#dr. blandston

[lookslikethatsallthetimewehave]

no anti villains in Poptropica 😔

But we must look up the definition of an anti-villain:

So there are actually a few anti-villains in Poptropica.

Cactus von Garlic: His goal is to protect humanity from vampires. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that not all vampires are evil. Some are just trying to live their life, yo.

Octavian: His goal is to create a perfect world by rewriting the timeline. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that messing with the timeline creates more chaos.

Lieutenant Rogers: Her goal is to protect the timeline from being tampered with (like what Octavian tried to do). Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that she doesn't have to kill innocent children to do that.

Anna Gram/Dr. Blandston: Her goal is to knock some sense into the citizens of Goofball Island, because the goofy people don't properly take care of themselves and also cause she's going out of business. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that she shouldn't forcefully change people's personalities.

Red Baroness/The Baron: Um, this:

[limeston-lane]

Detective Anna Gram and/or Dr Blandston! And technically Dr Gramston.

Dr. Gramston is a dentist within Toontown with a not-so-thriving business. Upon finding a cave holding silly and bland crystals, she's off to save her business! But after a long time of exposure to them, she soon began to lose her memories.

Now Anna Gram is a detective residing in Drowsy Dreamland, on the chase for Dr. Blandston. A Toon making the place Bland like cogs! Not knowing who Blandston really is...

[exist101]

Since Everyone Wants To Pet The Murder Puppy

[crossover-enthusiast]

Sorry I didn't get immediately back to you, Tumblr's being Tumblr.

ANYWAY credits to @lookslikethatsallthetimewehave for a majority of these findings

Apollo was originally meant to play a bigger role in Poptropica, what this was we do not know. He is the god of many things, but mainly the sun which apparently has something to do with powering crystals

This is the Protector's symbol, shaped like the sun. They protect the multiverse from collapsing, mainly through the Nexus, which is a giant crystal cavern that connects timelines. The Protectors base is also powered by Aegis, a giant crystal. I will admit this is from the books and is not canon to the game but I still like to point it out because of how big crystals are in the games. The Mole People in Crisis Caverns collect magic crystals, including a yellow one that powers multiple puzzles. There's also a lot of crystals on Astro Knights, such as this yellow crystal

Also in Astro-Knights there are dark blue crystals that match the Nexus's crystals, but much darker and twisted

The portal to Binary Bard, as well as the key. This is what the Nexus looks like for example

There's another example of magic crystals being important

Goofball island, the stones keep the island and its inhabitants in check and mess wit emotions and the mind. And these are potent crystals, enough to completely change personalities and mindsets (just look at Dr. Blandston, who was inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

So these crystals are powerful and somehow Apollo's in this shit. We just don't know anything.

This is legitimately wild what the shit

[dexter-apologist-5000]

Also here's some peeps petting Dr. Blandston (werewolf Anna)

Everyone wants to pet the murder puppy

Reasonable response, I would too tbh

[comical-icicle]

Agreed for the Fairytale Island. And each episode of the island could represent a different fairytale or something, show the effects of the magic or how people view the kingdom. That would have been so neat!

As for the rewrite of Goofball Island…

Under a read more because I’m compiling my ideas here and I don’t want to clutter your account with my rambling.

I will say that my rewrite will try to keep the original island lore, but the story and characters and execution is free game. I’ll also be trying to include how this rewrite would work gamewise. I know it’s not necessary, but I want to include it to further show how it could have been implemented.

Okay, so, here’s my current version of the island rewrite. I will still include that the player was a blandston because I think it could be done.

Probably all over the place but whatever-

Much like in the episodic islands, we get a small cutscene. While not usually a thing for the usual islands, I think it would add for this case. The cutscene shows the player’s blimp, at least the outline, and we see it crash into a town hall that looks completely goofy. Then it cuts to black.

This is our introduction to an island that looks completely ridiculous. In the cutscene, we would only see what the name of the island suggests, and that is goofiness. You wouldn’t expect to see anything bland just yet because… with a name like goofball island, why would you?

