What's This Darnfangled "Odd Squad" You Keep Goin' On About, Seren? · 8:54am Sep 22nd, 2022
Ah yes. The time has come. You all shall be blessed with my lengthy, word-vomit-filled, written explanation that answers the question I'm sure a lot of you have on your mind...
What in the HELL is an "Odd Squad" and WHY is it in half of my pure ponefics on a site that hosts ponefics?
Well, you just peek below and sit your dang butts down, because I'm about to drop a good 8 years of knowledge on you.
This is also a very long blog. Today, it's the show. Tomorrow, it's about my one of my favorite characters in it. (Okay, not exactly tomorrow. I have a life. But you get my point.)
Odd Squad looks pretty cookie-cutter on the outside. It's a show about, as one of the villains so fittingly puts it, "children...wearing suits". Unless they're undercover. Then they look like Your Average Everyday Human Being From Who-Even-Knows-Where. Honestly, how many people slap on a suit every day and just skedaddle their way to work? That's like...well, you take a look at Wall Street and get back to me, my point is that a lot of people do.
But they are children. Wearing business suits. This is the kind of stuff you do if you really love your kid and want them to really get into the spirit of Take Your Kid to Work Day. But these kids do it willingly, because "parents" is a concept for the weak.
So if you take these kids in suits and place them in the setting of a PG-rated pseudo-government organization, you have a show. A show that is...and this will not be the last time I make this joke...odd.
Whatever physics you think are in play? Completely gone. This show is one of the masters of no physics -- not even cartoon physics. Buck your cartoon physics. It's complete off-the-wall insanity. Whatever you can think of, it goes, and it goes hard. Flying goldfish, dinosaurs (in the 21st freakin' century!), villains who deal in everything from musical melodies to jam...it all exists, and it all works within the universe of the show. Think of Earth, but completely skewed so you get stuff like giant mutant albino mice and vortexes that probably have kill counts.
The show, conceptualized in 2012 and premiering in 2014 as PBS Kids's first live-action (slash animation) show since that Electric Company reboot from 2009 that is but a faint memory, surrounds thirteen main characters across three seasons. All of them children, naturally, and all of them around the 7-12 age range. (Except Oprah. Oprah is a complicated case. But we're not here to talk about Oprah now.) I'm not going to discuss the characters in-depth -- that will be saved for the next 13 blogs I plan to spit out. What I'm here to discuss is the show in and of itself and why it meshes so well with poni. So let's move on.
The Setting
Wait'll he gets the word that he can eat as much as he wants from the Breakroom...and it will never come out of his paycheck.
The main setting of the show is the titular organization, whose goal is to deal with anything strange, weird, and especially odd, using gadgetry and mathematics. (Also science and technology, later on. But math is at its core.) Whether it's wishing odd villains a very "get blasted to the aether lol rekt" or saving an odd creature from harm, if it's odd, then these kids are gonna touch it and pick it up with their bare hands. The main main setting, though, is one of the many precincts of the organization: Precinct 13579.
This is what it looks like in Season 2, by the way. Season 1 looks way more rustic and smells more like asbestos and mesothelioma.
Precinct 13579 is situated deep, deep underground -- not enough to hit the Earth's core, but enough so that agents can live comfortably without fear of dying from being crushed by tons of pounds of dirt. Lots of rooms on the top floor, such as interrogation rooms, Oprah's office, and the Medical Bay. There would be other rooms added later on, namely the Task Force Room (upper-right in the picture, the one that has the logo with the upside-down keyhole), where two agents would make themselves known and work there for a short while.
In the halls, however, lie many rooms. These rooms can be most anything and everything, and vary vastly by the Headquarters. But in Precinct 13579's case, these rooms swap frequently and at completely random times. So if you're trying to look for the only sole unisex bathroom in the entire Headquarters, then you are out of luck, my friend.
Odd Squad Headquarters differ between precincts, but stay relatively the same, mostly because there's one set and honkity-de-honkity the limitations of live-action and all that jazz. The only difference between precincts that is seen is in "The Curious Case of Pirate-itis", where Odie's precinct doesn't seem to have a functional dryer, hence the clothes on wires. And Season 3 with the interchangeability of Oprah's office, that too.
