#either that or tumblr search is stupid again but whateverrrr

[bdslab]

Looking at all the Twitter archive stuff about Benny Breakiron from when I was reading & finished Peyo’s original run where I kept being all “oh he needs an adult he can trust” it really makes me reflect on the second run his son did and how it kinda… tries to address those points but just misses a lot of what made the original so charming actually. Which is strange as I hadn’t even really noticed it while reading them.

There’s a lot of the same “small boy helps people and nobody knows or believes his secret”, but he’s able to have smaller adventures. He’s not being actively roped into gang wars and assassination attempts by the adults in his life - it all happens more coincidentally. Vladlavodka just happens to be kidnapped and taken to an active coup zone, benny responds by fixing an American pilot’s plane to get a free ride and then jumping out of it when they start being fired at & the pilot wants to turn back. He makes the choice himself with no adult wanting to bring him into danger! The albums are all kinda like this, the adults don’t purposefully put a child in harms way, one of the big “criticisms” I had while reading the earlier albums.

I just wish they didn’t kill Madame Adolphine II off permanent style as a result of this. It’s a move that comes off as “we need to make Vladlavodka more responsible.” Honestly, he’s the one guy in the series who I feel it was an actual character trait that he was irresponsible. Dussiflard & Bodoni are both well meaning guys who got into difficult spots and Benny really helped them out. Vladlavodka is a guy who kept rebuilding his evil crime robot hoping it would work out this time & willingly brought a child to a gang war. He’s just- not a bright guy. He doesn’t think things through. He would rebuild the robot again.

And the other big one- nobody helping Benny when he asks for help. Take the cops for example- Benny just stops going to them in the second run. He also stops giving his really ramble explanation of events. Those were really, really endearing to me and gave him a lot of character. He’s a little boy! Bad things are happening so he asks for help when he can’t handle it himself, but he’s young so he’s not sure what the important details are. So he tells everything as fast as he can. It really feels like he stops asking for help because they don’t want to show children being ignored, but it doesn’t even address the issue of him being ignored? It just kind of slaps a bandaid on the problem. “He’s not going to get help so don’t write that scene” energy.

Personally as much as I want to see him get help from some adults in his life, I’d rather he still ask than be ignored. Lots of kids are ignored it makes sense and adds to the series as a whole. He is a child, people think he’s playing pretend because his stories are outlandish, even if he’s been proven right in the past. Sure I’d like if there was an album where he is able to confide in someone who believes him and tries to help (but maybe ultimately fails because they aren’t super human) just to address that “hey there is a reason to ask for help,” but I don’t think ignoring the issue helps at all.

Honestly I’m not even sure my criticisms were “problems” with the series. They were parts of the series that made me feel stronger emotions, but I think that was a good thing! Me saying “we need to get Benny some trustworthy adults” wasn’t meant to literally change that part of the series- I think the series was more impactful that way.

Look I like the stories Peyo’s son wrote, they’re super fun! I think Églantine especially is one that would never have been done by Peyo due to how low stakes it is and I adore her. But Hold Up on Screen was pretty much the only album that moved me in a way similar to the early stories, & that was mostly because they killed off Madame Adolphine II. I wouldn’t even say they’re necessarily worse than the original stories- just that it feels like they tried to sanitize it and scrubbed away bits of what made the original charming.

#Twitter archive #technically not really this is a new post #but it’s in the same vein so whatever #thought I made this post already but couldn’t find it in a few quick searches so I guess not? #either that or tumblr search is stupid again but whateverrrr #if you’ve already seen a similar post to this on the blog my bad I really did try to check #long post