malsimon in every episode of firefly, part 1: serenity
firefly the show ships mal and simon from the get go, and here’s why. (long winded analysis ahead)
when simon is first introduced, its through a stare off with MAL, who is immediately flustered by him. it’s clear from their first conversations and interactions that mal and simon don’t like each other, but it’s in this kinda weird way, right? they have immediate tension and mistrust on both sides, and when it comes to the confrontation when river is revealed, mal is delighted to have a reason to explain his perception of simon (pompous, privileged, holier than thou) justified as being something duplicitous. he IMMEDIATELY suspects simon and seeks him out first. course he’s wrong, and this leaves him even more confused and angry, causing him to physically lash out at simon. no doubt he is validly angry on kaylee’s behalf, but the countless lingering close ups after they speak seem to indicate something else is going on—simon gets to mal. mal has been cool and collected this whole episode until simon arrives, and suddenly he’s punching strangers and threatening to throw simon and river into space. like, damn we get it! he’s hot!
when he walks in on simon and inara his reaction is INSANE, like this bisexual chaosmonger has no idea what to do with himself in this situation. who is he jealous of? who is he angry at? the answer is yes!! to it all!!
“you’ll ruin her too you know.” such a charged line 😭
a substantial chunk of the episode is dedicated exclusively to Simon!Mal scenes, more than with his primary love interest. in fact, the way the show frames simon is literally as if he was a love interest, simon and inara have similar chemistry with mal, and mal’s only truly emotion-driven reactions in the episode are with them (and kaylee, but that’s obviously from a older-brother type place) which could mean nothing.
by the end of the pilot, mal is asking simon to stay on serenity despite everything that happened and he says “you ain’t weak” (which could mean NOTHING???) literally the final scene is the two of them alone i can’t make this shit up
“are you always this sentimental?” this is literally a flirtatious line … simon i know what you are
Craig Tucker Character Analysis: Canon Overview, Pt. 1
So, this guy right here is pretty popular, both as a fictional 4th grade student at South Park Elementary, and as a phenomenon in the South Park fandom onto whom masculine behavioral and aesthetic ideals are projected wildly. I wanted to dig into the character because it’s honestly fascinating that this fictional little space dweeb has been some kind of teen heartthrob for like 20 years. This long ass post is part 1 of my analysis of his character in the series, but it’s largely setting the stage for an analysis of fanon Craig as I’m interested in comparing the evolution of his canon characterization to his fandom reception over the years.
Part 1 here examines Craig’s initial role in the series as a troublemaker and his dynamic with Butters as playground law enforcers in the early seasons, and there will likely be 2-3 parts total for canon (part 2 has now been posted here). Hopefully, by breaking it up, people can more easily find parts they’re interested in (for instance, I’ve seen recent renewed interest in Craig and Butters as schoolyard bullies together) and nobody will think I’m all that mentally ill for dedicating so many words to this fictional gay autistic asshole. Here we go!
Craig Tucker: Troublemaker
Early on, Craig is introduced as a character with behavioral issues. In “Rainforest Shmainforest” (S03E01), Craig’s speaking debut, Mackey reveals Craig is sent to his office every day for misbehavior. Craig’s shtick in the early seasons is flipping people off and being shown waiting outside Mr. Mackey’s office, where he has likely been sent for flipping people off. This lands Craig a reputation as a troublemaker, which is why Cartman chooses him as worst-behaved kid in “Tweek vs. Craig” (S03E05). The glimpse into Craig’s home life in this episode reveals his family to be uncommunicative and not terribly emotionally involved. Also, they all flip each other off all the time:
In light of this, it seems like learned behavior and the school’s way of dealing with it is, naturally, completely ineffective. Eventually, Craig does stop flipping people off (as he hasn’t done so on the show since “Fun with Veal”, S06E04) – maybe he grows out of it, or maybe it was decided the bit was no longer funny – and his family is also diversified in their behavior and manner of speaking. His parents are both as nasal-voiced and blunted in their affect as Craig in “Tweek vs. Craig”, but this changes later on.
His parents also treat Craig more affectionately as the series progresses, but it’s clear that talking about feelings doesn’t come naturally to the Tuckers, and to Thomas Tucker in particular. Coming to terms with the idea of having a gay son in “Tweek x Craig” seems to have softened Thomas up a bit and, unlike Richard Tweak, both Craig’s parents show genuine concern about their son’s emotional well-being when Tweek and Craig are broken up during The Fractured but Whole (2017) (even if Thomas is also way, way too into the yaoi art).
