Seriously Geeky Sundays – Father Figures

It’s Fathers Day here in the UK (I got mine some technical guides on lathing, bless him), so once again I am hopping aboard the almighty Seriously Geeky Sundays train, with the talented Heather at the helm, to once more answer some of her excellent questions…

Question 1 – Who is Your Favourite Fictional Dad?

There are great many excellent fictional fathers out there, but only one will ever take the crown, even if he is a bumbling, ill tempered layabout with a miraculous skill to survive any situation, no matter how dire the consequences are. I speak, of course, of Homer J. Simpson!

What can I possibly say about TV’s most beloved dimwit that hasn’t already been said? He is the safety inspector at a nuclear power station yet has no idea what his job actually entails, spends most of his time at Moe’s tavern drinking Duff beer and, it is widely opined, is punching way above his weight with Marge. Yet he’s also led a cult, survived the wilderness, had a helper monkey, saved Christmas, survived a house fire, had a supposedly fossilized angel in his garage and even saved Springfield from destruction!

Yep, for such an absolute goofball he sure has had a busy life, he’s even been to space, yet despite all of it his most memorable scenes are those tender moments where he connects with his family and defends his massively haired wife’s honour.

Question 2 – Who is Your Favourite Evil Dad?

I’ve tried to think of all of the evil dads out there, in video games, books, movies, the works. But only one keeps coming to mind. You may know him, wears a lot of black, breathing difficulties?

Yeah, it’s Anakin Skywalker himself, aka ole Darth Vader, dark lord of the Sith. As my previous question’s entry famously ruined, he is indeed original trilogy protagonist Luke Skywalker’s father, somewhere inside all of that armour and cyborginess, and when that was revealed in The Empire Strikes Back, audiences lost it. Goodly, hero Luke had that evil space knight/wizard for a dad?

Whilst Hayden Christensen certainly had his critics playing him in the prequel trilogy (he wasn’t the worst thing about those movies in my opnion), the character will always be remembered for James Earl Jones’s voice work, that voice is as iconic as they come.

Darth Vader’s most badass scene? His appearance during the battle at the end of Rogue One, where he cuts through rebel soldiers like a hot lightsaber through butter, what a scary space badass!

Question 3 – Who is Your Favourite Father Figure/Mentor?

For this one I’m going to go with Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Rupert Giles. He’s not only the high school librarian, he’s a professional monster hunter who passes his knowledge onto Buffy Summers and her ragtag collection of friends.

He stuck out for me because he’s a stuffy British guy living in California (sticks out like a sore thumb in all that tweed), has no grasp whatsoever on youth culture and being “cool” and will put his life on the line without a second thought to help the gang out. He was also fantastic in a flashback episode where he was a bit more of a bad boy, which the ever fantastic Anthony Stewart Head clearly enjoyed portraying!

Question 4 – Who is Your Favourite Unconventional Father/Mentor?

I had to have a good think about this one, but I have to go with Talos from Captain Marvel. Talos is an agent of the Skrull, a shape changing alien species that have been at war with the beleaguered Kree empire for decades and are responsible for many terrorist acts. Right from the start Talos and his agents are very much the bad guys, until the beginning of the third act where we learn that… they really aren’t.

The Kree have, through clever propaganda, twisted the truth of the matter, the Skrull are merely trying to survive against the relentless expansion of the Kree empire and are trying to get their families to safety, we even meet Talos’s wife and child toward the end of the movie, after many twists and turns, to see that they are a normal family like any other.

So yeah, whilst he may be unconventional as they come, this misunderstood master of disguise is definitely worth of our love!

Question 5 – What is Your Favourite Child/Father Scene?

The ending of Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

Hear me out here, people! John Connor never met his father, on account of the first Terminator sent through time killing him just after he had conceived John in some pokey motel. When a second Terminator comes back to defend John from an even more powerful third cyborg assassin, young Connor inevitably develops a bit of a father/son relationship with the robotic, Schwarzenegger looking guy.

And so we get to the endgame. The liquid metal T1000 has been defeated, but Arnold cannot rest, for all evidence of the future technology must be destroyed, including poor Arnold himself. The raw emotion as John watches his newfound father figure and rescuer lower himself into the liquid metal on a chain, disappearing from sight with that now iconic thumbs up gesture.

I think I need to go and have a sit down now…

Question 6 – What is Your Favourite Quote From a Fandom About Fathers/By a Father?

I racked and racked my brains on this one, so many geekdoms, so many fathers, but could I think of a quote? No I most certainly could not! So I’ll have to go with probably cinema’s greatest claim to fatherdom:

“Luke, I am your father!”

Bit of a cop out, I know, but it kept storming to the front of my brain! I’ll probably think of ten more the moment I hit “publish”…

Well, thanks for joining me, be you a father or not, and I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts! I’m father to two cats myself, cheaper than children though you cannot play video games with them! See you next time gang!