(Following Up On The Last One) You Legit Make A Good Point.

(Following up on the last one) You legit make a good point.

Now that I think about it I think my approach might end up being similar. I'd keep the "Tara makes Hatch look like Carl" scene because Tara's illusion ability is important enough to establish and use for the Quentin mutiny later but I would probably make Carl a spy-entist (ba-dum-tish) inside the Elgen under a new fake name-probably make his fake identity a reoccurring character running tests on Quentin et al. possibly even have him set up/assist the mutiny alongside that one guy Quentin rescues that I can't recall the name of. And then bump Coonradt up to the Resistance's leader.

That also touched on a brief Idea I had of playing up Hatch's twin tools of manipulation being luxury and guilt. You have Zeus and his pool memory, you have Tanner and the airplane stuff, Nichelle and the electrical fires in her foster homes, I was thinking of making it a more prevalent thing that Hatch tries to get under Michael's skin by implying that he killed Carl with his powers as a kid. Honestly was also considering something similar with Quentin's EMP power-grandparent with a pacemaker of some sort?

Yes! That would make so much sense! I didn’t even think of the fact that hatch uses a traumatic thing form the kids past as a control tactic. And hatch definitely could have utilized that with Michael.

Also, do you remember that thing where Hatch tried to trick Michael by telling him that most of the kids that died from the experiment died from cancer and that since Michael’s electricity was growing he could be at risk? Because I think about that a lot. And I honestly feel like that didn’t go anywhere. Hatch gave Michael a bunch of reasons to doubt the resistance and his friends, and it would have been interesting to see him start to doubt everyone. Become mistrusting because who should he believe. Sure, the Elgan did horrible things and the resistance is fighting against them, but they are sending them on death missions. Using them as basically child soldiers.

Broad character rewrites in MV in quick bulleted list form: -Michael, Taylor, Ostin, Hatch, Sharon (Michael's mom), Zeus, McKenna: Broadly fine as they are, but willing to play by ear for taste

-Jack: The plan was to rewrite his introduction to come from the opposite angle where instead of a bully, he has a reputation of the school 'fixer' who can get you what you want if you pay the price, he has more of a criminal-y vibe early on but it turns out he's really not bad and he waives the fee for the drive to California upon hearing it's to rescue Michael's mom. He still has a military big bro who he learned a lot from but make it less of a 'man, the Marines are so cool!' thing just because I don't like US imperialism

-Wade: Backport most of his RotE/BotA characterization of being slightly more cowardly into PoC25's events, make it clear he's got a gay crush on Jack that he keeps to himself until the blog is revealed in BotA

-Quentin: More early screen time (have him tag along with Tara when she's giving Taylor the tour? Make their relationship shockingly healthy despite the whole sitch?), ongoing subplot, maybe explain why he's the leader of the group more/earlier

-Tara: Play down her earlier sadism, make it clearer that her might-makes-right worldview is something she's adopted to make Hatch happy/like her

-Nichelle: Also downplay the sadism a hair, though don't erase it because I still want it to be there when she joins the Electroclan later for a 'well I'm glad she's on our side now' moment-possibly give her some occasional check-ins at the taco job we find her working at during HfJD? So she comes less out of nowhere. Maybe introduce RESAT tech in development during PoC25 that makes her nervous about being tossed aside so that explains why Hatch dumps her so quickly. -Tanner, Grace: They're probably mostly fine, Tanner has an interesting little arc as The One With A Conscience even if he's not used much, and Grace is Fine as a flat character, not everyone can be fleshed out.

-Bryan, Kylie: Just give them a bit more than 'the dumb one' and 'the materialistic one'. -Ian: He really needs more to do. I mean, he does a lot, a lot of spotting and info-giving, but he has the least personality of the Dungeon Trio. I'd honestly play up his role of the pessimist of the trio to balance out McKenna's optimism and Abi's hesitancy.

-Abi: I do like her role as the nervous one who doesn't like fighting but i feel like that sidelines her into the Shy Healer (kind of) archetype. Maybe play her up as the moral core of the group a bit, make her more able to stand up for her beliefs?

-Torstyn: Absolutely make him less of a maniac so his heel-face turn goes down smoother, give him a few mentions as being Away during PoC25 for foreshadowing purposes (Tessa and Cassie, I need to swirl around in my head a bit more. and I do have random other thoughts, this is just like, basic stuff 2 me)

I love that angle for jack! It would make me much more sympathetic to his character and make him much more interesting overall. I think he would be a nice guy but kinda fall into somewhat shady stuff out of necessity.

Wade needs more character and his death would affect me much more if he did. 

I genuinely didn’t feel like Tara had a redemption arc it was like she joined them and everyone just forgot how sadistic she acted. 

I love Nichelle and any more characterization would be awesome!

Ian desperately needs more character! I love him and there’s so much missed potential! He would tell dark jokes and be pessimistic but I imagine he would be generally pretty chill in serious situations. 

Abi would work well as a moral center I feel like that kind of character was desperately needed. The story would have been much more balanced that way.

Which kid's powers would you actually wish you had, IRL (saying Zara is cheating).

Taylor’s would be super useful, but I think they would be kind of a burden. Especially with the weird future telling thing she’s got going on. Taras would probably be better. But I think Abi’s would be kind of cool too. So it’s between Tara or Abi.

Beetlewing Headshot - rendering practice

Timelapse

Idly, do you have any strong feelings about Ian's whole semi-Daredevil deal of "I'm blind but my superpowers make up for that"? Because I know some people find that trope annoying but I know other people don't mind it. I find it interesting from the in-universe science angle-I remember Ian was born blind genetically, it wasn't an accident, so it came about interestingly. I have similar thoughts on Tara and Taylor's powers being similar, but not identical, and them being identical twins. But I wanted a second opinion.

I get how people would be annoyed with the whole “yea I’m blind but actually not really” I’ve never minded. I’ve kind of enjoyed the trope at times. I think it ads to the characters “sight” related powers because it emphasizes just how differently they see the world.

I kind of like how Tara and Taylor’s powers are different. One because identical twins still aren’t completely the same and 2 it could have something to do with how they were raised/trained.

All of this makes me start to think about why each kids powers are different and what influenced the differences.