Phantoms of the Past Chapter 42: Mission Possible Part 1
"Seriously, where are you taking me?" Tadashi laughed as his brothers led him down the school hallways with a blind fold on his face.
"You'll see," Hiro said, as he opened a door.
Tadashi heard an odd humming noise, as if a generator was being turned on.
"Okay, okay. You've had your fun, but I got my finals to work on-" the blind fold was ripped off his head and he stood in front of Varian's portal. On the opposite side was a Japanese shrine. The mid morning sun streaming through the autumn leaves contrasted with afternoon sunset outside the lab's window.
"Ta-da!" Varian proclaimed as he stood proudly next to the machine.
"What's this?" Tadashi asked.
"I got the spatial portal working again!" Varian explained.
"And, to test it out, we're going to volunteer you." Hiro smugly said.
"Yeah... nooo thank you." Tadashi shook his head. "Finals are coming up and I don't want to be stranded halfway around the world."
"Not even to see Grandma?" Hiro asked.
Tadashi looked at him in surprise.
"We opened a portal to Kyoto." Varian confirmed. "It's a few blocks off from her address, I'm still going to have to tweak some things, but you could take the bus there easy."
'Really?" Tadashi said. "You mean we can just go see Baba whenever we want to?"
"So long as the authorities don't catch us, yeah." Varian replied.
Baymax waddled forward carrying a duffle bag. "We've packed you an overnight bag."
"It's already got your passport and some yen in it." Hiro said.
"Along with some clean clothes and your allergy medication." Baymax finished.
"We'll pick you up at these same coordinates Monday morning before class." Varian informed him as he ran around the lab, checking the portal's readings.
Tadashi took the duffle bag from Baymax with a disbelieving smile slowly forming on his lips. "This is for real... wait. Aren't you guys coming?"
"Someone has to stay here and work the portal. Also I may have promised Karmi that I'd help her study for her biochemistry final."
He sheepishly grinned at that statement and Tadashi flashed him a wry smile. "Finals, huh?... suuurrre. Just don't have too much fun 'studying'." He winked.
"Come off it." Hiro said as he gave his brother a playful shove.
"What about you, Varian?" Tadashi asked.
"I'd love to see Japan, and maybe next time I will, but I already promised Fred and Mole that I'd go to some sort of comic book convention with them this weekend."
"You go on and have fun." Hiro said as he led Tadashi to the portal. "And tell Baba that we love her and will see her later."
"Thanks guys. This means a lot to me." Tadashi said as he blinked back tears. "I'll see you on Monday!" He called back to them as he ran through the portal and waved them goodbye.
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"Why am I here again?" Gogo asked.
"Because you wanted an excuse to get out of helping Wasabi and Honey Lemon clean HQ." Fred pointed out.
Gogo popped the bubble gum she was blowing. "Yeah, and I'm begining to regret it. Scrubbing toilets would have been better than this."
She gestured at the convention center in front of her where people were decked out in costumes and geek memorabilia.
"Oh come on Gogo. Think positive. There might be something here that you would enjoy." Varian said, as he read the itinerary. "Look, see, right here. They got sword fighting and maylee matches on the green. Now tell me, seriously, wouldn't you like to wack people up side the head with a foam club?"
"Nope."
"Okaay... What about kickboxing? They have a weekend long torment."
Gogo paused and seriously considered the matter. "Where's the sign up at?"
"See I told you, this would be fun." Fred gloated.
"Okay, so they got one cool thing here. Don't go off the deep end and buy me a bunch of weeb merch or something alright."
"Well of course not," A snobbish voice came from behind him. "A refined lady such yourself deserves more than cheap plastic knick knacks. Like expensive jewelry, or a mink coat."
Gogo was unamused "Mole, what did we talk about?"
"What!? I'm staying six feet away, just like you asked." Mole defended.
"What are you dressed as?" Varian asked as he took note of Mole's costume. He looked like a skunk, but Varian couldn't figure out why any one would dress as such an animal.
"I'm The White Stripe. He's the Fearless Ferret's arch nemesis. I also got the exclusive first edition Fearless Ferret comic. I'm going to get Timothy North to personally sign it!"
