Monday, August 31, 2015

Character Battle Round 2 - Blue Division -CLOSED-

Hello everyone, time for Round 2. We saw two or three interesting matches in Round 1, but now things get exciting. Green's first round closed today, so here's your updated bracket.


MATCH #1

Cory Matthews
CONTESTANT: Cornelius "Cory" A. Matthews
Portrayed By: Ben Savage (1993-2000, 2014-present)
First Episode: "Pilot"
Latest Episode: Ongoing
Signature Episodes: Christ. Like all of 'em. It's Cory. Here's one from each season though: "Teacher's Bet", "Danger Boy", "Brother Brother", "Wheels", "Things Change", "Better than the Average Cory", "Brave New World"
Episode Count: 192 (and counting) - only character to appear in every single episode of the Meets World franchise
Claim to Fame: Main character of Boy Meets World
Occupation: History teacher at John Quincy Adams Junior High
Approximate Age: 35
Current Status: Living in Manhattan
Strengths: Slavishly loyal, altruistic, reliable, can muster happiness and enthusiasm over the smallest things
Weaknesses: Neurotic, self-absorbed, hopelessly resistant to change, can muster paranoia and despair over the smallest things

vs.

Josh Matthews

CONTESTANT: Joshua "Josh" Gabriel Matthews
Portrayed By: Some Baby (1999), Daniel Jacobs (2000), Uriah Shelton (2014-present)
First Episode: "My Baby Valentine" (BMW: 6x16)
Latest Episode: "Girl Meets the Tell-Tale Tot" (GMW: 2x06) 
Signature Episodes: "Girl Meets First Date" (GMW: 1x20), Girl Meets the Tell-Tale Tot" (GMW: 2x06)
Episode Count: 7
Claim to Fame: Matthews family late addition, Riley's dreamboat uncle
Occupation: High school senior
Approximate Age: 17
Current Status: Living in Philadelphia, headed to NYC to attend NYU next year
Strengths: Charming, Cool, Loyal
Weaknesses: Flirts with children

THIS SET OF MATCHES IS CLOSED.
Cory has defeated Josh with 93% of the vote against 7%.

MATCH #2

Frankie Stecchino

CONTESTANT: Francis "Frankie" Albert Stecchino Jr. AKA Frankie the Enforcer
Portrayed By: Ethan Suplee (1994-1998)
First Episode: "Back 2 School"
Latest Episode: "Graduation"
Signature Episodes: "Cyrano", "New Friends and Old", "Sixteen Candles and Four-Hundred Pound Men"
Episode Count: 19
Claim to Fame: High school bully, taciturn poet
Occupation: Unknown, planning to be a criminal last we heard
Approximate Age: 40
Current Status: Unknown
Strengths: Soulful, Poetic, Strong
Weaknesses: Shy, Insecure, Prone to violence

vs.

Stuart Minkus
CONTESTANTStuart Minkus
Portrayed By: Lee Norris (1993-1994, 1998, 2014-present)
First Episode: "On the Fence"
Latest Episode: "Girl Meets Maya's Mother
Signature Episodes: Any of 'em
Episode Count: 21 (more on the way)
Claim to Fame: Nerd, Cory's middle school nemesis, Farkle's father
Occupation: President and CEO of Minkus International
Approximate Age: 35
Current Status: Living in Manhattan
Strengths: Genius intellect, driven, successful in all endeavors but one
Weaknesses: Won't take no for an answer, taught his son that behavior, kind of spiteful

THIS SET OF MATCHES IS CLOSED.
Frankie has defeated Minkus with 56% of the votes against 44%.

16 comments:

  1. Have to go with Cory over Josh. Nothing against Josh, but Cory was the Boy Meeting the World and now is in the Feeny role leading the next generation. He will be hard to beat in any round.

    While I really loved Stuart Minkus in season 1 BMW (his banter with Shawn was classic and his unrequited love for Topanga sad) Frankie was a more rounded character to me, so he got my vote. If Stuart appears more each year in GMW and has growth I might change my opinion in the future, but today I vote for the warrior poet that is Frankie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. At last!

    I voted for Cory over Josh. How couldn't I? At annoying as Cory can be at times, without him, there would be no show. Or, possibly, Topanga stays a hippie flower child forever, Shawn never befriends anyone who encourages him to reach for more, Eric likely doesn't develop his willingness to help others as quickly as he did, Riley and Auggie are never born, Morgan...stays more or less the same. Yeah, we NEED Cory.

    I also voted Frankie over Stuart. As much as I like Stuart Minkus, I have a greater appreciation for watching Frankie. Gentle Giants are among my favorite character archetypes. Frankie's evolution from bully to Cory's friend, probably his closest high school friend who isn't Shawn (and to be fair, only friend who isn't Shawn at the time) is something I'll never get tired of watching.

