Eric Raymond
OVERVIEW: Eric is the Misfits' long suffering manager. He has few
scruples or morals, but those he does have surface on several occasions throughout
the series and he becomes more relaxed a character as we progress.
Though behind many shady and violent schemes, Eric
is a coward at heart. He's an ambitious businessman, motivated primarily
by money, but he dislikes physical confrontations on his own part and often
pays thugs like Zipper or weirdos like Techrat to do his dirty work for him.
He is fairly well off (has a villa in Venice and can buy out Misfit Music)
but is always in pursuit of more money. He also has his limits, on several
occasions he shies away from wanting to cause actual physical harm to Jem
and the Holograms. Perhaps his most 'evil' moment is when he burns the master
tapes recorded by Jacqui Benton...this action seems built out of his resentment
and hate for Jerrica regaining Starlight Music.
He's fairly perceptive and quick thinking, often
an opportunist who is henpecked unmercifully by his many female associates.
He's a careful planner, but not always in control of situations as much as
he'd like to be.
I don't find Eric to be evil, though some people
have laid claim to it. He's perhaps fairly ruthless, as Minx says 'a typical
music executive', but he does have his limitations. And when you consider
what he has to put up with a lot of the time...:) With Pizzazz's dad owning
the Music Company Eric's hands are often tied as to what he can do, and it's
frustrating for him, since he knows that without Pizzazz's interference he
could succeed so much more easily and painlessly. Business is his life, even
when he has no actual job he still rents an office to play the role out. When
it comes to a choice between owning the music company and owning a house,
he chooses the company in a heartbeat.
RELATIONSHIPS:
Eric is interesting when with the Misfits. He spends way more time with
them than a purely business relationship would suggest. Of them all he seems
closest to Pizzazz - for many reasons. She has a rich father who can further
his plans, she has a like mind with equally fervent ambitions, and...yes,
I have to say it, there is a weird kinda Misfit/Manager attraction there.
I wouldn't call it any kind of 'love' attraction, but there is something.
Eric is always rushing to Pizzazz's rescue or worrying when she's in trouble.
He has little time for Jetta or Stormer, and exploits
Roxy because of her ignorance to the world. He also exploits the whole band
to his own ends on many an occasion...but Pizzazz is also capable of pulling
his strings!
In some ways, though, despite his ambition and self-interest,
Eric has an almost paternal role where the Misfits are concerned. When they're
in trouble, they tend to go to him (specifically in The Day The Music Died,
when, despite the fact the two, group and manager are estranged at the time,
Pizzazz begs Eric for help with the records and he agrees) And he often addresses
them like a cross father might scold his errant children. Despite everything
I think he has a genuine fondness for the group as a whole, behind the money
madness. Though he seems to perceive Stormer as wet, he appreciates her talent
for what it is...his loyalty to the Misfits can sometimes be overruled by
his passion for money or for vengeance on Jerrica Benton, such as when he
disregards the Misfit plight in Bands Break Up to focus on Stormer and Kimber
and exploiting their naivety. He seems to dislike Jetta mainly because she
is too clever for him to keep under vague control...within days of meeting
him she has gotten the better of him (swiping his wallet in Talent Search
#2) and like many of the Misfits themselves, control is important to him.
In this sense he picked the wrong band to manage, since it is very rare that
he does have the group under his thumb. To convince them to do his dirty work
means finding some imaginary way it will benefit the band, and often his
pleas of 'I'll handle it, stay out of it' are left firmly unheeded.
As for Eric's relationships with the non-Misfit characters...He
has a grudge against both Jerrica and Rio - Jerrica for contesting him and
winning Starlight Music, and Rio for punching him in the face. More than once.
In the past he must have had a tolerable business relationship with Emmet
Benton to have been bequeathed half of the music company, and in flashbacks
in Out Of The Past the suggestion is made of an alliance between Jerrica and
Eric - most likely on Eric's part a good way to keep in with the family, whilst
Jerrica's motives are hardly sincere either.
Eric views the rest of the Holograms in the same
way as he does Jem and Jerrica, however on occasions he tries to lure Kimber
away from the band with promises of individual stardom.