The anatomy of a friend: a discussion thread
 

ok, here we go.


Now, anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE analyzing the everloving CRAP out of shows/movies/whatever, and Foster's is no exception. I have thought extensively about what life must be like for your everyday ordinary friend, and have come up with a slew of questions that I want some opinions on.

Upon reading the forum archives, it seems a few of these questions have come up before, but weren't really gone into detail for.

Here we go!!

1. The big one: How are they created?

This is NEVER explained. The wacky guy in "My so-called wife" hit it right on the head: if they're IMAGINARY friends, why aren't they invisible? (and why are all the invisible friends so RUDE? 8D ) What is so different about the brains and imaginations of the children and teenagers in the Foster's universe that allows the creation of such friends??

2. Can adults create friends?

Most people will automatically say no, it's strictly for children and the occasional teenager. But Harvey was mentioned in one of the episodes. He was CLEARLY the "creation" of a fully grown man. And if adults CAN make friends, would they really love them? Or would they selfishly make friends only for chores and nothing else?

and on that note....

3. Do the Handy friends know what love is?

Does it bother them that they were made just for one purpose? Like Scissors, or Poindexter, or Handy, or the Mop and the Bucket, or Camera from "One wrong Movie"? It's pretty obvious that the kids who made them didn't care for them outside of their usefulness, with the major exception of WILT. His kid adored him, but he's not a "true" Handy friend.

4. What makes a "true" handy/protector/mischief/whatever friend? and what are all the types?

There seem to be some clear, defined classifications of friends, and then there are those that cross over into different categories. For example: take Bendy and Bloo. Both love causing chaos, but Bloo is not a true mischief friend because he has so many other sides to him, as opposed to Bendy.

5. Can friends marry each other/can they marry humans?

This is another big one, and the eternal burden of the Frankie/Wilt shippers. It's hinted that friends can, indeed, marry, but we never see any real examples of any kind of marital relationship with ANYONE in the show, so it's up in the air. It's clear that friends can have crushes on humans, and each other, so the ability to love and be loved in return is there. But is marriage legal for friends?

6. CAN FRIENDS DISAPPEAR?

Possibly the biggest question I have thought about, and the one that intruiges me the most. It became clear that friends do NOT disappear if their child dies, as evidenced in "Imposter's home for make-
em-up pals", but what if the kid forgets about the friend altogether? Would they live on? Possibly. And can friends die? someone once said that you can't kill a good idea, and that's what friends are technically, but they're "human" enough to experience pain and sorrow, so can they die?

7. Do you like cereal? :cheese:


That should be enough for now. Start debating people!! Share your thoughts and ideas, and questions of your own!!

I think all of this is covered in other threads.

No I checked. I said some of it was, not all.

A lot of it was on the old forum though, and everyone is welcome to recreate topics from the old forum on here. So go for it, I say. :terrsmile:

ooh, I didn't know there was an old forum. Well I'm new :D and I wanna know everyone's opinions.

You know, I often wondered about the first one and why they werent invisible like they are in real life. But now I see it is asked in an episode itself (since I havent seen them all). Huh... need to see that one.
Speaking of that, I probably shouldnt even be here since I have only seen maybe half of the episodes, but Im glad people "over analyze" things like myself.

But I also wondered about if adults could make them. The only thing I had seen was that Terrance created one, and he is somewhat older (well, old enough that he should be over that kind of "childish" things as society would tell him).

And I dont think that those who were perhaps created for "chores" or of being handy are not loved. Like you said about Wilt. He was created first, only to win the game for his creator, but he ends up being loved as well. I think the same could be said for those (like the camera and etc) we know not so much about. Its simply that Wilt is a major character and we have seen his story. The camera and the like may also have a similar story.

I would love to think friends could marry each other or other humans if they wanted. Someone briefly mentioned in the wilt thread that some people may see friendsXhumans could be like beastiality. Which, I think, is completely ridiculous for obvious reasons and differences between animals and friends. As long as it is between two consensual "adults", have at it! =) But that could also be because I think couples like Frankie and Wilt are adorable. But in the same breath (and in hopes of not causing controversy) I would disagree with couples like Frankie and Mac because Mac is underage and unable (in my opinion) to make those kinds of decisions just yet. Speaking of over analyzing... Heheh.

Well, thats all I have to say! I like this thread... :gooblab:

1. We actually DO get to see several Imaginary Friends created on the series; they just appear. literally out of thin air! As for as the really technical side of it, like how they acquire their DNA when they are not normally conceived by two parents is anyone's guess, and no, it has not been covered on the show. That would probably go way over the heads of many viewers. All we know is that somehow, through the power of a kid's imagination and will, once imagined, these beings are as alive and real as you or I. That "whacky guy" in "My So-Called Wife", Mr. Ben E. Factor, was an idiot and a scam artist, and was just showing his ignorance.

