Stanley the Perfect, the mighty and terrible champion of the oppressed and unjustly maligned majestical being

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Fans who have followed me from the very beginning at GrandFortuna's League of 20,000 Planets way back in 2004-5ish know that Stanley Tweedle is my very favoritist scifi character ever dreamed up, displacing a decade-long first place by Doc Brown from Back to the Future. This might be surprising to fans of other space shows, especially given my lengthy Star Trek rant a few years ago (which went wild when I copied it to SyfyDesigns, a tightly locked forum and controlled for spam). I've recently 'come out' on a personal blog about my long history in fandoms, and after a decade of disgust over quickie review writers still not giving Lexx the kinds of write-ups it deserves, OH YES, I'm going there.

Stanley H. Tweedle, as far as we can piece together, worked in the position of Deputy Assistant Backup Courier within the League as a cover for his part as a double agent for the infamous Ostral-B Heretics, an underground rebel army hellbent on tearing down Order across the League of 20,000. Stan's job at the time of his capture was to smuggle detailed schematics for a new planet-killing bioweapon, along with maps and coordinates, across enemy space and deliver them to the underground. This might have gone without a hitch if he hadn't fallen for an S.O.S. call in transit.

We find out almost immediately that Stanley and Thodin, the notorious Ostral-B leader of the Heretics on His Shadow's most wanted list, seem like they must have known each other personally. Even though Thodin venomously berates Stanley for his failures, Stan is still very glad to see Thodin, not in an "I'm rescued" kind of way (Thodin was clearly not there to rescue Stanley), but in a more familiar way, as Stan's first words to him are a careful but grateful "You're alive!" Thodin isn't just a leader in a rebellion to Stanley. We don't know any more than that.

In season two's "Stan's Trial" we find out Stanley's capture, torture, and confession is directly responsible for the Reform planets being destroyed, most likely the Ostral-B Pair being top of the list. These planets had shielding so they couldn't be found and targeted by His Shadow's planet killers (non-canon, but deduced), the Foreshadow and the Megashadow, as Brunnis 2 was. Part of the information Stanley gave up was the locations of these resistance planets. We finally realize in season 3's "May" that a woman Stanley once loved very much (Lyekka, unrequited) was on one of those planets. All the years Stanley was a prisoner on the Cluster, he didn't know whether anyone he loved or knew had survived at all and that it was all his fault, and he was very publicly held up in the League as Arch Traitor. Everyone on both sides of the ongoing wars hated him, and he knew it.

How in the world Stanley managed to live with himself and stay alive on the Cluster for so long as a Designated Data Cooperator working in the most menial position as a 4th Class Security Guard is neatly condensed into one word spat in his direction so often that he barely flinched- coward. Even Giggerota knew who he was and called him Waste of Skin. He sold out, obviously. Or did he?

Stanley survived out of sheer miscreant stubbornness. He may have been a broken man, but he managed to passive aggressively maintain an attitude that kept him from going under where others might have caved to the tortures and despair that had to have haunted him behind everything for years. One might reflect that he had nothing left to live for, no hope at all, why not just let go? He knew the only way out was death, because he was surrounded by it. He knew he couldn't win all by himself. He knew he could never make a dent in the galaxy-sized machine eating humanity (literally) into a thousand years of strictly controlled slavery. If the reform planets were gone, what hope could there be? Stan was utterly alone.

No beer after work. No friends to talk to. No TV to watch. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to love. No one to blame but himself.

So, you're Stanley. You're on a mission that might help tip the scales in a war that's been going on hundreds and even thousands of years. You're wide open and all indication points toward success. You pick up a distress call in the middle of your mission. Do you ignore it and leave people to die? It looks like you've got time and space to go help, so why not? I mean, who wouldn't? That doesn't seem like a coward to me.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was stopping off at a pleasure ship before that happened, while on the mission. The problem was bragging a little to the wrong person, who passed info along for bait later. The problem was Stanley caving to a weakness for some attention and a good time. The problem was that Stanley compromised the most important mission of his life because he got a big head and couldn't help showing off a little in a place he thought wouldn't hurt anything. But you know what? That still doesn't sound like a coward. It was an inappropriate decision, yes. It was a stupid braggart move that tempted the fates, you betcha.

