A Far Out There Christmas Carol (rough draft) (Patreon)

It seems like every year I talk about wanting to do “A Far Out There Christmas Carol” as the big holiday project… and every year it doesn’t happen. There’s always a very good reason, of course: the fact that it’d be EASILY the biggest Christmas project I’ve ever done, and would take WAY more than 25 pages. Still, every time the ACTUAL Far Out There stuff winds down, and it sinks in that yet another year has gone by without this pet project ever being realized, I can’t help feeling a little sad.  So you know what? I’m gonna do SOMETHING with this idea for once! Kind of! Here’s the rough outline of what A Far Out There Christmas Carol would look like, because it honestly IS a bit more ambitious than just a recap of Charles Dickens but with Far Out There characters. If you don’t want spoilers, and have a LOT of faith in my ability to actually get this done for real one day, you might want to skip this blog… but I don’t even have that much faith in myself, so I wouldn’t advise it. Besides, only a handful of patrons will ever even read this, so it’s not as if I’m blabbing it all to the entire Internet. Also, sorry in advance for all the chicken scratch doodles throughout this, but that's literally the only art I have so far.  If nothing else, maybe it'll help drive home why the real art would take more time than I really have.  But enough of that, let's get to the good stuff...

Now, first off, I need to make clear that this would NOT be one of those versions of A Christmas Carol where the story is actively happening in the universe of the franchise itself. You know, like A Jetsons Christmas Carol where Mr. Spacely is literally visited by three robot ghosts to make him take care of Astro after he swallows a sprocket (and no, I didn’t make that up). This would be more along the lines of Mickey’s Christmas Carol, where the characters are clearly BASED on the designs and personalities of a pre-existing franchise, but they aren’t “really” those characters. Mickey Mouse may be “playing” Bob Cratchit, but he’s still Bob Cratchit and not Mickey Mouse within the reality of the story. Likewise, the characters in A Far Out There Christmas Carol would all have their familiar personalities, but none of the histories established in the comic would apply here. When Layla plays Scrooge, she’s Layla Scrooge, period.

And yes, obviously Layla would be in the Scrooge role. That’s the whole reason I’ve had this idea kicking around as long as I have, she’d freakin’ PERFECT for it. Just think: a gruff, greedy, closed-off person with a carefully-crafted exterior of hostility who’s secretly very sad and wounded on the inside AND WHO LETS THAT GUARD DOWN DUE TO FEELING PROTECTIVE OF AN ADORABLE LITTLE BOY? I swear I didn’t do this on purpose, but Layla basically IS Ebenezer Scrooge! The story all but writes itself! Yes, that means that Alphonse HAS to be Tiny Tim, and it’s also a fairly obvious call that Trigger would be Bob Cratchit… which by process of elimination means that Tabitha would need to be cast as Trigger’s wife, so nobody let Main Timeline Layla hear about this. She would NOT be amused.

But there’s more to talk about here than just the stunt casting, he need to discuss the actual story, because like I said before, there’s more to this idea than just a straight re-telling of the original Charles Dickens with Far Out There illustrations. To get something clear right off the bat, I’ve never been a MASSIVE fan of the original. I don’t hate it or anything, but I’d already become familiar with many MANY adaptations of the story in cartoon form before I ever read the original text, so my first instinct is always to view the story as a template to follow in broad strokes while innovating with the details rather than a strict blueprint to follow exactly. Sorry if that offends any Dickens scholars out there, but there’s jus no undoing what decades of TV specials have done. Specifically, I’ve noticed a LOT of adaptations play a bit fast and loose with Scrooge’s motivations. Obviously, everybody hits on the whole “Greed = Not Good” moral, but most of the versions I’ve seen over the years tend to downplay the implicit societal criticism in the original, that Scrooge is so terrified of poverty because he fears slipping into a lower class, and his lack of compassion for others (and fear of being hurt) is implicitly woven in with that society-wide callousness. And you know what? I honestly don’t think it’s a bad thing to change, at least in terms of general presentation. Obviously, there will always be Haves and Have Nots in human society, but the uniquely Victorian brand of class hierarchy depicted in Dickens is so tied to that one specific time and place that I actually think sticking too close to the source material can be an obstacle for modern audiences. At least, unless one plans to spend a LOT of time and energy explaining how English society work at the time, which most people wouldn’t have patience for. And yet, I do also think it does Dickens a bit of a disservice to boil it all down to an overly simplistic “Money = Bad” moral… especially since Scrooge USING that money to help Tim is integral to the story’s happy ending. One can easily over-simplify one’s self into hypocrisy if not careful.

