Fraggle Rock was shown to me as a child by my mom who watched as a kid. I had only seen one disk, Live By The Rule Of The Fraggle. It had 3 episodes that I knew of- Ep. 111:Catch the Tail by the Tiger, Episode 308:Believe It Or Not, Episode 208:All Work and All Play(DVD Only), which I've found here. Going through as an adult I've found out it also had a hidden episode and two animated episodes. I've also gotten a DVD set of more episodes now, but nothing beats my original 3!

I found the show comforting because of its thoughtful themes, songs, and the cozy cave they lived in. Docs attitude and way of comforting Sprocket reminded me of my Grandmother. She has a way of putting things in perspective, too. I also had a traveling uncle that I associated with Uncle Traveling Matt. I didn't get to see him much either, but I felt the same way Gobo and the others did while reading Matts letters from space when hearing from my Uncle.

My favorite episode is "Believe it or Not", located at the 23:30 mark on the previous link. After the creature Skenfrith is found by Wembly and Red, they sing the song "Now You See Me" where Skenfrith explains "it's only you that you see." This means whatever Red or Wembly THINK he is, thats what he turns into. When they believe he has Reds pigtails, he gets them. When Ma Gorg believes hes a monster with fangs and two heads, thats what he turns into. Even Wembly starts to become afraid of him despite Reds protests that there is no monster. Skenfrith only turns back after they put their minds together to believe he is himself.

In a broad sense, I find this theme to mean we see what we think about. Like thinking about a red car you will see more red cars. But on a deeper, maybe more personal sense, this episode was about the expectations or projections put on you by others. When someone is angry, they are likely to take your defense as anger. When you bring up a problem, you are likely to become the problem. When upset or defense is mistaken for anger, it is likely to make make you angry that every reaction you have is simply simmered down to anger. When called lazy when trying your hardest, you are likely to give up. When you are called a monster you are likely to only be seen as a monster no matter what you do. Others project their own thoughts and insecurities onto you. It felt (and still sometimes feels) like predetermined ideas are all people are going to see no matter how I handle it. Only my Red and Wembly can see me for who I am beyond what positions I am shoved into.

Near the end of the episode, Wembly says to Ma, "It's all your fault he's a monster, you monster!" Even as an adult this brings me to tears. While yes, this fits in with the outside expectations theme, it also feels refelctive of trauma at the hands of another. While we all need to work past our traumas, it is simply a reality that those traumas can cause damaging patterns within ourselves.

Ma then says, "How could I have been so sure he had two (heads)? I've been under a lot of stress." A calming Skenfrith then responds, "You've been under a lot of stress? Tell me about it!" This just made me laugh. While yes, the ideas might be put on you by accident, it doesn't make it right. It might have been stressful for the person to have these ideas/expectations of you, but it was SO much more stressful to carry them around on your shoulders.