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Post by aln1982 on May 31, 2007 23:31:37 GMT -5
Thanks for reminding me of some of the funnier Alan moments - brightened up a bad day Some of my favorites are any that he is in with Kristy (most recently read was in MA and Too Many Babies) and in Don't Give Up Mallory where he covers himself with balloons and in European Vacation and Aloha Baby-Sitters at the airports. I usually can't stand guys who constantly joke around, but I guess I like Alan because he laughs at himself instead of thinking he's cool because he's funny (kind of the impression I get from Robert - who I can't stand)
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Post by baseballchica03 on Jun 1, 2007 20:08:48 GMT -5
People keep saying that he and Kristy should have hooked up, but I think that both of them need to be the center of attention so badly that they'd never work out together. I do think Alan and Abby would make a good pair, though.
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fluffycakes
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Post by fluffycakes on Jun 15, 2007 21:14:30 GMT -5
^ Fair point, but I'm still rooting for Kristy and Alan. They make me laugh because they're both so ridiculous around each other. ;D
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Post by aln1982 on Jun 15, 2007 23:38:04 GMT -5
I totally can't see Abby and Alan but probably because I don't like Abby that much ;D She seems to be much needier for attention than Kristy, even. But this is going off topic for Alan... I usually think he is really funny but he made me mad in one of the later books (can't remember what one right off hand) when he ran into Mal and knocked her books out of her hands and called her Spaz Girl. I doubt he understood, though, how much this really upset her because he seems like the kind of guy to back off a little if he knows he is truly "hurting" someone. Get this impression from MA's book when he stops laughing at MA for bringing her dad to the Tea Party and feels bad for doing it after finding out she doesn't have a mom.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 21, 2007 23:50:04 GMT -5
Something I thought of - I really dislike how they twisted his character at times. Stacey's Secret Friend, for example. He goes from being the obnoxious but fairly harmless pest of the early books to a surprisingly mean gossip/bully. Ugh.
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Post by fairy3lf2 on Jun 22, 2007 0:16:12 GMT -5
I never read Stacey's Secret Friend but the description of Alan's behavior really surprised me. Sure, he was obnoxious but never seemed truly mean.
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Amalia
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Post by Amalia on Jun 22, 2007 2:43:19 GMT -5
I think that as long as you don't embarrass him then he will be considerate of your feelings when he sees that they are seriously hurt. But Tess embarrassed him by getting all of that paper mache and paint on him. So maybe since he felt a negative emotion that he didn't want to experience, he wanted Tess to experience a negative emotion in kind.
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ktag
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Post by ktag on Jun 22, 2007 3:57:38 GMT -5
I don't know...I haven't read that book either, but he gets shown up in front of the entire school in Jessi's Gold Medal and he ended up being a pretty good sport about it. Of course, that was Kristy, so maybe it didn't bother him so much.
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Post by aln1982 on Jun 22, 2007 7:56:32 GMT -5
^ I just read Jessi's Gold Medal and it has some of my very favorite Alan moments. I love how he has to be her slave. They are so meant for each other and I loved their competition ;D As I've said before, I think he does go too far sometimes but stops once he knows he's really hurting someone. I haven't read Secret Friend for a while, though, and will have to reread that one.
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fluffycakes
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Post by fluffycakes on Jun 22, 2007 12:25:12 GMT -5
^ I agree with your point about him stopping when he knows he's gone too far. He doesn't seem like a bad guy at all - just incredibly annoying at times. I love it when he and Kristy team up in some books - like in Super Mystery 3, when they pull a prank on Cary. It's great how they can be at each other's throats at some points, but are able to work together well at other times. They were definitely one of the more interesting "couples" (in the most basic sense of the word) to read about. I totally think they were meant to be, too. Who could forget them as parents in Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies? As far as the Secret Friend incident: I take it with a grain of salt. It's true that Alan seemed like a huge jerk in that one, and not in his usual way. He was actually cruel to Tess, if I remember the book correctly. But, I don't know. I don't take the later books as seriously as the earlier ones. By the time SSF was written, the quality of the books had gone waaaaay down. I think the ghostwriter made Alan uncharacteristically cruel because she needed a "bad guy," and using Alan was easier than creating another character or even choosing a lesser-known one. I hope that made sense.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 22, 2007 14:54:27 GMT -5
It makes total sense. I too think he was used because the ghostwriter needed a bad guy, and Alan seemed like an obvious choice because he's the class clown, etc., and they could expand on that. I guess I just didn't like seeing it. But yup, the quality of that book in particular is pretty low. I also think that when it's Kristy he's dealing with, he doesn't mind too much (unless it's Stacey's Movie, in which him wanting Kristy to take him more seriously is big). I was just reading Mary Anne to the Rescue, and at one point Kristy insults him and he just smiles. It was cute.
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lyricalangel
Sitting For The Newtons
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Post by lyricalangel on Jun 22, 2007 17:16:12 GMT -5
I picture Alan as a cute guy. He's kinda dorky and immature but will be a good guy when he gets a little older. I've known a ton of guys who were like that.
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digigirl02
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Post by digigirl02 on Jun 24, 2007 18:58:07 GMT -5
^ I agree with your point about him stopping when he knows he's gone too far. He doesn't seem like a bad guy at all - just incredibly annoying at times. I love it when he and Kristy team up in some books - like in Super Mystery 3, when they pull a prank on Cary. It's great how they can be at each other's throats at some points, but are able to work together well at other times. They were definitely one of the more interesting "couples" (in the most basic sense of the word) to read about. I totally think they were meant to be, too. Who could forget them as parents in Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies? As far as the Secret Friend incident: I take it with a grain of salt. It's true that Alan seemed like a huge jerk in that one, and not in his usual way. He was actually cruel to Tess, if I remember the book correctly. But, I don't know. I don't take the later books as seriously as the earlier ones. By the time SSF was written, the quality of the books had gone waaaaay down. I think the ghostwriter made Alan uncharacteristically cruel because she needed a "bad guy," and using Alan was easier than creating another character or even choosing a lesser-known one. I hope that made sense. I agree, Alan maybe annoying, but he is not a big jerk.(at least not all the time)
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Post by bscfan81 on Jun 27, 2007 9:07:45 GMT -5
He picked on Eileen a little bit, too, in "BSC Fright Night." But I agree that Alan didn't seem like a truly mean character. Like lyricalangel said, he's a little immature and will probably turn out to be a decent guy when he gets older. I could see shades of the "new, improved" Alan in the FF books, when he dated Claudia.
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Post by aln1982 on Jun 27, 2007 9:46:30 GMT -5
^ I haven't read FF but can't see Alan with Claudia. Did that work out? I would doubt it. I can see him with Kristy but not really with anyone else. I can picture Claud wanting to go out with him at first but then thinking he's not "cool" enough or something.
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