The Tuckers struggle financially, though it’s unclear how much better off they are than the McCormicks and the Cartmans, the two poorest families in town (as Butters determines in “The Poor Kid”, S15E14). Both Laura and Thomas Tucker work, Thomas in an unspecified office job (as of “Tweek x Craig”, S19E06) and Laura Tucker as a bank teller. In “Here Comes the Neighborhood” (S05E12), we see the Tuckers exiting the South Park “Welfare Office” during Token’s song, though this may very well be an exaggeration in Token’s mind. More conclusively, their financial troubles are confirmed when you’re in the bank in TFBW and Laura Tucker complains about having to see other people’s healthy bank accounts all day.
Thomas is a regular at Skeeter’s Bar and we find out in “The End of Serialization as We Know It” (S20E10) that he has accounts on multiple “married but dating” sites, so it’s possible they have budgeting issues as a result of his vices. The Tuckers overall seem fairly dysfunctional, but they love Craig and believe his heart is in the right place, and they themselves seem to have good intentions as parents, if not the strongest marriage or best communication skills. The way they defend him in “Pandemic” against Sheila and Sharon suggests that they aren’t chiefly concerned about their reputation as parents (as, for instance, Tweek’s parents likely would be), but are instead offended on behalf of their son.
Craig, on the other hand, doesn’t exude natural warmth towards his family members. He doesn’t care what Tweek allegedly said about his mother in “Tweek vs. Craig”, and an oft-circulated photo of the diagramming for TFBW reveals he only cares about Stripe and Tweek. In TFBW, Craig tells you that each of his parents likely killed a past Stripe – his mother via accidental stepping, and his father via poisoning as retribution for Stripe #3 having pooped in the living room. For all we know, Craig is just making assumptions, but even if neither story is true, it’s notable how neutrally he relays this information. He might have difficulty relating to his family members and others due to autism, as he also demonstrates other common signs of autism spectrum disorder that many autistic fans have noted mirror their own. He often speaks with a blunted affect, he likes to stick to his usual routines, he has just a few narrow but extremely intense interests, and he struggles to relate to others on an emotional level at times.
Based on the way “Asperger’s” (a term which was retired in 2013 and replaced with autism spectrum disorder) is discussed in “Ass Burgers” (S15E08), and Craig’s inconsistent characterization with regard to his vocal inflection, understanding of social dynamics, and behavior towards others, it is unlikely Craig was intended to be autistic. It is possible that this has become a more conscious part of his characterization at this point in time. In my reading of Craig’s characterization throughout the series, however, he shifts between this monotone-voiced, matter-of-fact guy (which I view as a more purely autistic Craig) and this angry, insecure bully, raised by a conservative father who struggles to express his emotions and expects his son to behave in a traditionally masculine way (resulting in a more socially dominant and antagonistic Craig). These two modes aren’t mutually exclusive by any means, but there are episodes that feature one fairly exclusively; “Quest for Ratings “ (S08E11) exemplifies the latter Craig, while the former is quite evident in “Tweek vs. Craig”.
In the early seasons, Craig is undoubtedly a bully. He’s a bad influence, the type of kid your parents tell you not to hang around, which is precisely what Sharon Marsh and Sheila Broflovski say in “Pandemic” (S12E10), respectively. He often leads the charge in disciplining kids who step out of line, as evidenced by his taping Mark Cotswolds to a bench in “Hooked on Monkey Fonics” (S03E12), sock-bathing Kenny in “Lice Capades” (S11E03), beating Kyle up for being insufficiently fabulous in “South Park Is Gay” (S07E08) (he was right to do it. Kyle wasn’t even using any product 😔), and rounding up ginger kids to eject from the cafeteria in “Ginger Kids” (S09E11).
Craig Tucker and Butters Stotch: Playground Enforcers (somebody plz make this buddy cop movie)
Early on, Craig is often shown enforcing the social codes of the playground with Butters, with whom he also shares a certain aggression and familiarity with violence. One point that often gets lost in contemporary discussions of bullying on South Park is that the intended point of episodes like “Hooked on Monkey Fonics” is not that the kids are so awful and their behavior should be stopped; the point is that this behavior is normal and kids should be socialized properly so that they can learn to take it and dish it out in turn. Whether one agrees with this point or not is immaterial to one’s analysis of the show.
