I am steadily at work on posts for the other blog, never anyone worry. But while on that subject, I gotta post about which villains featured on there have thus far been my favorite to write, and why.
Varian. While writing Godot's hard-boiled, coffee term-laden dialogue and Akane Taira's mood swings whilst she attempts to maintain her affability and composure are enjoyable too, something about writing for Varian is especially fun. This is him in his "between Season 1 and Season 3" phase where he's doubled down on the bad boy image since he believes he's an unforgivable villain now, but he's still just such a silly dork and with a nature that inherently looks to help rather than harm that it will regularly come through in his interactions with customers. I find giving him the Potionista role was an inspired choice given the alchemic formulas and mixtures he makes in-show, and when playing Disney Villains Cursed Cafe and selecting what to say to customers, I could just image Varian in these situations.
Dr. Eggman. This is mainstream SEGA games Eggman, the first variant of Dr. Robotnik I have here but not the last, and given the character, how could writing him not be fun? I enjoy how bombastic and full of himself he is, and I love how I had his side story kicked off because he wants to combine magic potions with his technological creations, but refuses to just acquire the potions that could help him destroy Sonic because his ego demands he be the one to fully create whatever brings the hedgehog down, no help from others required, so he seeks to master potion-making for himself instead via an insanely underhanded scheme that only he could come up with.
King Andrias. This is pretty straightforward - I just enjoy writing lines that I think Andrias would say and imagining how Keith David would deliver those lines. His character voice is really easy to get down.
No Heart. Because he's just pure cheesy, proudly evil cartoon villainy, and with him I get to mix some of the self-seriousness of his original 80's incarnation with some of the more comedic attitude of the Unlock The Magic incarnation, while also applying the concept I had for a character reinvention of him (producing his own show.)
Heinz Doofenshmirtz. For a similar reason as Andrias, except in his case it's a lot trickier. I always need to be thorough with what I write for him and think to myself "Can I hear Dan Povenmire's Doof voice saying this? Would he phrase this line this way?", as Doof's voice is so essential to making his dialogue work and making his jokes land.
Doctor Octopus. Something about looking for the big words he would use and constructing his sentences in the exact way he would say them has been real fun for me. He's just such a smug, uptight, patronizing asshole under his courteous veneer and I just love that.
Lila Rossi. She's best known for lying to good guy characters, but when hanging with fellow villains it's always murkier - when is she lying, when is she being honest, when is she bending the truth or being half truthful, and what does she stand to gain from any of it? These questions should always be on your mind when you read any of her dialogue and interactions with other villains. It's also fun to write for a variant of Lila Rossi who really is just Lila Rossi, with the whole Chrysalis thing being something she retools for her lies.
Homura Akemi. Because she's Homura Akemi, the edgy dork who plays at being both uber cool and the evilest of evils that ever evilled but is really neither of those things and is just kind of deeply troubled and pitiful when you get down to it. I am not immune to her charm.
Black Lady. She was around for a very short time in both manga and anime, so any opportunity to have more of her and flesh her out more is a gift in my eyes. I've so far gotten to write her childish nihilism, resentment, and misanthropic apathy along with the more easygoing and playful attitude she shows externally, but we've yet to see her get really mad and showcase just what a dark and malicious brat she can be. She's also one of the villains that I plan to give some character development as we look into the facets of her personality that are still very much her mother's daughter who yearns for love.
Maximillian Pegasus. 'Cause he's so quirky, sassy and flamboyant. I eagerly look forward to writing more for him in the future.
Terra-Xehanort's Heartless and Nobody. For both of them, I get to write some quasi-intellectual and existential pontificating as well as some actually creepy bits of malignant, predatory-feeling evilness that raises concern about what their angles might be. Me likes it!
Prince Lotor and Murmur. My crossover crack Brotp that I get to write and display in a unique context. I love the personalities and underhanded natures of both characters, and it's just going to be so much fun to see how they'll play off each other since their general attitudes seem a bit mismatched. There's also a pretty big in-joke behind what I'm doing with them here, but that becomes clear later.
Team Rocket TRio. The most recent new customers to the Cafe. I'm so familiar with them throughout all eras of the anime they featured in that I feel like I know how to write them by heart, and by God do I love these losers. In just a few posts I was having a total blast-off balancing out their character qualities and writing in their voices in order to portray the vision of them I'd most love to see - model-wise their Best Wishes and XY iterations are used because I feel they were the best looking (especially the former since they didn't go off-model as much) and in writing I can have them in cool, classy and serious pro agent mode and then just as quickly shift them into comedic tomfoolery like you'd see in the original series, Advanced, Sun & Moon, or Journeys. An ideal combo of everything they do worst best!
Some new challengers have appeared!
Erik Killmonger. Can't really pinpoint a particular reason why I like writing for him. Probably just the idea that he can be real chill and converse with you like a normal dude, but then so causally drop in something that reveals how much of a normal dude he truly isn't.
Henry Whatsit. Because he's got this creepy yet also quite humorously awkward "evil neurodivergent" energy to him, and while he's friendly and polite most of the time, his instincts are predatorial all of the time.
Satou Matsuzaka. Completing the trio of "chill and friendly seemingly normal person who is anything but normal". She's always going to be a fun one to come back to!
Cedric the Sorcerer. There's just something about Cedric attempting to acquire more power and superiority as a sorcerer by striving to be something that's just fundamentally not within his nature to be that's only gotten more enjoyable to write with each appearence he's made.
"Big" Jack Horner. He's such a simple, gives-no-fucks evil asshole of a character that I wasn't sure how up to writing him I was going to be, but coming up with his lines and imagining him saying them has proven to be quite enjoyable. (In his most recent appearance, I just loved writing "And in return for you willing to hear me out and be so helpful, I’ll pay half price" - acting like him getting to keep more of his money than the price tag of the item explicitly calls for is a courtesy to the Cafe rather than a shamelessly stingy business violation that only benefits him.)
Pete. Because he's really damn easy to write for. His general attitude and the sort of lines he'd say in Jim Cummings' voice acting is deeply ingrained into my subconscious.
Freeza and Cell. Again two villains who have their own distinct character voices that's so fun and satisfying to get down when you have either one of them playing off of another character in the Cafe.