The player wakes up in a gray alleyway, immediately shift the player somewhere new. Give them that curiosity. Surely they should have been near that goofy town hall, where are they? The player picks up a strange device and eventually finds their way out to the middle of the street, only to discover that not only are they near town hall, but their blimp is crashed against the building as well with a strange gray color to parts of it. The player will comment about the blimp upon seeing it because I need them to. Again, it’s one of the few islands the player can’t just click on their blimp to leave, so it would make sense to have them mention this. They don’t have much memory about what happened, but they do get a memory flash about something gray hitting their blimp just before it would have crashed. This introduces the memory problems early on and gives the player incentive to explore and figure out what’s going on.

Anyway, we will meet two characters that we first meet on the island. That being Detective Anna Gram and Mayor Naise. Instead of overhearing the mayor describing what a blandston looks like (ie giving the player nothing to go off of, not even the surgeon outfit or red eyes that would stand out, even when bland- especially the red eyes), we actually hear the mayor getting upset at the detective for not yet catching Blandston. This version, he still gets hit by the bland ray, and his hat and part of his body are now gray. He is very upset about his hat in particular but is also concerned because more than half of the island has already been affected by Blandston. Anna tries to get a description out of him, but all he can really mention are the red eyes as, even when attacking city hall, their face was so boring that he genuinely can not remember anything else.

Again, very generalized because I wouldn’t be too sure how the dialogue would play out, especially to keep it simple enough to not give too much away and to not take up too much time. Still, the Mayor storms into city hall so he won’t “get caught by blandston a second time.”

The player can then interact with the detective and ask what’s wrong. She can explain her dilemma of being a new detective on her first big case and being put under a lot of pressure to find Dr. Blandston. There would be two more dialogue options to make the classic three with the first and second being lore and the third being the option to select to actually progress, which is asking to help. (I really like the snarky comment she makes when player asks if they look bland to her but i think it would work better for a goofy citizen that the player either needs to interview or get a thumb print of and they distrust the player in fear of them being a blandston).

Upon entering city hall, the mayor runs up to the player and Anna and demands to know why the player is there. Anna has to explain she has enlisted the player’s help and the mayor reluctantly agrees to the player’s presence on the condition that they do not touch anything that they do not need to. Then the investigation of the building can commence where the player looks around to find different clues and can talk to the people. Either get rid of the security tree because WHY IS IT THERE IF WE NEVER USE IT- or have the player comment that the tape from the camera is missing or give us something that hints to sabotage at play here. And the tree man stays because I think he fits right in with being goofy yet foreboding. He definitely recognizes the player character as he was being a tree and watching them cause orderly chaos. Like his first bite of dialogue will hint to knowing and then once figuring out the player has no memory of anything and he dismisses them saying that he was possibly getting the player confused with someone else, hard to tell with so many bland citizens now. Basically build the world with the people and stuff… and tree man gets to mess with the player so win-win.

-

Here’s a little bit of the island lore popping in here so this can make sense:

Bland Islanders have trouble seeing when on the goofy side of the island because the bright colors hurts their eyes, so they need to cover up their eyes with shades in order to not damage anything, perfect cover for a blandston to sneak around with. On the other end, goofy islanders have trouble with their sight when on the bland side (or looking at a bland citizen in general) because… you know how bright colors are good for babies because they can’t see properly so the bright colors and obvious shapes help them see better? It’s like that for the goofy citizens. They cannot see anything properly because nothing is bright, everything looks the same, there’s no defining features that would make anything stand out to them.

Everyone on the island is aware of Dr. Blandston and how they are blandifying the island. Most of the goofy islanders have become bland at least once, but the effect of the crystals wear off in about a day or so (depending on how much they’ve been blasted by the crystal or how powerful that certain crystal is). There are also side effects that come with the crystal. That being: memory loss (for both sides), becoming bland, personality change, etc.

Over exposure to the crystals will cause a person to unwillingly shift between bland and goofy since the bland and goofy citizens have not been keeping in touch with their ancestors’ traditions and have lost pieces of history from no longer switching between bland and goofy and there is an imbalance in the island, which makes the effects worse.

