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Stanley Tweedle is a character on the science fiction series Lexx.
| Stanley H. Tweedle | |
|---|---|
| Lexx character | |
|
File:Stanley Tweedle from the TV Show Lexx.jpg Brian Downey as Stanley H. Tweedle | |
| Created by | Paul Donovan |
| Portrayed by | Brian Downey |
| Information | |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Title | Captain of the Lexx |
| Occupation | Courier, Security guard, Captain |
Background
Originally an "assistant deputy backup courier" for the Ostral-B Heretics against His Divine Shadow, an evil galactic overlord, Stanley H. Tweedle (played by Brian Downey) is given a responsibility that he really does not merit: smuggling the DNA of His Shadow's ultimate weapon to Heretic forces. Instead, a flashback sequence reveals Stanley cowardly allows himself to be captured by Sub-Nebulae mercenaries and sold to the Divine Order, providing them with the codes to the defense system protecting the Reformed Planets; as such, he is branded Arch-Traitor. His compatriots are slaughtered, and Stanley is captured. The smuggled DNA is extracted from him and used to grow The Lexx, a living, sentient spacecraft able to destroy entire planets with a single devastating shot. His Shadow intends to use the Lexx to annihilate any planet in the universe where even a whisper of rebellion surfaces.
Luckily for Stanley, he is deemed so harmless and unimportant that he soon fades into the bureaucracy of The Cluster, His Shadow's central planet, eventually becoming a low-ranked security guard for the same government he had once fought against. As of the beginning of the series, he has been demoted to the lowest rank of Security Guard, Class 4 (claiming to have previously been a Class 2), with an internal identity of Number 476329-43 Department 511 Level 4.
Meeting the Lexx
After years of toiling in anonymity, one catastrophic day (and an incredible series of blunders) see Stanley receive the "key" to the Lexx. With the Lexx now answering only to him, Stanley flees from His Shadow's influence with a motley crew in tow: Zev, an escaped love slave; 790, a disembodied robot head; and Kai, an undead assassin once in servitude to His Shadow. Together, throughout the course of the show, they encounter a wide range of deviant people and creatures, most of a homicidal bent, as they look for a safe place to call home.
Personality
An anti-hero, Stanley is consistently portrayed as petulant, cowardly, short-sighted, quick-tempered, weak-willed, perverted and a perpetual under-achiever, which makes him exceptionally underequipped to handle the most powerful weapon in the two universes. His amorous advances are rebuffed by Zev/Xev, and he must endure a constant stream of verbal abuse from 790, not all of it undeserved. Hunger, survival, and an overactive sex-drive are Stanley's primary motivations in any given situation.
Stanley occasionally shows some backbone, particularly when there is nowhere else left to run. For all his capriciousness, Stanley has spared the lives of his enemies and gone on the attack against suicidal odds because it was the right thing to do. Stanley has been instrumental in destroying various galactic threats, including the ultimate defeat of His Divine Shadow.
Stanley's opinion of himself, however, might ultimately be his downfall. Though he outwardly denies any actual culpability, Stanley feels a great deal of guilt over his failure to keep Lexx's DNA out of His Divine Shadow's hands, and the billions of deaths that resulted. This guilt has been used against him in several episodes, including in a trial that convicted him of high treason and in a spiritual test that briefly consigned him to Hell.
From time to time, Stanley has lost the key to the Lexx - best described as a symbiotic, living energy wave that can only exist inside a living person. On these occasions, he has been desperate in his efforts to get the key back. Even if he does not always live up to the responsibility, Stanley Tweedle knows that commanding the Lexx is probably the most important thing he will ever do.
Though he has a middle initial, "H.", his middle name is never revealed.
External links
- Template:IMDb character
Template:Lexx