User blog:Corbierr/Wasted Potential (or Plots That Could Have Been)

'''If you're anything like me, one of the biggest things that is bound to bug you about the third season is how much possible potential was wasted. But it goes beyond the obvious- we've already spoken to death about Jeroy and how they were screwed over in terms of Sibuna, how Patricia should have been more than the jealous ex, and how the stupid tear of gold should have come into play, to give some of the big examples (and there are many, many more). But what about the potential plotlines that have been ignored, and what about the plots that could have resulted from the things we've been given in the actual season? '''

Let's take a look at some of my ideas for some plots that could have been, if only certain storylines weren't wasted.

By the way, if anyone would like to use these ideas in a fan fic, go right ahead- these are just random things that came from my head, if you'd like to turn them into stories, be my guest.

1) Rufus having been an Osirian / Eddie and Rufus parallels
One of the most interesting and most wasted ideas from season 2, other than the whole tear of gold thing, was the fact that Rufus was once an Osirian. Now, the flip side of this, with Sarah having been the Chosen One, was built up and drew the similarities of Nina and Sarah even closer. However, the next Osirian in line, Eddie, had no similarities to Rufus and we never got to learn more about Rufus's story itself. What drove him mad, how long did it take, what did he do for Sarah when the Osirian?

Now, for one thing, Rufus's backstory as the Osirian to Sarah's Chosen One simply should have been more fleshed out. It's genuinely interesting to me, and I can't just be the only one out there who's interested in what happened to him, can I?

But you know, if they couldn't have added that part in, it's understandable, and it does thankfully leave a lot of room for fanfic writers to go nuts and for us to make up our own theories, a freedom I appreciate greatly. However, what about Eddie? Nina and Sarah had a few parallels, such as both being orphans and Nina's entire mystery being tied to helping Sarah's spirit rest. But Eddie and Rufus had nothing in common as far as we knew, which...could have been an interesting plot.

The plot idea:
It's season 3. Nina is gone, and Eddie, as her Osirian, feels odd about this, but he can't figure out what to do about it. As time goes on, it just makes him feel more desperate and frustrated, as he knows his job and deep down is itching to do it but it's physically impossible if Nina isn't around. It starts to make him break down under the stress. Adding to this, things start adding up. Things like his friends getting forced into the ceremony, Frobisher being awoken, his troubles with Patricia that would inevitably occur with his focus on Nina, his troubles with his father, his new and stressful leader position, and his struggle to find anyone he can talk to who would understand him.

So, he starts panicking. He starts thinking that if he were all powerful, like a god, he could fix things. The idea starts to honestly get to him. He knows he can't act on it without causing more pain, but the simple idea of becoming powerful enough to make all his troubles go away starts to really appeal to him.

Of course, he doesn't know what's going on, but we the audience can see that he's slipping into a Rufus-like mindset...and Patricia, having known Rufus and knowing Eddie the most out of anyone, starts to see what's going on as well. While he's slipping into a more and more Anti-heroic character as time goes on, she doesn't know how to get it through to him that he's losing his mind just like Rufus did, and ends up terrified of him. To tie into it, we can even have Victor remembering that Rufus himself went through a similar thing, but that he wanted the power simply to feel stronger and had less of a conscience than Eddie did to begin with. We can even have the implication that most Osirians are subject to this sort of thing, maybe by a flaw in the genetics when the first Osirian was created or simply because power corrupts and Chosen Ones are usually more likely to get depressed and afraid and anxious rather than power hungry.

In the end, it could have been fixed by Eddie becoming a Sinner, and in this version remembering everything because screw the reset button. He remembers clearly how terrified his friends were of him and how the power he had in his Sinner mode, where is conscience no longer mattered, didn't satisfy him...and how he'd just wanted even more. He'd have an epiphany based around the idea that he's truly NOT a guy like Rufus, and how he has time to change and learn to deal with his issues the proper way, rather than hurt his friends in order to get what he wants. While Rufus was consumed by his hunger for power and couldn't save his humanity, Eddie was able to escape.

