what made you decide that the strength would only give cuphead the power to heal himself and not others? and how would the plot be different if you'd stuck with your original idea ?
(i dont remember if i already sent this because earlier today i was considering sending it but i was like nah this sounds stupid and i think i discarded it ?? so im typing it out again now but i cant remember if i actually submitted it the first time or not lmao)
Originally Cuphead was able to heal others with the Strength in the first drafts, but I found that it majorly lowered the stakes. If another character is being hurt, there is not as much tension as the readers know that Cuphead could heal them. In fact, there was a sequence in the original where the Devil basically kills Mugman to test the Strength and Cuphead brings him back. It implicitly removes all fear of character injury. It also makes more sense that Cuphead is only able to heal himself as it leans much more into the concept of one's strength- the strength to endure, heal, and recover.
And how would the plot be different? Oh man, there's a BILLION ways it would be, but here's a list of the big ones:
Chalice is not a main character and has a relatively minor role in the story, creating the potions for the brothers and then finding the rest of the Calix Animi descendants who are hidden away (this was written long before the DLC was released, or the artbook which translates Calix Animi as Chalice of Courage, so l did not think of her as a prophesied warrior quite yet).
The main casino employee that the boys befriend was Wheezy- not Ginette (or Martini, as she was called back then before her canon name was released).
The boys befriended more of the casino staff (Wheezy, Gin, Hocus, and Mangosteen) in the original. Their main interactions in the casino were less on surviving the Devil and more on befriending the casino staff.
Mugman and King Dice have a lot more time together while poor Cuphead barely gets a character arc.
Elder Kettle was not captured with the boys and leads a rebellion with the runaway debtors to save them. He also ends up going to another mysterious isle with Porkrind where they find the descendants of the Calix Animi including a lot of original characters created for the book.
The Calix Animi descendants have a whole political side plot where Chalice, Elder Kettle, and Porkrind have to face the Calix's new and corrupt leader.
The Devil has a room where he keeps, uh- it's kind of wack, the heads of the killed members of the Calix Animi to imprison their souls. Cuphead and Mugman find this room and meet their parents.
Cuphead and Mugman, with the powers of the Strength and the Sight, are the ones who were foretold to defeat the Devil- not Chalice.
The Devil's role is MUCH smaller. And from what I remember, he is nowhere near as manipulative or intimidating as he is now. Rather than orchestrating events, he mainly reacts. He has no agency with the boys' powers and mainly is focused on putting a stop to Elder Kettle's rebellion against him.
A LOT of characters die in the ending. I think basically it's just King Dice and the boys left alive, LOL.
It was... It was something, that's for sure. There are still some sequences from the original and a lot of the dialogue has been repurposed and I'm still very proud of the fact that I wrote a whole manuscript as a teenager (about 7 years ago!), but man- it's nowhere near what TSTS is now. I think the main difference now is that the story is character driven, not plot driven. The themes of family, domestic violence, and identity define the characters and push forward the narrative.
Meanwhile, in the original, character growth was secondary to plot advancement. In any case- I’m glad that my writing has massively improved while also being grateful that I wrote this first draft at all!