My idea for a solution is actually inspired by an entirely different tidbit about A Christmas Carol, namely the fact that modern audiences have such a different impression of what Christmas even IS than Dickens’ contemporaries would have. As many a Think Piece out there will point out, Christmas was honestly one of the lesser Christian holidays at the time, still observed but not a HUGE deal. Many a historian will tell you that it was the success of A Christmas Carol that sparked a wholesale revival of the celebration in Western civilization, which is probably exaggerating a LITTLE bit but it does make for a really eye-catching title. What’s for sure, though, is that modern readers take a very different view of Scrooge’s reluctance to give Cratchit time off for “just another work day” than would have been fair for readers at the time. THESE days, we lump that in with all the other ways in which Scrooge is a miserable miser (and to be sure, he IS), but at the time it would have been roughly comparable to wanting off work for Arbor Day. Okay, that’s also an exaggeration, but you see what I mean, right? Technically speaking, it would have been seen as the custom at the time, but in practice… Look at it this way: when Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning, he immediately goes on a spree of buying stuff for the Cratchits FROM ALL THE STORES IN TOWN, which would need to have somebody working at them at the time. So, basically, Scrooge wasn’t being unreasonable for wanting his employee to show up to work, at least not by the standards of the NON-Cratchit portions of society. Obviously, that’s a bit nitpicky (from me? NO!) but it got me thinking about a version of A Christmas Carol in which Scrooge is KIND OF in the right for his behavior, almost. Like, on a technical level, if not a moral one. After all, it’s not as if Ebenezer Scrooge was being paranoid when he feared how Victorian England might treat him if he lost the ability to take care of himself, any history book will make that abundantly clear. It’s just that he was overly pessimistic about how much personal connections with others could ALSO help with that, or what he personally could do to change at least his little corner of that world for the better.

So that’s the direction I’ve always wanted A Far Out There Christmas Carol to take, one that would SEEM to turn the story on its head by taking Scrooge’s side, and give the appearance of Christmas being every bit as bad as he thinks it is, only to then pull a double twist by sticking to the broader message of the original and taking Scrooge to task for PERSONAL misdeeds regardless of how justified they might have seemed. Let’s face it, this is a fairly good fit for Far Out There’s overall worldview, where the universe as a whole is absolutely awful OFF-screen, but things are still fairly cute and cuddly in the bits we actually see. I’ve heard this comic described as “a whimsical dystopia,” and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to come up with anything on my own that sums it up better. So let’s get into it!

Obviously, the classic introductory shot of any Christmas Carol adaptation is of a grouchy, hunched-over Scrooge sulking down the street, bah humbug-ing a town full of merrymakers as he goes. But in MOST of those adaptations, all the townsfolk would be wholesome and morally reputable and clearly not deserving of a greedy old man’s scorn. But as I’ve just explained, that’s not how A Far Out There Christmas Carol would roll. As Layla Scrooge trudges down the street, THIS town would be full of every tacky, tasteless, disingenuous, over-commercialized holiday trope that every person who hates the holidays won’t shut up about. I should also note that, aesthetically, this story would be set in some kind of anachronistic Future Victorian era, where all the clothes and architecture is recognizably Dickensian, but there are billboards and vending machines and animatronic Santas trying to sell you Xal-Gox Tree Cakes on every corner. Just as crass as possible. So, right away, when Layla Scrooge brushes it off, the audience is tempted to agree with her.

