There's not a lot to Exile, but he still displays more interesting traits that one can play around with then either Hunter or Colleen do. I'm sure people are not going to like that I said that, but that's how I feel.
Exile was once my favorite character until Blitz edged him out of first place some years back, but I still really like Exile. Not simply because he's a Siberian husky, like I suspect a lot of people do -- not just furries either, but people in general (and I'm not trying to knock anyone for having a favorite dog breed, but liking a character based solely on their species or breed and absolutely nothing else is honestly kinda shallow, IMHO). I like nice characters, and Exile is a genuinely bighearted, happy, friendly guy. I also like Exile's accent and how he mixes up his English, all of which further adds to his charm. The fact that they played against type and made him the gadgeteer as well as the Rover who knew his way around computers and vehicles was also cool, since you wouldn't necessarily expect that from a character like him.
I've never seen anyone who said they disliked Exile before, interestingly enough. Aside from him and Muzzle (who either gets treated as a deus ex machina or is just outright forgotten/ignored by most fans), I've seen at least one anti-fan for the rest of the Rovers (and some of them have more anti-fans then others do...). Hunter and Colleen seem to have the bigger respective fanbases though.
There's some strange fanon which has sprang up around everyone's favorite Ruskie. I started noticing it well after the fall of the first iteration of the fandom back in the mid to late 90s. I don't get why so many people depict Exile as being this massive hulking beast height-wise. Shag was obviously the tallest Rover, which makes sense because his breed, komondorok (plural form of komondor), can weigh up to 125 lbs and stand 27.5 inches at their withers (the area between a dog's shoulder blades and the back of their necks. This spot is used to measure height). Huskies are much smaller at 21-23.5 inches and 45-60 lbs for male dogs. Exile, while being pretty stout and muscular, was actually one of the shorter guys.
Some more fanon I don't really get is when fan writers make Exile an expert on anything supernatural that comes up. I assume this comes from the werewolf episode "A Hair Of The Dog That Bit You." It's something else I'm not... wild about. Just because he related a legend from his homeland to the other Rovers when he thought he was becoming a werewolf doesn't mean he'd also know how to fight vampires or be knowledgeable about fairies. It's like someone expecting me to tell them all about jiang shi just because people talk about seeing Bigfoot where I live. Why not just have the Rovers, I dunno, research the legend or myth together, or go talk to a real expert?
His array of superpowers indisputably made Exile the team powerhouse in battle, but I kinda hate how the show underplayed his super-strength. The Master mentioned it in the first episode, then we never see him blatantly use it after that. Instead more attention went to his vision-related powers, which, granted are cool and useful, but still, I really wanted to see more feats of strength from him. It would've made him even more versatile, and it'd be fun watching a shorter dude toss cars and stuff around. This is just theorizing on my part, since nobody who's ever worked on the show before has ever come out and talked about it AFAIK, but I think the inspiration for his powers comes from the fact that he's a sled dog. Sled dogs can pull heavy loads, and they tend to come from colder climates.
Being single and one of the more desirable male characters, Exile tends to be a pretty popular character to pair off with OFCs, the vast majority of which suck, to bluntly put it. They're usually either horrible Mary Sues (or sometimes, Gary Stus) who were/are either bland or very, very very annoying. Not to mention that a number of ship fics featuring Exile tends to be really out there furry fetish stuff/or porn, especially if Exile is paired with Hunter/or Blitz.
"Well wait, why are you kinkshaming, you uptight prude?!"
Listen, if you post some of the stuff that I've stumbled over (I'm not about to go into detail since there's no way I can not make it explicit, and I don't know who's actually looking at this blog. It's not just regular old "insert tab B into slot A" sex though), not everybody's gonna be up there oooing and awwing over it. It is legitimately bizarre stuff. Harmless yes, but still bizarre. For the record, if someone were to actually write a good ExileXBlitz fic that was an actual romance and not ultra weird OOC furry wanklit, I'd read it.
Moving on, if I was going to ship him with another canon character, I actually like the idea of him and Colleen together. Never in a million years would I have thought of this pairing were it not for Usami and her story Eye Of The Wolf. The both of them do get along pretty well in the show, and it's a refreshing change of pace from all the Hunter/Colleen stuff. In my main bunch of stories however, Exile's getting shipped with an OFC (holding off on revealing the character's identity for spoiler purposes).
Dokey-okay. :) So coming up next time you're gonna see my many Exile headcanons, my inspiration in writing him, etc etc.
Exile! Good to see his cool dude around. And no, that was not an intended pun. XD
ReplyDelete//Exile was once my favorite character until Blitz edged him out of first place some years back, but I still really like Exile. Not simply because he's a Siberian husky, like I suspect a lot of people do -- not just furries either, but people in general (and I'm not trying to knock anyone for having a favorite dog breed, but liking a character based solely on their species or breed and absolutely nothing else is honestly kinda shallow, IMHO). I like nice characters, and Exile is a genuinely bighearted, happy, friendly guy. I also like Exile's accent and how he mixes up his English, all of which further adds to his charm. The fact that they played against type and made him the gadgeteer as well as the Rover who knew his way around computers and vehicles was also cool, since you wouldn't necessarily expect that from a character like him.//
Same - when I first saw the show, I was surprised at how they played against type and gave him the gadgeteer schtick. It's not normally something you see in fiction and it's nice that they did add a bit of unique thought into his person. I think that's a reason why I like him - he has these powers and abilities all wrapped into a lovable but tough goofball.
//Some more fanon I don't really get is when fan writers make Exile an expert on anything supernatural that comes up. I assume this comes from the werewolf episode "A Hair Of The Dog That Bit You." It's something else I'm not... wild about. Just because he related a legend from his homeland to the other Rovers when he thought he was becoming a werewolf doesn't mean he'd also know how to fight vampires or be knowledgeable about fairies. It's like someone expecting me to tell them all about jiang shi just because people talk about seeing Bigfoot where I live. Why not just have the Rovers, I dunno, research the legend or myth together, or go talk to a real expert?//
That's confusing to me as well. I mean, I get that Exile would know legends from his place of birth, but be an expert in all things mythological? If that was the case, then we would have seen it in other episodes, like 'Dawn of the Groomer' where Egyptian myths were sort of at play. I see him as more being baffled than knowledgable about such things.
//His array of superpowers indisputably made Exile the team powerhouse in battle, but I kinda hate how the show underplayed his super-strength. The Master mentioned it in the first episode, then we never see him blatantly use it after that. Instead more attention went to his vision-related powers, which, granted are cool and useful, but still, I really wanted to see more feats of strength from him. It would've made him even more versatile, and it'd be fun watching a shorter dude toss cars and stuff around. This is just theorizing on my part, since nobody who's ever worked on the show before has ever come out and talked about it AFAIK, but I think the inspiration for his powers comes from the fact that he's a sled dog. Sled dogs can pull heavy loads, and they tend to come from colder climates.//
I haven't thought of his super strength coming from the fact that he's a sled dog, but that does make a lot of sense! Everything else makes sense too - the heat and ice visions from his needing to keep warm in a colder environment. It would have been neat seeing him using his super strength. I feel like the only times from the show we've seen him using it are not just the first episode where the Master's telling everyone who has what powers, but also during the opening credits themselves when he's pulling the sled with all that stuff. He doesn't have to be as super strong as Shag but I still think it would be awesome to see what he would have done with his strength if the show had found more chances to showcase it.