Beanbean-centric Cartoon

Harpesian

Harpesian

Doot doo doooo!♪
I say to you HELLO! I am wanting the opinions from your faces, even though I am not seeing them! The opinions have the importance of onions in the burger of my cartoon's development!

Fawfully speech aside, I am making a cartoon centred around the inhabitants of the Beanbean Kingdom, kind of in the style of "Kirby: Right Back at Ya!" and I'd like to post some of my ideas so far on here for you to give your opinions on:

This series will be set before the events of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, so I will delve into some of the back-stories (tell me if there are some in particular you don't want me to forget!) of some of the lesser characters in that game. This does mean that Mario, Luigi, Bowser and anyone who comes from the Mushroom Kingdom will most likely not be appearing, although Professor E. Gadd runs a cafe there and the royals could appear in political affairs (and also, Toadsworth and Lady Lima are good friends so he'll pop up a bit); but guess what? It also means that Cackletta and Fawful aren't dead.

I will try to include all (yes all) of the named (and few unnamed) characters from the Beanbean Kingdom in at least one episode each, although some may appear more often than others.

Original character ideas (I will not tell you the names of them lest someone steals):
* The main character, sort of similar to Tiff, who is a Beanish student at Woohoo Hooniversity.
* The co-star, like Tuff, who is a Hoohooligan best friend of the main character who doesn't have to study.
* A best friend of the two who doesn't appear as often who happens to be one of those advisers (like Fawful's disguise in Superstar Saga's intro)
* A strangely clever dog (yes, the dog next to the Mine Cart Owner is going to pop up a bit, but not too often -- think like a lesser version of Prince Hal from the Super Mario anime movie who isn't actually a human)

Prince Peasley will also be a main character, playing the same type of role as in Superstar Saga, albeit actually accomplishing a few things. Other characters like the old intellect, Blablanadon, Popple and of course Cackletta and Fawful will be important as well, so don't worry about that.

Episode ideas (again, not too many for fear of thieves):
* There will be an episode in which Fawful goes to school and fails various things
* There will be an episode featuring Popple and his new old rookie stealing things from a certain location that also has to do with the race of the rookie.
* There will be an episode in which the protagonists visit Joke's End
* There MAY be an episode where some people (most likely the royals, or Professor E. Gadd with the protagonists) visit the Mushroom Kingdom

I AM also having trouble coming up with new episode ideas, so if you have any, PLEASE tell me!

I posted about this on GameFAQs a little while ago, before I had truly decided on anything, but all the information I didn't post here is there (usually in suggestion form):
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/914980-mario-and-luigi-superstar-saga/72155834

Again, don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts, no matter how negative; I can take it. Treat it like it's professional and tell me your fears about what I will do wrong! BUT I NEED TO KNOW, RURU~! TELL ME EVERYTHING, RURURURURU~! Discussions also extremely welcome, rurururururururururu~!
 
There should be a Very Special Episode where Peasley meets his fellow fab pop culture icon, Birdo, and they discuss their respective problems with cis/heteronormativity in the media surrounding them. Then they team up and battle a giant transphobic frog and his homophobic rat second-in-command, who have come to drag Birdo back to her oppressive 3rd dream world homeland, and we learn the real reason why they never brought Wart back for another game after BSSMUSA. Then Birdo's a main character from then on, because no one wants to watch shows about lame OCs.
 
Walkazo said:
There should be a Very Special Episode where Peasley meets his fellow fab pop culture icon, Birdo, and they discuss their respective problems with cis/heteronormativity in the media surrounding them. Then they team up and battle a giant transphobic frog and his homophobic rat second-in-command, who have come to drag Birdo back to her oppressive 3rd dream world homeland, and we learn the real reason why they never brought Wart back for another game after BSSMUSA. Then Birdo's a main character from then on, because no one wants to watch shows about lame OCs.
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I am not entirely sure how seriously you intended me to take this comment, but I was thinking a kid's show (y'know, for kids), so I'm not too sure about introducing Wart and Mouser as transphobic/homophobic characters against people like Prince Peasley (?) and Birdo. I did not consider Wart or Mouser as possible characters up until now, but even though Wart is limited to Dream World appearances, he is not limited to any one franchise (as he appeared in Link's Awakening), so maybe... On a side note, I'm not quite sure what "BSSMUSA" stands for.

On the other hand (and this includes anyone else who is reading this) if you think that this idea sounds completely uninteresting and you honestly don't care in the slightest, by all means tell me. I want to know all this kind of thing. In all honesty, I have no idea what most people would think.
 
Completely serious. Kids should totes be introduced to the idea that it is Not Okay to be shitty to sexual minorities before their bigot families think to start putting parental censors on what little Billy can watch on that damn liberal boob tube. Plus, LGBT lead characters are very "in" right now. There's like, two kids shows in rotation with lesbians (three if you include meta content), and I heard a movie recently had a gay secondary character or something. Idk, but it's trendy and inclusive and Peasley's totes gay already, so ride the wave, yo! Ride. The. Wave.

Omg, BSSMUSA is the best game no one knows about!!! The obscurity is very saddening. It's the Japan-only direct sequel to the Western version of SMB2: it touches on the mistreatment of not one but three transgender Birdos, and makes an oblique reference to Link's Awakening and everything, because it's awesome like that. Plus it's got full voice acting pretty much constantly during gameplay, had two all-new characters, and was transmitted in 4 episodes, so it's practically a TV show already.
 
I'm not inherently against the idea of using OCs in your project, but you should know that doing so means teetering on a proverbial knife's edge. A common phenomenon here is that, if your characters feel like they are upstaging or taking too much attention away from the characters people already know and like, they will quickly draw ire from your audience.