In a roadside study, 1 in 3 reckless TV show industry bigwigs who were tested for drugs after working on Odd Squad tested positive for one or more of them. They really are more harmful than we all thought.
The Characters
This is not even half of them. This is not even a quarter of them. Strength in numbers.
As I said, I'm not going to delve too deep into the characters here. For the main characters specifically, I'm going to take 13 blog posts, keyboard-smash my way through "who's this and what do they do and how do they act", and then feed them to you all. With the side characters, there is absolutely no contest. Writing blog posts about all of them would just be too time-consuming. Does this site have a blog limit? Does it reach past at least...mm...200 or so? How about 500?
...1000?
So instead, I'm going to sum up the dynamic of all the characters in the franchise.
...
Oh. Did I say franchise? I didn't tell you this was a franchise?
Well, surprise son, it's a freakin' franchise!
For the sake of simplicity, though, this post will be focused on the TV show that started it all. So don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with an hour of reading about all the franchise material in one blog post.
So. The characters. Their dynamics. Let's dive into all that.
Season 1 starts off with a core cast of four. Since this is a structured organization that is based on actual workplaces, there's the boss, two employees...and the other one. There are other employees as well -- "agents", as they're called -- who are well-known side characters, and an extensive gallery of villains whom I will dive into in another blog post.
"I want a cheeseborgor! And some alcohol! Or you'll be next on my hit list!"
The boss, called Agent Oprah but known by her title of "Ms. O" -- which is not her name, and I am insistent about this terminology the same way people are insistent about "could care less" and "couldn't care less" -- is strict. She rules the precinct with an iron fist. She knows how to get work done. Essentially, she draws parallels to real-life bosses, but without the real-life consequences of dislocating your employee's stomach with a well-aimed punch if they slack off.
The controversy surrounding her is...well, I wouldn't call it astonishing. It's not on the same level of Archie Bunker or whatever The Simpsons has going on in its 120th season, but it's there, it's real, and it got noticed. I could make a whole 'nother blog post discussing this controversy, really. Maybe I'll do it in her spotlight post, maybe I'll make a separate post entirely.
She should know better than to get between a kid and his basic human right to eat good food.
Precinct 13579 has many employees across several different departments, but the main two they focus on in Season 1 is a partner pair going by the names of Agent Olive and Agent Otto. Both of them have vastly different personalities -- Olive being the "veteran", so to speak (really, I can't speak to her longevity of being employed), and Otto being the fun-loving rookie. But the dynamic they have as partners and friends is well-loved by many, and for good reason. I'll dive into that when I get around to discussing both of them in-depth, so for now, I'll play my "source: dude trust me" card and leave it at that.
Then we have...the other one.
Now tell me: could you hate this face? Do you have it in you to hate this face?
The lovable, quirky, and endearing Scientist known as Agent Oscar. He is, perhaps, one of the most well-loved characters in the entire franchise, for many different reasons. Essentially, his role in Odd Squad is more of a symbiotic one -- his job is to build gadgets, tools that aid agents in stopping oddness (and also serve as good battle weapons). He's less of a "I'm going to go out on the field and whoop serious butt" kind of person and more of a "I'm going to hang in my little safe space where no one can bother me" kind of person. Deep under the skin, though, he's got a lot of legendary lore and fame behind him...that I'll discuss in my dedicated post.
Look, we have nine more characters to get through here. I know you're here so you can see how this all loops back to poni. Be patient, wise ones.
Season 2 mixes things up just a little bit. It still relatively keeps the same structure of the boss, two of her employees, and two other ones (until one other one leaves five episodes in), but it also introduces the concept of canonical successors to three of the original cast. Olive, Otto and Oscar being immortalized as legendary agents wouldn't become a mainstay until the final season, but this was a stepping stone to it. Likewise, these three new agents would also be immortalized as legendary agents in the final season, but the justification on that is a discussion for a later time.