So anyway, he spilled the beans. Coward. But did you see what they were doing to prisoners on the Cluster? We never really find out how much torture Stanley went through from mercenaries before he broke, and how much more torture he surely must have gone through once he was handed over to His Shadow, but we do know he never gave up the rest of the information embedded in another tooth. THAT doesn't sound like a coward.

I'd like to propose that Stanley is more of a whiner than a coward. He doth protest, sometimes too much. Wouldn't you? He has really good reasons most of the time. He's been through crap most people haven't, he really doesn't want more.

I think my favorite Stanley scene is when he's making the Divine Predecessors sing a song that praises him, and threatening them with a cluster lizard if they don't cooperate. Up to that point, no human in Cluster history had ever dared taunt, belittle, and demoralize humanity's biggest enemy, and I doubt very many had ever handled cluster lizards of any size, even in the torture arenas.

Ok, I've overstated my point, can we move on now, you're saying. NO. I think it's important to understand how Stanley survived. He survived more stuff far longer and way more personally than just about anyone in the whole series, and he's talked about the least. He's easily dismissed because he's a whiner, a grumbly guy. I would be, too, after all that crap. Would you be as nice as Stanley after all that crap? I'm going to point out some cool things about Stanley Tweedle.

Stan is just as lonely as Zev/Xev. They're alone on a big ship. Yes, he's a bit of a selfish bastard sometimes, but he never once tries to rape or hit her. (I just spoke volumes to people who might've missed that part.) They're both coming from the blackest pit of evil where abuses and atrocities are common everyday things, and Stanley never once inflicts Zev/Xev with his personal whims. He's not exactly a gentleman, but he's not awful, either. Maybe he's not the cool suave hero she wants, but he's the man who saved her and whisked her away from a horrible life. When reviewers blow Stanley off over being rejected by a love slave, what I see is a brother-sister relationship growing where both of them have been stripped not only of their families, but their very selves. They were two naked and pitiful souls running into each other in the pit of hell, and neither one ever let go of having the other's back. I think it's marvelous that two people who could have easily come to despise each other became so close through all that thick and thin. By the end of season three, they've even literally been through hell together.

I have so much respect for Stanley surviving all that without becoming a monster himself, a monster he was purported to be by other monsters, the 3 biggies coming to mind being His Divine Shadow, Grand Prosecutor Jihana, and Prince. He came close in season 3, didn't he? Perilously close! Had it not been for Prince's devious scheming through May, though, I doubt he'd ever have gone that far in his mind on his own. While Stanley's not a coward, and totally a whiner feeling sorry for himself (who wouldn't?), he's also not really a monster.

He's broken. He's an emotionally shattered person who holds it together somehow, and season 3 gives us a glimpse into how sad he's really been all this time. He hides his sadness behind that word coward. He allows others to think the worst of him because there's no way anyone will ever see him cry. And when his sadness finally comes out to the surface, Prince uses everything he's got (the cruelest woman in his minion) to pull Stanley toward his own selfish end game. Is Stanley a monster for falling for it? I think Prince pushed him to a precipice- he was already responsible for all those other planets, how could one more really mean anything now? Especially if it meant someone would finally love him after all this time. Don't be too quick to judge. We all know people in real life who've sold out their own families for another hit or a gambling problem. Stanley is us. He is the picture of who we are when we are broken, and promised beautiful things if we'll only do something for very bad people.

There are better words we can use with Stanley. Cynical is a really good one. I'm surprised he's not either a meaner person or curled up in a blubbering ball. I don't know about you guys, but I know several crabby cynical guys, easy to blow off as jerks until you stop and take a second look at how they got that way in the first place, and then you see that underneath it all is a sweetheart needing a second chance and maybe never getting it. As Prince so carefully coaxed out on The Beach, Stan is harder on himself than anyone. Watching two halves of his own conscience condemn him is proof of that.

This guy carried the weight of 94 blown up Reform planets, accidentally unleashed a monster (Mantrid) that destroyed an entire universe, wound up in hell even though he didn't do what Prince wanted him to, and above all, was reminded of the woman he loved and lost every time an alien plant showed up. I cannot help but love this character.

This pic still clicks back to content that is no longer there.
Sorry about that.

I also discuss Stanley Tweedle in these articles, click to read beyond the snips-

Why Lexx Is Important-
Stan is the Everyman, the average person who winds up caught in the stuff all around him everywhere he goes. He’d *like* to be the hero, but he’s a normal person with normal flaws, and it’s easy to see how we might also be just like him.

