And King Tuck definitely falls into that category.

I have a strong affinity for underdog characters, and Tucker brings out my protective streak. Comic relief is a time-honored role for a “best friend” character, but there’s a major difference between being funny and being ridiculed. Tucker is sometimes portrayed as a comedian, quick with a quip or a snarky aside. More often he is made the butt of the joke, blithely oblivious to his own absurd foolishness. But once in a while he is tormented by self-awareness: he realizes he is the designated loser, the goat, the straw man. Nowhere is this more evident than in King Tuck, where in the middle of a struggle to gain the respect of his fellow students—heck, he’d probably settle for some respect from his best friends—he was given a taste of authority and power, only to have it snatched away and replaced with a slap in the face.

In order to make the plot work, Tucker had to be made into a weak, unprincipled jerk—even before his mind was taken over by the power of the pharaoh’s scepter. Well there’s continuity for you, as the same thing happened when he temporarily gained ghost powers back in What You Want. The tone was set early in the game, as Danny condescendingly said, “Trust me. It’s for your own good.” Of course, Danny was right—but that’s my point. Tucker was set up to be wrong, to become arrogant and obnoxious so he could Learn His Lesson.

I will grudgingly admit that Tucker did have the opportunity to partially redeem himself near the end of the episode. Danny may have been the one to figure out that Tucker could control the Sphinx, but Tucker actually did the controlling. That was a bit refreshing, as I had expected that Danny would have been the one to Save the Day. Oh, and Tucker did actually show some initiative at the end, when he used his borrowed power to pull a Reality Gauntlet-style reset. For one shining moment I thought that Tucker may have managed to salvage some dignity out of the whole debacle, but. . . .

Well, let’s see. As soon as they got back to school Danny snatched the scepter away from Tucker and said he’d take it back to the museum. No chance for Tucker to hand it over willingly, to show that he understood that the scepter was a tool for evil. ("Here, Danny. Would you put this back where it belongs?")

And what Valuable Lesson did Tucker learn after wielding ultimate power at a terrible price? How did he use that experience to grow in character and wisdom? He quit! They couldn’t even let him stay in the race and fight a principled campaign against the school bully and lose with some semblance of dignity.

Ugh.

Rating:

By: Bluemoonalto

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