I've been fascinated by insects and arachnids lately.
I couldn't tell you why. I just find them so, so interesting. Insects come in an array of shapes and sizes, their niches ranging all across every classification we've ever created. Unfortunately, most people I talk to seem to be disgusted with and terrified of bugs. It's sad, to me. I've never heard a good excuse for fear of any living thing, but especially not small little bugs. What did they ever do? It makes me wonder. Why do we find bugs so disgusting? They simply exist as they are, in the bodies they were given.
I want to say I like the Starkid musical, Starship, but I don't know if "like" is the right word, really. I find it fascinating. Bug's storyline is really compelling and interesting at first... until he becomes human. The human aspects of the story are definitely the weakest, in my opinion. See, Bug just wants to be a Starship Ranger; he doesn't hate being a bug, and even with his idolization of humans, he doesn't really want to be a human for any particular love he has for them as a unique species. In The Little Mermaid, it worked because Ariel was always fascinated by human culture and humanity as a whole; even before she meets her prince, she yearns to be human, to experience the life of a human. Bug, by contrast, just wants to be a human as a means to an end; he wants to be a Ranger, and only humans can be Rangers, so he wants to be human. Sure, meeting a hot human lady helps, but overall he just wants to be a Ranger above all else, regardless of the status of his Self.
The songs of the musical (The bug ones, anyways) address the same kinds of questions I have been thinking of lately; "What does a bug see itself as?" "Do bugs think we are hideous as we think they are?" "Do they know we think they are hideous?" As I mentioned, I think the musical stumbles most when the humans are on screen. I would love a rewritten or reworked version, with a bit more interesting material for the humans, but I truly adore the insect aspects of the musical. Bug doesn't get any choice in who he is, and the fact that he is a bug fundamentally stops him from being able to chase his dreams.
It made me think, how many bugs out there, on our beautiful planet, have dreams that will go unfulfilled? To be born so small, and yet be seen as a pest, vermin, diseased? To have your very body be treated as something grotesque and disgusting, to have the way you interact with the world scrutinized and stared at with disdain? To be born with a purpose, and to have that purpose impossible to fulfill, because huge creatures with soft outsides and hard insides destroyed your home, your food, your livelihood? Do bees shudder in fear at the thought of us? Do beetles, crawling lazily on long blades of grass, know that the lawn mower is coming right for them?
Bug's motivation makes perfect sense to me. Of course a bug would want to be something more; despite being one of the Earth's oldest inhabitants, they are nothing more than microorganisms. Nothing special, right? I don't blame him for wanting to avoid a horrible death just for committing the crime of being too small.