Brace yourself for idea dump. Starting upper left and working clockwork around.
Manner/Personality/Design: OK, I know I said Piper probably can’t be too pretty or I’ll cause Vahaadi issues, but this image of him–mask pushed up, lovely, warm smile as he interacts with a small child–has been stuck in my head. I think he needs to be attractive…not sexy or eye candy, but he just has this enigmatic magnetism that draws people to him. I’m really into the idea that he’s the gentlest “villain” you’ve ever seen, and when you see him interact with kids, you just couldn’t believe ill of him. But despite being the most tender and polite person you’d meet, he’s WRONG. Dangerously so.
Silhouette study. Needs work.
I imagined this scene where we actually see him take someone’s child and it’s traumatic. Because I’ve already fallen in love with the idea that Spark saves one of Elweyn’s children, I though maybe it could be hers that he takes because it would help people hate him. Like, it just dumps salt in the wound that HE’S ALREADY KILLED TWO OF HER KIDS, and Spark only barely managed to rescue this little one, and then he just takes her baby to add to his army of mind-controlled children. This will also make it so much more deserved when Elweyn gets to be the one to take him down.
After he takes Elweyn’s baby, (perhaps some time later) I want Spark and Vahaadi to find their way to his Neverland where he’s keeping his hostages. This might be the ramp up to the final battle, because I picture Neverland being “The Boss Level,” as it’s the world he built and therefore operates on his bizarre idea of perfection. This is where I’d like to use the idea of Vahaadi becoming Spark’s shadow and battling in some shadow dimension. But, more importantly, this is where they find the kids!
This might be the first time they see the full effects of what he’s doing to them. In keeping with the Neverland “lost boys” theme, they are dressed as animals. Rather than cute/cuddly/silly animal costumes, though, they wear terrifying animal masks. And they’re not…all…there. I haven’t decided if they’re actually dangerous in this form, but they ARE scary. If they are dangerous, avoiding hurting them will be one of Spark and Vahaadi’s challenges. They’ll have the gut-wrenching moment when they come face to face with Elweyn’s baby, whom I think might be translated into a human-like form, but she’s (I guess I’ve decided it’s a she XD ) wearing an owl-like mask that resembles her real face, so Spark recognizes her. They do manage to save the kids, though I haven’t worked out how, or decided if there are lasting effects from his influence over them. Also, I suppose some of them don’t have worlds or families to go back to. We will have to explore this later.
Bottom right picture: This is a super rough idea, and maybe it’s too intense, but I had this idea that at some point, one of his adult followers gets killed, and we see something that isn’t shown too often–a villain grieving for one of their underlings. When this idea came to be, it exploded into a much more complicated idea, that both Piper and the Lorewalkers suffer a loss in the same episode. To further complicate it, both characters that died had turned on their respective “teams,” so there are seriously bad feelings around them both. As a cheesy comparison, let’s say character A is Tarlok, and character B is like…Terra? The Tarlok character is supposedly aligned with the Lorewalkers, but he’s become disillusioned, impatient, or power hungry over the course of this and rebels. Terra character is aligned with Piper and co. but perhaps through the course of the series we see her wavering, sympathizing with the lorwalkers, etc. I think this character, Terra, should be a character people like and want to see become good. The Tarlok character can either feel like a total terrible surprise, or could be a character people have been wary of for awhile (like the real Tarlok, haha) depending on the kind of emotion we want to get. Anyway, both situations blow up at almost the same time and they each turn on their respective teams. Some kind of major conflict takes place and as a direct result of both of their rebellions, they both end up getting killed. We would expect the Lorewalkers to be grim or devastated (depending on whether it was a Tarlok situation or a total surprise/tragic misunderstanding) but we are surprised to see how Piper also suffers over this–even though his follower turned on him, he mourns his/her death. In the cinema that happened in my mind, I imagined him playing a soul-piercing funeral dirge for his fallen ex-follower. The music would continue playing over scenes of Piper+followers and the Lorewalkers dealing with their respective aftermaths, including burying or otherwise “sending-off” the dead. This episode would end with both sides resolving that this war has to end. My goal here is to make people afraid of Piper’s vengeance on the Lorewalkers, but also disoriented with confusion and mixed feelings about how badly everything turned out. Piper should already be an uncomfortable character because of his appeal, but seeing him grieve will make him more…troublesome. In a “I want to like you, but you HAVE to be stopped” kind of way.
Final drawing, bottom left pic:Â This is an idea I’m not super committed to yet, but since I’m already running with a Neverland theme, why not follow through? If the kidnapped children are the “Lost Boys”, perhaps the pirates (“Captain Hook” and crew) are Piper’s adult followers. Like the Lorewalkers they are a motley crew representing several different canons (I’m picturing almost a Treasure Planet deal, but not quite that extreme in weird designs) with an over-arching pirate-ish theme, perhaps pirate-related roles. We could think these guys are our main baddies until we realize they answer to Piper. I dunno.
And one last idea, not pictured, because…because. @_@ This is another idea that may be unnecessarily intense, but I think Piper kills all of his adult followers. Hear me out, it’s kind of a wild idea–but, maybe, he’s so obsessed with building his world and populating it with “pure” and untainted children, whom he considers blank slates because of their relative under-development, that he decides his adult followers just aren’t worthy to live in his world, because they have too much baggage, or they’re too hard to control/predict (if we use the aforementioned idea, he’s already had one turn on him), so…he kills them. Or, he turns them all into corruption monsters so that they will more perfectly do his bidding–but, this still basically means they’re dead, that he’s deprived them of whatever it was that made them sentient beings. I think this twist will really make our audience go o__________________________o because if there was any doubt that he was bad (and there may have been, because we see this comely guy who acts so much like a hero sometimes) those doubts are gone. Especially since some of his followers may be fairly likable, so you’re horrified to see them go so brutally.
Another reason that this might be a good twist: It spares Vahaadi, Spark, and the Lorewalkers from having to kill or defeat ALL the bad guys. I mean, if we go with the corruption monster idea (which I like better than him just slaughtering them), they will have to fight the monster versions, but it won’t be the same as making Spark have to kill a sentient person. She might not even recognize that they used to be people she’s seen or even fought before. They might *feel* familiar, and maybe they’re more powerful than the cannon-fodder variety of corruption rats/monsters the Lorewalkers are used to fighting, but they aren’t people anymore. Although, I suppose it could be cool if we have a scene where one of these followers-turned corruption monsters shows some hint that there’s something left of who they used to be in there, perhaps one of the more likable of Piper’s underlings, and this corruption monster actually does something helpful for them and then lets itself be destroyed. Sort of in a “I was wrong all this time–look what he’s done to me. I can’t do anything for myself now, but at least I can help you take him down” way. There’s a lot of regret and betrayal and hurt, but there’s redemption in it also for said follower.
Oh, I lied. I have one more thing: I don’t think Piper fights, at least not physically. I feel like he doesn’t need to, and I’m much more intrigued with exploring his ability to control minds and corrupt/warp reality than I am in figuring out what his “weapon” or fighting style is. A “fight” with Piper would probably involve him just calmly standing there, while his underlings, corruption monsters, or the fabric of the canon itself does his bidding. I don’t think even jumps or displays any exertion. If he needs to get out of the way quickly, the ground around him melts into paper and ink and shifts him where he wants to go, while a corruption-monster spawns to engage the threat. It will create an interesting contrast to Spark and Vahaadi, who are very physical.
I think I’m done for real now. I’ll just end by saying I really like most of these ideas, but they’re open to negotiation, of course! Sorry if it’s a lot to consume…but it IS giving me ideas about direction for the over arching plot.