However, just because social hierarchy is portrayed as normal for these children doesn’t mean that the roles various children seek out or are shunted into tell us nothing about who they are. That Butters and Craig go out of their way to enforce norms on the playground in fact tells us a great deal about these characters.
Notably, Butters and Craig both have conservative fathers and both stand out to a certain degree among their peers in different ways. They are also both particularly hostile towards girls. At the same time, they’re emphatic about their interest in girls generally to a degree that seems excessive for fourth graders. That combination of interest and hostility is not necessarily unusual, as boys at that age often engage in what is known as “pigtail-pulling”, or aggressively teasing or bullying somebody one likes. But neither Butters nor Craig really exhibit that behavior towards girls; rather, they are derogatory towards girls more broadly, as evidenced by this clip from “Lice Capades”.
Craig’s deep voice and tall stature relative to his peers suggests he might be an early bloomer. He’s the main boy interested in the girls’ photoshopped pics in “The Hobbit” (S17E10) and seems comfortable being around girls one-on-one given that he has an unknown girlfriend at one point (referenced in SoT) and is sometimes shown in the hallways with girls like Annie and Red. (Also, some random girl comes up to you in SoT and tells you “Craig is so hot! He just doesn’t give a f uck!” Perhaps this is his mysterious ex-gf, and he dumps her for doing weird sh!t like that.)
Craig is (or was, prior to “Tweek x Craig”) frequently shown sitting in the back of the bleachers at school assemblies with 6th grade bullies. Though he appears insecure socially at times (such as throughout the friend contest in “Professor Chaos”, S06E06), he largely acts dominant socially. Some fans seem to believe this dominance is who Craig truly is, but given that he has consistent moments of insecurity throughout the series, it’s far more likely he’s posturing in an attempt to disguise his social shortcomings. He seems to develop better coping methods as the series progresses, but early Craig is violent, reactive, and does not deal well with feelings of inadequacy.
In Butters’ case, his interest in girls is played for humor, as it’s insinuated that he’s gay in much the same way Tobias Fünke is implied to be gay on Arrested Development. Both characters frequently say things with homoerotic subtext unknowingly, and it’s implied that they’re gay and the only ones who don’t yet know it. Unlike Tobias, however, Butters is 10 and may very well not be gay at all.
His fantasies about girls are weird 50s “going steady” type imagery (see his wet dream in “Sarcastaball”, S16E08). The way he likes girls is portrayed as naïve and unlikely to result in an actual relationship (see his crush on Kim K in “The Hobbit”, S17E10, and his first kiss which he has to pay for in “Butters’ Bottom Bitch”, S13E09). He has one relationship with a girl end poorly and starts a whole incel dick-flashing movement at his school. This is not a particularly smooth gentleman.
These difficulties with girls are emblematic of a larger naïveté socially. Butters is a frequent punching bag for his classmates, and it makes sense that he would want to pair up with someone like Craig to enforce social norms through bullying. In essence, it is implied that Butters desires to punish others the way he’s often punished for the sense of power that it gives him. He also believes in things like corporal punishment (as seen, for instance, when he spanks Cartman as Awesom-O for being naughty and tells him it’s for his own good in “Awesome-O”, S08E05).
Butters and Craig belong to different socioeconomic classes and their fathers have accordingly different expectations for their behavior and have imparted different values on their sons. Both boys have an affinity for authoritarianism, likely learned from their fathers, though Craig’s father is coded working class and clearly far more hands-off, particularly when it comes to the emotional side of parenting. Stephen Stotch, on the other hand, is the sort of upper middle class Republican to produce children like this: https://www.theonion.com/gop-maintains-solid-hold-on-youth-that-already-look-lik-1819595704 (see also: the crop of GOP townspeople watching the election results at the Stotch residence in “About Last Night…”, S12E12).
The ass-backwards way Butters has been raised has left him simultaneously sheltered and deeply traumatized, as Stephen is both extremely abusive and refuses to tell Butters truths about the world that he needs to know (think “super aids in your butt”, Butters’ goo, what bi-curious even means). As a result, Butters is incredibly gullible and lets people abuse his trust over and over, because that’s what he’s been conditioned to tolerate. Butters often seeks out a more aggressive boy to assist; he is accustomed to being told what to do.
