Literature / The Weathergens

In the United Kingdom, ITV1's weather forecasts were sponsored by energy company E.ON, formerly Powergen. They were known for their memorable sponsorship sequences, including a series of idents/stings featuring the WeatherGens, twelve "mascots" of Powergen, which, as you'd expect, represented different types of weather.

"The WeatherGens were commissioned in 1996 from London design company Tutssels by Powergen, sponsors of the ITV1 weather forecasts, and produced by Lambie-Nairn. Their flamboyant costumes and make-up were put together by the New Renaissance design company, which comprised Harvey Bertram-Brown and Carolyn Corben, designers of clothes, costumes, sets and pop videos."

Since the dawn of YouTube, recordings of these stings have cropped up online — the comments more-or-less establish how memorable they were.

Here are the stingers:

• Gilda
  • Showers
• Cyan
• Aurora
• Brellina
  • Storm
• Nimbella
  • Storm
• Norwin
  • Storm
• Florta
• Helios
• Mirka
• Crystella
• Frice
• Shivera

Here are the books:

• The Weathergens
• How Gilda Got Her Shine Back
• Brellina's Magic Umbrella and Other Stories
• Tales Of The Weathergens
• The Weathergens Weather Book

The books provide examples of:

• Anti-Hero: The WeatherGens try to keep the Earth's weather and climate in check. However, some tend to abuse their powers for their own amusement; Brellina, Frice and Norwin are noteworthy examples.
• Big Bad: Deimos of The WeatherGens. In fact, it is the only book to feature villains of any sort.
• Big Damn Heroes: In The WeatherGens, the titular characters come to Crystella's rescue, with aid from Professor Eon and Jenny.
  • In How Gilda Got Her Shine Back, Norwin rescues Professor Eon, Jenny and Moriarty from a fire trapping the three of them inside the Professor's home.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Mirka, Norwin, Cyan and Brellina.
• Establishing Character Moment: The WeatherGens contains a prologue which sums up the titular characters, their origins, what they symbolise and even some of their personalities, quite nicely. It also delves into some of the relationships.
• Four Seasons: Four of the WeatherGens rule a season:
  • Gilda - Spring
  • Aurora - Summer
  • Florta - Autumn/Fall
  • Frice - Winter
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Deimos is the product of MetroTech's attempts to create artificial weather.
• Green Aesop
• Humans Are Special: One of the few things all WeatherGens agree on is that humans are capable of either great innovation and compassion or great destruction.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In How Gilda Got Her Shine Back, Aurora is made temporary WeatherGen leader. This, unfortunately, goes to her head, and her excessive heat-waves dry out the moorland considerably. Norwin, Frice, Brellina and Cyan end up using a lot of their powers to cool things down, so their frustration towards Aurora is not entirely unwarranted.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Norwin represents strong winds, and has a fierce temper to go with it. However, as Gilda points out, Jenny manages to bring out his softer side.
  • Frice, though much more subdued than Norwin, is bitter and mostly anti-social. He's also in love with Crystella and still cares for the WeatherGens, as well as their human companions.
  • Brellina can be a touch conceited and abusive of her powers at times. She's not a bad Gen at heart though.
• The Leader: Gilda to the WeatherGens. Florta and Aurora have assumed this role in her absence, though Florta's temporary leadership took place outside of the books.
• Love Interest: Crystella and Frice.
  • Norwin and Jenny, no matter how much the former tries to hide it.
• MacGuffin: Crystella's Soul Flake — without it, her powers grow weak. She lost it to MetroTech, who used it to create artificial snow. These are major plot points of The WeatherGens.
• Power Source: Gilda and Aurora: The Sun
  • Brellina and Nimbella: Angel Falls
  • Crystella: her Soul Flake necklace
• Older Than They Look: The Gens are millions of years old. Even Frice, the eldest of the group, looks like a man in his mid-thirties, to say the least.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In How Gilda Got Her Shine Back, most of the Gens, without evidence, blame Aurora for a fire on Earth that nearly kills Professor Eon, Jenny and Moriarty. Frice calls them out on it:
  Florta: “Trees are very special to me. I can feel their pain you know.”
  Frice: "Trees feeling pain - what about how poor Aurora is feeling? You’ve no proof she caused that fire, and there you are blaming her! And everyone calls me cold-hearted!"