Now You're Just Some Programme That I Used To Know.

[rionaleonhart]

Some more notes on our Glee rewatch! We've gone through the third season and are now in early season four. I originally stopped watching at some point in late season four, I believe, so we're approaching uncharted territory. (But not Uncharted territory. I bet Nate can't sing

Comments

Fashionably late

[nadramon]

Hello, happy new year! I never watched Glee, but the topic of late-arrival characters is interesting. Looking back, I think the ones who worked the best were the characters who added a fresh perspective, or brought a nice addition to the previous cast.

For instance, Aang, Katara and Sokka were already a good trio in season 1 of Avatar, but all three of them were goody-two-shoes most of the time, so when Toph came along, her mischievousness was refreshing. It also helped that her introduction made her instantly sympathetic by showing her family problems and thirst for freedom.

Another example that jumps to mind is Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter: unlike Toph, she put me off at first because I thought she would just be comic relief, and her weird antics annoyed me a little. But with how dark the series gets in the fifth book, her sweetness, simple views and unique insightfulness do a lot of good to both Harry and the reader. She really grew on me, and eventually became one of my favorite characters.

And then, of course, there is

Re: Fashionably late

[rionaleonhart]

Hello! It's always great to see you.

I'd forgotten about Toph and Luna! Both excellent additions to their respective canons. And Homestuck's an interesting example; it had multiple points where I was going 'wait, why are we hanging out with these new characters instead of the ones I care about' and then quickly progressed to 'okay, never mind, I love the new characters'.

Examples of late-arrival characters who did not work for me were roles that I felt could have easily been filled by a member of the original cast

A few people on the Dreamwidth version of this entry also mentioned that they found it easier to embrace late-arrival characters if they felt like entirely new characters, rather than a substitute for a member of the original of the cast. It's a great point that hadn't really hit me.

You asked in your last comment where you could find the Umineko and Higurashi anime series; I'm sorry I didn't respond! I'm not actually familiar with the anime; I've been playing the visual novels. (I've heard the Umineko anime is a pretty