Craig is almost on the opposite side of the spectrum in terms of his tolerance for being told what to do. He can’t sit through a minute of Mackey’s unhelpful counseling without flipping him off twice. He tolerates nothing and seems to display signs of oppositional defiance, which sometimes coexists with autism. Again, it seems unlikely Matt and Trey knowingly conceived of Craig as autistic, but given that Cartman, Butters, Kenny, etc. are based on real kids they knew growing up, it’s possible Craig is based on someone they once knew who behaved this way.
As allies, Butters and Craig carry out fairly straightforward schoolyard punishments. For much of the rest of the series, Butters sticks by Cartman’s side, but he is frequently conflicted about Cartman’s behavior which is far more manipulative and Machiavellian than anything Craig would think or desire to do.
___________________________
This part is a bit expository, particularly as concerns Craig’s upbringing and family life, but the next section will be more purely analytical; it compares Cartman and Craig as violent bullies and delves into the emergence of CATG as a rival gang for the main four.
To close this section off, one thing I wondered writing this was if it’s possible Craig wasn’t even a particularly violent child until he was set up to fight Tweek. In the episode, neither he nor Tweek had ever fought before and all the violent acts I listed above take place after the fight. I’m curious what others think about that.
I over-analyzed the Hangman games on the wall in “Plus One.” (I blame Twin Peaks for encouraging me that everything actually has meaning... even though there’s no evidence to believe that this is every the case in XF.) Findings and additional random thoughts under the cut.
Top:
CASTLE
FISH CAKES
ARKIE
A_RICA_
_OUN_IN_G
(reversed) _A_ER
(Personally, I hope those last two are BOUNCING GAZER, aka Shippers)
Bottom:
SHEPARDS PIE^
ABANDON#
KAYAK
ABILITY#
FIRE WALKER*
_OSITIO_ (I so badly wanted this to be POSITION because I’m trash, but alas, no P)
CLOSE_
PIXEL
IVORY (#dressgate)
IAIN
TATER^
ARKIE
* = hey, that was the name of an episode!
^ = it’s potato, Scully
# = shades of William
malsimon in every episode of firefly, part 2: the train job
pointless analysis of how firefly (the series) ships mal and simon from a textual and meta-textual perspective
“nobody wants the alliance on us, that’s why you’re here.” // “i thought i was here because you needed a medic.” // “well, not today.”
mal doesn’t even know why he wants simon around bc he really doesn’t, but he is unwilling to investigate his feelings because he’s mal. when book asks him about why he took in the tams, he deflects, and vaguely says it’s the right thing to do.
“yeah, he’s my hero” (which could mean NOTHING????)
there’s not many malsimon scenes in this but the second to final scene is malsimon and involves simon stitching up mal’s wound with his shirt off, during which mal actually compliments simon on his quick thinking with jayne. this conversation also involves lots of mal looking into simon’s eyes??? which could mean nothing??
how else am i supposed to interpret this look ???
“i’m not too worried about you.” mal acknowledges simon is capable, and even inquires about river, letting simon talk about her situation without judgment. besides river & kaylee, simon seems most comfortable around mal, which doesn’t make sense considering mal threatened to kill him not a week ago, UNLESS you read the obvious writing on the wall that he’s as into mal as mal is into him.
i will be back for episode 3 malsimon truthers!! until then!!!
changes to THE SCORCH TRIALS from book to movie and what i did and didn’t like:
ib: @ginaluvr !
1. the wckd fakeout. this is a great change, it makes the start of the movie much more interesting and high tension with the whole escape scene, and it gives the characters more agency. instead of being sent out into the scorch by wckd, they go out themselves and gives them a more interesting goal
2. they all think they’re immune. this is a good change too i thought the whole “none of u are immune hahaha you now have to get the cure at the end of our evil obstacle course” thing was dumb, and it makes the reveal of winston not being immune more emotional for the characters
3. teresa betrayal is at the end. book teresa never did a single thing that made sense, including her weird back and forth betrayal in TST. the film lets us see little moments that lead up to her eventually making the choice to call wckd, which is far more devastating and impactful than like…kissing aris and then saying sorry?
4. no tattoos. i get them not putting these in bc it really doesn’t make much sense with the direction they took, but boo, i wanted A7-The Leader dammit!