Why Lexx Is Personal-
Stanley Tweedle is my all-time favorite scifi character because the twisted irony that swims through spacetime around that guy makes me laugh and want to hug people for all the suckiness they go through, even when I’m feeling crabby. If anyone could finger His Shadow, I’m really glad it was him, because he’s like the rest of us, stumbling through our days and stubbornly hoping for the best even if the only way we can get it is to make it up.

and these film review sections-

I Worship His Shadow- part 3- Stanley Tweedle

I Worship His Shadow- part 7- Termination

Stanley Tweedle was played by Brian Downey.


note

{(This is important for fans who don't know my very publicly misconstrued history with Brian. Guys, I like him. It doesn't matter what people say, what he concludes, what accidents happen, all that matters is that I love Lexx and Stanley Tweedle is my favorite. We don't need to cross streams because I'm not over there in other streams, I'm here being a fan of a TV show.)}

Heresy in the First Degree- Thodin of the Ostral-B Pair

That omg moment when you wake up at 5 a.m. nearly 13 years after the show is over and realize that they probably added Thodin to the Divine Assassin collection (you can own them all!) and used him to help with the culling and cleansing in s1ep4's Giga Shadow. Disclaimer- I don't read fanfic. Ever. Unless a friend shoves one in my face and that hasn't happened in years. If a Lexx fan out there has actually written about this happening to Thodin, kudos to you. I'm sure there is at least one Russian fan out there who was brilliant enough to run with this idea.

Thodin, proclaimed Arch-Heretic by His Divine Shadow, is the leader of a small gang of Ostral-B rebels, or "heretics" opposed to the Divine Order when we see him. He was likely much more than that, since leading a strike force into the heart of enemy territory to steal the biggest weapon of mass destruction ever created would take the sort of precision and team loyalty that any black ops team knows means do or die.

We have some idea of how long this had been in the planning stages. In the first movie I Worship His Shadow, we learn that Stanley Tweedle is still carrying one or more secret codes embedded in his teeth. We further learn in the fourth movie Giga Shadow that Stanley was originally caught by Sub-Nebulae mercenaries (Sub-Ns for short) and turned over to His Shadow, who then named him Arch-Traitor and kept him alive for years in the ironic position of processing prisoners as a security guard, which sent strong messages to outlying planets not yet incorporated into the League of 20,000 Planets. Thodin not only knew Stanley Tweedle and mocked his title of Arch-Traitor, but was probably his commanding officer when Stanley was assistant deputy backup courier in charge of getting the codes across enemy territory.

Not turning this into a Stanley bio, but Stanley is crucial to understanding more about Thodin, since he is the last living person to have spoken to him (unless you count the Zev kiss and then the heretic who was immediately eaten by a Cluster Lizard), and their last conversation revealed so much in so little time about their relationship before Thodin was killed.

Click to go to The Pic Bug

Thodin was beyond angry at the sight of Stanley, to the point of distraction from his mission. One might think that if Thodin had been able to set his emotions aside, he might have been able to utilize Stanley's inside knowledge of the Cluster, particularly the finer points on security (makes sense, doesn't it?), but Thodin was so obviously incensed to find Stanley still alive that he couldn't help taking the extra minute to berate Stanley personally for the difficult position his capture had put them all in, on top of the many years Stanley had been humiliated as the Arch Traitor anyway. Meanwhile, Stanley was surprised and relieved to see Thodin still alive since the Reform Planets had been destroyed after his capture, based on coordinates found in one of his teeth. Basically, Thodin had to come re-steal what they had stolen in the first place, except now the Lexx was more than codes- it was fully grown and would have to be flown out.

:edit: 3-22-15 I originally prepublished this post before I was done, which a handful of you saw (12 direct link hits from twitter and G+, additional whole page views also happened before I did this update). The issue I posed to twitter (which turned out to be a nonissue for the one fan who responded) was about how the Ericon raid was played out. I have oscillated from one event to two events back to one event. "The first raid to smuggle out the Lexx codes must have gone off without a hitch until Stanley got caught, after that it turned into a war going back to steal a copy of the Key so they could steal the actual Lexx." I recant that. It was one trip to Ericon for both the codes and the Key, they barely made it out alive, and the Key lived inside Thodin all the years Stanley was prisoner on the Cluster, where the Lexx was being grown. How Thodin actually acquired the key during the heist is left to speculation. It was doubtful he throttled anyone for it since a- the Lexx hadn't been grown yet, and b- it was meant for His Shadow. This makes Thodin the true original captain of the Lexx, and this may be why he was able to willingly pass it along. Everyone afterward has inherited the key by means of death or sexual ecstacy, a spiritual 'death' state.