The crystals themselves were originally used by the island citizens to switch between bland and goofy in a natural process that went out of fashion upon being discovered by adventurers, so since the bland and goofy bodies are no longer accustomed to switching between the two, especially not suddenly, that’s what causes the side effects. It also causes a vulnerability to be manipulated and controlled, causing the blandstons. Anna gets a special pass because she’s been affected by the crystals more so her goofy side already has a more established personality (albeit evil) to latch onto.

Insomnia cases are bad on the island. With everyone knowing about Dr. Blandston, it causes fear to rises and people start losing sleep over it, especially since there was at least one point where they were a bland citizen before reverted back, unable to remember anything but now everything looks different. So distrust is on the higher end of the spectrum, though there are some outliers that will be more welcoming (Bosko).

-

After doing an initial investigation and finding the matches, Anna asks you to actually interview witnesses and victims, and get some fingerprints for her. This is where tree man gives his cryptic message to the player and immediately switches back to happy tree man. We’ll also be getting fingerprints mainly from bland citizens because that is what blandston is said to be but also fingerprints from a couple goofy citizens because they are thought to be accomplices (mayor naise is part of this but he is upset at the accusation. I do want to clarify that I changed him this much for the rewrite so that suspicions against him can have some foundation and for the false victory when the player “discovers” that he is Blandston… at least one of them. But for the most part, this is me writing him having more sense of responsibility for a whole town. Love his original self but my man you are in a crisis-). For the interviews, the people will start pointing suspicions against others, fearing those people to be the true blandston, whether they are goofy or bland. People are especially distrusting of the goofy islanders that want to be bland or those that like it, fearing them to be accomplices or future accomplices of blandston. Since there are multiple Dr. Blandstons running around (the pc is unaware of this fact but it can be picked up on), it would have people suspicious of one another, believing someone has to be the original.

Heading back to Anna, she tells the player that she couldn’t get a clear description out of anyone and that they were all just frantically blaming one another. She points out the matches the player had given her, she did a little bit of digging around, are from the Crazy Club and that’s where the player needs to go next to gather information and witness accounts.

Here’s where my boy comes in.

The player still needs to get Bosko’s thumb print. Even though all the sightings of Dr. Blandstons are seen as small, Bosko is still a prime suspect as he was seems with a blandston in Crazy Club, though the player will need their help to get into it… again. Basically, Bosko gives the suggestion of a costume when the bouncer won’t let them inside and says that he has the perfect one, the piñata hanging on the tree. Just knock it down and you can wear it!

Now for the reason why Bosko is a prime suspect, the bland player used Bosko as a scapegoat so they could blast Abnormal Dan and run over to city hall, so Bosko’s guilty by association, which is why there’s now a rule that you have to be extremely goofy to get inside in the first place… and unfortunately Bosko is banned from entering, leaving them vulnerable to getting blandified.

(Also bland Bosko turns into a dog. Sorry gang but he’s still gonna be goofy just wearing a suit and monocle. He leaves a note behind for the player still so the player can search for the leaf blower cuz he views them as a friend from their time as the bland player and their regular self).

As mentioned before, a few people, which includes Bosko and tree man, would actually recognize the pc from their time being bland, but it would be played off for whatever reason, such as seeing things since Blandstons are so boring and look like anyone, and, again, insomnia making them misremember events or the way people phrase greeting the player.

The player also gets a flash of a memory upon entering Crazy Club and they wonder what that’s about since they’ve never been in the club before, right? No it must be the place having an effect on them.

The bland mayor comes in during the dance off with the other guy and the player decides to disregard the witness account and chase after blandston themself. This is where they find out it’s the mayor and decide to bring him back to Anna for questioning, but see Bosko get turned bland by another blandston. Now aware there are multiple, the player with mayor in tow reach Anna’s apartment with the lore that no one knows a detective living in the building and her neighbor telling the player (optionally) about how she’s always changing her job.

