stalker: the simpsons
Disclaimer: I do not own the simpsons or it's characters.
Chapter 2,
For this chapter, I will be focusing on Lisa and her character developments in season 1. Now the first time I saw season one, I noticed that Lisa was not a vegetarian, and she wasn't a Buddhist, which surprised me. Since most of the episodes have isolated incidents, the characters themselves don't change a lot so that we can enjoy the Simpsons with whatever knowledge we know about them.
Anyways in the first episode 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' the entire second grade does a performance called 'Santa's of Many Lands.' When I first heard about this I immediately thought that this product was an idea of Lisa's because of how frequently she tries to educate her family about other cultures. In the episode we see three different Santa's. A German Santa (Who has a servant named Ruprecht), a Japanese priest named Hotseiosha, and finally Tawanga the Santa Claus of the South Sea's. Tawanga is played by Lisa Simpson and she wears a tribal mask, a grass skirt, and a pink coconut bra as she dances with some kind of torches. I enjoyed her performance and can only assume that Lisa would have tried to make it as traditional as possible.
Lisa writes a letter to Santa, asking for a pony as she has done for the past 3 years, despite her mother telling her that Santa can't give her one. Marge does write a family letter and says that Lisa got straight A's, which is the audience's first clue about how smart Lisa is. When Bart gets a tattoo, and marge has it removed, we are shown Lisa poking Bart's bandage several times. Now I don't know if this is an indicator of a sister being annoying or Liza being a tad sadistic, but we do see Maggie coping her sisters action which makes Lisa one of her influential role model. Lisa is shown watching a Christmas special of the happy little elves; and during the show she hears her aunts bad-mouthing her father and ask them to stop because Homer is her male role model that will effect her future relationships. Therefore a knock at him is a knock at her. When Lisa sees Santa's Little Helper for the first time she learns that love at first sight is possible.
When playing scrabble Lisa gets to show off a little of her extensive verbal ability/knowledge with the word 'Id'. Also when Bart cheats on his aptitude test, he fools everyone but Lisa, into thinking he is a genius.
When Homer get fired from the Nuclear Plant, Lisa searches the want ads to help him find a new job. And when Homer gives up she is the first one to try and get him to eat something. When Homer goes through the fridge he finds a cake that says 'Don't worry, daddy, we love you anyways!' I believe that Lisa bought or most likely made this cake for Homer to help cheer him up. This shows how much Lisa cares for her father.
Although in the very next episode, it shows Lisa and Bart fighting and pushing each other, because they think the other sibling loves Homer more then they themselves do. Lisa and Bart also fight on who will get in the car first. Lisa does express the joy of a well-earned paycheck after their family therapy session. Lisa makes cupcakes for her teacher's birthday which is our second indicator that Lisa is a good baker (If she did make the cake mentioned earlier).
Because Bart wants a cupcake, she slyly gets Bart to apologize for calling her names. She wasn't planning on giving Bart a cupcake, until one fell on the ground and she shoves it in his mouth. Now this could indicate that she doesn't care if Bart gets sick from a dirty cupcake, but I think it was more of a whim and she found the thought a little funny. Despite Lisa's social latter, she does seem to know whose friends with who, or at least who to avoid during school hours. Lisa is very proud of Bart for standing up for her, but doesn't seem to understand that Bart was still scared of Nelson.
In the episode 'Bart the General', they recreated the photo 'Kiss the War Goodbye' with a kid dressed as a sailor and Lisa Simpson. Of course after the kiss, Lisa slaps the boy that kissed her.
In 'Moaning Lisa', Lisa wakes up feeling blue, not really caring that the world is passing her by. This is also the first time we hear Lisa play her saxophone, outside of the intro. She wants to be wildly creative but gets stuck playing the automatic notes in 'My Country Tis of Thee'. She gets bored with the repetition in her life and craves a more flexible schedule full of inspiration. Lisa gets in trouble for refusing to play dodge ball. Lisa finally cries when Homer yells at her for playing the saxophone. When Lisa hears another saxophone playing, she walks out her window to Bart's tree house, although I think the placement of this branch moves in later seasons. Now Lisa has finally met the famous Bleeding Gums Murphy. He gives her some notes to play and they jam together. Personally, I was glad that the writers did not include scat in their jam session. This scene is and does have a lot of soul for both of the characters, and I believe that scat is more of a 'party' or 'let loose' vibe. When Lisa is told to smile, she does and acts cooperative to those around her until her mother forces her back into the car, which surprises her. Marge tells Lisa to always be herself and Lisa finally feels better.
When the Simpsons go camping, Marge and Lisa stay behind so Bart and Homer can go for help. While they are gone the girls clean their area and decorate with various plants and animals. And even though they 'know nothing about nature' they were able to build a fire when the boys couldn't.
For Marge's birthday, Lisa made an extravagant birthday car made of macaroni (very intricate). Lisa also recognizes the overcompensation that Marge is doing and discusses the levels of grief with Bart. Lisa also argues with Adil about defending America, which shows her political pride. Lisa is also a big fan of Krusty's TV show. During the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon Lisa says "If cartoons were meant for adults, they'd put them on in prime time." and I understood what she meant, but I would also think that Lisa would know that cartoons were originally designed for adults. Why? Because cartoons were drawn out by hand, therefore it took a long time to create and the people that made money were adults had jobs. Only later did people figured out that children loved cartoons more then adults, but if you looked at older cartoon like original Bug Bunny or even Betty Boop, you would see what I mean.
Lisa thinks Krusty is guilty, but she does help Bart look for evidence until she believes that Krusty couldn't have robbed the Kwik-e-mart. Lisa's bedtime is one hour after Maggie's and is happy to watch 'The Happy Little Elves Meet the Curious Bear Cub'. Although when Bart changes the channel to 'America's most Armed and Dangerous' Lisa worries about getting nightmares, which shows us how easily scared she can get.