Why Gary Was The Best Character on Are You Afraid of the Dark?

If there’s one thing that I can respect, it’s a storyteller that keeps the tradition of storytelling going, and this is why Gary was the best character on Are You Afraid of the Dark?, since he was all about taking on the tradition of the Midnight Society, and he was a credible storyteller that liked to have fun with it. To be fair, nearly everyone that sat around the fire telling stories on this show was skilled enough to earn their place, and the mention of Kiki being the worst isn’t a mark against her, it’s simply the idea that she wasn’t always the favorite character of the group. But Gary is easy to like simply because his stories took on the magical quality that one looks for in a good fiction story and made it evident that he was there to tell the tale and enchant the listeners at the same time. That’s what a good storyteller does, after all, they find a way to gain the attention of the listener and they work with it to create something that will keep them listening and make it possible for the listener to become enraptured as they listen to the tale.

It’s also the tenacity to keep something like this going that made Gary a fun individual since a lot of people might look at the idea of telling stories around a campfire as something that’s cliche and outdated, but a group of storytellers would see it as an opportunity to lose themselves in the fantasy for a while in order to enjoy each other’s company and to find inspiration in the style that each one of them brought to the group. Getting a group of storytellers together is something that a lot of people might find mundane and not all that exciting, but those that know better would look at this as a chance to find inspiration in a way that doesn’t happen often enough it would appear.

Organizing something like this, even for a scripted show, is something that would take a bit of doing, and would also take the dedication of those being recruited for it as well as the individual doing the recruiting. It’s hard to put into the right words what it means to bring people together in this manner since there are simply too many people out there that look at storytelling with half an ear. Many enjoy the result of a story, the fun and engaging way that it makes them feel as though they’re part of the story, and the enjoyment that comes from listening to something insanely scary, exciting adventurous, or even awkward to the point of confusion. But many people have absolutely no idea what it’s like to create these stories from one’s imagination. Feeling as a story forms, as the details begin to flesh themselves out and take shape in one’s mind, that’s one of the best parts of any story since it’s the birth of something that a person doesn’t fully understand at first but can thoroughly enjoy as it continues to grow and take on a life of its own.

This is at least some of the enjoyment that Gary appeared to have when he was telling a story, and his fantastical tales were great enough that he was easily the best of the group in that he knew how to form a story and keep it going until the conclusion when things would finally come to a close. In all fairness, the rest of the group had this ability as well but calling Gary the best character has more to do with the fact that the character had the initiative and drive to keep the Midnight Society going when no one else appeared ready to keep it going. There wasn’t much doubt that the group would stick together for a while, even though the cast did change eventually. The idea that Gary had to keep the group going though is why he’s the best character, as the stories were great, the time spent with the group was great, but the link that was needed to bring the group around the campfire to tell their various stories was Gary’s gift to the show, and it worked in a great way.

Whether he could really be called a leader of the group or not is something that people might debate, but the fact is that his need to innovate and bring to mind something that meant something to his relatives in the past and was still a great idea. It was something that gave rise to an idea that was picked up once again years later, though it’s fair to say that the same feeling that kept the show around for several seasons didn’t really pan out the second time around.