FICTIONAL CHARACTER ASK: EGON SPENGLER
Asked by @fleurviolettes
@janeb984
@spengnitzed @stantzed @bixiebeet @angelixgutz @thealmightyemprex @goodanswerfoxmonster @amalthea9 @themousefromfantasyland @professorlehnsherr-almashy @budcortfancam
Favorite Thing About Them: There was an excentric, always serious, socially awkward nerd character, played by a comedy actor who wasn't a big movie star like his screen colleagues Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis were, originally only meant to provide technological exposition, and he became the breakout character that audiences most strongly cared about. Egon Spengler showed viewers that just because we wored glasses, weren't muscular or trained in complicated martial arts, it didn't mean we couldn't be seen as heroes, even tough he initially decided to capture ghosts just hoping to earn a living like his friends. Also, while ocasionally awkward and a bit shy around women, he is never shown to be self hating. He talks with certainty about his scientificial knowledge, isn't much bothered by the teasing of friends like the more street smart Peter Venkman and Winston Zeddemore, and is shown that is because of his inteligence and seriousness that Janine Melnitz finds him atractive, without Egon ever needing to try becoming more "tough", "atletic", "cool", etc.
His lines about humans being like small bacteria are even complimented as romantic! There were moments where he would show an explosive temper, but its clear that its only in extreme circunstances where a dangerous treat is on the horizon and everyone's emotions are heated, and not before trying to present argumentations to better solve the problem first.
Least Favorite Thing About Them: Returning to a criticism I made on this post here, when the writers of Afterlife, a sequel made 37 years after the original film, decided to incorporate Harold Ramis death as a major plot influence, they also mixed the complicated personal life fact that Ramis was an absent parent to his second daughter for most of her life, wich was something he deeply regreted, into the character of Egon Spengler, using the cliche plot of a father who abandons his daughter without explanation (not even letting his friends know of her existence because she is suposed to be a "big reveal" even in universe) to fight the great scope villain, and get redeemed in the eyes of sayed abandoned daughter just because he is dead. That is not character growth, that is not a tribute to his creator, thaf is just cynical, unecessary melodrama (ignoring that the first was a comedy!) exploiting a complicated, painfull story of an actual, real family.
Three Things I Have In Common With Them:
* I wear large glasses;
* Like his portrayal in the live action movies and IDW licensed comics, my natural hair is dark brown and grows in agitated curls;
* I love chocolate treats;
Three Things I Don’t Have In Common With Them:
* I don't collect spores, molds and fungus;
* I alternate between physical and online books, so I would never say the phrase "Print is dead";
* I'm not born in the United States;
Favorite Line:
From the July 1983 Script Draft:
"I don't understand. What have I got?"
"And not a very precise one."
"I have trace PKE valences everywhere in the building and extremely high readings in the interior stacks."
"Good in what sense?"
"I'm patched into the Bell Labs computer in Boston. We should have an answer in a moment."
"I think we can catch one."
"I own an automobile."
"It's a 1957 Saab."
"Those are proton packs and that's a Nutrona wand. They're prototypes of new devices for putting proto-mater in stasis."
"It's 9.642.55 square feet."
"Not all of this is for the office telephones. I'm constructing a fiberoptic network to monitor microwave activity outside the commercial frequencies assigned to telephone and television transmission."
"This is amusing."
"What?"
"I think it's too early to tell."
"We're all animals, Venkman."
"Okay - It's ready."
"This is the proton pack."
"14.55 kilos."
"Thirty-two pounds."
"This is the Neutrona wand."
"I'm working on a self-contained version but for now we'll run off building current."
"Switch... ON."
"It's ready."
"I've heat shielded the entire pack and it's fully portable now. We'll each be capable of shooting an ion stream up to 12 feet. The stream will repel ectoplasm but have no effect in the physical enviroment. Ready?"
"Power!"
"Then we'll be virtually defenseless."
"Ecto-visors."
"GIVE ME TWO PURGES NOW!!"
"Don't worry. He isn't going anywhere. Now DON'T LET THE STREAMS CROSS BEHIND THE POINT OF INTERSECTION OR YOU'LL Q US ALL INTO THE TENTH DIMENSION."
"Easy... easy... open the trap now!!"
"DON'T LET THE PHOTON STREAMS GET NEAR THE NUTRONA BARS ON THAT TRAP!!"
"Watch it... watch it... now."
"It's getting crowded in there. We have to arrange some kind of spill-release system."
"I tought we'd be busy but I never expected this many. That's what bothers me. All my recent data points to something big on the horizon."
"I am Egon Spengler, human being of Earth, Master of Physics, Doctor of Philosophy. Greetings Vinz Clortho."