    And besides, Frankie was in "Turkey Day," and in my book, that's the best example of a textbook "Boy Meets World" episode. It has everything: Involved Feeny, Loyal Cory, Proud Shawn Who Doesn't Walk Out In A Huff, Funny Eric, Life Lesson from Alan. And Frankie's in there too. So yeah, definitely Frankie over Stuart.

    Though I do wonder whether or not the more unpleasant aspects of Farkle's personality were taught to him by Stuart rather than Jennifer Basset.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have to agree that Turkey Day is probably the best holiday episode BMW ever did. Only the New Year's Eve on the subway was close. Isn't is also sad that as you point out Frankie is Cory's best friend from high school that isn't Shawn or Topanga (though I guess you could argue for Angela). I guess that it's hard to show us everyone he interacts with in 22 minutes 23 times a year. After seeing GMW, one might wonder if Harley and Cory became friends while Cory was still attending John Adams, as Harley's stories make is seem as if they have been friends a long time, not just since Cory started teaching at JQA.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, "Turkey Day" is probably the episode I'd show to anybody who's never seen "Boy Meets World" before. Oh, and Milestone1958 if you're reading this, uh uh--you have to watch the DVDs properly. No cheating.

      Frankie's friendship with Cory works precisely because it's so understated, yet they clearly do go out of their way to help each other.

      You forget that Harley's a good five to six years older than Cory, even factoring in the time jumps. To him, Cory is still good ol' Johnny Baboon.

      To borrow from Star Wars, Han Solo is ten years older than Luke and even though they met when Luke was on the cusp of adulthood, Han still called him 'Kid.' So, while I don't think that Cory and Harley became friends until relatively recently, there's no reason for Harley, who's probably very sentimental about the past given his affection for his sister, not to refer to Cory as the kid who helped him out.

      Delete
    3. They definitely were not friends in high school. Harley was expelled in Season 2, and only came back to John Adams once more, where he and Cory met and were as acrimonious as ever. I doubt they reconnected until adulthood. Isn't it established that Cory helped Harley get this job? My guess is Harley reached out and apologized to Cory for his behavior in the past and also kind of demonstrated that he was down on his luck and Cory did a good deed and got him a job. I guess they're friends, but I still don't consider them, like, particularly close. I doubt they ever see each other outside of work.

      No, Cory did not have a lot of friends. It's partly because he's a TV character, and TV character's social groups tend to be limited to the other characters, and for a long time there was only one character designated "Cory's friend". But also, I kinda think Cory and Shawn just didn't really need other friends. You can say it's sad he only had one friend, but that friendship was likely closer than any we've ever had, if we're being hoenst.

      Delete
    4. I agree Turkey Day is the best holiday episode. I'm also a fan of A Very Topanga Christmas, but I believe Shawn didn't like that one.

      I'm not a fan of a "Train of Fools", the NYE one. "Easy Street"'s also pretty bad.

      Delete
    5. I wound up going down the rabbit hole quite a bit with regards to the holidays. I'm really sorry about that, Christian. Once I started, I figured, might as well finish the thoughts.

      Yeah, the most I could see in terms of outside school interaction is Harley and Cory playing a game of poker together with the Gym Teacher and some other extra. Which is still mostly inside school interaction, but I digress.

      I love "Turkey Day," though I think "Santa's Little Helper" (Season One) is a very worthy second, not the least of which is that it's from Season One.

      "Girl Meets World" has a mixed record on holiday specials. "Farkle's Choice," despite being VERY early in the production order, aired around Valentine's Day, I think third-to-last, and it's pretty bad. I know it isn't technically a holiday episode, but I think the Valentine's airing was deliberate.

      "Home for the Holidays" is, I think too ambitious and even allowing for that, the pacing isn't great; there's drama in Maya's accusation of Shawn making Riley feel bad and then it just cuts to dinner like nothing really happened. Also, "HfrH" tries to tell too many stories--Cory and Shawn, Shawn and the Girls, Topanga and the Mother-in-law, Alan and Auggie and Josh.

      Maybe I'd have done it as a two-parter to buff up the storylines--give Amy an excuse for her behavior: she's upset that Eric and Morgan couldn't make it and she's directing it at Topanga; more Alan scenes in general because Alan is awesome.

      Or maybe I'd have split the family--have Shawn pop in for Cory's birthday in another episode or something. That allows for more time to tell the story.

      In any case, Shawn doesn't exactly make a case that he DOES care about Riley when he goes off on how he was there the day she was born. Duh, he's the one who probably had to drive them to the hospital since the Matthews brothers and pressure do not mix.
      More to the point, it can be inferred that Riley believes he doesn't know her birthday, much less her favorite food or color. Which means Shawn might never have sent her a birthday card.

