A Station Eight Fan Web Site

Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Search Ask Greg

Search:
Search type:

Displaying 1 record.


Bookmark Link

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

one last question:
In response to my appreciative ramble on your portrayal of Flash Thompson in the cartoon you answered that you had specific ideas about when and why Flash stopped liking Peter and being friends but you were on the fence about revealing them. Similarly on when he transitioned to actually tormenting Peter and whether all this took place before or after Peter’s parents’ deaths. If you have come off the fence in whole or in part I’d love to hear more.

You also said that Flash’s well timed hauling of Peter over the coals for his bad treatment of others was the reason he was went to the hospital and not to visit Aunt May. (Though I suppose he may have visited as well.) If despite all the animosity he believes he justly holds towards Peter he still came and did that, it speaks all the more highly of him. Also kudos to the animators for giving him that annoyed look that fits very well with: ‘I have to be doing this right thing here, but you really don’t deserve it’.

Greg responds...

Hmmm...

Okay. Here's my thinking. Peter and Flash were best friends at age @4. Then Peter's parents died. Flash's dad was a soldier and then a cop (both dangerous jobs). Young Flash couldn't deal with being that close to death. He didn't want to play with Peter anymore. And in his own YOUNG mind he had to find a way to justify/rationalize his decision that wasn't about his fears. So he convinced himself that Peter was a stuck-up egghead (or somesuch) who deserved to be dumped as a friend.

By the time WE meet Flash and Peter at the beginning of their junior year of high school, Flash's mindset is fairly well entrenched and the original reason for it is lost to him. Somewhere deep down, he knows better and given enough time and episodes we would have eventually dealt with this objectively in the series. Not to be, I'm afraid...

Response recorded on August 03, 2010