Cania

KAY-nee-ah

  • they/them

My Website
www.cania.zone/
My public discord server
discord.com/invite/bKrtWUN3mp

blazehedgehog
@blazehedgehog

Something I genuinely love about Fortnite Save the World's christmas quests is that they buck all the tropes of most holiday stories. There's no version of a Christmas Carol, or Gift of the Magi, or It's A Wonderful Life, or any of the common places these stories end up.

One of the quests they rerun every year is called "Misfit Toys," which introduces us to Ted, an action figure designer. In Fortnite's world, he is responsible for an amazing line of toys called the "Morpho Gear Gang." They sound vaguely similar to this world's version of Transformers, with another questline mentioning one of the toys is named "Mobsled" -- a combination Mobster and Bobsled.

Ted tried to follow up the Morpho Gear Gang with the toys in this questline: Jilly Teacup, her companion Cuddly Bear, Sgt. Tank Gatling, and Cyberclops. It's vague, but it's suggested they are all very advanced robots, given it's brought up that one issue is that they're all self-aware -- to which Ted replies, "it was cheaper than customized subroutines." (Which opens up a whole other load of questions, but try not to think about it.)

The problem with these toys is they're a disaster. They're neurotic and confused and want revenge on Ted for creating them. A lot of them take issue with their origin stories; Jilly loves tea parties but is strapped with a belt full of ammo, grenades, and a chaingun-wielding bear turret. (Ted: "I didn't want you to look weak!"). Tank is a war veteran who is also a well trained laywer (Ted: "I thought it gave you a complex personality." Tank: "But did I get my law degree before or after I spent 20 years in active duty?") And poor Cyberclops just doesn't know what he is at all. (Cyberclops: "Am I from the future, or from space?" Ted: "I couldn't decide, both were too cool.")

The whole quest is about everybody learning to accept who they are. Jilly and the rest of the toys have to admit to themselves that in Fortnite's zombie husk-infested world, their combat abilities make them uniquely suited to fighting back, even if that wasn't Ted's intent. They also learn to accept that Ted wasn't malicious or stupid when creating them, it was just an accident and he truly loves them regardless.

And Ted has to learn to accept that not only did he make a mistake, but why and how he made that mistake. This exchange in particular is one I love a lot:

Jilly: Why do you want to talk to me, anyway?

Ted: I've been hiding from you for years.

Jilly: ...I've only been tracking you for six months.

Ted: I was hiding from not being good enough anymore. And I think it's time to stop.

Jilly: I know about the Morpho Gear Gang, Ted. You're good enough. You just don't care.

A lot of people can raise creators up and put them on this pedestal without realizing how many success stories are having a lucky idea at the right time. Or being in an environment where you get all your best ideas and then simply... run out of those ideas, and because your environment changed, you don't have any new best ideas anymore.

And Jilly here is basically saying, "You're a comedian? Then why can't you be funny all the time?"

Because that's not how creativity works. It's not a faucet you can just turn on whenever you feel like it.

Ted forced himself to be creative, got lost inside his own head, and overthought the creation of Jilly and friends, hoping to create the next Morpho Gear Gang. They are too high-concept and their functionality is clumsy and strange as a result. Jilly may say Ted doesn't care, but the truth of the matter is Ted actually cared so much that he ruined who they are. He created monsters.

The quest is about Ted learning to accept this fact about himself, Jilly learning to accept that fact about Ted, and learning to accept who she is as a person (or a toy, I guess). Ted expresses how much he loves his creations by doing his best to both explain and apologize for why they are who they are. He even makes a decision on whether or not Cyberclops is a future man or a space man.

In the end, it brings them together as something of a family. It's warm and weird and funny, and perfect for Christmas.


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