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rn-alfred · 6 days ago

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explained this so much better than i ever could and i thank you for that... i never liked doll eye as much, but i couldn't exactly put my finger on it at the time. you have really good points here!

Since you like re-nightmare, what do you think of Doll eye?

i have a lovehate relationship with doll eye. i like it, but i dont like it. i get its not supposed to be renightmare, but every single charm renightmare had doll eye does not retain whatsoever. it tries so hard to NOT be renightmare that it just ends up being boring and way too serious for my tastes

also the character designs are not good, way too focused on shapes to the point some characters look ungodly awful. worst character redesign is absolutely jessys. jessys renightmare design is wonderful and actually pleasing to look at and gives you an idea of what to expect for her personality, whereas jessy doll eye is just... not jessy. and i understand thats the point, but i hate that jessy renightmare has to be associated with doll eye jessy due to them still being connected despite being completely different characters.

most of the good doll eye character designs are *because* they still have very glaring obvious similarities to the renightmare designs. renightmare designs are iconic, doll eyes are not. theres a reason doll eye mystery is never going to be *the* mystery people think about when you say the name "mystery burns", he doesnt even retain the name jeremy as his original name is changed to victor.

doll eyes story is ok, but bland. maybe thats because its not completed or maybe im being harsh, but doll eye restricts itself by trying to not be what its predecessor was. im not saying doll eye should just be renightmare 2 or a remake of renightmare, i am fully aware doll eye and renightmare are entirely different stories with different characters, but one of the reasons renightmare was ever good was because it was a child letting their imagination roam wild and just focus on having fun. renightmare has an interesting premise, interesting characters, and lots and lots of missed potential that the fandom taps in on and works into something great

doll eye does not do this. doll eye wants to be taken seriously, doll eye wants to tell a deep and meaningful story and does everything possible to be detached from the rn comic, yet it fails at doing so. every single time people talk about doll eye, renightmare gets brought up in some way. renightmare is always going to be what doll eye is attached to at its core, they dont even have the glory of having different characters, the cast is the exact same. same appearances, same names, same relationship dynamics, the only change is that its trying to tell a story about death, grief, obsession, trauma, and the impacts of it all. there is no way to be emotionally invested in doll eye without comparing it to renightmare

somehow doll eye takes all the beloved renightmare characters and turns them into the most boring, bland versions of themselves. which i have no fucking idea how thats POSSIBLE because renightmare characters are actually pretty static with little to almost no development. i get the story is still in the process of being told, but i just have no hope for it

as of how it is now, its just not interesting. alfred is more boring than fucking ever in doll eye. renightmare alfred's entire reason he is captivating is because he is a generic guy twisted into someone he was never supposed to be, if you take away everything regarding rn mystery rn alfred wouldve just been a normal guy you see as a cashier at a random store that you would forget in a few seconds. rn alfred is captivating *because* he wants to live a normal life but instead is constantly tormented due to just that. rn alfreds desire to be a regular guy plays a part in why his life is the way it is. doll eye alfred is just not that, its clear hes *trying* to be that but he fails. why does he fail?

because of doll eye mystery. rn mystery is the entire reason for everything bad that happens in the entirety of renightmares story AND rn alfreds life, without rn mystery rn alfred wouldve had the chance to get the life he desperately craves. but de mystery has no connections to alfred what-so-fucking-ever. any and all connection rn mystery had to rn alfred was switched over in doll eye to be about MAGO and de mystery. there is no reason for de mystery to even be INTERESTED in de alfred when he has mago. yet we're supposed to believe they have a deep symbolic relationship in doll eye? doll eye waters down the relationship between de alfred and de mystery to "they hate each other", theres not even a proper reason for why they hate each other like there is in renightmare

mystery and alfred are the CORE of both doll eye and renightmare, yet only ONE does this right. mysterys entire fucking motivator for everything he does in renightmare is BECAUSE OF ALFRED. BECAUSE OF HIS OBSESSION WITH ALFRED. HIS LOVE, HIS FRIENDSHIP, HIS CARE, HIS TWISTED PERCEPTION OF WHAT IT MEANS TO LOVE SOMEONE. mystery is NOBODY without alfred just like alfred couldve been SOMEONE if it werent for mystery. mystery takes from alfred, alfred gives to mystery. they are in a constant fucking cycle with each other and that is why they are interesting, doll eye does not do ANY. OF. THIS. BECAUSE. DOLL EYE MYSTERY. ONLY. HAS A REAL RELATIONSHIP. WITH *MAGO*.

DOLL EYE MYSTERY HAS NO MOTIVATOR. he is just a demented guy stuck in a hospital talking to himself and bugs. he has no real connection to alfred, kao, or anybody. just himself. he is somehow more self centered than rn mystery ever was and that is why he is so god damn fucking boring. he has NOTHING going for him just like de alfred. all de alfred has is his dead son and daughter who doesnt like him, both concepts taken from renightmare as well

everything doll eye wants to be is just rehashed versions of everything that happened in renightmare. alfred/mystery relationship? once a complicated battle of attachment and obsession turned into a bland depiction of simple hatred for small things with no impact. kao/alfred relationship? once a relationship about what it means to love somebody who never had a home to turn to and the impacts of incestuous relationships turned into a basic friendship. the story? once a tale about how dangerous love can truly be and what it means to love someone yet still hurt them turned into a story about "evil guy stuck in a hospital we have to get out aahh"