And there, banged out an entire plot-line based off of a throwaway line... speaking of which...

Eye of Horus: Protector of good, or evil?
Another Rufus related plot, because apparently I like him this week. Remember the one scene where he was being hid in the bike-shed and tried to get his hands on Nina's locket, but then asked if it was protecting good or evil? Well, that could have turned into something interesting!

The Plot Idea:
Now, this wouldn't have been anything worthy of a big plot, but it still could have been...something. My idea is something simple. Make Nina first brush his question off, but as things start to get harder (hell, possibly even in the second season where everything was getting ruined for her) she starts questioning if the locket/the Eye of Horus is really protecting the forces of evil rather than the forces of good. She starts to doubt everything, even Sarah, even her own quest, feeling like no matter what the evil will win in the end because there truly is nothing to help them.

It could come with a small idea of how nothing was protecting Sibuna from danger, except for each-other. Rather than rely on some ancient Gods, a ghost and a locket for protection, Nina could realize that the true protection, the true help, was her friends and the bond between all of them, while also refusing to let herself play into a bad fate that she herself decided would come true, instead deciding to take control of her own situation and stop questioning her life and to stop thinking about the destiny that's in store for her as the Chosen One. It'd become her destiny, and no matter what, she'd fight to win in the end.

...That's it. Told you it'd be short.

3) Mara getting over boys
...And not getting into girls, because I know half of you were thinking that. No, I just mean the idea of Mara learning to live without a boyfriend in her life. As a character, she's practically always been defined as a romance-plot-point, nothing more, nothing less. She has never learned how to see things differently as she was always the moral compass who was quite focused on "fixing" Jerome (To be entirely honest, I can't even say with certainty that she truly fell for him in the end of season 2 when the events of season 3 was taken into account, with her dumping him over a small problem and refusing to take him back even when he was genuinely sorry, then again part of that was Joy's fault...). She was always jealous and always let the jealousy bring out the nastiest side of her. She was always willing to date a new guy at any moment, from Mick, to Jerome, to her implied crush on Eddie, to Fabian.

Raise your hand if you have ever wished Mara would just get over boys in general and become much more independent and more focused on herself and her friends rather than her boyfriend of the season/movie! Yep, that's probably quite a bit of you that just raised your hand. Well, here's my idea...

The plot idea:
Mara has just been cheated on by Jerome and naturally, she reacts with anger and vengeance. She starts escalating things, back to Operation Jerome levels, and starts to get consumed by her need for revenge. Well, that's what happened in the show, right? But then something will hit her when she sees Jerome still living his life, Joy falling for him, and she once again jumps immediately to getting angry and planning more ideas to ruin them.

But then the plans work out and she's still feeling upset and unhappy. She's won- Jerome is heartbroken, and Joy is no longer dating him. She's gotten her revenge, and effectively, she's managed to become in control of both Joy and Jerome whiled doing so. But somehow, despite having won, despite crushing the boy she still has secret feelings for, despite stopping him from ever cheating on a girl again...something has changed for her.

Mara then realizes that Joy is distancing herself, Willow is avoiding her because of bad vibes, and her success has done nothing to make her feel better about the situation. She tries to rationalize it- maybe she didn't go far enough, or maybe she just feels bad because deep down she loves him, or maybe she just got bored of Operation Jerome early on and didn't realize it.

But then she remembers that time she tried to get revenge on Mick and ended up almost getting him expelled; all the times Joy tried to get revenge and had it blow up in her face; all the times Patricia had planned revenges that were done only because she managed to tell herself they'd actually save Joy somehow. Mara then has her epiphany: just as dating Jerome, or Mick for that matter, never truly made her as happy as she thought it would, her revenge didn't make her happy either. All she did was channel her negative energy and let it turn her into a monster, while believing in the end it'd all be worth it.

She doesn't want this. She decides she wants to be happy. And that means to understand that she can never be happy when constantly worrying about other people, romantically or otherwise. Mara decides once and for all that she'll change for the better, and in the process, makes up with the people she'd hurt and vows to stop dating until she truly does find the person she'll actually be happy with- as for now, what makes her happy is feeling comfortable and safe in her own skin, being with her friends, and focusing on bettering herself, rather than hurting others.

