First off, I'm a little nervous about posting this, especially since I'm new on this website. I'm kinda worried I'll get booed off the stage, so to speak, so let me just say upfront, if you like these stories, that's fine by me. And if you wrote these stories, please don't take my opinions personally

Now, I'll be the first to admit, I haven't read all of this site's stories. In fact, I've only read three: "Illogical Reaction", "Nodus", and "Forever".

But the thing is, all of them have Egon foregoing logic in some way, shape, or form, and that's what I dislike about them.

1. In "Illogical Reaction", he throws his laboratory equipment around.

2. In "Nodus", he does it again. Not only that, but the villain is portrayed as logical, and Egon saves the day by rejecting him, and he refers to the irrational parts of his psyche as "humanity", which kind of rubs me up the wrong way as it's kind of implying logic is evil and/or inhuman.

3. And in "Forever", he outright says that he's "tired of being logical", he refers to "retreating back into logic" as though logic is a bad thing, and when he has that imagination sequence about "Even Edison Spengler knew that there was more to life than science", he sort of seems to be tossing his rationality aside (even if this is only temporary).


My disdain for these plots is due to two reasons:

1. Egon's my favourite character, and what I like most about him is how logical and analytical he is.

2. I'm aro-ace, which is short for "aromantic asexual". In layman's terms, I don't want to bone or snog anybody. And I kind of head-canon Egon (or, at least, Egon in the movies) as being that way too. As a consequence, I don't find the plot points of him and Janine as compelling as I likely would were I not aro-ace.

Again, I don't want to make anyone mad. I just want to get this off my chest.

Nothing to be afraid of. I knew going into it my take wouldn't be for everybody. I do appreciate your taking time to at least dip your toe into things, and if after that you don't go on that's totally all right.

I know my personal image of Egon was definitely infused with the JMS era portrayal from The Real Ghostbusters. Episodes he wrote like "Ragnarok and Roll", or even a few post-JMS episodes like "Robobuster" seemed to build off of the glimpse of Egon's psyche we saw in the first movie itself: the part where, after behaving calmly and rationally for the entire movie, he just loses it and goes for Peck's throat.

In other words, he's a man with strong passions that he has brutally repressed.

A lot of it came from his upbringing; his father pushed him very hard to be a total logic machine. And he didn't know any better until he started to meet and genuinely befriend some stunningly illogical and/or emotional people like Peter Venkman and Ray Stantz. That it's telling that he hangs around with oddballs like that instead of other people as straight-laced as he is.
I admit, it might look like it from just the three stories you mentioned, but this is NOT a common thing for him. Far from it. There's only one more story I've done, "Picture Imperfect", where he does something like this. We're supposed to see it as the intensely unusual thing it is (four times in over 150 stories, for some context).
My intent: He's finally accepted something that he slowly started to discover when he befriended Peter Venkman ("Ghostbusting 101") and Ray, but especially after Janine entered the picture: he has strong emotions. And while he shouldn't let them control him, he shouldn't ignore them anymore either.

I can't say much about this without spoiling the story "Gemini Rising", but at one point Egon came face to face with someone who faced very much the same choice that he was given in "Nodus". And that person took the other path...and it made him into a madman who was so overly logical it drove him insane.
Your read for Movie Egon is entirely valid (even though Callie came about somehow). I don't share it due to his RGB portrayal, but that's completely my own thing.

At the end of the day, he's still a scientific genius who spends a lot of time being logical. But Egon of this universe isn't aromantic or asexual; I'm sorry that this version isn't what you want, but I do appreciate you giving it a look.

And I do appreciate the criticism. You made some valid points, and I thank you for sharing them.

And also...

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Are there any stories where he's actually being logical?

I hope maybe some of these are closer to what you're looking for:

Ghostbusting 101
A prequel story where Venkman and Egon meet for the first time. Egon's all-business.

Some of the stories set in the "classic RGB era" (1983-1991) maybe. There may be bits of ship-tease in these because I gotta be me, but they're not central to the plot. They're where I try to keep closest to the ambivalent-at-best tone of the animation.

Ghostbusters: Mr. Stay Puft's Christmas Adventure
It's even seasonal! Egon does get kissed once, but this early he's more confused and annoyed than aroused.

Ghostbusters: The Monster That Is A Cookie

Ghostbusters: Terror on the Jersey Turnpike
Takes place after "Janine, You've Changed", but the relationship stuff isn't important to the plot.

Maybe those will suit you better?

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I read the first three, and I liked them for the most part.

My favourite part of Ghostbusting 101 was Venkman getting hoisted up the flagpole in his undies! The Christmas story was pretty good too, and I like how you introduced Dana into the setting of RGB, since I've often wondered what she'd be like in the cartoon too. The cookie story was pretty good, although why is Egon being all weird about the yellow VW?

<--That's how embarrassed I am for not noticing this post for a freakin' month.

Venkman and the flagpole comes from the episode "The Old College Spirit". I keep thinking it was in the original version of the story written by Iain Bennett/Sinister but I can't seem to find the original anywhere; even Internet Archive seems to have not archived it.

We got a cartoon version of Dana in the GB2 adaptation by Now Comics, but that's as close as we got. Of course, as it turned out not having her in the cartoon did give her "return" in GB2 some verisimilitude.

I don't think he was acting weird about Janine's car...he was acting weird about Janine being there. It's still very early and he's still in "I'm not sure about her and I lean toward being annoyed for the time being" mode.

Glad you found something to your liking.

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I second that, if my memory is anything to go by (and that's a big 'if!').

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'Extreme Ghostbusters was the best-written show, because it wasn't just about the ghostbusting, it was about the characters.' - Rino Romano

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