The player and mayor get inside Anna’s apartment to find it completely trashed and a bizarre goofy citizen with red eyes in the room. The hat looks somewhat familiar but the player has no idea who it was and finds the fingerprint dust. They decide to chase after the person that eventually leads them to the dentistry and of course the crystal caverns below. When the bland ray is repaired after finding a bland crystal, the player finds it very uncomfortable but is unsure why. This is when they find the goofy citizen in the middle of turning back to bland and fighting against it and it turns out it’s Anna. The show down plays out and upon defeat, Blandston reveals to the player that they have met before because she had given them the ray in the first place, but the player doesn’t remember and think she’s lying, deciding to prove it through fingerprints. Only to discover their own. Blandston would be prying the player to remember, being snarky about it. and each time, a flash of a memory would appear that allows the player to put everything together that they hadn’t passed out from the cradh, they had been blandified. Instead of the player deciding the fate of the island through multiple choice, they need to figure out which crystals properly go where because the imbalance is not helping the island and the cave needs to stabilize with a balance between bland and goofy. This would bring into a puzzle deal for the player and upon completing it, they may exit the cavern and see that there’s less clashing between bland and goofy and that the island holds more of an even balance rather than mismatch patches. It would be bittersweet in some sense since a lot of history has still been lost, so the ending is kind of the island rediscovering it and deciding to reinvigorate the practices so that they can better meld together.

But yeah, that’s my current rewrite for the island along with bits and pieces of lore. I just think it would be neat.

Again, not sure how interactions would go and how this would affect the player, but I think it could work still.

Somebody needs to do a rewrite of some Poptropica Islands because some of them are wasted potential and need to be fix

I was just thinking about how so many Islands could be great if they were written better or a little longer

[pawptropica]

What do you think Anna Gram/Dr Blandstone would be?

Anna Gram is a melanistic Bengal!

Dr. Blandston is a British Shorthair!

[mystic-sunni]

Since I made the goofball mayor and also getting an ask about it here's my attempt at making Detective Anna Gram and Dr.Blandston from Goofball Island.

[monster-carnival-island]

Anna Gram/Dr Blandstone?

I got the other ask you sent but I'll do both. Note Anna and Blandston are two different people because this is a swap version of my au.

Anna is the mayor of Goofball! I decided that on Goofball the swap is a role and a who's bland and who's goofy swap. Energetic and loved by basically everyone she is doing her best to run Goofball as best she can. Swap Mayor is her best friend and he's the detective in this au but he's not a villain.

Dr Blandston. That one I honestly haven't done much with other than make a good person who helps the new heroes with Goofballs new villain. He really wishes people would take care of their teeth.

[exist101]

poptropica dnd au?!?!!!!????!

sounds epic!! :0

totally excited to hear more about it (if you post about it!) :D

Yessss! I wanna post about it if people are interested!

Here's what some of the characters are (not putting pictures cause my puter would explode) and I will explain individually when asked

Dr. Hare- Harengon Warlock

Black Widow- Spider Rogue

Captain Crawfish- Triton Necromancer

Binary Bard- Halfling Bard/Artificer

Ringmaster Raven- Aaarakocra Sorcerer

Director D- Elf Assasin

Gretchen Grimlock- Fairy Ranger

The booted Bandit- Changeling Rogue

Daphne Dreadnaught- Aasimar Paladin

Amelia- Centaur Tavernkeeper

The Baron- Tabaxi Rogue

Anna Gram/Dr. Blandston- Tiefling/werewolf member of the guard

[crossover-enthusiast]

And another thing I've noticed, is that when a villain is a one and done thing, they're story is always just incredibly tragic. Not to say that Bards backstory isn't messed up, but we've seen him plenty times. But when the character is likely not going to be used again, those are the ones that stick with you the most. And it makes sense, if they're not going to be used again might as well fit the story right there. After all, you're not going to be seeing them again, might as well make it count. And they do. Raven was meant to never really be used again but people adore him. But there's also Count Bram, who just wanted to be with his wife Annabelle again, not knowing she's dead. There's Dr. Blandston, a Jekyll & Hyde style character who slowly lost their sense of identity. I just think that this game is neat and it was my childhood and I'm so incredibly happy it's still here.

