Favorite Characters: Benson (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts)

Benson is such a delightful character. A key member of Kipo’s squad, this guy offers up fun, friendship, and street smarts, and I appreciate his presence on the show (a few Benson-related spoilers.)

Wolf is the first human that Kipo meets on the surface, all hard edges, distrust, and killer instincts. Benson is the second, and while he doesn’t quite have Kipo’s sunshiny outlook, he’s not as hard-scrabble as Wolf, either. For starters, he hasn’t been making his way as an absolute loner – he’s been rolling with his best friend Dave for years. From the jump, he shows that there’s another way to survive on the surface beyond Wolf’s “kill or be killed” philosophy, and he and Dave are Kipo’s first example that humans and mutes can get along.

The “foot in two worlds” thing is a major facet of who Benson is. Wolf is instantly wary and on guard against all mutes, but Benson is inseparable with Dave, taking care of him when his friend is in the more vulnerable phrases of his metamorphosis (baby/toddler Dave) and bedrudgingly putting up with the more annoying ones (teenager/old man Dave.) Benson has a handful of other friendly mute acquaintances as well. He’s the one who brings Kipo to Ratland, an amusement park/safe haven for humans and mutes alike. At a low moment, when Kipo is feeling discouraged and confused, Benson shows her this bright spot where the surface is safe and fun and no one’s trying to fight anyone.

Benson doesn’t have a hard time ingratiating himself with others, but as I said, he doesn’t exactly mirror Kipo’s at-times-Pollyanna-ish “let’s be friends!!!” tendencies. He’ll gladly make nice if that seems like the best way to go, but he’s not without his sharpness. He and Dave have survived on the surface together by being smart, and that often means pulling one over on those with violent intentions. Whether it’s faking a crisis to scare off some Mod Frogs or causing a furball-related diversion in a group of Timber Cats, he’s a quick thinker who can be sly to stay ahead.

Going along with that is his strong self-preservation streak. It’s what makes him initially reluctant to join Kipo’s search to find her people, not altogether willing to stick his neck out for someone when he doesn’t have to. Benson begins the series more in “look out for #1” mode (although “#1” includes both him and Dave,) but despite a tendency to focus more on himself, he has a good heart that can’t really ignore people who need help. Sure, he shies away from signing up to help Kipo, and he tries to strategize over the opportune moment to bail, but when Kipo’s in trouble, he’s consistently there. Over the course of the series, he becomes much more in it for the long haul, dropping his more usual escape plan and proving himself a true friend.

I know that LGBTQ representation in stories marketed to young audiences has been expanding in recent years (did you hear about Blue’s Clues’ recently-released alphabet song, in which “P” is for “Pride”?!), but I really like the completely-open, 100%-casual way that Benson’s orientation is revealed on the show. In the aforementioned Ratland excursion, Kipo is grateful to Benson’s kindness towards her and attempts to express her affection in a less-than-platonic way. When she makes a move, Benson gently turns her down, explaining that he’s gay, and after momentary surprise/embarrassment at having misread the moment, Kipo finds her footing and validates her friend’s identity. “Thank you, though, for just, I don’t know, being you?” she says, going on to add, “I think I’m just trying to say, I’m glad we’re friends.” Utterly sweet moment, and major points for Benson’s coming-out being so direct and no-drama – the fact that he actually says the words “I’m gay” is huge.

A Few Thoughts on Scarlemagne (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts)

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts has all kinds of good points, a nigh-inexhaustible well of things for me to love. One major asset in that very long list is Scarlemagne, a key opponent for Kipo and her friends. I’m not dong a Favorite Characters post today, although Scarlemagne is an excellent character to watch. Rather, I’m looking at how the show uses him in the narrative and ways that his storyline is effective when a lot of shows fumble the execution of their complex antagonists (Scarlemagne-related spoilers.)

We hear whispers of Scarlemagne long before we see him onscreen. As Kipo and her new friends on the surface encounter various gangs of mutes (mutated animals,) word spreads of the “burrow girl,” and plenty of unscrupulous mutes go after Kipo, knowing that Scarlemagne will bestow great favor on anyone who can lead him to a burrow of humans living underground. Mutes and humans alike fear him, which suits him just fine.

