When I was a kid, my cousins and my brother and I would play "make-believe anything". No, that's not what we called it, but we were really, really into this make-believe business. We acted out anything from our own hot creative mess of a Mighty Mutant Morphin' Club to The Boxcar Children to camping with a blanket over four chairs until we grew so big, one of our cousins was inevitably stuck sleeping "outside under the stars". And we loved to pretend we were Captain Planet's Planeteers. We even made our own paper rings, we were that legit yo.
Except whenever we played make-believe, my brother - the youngest - always got stuck with the less than heroic role. We were always "saving" him and he was always getting "hurt" or "kidnapped" and he could never ever be Fire because my older cousin already got dibs, but we tried to pretend his Earth power was still cool. Usually by going "AHHHHH!" and staggering around the room whenever he brandished his ring and belted out, "EARTH!" Like we were in some epic earthquake.
I remember now that we must have fed him some line such as you can play Earth and Heart. Two powers! What a bargain! But honestly, years later, I couldn't even remember there was a Heart person until a friend recently mentioned it in a late night conversation. Why were we discussing Captain Planet? Can't remember, don't ask haha.
Him: "No one ever wanted to play Heart. He was useless."Well, apparently, Heart can speak to animals ... and care about people a lot ... and I guess, recycle really well.
Me: "Heart? There's no element like that."
Him: "There is a Heart power. No lie. He was that short little kid with a monkey -"
Me: "OH! Wait ... what exactly did Heart do?"
Him: "Exactly. What does Heart do?"
So naturally, my little brother would gamely pretend to talk to a stuffed monkey for all of five seconds before "EARTH! EARTHQUAKE!"
"AHHHHH!"
This comic made me think of him and our cousins and our younger, more carefree years. Do I feel old.
If we had played this Guntron team though ... yeah, bro would probably have been the bullet. Haha.
I loved Captain Planet. LOVED. But you're right. Heart was completely pointless. Who cares about some who can love? You gotta be able to control a destructive force!!! :P
ReplyDeleteWord. Haha! Captain Planet was the best. They don't make cartoons like that anymore. And I feel for Heart, I do. But no kids wants to sit there and empathize with people and animals when you can wield the magical (and okay, destructive) forces of the elements! Haha. It's like Dr. Psychiatrist Dolittle vs. FIREEARTHWINDWATER!
ReplyDeleteThere is no competition. :(
This post made me feel nostalgic. Haha. My brother and I used to play make believe a lot too. We even tried pretending to be the Master and the Kung Fu student. I was always his young grasshopper who always failed to beat him. Haha.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Planet rocked! It was like Power Rangers but not really. =)
LOL! I know what you mean. Everything was so easy back then as a kid. I think my main worries back then revolved around keeping the points of my crayons nice and sharp and how to successfully get my team through Oregon Trail with no casualties haha.
ReplyDeleteAnd your Kung Fu Master shtick sounded awesome. Probably more so for your brother, I guess, but still good fun. When my brother and I played by ourselves, we'd pretend we were in a war zone and then he got blown up. One time when he fell to the ground, he managed to chafe his knee and he started bleeding and I nearly had a heart attack. I was speechless for a while and then I started blabbering, "I didn't REALLY hurt you! I didn't, right? It's not my fault, right?" Yeah, good times. Haha.
And oh yeah, Power Rangers! We pretended we were Power Rangers too haha. I was Yellow Ranger! Saber-Toothed Tiger! The original series was the best and none of their successors could ever live up to the original team for me.