sort of related to my previous post about not connecting new characters to preexisting ones, I think the issue with adding SO many new side characters comes from fundamentally misunderstanding why those characters became popular in the first place
(it's under a read more because it became..longer than expected LOL)
Side characters like laurel or bing and larry, the rejects are beloved because they ..well, felt like characters, as simple as they might be - and they had memorable roles and character designs to along with them
Background characters are a weird phenomenon, of course, because it's silly to fall in love with a character who only spoke 2 times (talking to myself in the mirror here) but- I personally believe that happens for the same reason why side characters get popular- cool character designs and the possibility of being part of a bigger plot / being developed (the pilots and yuu have that going on when you think about it). Usually bg characters don't become popular unless they have some kind of connection to a main character, in the case of the aforementioned pilots it's their connection to Tord / Red Leader
Beyond is ...basically trying to do what the fandom does but in an inorganic way, almost forced in some sense: Trying to introduce side characters they think Might be interesting for the audience, thinking they might be a hit, but it comes off as awkward (look at the blonzie? stuff) ...because well- why are we supposed to care those guys? And why is the staff / episode pushing so hard for the fandom to care about them? Do we have a reason to care about the bullies when the neighbors already exist? Or that one scientist when the evil director has the same role?
Not to say it never worked with any character, I mean it SORTA worked with Dan and Honey Piper but even then, it seemed more like those were pushed by the staff rather than the fandom actually giving them importance and letting them become popular - that's why I said inorganic beforehand lol
The best comparison I always bring up is deltarune and the addisons, they became popular because of the connection with spamton (namely pink and blue), not because some outside force was pushing them to become popular and to care about them in the first place
I DUNNO where I'm going with this weird ass rant I promise, I'm just saying that they want something like the next Paul and Patryck without remembering why those two became popular in the first place (bait)
Oh, btw, the adding characters thing beyond has going on shares the same issue with cartoons that continue for too much long have. introducing new characters to keep things "fresh", but without developing them, changing the status quo in the worst way possible or replacing characters that already had the same role for some reasons (think of the fairly oddparents for example)
I get that maybe they're trying to add more characters to make the world feel "alive", but when you're focusing on characters that only appeared once and people haven't really attached to the whole thing falls kinda flat, I guess
hes made out of EVA foam mats (like the kind of stuff you put on playroom floors), elastic for the head strap, and acrylic paint
i still need to seal the paint but i think he turned out pretty good
as you can see i was kind of going for the whole “handmade mask” look because i hc that mike made his mask at home
areudirty
yousharknotpass
amandla
gummygunk
germansingergirl