And who is Scarlemagne, when we’re finally introduced to him? A mute mandrill who has designs on being king of the surface. Styling himself after an 18^th-century French monarch, he dreams of building himself a golden palace where he rules over all the mutes. Scarlemagne’s mutation supercharges the influence of his mandrill pheromones, allowing him to brainwash other primates into doing his bidding. His tireless search for Kipo’s burrow is a hunt for humans to enslave, that he might use them as servants, playthings, and a private army to cement his rule.

I know, great guy, right? :sarcasm: Obviously not. Scarlemagne is a baddie who does a lot of bad things over the course of the series. He hurts both people and mutes, he causes plenty of damage, and he’s a critical figure in fomenting bad blood between humans and mutes.

The second season explores Scarlemagne’s complicated history, including his traumatic backstory as a lab animal studied by Kipo’s scientist parents, Lio and Song, back before she was born. Originally an ordinary mandrill that Kipo’s parents name Hugo, they use him to isolate which chemicals cause the mutations on the surface, and it’s through their experiments that he becomes a mute, gaining his sentience and enhanced pheromone abilities. Kipo’s parents try to hide their work from Dr. Emilia, their research head who’s obsessed with finding the source of the mutations in order to reverse them – watching Hugo develop, they realize how cruel it would be to rob mutes of their sentience. However, it’s only a matter of time before Dr. Emilia discovers the truth. She exploits Hugo for his pheromones, and though Kipo’s parents plan to escape the burrow with Hugo and the newborn baby Kipo, a chaotic series of events leads to Hugo being left behind. Escaping on his own, he’s left to face the harsh surface world alone. As he learns to wield his pheromones on the surface and takes on a new persona for himself, Scarlemagne’s exploitation at the hands of Dr. Emilia fuels his fear and distrust of humans, but it’s feeling abandoned by Kipo’s parents that fuels his consuming desire for revenge against and control over them.

What I like about this backstory is that it explains how Scarlemagne starts down his dark path without explaining away any of his villainous actions. Yes, he’s been hurt and afraid, and feeling alone and betrayed has caused him to lash out, but that doesn’t minimize the damage he causes. It doesn’t give him carte blanche to rule the surface through brainwashing and shows of force, because having tragic motivations don’t excuse harm to others. When Kipo first learns of his history, she immediately goes down the “poor misunderstood Scarlemagne” route and thinks that she can pull him back from the brink with hugs and friendship. And she is very, very wrong. Scarlemagne has diverged radically from the Hugo of his youth, and he’s not just a walking redemption arc waiting to happen.

This is an important moment for Kipo. It helps her realize that redemption isn’t always as simple as that, but while she’s much warier in her approach to Scarlemagne going forward, she doesn’t stop trying. Season 2 ends with Kipo and her allies defeating/capturing Scarlemagne, and as Dr. Emilia moves into prominence as the main baddie in season 3, Kipo makes repeated overtures to the captive Scarlemagne. Having learned from their disastrous encounter at the end of season 2, she no longer expects him to change for the better at any moment, but she never loses her faith that he’s capable of it.

This is the environment in which Scarlemagne actually does start to get better. Crucially, Kipo now understands that she can give him opportunities to atone, but he’s the one who has to actually do it. She can’t just let bygones be bygones if she expects her friends, many of whom have been hurt by Scarlemagne, to keep trusting her, so it’s up to him to make amends and prove to them that Kipo’s belief in him won’t jeopardize their safety. It’s a long process, and although Scarlemagne begins it very begrudgingly/sulkily, in time, he becomes more sincere in his efforts.

As gratifying as it is to see Scarlemage help out our heroes and make amends for his wrongdoings, the real revelation for me comes in the penultimate episode. Off on a mission together, Scarlemagne and Wolf come across the molten ruins of Aurum, the golden palace he tried to erect. Scarlemagne muses, “I really made a mess of things, didn’t I? I was so wrapped up in creating an empire, when I should’ve gone after Emilia. I could’ve freed Song, forgiven Lio, grown up with Kipo. Things would’ve been so different if I’d stopped hating all humans for the mistakes of a few.”

