Happy Musings Thursday my friends! After a 1 week hiatus, I have some thoughts for you. Now that we’re nearing the end of the Flanders Family Reunion I thought I’d spend today musing about the splen-didilly iddly-reffic mini-event. You know I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s get to ’em…
-I’ve noticed that this was a big event for a lot of you. And I don’t mean big in terms of content, I mean big in terms of..it was a big deal. It was good. Y’all were raving on and on about how great this one was. Despite it’s “mini” size, it was a big hit! Is it the characters? Is it the buildings? Personally, I think it’s a combination of both mixed with the old Flanders charm that has made this mini-event a smashing success.
-Part of that Flanders charm is the character storylines. The writers of the show, and EA, basically took these small blips on the show and expanded them into several interesting, and hilarious, storylines!
It felt as though the writers basically wrote a Flanders spin-off version of The Simpsons. They played with storylines that likely were cut for time or just ideas that never made it onto the show for this event. It’s really awesome to see some of these ideas come to life.
-Let’s talk about Ted Flanders for a minute and his Herbal Spinach cart. What an interesting twist of events for Ted in this event, huh?! The only time we’ve seen him on the show, he was basically a Ned Flanders clone. We really had no information about Ted, other than he was Ned’s cousin, was moving into the Brown House, and has two daughters (Connie and Bonnie).
So it’s interesting to me that he showed up in Springfield with the Herbal Spinach Cart…and even has a task to Sell the Spinach and take a Lunch break. Even more interesting that, if you read the dialogue…we still know nothing about Ted Flanders! The questline is really focused on Ned’s parents more than Ted, in fact, Ted barely speaks during the questline. Aside from the tasks at the cart, the Herbal Spinach cart is really more about Nedward in Capri than Ted.
I also think EA missed a golden opportunity to add Connie and Bonnie Flanders!
-Canadian Flanders, the one with the true taste for the reefer-ino, isn’t even a Flanders! He’s just the Canadian version of Ned. While I love this character, I think it’s funny that he’s not a true Flanders..and his questline explores more of his Flanders side than Ted’s does!
-Lord Thistlewick, a true Flanders, is another character that was barely a blip on the show and they really went to down with his questline for this event! It was fun to see him cozying up with Burns, and nice to see a blip character given a little more depth in TSTO!
-And finally…am I the only one who thinks they totally could have made this a major event in TSTO? Despite the reunion only lasting about a minute in the world of The Simpsons, there was a TON of content they could have added. Where’s the Flanders band?
And I can’t be the only one upset that we didn’t get Jose Flanders…
But I guess this is the sign of a great event. It was so good it left us wanting more of the themed content! Hopefully, EA will have another Flanders Family Reunion in the near future where we’ll get Jose, Bonnie, Connie, the Flanders Family Band, and human Maude!
Until then, I’m just grateful we were given the AWESOME, VOICED, crowd of Flanders Family members! Because everyone needs more of this in their life…
I’m really tempted to make this my ringtone…
-Overall I’d give this mini-event a solid A. It was a great mini-event. Awesome dialogue, great prizes, fantastic characters, and really great voices! And I’d probably have given it an A+ if Jose was included…
And that’s it, guys my wrap up on the latest event in TSTO. More of this please EA! And, please don’t make us wait 6 weeks before the next event again!
Thoughts? Care to share your own musings on the Flanders Family Reunion? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!