#Dess accidentally writes fanfic (jk)

[desultory-novice]

I don't know if you're still doing character asks, but if you are, what are your thoughts on Taranza?

You bet I’m still doing asks! Will happily talk Kirby all day long!

003 Taranza

How I Feel About This Character:

I like Taranza. I've got characters I'm more hyperfixated on, but Taranza is good. Very good. You basically need to push me to start talking about Taranza, but once I do, I can talk for a surprisingly long time! Which is what I'm about to do here, haha! 

(No lie, I think this is my longest ask yet??)

So, okay, I LOVE puppeteering characters/characters associated with puppets and control. While I was completely reeling during the Masked Dedede fight (my brain screaming "Noooooooo! Dedede!!") I was kind of digging it at the same time, no lie!

I also love vassal characters. Loyalty is big yes for me in fictional characters/relationships and Taranza is one of the few (only??) "villain" character to have that in spades.

Finally, everything about Dark Taranza is just completely amazing?? Their design (THAT DESIGN), the little scraps of personality we get from him. If I were only better at drawing flashy (and fabulous) villains...!

Any/All the People I Ship Romantically With This Character:

Sectranza, yeah!!! Oh wait, she's... But no, I love the lovey-spider-duo and their painfully doomed romance. (I know it's not made explicit, so you can view their relationship in a variety of ways, but I choose to see them as romantic.) They've got that sliiiight class difference of ruler and vassal, but you can just tell watching them that a young Sectonia didn't care about that stuff at all and treated Taranza like an equal. And then, out of love for her, he accidentally curses her, leading to her death at (partially) his hands...No good deed...

Brb, crying forever over spiders...

...Also, I'm, um, one of those weirdos that quietly ships Dederanza...? So, okay, I -really- expected Taranza to move to Dream Land after Triple Deluxe, at least as an ambassador of Floralia or something. And once there, he'd come to interact with King Dedede as Dream Land’s (self-proclaimed) monarch in a much more positive way than their -previous- interaction. Dedede has a big heart and would generally forgive him fast enough, I think, which would be kind of important for a Taranza who is still grieving. 

At the same time, that forgiveness and openness leads to a kind of painful rebound crush for Taranaza, because he finds he admires Dedede similar to how he admired Queen Sectonia - only King Dedede is the ideal powerful AND compassionate monarch that Queen Sectonia wasn’t - and he starts to fall back into this obsequiousness that got him in so much trouble last time. And Dedede accidentally lets Taranza play into it (because he's kinda used to being served by the Dees without any wrought emotional baggage coming up on their side) until he realizes at last just how unhealthy this direction is for Taranza.

They get to talking, maybe at night, on the balcony, and Dedede tries to set him straight and maybe starts to recommend that Taranza go back to Floralia, but that's when Taranza tells Dedede that yes, he DOES like him the same way he liked Sectonia...but also different!! And they--...

...wait, sorry, I think I was starting to write a fanfic here...?

My Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship For This Character:

Pairing him with his fellow magic user contemporaries, aka, Marx, Magolor, and Gryll. The fact that he's such a good boy (or -tries- to be) but his friend group are all terribly devoius tricksters and he's sort of the "I don’t know if we should do this...." conscience of the group, and yet, it's -surprisingly- easy to talk him into their nonsense games because he's not THAT much of a good boy.

(I could possibly be talked into some Marxoranza or whatever that OT3 is called at some point, but -my- Marxolor is a little too bonded-over-shared-experiences that I think my Taranza would feel like the third wheel.)

My Unpopular Opinion About This Character:

Okay, it was probably all leading to this anyway, so here is my take on the "Should Taranza move on?" debate. The answer is... yes and no. 

Sectonia was such a huge part of his life. And Taranza is portrayed as continuing to mourn her in media and I honestly think that is FAIR. I don't think that's awful or cruel to have him keep feeling that way because, like yeah...death is seriously sad. And the death of someone you loved? Someone who meant the world to you? It’s traumatic. A scar you carry with you for your whole life. So no, I don't want to see Taranza move on from Sectonia necessarily, nor do I think he -needs to- for his mental health. I think it's okay for him to continue to think about her and try to preserver her memories/the things important to her, and to hope for her happiness in whatever form she exists in now. But...I do want to see him find happiness too.