"Free him, Officer. I will speak with the Minion of Gozer."
"I like these dehydrated meals because they save time. And they have a long shelf-life."
"Could I ask you a feel questions, Vinz?"
"Vinz, how will Gozer come?"
"I want you to look at these pictures, Vinz, and tell me if you see Gozer or anything that looks like Gozer."
"If I were to deactivate the grid generator, the facility could no longer contain the high-concentration of valences inside. You can see what's inside trough the monitor if you wish."
"I've plotted the location of our 99 confirmed manifestations. Look at the pattern and where it fits. Over the tri-state region we have many heavy industries responsible for the destruction of ozonic and other atmospheric layers. The random mesh of microwaves from telephone and telecomunication senders acts as a lens increasing the focus of all the sun's dangerous gamma and U.V. rays which otherwise would be filtered out if the protective atmospheric layers had not been destroyed. These rays are being focused raw on a region under which there lies buried many thousands of tons of chemical and radioactive waste releasing stripped electrons into the atmosphere.
Finally, even a casual glance at the map reveals this region lies within an almost equilateral triangle having at its intersecting points the Indian River Plant in New York here, the Three Mile Island Facility in Pensylvania here, and the Sands Creek Reactor here... two of which we know are leaking hundreds of roentgens per hour."
From the September 1983 Script Draft:
"Oh! This is big, Peter. This is very big. There's definitely something here."
"Two reasons. First of all, I found trace PKE valances everywhere in the building and extremely high readings in the interior stacks."
"That was both of them."
"Incredible. She was stripping ions all over the place."
"We were right about the proton count, Stantz."
"Raymond and I are convinced that we can trap a ghost and hold it indefinitely."
"Just for your information, Ray, the interest payments alone for the first five years come to over $75,000."
"Print is dead."
"Is that a game?"
"I collect spores, molds and fungus."
"I think it's the food of the future."
"This is the Proton Pack, Peter. The only problem with it at the moment is that it could cause sterility."
"Yes, well, I'm working on that."
"Peter, trust me. We are about to make scientific history."
"Raymond, the plug."
"She's telling the truth - or at least she thinks she is."
"Or even a race memory, stored in the collective unconscious. And I wouldn't rule out clairvoyance or telepathic contact either."
"You're a Scorpio with your moon in Leo and Aquarius rising."
"I blame myself."
"We'd better adjust our streams."
"Something was definitely here."
"Were you recently in the bathroom?"
"The wet towels, residual moisture on your lower limbs and hair, the redness in your cheeks indicating..."
"When you were in the bathroom, did you notice anything that was yellow and unusually smelly?"
"Wait! Wait! There's something I forgot to tell you."
"Don't cross the beams."
"Trust me. It will be bad."
"It's hard to explain, but try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and finding yourself confined forever in another dimension."
"They're not guns. They're particle throwers."
"I couldn't do that. You might hurt someone."
"On Earth - no. But on Krypton we could slice him up like Oscar Mayer Bologna."
"Well, let's say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. According to this morning's PKE sample, the current level in the city would be a Twinkie 35 feet long weighing approximately six hundred pounds."
"I just met the Keymaster. He's here with me now."
"Die in what sense?"
"I don't care. I see us as tiny parts of a vast organism, like two bacteria living on a rotting speck of dust floating in an infinite void."
"You have nice clavicles."
"Oh, shit!"
"If you don't shut up I'm going to rip out your septum."
"Of course! Ivo Shandor. I saw his name in Tobin's Spirit Guide. He started a secret society in 1920."
"After the First World War, Shandor decided that society was too sick to survive. And he wasn't alone. He had close to a thousand followers when he died. They conducted rituals, bizarre rituals, intended to bring about the end of the world."
"Sumerian -- not Babylonian."
"I don't believe in luck."
"Thank you."
"It's Shandor - the architect!"
"I think he's saying that since we're about to be sacrificed anyway, we get to choose the form we want him to take."
"Full-stream with strogon pulse."
"No! Them! Shoot them! Cross the beams. Cross the beams."
From the 1984 movie final cut:
"That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me."
"Ray, it's moving. Come on."
"This is hot, Ray."
"Raymond, look at this."
"Venkman, get a sample of this."
"I'd like to analyze it."
"I'm getting stronger readings here. This way."
"I wouldn't say the experience wasn't completely wasted. According to these new readings, I think we have an excellent chance of actually catching a ghost and holding it indefinitely."
"I'm always serious."
"I think this building should be condemned. There's serious metal fatigue in all the load-bearing members. The wiring is substandard. It's completely inadequate for our power needs. And the neighborhood is like a demilitarized zone."