Click to visit The Pic Bug

Click to see more from The Pic Bug

Originally, the Lexx was designed by two Ericon biocode specialists, one of whom turned out to be Brizon. The Lexx was meant to be grown on the Cluster for His Shadow, a planet killer more powerful than any weapon that had ever been built in the two universes, including the Foreshadow, which we watched destroy every living thing on Brunnis 2 in only 20 shots (I counted the firing noises, it might have been 19 if editing put two sound effects too close together), leaving behind a blackened dead planet. The Lexx would be able to blow a planet up into pieces with one shot, making the stolen codes (over which a war cost millions of lives) a last desperate hope against a government that had been spreading across the Light Universe for thousands of years engulfing all of humanity, following a war with a race of Insects that had lasted thousands of years more before that. The League of 20,000 Planets forced a restrictive political religion that not only turned humanity into a slave culture, but very literally absorbed humanity into itself, as we see in Giga Shadow. The League didn't hesitate to reward crime syndicates for their cooperation in acquiring and turning over information and hostages, and Stanley Tweedle happened to be the one who got caught attempting to smuggle the stolen codes after the Heretics finally wrested them off Ericon.

The planet of Ostral-B, above all the other Reform Planets, was apparently famous as a staunch hold-out from the League and became synonymous with heretics and traitors, which is most likely League-speak. Joining the resistance meant politically aligning with Ostral-B, which was very dangerous since His Shadow had the resources to wipe out all life on a planet in minutes. As we must imagine, defense technology had developed into planet-level cloaking capabilities, which is confirmed in season two's Brigadoom. Since Brunnis 2 was destroyed 2000 years before Thodin's attempt to steal the Lexx, we don't know whether Brunnis 2 was part of the Ostral-B reform alliance or if the Ostral-B alliance came later. We do know that the Ostral-B were aware of the Brunnen-G being lost to history, and could reasonably make the assumption that they either once shared technology or one may have grown out of the other from another time further back, which could also conceivably make the Brunnen-G and Ostral-B very distantly related, as Vulcans and Romulans are in the Trek universe. But all that is speculation. For now, let us assume that Thodin and Stanley Tweedle were both actually from Ostral-B.

I have mentioned the curious incongruity between what appears to be low level culture and high level tech keeping that culture in place on the Cluster and throughout the League. That Thodin and his gang look a bit like steampunk warriors belies the sheer knowledge and experience they had with Insect technology for what must have been not only lifelong but intergenerational warfare. We can probably assume from even this small amount of information gathering that Thodin was an extremely high-ranked and well-known person bordering on legend across the Light Universe. The Cluster had evidently been attempting to acquire this publicly named Arch Heretic for years, as we see they already have his judicial proceedings prerecorded for very swift justice and execution. Ironically, it would seem that Thodin and his rebels might have somehow previously infiltrated the Cluster's automatic coding locks and procedures and used being captured as a sure way in without getting caught, because they were ingeniously already caught. I also believe they chose the gate change, but this is still highly debatable, and they obviously had no idea their own Stanley Tweedle would be manning that particular switch, just as Stanley had no idea they were on board the transport to which he was refusing to give docking permission. From I Worship His Shadow- Part 2- The Cluster, "A security guard with 991 demerits is almost late reporting to work at Department 511 Level 4. A prisoner transport has been diverted to Gate 511. This is Thodin's day of justice... "

