Snips: A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned.
A/N: I feel so proud for that pun. Anyway, in answer to everyone's question of 'What are your thoughts on Penny'. Well, to be honest I don't really like her. *collective boos* But let me explain. I grew up back when the original cartoons had begun to make a comeback in the world of TV, coming back once again on the classical channels and presented as Saturday morning cartoons. Penny was never in the original series, so having her in the movie and making Sherman more out of character than he already was, just kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. Its kind of like if they brought back Twinkies but in a strawberry flavor instead of vanilla. It just didn't seem right. I also don't like her because of her lack of character development. She basically that spoiled bully in most movies and cartoons but why? Why pick on Sherman having a dog for a father when no one else but Ms. Grunion does? It just didn't make a whole lot of sense. I also didn't like how Penny managed to get away unscathed even though her little joke almost killed a family, almost killed Mr. Peabody twice, nearly destroyed the whole of time, and even physical abuse and harassment against Sherman. I remember I was actually in the movie theatre with my twin and when I saw that, I leaned over and asked "What the *** is wrong with that girl?" Sure, a lot of people will argue that she was a developed character and she did get what she deserved later on when everyone else but her got hurt, still I didn't see it as any sort of justice. I also didn't like her because in my mind, Sherman is still that innocent five year old (In the original series he was in fact five, turning six shortly after the WABAC was built) boy who followed around his beloved care taker on crazy adventures in their What-If Machine (Why is the WABAC suddenly a time machine again? Last I checked, Peabody turned it into a What-If Machine so they WOULDN'T screw things up.) Anyhow, I brought that up because I didn't like how Penny made Sherman rebel and act so out of character. To me she was just another character that didn't need to happen.
From the Desk Of Sherman:
'What can I really say about Penny Peterson? Nothing really, I've only met her just a few days ago at our first day of school. Even our adventure in the WABAC wasn't really enlightening enough on who she really is. At school, I saw her as a blonde haired terror, whose soul purpose was to make me miserable. Honestly, she did seem that way and I think it was because I outshown her in our social studies class, though this doesn't really make a lot of sense to Mr. Peabody, nor I. I can't explain Penny at all, because I don't know a lot about her past, other than the one she has with me. I can only imagine what she'll tell me one of these days, just like how I can only imagine what life would have been like for us had we done something different. There are a whole lot of what-ifs I thought about during our adventure, the following are listed below;
"Its not like I want to- hold her hand!" Though I probably should, because Mr. Peabody has taught me that its the most efficient leash if you want to keep others out of trouble. Maybe if I held Penny's hand, then she wouldn't have run off into such a stupid situation like she did. Though, if I told Mr. Peabody this much, we probably would have been stuck in that tomb even longer, because he would somehow try to give me a very long lecture on love or how the human mind works. I never really expected Mr. Peabody to understand that much of my thinking.
"Or walk with her in the park." Maybe a trip to the park would have been a safe icebreaker, instead of going through time in the WABAC like we did. We could have just pushed each other on the swings and talked like normal and happy kids should on their days off. We wouldn't have to worry about lawsuits, orphanage and death threats, or even the weight of the world literally crashing down on us. Don't get me wrong, its not like we were very normal to begin with, but we were normal enough to know that a park was a better setting.
"Or watch her brush her hair." Penny is a blonde girl, who gets her looks from her mom. That's all I could really gather from her to be honest. She has really long bangs, and uses different head bands to keep them off of her forehead. Wow, if I could learn this much about Penny and the content of her character, imagine how much I could learn about her based off of if she compulsively brushes her hair for fly-aways or not. Heck, maybe it would help me figure out what her home life is like, with tangle free hair being a sign that she has enough money to but conditioner, or that her parents are strict enough to have her brush it every morning.
Eh, it may sound like I'm overthinking things, but I grew up with a genius dog for a parental figure, so I was taught at an early age how to read into someone based off of the everyday things that they do. Like in that lunch room, just before Penny came over to attack me, she spoke with her friends about me first. That sort of gave me the impression that she was as unsure of me as I was of her. She then got up quickly and approached me which seemed to imply that she works a lot off of impulse and not by preplanned thought, she then began with starting things off with simple questions, trying to catch me off guard I think. I can only guess that she was trying to find a reason to start a fight, such as twisting my words around and tossing about some of my things. After that, she worked on getting everyone's attention by starting a fight, because all rowdy kids love fights right?
Basically from this point, I figured out that she was doing this more so for popularity on her end. So many kids had gotten interested in my stories in Social studies, and now they were interested in her end of the fight, especially since I bit her shortly after it started and that made me seem like the bad guy. When the principal came, she started crying loudly and showing him her wrist. She wasn't in any pain at all though, but this seemed to be a reaction programed into her brain, that you should cry when you're in trouble to get others off of your back. Penny probably gets into a lot of trouble at home as it is, based on how quick and skilled she manages to fake tears that is.
Even after she began to feel remorse for the 'death' of Mr. Peabody, it just seemed like she felt that way because she should have. There were no marks on her arms, or anyone she could get in trouble with, so there was no need for her to cry and push blame onto someone else. This time what happened had been her fault and hers only, but that doesn't mean I consider her to be a good or sweet person, just someone who knows when enough is enough. She got happy and cheered for me when Mr. Peabody and I saved the day, but everyone else was also so it does not really help her case much.
Peabody suggests that I run a study on her, and take some notes before asking her some questions and observing her trueself first hand and hopefully finally figuring out who the real Penny is. So that's what I'm doing now, and so far I can conclude a few things.
Penny is a blonde haired girl, who gets her looks from her mom. She goes off of impulse, and is just as unsure of me as I am of her. She has a sense of morals, and knows the difference between good and bad, that doesn't mean that she never does any wrong though. Shes also trying to make things right with me now, though I'm not sure why she chose this time to do it. We haven't known each other long enough to really determine what we are to one another or how we feel, so maybe right now shes just dabbling between being my enemy and my friend, and I'm doing the same as well.
So, what can I really say about Penny Peterson?
I really don't know...