"No way... Timothy North is here!?" Fred gasped. "He hardly ever comes to conventions! Oh, this year's superhero convention is going to be the best!"
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"Thank you, Kim, for helping me set up my table." Timothy North said, as he leaned on his cane.
"Oh no big, Mr. North." The young woman said as she placed a cardboard box upon a plastic folding table. "Ron wanted to come to the convention anyway."
"Yeah, ugh, and this way we get in free! Huff..." A young man behind her said, as he carried a stack of much heavier boxes and dumped them on to the ground. "Phew.... This is hard work. Ruffus! Hit me with a Bueno Nacho break."
A mole rat popped out of his pant's pocket, gave him a thumbs up, dived back into said pocket, then scurried back out, carrying a bag of chips. He stopped at Ron's shoulder, opened the bag, and tossed a chip into his waiting mouth, before eating one for himself.
"Yummm, yup, I am so glad Bueno decided to expand into the fast food gig. Now I can have nacos on the go."
"But you already carry nacos everywhere you go?" His girlfriend said.
"Yeah, but this way it's less messy. No more cheese leaking in my pockets. Right Ruffus?"
The mole rat on his shoulder nodded enthusiastically in agreement before taking another bite out of another chip.
Kim rolled her eyes and pulled out a stuffed animal made too look like ferret. "Where you like for me to put this, Mr. North?"
"Oh you can set it anywhere. In fact, I can do the decorating. Why don't you two go and have some fun? Surely there's something here at the convention you're wanting to see?"
Kim shurgged, "I'm mainly here for Ron, and to get my mind off finals."
"Ah, college thesis time, huh?"
Kim nodded. "I have to write my doctorate's dissertation on Political Economics. Then it goes to peer review and... ugh."
Kim nervously bit her thumb. Ron placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry KP, you got this. You'll do fine. You always do. Hey, in the mean time let's check out some of these food fusion stands they got. Noodle Burger, hotdog sushi, and something called a Yaki Taco? Hmm... Oh wait! It's Teriyaki Tacos. I get it now!"
Kim gave her boyfriend a grateful smile and wrapped her arm around his waist. "Well, I am a little hungry." she admitted, as they walked over to the food court.
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"Alright, game plan." Fred announced as they entered the main convention hall. "We need to get autographs from Miracle Maiden, The Fearless Ferret, and Captain Fancy, and there's already lines forming, so we need to figure out the best orde-"
"Here are your autographed memorabilia sir." A stout, bald gentleman in a tux interrupted. He was carrying arm loads of toys and merch.
"Ah, thank you Geeves." Mole said. "You can take those back to the mansion and have the rest of the day off. I shan't be needing anything more today. I believe."
"Thank you sir." The man gave a half bow to the teens, and then left.
"You cheated!" Fred whined.
Mole only rolled his eyes. "Please. I'll still get to meet everyone. I just didn't want to hold up the line. Anyways I'm heading to Timothy North's booth first." With that he waved the vintage comic book in his hand and started to walk away.
Fred was fuming. "Alright, new game plan! We need to gather all three autographs before Mole does."
"We?" Gogo echoed.
"Okay, okay, I mean 'I', now will you please help me?"
Now it was Varian's turn to roll his eyes. "Fred, I thought you and Mole weren't going to fight anymore."
"We're not fighting." Fred insisted, "I just need to collect more nerdy stuff than him so that I can rub it into his face before I can rub it into mine."
Varian and Gogo exchanged skeptic looks. Fred ignored them.
"So, Varian you got your issue of Miracle Maiden, right? Well then you get in line to meet Lima Lopes and have her sign that. Gogo, you go with Mole to and have the Fearless Ferret sign.. umm.. uhh. sign... oh have him sign your convention itinerary. And I'll have Henry Reeve sign my exclusive original Captain Fancy fancy-pants!"
He lifted up his shirt to show the comically short puffed pantaloons underneath. At least this time he had gratefully decided to wear regular jeans under them this time.
Varian sighed and gave Gogo a hapless shrug. She rolled her eyes, but followed after Mole towards the Fearless Ferret booth without further complaint.
