Each month this blog will feature
a character from one of the SFF productions. This month I’m going to talk about a recurring character
from The Curse and Eidolon who has a small role and a big heart – Tony Tarino
played by the very talented Neil Cappetta.
Anthony Tarino, known simply as Tony, is one of those good guys that doesn’t
get the kind of praise and recognition he deserves simply because he doesn’t
look like the typical, media-fueled hero.
He just tries to do the right thing and ends up paying the highest price
for his good deed gone horribly wrong.
However, even when he’s killed by a psychotic serial killer just for the
fun of it, he doesn’t give up and he doesn’t back down – he’s determined to get
justice for himself and to save anyone else from dying at the hands of his
murdered.
History
We know almost nothing about
Tony. All that’s made clear in the
episode of the Curse where we first meet him (Episode 5 – Strangers in the
Night) is that he likes to walk around the campus late at night filming things
with his camera – so he’s probably a TV or broadcast major. We know he’s a student at Clifford
University and that he had a paper due a few days after he dies (which he
obviously won’t be able to turn in).
We also know that he had been having a pretty bad day up until the point
where we meet him – and a horrifically bad day after that.
Since I created the character I
should probably fill in the gaps.
I really like Tony as a character – I always have. His story arc is a
very important part of Zandra’s emotional growth. He basically holds up a mirror to Zandra so she can see what
she really is – a bitchy coward who blames everyone else for her problems and
won’t do the right thing when she needs to it. This realization is backed up by Cory’s speech to her which makes
Zandra unable to ignore the ugly truth about herself that Tony shows her. She has to take responsibility, move
forward, and face the consequences.
I envision Tony as having been
bullied at school because he wasn’t like all the other kids. He’s definitely a geek and a nerd and
loves to play video games, write stories and scripts, read comic books, and
watch and make movies. He has a
huge imagination, is very smart and creative, and is very resilient.
Morpheus asks him to lead
Mordecai and Maria’s souls to the Spirit World so they can talk to White
Feather. He greets Mordecai when
he crosses over, and patiently waits for Maria to come through, but she doesn’t. He’s about to go ask Morpheus what
happened when Namtaru – the God of Nightmares – stops him and forces him to
listen while Namtaru lies to and makes a deal with Mordecai. As soon as he can, Tony runs off and
contacts Morpheus to let him know what happens.
Tony is called upon shortly after
that to lead Skyler and Zelda to the Spirit World to speak to White
Feather. He takes them as far as
he can - to the Lake of Souls where Urshanabi is waiting - and tells them
everything they need to know to survive the Crossing and to navigate the Spirit
World.
Appearance
Tony is medium height, medium build with brown hair, with
rimmed glasses and a scruffy sort of wanna-be beard. He wears a orange cargo pants, a bright orange shirt with a
hood and a radio-active image on the front. Under the sweatshirt is a black T-shirt that says The Jerry Springer Show on it.
Personality
Tony’s a decent guy just trying to get along in the world
and do the right thing. He’s often
focused on the story in his head when he’s either writing or filming, and
sometimes gets so focused on what he’s doing or thinking that he doesn’t pay
attention to people and things around him. He may seem a little clutzy but he’s just not pay attention
all the time. He suffers from a
little bit of ADD but he when he puts his mind to getting something done he’s
do whatever it takes to see it through.
Although, contrary to the whole “doing the right thing” he does offer to
help Zandra cheat on her test by reading her answers from the other test takers
– I’m going to assume he was only kidding.
He doesn’t give up on himself or others and will fight for
right to live or to protect someone else’s life. He often feels the world is unfair to him, but inside he
never gives up hope that he can make a difference, even after he dies. He’s a classic underdog that has
learned not to let the little things in life get him down – or at least not to
show it – and believes in doing the right thing whether it’s returning the
wallet of some flaky bitchy girl or making sure that a murderer is put in jail.
He’s also very smart.
When he gets held up by Mike, he keeps filming, trying to get him on
tape to help the police catch him. Unfortunately Mike realizes what he’s doing
and knocks the camera out of his hands, breaking it – the tape, however, is
still in one piece and ends up helping catch the killer after all. It takes him a while to realize
that he’s dead, or to at least acknowledge it, but when he does he quickly
realizes that Zandra can see and hear him and he is determined to get her to
help him, refusing to leave her alone until she does. He’s not very patient, and appears to have some anger
management issues, however he has had the world’s worst day so I he’s probably
not always like that.
As for his love life – he doesn’t really have one in the
end. He dated a few girls in high
school and into college, but never found someone he could really love (and who
would also love him). When Zandra
makes a comment about being thankful he didn’t ask for her number he replies
that wouldn’t have wanted it anyway.
Bitchy girls are not his type.
However, when Cory confronts Zandra about the murder and convinces her
to tell the cops what she witnessed.
When Zandra refuses Cory yells at her and says that she couldn’t be
Zandra’s friend anymore if Zandra isn’t willing to do the right thing by
helping Tony and stopping his murderer.
Tony says Cory is awesome and asks if she’ seeing someone, so clearly
his type is the kind of girl who can take a stand and not back down when it’s
something truly important (and she’s a hot blonde, so that’s okay too).
His innate goodness and willingness to help and even
sacrifice himself for others leads him to work for Morpheus – a job that gives
him both meaning and contentment.
