I'm currently avoiding the massive pile of work (and have been avoiding for quite some time) so I figured I'd blog some of my more creative thoughts. Thoughts that have been kicking around my head for a decade.
I am not the creative type, in the sense that I'm no good at "the arts". In fact I am very much a consumer in the pejorative sense of the word. But I have been fascinated by creative processes for a long time and have always been something of a world builder. And so my whole life, I've entertained myself by (mentally) sketching out games, novels, movies and so on. It must've been around 2011 when I expanded to thinking about western animation as well clearly inspired by My Little Pony. And so now I finally am writing down some of those ideas?
But first, why western animation, especially those more oriented towards youngish people. One because that's what I knew but I also think there's some interesting constraints when you're trying to make something appealing to kids that can still draw in and appeal to an older demographic. Also I like pissing off those people.
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The Mythos Wyrm Show
This was basically my take at a parody of somewhat plot driven but still slice of lifey/episodic, 9-13 year old target audience with a large teenage/young adult periphery demographic, that I based around a skeleton of characters I'd been using forever. It's a pretty big archetype but apparently it's still around. Anyway, the main conceit is that there's this tightly driven plot but everything is aired out of order (except the first episode and the finale). Oh and main characters can die/permanently disappear. So you never know exactly why a character is or isn't in an episode, nor do you know if inconsistencies are because of bad writing or character development. The main idea is that the Demon Slayers are fighting a war against the Demon King and this is their journey to unite a bunch of imps/other demon tribes in rebellion against the Demon King. Oh and trying to work with a mysterious Afrit who claims to be the former ruler of this plane and his four disaster themed sons...
I've even thought up some episodes. The series opens up with a POV of Mythos Wyrm waking up and someone commenting that he got hit on the head. Then there's some introductions (a reminder of what he showed already know but hey, maybe that brick caused some memory loss) and we're off.
A play on the idea of the bottle episode would be a two-parter (aired together, I'm not that much of a monster) where Mythos Wyrm and the Demon King end up stuck in a cavern together and have to work together to get out, all while discussing their feelings and philosophies (Mythos Wyrm's semi-anarchism vs the paternalism of the Demon King). Just to end up fighting again when they get out.
The finale would be a grand assault on the Demon King's palace, where all the remaining characters end up dead, while Mythos Wyrm fights the Demon King in the throne room. But then, as he's about to kill the Demon King, the world falls apart around him and he ends up in a modern office, where he learns his tv show is being cancelled. Then he rampages around, eventually finding the executives, just for a brick to hit his head and everything goes dark...
Oh and all the main characters are sort of 1 dimensional animated show archetypes (with twists), like the comic relief character who mostly relies on reference humor (which lands flat to the other characters and the viewers because it is all out of day). Or the chick who exists basically because these shows always have a chick in order to appeal to an audience you're never capturing.
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The Šyþed Pyklez Show
Classic sitcom about an up and coming band and their struggles surviving (while being bankrolled by the main character's record executive dad). Complete with an unlikable main character and terrible songs. Their sitcom archnemesis is another band ("The Knights of Shythe) who are actually successful but are considered sell outs. Not much more to say about it
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Unnamed Island Hopping Show
This one is based on an RPG setting that I've been tossing around ideas for at least half a decade (Actually over 6 years by this point), but I'll fully admit that the idea of doing this as a tv show came after watching Castlevania and Avatar: The Last Airbender this past fall. One of the big ideas I've wanted explore is a story where there is a chosen one and the main characters interact with the chosen one but also aren't really part of that story. And this setting would be a good place to explore it. Another thing I want to do is make sure that the characters are masters of their own fate, rather than passive and reactionary. But that's a broader writing problem.
The setting (and this tv show idea) deserve their own posts so I'll just outline it here. The son of a colonial administrator is hired to be a scout/guide/bodyguard by a priest who wants an escort to the capital of one of the local kingdoms. But soon enough it appears he and his friend (a newly arrived soldier/constable) bit off a more than they could chew on this mission, as the priest is more than he appeared to be and the tenuous peace between the colonists and the locals starts to unravel...
Season two would continue with them and another traveling companion, now considered fugitives and deserters, deciding they'll explore the Treasure Island instead. But when they get captured by an old pirate king, their only chance of freedom is uncovering information about a mysterious and charismatic new pirate prince, the Jago Hitam who poses a threat to both the traditional power structures and the colonial administrators...
The third seasons follows our adventurers in the Treasure Islands. This is the most episodic of the seasons, as the protagonists hop island to island and try to avoid the war that's engulfing the rest of the archipelago. Rather than directly continuing the plot, the main purpose of this season (other than generating action figures) is really diving into character motivations, like the protagonist's feeling of conflict between his father's nation and his mother's home and how the group can't just keeping running away from their problems. Oh and it dives more into lore as well, especially with all the ancient ruins spread across the islands...
The final season is a return to the main islands and a race to stop the potential end of the world by solving the mysteries of civilization past. But can the protagonists actually prevent a prophecy from happening? And does it even matter that the protagonists may not be able to effect change outside their own lives?
While I assume what would draw the most Avatar comparisons is the Asian influence and the many different cultures but honestly that's unfair. The magic system is based around capturing spirits and summoning (so basically pokemon combined with alchemy), not elements; the different cultures aren't really different in magic or philosophy (as usually seen in Avatar clones); the cultures themselves are very Austronesian/Pacific instead of East Asian; and rather than deconstructing the Chosen One trope by showing how much it sucks, it's more about controlling one's destiny even in a world dictated by the Chosen One. But wanting to incorporate cool martial arts (in this case based on pencak silat), that's an actual Avatar influence.
Anyway, this one is worth more discussion so I'll blog about it more some other time.
