Gotta say, I love having these winter dates to catch Ghostbusters news year round!
Building up to today.....
What's happened since last year....
-Ghostbusters 4 delayed by the fucking strikes. 😡
-New GB4 release date is March 29th, 2024. 🥺
Yep, it's gonna be all about Frozen Empire for a bit!
So!! Afterlife stuff!!
Afterlife is still on Starz reruns.
I still watch it when it's not in conflict with Trek or Outlander.
My thoughts on it by now...
I used to hate the ball-busting dynamic of Lucky and Trevor, but I get it now!
Lucky isn't Dana, she's Peter!
Trevor is the Dana! It's a reversal!
I get it now. I'm slow sometimes, but I (almost) always catch up.
On Egon being a dick and a loon, I can kinda accept now.
Us X-ers have elevated Egon into a big perfect hero in our heads, and the cartoon version probably helped along with that...
But ignore the cartoon; ignore how much you love Harold Ramis; really look at only movie Egon.
Right in the beginning of the first movie, we hear that he tried to trepan himself, and Peter saved him.
Later, Janine flirts with him, and he pulls the "I collect spores, molds, and fungus" line.
He's deliberately keeping her at arm's length.
"I collect spores, molds, and fungus" is the hyper-nerd version of Pee-Wee's "you don't want to get mixed up with a guy like me, Dotty. I'm a loner...a rebel!".
Then we see when he describes the Ivo Shandor cult in the jail cell towards the end of the movie, he's kinda into it. He kind of has a doomsday hardon.
I think he keeps potential partners away because of his doomsday fixation, and I think he's reckless with his life because of it. Hence the trepanning attempt.
Plus, knowing there's an afterlife probably helps too.
I think Peter, Ray, and Winston know he has these quirks, and help each other babysit him out of self harm more often than we know.
Now, assume this version of Egon, and apply it to "Afterlife".
Ghostbusting dries up. The guys have to find other ways to pay the bills and buy food.
Peter and Winston drift away to do their own things.
Ray no longer has them to help babysit Egon's crazy.
The way they break up goes exactly as you'd expect.
Ray not believing him about the Gozer cave?
Ray's as much a true-believer as Dan Aykroyd for real.
How does he not believe him?
He believes everything.
My slow ass finally figured this out.
Ray is "the heart of the Ghostbusters".
Egon breaks Ray's heart.
It's not ghosts Ray doesn't believe in anymore, it's Egon.
It just manifests as tuning out whatever Egon has to say.
As for Egon staying out of Callie's life, I think it's partly him not wanting human connections because of his doomsday certainty thing, partly some extenuating circumstances we can never know, like why Jamie in Outlander can't reveal himself to his son.
But mostly, the doomsday thing.
We see on his bulletin board of Callie pics, a note written by him saying something like "finding myself forming a bond in spite of myself".
It's a "blink and you'll miss it" thing.
I think him being dragged along by his thawed out heart into loving Callie made him run off with the equipment to try to stop doomsday instead of just watching it with popcorn.
And I really do think popcorn was plan A.
So...why did he continue to stay away from Callie?
I think he had stayed away too long.
Even his ghost is awkward about the reunion.
Frankly, I think Harold Ramis actually would have approved of this sad dark version of Egon.
Unlike Mark Hamill, who whined about grumpy "get off my lawn" Luke.
So, yeah, not out of character after all.
Just out of what we thought the character was from playing with our toys.
Well, just like with "Last Jedi" Luke.
Except, I got it with Luke.
Took me awhile for Egon for some reason.
Still....wish actual screen time of the movie had fleshed this out, instead of me having to play detective.
But it's all there if you have eagle eyes, and/or see the flick a jillion times.
So, yeah, that's where I am with the flick now on year 2.
Anyway, my ranking is still GB1, Afterlife, GB2, ATC.
We'll see where we are after Frozen Empire.
Stay tuned!
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