On the same vein, I'm unsure whether using Fumu and Bun as templates is a smart move. Especially Fumu (or Tiff) is, to my knowledge, a very divisive character, with many people disliking her for taking too much focus away from Kirby. If we're staying with the same show, I'd personally urge you to look at a character like Escargon instead. He is an original character too, but he is subordinate to Dedede, allows Dedede to play off him, and usually does not upstage him. As a result he actually improves the performance of an already known character instead of detracting from it, and thus he feels less grating that Fumu does, so even when he occasionally gets in focus, it isn't as annoying.

On the subject of LGBT issues: We're living in 2015. We have kids shows like Legend of Korra and Steven Universe that embrace the subject instead of sweeping it under the rug like the media did in the past. It's up and coming, and it will not be stopped. Might as well join in on the fun.

But do try to get your structural issues in order first before thinking about that. Can't build a fancy loft without securing the foundation first.
 
First of all, thank you so much for the feedback!

I never said I was against LGBT characters -- I was just worried about the 'phobes -- but okay; I'll take your words for it. And yeah, I wouldn't exactly say Prince Peasley was straight~rururu...

Speaking of Prince Peasley, all the Beanish characters you talk to in the game speak about him as if he's the coolest thing in the world and nobody can compare to him, so I guess it would make more sense if the original characters filled more "friends of the prince" roles who alerted him about things that he should be aware of, goings on that could prove harmful to the well-being of the kingdom.

I was not originally going to make my original characters quite as central to the plots as Tiff and Tuff, but perhaps even less so now after reading your comments. I think I will make Prince Peasley a far more important character and have most episodes shown essentially from his point of view, and when not, the others will be there simply to find out about something and then tell him; and like personal Escargoons to Peasley, play off him and stay away from upstaging him (I might also make Lady Lima more important and have them talk to her first or something, or have a lot more conversations between her and Peasley than originally intended). Thoughts on that...?

I also had the idea of having episodes occasionally focus around Cackletta and Fawful (who are living in Joke's End, by the way) in a less villainous light, and show them doing something...I'm not sure how to express this right now, but more "normal" or "casual", perhaps (for example, Cackletta teaching Fawful, them having tea parties with Jojora, etc). Almost to show that they're not completely evil as such. Does that sound like a good idea?

This is still extremely early in development, and I've done little more than jot down various ideas and write the first two-and-a-half scenes of the first episode, so I'm still looking for opinions of anyone else here.

Regarding "Kirby: Right Back at Ya!", I was actually quite unaware of any dislike towards Tiff, so thanks for that, but I do believe that Escargoon is a very popular character from what I have read (he also happens to be my favourite from the show). When I first came up with the idea for this show, I was actually envisioning Fawful in a sort of Escargoon-esque role (although Cackletta wouldn't be quite like King Dedede), despite him not being an original character.

Also, thank you for introducing me to BS Super Mario USA, Walkazo; I didn't realise it was one of those Satellaview things! I already know about them as I've played some of the BS The Legend of Zelda games. Those are so cool~ruru!
 
Replace the OCs entirely with Lady Lima and Birdo as Peasley's quirky entourage, with Luigi as a recurring love interest for Peasley, but it never goes anywhere because he's too shy and Peasley's too full of hot air. Much hijinx will ensue, and it's a nice diverse cast with lots of strong women figures for young girls to look up to.

Also, sympathetic villains are overdone. Cackletta should be an abusive parental figure - then Fawful is sympathetic, but then there's an actual bad character to root against and finally be happy and satisfied about seeing defeated.
 
Walkazo said:
Replace the OCs entirely with Lady Lima and Birdo as Peasley's quirky entourage, with Luigi as a recurring love interest for Peasley, but it never goes anywhere because he's too shy and Peasley's too full of hot air. Much hijinx will ensue, and it's a nice diverse cast with lots of strong women figures for young girls to look up to.

Also, sympathetic villains are overdone. Cackletta should be an abusive parental figure - then Fawful is sympathetic, but then there's an actual bad character to root against and finally be happy and satisfied about seeing defeated.
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Thanks again for the helpful feedback. Ironically, I think including original characters was possibly the result of my being too unoriginal to think of another way for this show to work without Mario or Luigi (even if the latter does appear). They weren't very developed at all anyway, so I think I'll scrap them.

I wasn't sure how Birdo fit into all of this at first, but then I realised that it would make sense for her to be the one to replace Princess Peach in Superstar Saga's opening if she was Prince Peasley's best friend. Thinking about it, I feel like maybe Luigi visits the Beanbean Kingdom sometimes when Mario's adventuring by himself. The game never explicitly states that Luigi has never been to the Beanbean Kingdom or met Prince Peasley, and the prince is rather quick to give the rose to Luigi specifically, so...

And I really like the idea of Cackletta being more abusive, and I've hardly seen any fanfics with that kind of interpretation of her character, and it would make more sense considering Fawful's inferiority complex and the way he gets driven insane, not to mention his thoughts of betraying her at the end of Superstar Saga.

To anyone else, I am lacking in episode ideas and only have a few as of now, so if you are willing to share any then please go ahead!
 
The Mario series has a rich tapestry of secondary characters to choose from. As well as Luigi visiting, Toadsworth also has a known history with Lady Lima. Nothing entertains little children more than old people love - the livelier, the better. And Psycho Kamek should be THE Kamek on vacation from Bowser's Castle: everyone loves Kamek, but make sure he's wearing different robes every episode - and never the boring blue ones. If When there's an episode revolving about wearing Peach's dress, he and Luigi need to be in it.

Also, there should be an episode where King K. Rool comes to plunder the Oho Ocean, and then Cackletta and him team up. Be he insists on calling her Kackletta. Episode title: "Fawful Wants a Kracker"
 
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