The story would double down on this when we arrive at Scrooge’s Totally Reputable Place of Business, where Trigger Cratchit would play his part completely straight (meek, liking Christmas, being generally decent), despite everything we just saw outside. And inside too, as it soon turns out. The familiar Christmas Carol story beat here is for Scrooge to have a confrontation with some decent folks collecting donations for charity, but this is where my version would REALLY try to fake the audience out. I’ve got this mental image of a whole strong of town leaders and local government figures all showing up one after another to try and get Scrooge to donate to some transparently evil “charity” operation. Like, an orphanage that’s basically a sweatshop, that kind of thing. It’d be all the better if we saw some billboards for these people during the opening sequence to build them up and further establish their sleazy credentials. As for who’d play them… I’m honestly not too sure off the top of my head. Astrid and Disonar seem like obvious candidates, though Rule of Three suggests we’d need at LEAST one more sleazy character for this scene. In any case, Layla Scrooge would refuse to donate anything to anybody, though in this case it seems entirely justified. In fact, I’ve got this mental image of her squeezing some “donations” out of THEM by subtly threatening to blab what she knows about their true shady intentions in front of the others. Of course, that’s easy to just SAY, and a lot harder to actually write out, which is just one of the reasons why I’ve yet to actually do it this. Basically, I’ve just got that bit in Mickey’s Christmas Carol where Scrooge talks circles around the charity collectors by “not wanting to put them out of a job” stuck in my head, and want Layla Scrooge to pull off an even more elaborate version of that routine. One way or another, Layla Scrooge would shoo them all out, then gleefully gloat to Trigger Cratchit about how this just shows what a scam this whole “good will towards men” thing really is.

…and that’s where the story first pulls the rug out from under Scrooge, because this is where the ACTUAL analogues of the charity folks arrive. I imagine them being played by Stilez and Tax, taking donations for some orphanage Layla’s never hear of. Because, of course, she’d only know about all the SKETCHY establishments. Any legit charitable organizations wouldn’t be on her radar. But despite being presented with proof that not EVERYBODY is as sleazy as she thinks, Layla Scrooge isn’t happy about this at all. Instead, she gets really angry, and probably spouts off a few authentic Dickens quotes as she tells them off. Again, the actual line-by-line writing of this scene would be tricky to pull off, but the IDEA would be that Layla Scrooge justifies her messing with the corrupt folks on the grounds that they deserve it because they’re the bad guys, IMPLYING that she’d be fine helping out those who really deserve it. But then, when actual good guys DO show up, she lets slip what an act her earlier posturing was, and instead displays a pathological fear of being taken advantage of and refusal to even slightly put herself on the line for anybody else. Specifically, I’d want her to insist that, even if she bankrupted herself trying to feed all the poor today, that’d just result in them AND her being poor tomorrow, so why even bother? Then blah blah blah surplus population and what have you.

I’d especially want to lean on that aspect of this set up, because it’d ALSO nicely set up a different approach to the relationship between Scrooge and Fred. I don’t think this is ever established in the original story, but I’ve seen more than a few Christmas Carol adaptations that at least imply that, for as much as Scrooge won’t go see is nephew, he’s never the less helping support him financially. I really like that idea, as it nicely sets up the hypocrisy of Scrooge’s miserly ways AND hints at the backstory with his sister. Now, our version of Scrooge wouldn’t have a deceased sibling, but there WOULD still be a Fred analog, several, in fact. In A Far Out There Christmas, “Aunt Scrooge” would immediately be interrupted by Jenna and the rest of the Hector family, all inviting her over for a comically long list of Christmas get-togethers over the next several days. Obviously, they wouldn’t be anywhere near as rich here as they are in the main comic, and it also wouldn’t be immediately clear what kind of relation actually exists between these characters (beyond Layla Scrooge rejecting the “Aunt” moniker as both figurative and embarrassing). However, it WOULD be clear that Layla Scrooge is financially supporting the family, blatantly contradicting everything she just said about NOT helping anybody but herself. She still refuses the invitation, though.