I guess what I don't want is a "Omg, look at how much better Taranza is doing now that he's with someone else!" resolution. (Healing, if it happens, should come from within, not just because you found someone new.) The thing is, some of my previous fandoms were -really- big on lambasting any guy with a "lost love" trope in their backstory - as if they could NEVER be a good partner because for some reason, they'd never treat their current partner as if they were first in their life unless they specifically disavowed their previous love?? (Like, yikes! Imagine having to publicly disavow someone you loved or else your partner couldn’t trust you...) and anyway, the language around that was adamant, damning, and moreover, just exhausting, so I'd rather see other avenues explored for "lost love" characters rather than “hope they get over it.”

Oh, and one final opinion! 

I HATE his speech pattern in Japanese! Marx's なのサ is cute. Taranza's のね reminds me of some of the annoyingly xenophobic speech patterns they'd give foreigner characters in certain old anime and it just gives me hives. It's probably not on purpose and just there to make him sound obsequiousness and cute but... my experiences make it not cute for me. EN Taranza > JP Taranza.

One Thing I Wish Would Happen / Had Happened With This Character in Canon:

Shipping or not, I'd still have loved to see the "Floralia's ambassador to Dream Land" thing happen. I think, with his book smarts, he would make a good final point on the triumverate to Dream Land's unofficial "court" of political (Dedede) and military (Meta Knight).

Oh, I guess there was a comic adaptation in which all six of his hands had different personalities and acted independently of each other/himself? I don't wish that for canon Taranza, but heck if that doesn't sound hilarious for a couple of cheap jokes now and again.

Favorite Friendship For This Character:

...GDI I messed up with the categories again... You know, I enjoy this character ask meme a lot, but I sure chose one with weird formatting, haha!

I already listed my favorite friendship up above, um... what else should I talk about? The Wave 3 group is okay. I personally think their personalities clash too much (two HUGE warring egos in Mago and Susie) for them to have a lot of fluff together, but they've got a great blue/green/pink color combo going.

I was trying to figure out just now whether I want to see fireworks when Taranza gets to meet Dark Meta Knight. I mean, I already wrote about my Soul Melter EX Unpopular Opinion that -everyone- is friends after Star Allies, but I never actually did much thinking about how that would even work with DMK and Taranza when I wrote that... So lets's do that now!

Obviously, DMK is not the one who corrupted the Dimension Mirror (he just seems to take all the blame for it, haha) but that is exactly why Taranza might be convinced to fall into that same trap of "It's YOUR fault that happened to Sectonia!" and DMK - who is Meta Knight's terseness and aggressiveness upped to 11 thanks to -whatever- is going on in that world that caused the greatest swordsman in Dream Land to take a scar to.the.face - is not even remotely interested in correcting Taranza or doing anything except add fuel to the fire and so a minor fight breaks out (which the good guy team mates have to stop because you've got the 2nd best (?) physical fighter in the group going up against the 2nd best spellcaster and that could be BAD.) 

...And then there's sore feelings all around and someone else has to tell Taranza about Dark Mind, and Taranza - who'd just had his pain stirred up anew and had a -brief- taste of “revenge” for his loss - is now burdened with 1) the fact that Sectonia's revenge is already gone and 2) he’s feeling guilty for blaming the wrong person -- even if that wrong person IS kind of a jerk. 

So you get some kind of scene where Taranza has a big damn heroes moment helping out the loner DMK, and Taranza would probably give a "I don't actually like you! You're mean and violent and <etc etc> but after that incident, I swore to never stand by while <etc etc> happened, and so I'll help you out!" And DMK, who doesn't go in much for feelings, but appreciates a good fighter just gives him a "Hrmph. Just don’t slow me down." and allows Taranza to assist.

...God, this little exercise just makes it clear how much I want a Star Allies novel w/ the Dream Friends included. I really, really want to see these characters talk, argue, find common ground, fight, make up, and become true friends as they save the world.

FREE SPACE/Recs:

I think I wrote everything that would have gone in the free space (including the outlines for two separate fanfic??) so, uh, everyone's seen Rinyo's "Egomama" right?

Man, rewatching this made me think about how good Triple Deluxe was. It has the unenviable position of being the "good" middle child stuck between two Kirby masterpieces, but it's got such heart! And it's just very pretty? 

I've talked (briefly) before about my feelings on Kirby and grimly dark fairy tales in my "Horrors of the Soul" series (need to get back to that; I've got everyone but Void scripted out, but they're a huge pain to draw because they're so visually intensive...) but this "trilogy" of games has the strongest "careful what you wish for" vibes of the whole series. (RtDL even opens like a storybook!) 

But while Robobot has the best visual design work (maybe in all of Kirby?) Triple Deluxe is possibly the prettiest, with that heavy floral theme and bright, soft colors throughout. I personally find Taranza hard to draw (...and get right, at least) but damn, the details on his (and Sectonia's) costume are great.