      Shawn Hunter, go sit in the corner and think about what you did! And you have detention! And I'm telling on you to Alan Matthews!

      Do birthdays count for holiday episodes? "Wheels" tends to annoy me with Cory's bad attitude, even though I like the Judge/Balloon Artist. "Master Plan" is, while not par with "Turkey Day" or "Little Helper" at least as good as "Little Helpers (Season 7). Very good for the season.

      Oh and uh...Christian...never mind, let's see how long it takes you to notice.

      Delete
    6. Cryptid456-"To borrow from Star Wars, Han Solo is ten years older than Luke and even though they met when Luke was on the cusp of adulthood, Han still called him 'Kid.' So, while I don't think that Cory and Harley became friends until relatively recently, there's no reason for Harley, who's probably very sentimental about the past given his affection for his sister, not to refer to Cory as the kid who helped him out."

      This is so true! I loved the "Star Wars" reference.

      I agree with Christian, that Cory and Harley rarely see each other and interact outside of school. I thought it was pretty well established on GMW that Harley as an adult was going through a serious rough patch, and that Corey did him a giant favor getting him a job as a janitor.

      Delete
  3. Birthday episodes are not holiday episodes as far as I am concerned. As much as I like Topanga, "A Very Topanga Christmas" just didn't do it for me. And of course, they don't do continuity so in "Home for the Holidays" I was waiting to see if the Matthews served cider or eggnog, but of course the writers ignored that point totally.

    I do realize the age difference between Harley and Cory and I can agree that Cory and Harley probably didn't reconcile until Cory was teaching, but like I said to hear Harley tell his stories to the kids, Cory changed him back in high school, and we know better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well...Cory's actions might have started the change. His gentlemanly actions concerning Theresa convinced Harley not to rip Cory's ears off. I don't know, maybe Harley just fixated what good he has in his life on Cory. Cory was good to Theresa; Theresa is happy; if Theresa is happy, then Harley is marginally happier.

      That's a good point about the cider and eggnog. But there is something--when Josh and Auggie interrupt Cory and Shawn, Auggie says "Mom says it's time to open presents." So it's apparently after Christmas dinner. So it looks like a new tradition entirely--opening presents on Christmas night, rather than Eve or Christmas morning.

      Delete
    2. Truthfully we don't know if the celebration actually happened on Christmas. Many times families doing big gatherings get together as close to the holiday as they can, whenever most of them can get there. Seeing that Svorski's was open for business, I would guess that it wasn't Christmas Day and could have been Christmas Eve or even the following day.

      I know I'm picking nits here, but I've got nothing else to do here while watching my Mets beat Cory's Phils for the 10th straight time.

      Delete
    3. That's true. It might be a few days early, since Cory is just finishing trimming the tree.

      One other thing--apparently, Cory and Topanga do not do Santa Claus for Auggie. A little surprising, but maybe Topanga didn't want to lie to her kids.

      And no Christmas Carol reading either. Shame, Riley falling asleep on Shawn's shoulder while Cory reads from Feeny's favorite book would have been a great way to show Shawn does care about his niece.

      Darn the rabbit hole for making us talk about Christmas episodes on the last day of August. It's all the rabbit hole's fault.

      Delete
  4. Cory over Josh: This is in no way meant to downgrade anything about the character Josh, or Uriah Shelton. Its just he's up against Cory Matthews. That's a losing battle for many. I do look forward to seeing more from Josh, though.

    For me, I went Minkus over Frankie here. As I said before, I think Minkus was a vastly under utilized character, and a lot of the early stuff on the show worked because Minkus was a foil. It's a shame they really didn't use him more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree that Stuart Minkus was a great character. If I could change one thing about BMW it would be Stuart and Jason remain and both are regulars and Jack and Rachel were never introduced.

      I'm sure I'll draw some hate for that, but we all enjoy different aspects of the show.

      Delete
  5. I'm going to admit that I made the shocking decision of voting for Joshua over Cory. Thinking back to Boy Meets World I obviously regret voting that now, but I think the reason why I did vote for Joshua is because he's been a more interesting influence on Maya than Cory. That's not to say he's still a more interesting character than Cory, I think just at the time I was giving more thought and weight to his episodes.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well it's hard not to vote for Cory considering his importance to the series as a whole. Plus he's more a well round character in BMW, than Josh has yet to mange in GMW. Thought to be fair he has less screen time.

    Frankie over Minkus. I like both but if we look at both series as a whole, Stuart is the one to suffer the most from GMW thus far. His continued obsession/rivalry with Topanga, failing marriage, and his son's stalker-ish tendencies don't reflect well on him and makes it seem like he hasn't progressed any since sixth grade.
    That may all change with future episodes, but for right now Frankie just has the most character development.

    ReplyDelete