2. According to Lauren Faust-no, adults cannot create Imaginary Friends, though teenagers can(the Extremasaurs being examples of this). Exactly what the "cut-off" age is, after which an individual can no longer create an Imaginary Friend, has not been covered, either. Probably this phenomenon is due to the fact that as people grow older, their imaginations and creativity actually diminishes, for most people, anyway. AND, as you stated, there are probably a lot of adults who would create an Imaginary Friend for less-than-benign purposes.

3. There are many IF's who were created for purposes other than being a friend to a child(as one person on TV.com insists that they ALL were, that and absolutely nothing else). I suppose that many of these have not known love, or at least compassion, until they arrived at Foster's. I wouldn't consider Wilt to be a "Handy" friend, either, though he certainly IS very handy at many, many things. Wilt was more or less created to take the place of a family member, a father or caring older brother, and he naturally is good at the things that the man of the house was once responsible for, like mowing the yard or fixing up the car. You'd be very hard-pressed to find a human who is as versitile as Wilt is!

4. Many Imaginary Friends don't seem to have a specific purpose. What would Duchess, for example, have been created for? Many others turn out completely different that what their creators must have wanted them to be like. This closely parallels how human beings often do not turn out to suit their parents' expectations, and again, shows how much like us the Imaginary Friends are.

5. Apparently, IF's CAN marry other IF's, since Mr. Herriman had Coco pose as his wife in that aforementioned episode, "My So-Called Wife", and he obviously did not feel that this would be considered odd at all for two Imaginary Friends to be married. Whether or not they can legally marry a HUMAN is another topic that has not been covered, but clearly some DO have very strong feelings of desire for humans. I once brought up on the old forum the topic of whether relationships/marriages would be allowed at Foster's, where most of the IF's are up for adoption. Most families looking to adopt an Imaginary Friend are only wanting ONE, not a couple, and it would be breaking up a relationship to take one and not the other. At the same time, though, I have to wonder where all those monstrous little babies in the nursery came from, since it's difficult for me to fathom that THIS many little girls would imagine a baby MONSTER! If a girl is going to imaginary a baby IF, wouldn't it be more like a HUMAN baby, a living baby doll? I can't fathom little boys wanting to imagine a baby ANYTHING, unless it was some animal, like a puppy, so I'd guess that most, if not all, of those Imaginary babies are the products of liasons between adult Imaginary Friends living at Foster's, and are "second generation" IF's, conceived and born just as we are.

6. Lauren Faust has also stated that they did not wish to really tackle the subject of death on the show, by having a character actually die. HOWEvER, we have seen that Imaginary Friends can be KILLED, since there ARE many references to that. Terrence obviously killed the Pizza Friend when he ate it; Mr. Herriman states, "I could have been KILLED!" after falling down the stairs in "Crime After Crime", though he thought that his "stalker" was trying to kill him, and did not connect being killed with what Bloo did. Eduardo states in "Bloooooo" that the "Cannonball Ghost" was going to "kill us dead, and eat our ghosts(spirits/souls). Just how long Imaginary Friends can live, is again, anyone's guess, but I don't think that they are truely immortal. While they might live longer than we do, eventually I guess they just die, like everything else. Their parts just wear out over time. Originally, I think that the consensus was that when a human creator died, the Imaginary Friend died, too, being connected somehow to each other. That was proven wrong in "Foster's Home for Uhhhh..Make-Em Up Pals", in which Mr. Herriman thought that Goofball's creator had died and gone to Heaven, and since Goofball was(unfortunately)still there, and Mr. Herriman didn't question his continued existance, it's obviously not the case for an IF to die when his/her creator dies.

7. Not really, though I do like plain Cheerio's once in awhile. I never even liked it when I was a kid, especially not the kind with all that sugar coating.

pitbulllady

That's quite possible, although apparently you don't have to actually be creative to make an IF (for example, Goofball was just basically a ginger kid with a trunk). I'd guess that you just have to have the ability to imagine.

That's true, though, that some adults would use IFs for sinister purposes. Think of how messed up the world would be if it worked the way the world of Foster's does.

Based on the idea of Friends outliving their creators, I think this could explain Coco. She was apparently created by a little girl stranded on a desert island (hence hwy she's made of a crashed plane, raft, palm tree, etc.), but thw two guys who found her saw no evidence of a creator.

Kind of grim, isn't it?

I wanted the topic title to be "Figmentology" lol.

I made a theory before this topic that once a child reaches age 18, s/he no longer has the ability to create IFs.

