ily limited colour palettes <3
[ID: a digital drawing of an original stylised Flatland character named Liz on beige background.
Liz is a thin humanoid creature with a seven point star-shaped head, one eye, light grey skin that fades to dark grey on the edges of her head and forelimbs, a metal prosthetic left forearm and a long tail with a star on the end.
They are wearing a sleeveless red top with a high neck and chest cutout, low-waisted black baggy jeans with off-white boxers peeking above the hem, and double hoop earrings.
Liz is stood with a slouch, with her left arm hanging down and her right arm half-hidden behind her torso. Her right thumb is in her pocket and her knuckles are against her hip. Her tails is curved into a backwards ‘C’ shape. They have a mildly intrigued expression with a raised eyebrow. There is a red triangular speech bubble by her with a question mark.
End ID].
ever-so-slightly-different version under the cut, blade warning
[ID: the same drawing of Liz as above, but there is a silver, machete-like blade protruding from the palm of her prosthetic hand. End ID.]
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I guess this post's going to be a "sequel" to my post about Sunny and Mari because I have Thoughts about the game's potential again, this time concerning Sunny's other friends because god damn they're so underdeveloped and irrelevant 😭
Aubrey holds the "privilege" of being the game's only main character to have something vaguely resembling a character arc, and yet the execution of said character arc still leaves much to be desired. She has some makings of being a nice foil to Sunny (Sunny dealt with his issues by folding into himself in denial while Aubrey dealt with them by taking out her rage on Basil, Sunny's appearance is as bland and average as it can get while Aubrey's appearance is rather garish and visually striking) and I believe that kind of angle would've been really fascinating to work with. I'd have also preferred Aubrey being upfront about being a jerk - her incessant "noooo i'm not a meanie YOU are meanies >:(" deflections don't make her a Deeper character, they just become annoying after a while.
Maybe the game could've featured a flashback (an actual flashback, because Headspace isn't the most reliable source of information) where Aubrey defends Sunny or Basil from jerks harassing them at school and openly expresses her distaste for assholes who think it's okay to pick on someone who can't fight back... only to become that exact sort of asshole down the road. If Basil is the one she stands up for, this could even be their first meeting for additional irony!
Aubrey's rough home life is another aspect of her character the game should've elaborated on, especially given that its only purpose in the story is to be shorthand for "she's just a poor bbygirl please feel bad for her". What if Aubrey was closer to her father than she was to her mother? What if her dad left her mom precisely because the latter developed alcoholism and eventually became difficult to live with? What if Aubrey herself started using booze (albeit not to the extent her mother does) to cope with Mari's death, hating herself because she knows she's becoming exactly like her mother and turning into a person her beloved father would probably look down on? Honestly, the kids' parental issues would've been way more interesting to learn about than listening to them go "waaaa I miss my wife Tails Mari :'c" for the 1403rd time in a row as if we didn't get the memo already
Last but not least, before I move onto Hero and Kel, I'd like to echo @beevean's opinion about the whole "Aubrey shoves Basil into the lake" plot point - Aubrey absolutely should've been the one to save Basil after realizing what she's done. That'd have been a brilliant way to show that she still genuinely cares about her friends despite her violent exterior. This could've also tied into the reason she isolates herself on the final day - even though she makes no bones about being an asshole, the lake incident rattles her and finally makes her recognize that she crossed a line she never thought she'd be able to cross. She and her friends lost Mari already, and they would've lost Basil too, this time by her hands. The guilt overwhelms her, and she decides to shut herself off from the outside world since she thinks that she's a danger to her friends... sounds rather familiar, doesn't it? :)
IMO, Hero arguing that Aubrey still cares about her friends because she quickly dove into the lake to rescue Basil to break her out of her funk before the group hug would've made for a more solid point than "you care because you restored the photo album!", which completely ignores the fact that she stole it from Basil and bullied him for four years over it.
Speaking of Hero, the first thing I'd like to change is the reason for his nickname because the "he likes hero sandwiches lol" explanation is fucking stupid. It'd have definitely made more sense for it to be an in-joke for Sunny's friend group, since Hero's Just Naturally Good™ at everything he does. Maybe Kel or Aubrey could've created some sort of running gag by jokingly calling him "Hank", the decidedly less cool-sounding diminutive form of his real name, Henry.
I think that Hero apparently yelling "a lot of hurtful stuff" at Kel when the latter tried to help him stop being a recluse could've lent itself to some interesting characterization had the game bothered to explore it. What if Hero used Kel's biggest insecurities against him in his rant? He'd be the one to know his younger brother best, after all :)
Maybe the incident could have been used to establish a contrast of sorts between the brothers, with Kel having blocked out everything Hero said about him for the sake of his own mental health and Hero having the memory burned into his mind because he still feels very guilty about the outburst even four years after the fact. What if Hero spent said four years believing that Kel secretly hates him for what happened and being afraid of talking to him about it? Perhaps that would've explained Kel's remark about Hero being "a little more closed off now than he used to be."
Hero himself could've been an interesting character, mainly because his relationship with Mari isn't really touched on by the game, which is baffling since he was her boyfriend. Maybe the story could've tried to indicate that he still has trouble moving on from her suicide by him trying to abruptly change the subject whenever Mari comes up in a conversation. The story could've also tried to show the ways Mari as a person shaped Hero into the person he is (e.g. Mari is mentioned to have had a mischievous side to her, so Hero could've probably had an affinity for mischief too?) I think that sort of thing would've been nice to see in all of the game's characters, actually - the point is that even though Mari is dead, she "lives" on in a way through her friends and her brother, through the habits they picked up from her. Of course, that would necessitate Mari to have a personality beyond "picnic blanket" lmao
Maybe the game could've had Hero (unconsciously) start doting on Sunny as if he was the latter's older brother because, as part of him blaming himself for his friend group's dissolution, he feels especially guilty for "forgetting" about Sunny in his grief. I like to think that this, coupled with Hero picking up Mari's behaviors, would actually hurt Sunny even more, probably since a) it'd fuel his fears about everyone caring about him only because he's the last reminder of Mari they have left and b) every time Sunny sees Hero trying to be affectionate, he's just reminded of his sister, and it hurts.
You know, maybe the game could've even implied that Sunny harbors a bit of resentment towards Kel for having an older sibling in the first place. Sunny himself is aware that it's completely irrational and beats himself up over it ("oh my god, how could I even think something like that? he's my friend!"), but it's still there.
Kel loves his older brother. Kel has an older sibling to love.
Sunny doesn't. Not anymore, at least.
He had a sister.
She's gone now.
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