Origin: Pokemon
Intended Season: 7
Intended as sort of Viola's successor. The Bug Catcher's purpose was to be a vehicle for using bug-type Pokemon in RP, and that's exactly why he was scrapped - unlike Viola, who was interesting on her own, the Bug Catcher only existed for his Pokemon, and I decided that was way too weak to qualify as an RP regular.
Origin: F-Zero, though it might as well be Smash Brothers by now
Intended Season: 6
A possible Fite Club opponent that never got his chance, Falcon was planned as a "filler" Fite Club opponent in case someone asked for a match and I had nothing for them. I only ran a handful of Fite Clubs last year, which certainly didn't help him, and decided that old Smash Brothers memes weren't worth keeping him on the backburner for.
Origin: Touhou
Intended Seasons: 5, 6
It looks like a Kirby final boss, but it's really a Touhou character! Considered as a Tupai-esque riff on Touhou characters becoming rather common in ZFRP, Evil Eye Sigma's most likely appearance would have been in the Fite Club, but he might also have appeared as a minor recurring character. My desire to use him increased when Chao took the Touhou Sorter and ranked him dead last, just to see if I could improve his opinion. I'm still in love with the design, especially for being so utterly unlike the cute anime girls Touhou is known for, but I'm not sure I'll ever have room for this fella to stretch his wings.
Origin: Shantae
Intended Season: 7
Shantae was under strong consideration as a minor character, Fite Club opponent, or Secret Fiter this past winter when I played her original game and was enjoying it, but as I grew less interested in the game and eventually gave up on it, Shantae herself faded from ever joining my roster alongside it. I'll have more to say about my unhappy experience with Shantae in my yearly review roundup, but for now I'll just say I'm staying away from Metroidvanias for the foreseeable future. Shantae definitely seems like she'd fit into ZFRP well, but I'm not the one to give her that opportunity.
Origin: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Intended Season: 7
Considered for maybe a whole hour or so as a possible part of Arielplot, Mike Mulligan would have a dimwitted but goodhearted fellow, and stopping his overzealous steam shovel from tearing up an island ecosystem would have been a comedic, non-violent affair.
Origin: Finding Dory
Intended Season: 7
Definitely the highlight of Finding Dory for me was getting an octopus as a major character, and he's not an antagonist either! Hank was fun in the film, but I didn't really know what he would do in RP, and I'm trying to cut back on introducing characters that don't have an accompanying plot unless they're minor.
Origin: Ultraman
Intended Season: 3
This monster was originally Baltan's ally instead of Kauket. He would have been basically mute, only able to say his own name, but he still would've played straight man to Baltan's idiocy. I think dumping him for the much more sarcastic and biting Kauket was the better choice.
Origin: Garfield and Friends
Intended Season: 7
OH WE ARE THE BUDDY BEARS WE ALWAYS GET ALONG
EACH DAY WE DO A LITTLE DANCE AND SING A LITTLE SONG
IF YOU EVER DISAGREE IT MEANS THAT YOU ARE WRONG
OH WE ARE THE BUDDY BEARS WE ALWAYS GET ALONG
As much as Garfield is now a target of memes and insults, in his heyday in the 80s and 90s Garfield was genuinely funny, including the quite good Garfield and Friends cartoon. He wouldn't have gotten so popular if he hadn't started off solid!
While still funny to this day, The Buddy Bears are a product of their time. They're actually a savage satire of the ridiculous and lame cartoons moral guardians forced the creation of in the 80s - bland, action-free pap like The Get-Along Gang that replaced action-adventure cartoons and slapstick classic shorts to push an agenda of quiet obedience and conformity. Garfield and Friends was very much not that sort of show, and used the Buddy Bears to lampoon the current trend.
In RP, the Buddy Bears would have been a one-off opponent - a dayplot, a Fite Club, a Secret Fiter, something along those lines - and would have sported nigh-invulnerability due to cartoon physics. The only way to stop them would be to somehow turn them against each other, for if they began infighting they would lose their defenses, become extremely vulnerable, and could be quickly dispatched.
Origin: Touhou
Intended Season: 6
I like Byakuren because (at least going by some popular fandom views) she's basically Touhou Celestia - a Team Mom that heaps love and affection on small cute people while simultaneously having a bit of a wild side (in this case, her motorcycle). However, that also meant I had to drop her, as my preferred version of Byakuren is just too similar to Celestia, and I'd rather keep using the black mage than replace her with an expy that doesn't have Celestia's experience, history, or technical expertise.
Origin: Squid Girl
Intended Season: 7
My first serious concept for Season 7 was the Squid Girl herself. Combining my love of cephalopods with my love of cute characters, she seemed a natural fit - but when I tried to find episodes of her show to research, a combination of low-quality videos, incomplete uploads, and what I actually saw not managing to grab me in the slightest made her fall off the roster in a hurry. Still a cute design, but if she ever sees the light of day, it'll be from someone who actually saw her show.
Origin: Star Wars
Intended Season: 3
What, did you think all those stormtroopers were there for no reason? Indeed, a Season 3 plot idea was to have Darth Vader storm onto the ZFS, revealing the troopers' backstory - they had fled from Vader to escape the war and start life over, and he was coming to kill them all for various nefarious reasons (knowing too much about The Empire's plans, making him look bad, punishment for desertion, etc). Ultimately I was never confident in what I wanted to do and how, and it fizzled out like much of Season 3 seemed to.
The Magic School Bus
Origin: The Magic School Bus
Intended Season: 7
Another completely ridiculous Secret Fiter idea. Whether Ms. Frizzle was in the bus or not was something I hadn't thought about. I can at least guarantee there wouldn't have been any kids in the thing, but Carlos would have appeared in the audience to spew puns all Brawl long. The Bus' apparent time-traveling abilities might have been fun to bring in to see if JRM the character would step in and try to stop the Bus himself, but I ultimately went with another choice for my Secret Fiter and I'll probably have two dozen more ideas for another Secret Fiter before June 2018, so I feel safe giving up on this one.
Bring back Hank for when Nibbles does his solo Fite Club. ;p
ReplyDelete