It's subtle, but if you look real close, you'll see the change in personalities.
Hey look, it's Pinkie Pie doing another crossover!
No, actually, it's not Pinkie Pie.
It's actually Agent Olympia, an Investigation department agent who's just here to make friends, kick butt, and be the best agent the organization has ever seen. Meant to be a successor to Otto, she's bubbly, fun, and nearly always smiling. When I first saw her, the amount of jokes I cracked about her being a Pinkie Pie expy would be enough to kill a man. A small part of me really wanted to believe it, too -- red hair (for a more "realistic" look, because this is not a straight cartoon), bubbly personality, always wanting to make friends with almost anyone and everyone but the local villains, absolutely dedicated to her job even to unhealthy degrees, the context for the above picture is literally her getting excited over her coworker throwing a party she's not even throwing -- but then I realized that about 95% of the people working on the show probably had no idea what My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic even was.
...
The other 5% belongs to Tim McKeon and his two fabulous joke tweets that went over Lauren Faust's and Meghan McCarthy's heads about as well as a lead fart.
As for the kid next to her, that would be her partner, Agent Otis, meant to be a successor to Olive. He's definitely a more reserved type of agent whose social skills are about as lacking as mine and probably a whole ton of other people with social skills issues. This ties into his mysterious past that is set up in the season's run, although how it's handled is a little clunky (which I might address in future blog posts). He does make a great foil to Olympia's excitability, though.
But enough about them for now. I want to talk about one of my favorite characters in the entirety of the franchise. A character who is, perhaps, one of the wildest you may ever see on a network that caters towards preschoolers and parents.
Agent Oona.
Everyone makes mistakes...but she'll physically hurt you for it. Maybe this is why Olympia is such a perfectionist.
There really is no one word to describe this Scientist. She is smart. She is crafty. She is most definitely mentally bugged to some degree or another. Essentially, think of Oscar, but gender-flipped, in an assistant position, and more rattled in the head than he could ever hope to be. Watch the show, and then tell me if you have ever seen Oscar who loses his mind and wields a mallet because half of his co-workers are completely inept and insensitive.
It speaks volumes that in her very first appearance, she decides to throw a dangerous and fragile gadget to Oscar instead of walking the three steps and handing it to him like normal people do. I think that, along with the rest of the episode, is what endeared me to her. She's dorky in a way I love, in addition to the little pinch of psychosis. PBS Kids is so known for family-friendly fare that seeing a psychotic character on one of their shows in the post-2013-reboot era is about as common as them teaming up with Hasbro for their own My Little Pony crossover. It's that twist and that deviation from the norm that gets me.
The final season, Season 3, changes things severely. I know, I know, you're thinking, "But Seren, the show's been changed enough, exactly where in Celestia's blue will can it go from here?"
Aha...well...that's a bit of a complicated question to answer. One that would take a whole 'nother word-vomit blog post just to answer. One that I would have to re-track my entire research and theories I have on my little board just to answer.
So I'm going to try and sum it up simply in the best way I know how to.
- Take the concept and apply it to a mobile unit
- Buy a 2015 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and blast that sucker with paint
- Get money. Doesn't matter how. Just get money.
- Hire new child actors to keep the show fresh, while also researching ways to stunt the growth of children
- Gather a whole bunch of random writers with little to no experience in the same room
- ???
- Bang it all out in the middle of a global pandemic
- ???
- Profit
Season 3 is a hot mess all around the board. But for the sake of staying on-topic, let's discuss the six (six?!) main characters that debut in this season.
We were all screamy excitable children at some point. But at least most of us stopped when we hit the 10s.
Opal and Omar are introduced as the two main characters of the season, at least to start out with. Unlike with partner pairs of seasons past, however, these two have a rather awkward dynamic that only serves to get worse once more characters enter the picture. At most, it definitely doesn't run as deep as Olive and Otto's dynamic, or Olympia's and Otis's dynamic.