Fred jumped for joy and rushed over to the Captain Fancy booth. Varian could see him tormenting the poor embarrassed actor with said shorts, as he neared the end of his own line.
The elderly lady sitting at the booth didn't even bother to look up from the paperwork she was signing. As Varian neared she only held out her hand expectingly, and in an annoyed voice rattled off prepared speech. "Autographs are $60 dollars, $80 for merch, no photos."
"Umm..." Varian dug into his pocket. He was put off by the woman's demeanor but even more surprised by the price. Varian couldn't imagine paying so much for someone's signature. Not even for someone really cool, like Flynn Rider. Oh well, it was fred's money to spend, not his.
While Varian dug in his pockets for the cash Fred had given him, the woman grew impatient and started to grab the empty air repeatedly. When nothing was forthcoming, she gave a deep sigh and finally looked up. Then her eyes went wide with surprise.
"Wait.... I know you."
"You...you do?" Varian stuttered, confused. He was sure that he had never met the aging actress before.
"Yes!" She stood up suddenly and grabbed a prop spear that was on display next to her. "You are a warrior!"
"W-warrior?" Varian began to back away, but the older lady excitedly hooked her elbow around his own.
"It is written all over you. I can not tell you how refreshing it is to meet another like myself. Oooh... tell me of the battles you've been in! How many enemies have you slain?"
"Battles!?" Varian stiffened. Who was this woman? What did she know? "Umm... I'm afraid you're... you're mistaken. I've not slain anybody."
"But you have the mark?"
"The mark?"
"Yes!" She gently touched the tip of her spear to his hair stripe. Both began to glow.
Varian gluped.
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Ian Williams scanned the crowd of convention goes with contempt; assessing their threat level and dismissing them almost immediately.
"You know, Kim, the Noodle Burger was too crunchy, but I think they really have something here with this Yaki Taco..."
He overheard one particularly annoying blonde haired man say just a little too loudly.
Ian rolled his eyes. That one was particularly incompetent. No, he needed an opponent that would give him a challenge. One that would put his name on the map...
That's when he spotted a familiar goggle-headed teen.
"Perfect." Ian whispered, before slipping his helmet over his head.
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"I see you decided to go the minimalistic and route this year, Tim." A smiling, tall, thin man said as he leaned against a lifesize cardboard cutout of himself. Said cardboard cut was dressed in a superhero outfit with a giant letter F on the front, and was considerably younger, with less gray hair, than the real man standing beside it, but there was no mistaking that they were one in the same.
Mr. North fought back a groan. "I see you're as ostentatious as ever Hank."
The taller man gave a hearty laugh, much to Mr. North's annoyance. He then went back to manning his own booth.
"One autograph, please." A short preteen said, as he neared the table.
He was dressed in a skunk costume and was waving a Fearless Ferret comic.
Behind him was an older teen. She has no costume but was wearing a pair of roller skates for some reason. She seemed totally disinterested in Mr. North and the Fearless Ferret as she popped her bubblegum.
She pulled out a copy of the convention's itinerary and, without a word, tapped the kids shoulder with it.
The preteen grabbed it from her. "Make that two autographs, if you would."
Mr. North forced a smile and tried to make polite conversation.
"Ah, issue one I see. Quite the rare one."
"The rarest." The preteen grinned. "It took forever to find a copy."
"And whom should I make it out too?"
"Richardson Mole."
The girl behind him gave a fake cough.
The kid rolled his eyes. "Oh and the second one is for Fred."
Mr. North shrugged. It was an unusual name for a girl but not unheard of.
As he was finishing signing however, Mr. North heard a loud scream coming from the other end of the autograph booths.
-----------------
Varian screamed as a giant hand made of pink glowing energy materialized out of thin air and wrapped around him. He was lifted several feet off the ground as he kicked and squirmed against the energy construct.
An evil laugh sounded from behind him and Hardlight flew onto the scene on top of his hover disk.
"It's time for Round Two, Varian." He gloated. "Let's see how well you do without your little superhero buddies to help you out."
"Oh no, you don't!" Lima yelled and hurled the prop spear at the supervillain. It glanced off the side of his helmet, cracking the dark reflective glass. As it did so, the glowing hand dissipated and Varian started to fall.