Of course, then we get to the ghost stuff, and there’s another thing I need to get off my chest right away: I’ve never really liked Dickens’ attempts to build a sort of cosmology for an afterlife in this story.  Quite a few adaptations trim out most of this aspect, and the very fact that they CAN demonstrates that it’s kind of unnecessary. I mean, yes, it does help pile on the social allegory, but I really feel like a good telling of the story can get that part across just as well from Scrooge’s interactions (and lack thereof) with the other characters, all without inventing a whole ghost world that doesn’t really come into play again. It just strikes me as a needless distraction at best, and a hamfisted attempt to scare Scrooge straight at worst. (and yeah, I know, I’m critiquing the use of scare tactics in A GHOST STORY). All that to say, I prefer versions of the story where the ghosts just kind of HAPPEN and we don’t have any clue who or what sent them. So When Scrooge is confronted by Marley here, it’s just to provide some exposition, not to threaten Scrooge with an eternity of wandering around.

Besides, I’ve got a whole other thing I want to devote this sequence too, because guess who I want to have playing Marley in this version? Why, none other than Layla’s mom Pattie! You’d better believe there’s some combustible elements there! Yes, Layla Scrooge would tease being scared of the apparition RIGHT up until realizing who it is, then throw the whole script on its head by being openly angry and hostile. Again, the reader wouldn’t get the full context of what’s going on just yet, but we’d still understand in general terms that Layla Scrooge blames Pattie Marley for a LOT of things about her life, and is quite insulted at the notion that she’s somehow trying to HELP her now. Indeed, we might save some of the exposition by having Pattie Marley bail on the conversation partway through because Layla Scrooge is being too angry. And believe you me, there’s a LOT to explain.

So, Ghost of Christmas Past time. I imagine this part being played by Skye, both because “Hippy = Past” and because she’s one of the characters least likely to get riled up by Layla Scrooge being snarky with her. Given everything that needs to be unpacked in this flashback sequence, I think it’s important to have an especially gentle character in the guide role here. Also, I should point out that The Ghost of Christmas Past would also be depicted as using a glowing guitar as her time travel tool, strumming it every time they hop to a new point in Scrooge’s past. This is actually important for later.

So, like I said before, Layla Scrooge doesn’t have a tragically dead sister to haunt her, so the whole school/childhood element of the flashback won’t apply. Admittedly, this is one of MANY parts of this idea that I’m basically copying from Mickey’s Christmas Carol. (What can I say? It’s the one I saw first!) Also just like Mickey, we instead start the Christmas party at Fezziwig’s, who is here played by Layla’s Dad Eric. We also finally establish that Jenna and the other Fred analogs are actually FEZZIWIG’S family rather than Scrooge’s sister’s. That alone should clue the reader in that ol’ Fezziwig’s not in for a good time, but first things first. We obviously get the whole Christmas party scene with a younger Scrooge, and presumably have some kid of meta-joke about “young” Layla Scrooge won’t actually look any different from “old” Layla Scrooge… nor will anyone else, for that matter. It’s Far Out There, age and time are constructs of human perception. But Fezziwig is where the plot REALLY starts to stray from the original, or at the very least present itself in different ways.

I don’t recall how overt this is in the original text, but while certain adaptations boil Fezziwig as the jolly, holiday-loving counter-point to Scrooge’s humbuggery, others turn him into an embodiment of a kinder, gentler, pre-Industrial Revolution economy that was brushed away by the modern day likes of Scrooge. Indeed, I’ve seen at least one adaptation that adds in a flashback scene where an older, struggling Fezziwig coming to Scrooge & Marley for a loan, and being refused. While, once again, I don’t much care for nailing the story down to such a specific historical context, I DO like the viciousness of that idea, and think I have an equally brutal twist on the concept. In this flashback, it would be established that Fezziwig, for all his kindness and generosity, was actually a pretty terrible businessman, and wound up being bled dry by more ruthless characters taking advantage of him. Indeed, Eric Fezziwig would end up having to step out of the party early to have a very strained, unpleasant conversation in a back alley over some debts… with Pattie Marley. It would further be established that Eric Fezziwig basically worked himself to death trying to get out of the insane debts Pattie Marley put him under, and Layla Scrooge never forgave her for it. Not only does this explain why she’d go out of her way to provide for Jenna & the rest of his family, but it also provides a more personal motivation for her obsession with acquiring wealth. She watched a good man be destroyed by those who had the power to exploit him, and thus vowed to never allow herself to be vulnerable in that way. And if securing wealth and security for herself just so happened to involve taking wealth AWAY from all those other scumbags, then all the better!

