#latabae

(Click for better quality)

A girl that can tie her shoe and one that can shoot you !

Solla design is a mix of Áfram and GGÍL bc i can (to destinguish her from Stephanie) im quite content with how it turned out.

Also : S h O r t S

So, uh... Lazytown was a thing during my adolescent years, but for me, only a thing I was aware of rather than a thing I was into. Even years later as I was becoming an adult and it had a revival, I only knew it through The Memes(TM). But late last year, partially on a whim and partially because August this year will mark the fifth anniversary of when a truly special, wonderful, and irreplaceable human being named Stefan Karl Stefansson tragically left this world, I decided to give Magnus Scheving’s original Icelandic stage play Áfram Latibær! and its direct sequel Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ (which introduced Stefansson as Glanni/Robbie) a watch. The first one was unironically fun but also super hokey and cheap in a lot of ways. The sequel was superior in almost all ways. Both of them got me in the mood to give a look to the TV show and see what I’d slept on (ha ha) for so long.

After having watched a few episodes here and there, I can say that this show...is basic. That’s really the best word for it. Worse childrens shows have been made, but better ones exist as well. Sometimes the writing is solid and will get a laugh out of me, other times it’s just dumb and eyeroll-inducing. I’m not a fan of the puppet characters and kind of check out when the focus is on them, the song and dance numbers can be hit or miss, Stephanie’s pretty cool when played by Julianna Rose Mauriello rather than Chloe Lang (more the material’s fault than Lang’s, she was a better Stephanie in her TikTok videos), and on that note I’m not even touching the Cartoonito Era of the show beyond the meme-worthy Robbie Rotten content it gave us. Also, how dare the show leave out Officer Obtuse, that is a crime!

But none of that matters because this post is really about the two characters pictured above - Robbie Rotten, played by the late and great Stefan Karl Stefansson, and Sportacus, played by Magnus Scheving himself. These two are what make the series for me. In the plays and the show, they’re the strongest elements. The actors’ portrayal of them is obviously a huge part of it (seriously, how the Hell was I sleeping on Robbie for so long? The guy’s legit hilarious!), but there’s something deeper that strikes me about them - they’re the best example of a Role Model VS an Anti Role Model I’ve ever seen.

What I mean by that is that Sportacus is the guy you like, you root for, and want to emulate in life. He’s there to make kids want to get more active, eat healthier, and make wiser life choices. Hell, he makes me want to get more active, eat healthier, and make wiser life choices! His athleticism and acrobatic abilities are like I’ve not seen since John Stork AKA Hyper-Strike on Who Wants To Be A Super Hero?, and his positive attitude and affable personality marks him as the Good Guy, the one you wish you could be like. ...But there’s always that awareness in the back of your mind that unless you are a very dedicated and talented pro gymnast like Magnus is, you will never be anywhere near as cool. You can follow in Sportacus’ footsteps but you cannot actually walk in them, it’s beyond you. Meanwhile, you’ve got Robbie Rotten, the guy you boo and hiss and enjoy watching as he gets thwarted, ridiculed, and bested every time he gets up to no good. You like him because he’s funny and not all that evil or dangerous (in the show, I mean - OG Glanni Glæpur was quite a different story), but do NOT want to emulate him and his lifestyle because it’s not at all subtle that he’s in the wrong, that sloth and gluttony are sins not to be encouraged in children. ...And yet, if you’re to be honest with yourself, you either know this guy or are this guy. You identify more with Robbie than with Sportacus because aside from the Jim Carrey-esque cartooniness and villainy, he’s more feasible. Any child could prefer to live more like how he does, and carry those preferences well into adulthood. It may not be healthy, but it’s easy, relaxing, self-gratifying and comfortably routine. Even if you’re better adjusted, you can’t help but find Robbie to be relatable in various ways at various points. Your want to not be like him is in part because you recognize in yourself qualities that he displays.

I feel like you could maybe

Do something with this picture

Or something