1.Good question, but seeing as how sometimes I can so vividly imagine something that it almost seems to come to life...well, in the Foster's universe, apparently this can actually happen. Also they seem to appear when great need arises. Mac needed a friend, Wilt's creator needed someone to teach him basketball, Coco was needed by a girl stranded on an island....hence that kind of situation helped the creation along.

2. I like to think that in general no, but if an adult has a very active imagination or an "inner child", they certainly can.

3. I think it's quite possible some Imaginaries receive no love at all, and are simply used for convenience. Not nice to think about, but probably true to some extent.

4. What makes an Imaginary Friend a certain "type", again, depends on what the need of a child is. Go back to question 1's answer. lol

5. Of course they CAN. The question is, would they? When love is strong enough, it knows no bounds....so of course, silly. However it's never really clearly defined in the show whether this goes on or not, and I doubt it ever will.

6. No, if they become true living beings, they don't just disappear. We humans don't disappear when we die, do we? ;) I think they live on, but for how long is anyone's guess.

7. Hell yeah. And I particularly have a weakness for Frosted Flakes. Yummm....

Just like in real life. :(

Very good, yet sad-point, Cassini. I know from having taught school for 20 years that there are many, many children brought into this world in home environments totally devoid of love. They are sometimes simply by-products of their parents' uncontrolled urges, and other times they are actually conceived for the purpose of financial gain for the parent. I've actually had kids tell me that they KNOW their mother only had them so she could collect a govenment check-what must it be like going through life knowing that is the only reason you were born? The more I think about, the more alike the Imaginary Friends of the Foster's Universe and humans in our world are the same.

On the topic of IF's marrying each other, or humans, though-in "My So-Called Wife", no one so much as batted an eyelash at the notion of Coco and Mr. Herriman being married. Indeed, Herriman thought it would make a much better impression on his host if everyone thought that he had a wife, so there does not appear to be any legal restrictions, or societal ones, against two IF's marrying. The original Imaginary flea couple in "Land of the Flea" were apparently married, and definately were fruitful and multiplied! While the show has never really covered the issue of whether an Imaginary Friend and a human can marry or at least have an intimate relationship, it's never been stated or implied that they can't, either. Mac did not express any shock or disgust when Frankie told him that she and Wilt and gone to the prom, although I have to give credit to this kid for being as bright and open-minded as he is. Mac doesn't seem to be all that concerned about what society or the elusive "THEY" think.

pitbulllady

"1. The big one: How are they created?

This is NEVER explained. The wacky guy in "My so-called wife" hit it right on the head: if they're IMAGINARY friends, why aren't they invisible? (and why are all the invisible friends so RUDE? ) What is so different about the brains and imaginations of the children and teenagers in the Foster's universe that allows the creation of such friends??

2. Can adults create friends?

Most people will automatically say no, it's strictly for children and the occasional teenager. But Harvey was mentioned in one of the episodes. He was CLEARLY the "creation" of a fully grown man. And if adults CAN make friends, would they really love them? Or would they selfishly make friends only for chores and nothing else?

and on that note....

3. Do the Handy friends know what love is?

Does it bother them that they were made just for one purpose? Like Scissors, or Poindexter, or Handy, or the Mop and the Bucket, or Camera from "One wrong Movie"? It's pretty obvious that the kids who made them didn't care for them outside of their usefulness, with the major exception of WILT. His kid adored him, but he's not a "true" Handy friend.

4. What makes a "true" handy/protector/mischief/whatever friend? and what are all the types?

There seem to be some clear, defined classifications of friends, and then there are those that cross over into different categories. For example: take Bendy and Bloo. Both love causing chaos, but Bloo is not a true mischief friend because he has so many other sides to him, as opposed to Bendy.

5. Can friends marry each other/can they marry humans?

This is another big one, and the eternal burden of the Frankie/Wilt shippers. It's hinted that friends can, indeed, marry, but we never see any real examples of any kind of marital relationship with ANYONE in the show, so it's up in the air. It's clear that friends can have crushes on humans, and each other, so the ability to love and be loved in return is there. But is marriage legal for friends?

6. CAN FRIENDS DISAPPEAR?

Possibly the biggest question I have thought about, and the one that intruiges me the most. It became clear that friends do NOT disappear if their child dies, as evidenced in "Imposter's home for make-
em-up pals", but what if the kid forgets about the friend altogether? Would they live on? Possibly. And can friends die? someone once said that you can't kill a good idea, and that's what friends are technically, but they're "human" enough to experience pain and sorrow, so can they die?

7. Do you like cereal? "

Aaaaaaall righty then....

I don't think I can answer #1. Except to say that there's something special about kids minds, as opposed to those who have to adjust to the real world, which incidentally is in common with ALL imaginary freinds. Although I always beleived that those who are determined as "kids" are those who are kids at heart.