5. group b eradicated. some of us never gave a shit about group b or their stupid convoluted plotline so i’m fine with this. putting the group b characters in the right arm instead makes them likable and actually plot relevant.
6. brenda & jorge aren’t wckd. wow writing this is making me realize how little sense the second book makes 😭 brenda being an actual adult woman is infinitely better than her being a teenager and idk, them being secretly wckd didn’t add much to TST so im fine with this
7. thomas aids the right arm from inside wckd. makes sense i guess but blah blah blah thomas is the chosen one blah blah blah boring. i’m not actually mad at this but im dramatic
8. minho is taken by wckd. as a plot device for THIS movie i love it. minho is thomas’ best friend and losing him is enough to turn him from a reluctant survivor into a fired up revolutionary. it feels impactful (rather than just losing aris & sonya who we basically just met) as a loss and really punched me in the gut after i left the theatre. do i like it so much when TDC actually rolls around—? that’s a topic for another day but as a ending to TST it’s perfect
tldr: TST is a weird book, and without these changes it wouldn’t have made a good film. the writers did a good job adapting the best moments (minho hit by lighting, thomas & brenda’s side quest, crank city) while giving the movie more of an impact in the larger story of tmr by giving teresa more agency, raising the stakes, and giving the right arm more to do.
i recently watched high school musical 2, because it's summertime, and that's what you do when it's summertime. something that wormed its way into my head while watching and has not left is how LOVELY sharpay and ryan's parents are. disney could have easily made them stereotypical, shallow, rude and entitled rich parents with a neglectful attitude towards their children (possibly giving a reason for their narcissistic and mean behaviour), but they didn't. instead, i found not a single fault with them as parents.
when we first meet mrs. evans, she's chilling in the yoga studio, and responds to sharpay's bitching with remarkable ease. she greets her son lovingly, and encourages their interests in music, and wants them to foster relationships with their classmates.
when mr. evans arrives, he seems to fall more into the superficial rich dad role, landing on the golf course in a helicopter. however, once we see him speak to his family, it's obvious how much he loves them. he gives both of his children affirmation, and compliments. sharpay is obviously his little princess, and although it's clear that he doesn't really understand ryan, but he still goes out of his way to support him, fixing his hat, and helping him line up putts.
but the biggest thing that makes the evans parents such nice people is what they do for troy. sharpay's schemes go completely over their heads--they don't know that sharpay is manipulating them. sharpay tells them that troy is a talented kid with financial issues, and they immediately offer to step up and support him with their connections. they promote him, they introduce him to university bigwigs, and advocate for him to get scholarships. they do all of this because they like troy, and think he's talented and nice. they never present any ulterior motive for this assistance, and seem happy to see him succeed.
so yes, are they slightly shallow? maybe. is their daughter slightly psycho? yeah. but i think the only fault of the evans parents is that they are naive and genuinely nice.
It’s pretty fun comparing older Tweek’s design to his parents’ designs, mainly because it seems like they went to the trouble of combining his parents’ features and then building off that. I immediately noticed that Tweek’s nose is similar to his dad’s, but on closer inspection, it’s actually quite a bit shorter, the bridge dips in more (a little more like his mother’s nose), and the shape at the bottom is a bit sharper and less bulbous. His brows are also pretty much his father’s, only blond.
Aside from the brows and nose, Tweek much more closely resembles his mother than his father. Their side profiles are pretty much the same; Tweek’s face is just longer. They both have small, defined lips (though obviously she wears lipstick) and their jaws are similarly square. That seems like a kindness, for Tweek not to have to resemble his awful father too much, even though his parents are both pretty cute (and pretty awful).
Tweek also has dark circles and high cheekbones. I’ve seen people refer to these lines as wrinkles, but his eye lines are the exact same thing Thomas from Le Petit Tourette had as a child so I think they’re dark circles from insomnia. Frankly, Mr. “I don’t sleep... ever” over here probably should have had them as a child too. The length and placement of the cheek lines suggests high cheekbones to me, or possibly fat loss due to past stimulant use. Lastly, he has a bit of hair recession around the temples and sideburns like his father’s only slightly longer.
I think he’s cute af tbh. I like that he has some pretty features, but is also masc and scruffy - it feels like a good visual representation of Tweek’s characterization on the show and part of what makes him so unique. He’s just kind of unapologetically himself like there’s no other way to be.
