My daughter has found a new show to love, and it warms my heart that she likes it. The show is called Moomins, and it revolves around characters created by Tove Jansson in his Moomin books. They're...well, Finnish in origin, and highly eclectic, but I discovered the novels via my mother's side of the family and always enjoyed them.
Here's the very special bit, though. To Maeve, there is no good guy/bad guy dichotomy in plot. She just doesn't normally watch that sort of show, so she doesn't immediately identify with the main character, or cheer on the hero. She just sort of grabs onto whichever character stirs her fancy, and in this case, it's the Groke.
The Groke is a female, elemental spirit of winter who is not well liked by the Moomins. She is mysterious, frightening, and they don't understand her. She speaks in grunts and growls, and no one knows what she really wants. Maeve loves her.
She only wants to watch the two episodes with the Groke in them, and tells us: The Groke talks like Snoopy! (i.e. not in words) She just loves the Groke. And I love my daughter, who loves the misunderstood, ostensible villain. I mean, this is the girl who, upon first viewing of Winnie the Pooh and the honey tree, was rooting for the bees. She just goes where her heart leads, I think, and that's often not where you'd expect. I love that about her.
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| Yep, that's the Groke. |
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