Opal is the de facto leader of the cast, and that is no matter how hard canon wants to state otherwise and assert all of them are leaders, because that is just not true. She is ambitious, smart, and a bit impulsive at times, with her goal of wanting to make the Odd Squad Mobile Unit nothing more than the stuff of legend. Something that was eventually left out of the final product is her possessiveness over her position as the leader -- the very question of "can I be the leader" will get you a one-way ticket to whatever Odd Squad's version of hell is -- and the lesson she must learn that yes, it's okay to relinquish leadership to others.
Omar, on the other hand, is more docile. He's relaxed, calm, and honestly, he's just an agent who is here to vibe, travel his days away, and collect souvenirs. Which, let's be honest, is a lifestyle that a lot of us probably want. Kid is at least 12 and he's somehow cracked immunity to adulthood. I am very jelly.
One of the things I regret not having been added in the season is Omar's gullibility -- something grabbed and reused from Otto -- being exploited to insane degrees by his teammates. In reality, he is a ditz, but I wouldn't necessarily call him gullible. If anything, he provides a sane beacon for Opal's wild and competitive personality, even before he undergoes a level-up in IQ points later on.
He's reading an over-100-page-long book about why his show got dropped. Included is residual payment information and, surprisingly, his Social Security number.
Oswald is an "Oscar type", as I like to call it. He is the group's resident genius who relies on books more than Google and spends a good portion of his days cowering and sending a prayer to whatever Odd Squad's version of God is. Hell, "The Thrill of the Face" focuses on him fulfilling his dreams at very costly prices, and it is, perhaps, one of my favorite episodes of Season 3.
In pitch material, Oswald was also meant to be insufferable, egotistic, and willing to rub his smarts into other people's faces. This, of course, was meant to tie into his terrible social skills and how being the kid version of Sheldon Cooper is not something people enjoy. I honestly would have loved to see this version of Oswald, because in the show proper, he is far from insufferable and isn't as socially awkward as, say, Otis. He's smart and surprisingly very sociable for having once spent 9-to-5's cooped up in a tinny lil' museum in New York City. To see him face the real-life ramifications of what that can do to a person would be very eye-opening.
But I digress. I'll dive into that in his spotlight post.
You'll have to excuse her. "Sending your friends to another dimension so they can die" wasn't a crime back in her time period.
Ah yes, Orla. One of the spotlight characters of Season 3 canon-wise. Unlike most of the cast, who are all expies of past and established main characters to some degree or another, she is a completely original character, which is a nice breath of fresh air. The dynamic with her teammates is rather fun to explore, because she is the only agent who is stuck in the "olden days" while everyone else embraces modernity. She's more of the "shoot first, ask questions later" type who needs things like the Internet and cars explained to her but can't grasp that the "shoot first, ask questions later" mentality doesn't necessarily work in the 21st century.
If I'm being honest, she's definitely grown on me. Her design is really cool, with the armor on her shoulder and forearm, and I do love the show's take on the "place character from olden times into the modern world and watch 'em go" cliche.
Not that she's won any as far as I'm aware, but I have to wonder if this is how award shows greet Glee Dango every time she's introduced.
Osmerelda Kim. Oh God, even the name itself is a spoiler...should I keep going?
Yeah. Yeah, I think I will. If I get anyone to watch this show, the number of people will be what I can count on one hand, anyway.
Anyway, Osmerelda Kim. The only example of a side character moving up the ranks to become a main character in the history of the franchise, and one of the many examples in media which handled it very, very poorly.
Once called Esmerelda Kim, she appeared as early on as the first episode with nothing but her flute and a desire to go on adventures, but too many responsibilities to drop things and decide to actually get a job and earn a living wage. She was originally a sort of audience surrogate but specifically for kids who had clubs and other activities that filled up their lives, before becoming an audience surrogate for...well, the same demographic, but also for younger kids in general who really need a refresher on what happened earlier on in the show. Because you know, this franchise cares so much about continuity... (Spoiler alert: it does not. But that's a complicated issue for another blog post.)