"I could look for the name Zuul in the usual literature."
"Tobin's Spirit Guide."
"Venkman, shorten your stream. I don't want my face burned off."
"I looked at the trap, Ray."
"I don't think he's human."
"Vinz, you said before you were waiting for a sign. What sign are you waiting for?"
"I think that would be extraordinarily dangerous."
"I'm warning you. Turning off these machines would be extremely hazardous."
"Try to understand. This is a high voltage laser containment system. Simply turning it off would be like dropping a bomb on the city."
"Clear the building!"
"Oh, come on!"
"Your mother!"
"The structure of this roof cap is exactly like the kind of telemetry tracker that NASA uses to identify dead pulsars in deep space."
"It's not the girl, Peter, it's the building. Something terrible is about the enter our world and this building is obviously the door."
"Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes! Volcanoes!"
"Art Deco. Very nice."
"It's Gozer."
"It's whatever it wants to be."
"Ray? This looks extraordinarily bad."
"Look out!"
"Sorry, Venkman. I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought."
"I have a radical idea. The door swings both ways. We could reverse the particle flow through the gate."
"We'll cross the streams."
"Not necessarily. There's definitely a very slim chance we'll survive."
"I feel like the floor of a taxi cab."
"We'd like to get a sample of your brain tissue."
"Janine."
brOTP: His brother (Lionel in the novelization, Elon in the Earth Day TV Special), Eugene Visitor, Ray Stantz, Peter Venkman, Winston Zeddemore, Dana Barrett, Tiyah Clark, Slimer, Buster, Louis Tully, Sherman Tully, Dytyllio, Walter Peck, Louise, Irena Cortez, Bryan Welsh, Kylie Griffin, Eduardo Rivera, Garrett Miller, Roland Jackson, Ilyssa Selwin, Jenny Moran, Dani Shpak, Lou Kamaka, Marie Laveau.
OTP: Janine Melnitz.
nOTP: Pink Mood Slime, Gozer.
Random Headcanon: Since Egon still consults literature about the supernatural (more famously Tobin's Spirit Guide) and the STEM fields, is believable that when he says the phrase "Print is dead", is not in the sense that he doesn't read anything and only uses TV and radio as sources of information (otherwise he would have failed academically) but in the sense that his only reading is preexisting titles for work research and he doesn't read new releases and/or literary fiction and poetry, compared to Janine.
Unpopular Opinion: As I commented on this post here, I don't imagine that his parents (specially his father) were complete cold monsters that despised the concept of love when prioritizing Egon and his brother's academic education. Maybe some fans mix his father's personality with Uncle Cyrus, an old, demanding and arrogang relative that appeared in the Real Ghostbusters animated series, but its more interesting to imagine that, while flawed, Egon's parents were still feeling human beings who genuinelly loved him and his brother and just tought that working hard to provide them with a good school education while sacrificing spending time with the children was their, understandable tough misguided, way of showing how much they cared.
Songs I Associate With Them:
Medic
The Gods Are Not Crazy
She Blinded Me With Science
Weird Science
I Believe in You and Me
Just The Way You Are
Time in a Bottle
Favorite Picture of Them:
Harold Ramis in the 1984 film
In the Real Ghostbusters animated series
In the Extreme Ghostbusters animated series
In the IDW licensed comics
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So back in June I watched all the Ghostbusters films cause it was the anniversary of the original movie and I thought I'd do a quick bullet point review since it's been a bit since I watched them all together.
Ghostbusters (1984)
It's still a classic. Has memorable moments that will live on.
Fun scenes. Going after Slimer is always silly and chaotic.
Peter Venkman is a rough. I actually had a person tell me that Venkman is the reason why they never watched the first movie, and I don't blame them.
Wish there was a bit more build up to the confrontation with Gozer. Would be neat if they kept uncovering clues rather than just the moment they figured it out in the jail cell.
Ghostbusters II (1989)
I don't know why people dunk on this movie, it's great!
You can tell the cast and crew are having more fun and things are a bit more fleshed out.
Venkman actually has some good character growth and is not a total creep!
I actually like the build up to the climax on this one. Throughout the movie, there's a focus on the slime buildup in the city and the flow of the story feels good.
Some fun light scares.
I kinda don't like the whole "the ghosts just stop showing up" thing. It's a trope specifically for this franchise that's not really explained. Just "yeah nothing happened between the movies and people think, we're frauds again! Gotta do it all over again!"
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)
This movie gets a lot of undeserved hate thrown towards it for being the female lead reboot. A bunch of misogynist trolls threw a fit and never gave it a shot the moment it was announced.
The cast was great tbh. Everyone seemed to gel with one another.
