I know I’ve posted a lot about PPT2. It’s always something I find very easy to talk about. Not just because it’s a favorite of mine, but I just have more to say on it. Most other shows I don’t have much to say about, or in the case of the more popular ones, I either don’t have much to say or choose to not say anything anyway. I don’t really see much analysis on this show anyway. :P
For this tier list, it’s more how I think they succeeded on their given role. Most of the characters are just… Fine? Okay for what they serve at the very least.
Fun Fact: I also took the daunting task of watching the first season for insight on the past Contestants…. Even if
98% of the stuff from there doesn’t matter here.
This was written some time after the release of the 13th episode. My opinion still stands one episode later.
Even more-so for Post-It Note and Bottle… Given that Team ? Got the short end of the stick when it came to developing the 47 conflict and Everything Else.
I thought Post-It Note was one of the few standouts from that team. I’m actually impressed with how the show handled fleshing out his character, given that most character development in these shows amounts to just making them very nice sometimes. Too bad the episode he got eliminated was also the one where Gold Ingot was away. I at least wanted to know his opinion on Gold Ingot’s attempts at being a decent person! WHATEVER…
Bottle? Well… Like most of the members she was just. Fine. She served her role as a mediator well. I was wondering where the show would take her given the dwindling numbers, and most of the ?s got kicked off by the merge. The way she acts in later episodes still feels more in line with what what established. AND it gives us insight to how she responds to a situation that can’t easily be resolved with diplomacy. After all, while she does know how stressful a game show can be, she never really got THIS far last season… And Chainsaw was easily dealt with there anyway. That is the moment you realize that the dynamic of the game will be different going forward. It also differentiated her more from Ukulele, which definitely helped. Needless to say “Platinum Puppets” won me over. I am wary with how the show is going to handle her pact with Treasure Chest. The show has improved, but after the Journal/Post-It Note plot, I don’t want to keep my hopes too high. I don’t really expect much to come out of from these types of plot lines in general anyway.
I don’t usually talk much about Hosts, as I tend to focus more on the contestants. I do appreciate
Gold Ingot’s writing though. I like that while the show did make him sympathetic, he was still held accountable for his actions. My one gripe is the fact that beyond “All Fun and Games” and maybe a brief shot in “Picture Perfect”, there wasn’t really any indication that Gold Ingot cared for the assistants but in his own twisted way. Note that
the story beats his story WERE PLANNED as early as the 5th episode! Given how often Redemption Arcs in general tend to miss the mark and certain other hosts, he was a breath of fresh air. I do wonder how his arc will be going forward. I
really don’t want him to be killed off…. I think it would be more satisfying to have him Own Up to his mistakes for good than die at the hands of whatever Mr. Hand is planning(and have THAT be why
Take 2 is the last season). The fact that certain things can potentially point to him dying concerns me.
Smaller Thoughts:-I am kind of unsure about the direction the show is going with
Plasma Ball. I don’t know how to describe this. While Plasma Ball losing her cool in the fact of insolence or incompetence is TECHNICALLY true… I don’t really like how it’s shown here, and how it comes at the expense of showing the other traits she has. I get it. She’s mellowed out a bit and losing Caramel Cube has put her on edge. I just feel it could have maybe been conveyed better???
-I’m glad that
Ukulele is doing something away from Bubble Wrap for once! I have already stated some of my thoughts regarding her arc
here. It does make me wonder that if Ukuwrap IS the ship Yellow has been teasing… Are they even going to show them dating? There’s
not many episodes left. I really want Ukulele to have a satisfying arc more, just some food for thought?
-This is one thing I’ll at least say for
Knight Helmet. I do appreciate how his character development didn’t end up taking away ALL of his flaws and character traits. I feel it’s common in media in general for characters to end up becoming Just Nice and inoffensive whenever they overcome a flaw or mellow out. He and Plasma put aside their differences and Knight Helmet put more effort into becoming a team player… He’s still an over dramatic guy who tends to underestimate situations and still hasn’t registered that Flashlight doesn’t like him(at least he actually respects her more now?).
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Globe is just fine. He ends up getting outclassed because the other team captains have more going with them… And whatever he does ends up being done much better by them anyway. Again, it’s just an unfortunate result of not only viewer voting, but one team having to lose more to the 47s early one. Inoffensive, just really unfortunate. You could say that for most of the contestants who didn’t make it to the merge, really. (there’s a reason why almost all of the ?s aren’t very popular.)