It's very hard to pin down what dynamics this girl has with her teammates because she only has thirteen episodes, which isn't really a whole lot of time to establish any firm relationships. From what I can gather, though, she's a kindhearted and talented girl who is willing to lend a hand and kick odd butt, and to be honest, that's one of the highest bars you can set for a character in this franchise.
"I interrupt this momentous and emotional group hug to bring you an update: I just got a raaaaa-aaaaaise and you diiii-diiiiin't!"
Rounding out our main cast is Orpita, who is often referred to by her title of "The Little O" following her cast ascension. She is one of the weaker characters for me, to be honest. Originally, she started out with a nice strong personality -- a rebel student of the Odd Squad Academy who doesn't like to follow rules and seeks to achieve maximum chillness. Over time, however, that personality withered away until she became nothing more than a cheap copy of her predecessor. Like Osmerelda, I can't really say much on her dynamic with the other characters, because she exists mostly for expositional purposes. But she's an okay character in my eyes. Could be better.
Now that we've got all that out of the way, let me answer the question I'm pretty sure you all came here for.
So What's the Connection With MLP: FiM?
I don't think the colors of the balloons she's holding are any mere coincidence...nor are the ones on her cart.
I didn't get into Friendship is Magic until around the time Season 5 premiered. I don't know what drew me in initially -- maybe it was boredom, maybe it was peer pressure, maybe it was because it looked like a neat cartoon. But I found myself liking it. I tuned in for the weekly premieres after that. It was fun to be part of the "you had to be there" crowd instead of developing crippling FOMO.
Almost right away, though, I noticed that both Friendship is Magic and Odd Squad have similar themes and elements. Friendship and teamwork are two of Odd Squad's modus operandis, and the same can be said for Friendship is Magic. FiM has its share of odd creatures and oddities in general, just like Odd Squad. Odd Squad has unicorns...that agents eat and sometimes treat as villains since they are causers of oddness. FiM has unicorns that other creatures eat (or try to, I suppose), and we have Starlight Glimmer as one example of a unicorn villain. And of course, we have the references and the joke tweets from Tim McKeon that I mentioned above.
With all of that in mind, I thought to myself, "Why not combine them and see what happens?"
And combine them I did.
Apart from my upcoming project (which I've been working on since 2018), In Odd We Trust was the first MLP and Odd Squad crossover fic I had ever made. I had plans for it to go somewhere massive, to really let my creativity fly and go all out with the Mane Six and how they interact with these weird humans in these weird suits that have this weird job of defeating oddness. But somewhere along the lines of the sixth chapter, I faltered. My motivation ran out halfway through. I just couldn't find the will to finish it. So I ended up abandoning it for years.
I really don't know what compelled me to come back to this site and finish the fanfic. Maybe it was the pain of having my upcoming project sitting in Google Docs for 4 years and thinking, "Y'know, I really need to get my writing out there into the world." Who knows. But am I glad I did it? Absolutely.
In Odd We Trust, though not how I originally wanted it to go, ended up looking pretty good, even if most people didn't understand what poni was crossing over with. As I said in the Author's Note, I'll probably do a rewrite of it someday, maybe with the G5 cast the next time around. With Make Your Mark coming out in a few days, it'll give me lots and lots of fanfic ideas. (Hnnnnngh the hype is reeeeeeeeeeal!)
Of course, that doesn't mean I won't do straight, non-crossover poni fics. Her Song was something I banged out in the span of a single night on nothing but a whim, a prayer, and way too much Pepsi. Miles to Go Before I Sleep, while inspired by another non-MLP fic, turned out pretty solid. Solar and Lunar is moving along nicely, for being my first G5 fic (though I have another G5 fic in mind I plan on releasing soon). And I'm entering the Ancestral Tribute contest with an original story.
Anyway, I'm getting way too off track here. I hope this post has enlightened you to what Odd Squad is and why I love shoehorning it into ponefics so much. Go watch it, if it seems like your thing. If it gets enough support, maybe we can manifest an animated reboot by the time the 22nd century rolls around.
Thank you for reading. Hug your pets. I need sleep.
Dressing them up in cute lil' Odd Squad Investigation agent suits: completely optional.