In terms of his behavior in the special, I think they struck a pretty good balance of keeping his vocal and motor tics, but not keeping the (likely stimulant-induced) tremor. The tics and the anxiety are a part of his life, but they don’t define him. It’s frustrating when parts of the fandom reduce Tweek to a twitching, irrational mess when the show has always shown him to be reacting to real problems (i.e. negligent parents, being specifically targeted by North Korea, Cartman). He seems a lot more self-possessed now, away from those negative influences, and I hope his life stays good when Stan and friends start screwing around with the timeline. Those kids screw around too much. They’re horsing.
Craig Tucker Character Analysis: Canon Overview, Pt. 2
This is part two of my character analysis of Craig Tucker, beloved fictional 10-year-old and devoted nose-picker. You can find part one here. This section begins by juxtaposing Cartman and Craig and goes on to cover the emergence of Craig and those guys (hereinafter CATG) as a rival gang for the main four, and further developments from there.
After Craig’s canon character analysis is complete (only one part remains), I intend to do the same for Tweek before diving into their fanon portrayals throughout the years, and the way their relationship dynamics have generally changed over time within fan works. For now, more Craig:
Craig vs. Cartman
While still in his bird-flippin’ phase, Craig is pitted against Tweek by the main four in “Tweek vs. Craig” because they both get in trouble often and the boys want to see who’s tougher. Here, as in “Pandemic” (S12E10) later on, the irony is that they themselves are far worse-behaved than Craig. He’s a discipline case, but the main four (and Cartman in particular) have committed far more egregious acts.
They know when they’ve done something wrong and, often at Cartman’s behest, take the extra steps to stay out of trouble. By contrast, Craig seems to have genuine difficulty with impulse control and with adapting his behavior to what’s appropriate for the setting; consequently, he is unable to keep himself out of trouble in the same way the main four can, so he looks worse on paper.
Cartman often knowingly engages in immoral acts that he rationalizes to himself because he’s always the hero in his own mind, a process thoroughly detailed in “Fishsticks” (S13E05). Episodes like “Toilet Paper” (S07E03), “Casa Bonita” (S07E11), “Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow” (S09E08), and “The Magic Bush” (S18E05) provide a different explanation for Cartman’s mindset when keeping out of trouble; in these, he’s shown to have serious problems with empathy and only understands he’s done something wrong in the sense that he knows he’d get in trouble if anyone were to find out he was responsible.
Analyzing Cartman would have to be its own extremely long post, as his characterization re: his bad deeds is hardly consistent. Sometimes his ego requires him to believe he’s the good guy, he’s got a hot beefcake bod, everyone really likes him (see: his speech at the end of “Breast Cancer Show Ever”, S12E09); and sometimes he’s Tony Montana in the speech from Scarface he recites in the talent show in “Erection Day” (S09E07): “You need people like me! You need people like me so you can point your f*cking finger and say, ‘That’s the bad guy!’”
By contrast, Craig is arguably amoral and somewhat violence- and anger-prone on his worst behavior, more of a neutral, uninvolved party most of the time, and a rational, compromise-minded problem-solver at his best in terms of his treatment of others. He’s not motivated by doing what he thinks is most morally righteous, like Tweek, Kyle and Jimmy are (all three of whom put lawful as their alignment in their character sheets in TFBW, while Craig put neutral).
In the amusement park scene in “Put It Down” (S21E02), this difference in motivations causes the tension between Tweek and Craig to boil over. It becomes clear that Craig considers being rational and even-tempered his highest virtue (though this isn’t an entirely accurate self-perception as he’s fairly easily provoked at times), and he’s frustrated when Tweek’s lack of positive response to his reasoning makes him become more emotional, like Tweek.
He also encourages Jimmy to compromise with Cartman in “Fishsticks” (S13E05), and disagrees with Kyle over whether it matters that Cartman didn’t actually write any of the joke. Tweek’s line in TFBW about justice over evil is comically melodramatic, but also reveals a greater truth about their dynamic – not that Craig is evil, but that he’s not driven by the pursuit of the most moral good. Craig is more of a utilitarian and a pragmatist.
