hi, feel free to disregard this if you want! im just making conversation from a bit of a confused perspective. id understand if you didnt want to address it publically considering the topic. im just hoping to bring some perspective from an audience point of view. hopefully i dont sound too critical; i dont mean to, im just really hyperfixated on algebraliens and i see youre having a bit of a recurring issue with your audience.
that being, i and many other fans of the show absolutely see the variables as kids. im sure youve noticed, lol.
there have been a lot of things in the show so far that would lead us to believe this—things like S wearing silly bands, S and Ts speech impediments, their size compared to I, the way they follow house rules and need to ask I permission to do things, or even just the fact everybody got grounded at the end of episode 1. not to mention how theyre all just running around and playing games and going on silly childish adventures all the time.
now, of course, a lot of those things can have explanations! for example its not JUST kids who have speech impediments (obviously), its not just kids that can wear silly bands (obviously), the variables are all lowercase so of course there might be a size difference between them and I, plus I is meant to be their mentor, and they dont own the house, so maybe I is just very particular on the rules. and of course we HAVE seen algebraliens in bfdi have childish hobbies before, i mean they live on a playground and play games with each other yk LOL so. i see where it could be argued.
but in the same breath id mention how we have seen bfdi algebraliens with A LOT more than just their "childish" hobbies. they drive vehicles. they have weapons. they bully each other and beat each other up and make fun of each other in ways only adults would. they go and eat each other and build underground houses & bunkers and put each other in prisons. stuff kids wouldnt have the capabilities of doing period, yk?
we kinda have not seen anything like that from the variables at all. i think you might need to do a little more than just drop that "theyre all adults!" info in an episode—the whole show so far has accidentally cemented the idea that these characters are children, or at the very least minor-coded. they... they all live in what looks and functionally acts like an orphanage made of baby toys, with a caretaker... itll be hard to shake the feeling that these characters are meant to be adults when we straight up havent seen any adultish behaviors from them whatsoever...?
especially if uh... you guys are going to put statements out on twitter saying that nsfw of the show is okay. it just... feels a little weird right now.. like thank you for the clarification! but... uhhh... man, those feel like kids. you know?
all im saying is that things are more than a little confusing right now as an audience member haha. i hope to see some more grown-up hobbies from these little guys because it would make me feel a little better about seeing ship content of them and such online. would make me feel less like a weird adult cooing over fictional kids kissing. i think Q should have a gun and im not kidding
Both Sparky and I are aware that we need to do something differently within the show to help break the idea that they are kids. It is, in a sense, a little difficult to do in the situation that they are in, especially considering their relationship with I is odd.
I calls herself their guardian and their mentor and acts in a parental manner, despite them all being grown adults. None of the variables are orphans. S, Q, and R all have parents and have moved out and into I’s house as what are essentially live-in students. Again, I understand why people think it’s as if I adopted them. There is not a human relationship or system that is comparable to what we have going on here.
I’ve tried, at least a little bit to make them seem more like adults. Them putting one another in prison? This happened in PaS 3! Sure, it was in just a montage, but the variables were cuffed, thrown in the back of the police car, tried to FIGHT the police, were put in prison, and then broke out of prison. I don’t really think this is something that happens to kids, but this feels like it’s been overlooked.
Do I need to make them do taxes? Smoke? Drink? The show itself is for people of all ages…so drugs would be inappropriate. Does I need to be more immature to balance out the behavior of Q, R, S, and T? I don’t want to have to warp their character to fit some sort of narrative. I don’t think weapons are going to fix this issue, as they brutally murder one another with their bare hands constantly. Sure, I could have them drive a car…but minors can drive too. It is a bit of a specific scenario and I'm unsure if it would stop people from thinking they're minors. It’s a tough spot to be in as a writer.
Believe me, I completely understand why people are confused and concerned and I’ll say that I appreciate that the level of confusion and concern ISN’T accusatory. I think the reason that it is something we keep bringing up is because Sparky and I don’t see the variables as kids. We see them as young adults and equate them mentally to someone in their early 20s, so when people see them as being so much younger, it seems too far off how WE see them, we wonder what more we are going to do to change that. I’m in a similar boat as you. I really, really don’t want to be seen as a strange adult shipping children together.
Essentially, at the end of the day, I worry that I can only do so much to make these characters appear like adults. I promise I’m going to try my best though. Episode 4 has been 90% written and I think it covers some more bases! These guys are always going to be silly, bubble-blowing, little goobers, BUT the least we can do is put them on a closer level mentally to characters like I, Square Root, Euler, and Pi. We’re gonna work on it!
Thank you very much for enjoying our little show. I hope this does quell some worries, even if just a little bit!
