#sidenote that milligan was my fuckin rock during the books

[captain-lonagan]

literally nobody here follows me for the mysterious benedict society but the thing that bothers me most about the disney plus version is that they changed who the bad guys are in a meta way. like yes it’s all the same names (plus an evil scientist?) and locations but like. the bad guy here has changed.

like, let’s take a look at the first mbs book:

for context please remember it came out in 2007. it’s a Bush presidency publication and was written during the Bush presidency. all the adult characters are being freaked out by The Emergency and demanding a leader that takes action. The Emergency is a fake crisis being broadcasted directly into people’s brains by an angry old man that wants control over everything. jackson and jillson are tall and athletic and prone to violence (to this day i don’t think any book character has inspired the amount of raw fear those two inspired in me). mr benedict is calm and collected, when he gets his hands on the brain sweeper he puts it in a room full of abstract, soft colored walls and basically makes it a therapy machine to heal me curtain’s brain sweeper victims. number two, rhonda, and benedict are all odd but nonetheless very capable adults. mr curtain is loud and does not give a flying fuck about his students outside of their use in the brain sweeper. classes at the institute are all repetition of phrases and fake facts. when kate and constance are falling behind in classes because they’re not great at memorizing random bullshit, Reynie is the one that decides they should cheat and this is framed as a good idea by the narrative.

meanwhile in the disney show:

The Emergency is pretty much the same but mr curtain is a calm, collected man in a neat suit. he’s a very PC businessman and plays nice with his workers 90% of the time. he loves his son (SQ is in the books but he is Not mr curtain’s son and whether or not mr curtain cares about him at all is eeeeeh). mr benedict, number two, and rhonda all bicker constantly. mr benedict proposes cheating and this is framed as a great moral failing. jackson and jillson are stuck up preps that will rat on you, but theres no moment in the show where you fear for the kids lives when jackson and jillson are alone with them. the institute is full of colors and minimalist abstract designs. it looks like the college my grandpa told me not to go to because he said it would make me communist. mr curtain checks on his classes and some of the classes are all fun brain games meant to encourage creative, out of the box thinking.

i understand having the change things when doing book-to-screen adaptations. some things that work to deliver a message/story on paper don’t work on camera, it’s fine that those things are adjusted so that the story and Vibes can get through. the problem i have with the mbts changes is that they don’t change the story to fit the screen, they change the story to fit disney. they change who the bad guy is.