#so I have a higher tolerance for toxic edgy bullshit

[hypodermicfroggy]

Coincidentally that last post is why I ended up leaving both City of Heroes servers I was originally in, a lot of those people were just utterly nightmarish comic book fans and people with authority complexes.

[the-musical-cc]

In the entire Ghostbusters franchise of film, TV, and games, who are your best characters?

TRICK QUESTION! ALL OF THEM EXCEPT RON. Nah, JK *cracks knuckles* here goes.

Look, thing is, I really love all the characters, particularly when those who didn’t get much of the limelight, like Peck, start getting more of a backstory, allowing me to better connect and understand them, but if I had to go for like my top six or whatever, this would be it:

Janine Melnitz (In any incarnation, really), Eduardo Rivera, Jillian Holtzmann, Garrett Miller, Egon Spengler (Again, any incarnation although dorky RGB Egon holds a special place in my heart), IDW Kylie Griffin and Patty Tolan. That’s the short-ish answer. My reasons? Under the cut ‘cause it’s gonna be long.

Janine Melnitz- It’s no secret to anyone who’s seen at even 5% of my GB posts that she’s my fave, but it’s not really an unbiased opinion, I guess. I watched the cartoon as a young kid and she was my favorite back then, so it makes sense that even now she’d still hold my heart. The games and films don’t really give us much detail about her, except for some vague generalities, but even these vague generalities make for a pretty lovable character. What’s not to love about this tough-as-nails, no-nonsense kinda character constantly surrounded by either scientific nonsense, sass or plain out bullshit? And yet she still finds the time to care. She’s full of love and rage in equal amounts and GOD, do I love it. The cartoon pretty much cements this and adds a layer of the weirdest mix of tomboyish attitude with flirty, playful charm- for most of the seasons, at least. I’m also a sucker for the kind of hero who doesn’t have the ‘Power’ to justify the ‘Responsibility’ but ACTIVELY chooses to take the responsibility either way, simply because they are that kind of person, which started as a tendency in the cartoon, having her grab the proton pack to fight when the need came and continued in the comics, both IDW and NOW. I could go on and on with reasons I love Janine, but this is long af already, lol, moving on.

Eduardo Rivera- I admit a good part of the soft spot I have for him stems from him being a latino guy (Probably of mexican descent, since he uses the term ‘Chamaco’ and I'm not sure other latin-american countries use it) but it’s mostly the context in which he is a ghostbuster. It’s like someone took the power-fantasy of one of those fans who think they own the material because they’ve liked it for years, and decided to go completely the other way. Eduardo is a bit of a smartass but more often than not it plays against him, he isn’t a chick magnet, isn’t a scientst like Egon or even scientifically inclined as Kylie or Roland, isn’t physically very strong like Garrett and has a bit of a scaredy-cat streak. In terms of people fit for being a ghostbuster, he’s probably at the bottom of the list. But he IS a ghostbuster, and a constant in the few episodes we got is him constantly failing to do as well as his team-mates and just trying to be better. Taking care of them as best as he can, trying very hard to feel like part of the team, refusing to back down when something isn’t going his way. He’s the real underdog story in GB, the way I see it, and I love it. I wish we’d gotten to see and know more of him than we did, but even with what little we got, I love him.

Jillian Holtzmann- I think she's a general fave in the new team and I can see why. If anyone ever wondered what a mad scientist would be like if they were on a sugar rush, Holtzy's the answer. She mixes a bit of the generally cooky vibe we got from the tech of the old team and how they used it or learned from it –with seemingly complete disregard for common sense unless Winston was there- with a higher energy and a more playful disposition. She's loud and rowdy and loves joking around. Geeky. Unsubtly gay but not really a token gay either. There is just so much about her that I needed to see in media when I was younger and I love that today's kids get to see. She's not all perfection either, under all that flare, she's still scared and insecure and a little bit lonely, but getting better. I generally love how the new team is so damn feelsy, because, dammit, I'm a sucker for team-as-family dynamic, but I really feel deeply for how awkward at her affection Holtzy is, and how patient and understanding the others are for it. It's just really wholesome.