Kim witnessed the entire exchange. She didn't know any of the people involved in the fight, but as soon as she saw the boy fall she jumped into action.
She hopped up onto a stand, grabbed the end of a banner, and swung to catch the teen.
"Wooah!"
"Are you alright?" She asked as they landed safely on the floor.
"Yes... th-thank you." The boy stuttered.
"Oh, it's no big." She dismissed.
"But you could tell us why tall, dark, and glowing over there is after you," Ron said as he joined them.
"Thaaast's a long story." The teen said as she nervously shuffled his feet.
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Hardlight didn't pay attention to his prey escaping his grasp. He was too busy seething at the impertinent old woman before him.
"You dare." he hissed at her.
"Oh, I dare." She smirked as she cracked her knuckles and took up a defensive position.
Hardlight wouldn't be made the fool of!
He conjured up a giant shark made of light. The convention goers screamed as the shark flew through the air, its jaws as solid as steel, chomping after them.
The old woman yelled an unintelligible battle cry, jumped up to meet the creature made of light, and wrapped her arms around the fake shark's mouth, snapping and holding its jaws shut as it tried to wiggle out of the chokehold.
Hardlight couldn't believe what was happening. "What the-"
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Mr. North shared a knowing look with his friend Hank.
"Here you go, kids." He said, shoving the autographs back at the two teens. "On the house. I need to see a man about a... uh… thing."
And with that, he grabbed his cane and hobbled away quickly behind a curtain.
Hank followed after him moments later.
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Gogo didn't pay any attention to the celebrities' hasty retreats. She was too busy pulling out her phone, as she skated to a more secluded spot.
'I called the gang already.' Said Fred's text.
"Ok, I'll join you shortly.' she replied back.
She skidded to a stop inside an empty panel room and pressed the button to call her super suit. She didn't notice Mole following her.
"wooo... huff... boy are you fast, dreamgirl." He huffed as he leaned against the door to catch his breath.
"Mole! What are you doing here?" She hissed.
"Uh... it's called the buddy system!" He admonished. "You need to stick with someone when there's an emergency situation. Everyone knows that duh."
Suddenly a rocket flew through the open window of the room.
"What's that?" Mole asked.
Gogo groaned.
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"So let me get this straight," Kim grunted as she kicked a light creature away. This one looked like a jellyfish with stinging tentacles. "You're a superhero, and the weird glowy guy is your arch nemesis?"
"I'm not a superhero," Varian complained as he tossed a spare chimball at another jellyfish. It dissipated into fog. "My friends are the superheroes, and this guy just shows up from time to time causing trouble. I don't know what his deal is."
"Either money or ego... usually it's money," Ron commented as karate chopped a light eel in half. "Though sometimes it can be both. What I don't get is the underwater theme here. You'd think with light monsters he'd go with something more 'airy' like birds, oh, or aliens!"
Varian threw another chimball. The light squid chasing after him froze in place and then shattered on the ground. "So what about you? Are you two heroes?"
Kim seemed a little embarrassed by the insinuation. "Oh, no, not really. Just think of us as a couple of good Samaritans."
"Though, considering how many times we saved the world, we kind of are," Ron added, as Rufus hopped off his shoulder to stomp on a light crab running at his feet. "Good job buddy." He congratulated the mole rat as he scooped him up and placed him back in his pocket.
Varian threw a third chimball, this time aiming for Hardlight's energy disk. Hardlight saw it though and dodged out of the way. The chimball splattered on the ground in a sticky puddle.
"Don't think that you forgot about you." Hardlight hissed and hurled what looked like a giant pink killer whale at him. Varian stumbled back. Then suddenly Lima jumped in between him and the whale and punched the light creature in the snout.
"Arrgh! De volta às profundezas salgadas com vocês!" She yelled as she wrestled with the oversized monster.
"Wow... Grandma gots some moves." Ron commented.
Varian desperately dug into his pocket. "Uhh... guys... I think that was my last chimball."
"Look Out!"
He ducked as Kim punched another eel. She shook her hand. "These things are tougher than they look."
"It's hard-light energy," Varian explained. "It solidifies photons into hard matter using supercooled rubidium."