This moment is everything to me. It’s Scarlemagne acknowledging that he let his own feelings of hurt and betrayal spin out of control and consume everything, which wound up hurting others as well as himself. He sees how much better all their lives would be if he hadn’t gone on a 13-year vendetta, trying to install himself as a king who would enslave all humans as retribution against the one who wronged him. He spent all that time carrying his grudges and refusing to forgive, and he’s finally realizing how much that cost him. Reformed villains are fairly common, with wildly varying levels of success, but I think it’s rare to see villains recognize how much of a hand they played in their own bitterness and self-destruction. It’s a great scene of self-awareness that, to me, really shows how far Scarlemagne has come by that point.

Favorite Characters: Wolf (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts)

That’s right, more Kipo (strap in, there’ll be more of these posts coming for at least the next few weeks.) Wolf is in many ways the polar opposite of Kipo, which makes it all the more wonderful that they wind up becoming such close friends (a few Wolf-related spoilers.)

The first word that comes to mind where Wolf is concerned is “survivor.” When we meet her, she’s wielding a spear topped with the stinger of a deathstalker that she killed, she wears a wolf-skin as a cloak, and she is a very small, very formidable badass. Whereas Kipo is completely new to the surface and doesn’t know anything, Wolf carries herself with a “seen and done it all” air that belies her young age. She has no desire whatsoever for a bubbly tagalong like Kipo, but Wolf’s also not about to watch Kipo get herself killed due to her ignorance of the world outside her burrow. So, very bedrudgingly, Wolf lectures Kipo on the dangers to avoid and keeps a running commentary on her “rules of the surface,” most of which run along the same kill-or-be-killed theme.

Wolf is prickly, surly, guarded. A loner by choice, she doesn’t play well with others, and her first plan of attack in any given situation is, well, to attack. She repeatedly warns Kipo not to trust anyone they come across, from Benson and Dave to the assorted bands of mutes who cross their path, and while it aggravates her when Kipo inevitably goes for the “let’s be friends!” approach instead, it can scare her too.

Because Wolf wasn’t always alone. She’s learned the hard way that trusting someone on the surface can come back to bite you, literally. As such, she’s always looking for the potential double-cross, expecting a mute to attack her, waiting for a seeming friend let her down. It’s a hard way to live – Wolf’s toughness is in part a reflection of how she’s had to scramble to survive on her own, but it’s also shaped by her fear of letting anyone else get close to her after having been hurt.

Obviously, this is a big part of what makes Wolf such a great foil for Kipo, as well as an unlikely member of the group as a whole. After having spent the majority of her young life in “me against the world” mode, she starts to care about a select group of other people (and, because Kipo cares about everyone, even more people by proxy.) Her badass fighting skills are used, not just to protect herself, but to keep them safe. She doesn’t want to see anyone hurt her friends, and she fights like hell on their behalf. And gradually, over time and under the influence of Kipo’s relentless friendliness, Wolf starts – very slowly – to let her guard down and let others in.

Kipo, Benson, and Dave all have an appreciation and enthusiasm for stuff, for trinkets or music or a delectable meal, and Mandu of course has her love of cheese puffs. Wolf often feels very out-of-step with all that; she’s unattached, both as a function of being used to not having much (I love a scene where one of the characters suggests they both name their favorite kind of cake on the count of three, and Wolf’s answer is a completely-monotone, “I’ve-never-had-cake, what-is-cake?”) and as a conscious sense of being “above” that kind of thing. It’s one more thing that makes her more serious than her friends, looking out for trouble instead of getting distracted by so-called trivialities. But I like the little flashes we get throughout the series of the few things that do matter to Wolf. As with her growing fondness for her friends, it helps us see the young girl beneath the hardened warrior, even though that warrior is still very much a part of who she is. The episode where Wolf ends up bringing Kipo to an old hideout of hers is great, and I love that she’s named her deathstalker spear. She’s stronger and tougher than me and could definitely kick my ass, but when she anxiously calls out, “Stalky!” when someone swipes her spear, it just makes me go, “Aww!”