Except, of course, it never works out that way. In order to get enough of a foothold in the business world to actually acquire that kind of wealth and power, she’d have to actually work FOR those very people she claimed to hate, including Pattie Marley herself. Oh, Layla Scrooge would tell herself she was really “using” them, taking advantage of them as karmic retribution for how they took advantage of others, but again, that’s not how these things work. 

And that also brings up the Far Out There analog for Scrooge’s fiancé Belle, played here by Marshall. Honestly this is one case where part of me is GLAD I never got around to doing these comics sooner, because I’d picked Marshall for this role years before he even got a NAME in the main comic. I’m not sure how well it would have flown with regular readers to have such a pivotal role given to a character that hadn’t properly been introduced yet. But whatever, we know who he is now. He’d be introduced as a co-worker of Layla Scrooge at Fezziwig’s, with a relationship growing as they go into business for themselves. But if you know ANYTHING about Belle’s role in A Christmas Carol, you know it’s not to last. Layla Scrooge would try to keep her involvement with the likes of Pattie Marley a secret, but the longer she deals with such shady types, the more her own personality would turn cold and mercenary, killing the relationship with Marshall in the process. With no reason left to keep the association a secret, and really nowhere else to go, Layla Scrooge becomes the official partner of this person she supposedly hates, and eventually takes over her business entirely. I think it makes a really good villain origin story, if I may say so.

Next up we have the Ghost of Christmas Present, played here by Ichabod. No, he’s not a giant in this telling, nor is he surrounded by a huge Christmas feast… aside from that apple, of course. Instead, he’s just a regular-sized dude who uses a glowing book as his travel doo-dad. This matters because of COURSE the reactions between Layla and Ichabod are going to be a lot more contentious than the ones she had with Skye, and after seeing Skye use her guitar for the time travel, she decides she’d not going to take any crap from this new ghost and takes control of the book.

After some basic slapstick gags of the pair flying around town as she figures out the “controls,” Layla Scrooge would eventually use the book to go peak in on those town leaders we saw earlier. You know, the one’s collecting for “charity?” Yeah, she’d use this to spy on their operations and confirm they’re just as bad if not worse than she’d heard. Because it’s just not Christmas without some really dark, cynical jokes about child labor! It’d also help to further establish just how badly that past we just saw has warped Layla Scrooge by having her not actually be upset by any of this, but DELIGHTED to be proven right. Because that’s what REALLY matters, right? Ichabod could call her out on this, of course, wresting control of the situation long enough to go drop in on Stilez and Tax’s little orphanage. It’d be a much more genuinely kind place, of course, but also really run down since CERTAIN PEOPLE are too busy reveling in all the people out there who are awful to even bother finding the ones who are decent, let alone actually help them.

And that brings up back around to some actual Dickens content, sort of. Another thing I’ve never really liked is the depiction of Fred’s party, at least the way it’s shown in the original. Between Fred coming across as unintentionally smug and everybody else just openly mocking Scrooge, I’D not want to hang out with these people if I were him. Layla Scrooge in particular wouldn’t be won over by that at all, she’d just get mad and leave. Thus, I propose a different sequence of events. While Layla and Ichabod are spying on Stilez and Tax, Jenna and the rest of the Fred analogs also turn up at the orphanage! Jenna figures that, since the person that HAD invited to their party refused to show up, they figured they’d bring the party to somebody else. Christmas dinner for everybody! I dunno about anybody else, but I’d buy a character actually going out and DOING good for others on Christmas a lot more than standing around TALKING about it, especially in the context of this story. It also give Ichabod a chance to challenge Layla Scrooge more directly, since if the people she’s supporting could still find the means to help others, how much more could Scrooge herself have been doing? And when she again protests that she couldn’t have known this was apparently the only orphanage in town that WASN’T a secretly a Gright doll sweatshop, well, that brings us to the one poor family in town Layla Scrooge has no excuse NOT to know about.