I think that most handy friends can be perhaps more accurately labelled as "gimmicky" friends, since they are made to be a child's friend AND be able to cut stuff, calculate, etc. I always saw Poindexter as coming from a loving home.

I thnk the types (used for broad categorisation and not finite or discrete) are:
-Regular freinds (made only to be a friend to the creator, nothing else) eg: Duchess, Bowling Paul
-"Handy" friends (made to be a friend and also perform other useful duties) eg: Ivan, Wilt
-Mischevious friends (made to express sides of a person they are unable to do themselves) eg: Bloo, Bendy
-Protector freinds (made to be a friend and also (duh) protect their creator) eg: Eduardo
-Random thoughts (knida unintentional, made up by random thinking) eg: Charlie Chickenleg, just about all of Goo's imaginary friends

I dunno if friends can feel any stronger emotions of that kind than a crush (Beryy, anyone?), what with being intrinsically juvenille (yeah, they are, but that's a rant for another post). But I see no prolems with it. Except marrying humans, that's just wrong.

I don't think IFs just dissappear (thus the fullness of Fosters), but can die. They just don't show it, cause it's a kid's show. Of course, most IFs (Wilt being a notable exception) can withstand unusual amounts of damage with no probs eg: being blown up, falling seven floors onto hard ground, etc.

I'm more of a toast man m'self.

I guess I'm gonna have to weigh in on this one, so here goes:

1. While it is not explained in WORDS how the Imaginary Friends are created, my own theory is based on a premise from the movie, Starman. In that movie, an alien being, which was no more than a self-aware thought, actually-invisable, having no real body, constructs a body for itself utilizing DNA it finds in a house, extracted from hair on a brush once belonging to now-deceased man. It is plausible that an Imaginary Friend takes on a physical form by either conciously or sub-conciously utilizing DNA in the environment in which it is created, but that physical form can also be subject to manipulation by the power of its creator's will. The DNA is most likely to be human, so that genetically, many Imaginary Friends can indeed be biologically human, in spite of their outward appearance.

2. Even though he was mentioned, "Harvey" is still not part of the "Foster's Universe", so I don't know if other examples of Imaginary Friends from movies, tv shows, etc., can apply. Lauren Faust herself stated plainly that in the Foster's Universe, only children(and a teenager is technically still a child) can create Imaginary Friends. Not all children can, either, hence the need for many to adopt one. Just why this ability suddenly ends when someone reaches the age of 18, isn't explained.

3. I don't know if the "Handy" friends ever feel bad about having been created for menial tasks or not; perhaps they feel it's their "calling". I know that the Food Friends sure aren't happy with THEIR lot! It's likely that due to their physical forms and subsequent limitations, the Handy Friends know that their abilities are rather limited, in the same way I know I will never be a major track champion! That doesn't mean that they weren't ever loved, though, anymore than it means that a multi-talented Friend like Wilt would necessarily have been loved. It's quite likely that many Friends are created to be scapegoats and whipping-boys for angry children.

4. Some Friends do seem to fit a specific type/category, while others don't. In some, their abilities seem to stem from their physical design, while in others, their abilities are more the result of their personalities. Bloo has, more and more, become a mischief-maker rather than a "security blanket". One of the reasons that Bendy has as many fans as he does is that he, in the words of one supporter, "out-Bloo'ed BLOO"!

5. See my previous post mentioning Herriman and Coco in "My So-Called Wife". Apparently, IF's CAN marry each other, and this is acceptable, though how a potential adoption would deal with the situation of two IF's being married is not known. There has been no mention, yay or nay, as to whether they can marry humans.

6. Lauren Faust has also addressed the topic of Imaginary Friends dying by stating that the makers of the show did not wish to include actual character death because it was too negative and too dark and could be disturbing to some younger viewers. HOWEVER, there are many specific references on the show indicating that the Imaginary Friends CAN be killed, and that they believe in a concept of Life After Physical Death, in an immortal soul, in other words.

7. Nope, sorry.

On the topic again of love/desire/relationships, and the ever-controversial topic of IF/human marriage, while many of the IF's ARE very childlike and "innocent", others aren't. One of the reasons I admire Wilt is that he exhibits more maturity than most adult human males I've known. It's the same way with humans; some just never "grow up", and most do retain some "inner child". I disagree that an intimate relationship between a human and an IF is "wrong" by default, especially since it's based largely on the notion of all IF's being "inferior" to humans because they're "different". This is the basis for many laws in the past prohibiting relationships between humans of different races-one is "inferior" because it's "different".

pitbulllady

Friends can most likely disappear when their creators forget about them.