Odyssey's Hospitalize the Heroes Policy
By Tianlet
|
April 1, 2003
Odyssey has a
policy for dealing with heroes—well, people that help out in a crisis.
Think about it: in both of the major AIO sagas (not counting
APPLESAUCE) a major character appears out of nowhere to help Odyssey shake
off the perpetrators of evil. Shortly
thereafter, this hero disappears.
For lack of a
more technical term, I call this the Hospitalize the Heroes policy.
This policy consists of four simple steps.
-
Step 1.
Have hero invent a plan which will save the world, but result in his
own demise.
-
Step 2.
Have hero carry out this plan and sustain extensive injury.
-
Step 3.
Deposit hero in hospital.
-
Step 4.
Dump hero.
The
steps are very familiar to every avid Odyssey fan.
So far they have occurred twice, in both major sagas, as I said.
The first time Richard Maxwell arrived from Chicago, having tracked
Dr. Regis Blackgaard to Odyssey.
After helping
Eugene hack into Dr. Blackgaard's computer databanks, he determined to
meet the nemesis of Odyssey face to face.
Unfortunately,
this meeting resulted in an attempted assassination of Richard and his
fall down a steep incline.
Richard was
found soon afterward, and was taken to a hospital.
Apparently that hospital became his permanent residence, because we
have not heard from him since.
Strange
parallels can be found in the story of Cal Jordan.
Cal arrived in Odyssey—well, actually I'm not sure how he
arrived, because I was boycotting Odyssey at the time.
Anyway, Cal arrived in town and remained in town.
As Novacom
became more powerful, he became more desperate.
Finally,
he climbed the Novacom transmission tower single-handedly; or actually,
double-handedly, and really he would have had to use his feet, too.
Anyway, he climbed the Novacom tower.
In his
subsequent fall from the tower, Cal was knocked unconscious and sustained
some serious injuries. Our
last sight of him was in a hospital bed, with Tom Riley visiting him.
In fact, that
last comment is interesting. Incidentally,
Tom Riley also visited Richard Maxwell just before that character's
disappearance. This brings me
to a startling surmise: is
Tom Riley a gentle apple-farmer as we had all believed or is he really an
evil fiend, stalking the hospital halls to make off with favorite
characters?
You know, this
could be the major breakthrough of the new season!
I can see the headlines now:
TOM
RILEY INVOLVED IN DEVIOUS PLOT:
Former
Mayor Linked to Mysterious Abductions.
Stranger things have been known to happen,
folks. If you recall, life has not yet settled down after the Novacom
fiasco. Is Tom the finest example of the upstanding citizens of Odyssey?
Or—not?
Back to Articles
|