This being the most important day in the history of the two universes, we're very surprised to see Thodin killed early on, after surviving so much war in the first place. His presence turned out to be crucial as he carried a copy of the Key to the Lexx, biotech created to reside within the body of its captain, which should have been His Shadow. As Thodin rants to Stanley about the war on Ericon where millions died so he could get the Key, we don't yet realize that Stanley failing to smuggle the Lexx codes in the first place is the reason it must be stolen now after it is grown. The Key, originating from Insect Essence and biocoded along with the Lexx, is the only way to operate the Lexx, using a host as an interfacing catalyst. If the codes had been smuggled successfully, Thodin would already be on the brink of using the Lexx himself as its captain, instead of stealing it.

~~~~~~~~~

:edit: 3-22-15 Since I'm coming back to this two days later, that's go ahead and switch gears before I get lost in the history obsessing again.

Thodin was played by Barry Bostwick. I don't think he has a twitter, but here he is on facebook.

Ok, THODIN. This outfit is outrageously awesome. I've seen all kinds of speculation in forums through the years about what kind of warrior outfit this is, is there any significance, on and on. First of all, get standardized military uniforms out of your head. This isn't Earth, and it's not the Cluster. Next, notice the vibrant colors, much like the Brunnen-G. Kai wasn't wearing a warrior outfit when he was killed. Now think about what Thodin was actually doing, his goals, how he aimed to achieve his goals. I'm going to jump to a scenario that helps me visualize a little more what's actually going on.

Thodin and his gang of heretics wanted to be caught so they could get to the Lexx. They wound up on a transport carrying Zev Bellringer and Giggerota. Zev is from B3K. It's highly improbable that Zev had ever been off-planet, so I'm going to assume that the prisoners on this transport were gathered from B3K. Giggerota was charged with ravaging temples and eating priests, a setting which seems to be a theme when we look back through Zev's memories and conceivably fits in with being assigned to a wife bank training center and then going berzerk. But why are the heretics on B3K? Because the Reform Planets have all been destroyed. These are presumably the last of the heretics hiding out among the B3K citizenry, and we know that B3K is part of the League of 20,000 Planets. Thodin has probably been lurking in a base of underground operations on B3K ever since Stanley got caught. Or, who knows, maybe they had previously infiltrated the League and established this base before it all went down, and now it came in handy.

So if Thodin is hiding and wants to get caught so he can get into the Cluster and steal the Lexx, what does he need to do to get caught? Well, I'd call donning a ceremonial Ostral-B outfit and wearing it in public on B3K a good way to get some big attention real fast. From there it wouldn't take much for Thodin and a few co-conspitators tussling with authorities and being recognized to wind up exactly where they wanted to be, on a transport heading to the Cluster for special execution. We know Thodin smuggled in a bug bomb which was preprogrammed with blueprints and detailed instructions, so it's likely that B3K was an ideal place to lay down an undercover information pipeline that might have gone all the way into the Cluster. That would explain how they were able to get the gate change, which apparently got them as close to the Lexx as possible once they were inside. From there, Thodin and his gang acquired black packs and then managed to quickly reach the Lexx, so they clearly had help on the inside regarding building plans, codes, timing, you name it. This plan must have taken years to set up. (Remember that when you see Stanley slapping at the bug bomb.) At any rate, I can imagine how apropos it would have been, had Thodin successfully pulled off the Lexx heist, to blast up the Cluster wearing ceremonial Ostral-B garb after his planet had been blown up. BOOYA!!

Click to see The Pic Bug

There are two things that Thodin unwittingly did that weren't according to plan and unintentionally made huge differences later. After the bug bomb detonated and he was pulling his heretics off the prisoner slabs, Thodin caved to releasing a prisoner known as Giggerota the Wicked. Giggerota is later responsible for getting Stanley up to the command center of the Lexx in a moth, then it's her idea to steer toward the Frontier, which gave them a head start. While we are speaking of prisoners, remember that Thodin was detained inside his own special unit during transport, so he isn't wearing the slab bands like the other heretics or like Zev is still wearing even after her transformation. He and Zev probably never saw each other before they met near the Lexx, even though they came in on the same transport, since she was already in processing by the time the bug bomb detonated and Thodin was brought back to the slabs. He and the other heretics never blinked at her slab bands (I doubt any of them recognized her as being from the same transport), and were so caught up in running into Stanley and stealing the Lexx that Zev wasn't much more than a wild card thrown into the mix. Thodin is responsible for shoving her onto the Lexx before she could be killed by a Divine Assassin. Zev is responsible for both bringing 790 on board and knocking out Stanley's tooth, a combination that proved extremely useful as another code was discovered for a flight path to the Dark Zone. She also told Stanley to stand up and die with dignity, which Stanley later exaggerated into mocking Divine Predecessors like no human in the Light Universe had ever done in all the millennia that humans had been savagely enslaved and abused.

I know I go off on tangents, but because of Thodin, these other things happened. Under all that brusque, Thodin apparently had a heart of gold for the ladies, and it made all the difference in the Two Universes.

--there may be a part 2 down the road--