In “Le Petit Tourette” (S11E0), Cartman and Craig both think Tourette’s syndrome (or, more accurately, having a swearing tic) makes you cool as hell, but Cartman uses his (limited) knowledge of it to put forth a mockery of Tourette’s for his own gratification (like being able to degrade Kyle’s mom to her face with impunity). By contrast, Craig is so genuinely enamored of Thomas’s ability to swear without getting in trouble that he wants nothing more than to bask in it vicariously. The joke here is that Craig is such a messed-up kid, he truly just loves swearing for its own sake. He’s gay for swearing.
Cartman manipulates Craig for his own gain in “Tweek vs. Craig”, all of the main four use him for his birthday money in “Pandemic”, and Cartman mimics and exploits Thomas’s condition for his own sick pleasure in “Le Petit Tourette”. Craig wouldn’t think to do any of those things and he wouldn’t get a kick out of it in the way Cartman does. He’s more of a simple schoolyard bully, at least in the early seasons. He’s shown to be a gossip in “Bass to Mouth” (S15E10), seems to want to keep abreast of developments in “Breast Cancer Show Ever” in that he is instrumental in gathering and relaying information to the involved parties, and is often petty - but he’s not manipulative. Even if he wanted to manipulate, he likely wouldn’t have the necessary people skills to pull it off. He will, however, engage in a Cartman scheme when it benefits him, even if it’s wildly immoral, as in “Crack Baby Basketball Association” (S15E05).
Emergence of Craig as Stan’s Foil, CATG as Rival Group
Starting in “South Park Is Gay”, Craig becomes more of a foil for Stan and is shown to have his own clique like Stan has in Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny. Stan and Craig look similar and both lead their respective groups, and in “Lil’ Crime Stoppers” (S07E06), the black-haired kid leading the rival gang of “FBI agents” introduces himself as Agent Tucker.
This kid is clearly not Craig, as he has a different hairline and puts on some kind of old-timey detective voice that, frankly, Craig could never pull off. Craig doesn’t have a lot of range in terms of vocal expression, and none of those guys are CATG members. Nevertheless, the show sets the stage for a recurrent rival group, and then we get them just two episodes later in “South Park Is Gay” in the form of these fab metro boys:
Craig is sometimes an antagonist and sometimes an ally to the main four, but he is not one of the main four, and the show is by and large told from their perspective. This may be why Craig is sometimes actually a dick, and sometimes inordinately reasonable and 100% correct in his very blunt assessments of the situation at hand. South Park’s characterization also isn’t terribly consistent and Craig began as a background character, so these appearances in season 7 and 8 may have been attempts to situate him (and some of the other children) in some relation to the main four so that they could be used to create conflict and drive plot lines.
As an antagonist to the main four, Craig can be quite aggressive and combative in his tone. In “Quest for Ratings” (S08E11), Craig is socially dominant, acts confident and assertive, and seems to thrive off of one-upping Stan and his crew (which notably includes Jimmy, Butters, and Token). Stan’s group is similarly motivated by the desire to one-up Craig as they immediately lose interest in doing their school news show once they beat him in the ratings. At one point in the episode, Craig approaches Stan and his crew at Whistlin’ Willy’s in effect to mock them for their show having been canceled and to brag about his “overall deal” with the school. Similarly, when Stan and his crew acquire ninja weapons in “Good Times with Weapons” (S08E01), they immediately head to Craig’s house to brag and show them off, which triggers Craig’s competitive nature and ultimately leads to the Legendary Battle of Tokugata.
The dynamic between the two groups is competitive on both sides, but this dynamic does not remain antagonistic for very long. Several season 9 episodes feature Craig (and other boys in the class) working with the main four in some capacity, such as in “The Death of Eric Cartman” (S09E06) when all the boys ignore Cartman for being such a dick all the time, in “Marjorine” (S09E09) when all the boys work together to infiltrate Heidi’s sleepover to obtain a cootie catcher, and in “Free Willzyx“ (S09E13) where the boys all work together to get that space whale back to his home on the moon. Craig is also as unenthusiastic about baseball as all the other boys in “The Losing Edge” (S09E05), though he does still take the opportunity to yell at Stan, but this shift in the dynamic between Craig/CATG and Stan/the main four holds steady. The antagonism that rears its head between Craig and the main four at various points in the series, notably in the “Pandemic” two-parter (S12E10-11), seems based more on ideological differences. Craig objects to the way the main four get themselves into increasingly more ridiculous situations and refuse to examine their own role in escalating such situations.