There, an entire character arc that season 3 could have easily allowed for...come on, guys. I'm not even a professional...

4) Alfie standing up for himself
I've pointed this out before, but I'll do it again. Alfie has a record of being a bigger doormat than Fabian, who at least had the balls to not let his friends force him into dangerous situations on a daily basis. Now, whenever Alfie gets hurt from something people forced him into, they do feel bad about it... just never enough to learn their lesson about how to treat him. But Alfie...he never learns, either. He never learned how to say no, or how to respect himself, even if his friends don't.

Where Fabian had his entire arc around learning to be more assertive, Alfie remained the designated victim. Whenever they needed someone to get put into temporary danger, it'd be Alfie. Only once had they let him decide he wanted to do his mission, and that ended with him becoming a sinner and KT and Eddie running off. Every other time, even when he protested, he was forced to go ahead with it anyways. You'd think at least Jerome, in his whole turning good thing, would start to care about Alfie's well being, but nope.

All that said, how could it have been tied into the show?

The plot idea:
First, a new dangerous situation would need to come into play. For example, in this version, they need someone to go into the new tunnel first, and send Alfie in. He protests, but eventually they convince him to do it just as they do every time. Then something happens. Perhaps the tunnel closes in again, and Alfie's trapped in the crypt by himself.

While he's alone and waiting for a rescue, he starts to feel resentful and hurt. He gets flashbacks to things like being in the fear tunnel when it collapsed, and how even Amber back then was ignoring his personal safety as well as how nobody else stood up for him and told him he didn't need to do it. When he gets rescued, he simply gives an annoyed thanks and moves on, seeing them as people who don't care for his needs. The next time they try to get him to do something dangerous, Alfie throws it back at them, and demands to know why someone else can't do it, or why they can't take his suggestions into account for once. When someone goes in and gets into danger, they get angry at him for forcing someone else to do it. Feeling betrayed, he leaves the mission right then and there and refuses to even do anything Sibuna related for a short time.

His friends are confused. Why is he suddenly angry at them? They did apologize. They did save him. Meanwhile, he starts getting upset at Jerome too, for abandoning everyone in their time of need, despite being a descendant, and for being selfish enough to lead two girls on when Alfie is still dealing with Amber leaving him. When the others question Jerome, he simply tells them he doesn't know what's gotten into Alfie, either.

But then he gets into trouble on his own. He's sneaking around to do something like get a midnight snack, when Sinner!Victor catches him and he gets dragged away. He makes enough noise to wake one of his friends up, and they figure out he's been taken and go after him. Before he can turn into a Sinner, his friends pull off a plan to save him, and they succeed. But someone gets left behind, and Alfie insists on being the one to help them- he doesn't want anyone in danger as much as he doesn't want himself in danger. At home, he explains to them that he's felt used and disrespected, but apologizes for taking it out on his friends who genuinely didn't realize how bad they were making Alfie feel and that just an apology at the end of each day doesn't cover all he's been through. Both sides agree to start taking everyone's ideas and needs into account when going on missions, and Alfie learned how to help himself while still being able to help his friends.

---

'I'd have done more, but I was genuinely trying to do the issues that had never been brought up or had been brought up rarely, rather than things like Fabian's back-story and Joy dealing with the events of season 1 realistically, which are all important topics to think about but I wanted to be less obvious this time and focus on things that could have been genuine good plots, had anyone realized they could have existed at all''. Most of those will be covered in "What Could Have Been", anyways. I just felt there was still so much uncovered, unnoticed plot potential that I didn't want to let remain ignored.'''

'''Thanks for reading! What do you guys think? Any ideas of your own, whether they are popular ones or obscure ones? And again, if you'd like to do any of these as stories or if anything came to you when reading, go ahead and use the plots I came up with here! I'd be genuinely happy to see them be used with your own personal twists as well, haha!'''

Don't forget to read my Mick analysis!