-I appreciate the message Flashlight’s plot sent. I’m not really a fan of how she didn’t do much outside of her whole thing with Glass Shard. It’s just an unfortunate side effect of the cast’s bigger size. :(
(Mr. Hand wasn't on the list because he currently doesn't have a pose. I don't care about him.)
I’ve already made posts covering my thoughts on
Treasure Chest and
Journal. I think I was a bit too over-dramatic in regards to how I wrote the tier of the former, seeing how TC has been received(especially in the pre-DnD days). Too bad those posts are also the only ones that I see even talk about his story! I don’t really interact with the fanbase, but I did check out the more popular spaces for it pre-LoTE/PtPu at some point. Either way, he is just unlucky to have a story that doesn’t appeal to certain aspects to fandom. :T
My II Tier list on the other hand? I couldn’t really do the same I did for the PPT2 one for various reasons. One of them being… II’s writing. I’ve long accepted that II isn’t going to improve anyway. The writing was never
that good, but at the very least it was engaging. Some of the decisions weren’t even that bad in concept! I have a lot to say about some of the characters… I’ll cover only a few of those characters for time’s sake. Also because some of what’s said about certain characters has been said before somewhere else?
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Here I only covered the contestants.
Suitcase: Prior to Invitational, a lot of the characters were kind of douche-bags in some way. Suitcase is one of the very few characters who weren’t. Unlike most of the III cast, I think this actually works here though. I like how she’s one of the few characters who is genuinely kind and actively tries to do right, but was just unfortunate enough to be stuck in the cruelest reality show where actively sabotaging others is necessary to survive! And how most of her being a doormat is because it conflicts with what’s really right… Not helped by Nickel’s abuse and Baseball pretty much enabling it. It’s too bad that she pretty much got punished for standing up for herself… Don’t even get me started on that one scene with Baseball. Also the depiction of Psychosis… Not the worst thing ever, but I’m tired of it hinging mostly on scarrrrrrry hallucinations and the way she’s used later one doesn’t help either!! Regardless, I think she’s the best candidate for a winner because all of the stuff she’s gone through would at least amount to something. I can’t say that for the other 3 candidates. Especially not Knife and Baseball.
Baseball: The more I watch II, the less I begin to like him. A lot of the characters are “missed potential” in a way, but here it gets me the most. I think the idea of a team captain who wants the best for everyone but their mistakes end up being the cause of their team’s undoing was a great concept. He actively enables Nickel by downplaying his actions, and when he does call him out, it’s merely a slap on the wrist and doesn’t even do anything to help. He’s never held accountable for it… In fact, the show constantly downplays his actions. Even going so far as to say that him actually taking action would be as disastrous as the Infinity Timeline? “Don’t let me hold you back” YOUR INACTION LITERALLY PLAYED A PART IN THIS. YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT HER VOTING OFF YOUR FRIEND BECAUSE HE WAS ACTIVELY ABUSING HER. And that’s not even getting into how he and Suitcase make up with each other on the pier. Yeah, his inaction doesn’t changed the fact that all of that stuff happened… Stress doesn’t go away all willy-nilly. Thing is… The narrative never really confronts him on any of this because unlike Nickel he “Just wanted the best and is very very
nice about it”. It just doesn’t make me feel bad for him. I understand a lot of what the writers were going for with him… They mean well I just don’t think they thought of the implications and what message this ends up sending to their audience. He’s not the only one with this issue either…
Fan: I never really liked this guy. I didn’t find his whole shtick of being the representation of the Average II Fan funny. He turned for the worst when the show got more serious though. Like him being a jerk to people and getting away with it was when the show was more comedic. Later on though, The Narrative ends up painting his flaws as “quirks” of a Nice Guy who Did Nothing Wrong. Even going out of its way to lessen the blow of the consequences of his actions…. At the expense at the people he ends up hurting. Invitational was the worst case of this. I haven’t seen the episodes past the 10th but at that rate I’m not sure they could have fixed it anyway. I heard that their attempts to address the stuff with Cabby’s treatment in episode 14 was poorly executed… Sooo I don’t have much hope for that.
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we out here