Yup, it’s time to spy on the Cratchits, and get introduced to Alphonse as Tiny Tim. Now, obviously, A Far Out There Christmas Carol is operating with a bit of a handicap here, in that Tiny Timphonse (who will NOT be called that) can’t actually talk. On the one hand, that means I wouldn’t be able to include his Too Good For This Sinful Earth dialog… but on the other hand, I won’t be able to include any of his Too Good For This Sinful Earth dialog. Yeah, I’m definitely one of those cranks who doesn't like Tiny Tim, at least not the way Dickens writes him. The original goes SO far over the top to make him sympathetic and pitiable that I just reject it on pure instinct. Presenting the character as mute is probably a major improvement, at least for grumps like me. Also, we’re in a bit of a unique situation here thanks to the characters of Alphonse and Layla already being familiar to long time Far Out There readers. It’s normally the kind of laziness I don’t condone from writers, but this would be one case in which I could rely on the audience already knowing Layla fawns over Alphonse and just relying on that familiarity to fill in the gaps.

But yeah, this part would mostly play out the same as it is in most versions, though I’d definitely cut out the out of nowhere bit where the Ghost of Christmas Present dies and all that. As tempting as it would be to show Avi and the rest of the Short Pants Squad as those bestial children, that whole sequence is another place where I really feel Dickens tries too hard. Indeed, I’d actually have the dialog between Layla and Ichabod reflect that. Scenes like the one we’re NOT doing here show Dickens focusing on the big picture, large scale problems, but Layla Scrooge has already justified her refusal to help others by point out how little of a difference anything she does would make to that big picture. To that, Ichabod only needs to point at sick little Alphonse and ask what’s stopping her from making a difference for HIM. I’d just have the scene cut on that, before Layla even has a chance to respond.

After all, we’ve got a Ghost of Christmas Future to get to. First of all, this part is played by Vengeance, because of COURSE it is. Second, this is one part where I’ve got a crazy idea to so something really complicated and difficult with the art. See, while a lot of Christmas Carol adaptations just present Christmas Future as a sort of store brand Grim Reaper, I’m always more impressed by the ones that avoid showing much of it at all. Like, any time it’s presented as just a shadow being cast by something we never directly see, that’s some good stuff. I’d want to do something like that, but there’s also a lot of freedom to be had with the basic medium of comics in this regard. Say, if the space around the panels for these scenes was black instead of white, with the frames just sort of disappearing into the darkness instead of being clear squares. I could then have Vengeance’s outline sort of merging in and out of the panels themselves, or even presenting the panels within that outline, so that Layla Scrooge never directly interacts with him at all. Instead, the things she’s supposed to see just sort of… appear in front of her in the isolated bits of light. I’d be REALLY time consuming to properly lay out, even more than everything else so far, but it could be really visually striking if done right, so I’d be itching to try.

Also, here’s another point at which I’ll pretend to know more about writing than one of the English language’s most well known authors. I’ve always been a bit annoyed with Scrooge in the Christmas Future scenes, depending on how closely it sticks to the original. For one thing, I never like having to wait for a character to figure out what the audience already knows, and Scrooge takes WAY too long to grasp that he’s the dead guy everybody’s talking about. Yes, I KNOW he’s deliberately trying not to process it, but that just brings up the second half of my problem. I really have trouble buying that a character already so established as being used to LIVING alone and unloved would be so shaken by the thought of DYING that way. Again, I know the whole point is supposed to be that he’s not as cold as he acts, but the crotchety old grump side of Scrooge is laid on so thick that I just can’t buy this part as presented. Indeed, I would have Layla Scrooge immediately put it all together the second she’s confronted with the sight of a cemetery, and try to muster up one last show of defiance. After all, she’d still have some aggravation left over from The Ichabod of Christmas Present, so that alone would motivate her to try and shrug off Future’s attempt to guilt her.

