmates and I were kids), we didn't believe Keyop was 10 years old -- we were sure he was the same age as the others. We thought that whatever lab quirk gave him the vocal tics must have stunted his growth. I'm not sure where we got that idea...maybe we just thought it out more than Sandy Frank would have expected.
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Posted by ElectricWhite on 01-06-2012 at 01:20:
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Warning: the following may cause lit class flashbacks!
You know, there's something I hadn't considered before: is Zark simply a device to fill in narration and move the plot along when necessary -- as the chorus in an ancient Greek play -- or are we seeing the events through his eyes? If it's the latter, do we have a reliable narrator, or are we getting a story that's strongly colored (or tainted) by his opinions and biases?
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“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them." --Ray Bradbury
Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 01-06-2012 at 01:24:
Jinpei was 10. I have no idea how old Keyop was supposed to be, but his verbal peculiarities apparently were to cover the fact that the original G4 was child who teased his 'sister', spoke (and acted) without thinking, resented being the youngest on the team, and generally acted like -- duh! -- a child. They couldn't edit him into a well-behaved little boy who ate his vegetables, went to bed when told, and didn't disobey (just as they couldn't edit G1 into a sterling paragon of desired behavior).
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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features
Posted by Transmute Jun on 01-06-2012 at 14:06:
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There are arguments for it both ways. I believe it was Barrdwing who suggested that Zark had (in his spare time) narrated and self-inserted himself into 85 mission logs and then had promptly lost them into another dimension.
That would fit in well with your theory...
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Posted by lborgia88 on 02-06-2012 at 03:38:
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Ah, "unreliable narrator" does make for fun literary speculation!
And in the case of Zark, he does consistently break the fourth wall, speaking directly to viewers -at the end of "The Sky is Falling Part I" he even says “And I hope you’ll stick with me and be back for the next episode to cheer G-Force on to victory in this battle against Spectra’s doomsday machine!†That certainly can be taken as evidence that what we're seeing has all been "filtered" through Zark. And in a very real sense, it has, as anyone who's seen Gatchaman knows that all those destroyed planes and cities weren't piloted by robots or completely evacuated before the attack. Gatchaman aside, though, in this age of "reality TV" I could find it strangely plausible that Zark (and therefore "Battle of the Planets" itself) could be a big Public Relations device for the Federation, intended to glamorize the heroism of G-Force and also show glimpses into their lives (or so we're led to believe), in order to keep the population (in this case, targeting the young in particular) of the Federation optimistic and supportive of the expenses incurred and resources drained by the continuing conflict with Spectra.
Posted by ChrisW on 02-06-2012 at 04:03:
lborgia: I picture the Gatch team watching the show and alternately gagging or laughing hysterically at one another when their "counterparts" say something totally out of line with reality.
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Posted by Becky Rock on 03-06-2012 at 00:02:
That would be a helluva 'reality' show, with Zark as the narrator, but they'd have to curtail Zark's opinions of the members of G-Force. Couldn't have the audience thinking Jason really is dangerously impulsive or was really after Mark's job.
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Posted by jublke on 03-06-2012 at 12:16:
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Well, maybe it's not a reality show for Earthlings, Becky. Maybe Zark is really a Spectran TV star and a Spectran production company is using leaked footage to cobble together the episodes ...
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