"Cooled?" Kim asked, picking up on the science a little bit. "I'm not a chemist, but would heat destroy them?"
"You mean like turning the heater on?" Ron asked.
"Probably something much hotter than that," Varian said.
"Like what?" Kim asked.
"Yaaahh-Hoooo! Fredzilla to the rescue!" Fred yelled as he jumped into the fray, breathing fire at the light creatures.
"Like that," Varian answered.
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"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmyg-"
"Mole."
"Ohmygosh. You're Big Hero Six!"
Gogo sighed. "Mole."
"Well one of them at least. This Is so cool! Ugh, could you not be any more perfect?"
"Mole!"
"What!? I'm still maintaining the six-foot rule."
Gogo rolled her eyes as she placed her helmet on her head. "Not that. You do understand that you can't tell anyone about this, right?"
"Oh.. oh, mum's the word. I promise." Mole said as he made a zipper motion over his mouth.
"Good. Then I need you to stay here where it's safe." She said as she grabbed her disks.
"Oh, b-but I want-"
"No buts. Stay." She ordered before skating away.
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Hardlight was not having a good time. He had expected a one-on-one battle with Varian, and maybe to have Big Hero Six show up at the last minute. He had not counted on fighting a suicidal granny with super strength and a couple of ninjas as well. He was particularly annoyed that one of those ninjas was the blonde-haired guy he had dismissed earlier. Ian hated being wrong. Hated it.
Just to rub salt into the wound, another BH6 member arrived on the scene and knocked his hover disk out from under him with a throw of her discus.
"Oooff... you think that's funny?" He grumbled as he got up. "Six against one? Well, Let me even the odds."
He pressed some buttons into his gauntlet and his light creatures disappeared. Only to be replaced by a giant pink octopus with eight fat tentacles.
"Eww. Gross." Kim complained as one of the tentacles grabbed hold of her.
"Kim!" Ron chased after her, only to get captured by the tentacles as well.
Varian and the annoying elderly lady got snatched up next.
"Hahahaha! Now, who's outnumbered?" Hardlight gloated, as another tentacle chased The Speed Queen around and Lizard Guy tried to fight off another.
"You are, foul fiend!" a voice called out.
Hardlight looked up in surprise to find a man floating in midair, seemingly without any equipment. He was dressed in an absurdly pink and purple suit, with an F on the chest and stupid-looking old-fashioned pantaloons in place of pants.
"Who the heck are you?"
"Eeeep! It's the real Captain Fancy. In the flesh!" Lizard Guy squeaked as he jumped out of the way of another tentacle.
"I knew he was real! I knew it!" A short kid dressed as a skunk yelled from the sidelines. Speed Queen nabbed him before a tentacle could grab him.
"And don't forget his friendly rival, the Fearless Ferret." Came another voice, and before Hardlight knew what was happening, another man, dressed as a ferret, snuck up behind him, grabbed one of his gauntlets, and gave him a swift kick in the side.
The gauntlet came off as Ian fell on his back with a hard grunt, and the light octopus faded away.
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"Mr. North?" Kim asked as righted herself.
The Fearless Ferret winked at her and put a finger to his lips.
"Well, it's about time you two showed up." The older woman said.
"We had to change." Captain Fancy defended as he landed. "Not everyone is as flippant about revealing their secret identities as you are, Lima."
"Oh my gosh! You're the real Miracle Maiden!" The guy dressed as a lizard yelled.
"Uh... guys... I hate to break up the superhero reunion, but the bad guy is getting away." Ron interrupted.
"I'm on it." The girl in yellow armor said. She tossed another discus and it split into two, with a rope attached in the middle, and wrapped around the fleeing supervillain.
She then started to skate over to retrieve said villain when the whole building started to shake.
"It's an earthquake!" The kid in the skunk costume screamed and the gathered crowd started to panic once more.
While the costumed heroes rushed to help people escape outside, Kim and Varian and to help the girl on skates up.
That's when thick vines burst through the ground and began to wrap around everything they could latch on to.
"Uh oh."
"What is it?" Varian asked.
"My arch-nemesis." Kim gulped.