renightmare was never perfect, it was a story messed up due to being created by a child not realizing how much lost potential their story had. but doll eye is an even worse version of it simply by the fact it takes all of renightmares potential and tries to make fit it into a story that it never belonged to. doll eye shouldve been its own thing with actually different characters, renightmare had its story and its characters that all worked together to create the narrative but doll eye was trying to have its cake and eat it too

maybe im being too harsh on doll eye, i havent replayed it in awhile, but i am firm in my belief that its just a worse version of renightmare with better art. the animation memes for it pull you in, but the actual game is boring, the characters are boring, the story is bland, and the messages its trying to send are just not written well so far. not to mention, mystery is not a good depiction of mental illness in doll eye. i dont even think hes a good depiction of it in renightmare, but the problem with doll eye is that its *trying* to be an inoffensive depiction but i actually think its more offensive than renightmare was. at least renightmare had the excuse of "it was written by a child who didnt know any better" and the fact that mental illness was clearly not in mind when writing rn mystery, but doll eye does not have that

you can also tell that doll eye is trying to give kao a character, which i appreciate, but its also obvious they dont know what theyre doing with him. this is yet another thing somehow rehashed from renightmare. rn kao had this same issue. this is yet another reason *why* doll eye shouldve just been its own thing COMPLETELY separate from renightmare, you cannot work these characters into the story when you couldnt even work them into the original story. the least skrill couldve done for kao was give him a different personality and purpose, yet he is still pretty much the same except the pedophilic undertones are gone (thank god for that)

i also dont appreciate that doll eye is trying to give the female characters more use in the plot while also neglecting them. both renightmare and doll eye have always been male centered stories, but even the female in renightmare have had a better chance to shine than in doll eye (such as jessy and shai). jessy had a whole comic dedicated to herself that actually translated over to the renightmare comic, she had something. but doll eye jessy does not have anything. not only does she not have anything, her entire relationship with shai is watered down to "girlfriends!!!!". while jessy and shai never had a direct relationship in renightmare aside from being friends, they still had individual character. jessys entire purpose is to be shais girlfriend in doll eye

doll eye shai gets more screentime sure, but her entire character revolves around her father. her motivator is her dead brother, shia, which yeah thats fine. but everything about her always goes back to her father, nothing about her is truly just about her. her distant personality, her burning hatred, her rebellious nature, and even her friends of choice all come down to the fact she hates her father, alfred. even her motivation, shia, is centered around how much she fucking hates alfred. none of this is truly just her choice, but its influenced by alfred. everything in doll eye is about alfred no matter how hard it tries to give everybody a fair share of importance

renightmare shai never had that deep of a personality, but as i mentioned earlier, renightmare is a story where 9 times out of 10 a character is going to be very static and underdeveloped. doll eye was her chance to finally be a character, but they couldnt give her anything interesting aside from "the rebellious teenager who hates her dad" trope. the only interesting twist to shai in doll eye is that shes a lesbian and you could even debate that this is just another aspect of her rebellious nature, especially when the relationship she has with jessy in doll eye ultimately means nothing because jessy is not a real character in doll eye

as well as the fact that lily is pushed aside still. lily is the dead mother of mystery and has always been that way, whether its doll eye or renightmare. lily has never been a character, she is meant to be an explanation and arthurs sad backstory. which would be fine if it werent for the already poor management of other female characters in both series. lilys story in both depictions are the same, she was a kind mother to mystery and was a fashion model then died. the only differences between rn lily and de lily is that de lily most likely died from anorexia and rn lily most likely died due to arthur murdering her. notice how i say most likely? its because lily is so unimportant in both stories that her death is not explained

the problem with de lily specifically is that its trying to be impactful. its trying to be de mysterys motivator. its trying to be de arthurs motivator. but all it does is provide a sad backstory for the characters and leave the audience feel nothing. we know nothing about lily, we dont know how she was or her relationship with either of them, we only know that she died and that her death is a tool to explain de mystery and de arthurs traumas. we are supposed to feel bad about this but we have no reason to when we, as the audience, feel absolutely nothing for de lily and her death

adding onto that, we know nothing about de arthur. we know nothing about rn arthur. now for rn arthur, the reason hes interesting in the first place is *because* we know nothing about him and hes a sadistic cruel man that you want to know more about. but interestingly enough, the reason de arthur ISNT captivating is because we know nothing about him. all we know about de arthur is that he runs a fashion business and went into a depressive spiral after lilys death which led him to abuse mystery. we dont know anything about him outside of that, so you have no reason to even want to know anything about him. theres an explanation for why he is the way he is, renightmare arthur doesnt have that and that creates speculation and theory therefore making him an actual character to think about. de arthur suffers the same fate as de lily, his character is a tool to give de mystery a sad backstory and explain why he is like how he is in adulthood

i understand some characters only exist to be used to explain something or to fulfill their narrative purpose then not used again, but the reason that doesnt work here is because its not executed well enough for the audience to give a shit. it is ONCE AGAIN taking renightmares concepts and trying to twist them into something that doesnt fit because these characters WERE NEVER MADE FOR THIS STORY and were never changed in a way to fit it either. we know nothing about any of the characters and we're only scratching the surface of their environment, there is no reason to be interested in doll eye that doesnt tie back to renightmare

i know how im talking is making it seem like i think renightmare is perfect and is the better version, but i know its not. but doll eye is never going to take the place of renightmare. it is not an engaging story and it takes everything that made renightmare interesting and makes it boring. the only thing doll eye has going for it is its lovely art and animations

also, last thing to say here, the simple fact that doll eye tries to NOT be edgy in comparison to renightmares edgy scale is another reason it is so god damn tedious lol

#ooc #renightmare #doll eye

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