The Crime a Moose Can Get Away With
A Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose and Green Lantern: The Animated Series "Prisoner of Sinstro" Comparison
Who is more corrupt or unjustified in choosing to let people die: the future supervillain, Sinestro, or a big-hearted moose?
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose Plot
The plot starts with Thidwick inviting one Bingle-Bug who's in some mild discomfort to ride on his antlers. The Bingle-Bug invites more "guests" to live on Thidwick's horns without Thidwick's permission, who cause him pain. Guests point out and exploit his "big-heartedness" and say he's made his horns a "public hotel", which is certainly not the case. One guest, a Zinn-a-Zu bird, causes him physical harm by plucking out 204 of the hairs on his head to make a bird nest on his antlers; another guest, a woodpecker, drills into his antlers and causes him pain. The guests' sheer peskiness, and Thidwick's belief he can't remove them because they're his "guests", make his other moose friends leave him.
The seasons change to winter, and his other moose friends leave for better feeding grounds on the far southern shore of the lake. Though there's no more food ("moose-moss") for Thidwick to eat there anymore, the guests say Thidwick has no right to take their "home", his horns, to the far end of the lake. More and more guests pile onto him, including fleas and a hive of bees.
Then he's pursued by Harvard Club Hunters shooting at him with a bullets like hail, all while carrying 500 pounds' worth of guest-weight. Cornered at a spit over the lake after an exhausting chase, Thidwick realizes all moose shed their antlers at this day in winter, and throws his antlers, guests aboard, off himself and into the direction of the hunters, as he joins his moose friends at the other end of the lake. In the final page, thereâs view of his old shed horns on the wall of the Harvard Club, with the following:
"His old horns today are
where you knew they would be.
His guests are still on them,
all stuffed [taxidermied], as they should be."
"Prisoner of Sinestroâ Plot
In "Prisoner of Sinestro", the Green Lantern Sinestro saves a mysterious alien, Neuroxsis, from a space-frigate run by the Spider Guild, an organization known to torture and devour prisoners in its care. In a homage to the film The Thing, Neuroxsis unpredictably âmind-jumpsâ from one person to another, using their bodies to try to kill the others crew members.
After realizing whatâs happening, Sinestro creates a foolproof way to determine whoâs under Neuroxsisâs control at any given time: he depressurized the spaceship. Neuroxsisâ possible hosts all wield âpower ringsâ, devices linked to the bearersâ minds which will only create life-support fields for the individual users under the dangerous conditions if the users are presently in control of their bodies. Sinestro claims the shipâs cell for prisoners (âthe âSciencellââ) is the only room still pressurized; Neuroxsis will have to jump back to his body inside the Sciencell to save itself.
Though Neuroxsis does jump back to his body, Sinestro later reveals he âmust have forgot [he] compromised the chamberâs sealâ when the escaped the cell himself earlier in the episode. Though he easily could have saved Neuroxsis while he was in a state of shock from being unable to breathe, he did not. As Neuroxsis dies, he says âJustice is servedâ, and explains what happened to another character, Hal Jordan, who did not witness the interaction:
Sinestro: "I must have damaged the venting system when I escaped. The criminal's body suffocated before his mind returned." (not true)
Hal Jordan: "Thaal...the Green Lantern codeâŚ"
Sinestro: "I didn't kill him, Jordan. I simply didn't save him...in time. A tragic accident. Perhaps it's for the best---you wouldn't want Neuroxsis getting loose on Oa, would you?"
Similar Antagonists
The pest-guests and Neuroxsis have some broad similarities: they exploit the protagonist(s)â kindness, take over their body or bodies without consent and override their desires, and deliberately harm their targetsâ body or bodies.
Thidwickâs houseguests âtook over his bodyâ in the sense of physically burdening him up to the point he had to carry 500 pounds while fleeing the Harvard Club hunters, plucking out 204 hairs from his head to make a nest (when there was no information saying it was the only option, at that), âoutvotingâ him from swimming to the other side of the lake, and leaving him in an area where there was no more food. The houseguests also mistreated Thidwick for months, judging by the passage of the seasons. Neuroxsis takes over crewmatesâ bodies more directly: his species can explicitly âtake over anotherâs body and willâ, and the person so taken over does not recall what the mind-jumper has done with them afterward. Neuroxsisâs motives are more sinister: he jumps from person to person to get them to kill each other, ostensibly to get to Oa with no witnesses or suit its murderous desires. Unlike with the pest-guests, Neuroxsis's mistreatment lasts for hours, at most.
