Character Spotlight: Christine, Part Two

Hopefully thrill power doesn't equal road rage. 

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4. INSPIRATION

Other than Stephen King and John Carpenter, I would say this video is another well of inspiration for how I write Christine. Not so much with her personality (although they do mention that the Plymouth Fury featured in the video can have a bit of an attitude towards people and even play tricks on them), but rather as a means of understanding her build as well as the history of the model. Prior to seeing the video, I didn't know a lot about the Plymouth Fury, or about 1950s trademark car features as a whole. But learning that Plymouth Furies and many midcentury cars were built with skinny steering wheels and large amounts of chrome can go a long way in capturing her unique design and how cars were manufactured back then. 

For fan writers, I confess that even though there are Christine fanfics out there, there really aren't any I can call integral to my depiction. As mentioned before, the grand amount of Christine-themed stories out there is really small. On Fanfiction.Net alone, there are only thirty-two submissions. Come to think of it, a good chunk of King's works in the fanfiction realm have small numbers. That's kind of surprising, given the amount of known film and television adaptations of his books. I'm not counting The Dark Tower series or It, by the way, as those are immensely popular with the public imagination.

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5. FUTURE PLANS

She won't stay crushed into a cube for long. She's got appearances to make in these stories I have planned for her.
For instance, she'll be popping up as an antagonist in my super crossover fanfiction (gosh I need to talk about it one of these days so I can say the name easily lol) against various protagonists. She'll also be involved in a situation that will cause her to take on a different approach to things after she gets caught in the crossfire. Dennis and Leigh might appear too...

I also have planned a Christine crossover with Speed Racer. Speed's whole thing is cars, she's a car, and the anime was set in the '60s, so she'll fit right in.  

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6. HEADCANONS

*I have a theory on why Stephen King chose the name Christine. Her name is often associated with the meaning ‘Follower of Christ’, and this Christine is almost the complete opposite of Christ. I think when people hear His name, the first thing that might come to mind might be a gentle and peaceful person (who can get angry at the right moment but is otherwise calm). Or if they're not fans of Him, they might think of something else, but I'm going with a broad psychological observation here. Meanwhile, Christine - gentle and peaceful? Ha!

*She's a fan of 1950s' romance movies. She probably would have a soft spot for those films. Even if she might have a twisted view on romance. 

*She doesn't like animals. Would she go attack them? If they got in her way or messed up her interiors, maybe, but otherwise I think she would just scare them off or keep away.  


*Christine can black out her windows at random. She can create and use an effect that makes it appear like a black windshield sun shade is covering up all the windows. I'll also note that she seems to only do this at night. In doing so, she gains a huge advantage over her unsuspecting victims because they wouldn't be able to see through the windows when it's dark out as is.   

*Her green headlights can be used to express her anger, evoke spookiness and signify that she's about to do something evil, but there's a crafty usage to them too. Suppose if you were in the dark, and you see green lights ahead of you. Would you assume that they were traffic lights? It's possible. She could then use these headlights - and the darkness around her once more - to spring the element of surprise on her foes. How did she get those scary eyes in the first place? I think it came as a custom order somewhere in time after she was built. I read up on the history of headlights, and the invention of LED as we call them were invented in the 1960s. It wouldn't be out of LeBay's character to want to fix up her looks as the decade passed and he grew more obsessed with Christine. In fact it might have strengthened Christine's hold on him.

*She loves to cruise and go to drive-in theaters as hobbies. 

*1950s B-movies would amuse her.  

*If there was a car show, I guarantee that she would absolutely love to enter it and do what it takes to win.

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7. PERSONAL

*Christine was kind of responsible for my renewed interest into 1950s history and culture. I was interested at the time when the first Cars film came out, and I often held a fascination for it through most of my life, but Christine reignited my interest with a brighter fire because of the music for the film. I fell in love with the music and now I'm aiming to catch the best of the 1950s. Was it a perfect era? Oh  certainly not. But taking the best of it while also acknowledging the worst and learning from them is a good way to improve our lives and be better than what was seen in the past. I think Arnie kind of learned that, as he did clean up his appearance and grew in confidence, but he got so lost in his attachment to Christine he pretty much isolated himself from people around him. Anyhow, I owe the film that much and I'm grateful for that. 

*Songs for her? Well, as she has a movie soundtrack, it's not hard to choose what songs would fit her lol. Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Itty Bitty Pretty One by Thurston Harris (I think of her using this song when she finds the hunted and prepares to tear down the tracks after them), Rock 'N Roll is Here to Stay by Danny and the Juniors (a personal favorite song of mine), and the main score which was composed by John Carpenter, no less!  

Enjoy this post about the infamous and fiery Fury!

Wanderer out!