Chris Hemsworth plays a himbo and we see him with his shirt off.
I really like the main antagonist in this movie. I think his character could have been fleshed out a bit more, but still fun idea.
The gear looks really cool in this movie.
Some scenes do keep going a bit too long and has like not good Saturday Night Live skit energy. I think they relied a bit too much on improv.
How the fuck is Chris Hemsworth the funniest motherfucker alive and why is he so cute?
There's a teeny tiny bit a queerness in this story, but I also feel like there's themes of found family going on here too and I like that.
Chris Hemsworth plays a himbo and we see him with his shirt off.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Trailers do this movie a disservice by making it feel like it's going for a Stranger Things feel, kinda relying a bit too much on nostalgia or even doing the "wow kids these days." It just felt like they didn't have any confidence on the movie itself when marketing this tbh.
The tone is a bit more serious, but honestly I'm fine with it. Still has some funny moments, but it's leaning more into the horror part a bit more.
Watching Phoebe learn more about her grandfather is honestly fun. And this movie does a great job with handing things off to a new generation in a way that doesn't feel like it's disingenuous.
Literally cried at the end. Honestly that ending felt wonderful and it felt like a good tribute to Harold Ramis.
I don't know why, but my first watch of this last year wasn't as good as the second watch this year. I don't know what happened. But I remember the first time I watched this and felt like it was just ok but not my favorite. Maybe it was just a bit of frustration that the sequel to Answer the Call got cancelled before it could even get into full production.
I appreciate the movie using some practical effects. There are just certain elements that you can't mess with in Ghostbusters movie and they nailed it.
Muncher is my least favorite ghost tbh. Idk, there are people who love Muncher and I do like the tardigrade inspired design, but idk, they didn't appeal to me like the other ghosts did.
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TWO MORE MONTHS, PEOPLE!!!
Quick thoughts to follow up after my post on the teaser trailer (SPOILER WARNING!) In honor of March the 22nd…I’ll go for 22 observations/opinions.
1. Slimer’s back!
2. JANINE IN UNIFORM! WITH A BLASTER!
-Definitely a call back to 1) one of the ORIGINAL storyboard designs for the backpack/neutrona wand in the first movie, and 2) the IDW comics when Janine and other “new ‘Busters” take over when the OGs disappear.
3. Definitely another secret society/cult that must’ve worshipped Garraka ( hidden room with the demon’s horns/frozen eyepatch guy that shatters in the supposed flashback scene..?)
4. If that’s Coney Island where the big ice storm is coming ashore…then THAT could very well be a throwback to the RGB episode “Collect Call of Cthulu.”
5. GB’s got a new van! Ecto 1c?
6. Research lab? AWESOME!
7. Big question- what’s the connection between the arrival of Garraka and the red light on the containment unit? Is it coming after GBHQ to get more power (much like Gozer?)
8. OK…James Acaster is NOT a grown Oscar…damn. I’m sure his researcher character is gonna be brilliant though. Poor guy…frostburned hand? Eesh.
9. I REALLY hope they explore more of Callie (and therefore, Egon’s) background story. That scene where Trevor’s in that attic…aw.
10. DRONE TRAP!!! Next level! Fans lost their minds with the RTV…someone will surely try to build a model of a freaking FLYING ghost trap.
11. Modified proton packs? Makes sense now, that thing can FREEZE the positron stream! WHAT!?
12. Grooberson’s driving Ecto 1! F*ck yeah, Paul Rudd!
13. LIBRARY GHOST IS BACK!
14. So how does Kumail Nanjiani’s character come into possession of that mysterious golden orb? I’m still thinking it’s his apartment with the secret door.
15. Imagine being an old time NYC firefighter and seeing men frozen to death, in fear. When did NYFD form, I wonder?
16. Patton Oswalt is the new Ray…love it.
17. Bill Murray…still got it, man.
18. Swear to god that’s his old orange jacket from the first movie.
19. OK…on one hand, Gil and Jason are probably not counting the GB Video Game as part of the canon, and yet, the IDW comic universe IS built on some plot points of the game. So…does the PCOC exist in Frozen Empire? Is Peck mayor? Perish the thought?
20. Bring on the mischievous Mini-Pufts! Evidently some survived the “Summerville Massacre.”
21. PLEASE have Egon’s unknown life history be in the story somewhere, PLEASE Gil and Jason! It’s almost 10 years since the world lost Harold Ramis…PLEASE pay his beloved character some more tribute.
22. I have to admit…I do like Annie Potts back with not just her red hair, but those new blue-frame glasses. Good nod to the animated series, I will bow to that piece of fan service, not sorry.
TWO MORE MONTHS!!!
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