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Big Hero 6 The Series: It could have been better
Hello, friends. Today, I will be analyzing a TV series based on a movie that I fell in love with for its colourful themes, deep plot, compelling characters, great CGI and memorable messages. Before I get into it, I want to take a moment to say that I have quit doing videos. They are too big of a pain in the petunia to make and I write better than I speak, so I will stick to writing essays, reviews and more. Anyway, onto the analysis.
All I can say about Big Hero 6 the series is that it had a great concept, it presented some great ideas and tried hard to be a cartoon of the times, but it could have and should have been a lot better. The show’s downfall all centers around trying too hard to be kid friendly which makes the shame sting all the more because Big Hero 6 was already kid friendly even with its dark themes, sharp edges and intelligent writing. If anything, even the brightest kid friendly cartoons (Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc.) had those things and actually benefitted from them. By needlessly trying too hard, character development got scrapped, the edges were all smoothed out, storytelling was subpar, the humour was too silly and the executive meddling in the end produced a dismal final season. However, I don’t want this analysis to be one lengthy negative rant about how awful the series was because in its defense, awful is an unfair word. It did have potential and ideas which are worth carrying over to a reboot that I hope will be done someday in the future. Also, we should root for a reboot because Big Hero 6 would not be the first story that needs it before striking gold. Just look at how many times Spider-Man was rebooted in film before MCU found the version that worked. Anyway, I will list all the things in Big Hero 6 that could have been better in my opinion;
1- Go easy on the laughs and be more generous with the action. - I love adding comedy to my own writing because I think a good sense of humour makes everything better, but Big Hero 6 is not a stand up comedy routine. It is a superhero story where we expect action, suspense and life or death situations that are to be taken seriously first. The comedy should be for relief and with the right timing. Also, the chibi cutscenes and having characters act like fools aren’t funny. Ren and Stimpy are the exception not the standard and their way of making you laugh doesn’t fit an action series. In a show as big as Big Hero 6, real life physics and danger matters.
2- Make the villains menacing and gritty. - I admit that after having a movie villain like Yokai who was the stuff of nightmares, it is going to be a challenging act to follow, but it was obvious that the writers were trying especially with some villains who could have easily gone into some dark relatable territory. For example, Mr. Sparkles (the gentleman in the photo above) embodies social media and Internet personalities. Right off the bat, you have a long list of things which embody the dark side of that like scams, fraud, using social media to dox or harass, driving people to suicide, online predators, the Internet personalities being very depressed people in real life, and much more horrifying things. When you stop and look at it, Mr. Sparkles even looks like the Joker which hints how dark and scary he could have been if the stops were removed. The same goes for enemies like Hardlight who embodies online gaming, Liv with cloning, Obake an amoral and insane scientist, and Trina and Noodle Burger Boy (more on him later) being evil robots. Globby especially should have been painted and written in much darker colours rather being played off for laughs because he has many parallels with Clay Face. The only two villains who I can say were supposed to be campy, charming and comical were Baron Von Steamer and Supersonic Sue because they were a satire of the Adam West style villains.
The rest of them needed to be dark and threatening including Mr. Sparkles. In fact, I would love a rebooted version of Mr. Sparkles who gives me the heebie-jeebies. Going back to Noodle Burger Boy, I must confess that I was actually excited when I heard that he was going to be the main villain of the final season because I thought he was going to fulfill his master’s final wish and as a reminder, Noodle Burger Boy was based on a super robot for military purposes.
It would have been fantastic if Noodle Burger Boy was upgraded into a full military war machine with a new threatening look. For that, I think all of the villains deserve to be rebooted and have their full potential unlocked for better or for worse.
3- A show about geniuses merits genius level art quality. - I am usually forgiving towards art styles, but in the case of Big Hero 6, the oversimplified style with minimal details and lack of textures did not suit the show. The characters blend in with the background which makes them look flat and the special effects were extremely dulled down. I also know for a fact that Disney can do a lot better than this because I saw how superbly Tangled the Series was drawn.
You can see and almost feel the difference in quality, the number of layers and level of detail between the two styles. I think there was no excuse Big Hero 6 was not done in the same style and at the same level if not better as Tangled.