He hasn’t been a real antagonist since the Black Friday trilogy (S17E07-9) (and even then, he was arguably just a catalyst for the real conflict to emerge among the main four), and is now more of a reluctant, naysaying ally to the group. He will join up to have something to do, as seems to be the case in the games, or if it’s something Tweek wants or needs, such as in “Splatty Tomato” (S21E10). He now also has his own episodes with Tweek (i.e., “Put It Down”, S21E02) or B-plots within episodes (i.e., “Buddha Box”, S22E08), ever since “Tweek x Craig” (S19E06) when they became a canon couple (in at least some capacity, depending on one’s interpretation of the ending).
Craig Tucker: Dick Supreme
Even outside of the dynamics between their groups, Craig himself takes issue with much of what the main four do and periodically objects to the way they approach problems generally. The way he expresses his disapproval varies depending on the degree of social power he has over the boys at the given moment, though also depending on whether Craig is in his nemesis or his ally era. In “Quest for Ratings”, Craig is quick-witted, responding immediately when Stan tells him his idea took “this much thought” that that’s still “this much more than [Stan] had.”
On the other hand, in “Professor Chaos” (S06E06), Craig clearly fails to join in on the “playful” insults the main four engage in regularly, adding “Oh, uh – you guys are dumb” after Kyle and Cartman exchange their typical “fatass” and “stupid Jew” epithets. It seems likely his ability to insult people is contingent on his actually feeling negatively towards them, and in this episode, he is trying to join their gang.
Later on, in the season 12 episodes “Pandemic” and “Pandemic 2: The Startling”, Craig is highly effective at putting down the main four, but he’s not even really insulting them. He’s just telling it like it is, and this becomes a central feature of Craig’s character that fans seem to enjoy and connect with, and (perhaps for this reason) is subsequently incorporated into his character more often.
For example, he calmly and matter-of-factly shows Stan up for thinking any 80s music is going to be “cool” and kickass in their search for Ike in “Splatty Tomato”. As in “Pandemic”, where Craig’s critique of the main four is ultimately aimed at the show itself, his criticism in “Splatty Tomato” also serves as a meta-critique on the trend of popular contemporary franchises set in the 80s using “cool” 80s music rather than what was actually on the radio at the time.
His well-loved “Peru” one-liner two episodes later in “Elementary School Music” (S12E13) similarly breaks the typical cartoon format wherein plots from episodes past are typically forgotten in the episodes that follow. It is also funny for the same reasons his criticisms of the gang in Pandemic are funny; they actually were in Peru - he’s just stating facts.
In the “Pandemic” episodes, Craig serves a similar role to Frank Grimes in the Simpsons episode “Homer’s Enemy” (S08E23), in the sense that he forces the viewer to consider whether the main characters are just, and whether the viewer is justified in rooting for them. But whereas Frank Grimes is incensed throughout the episode that Homer has such a good life despite his unbelievable sloth and stupidity, Craig acts as though he is merely inconvenienced by the main four’s inability to disengage from outlandish situations.
He expresses his displeasure in slow, monotone statements that only cut deep because they’re true (“you guys are jerks” is not exactly roast material), and because we never considered they might be viewed unfavorably by their peers. Craig is also a vehicle for the show’s own self-critique, and the show churns out increasingly more outlandish twists to prove him wrong, in a way.
Nevertheless, he remains unflappable (”Okay, now there's sparks shooting out of my eyes.”), and maintains that none of this stuff is normal and that the main four are the common denominator. When it turns out Craig is part of an ancient Incan prophecy, they argue that he’s actually responsible for some of this nonsense, not them, but he keeps his cool and, in essence, chooses to opt out.
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That was part 2! Thank you for reading - I was surprised at the big response to part 1, but because people seem willing to read long posts in a way I hadn’t anticipated, I’ve made changes to the course of my analysis after this canon Craig series.
My initial plan was to do canon and then fanon analysis of just Craig, but I’m really interested in how Creek has developed as a ship. So, as I mentioned at the start of the post, I will do a Tweek canon character analysis next and then get into how their fanon portrayals have evolved over the years - as individuals, and as a couple. I’m glad to make this change bc canon Tweek is instrumental in the changes Craig’s character has undergone in canon and in fanon. And also I just love him, ok???
Part 3 - coming soon to a dash near you, maybe - covers Craig’s characterization in the mid-late teen seasons and in Stick of Truth, and then gets into his character development in “Tweek x Craig” and going forward from that point.