Garrett Miller- I’m gonna be straight up and say a disabled Ghostbusters really made an impression on me back in the early 2000′s when ExGB was on in Canal 5. Before rewatching I couldn’t really remember much of it- hell, I was under the impression that Egon and Janine were an official couple in the series, for whatever reason? (I wonder if I just assumed because they were the group’s ‘Mom and dad’?) and didn’t even remember Eduardo having a crush on Kylie, but I DID remember Garrett clearly. How he looked, who his Latin-American dub actor was, his attitude... it just really stuck with me. Upon my rewatch I realized he was also one of my favorite types of character; he comes from all kinds of bad places in the sense of toxicity. Hung around would-be neo-nazis when he was young and adopted a lot of their attitudes without meaning to, has a generally bad attitude about asking or receiving help or accepting any sort of vulnerability, even though at times it comes back to bite him on the ass. He actively works towards getting better too, working on his empathy and tolerance for ways of thought that don’t match his, and that just really gets to me. Unlearning toxic behaviors is never easy, showing it as a struggle without making it a lecture through him really cemented Garrett as a fave.

Egon Spengler- What can I say. He was my crush as a kid in the cartoon (according to my mom, at least) and now as an adult, Ramis Egon is my crush. Embarrassing fangirlish-reasons aside, you gotta love a guy that's somehow figured out portable atomic lasers that catch ghosts but most likely has forgotten to eat for the past two days. He's the perfect mix between being a genius and being a dumbass. And I know a lot of fans find how he seems to find the emotional fields completely alien... cool? Even though, when you have problems reading other people's emotions IRL it's anything but? But what I love is the lengths he goes to try sometimes. It's clearly not easy for him to understand even his own feelings at times, always translating them to the intellectual approximate, but he's still constantly trying. And when he does get it right, like he clearly has with the companionship with the rest of the team, it's beautiful. It's glorious to see him act just a little bit immature with the rest of the guys when they pile on Peter or start teaming up to throw shade at someone. It's beautiful to see him being able to come out of his shell more and more, the more he learns how to. I guess that's what really gets me about him, thinking eventually everyone finds their place and their people with whom they can be more true to themselves.

IDW Kylie Griffin- Why specifically the comics Kylie? I feel like ExGB Kylie suffered from this thing in the late 90s, early 00's where they thought making a female character mean was a feminist thing; I appreciate the whole 'Women don't HAVE TO be agreeable or make men's feelings their priority' thing, but... I'm just not a fan of someone who constantly humiliates a person who has a crush on them simply because they can. IDW Kylie keeps the edge to her attitude but on a much more reasonable personality. She has little to no tolerance to bullshit- but still seems mindful of boundaries and of who deserves to be on the bad end of her temper and when. I'm tempted to say she's more 'Mature'. Less on the 'Edgy' side. What I love about her is how she balances the gloomy, goth aesthetic with a kind, eager to learn and help others type of personality, without this meaning she's a pushover or naïve in any way. Plus, she's both a dog AND a cat person. Sure, it's possible this was who the original Kylie was under all those layers of soapbox activism and 'Better than you' attitude, but I can't know for sure.

Patty Tolan: You know how a lot of people was whining about the way she spoke? Ironically dubbed as a 'Racist stereotype' even though the whole argument against 'Ghetto speech' is racist in it's core? But anyway, you know the way Patty expresses herself? If people would have bothered to listen to what she said rather than try and find reasons to get mad, they would have noticed that what she said and what she did was what mattered. They immediately saw a black woman, using a commonly regarded as 'Black' pattern of speech and stopped paying attention. A mistake, I think. Patty has a degree in History (Confirmed by IDW but I honestly thought as much before that) and is the most well-read of her team, on top of possibly being the only one of them with common sense that isn't over-whelmed by other thoughts, and having the most practical way of thinking that doesn't get too reliant on the ghostbusting gadgets. Patty singlehandedly puts the myths that looking or talking a certain way determines whether you're smart or not to rest, in what Ghostbuster respects, and I love her for it. I'm not gonna lie, it's also really impressive to see someone exorcise another person via slap. That's Phoenix Ikki level of badassness, and I will never be over it.

Thaaaat’s about it? Wtf this is so long. Thank you if you read all the way to here and I hope this answer was a good one.