3- Don’t dumb down or flanderize amazing characters. - I absolutely detest it when characters are flanderized because it makes them one dimensional and grating. For example, Go Go is tough as nails and extremely calm, but she is not cold or hesitant towards helping her friends. She doesn’t require very special episodes for us to know that. If anything, the movie version of Go Go reminded me a lot of Garnet in how she deconstructed the broody character. She isn’t cold or emotionless. Just calm and mature. Another good example was how Honey Lemon was rewritten to be overly positive to the point of toxicity, naïve and oblivious with a juvenile obsession with stickers. Then you have poor Fred who was rewritten to be an incompetent fool. The spark that makes Big Hero 6 shine is that they are a team of geniuses meaning they are all intelligent. Even Fred is genius in his own way just not a scientific one. He has a vivid imagination, he is resourceful and can get himself out of tight spots. Please, don’t turn characters into dummies especially if their intelligence is a part of them. It doesn’t make them better or funnier. It ruins them.
4- Tadashi needs closure and honour. - I am all for Hiro making peace with the loss of his brother, but Tadashi is to the Big Hero 6 team what Uncle Ben was to Spider-Man. His loss was the catalyst if not the reason. He should never be forgotten. Moreover, there was never any true closure to him especially with the possibility that he may still be alive up in the air. After all, like Callaghan, his body was never found and it turned out that Callaghan was still alive.
With that said, who is to say that Tadashi was not secretly still alive and just hiding or being hidden? This is something that Disney really needed to clear up if not for the fans, then at least as a service to such an important character. Never just forget about them.
5- The format can only be episodic with a deep plots, continuity and character development. - Random episodes with a mere monster of the day is an outdated format which doesn’t fit Big Hero 6′s modern and bright setting. In seasons 1 and 2, when the episodes were plot heavy with character development, the series shined brightest. It also helped move the story along, but with the final season, plot was removed, closure was abandoned or poorly written if any was given, and characters were disallowed from growing. A good example at how plot and character development could have made this series and its characters better was the relationship between Hiro and Megan. Would it have truly survived or would they have broken up?
Would Richardson Mole have eventually lost interest in his obsession with besting and bullying Fred or would his obsession consume him compelling him to become a super villain? I do see quite a few similarities between Mole and Reverse Flash.
Then you have Karmi who is in my opinion, the biggest wild card of the bunch. She was intentionally introduced as an arrogant, prickly and unlikable yet complex character who rivaled Hiro bitterly.
Yet had a huge crush on his alter ego and as time went on, started to grow up and even form a friendship with Hiro. What would have happened further down the road with her? Would she have become a super hero herself? Or maybe even another love interest for Hiro kind of like how Black Cat is for Spider-Man?
Is Obake really gone?
What does the future hold Diana (Liv’s clone), Liv herself or the Sycorax the genetics company?
Is Alistair Krei going to become an ally to Big Hero 6 or an antagonist? There is also the issue at how little we know about the other Big Hero 6 characters other than Fred, Hiro and Baymax. What are Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Go Go’s backstories? These questions matter and while not every mystery can be solved, leaving none of them solved is lazy writing.
6- Executives, kindly stay out of the writing and any other part of the creative process. - I’m sorry, execs, but there is no nice way to say it. History itself proves that every time executives got involved in the creative process of any media, it got worse not better. Leave the writing to the creative team and the execs should only handle the legal stuff. Please. We understand that TV is a business, but writing itself is not. It is an art which you just don’t have a talent for. Let the creative people do their thing with the freedom necessary and you do your thing, deal? Deal.
7- Focus on Hiro and Baymax. - The are the main characters so keep them at the heart of the series no matter what happens around them. That is all I can say.
And that sums up all the things that could have made Big Hero 6 the series better, but this is all just my opinion. What is yours?
PS: I am well aware that the Big Hero 6 series is being retconned because a new series called Baymax is in the works as well as the long awaited sequel to the first movie. I am looking forward to both with an open mind.
PPS: I also am aware that some people liked this show the way it was including the art style and I am cool with that. An analysis for art that includes cartoons is never right or wrong. It is solely based on opinion. I may have thought this series could have been better, but there are people who make arguments that it could have been worse.
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