Though the pest-guestsâ decisions would lead to Thidwick likely dying of starvation, Neuroxsisâs whole goal was killing everyone. Unlike for Neuroxsis, the pest-guests wouldnât actually benefit from Thidwickâs death.
Morality of âNot Savingâ
Both Thidwick and Sinestro choose to ânot saveâ the antagonists, in situations where they believed the protagonists would die without intervention.
Thereâs some ambiguity between how much Thidwick understands of the huntersâ motives and their actual motives. They say they âmust get his head for the Harvard Club wallâ, not specifically âantlersâ. If Thidwick can understand humans, perhaps he would have thought the Harvard Club Hunters only wanted to kill him for the wall, and the guests would be safe, if annoyed that Thidwick shed his antlers. However, they did take his head-less antlers (plus pest-guests) at the end. The line âHis old horns today are where you knew they would beâ suggests it can be expected the hunters would be interested in his head-less horns, even though they claimed to specifically want Thidwickâs head. If Thidwick thought there was a high chance the hunters would kill the pest-guests, he committed a murder-by-inaction, or wanted them dead and let the hunters do the dirty work.
Sinestroâs legal guilt is also ambiguous. Itâs unclear whether Thaal didnât remember his method of escape compromised the Sciencellâs integrity until later on, or whether he was outright lying when he said the Sciencecell would be safe. Either way, given how quickly he fixed the seal later, he clearly avoided easy methods of saving Neuroxsisâs life that would not put himself at risk of harm. He wanted the outcome of Neuroxsis dying: when Neurxosis is dead, he unnervingly says âJustice is served.â and tells Hal: âPerhaps it's for the best---you wouldn't want Neuroxsis getting loose on Oa, would you?"
What Does the Work Think?
Both Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose and Prisoner of Sinestro have meta-messages framing charactersâ actions.
At first, the narrative of Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose suggests Thidwick is doing the best he can in this situation, accommodating his 'guests' and not being rude. However, the description later shifts from âguestsâ to âpestsâ, and the narrative calls Thidwick âpoor Thidwickâ (as in âpitiableâ) and blames the pest-guests for Thidwick being trapped. The final line is most condemning: âHis guests are still on them, all stuffed as they should beâ. The book, therefore, shows a meta-message of the guests being terrible people who should be punished with death, rather than only illustrating their deeds and charactersâ reactions to them.
In âPrisoner of Sinestroâ, everyone knew before Neuroxsisâ death that he was one of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy, though no one knew for what at first. By the moral standards of the show and real life, thatâs not enough information to determine whether Neuroxsis should be killed or ânot savedâ, After all, one of the crewmates, Razer, was originally a criminal in the hateful, cult-like Red Lanterns: he acted to kill thousands of people, his actions led to the death of one Green Lantern, and, like Neuroxsis, he was once held captive in a Spider Guild prison. While Neuroxsis is portrayed as scary when people figure out whatâs happening, when Neuroxsis is dying, the treatment shifts. The musical cues while Sinestro lets Neuroxsis die, Neuroxsisâs weak flopping and pained breathing noises, and Sinestroâs unsettling dialogue conveys the feelings of âSinestro is morally suspectâ and âSinestro letting him die is sad and scaryâ.
If oneâs aware of outside materials, Sinestroâs actions are further cemented as immoral. In many Green Lantern works, Sinestro later founds the evil Sinestro Corps who gain their power by terrifying others. In contrast, Thidwickâs choice never leads to his descent into evil, no one criticizes his choices, and everything is perfectly happy for him in the end. (Unfortunately, the author cannot find the plot of All Aboard Thidwick, written by a different author and ostensibly a sequel of sorts.)
Who is More âEvilâ?
If the ship (other than the Sciencecell) were still depressurized, even if Sinestro sealed the Sciencell up again and saved Neuroxsisâ life, Neuroxsis couldnât mind-jump into another host without risking suffocation within seconds. He could have been safely contained, so Sinestro did not ânot saveâ Neuroxsis as the only way to preserve his own life or the life of others.
One could argue Thidwick simultaneously distracting the hunters and lightening his load by throwing his horns to them was the only way Thidwick could survive. However, Thidwickâs smile before and during the part he throws his horns, and the insouciant attitude of his dialogue in that moment, make his thinking awfully suspicious. He isnât troubled at all by the possible fate of his pest-guests when he ends up with his moose-friends at the other end of the lake, either.
Both situations might fall into the legal idea of âduty to rescueâ. In the words of Wikipedia, itâs a concept that states âa party can be held liable for failing to come to the rescue of another party who could face potential injury or death without being rescued.â Who should be persecuted? Who is more corrupt, or unjustified in his actions: a Seuss moose or Sinestro?