Okay I'm answering this one THEN bed

One and done tragic characters are honestly the best and worst, because they put so much EFFORT into making you feel for them, but once their story's over, there's nothing you can do. And it always hurts and you want to do something, but you can't!!

Also Count Bram and Dr. Blandston immediately intrigue me (tries to search for loved one not knowing they're dead is a trope that destroys me, and I love Jekll & Hyde style characters)

This game does seem very neat!! Like damn I'm surprised there's so much here

[exist101]

I really loved Dr Blandstone as a villain. My only complaints are that it could have been longer and used more items, and just overall played more like a poptropica island. I loved all of the little details and bits you could find, and how the twist does make sense. If you're the kind of freak who clicks on everything and reads every bit of dialogue (like me) it's heavily foreshadowed who Anna Gram really is, and yet it almost seems to come out of nowhere!

i want to talk about poptropica

[mystic-sunni]

Is it okay if I can ask for a Dr Blandstone/Anna Gram headcanon? I don't care what kind, I just want her.

Sure thing!

Despite being a bland person Anna Gram actually enjoys visiting the Goofball side a lot more than the other Bland people.

Dr.Blandston even before he discovered the crystals that can make somebody bland or goofy had always been a fan of shiny things!

[lookslikethatsallthetimewehave]

Imagine a universe where all of the villains won. Or even just one villain. Maybe one of the megalomaniacal world domination ones.

Like...

You mean to tell me that there is canonical a world, several worlds, an infinite amount of worlds where Dr. Hare, or Zeus, or Dr. Blandston, or Ringmaster Raven, or Myron Van Buren, or Scheherazade, or etc etc etc won...

and no one is talking about it XD

[exist101]

Yes yes yes yes

I like the concept of Goofball Island and I’m going to talk about it and give my own ideas. Kind of an AU? It’s just my version of the island. (Obvious spoilers mixed with headcanons):

Having the crystals, when blasted at someone, temporarily make them bland or goofy is a fun idea, and some actually wanting to be blandified or become goofy is interesting. And the side effects? Personality change during the whole thing, memory loss on both sides, etc. Since it’s unclear if Dr. Gramston blasted her own arm to make it goofy or not, I’m going to say she didn’t and add randomly switching from bland to goofy and vice versa with overexposure to the crystals onto the side effects list. So yeah, side effects have a lot of potential creativity.

There could also be a constant identity crisis and paranoia for the people of the island about what the other version of them have done while they blacked out (leading to severe insomnia cases and worsening the problems) could have made for some interesting conflict, especially for the pc where people can say that they swear they recognize the pc (from the fact that we could recognize the mayor despite being blandified and, of course, bosko), the pc obviously has no idea what they’re talking about, leading to the islanders second guessing their own clear memory further, apologizing and saying that they need sleep, and perhaps a small joke of pc being worried of meeting someone else that looks like them but is evil since pelican rock is mentioned in this island. Not sure about that or exactly how that would come into play.

Speaking of which, instead of having the pc ‘just’ arrive and not knowing what’s happening at all while their blimp is clearly destroyed (again) and the pc just… not commenting on that, it would start by the pc waking up feeling sore/ having a headache either on the street or sidewalk and then wondering what’s going on before the flashback of their blimp being blasted by something (the bland ray) and it doing something weird to their blimp as it begins to crash and they ‘pass out.’ Not sure about keeping the twist, but if it is revealed the pc was the villain for a minute, there has to be hints that this is not the first time they were on this island, hence why I want people recognizing them or the pc somehow knowing where to go despite not receiving any directions. Things like that, where you have the idea pc was blandified, but not entirely sure what their bland role was.

Tree man can stay as he is because I think it’s funny if he stayed exactly where he was as the bland pc was blasting city hall, having little, if any, reaction to it and just studying them, only for them to come in later with no memory of any of it and helping with an investigation and he takes the opportunity to fuck with them (hence his ominous message of questioning if the you that you can’t remember is the real you or not). So yeah, he would be one of the few people that truly knows anything going on.

I could think on it more and make it more coherent, but this is just me having the idea and needing to write it down before I forget.