I know you love Musical!verse BJ best, but out of curiosity do you HAVE a preference for Lydia's design/character? (Musical!verse is the only one I'm not familiar with but I can't deny how much I LOVED the cartoon on basically every front, even though the movie was the first I saw. Which I also love. Honestly it sounds like I should WATCH the musical since I love the other two universes to DEATH )
I love cartoon!lydia’s design the most, her hair, her outfits -- !!
characterwise i love musical!lydia (in the DC version especially, the one they did before they got on broadway). she’s just an edgy teenager who hates everything and everyone and it’s very relatable - i could see a version of the musical where lydia is just straight up the villain tbh XD she takes no shit and behaves like she has a lot of agency, but in the end she’s still very childish and immature.
- i do think the musical has lots of plot problems. i give a lot of credit to eddie perfect for writing comedic, yet still emotionally resonant lines and songs, but plotwise i’d change a lot if i were to rewrite it.
the biggest problem i see is that there isn’t really a reason for lydia and beetlejuice to have their misunderstanding/feud that leads to the whole fake wedding plot. they’re immediately friends, once they meet, but are suddenly enemies without a real fight.
I’d either focus more on them building up a friendship, with the finale having one of them prove they actually like each other, no backstabs.
Or have their friendship slowly deteriorate to the point of making beetlejuice an actual villain. Two enemies duking it out and developing a legendary hate for each other can also be a very compelling plot generator ;V;