But, of course, it can’t be that easy for her. If we’re got gonna go with “alone and unloved” as the kicker here, let’s instead go with the “you can’t take it with you” angle. You know how the original has that one scene where people are bragging about the various loot they stole from Scrooge’s place? Well, let’s build on that. Remember, it’s been established by this point that Layla Scrooge’s main justification for her money grubbing ways is to beat all the OTHER money grubbers at their own game, or at the very least make sure they don’t beat her. So Christmas Future shows her some government office where some bureaucrat (probably Sophia) is sorting out what to do with all the money Scrooge didn’t leave to anybody, and all those corrupt “charity” people from earlier show up again. We see them make up bologna legalese reasons to claim huge chunks of Scrooge’s estate for themselves (which the official is too over this to argue with) then laugh out in the hallway about how much her passing is helping them out. So it’s not just a matter of people not being sad she’s dead, but the fact that people she actively hates are benefiting. That is ABSOLUTELY the kind of thing Layla would care about.

And yet, there’s even more to it, since now the question arises of what all that money could have been used for INSTEAD of lining the pockets of those sleazebags? Cut to Tiny Tim’s grave, and there ya go. To defer to Mickey’s Christmas Carol again, I think a short, wordless scene packs a lot more wallop than the longer sequence at the Cratchit house depicted in the original story. I know, I know, that’s not really an option in text form… but I get to work with picture, so NYA NYAA! But seriously, I do think this is the best counter to all Layla’s objections earlier. I’m enough of a pessimist to think that big lofty plans to fix the whole world aren’t going to work, but I’m also enough of an optimist to think that if more people bothered to take care of just their own little corner of the world then we wouldn’t NEED to fix everything.  And Layla Scrooge’s little corner of the world has got a Tiny Tim in it.

And so we hit the classic Christmas Morning scene. Here we have a good chance to take the cynical introduction, where all the “Merry Christmas” stuff was blatantly fake and Layla was right to be annoyed, and turn it on its head. Now we can have everybody stuck working the early morning shift being tired and cranky and just DONE with this whole thing, and in bursts Layla Scrooge as this unhinged storm of holiday cheer to buy up… whatever’s left by Christmas day. Yeah, the thought literally just now occurs that it’d be funny if she wants to buy all the Christmas everything, but nobody’s re-stocked anything since last week since the season’s almost over. But she’d be too jolly to care, and would also tip like MAD to improve everybody’s mood a bit. 

It all leads to Layla Scrooge finally accepting Jenna’s invitation, of course, though I’ve still got one more thing to add to the mix. While it makes Real Life sense for Scrooge to spend the day with his family and just SEND the stuff to the Cratchits, only promoting Bob the next day, I’ve never liked that from a pacing standpoint. I tend to like the adaptations where Scrooge actually goes to the Cratchit house on the day itself and everything is rolled into one big singular climax. After all, it’s not called A Boxing Day Carol. And if we’re going to roll everything together, let’s REALLY do it. If it’s already been established that Jenna & Co are up for taking their parties on the road to the less fortunate, then why not have Layla Scrooge draft them all into going to bombard the Cratchit household with a lethal barrage of good cheer? Have her mend all those relationships in one blast… well, most of them. I don’t care much for those adaptations that conspire to get Scrooge and Belle back together again at the end, so Marshall doesn’t come back. I can at least claim to stick to the source material in THAT respect. But yeah, Trigger Cratchit is made a full partner, Tiny Tim gets taken care of, everybody’s happy, and that’s the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown.

…aww crap, I just now realized I totally forgot to give Avatar a role. AGAIN. Um… Oh, I got it! She can be the narrator! Actually yeah, that’s good, having an omniscient narrator to summarize some of the exposition stretches could help keep those scenes from dragging out too long. And since Alphonse can’t say it, she could be the one to deliver the obligatory “God bless us, every one” on the last page. See? It’s a good thing I bothered to write all this down, I might not have thought of that otherwise! Now, let’s see how long it takes me to actually DRAW any of this…