Here's a great scene from The Curse where Tony confronts Zandra after finally accepting the fact that he's dead:
Here's a great scene from The Curse where Tony confronts Zandra after finally accepting the fact that he's dead:
Abilities
He is an absolute wizard with a yo-yo. He’s amazing – a champion yo-yoer, and
luckily dies with his yo-yo in his pocket otherwise he’d be bored for
eternity. He’s a really good
camera operator too, very imaginative and clever. Tony has a charismatic personality when he chooses to use it
– he can be abrasive and harsh went he’s pissed off, but he has the ability to be
straightforward and honest with people.
Relationships -
Allies & Enemies
THE CURSE
Zandra Anderson changes his life simply by entering at a
crucial moment. He bumps into her
– literally – and helps her pick up the stuff that scattered. She walks off and he realizes that
she’s forgotten her wallet. He
could have kept it, or (since she was a bitch to him) just left it there. He could have walked away, but he
didn’t. Instead he called out to
her and then followed her in order to give her wallet back. While he was following her he gets
stopped by Mike and killed. One
could easily argue that if he hadn’t gone after her then he wouldn’t have
died. So they start their
relationship on a bad note (knocking each other down), and it gets worse (she
witnesses his murder), then it gets really bad (he haunts her and won’t leave
her alone until she goes to the cops and tells them what she saw), and finally
really f#$ing terrible when she gets chased by the guy who killed Tony and he
can’t do anything to stop it because he’s a freaking ghost. 
Despite all of this, the two of them form a friendship built
out of having basically gone through a terrible ordeal together. Zandra is the only one who can help
Tony, and, although she doesn’t realize it, Tony is the only one who can help
her realize what she is really like and be meeting him she is forced to
confront her curse and realize that she can’t escape it. She also realizes it can be used to
help people. By the end they’re
friends and Zandra’s almost sad to see him go. He changes her life in a positive (albeit scary) way.
Cory Devro is his new hero. The fact that she knows what’s going on without being told –
that Tony’s ghost is haunting Zandra because Zandra witnessed his murder – and
that she has enough strength of character and can exert enough control over
Zandra through their long history together that she is able to finally do what
Tony has unsuccessfully doing – getting Zandra to go to the cops. He clearly thinks the world of Cory
both in his reactions to her and in what he says to Zandra (“tell your friend
she’s awesome” and “you have good taste in friends”). He also asks later if Cory his seeing someone, then realizes
that since he’s dead it would never work out.
Mike is the man that murders Tony. He’s a serial killer who chose Tony at random and killed him
just for the thrill of it. They
don’t even know each other’s names.
When Zandra is confronting Mike at the end of the episode she mentions
Tony’s name and Mike is confused. He
doesn’t care who he kills so why bother with names? Obviously Tony hates his
guts. He will do anything to see
that Mike is brought to justice.
There’s a scene where Tony is yelling and screaming at Mike in the
student center where Zandra is studying and since Mike can’t see or hear him he
obviously doesn’t respond. It sort
of sums up their relationship – Tony hates Mike and Mike doesn’t even know he
exists. In the end, of course,
Tony gets to beat the crap out of Mike when Mike is killed in a fall down a
flight of steps and becomes a ghost.
Once Mike has to face the ghost of someone he killed – and be on the
receiving end of a beat down, he starts to get what he’s done. He’s not sorry, he’s just scared of
Hell and pissed he got caught.
EIDOLON
Morpheus is the God of Dreams and becomes his boss when he crosses
into the Dream World by hurling both himself and his killer through the
portal. They obviously have a
pretty good relationship of the manager and worker sort. Tony and Morpheus both have a great
respect for each other. The fact
that twice Tony is given a direct command by the “big boss” suggests that Tony
is one of his best workers. 
Namtaru is a bastard – I mean the God of Nightmares. He is Morpheus’ opposite both in his
job and his personality.
Namtaru may not look dangerous, but he has the powers of a god and is a
total asshole. He has the power to
destroy Tony so when he appears to Tony and Mordecai in the Dream World, Tony
is naturally a little afraid of him.
Tony could have tried to fight him, but if he died then no one would be
able to warn Morpheus what Namtaru was up so. When Namtaru orders him to stay put he does, but Tony takes
the first opportunity to run and get the cavalry as fast as he can. 
Mordecai is not really very important to Tony, one way or the
other, but when Tony’s assigned to protect and lead Mordecai and Maria to the
Spirit World he becomes responsible for what happens to Mordecai – at least
that’s how he feels. He doesn’t
like to have let Morpheus down and does what he can to make up for it.
Zelda Graves and Skyler
Jackson are annoying.
They’re constantly bickering as Tony leads them through the Dream World
and to the Lake of Souls. He sees
having to put up with them as punishment for not protecting Mordecai, so he
tries his best to be patient. He
tells them all the rules for surviving in the Other Worlds but he’s really not
sure if they paid attention. If he
never sees them again that would be just fine with him. 
Terri Madison is surprisingly helpful and resourceful when he
appears to her in the Mortal World and asks her to help with the situation when
Morpheus can’t be reached and Mordecai needs help. In a strange sort of way I could see them being good friends
leading to more if circumstances where different.
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