Friday, August 16, 2013

Spike vs. Soos - Character Comparisons

The character comparisons continue!  Just a brief warning, there will be some minor spoilers ahead, so in unless you've seen the season 1 finale of Gravity Falls or just don't care, turn back now.  Anyway, once again, if you don't know much about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic go here:

http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/videos

And if you don't know much about Gravity Falls, go here:

http://disneychannel.disney.com/gravity-falls

Today, we'll be getting into two characters that are... just about as similar as they are different. 



Here's the overview!

Spike is a major character, if not one of the main characters of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  He is a baby dragon, hatched from an egg by Twilight Sparkle as part of her entrance exam to get into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.  He has since been, shall we say, "adopted" by Twilight, and now lives with her as her personal assistant.  Being a baby dragon, as well as the only boy of the group, he can be very immature and selfish at times, though he still cares about his friends, and especially about Twilight.  When it comes to Twilight, even though he can be a bit thoughtless with the way he talks to her, he's willing to to just about anything for her.  When it comes to being an assistant, Spike is very competent and reliable, making him Twilight's "#1 assistant"!

Soos, which is short for his real name, Jesús, is a major character, if not one of the main characters of Gravity Falls.  He's a fully-grown "man-child" who is an employee of the Mystery Shack, doing a number of odd-jobs for his employer, Stan Pines.  Soos has been working at the Shack since he was 12, and thus is very attached to the Shack, and has a great amount of respect and admiration for Stan.  He also frequently joins Dipper and Mabel on their adventures, and is always willing to give them a helping hand.  Soos is rather clumsy and had a very child-like nature, but despite appearances to the contrary, he's turned out to be surprisingly competent when push comes to shove, which is probably why he's usually "employee of the month".

You can probably already see some similarities between the two characters.  Let's explore that, shall we?

-Both work for or otherwise assist one of the main characters of their respective shows.
-Both have a strong connection between the ones they work for.  With Spike, it's more of a psuedo-mother/son or sister/brother kind of relationship, whereas with Soos, it's either being a suck-up or borderline hero worship, which Stan rarely returns the feelings.
-Both have known the one they work for for a long time; Spike's known Twilight ever since he was born, and Soos has known Stan since he was 12, which was when he started working for Stan.
-They both do their jobs well, well enough to receive a distinct moniker; with Spike, it's being Twilight's "#1 assistant", with Soos, it's being "employee of the month".
-While not technically part of the "core" case, who are introduce in the intro theme of their respective shows, they ARE featured in said them, and also accompany the core group enough to be considered one of the main characters themselves.
-The both have a very childish personality, and love to goof off a lot of the time.
-Both are known to be "extreme omnivores", and are willing to (and typically do) eat just about anything.
-Both can be oblivious to the problems or concerns of others; with Spike it's insensitivity, but with Soos, it's more cluelessness.

I'd say that's a far amount of similarities, now let's move on to some differences...  Setting aside the fact that one's a dragon and one's human:

-Despite both being very child-like, Soos is clearly much older than Spike is.
-Spike doesn't know who his "true" family is, while Soos lives with his grandmother.
-Spike lives with the person...  er, pony he works with, while Soos doesn't...  Until Stan, Dipper, and Mabel briefly moved in with him and his grandmother when Gideon took the Mystery Shack.
-Spike is one of the shorter characters in the show, and perhaps the shortest main character.  Soos is the biggest character of the core cast.
-Spike can get irritated and annoyed easily with things he doesn't like or if he thinks other characters are acting stupid; Soos is a very mellow guy, and the only time he actually gets angry is when the subject of his weight is brought up (which, so far, has only been once).

Hmm...  well, that's all the differences I can think up, so here's an extra big of bonus info!

-Spike is based of a generation 1 character of the same name, from the original [i]My Little Pony[/i] TV show
-According to this interview with Stan himself, Soos was hired at the age of 12, after answering an ad that said "Looking for kid who don't ask a lot of questions and don't need a lot of money".
-Soos is named after creator Alex Hirsch's personal friend, Jesus Chambrot.

OKAY, that went great, as usual.  Again, if you have any other similarities or differences, or just have anything else to add, please comment!  And it wouldn't hurt to share this with anyone else if you like it enough...

No comments:

Post a Comment