OH BOY IT'S COMING HERE WE GO!!!!
I shall pitch and comment on some themes \o/
New theme candidates for this year-
Everybody dunk on KanrikThis recently arose on the Discord when we were mix-and-matching the popular site 'ships and recalled how Kanrik had done some pretty bad things before casually becoming the site's edgy prettyboy. We considered everybody breaking up with Kanrik, and to keep it NT-friendly, the non-romance version of that would be everybody dunking on Kanrik. Like cancelling, but preferably avoiding a direct satire of cancelling because Hot Topic.
So: pranks, but the target is Kanrik. You try to prank your neighbour? It somehow hits Kanrik instead. Accuse him of all sorts of random ridiculous things! Every last person in Neopia suddenly has a bone to pick with him.
Regarding
Stephanie (swordlilly) 's concern that newer users would only know him from the Thieves' Guild and not his Ice Caves backstory: no worries! I think it'd still be funny to dunk on him just because he's supposed to be all cool and emo and charming and mysterious, exactly the kind of character who deserves to have his Groove Thrown Off! =D It was already happening in the Obelisk War, much of the humour in Kanrik's Guild of Bandits was... to make fun of the leader and generally drive him nuts, as if he was the faction's babysitter.
My concern for this theme:
even though it's all about a fictional character, it might be more mean-spirited than other options.
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Villain Redemption / Villain ApologiesHere's one I made on the Discord a couple months ago:
ironic villain redemption takes, as in "[Villain] did nothing wrong!" (For example, me explaining how the Darkest Faerie only wanted to save y'all from light pollution, shakemyhead.)
Could also include parodies of apology videos.
Concerns: avoid overlap with the Villains-themed Great Collab that's already been done.
That theme can casually fit this one, too: vvvvvv
-(Bonus to the above) Sloth has redeemed himself and has joined what's now called Virtudor and has reformed it into a happy loving space kingdom full of Virtue. He's now BFFs with the Space Faerie, who helps run Virtudor.
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Return of King TeraskFrom the Discord, based on a Daily Puzzle that included King Terask as an answer to "who was a player in the Altador Yooyuball team".
Wow, Fyora is about to release a redeemed villain? All Xandra fans gather to witness the return of... King Terask. Just. Bring back this old obscure character and shove him everywhere. Yes he is a giant dragon. And now he is everywhere. Friendly neighbourhood redeemed villain, new mascot, or new plot boss.
Concerns: look, this one is just for the Neoquest fans. It could totes be included in villain redemption, though!
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Fake Moltara PlotFrom the Discord, based on the mysterious tower in Moltara and this... thing:
www.jellyneo.net/?go=moltara_mystery&id=portal_activationThis would require some brainstorming, to come up with an exciting plot to make people mad that they can't access it. Advantage: there is a page with buttons to fiddle with, on which people really can waste some time. >D To add insult to injury it asks you to purchase a NC item. Folks, getting people to fiddle with this would be a beautiful troll.
To make it plottier, it could be connected with the Coincidence, with the old Brightvale portals event, and uuuh stopping the Kiko Lake volcano from erupting!
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Lutari Island OpensYou know what, it might just be so out-of-the-blue that it would work now! Who's still hoping to actually visit Lutari Island anymore? I keep wishing for another Fake Land to Visit prank like Goldrun. With a little bit of coordination it could work. Just need to comment on the "new" map, the characters who welcome you there of course, the items being sold, the quests, you know, anything to make people think they're missing out.
- Groovy Town
From the Discord. Because I had Funky Town in my head. Neopia has a new land! The land... of disco!
Could involve bringing back the Concert Hall band characters with more attention, more trendy idol and influencer-like characters.
- Excuse me I'm just going to grab this
- NeoHome 3.0, but it's VR and/or NFT so you don't actually
have a physical home
aaand pinch that
- Nick Neopia is back!... Except he's now a grown-up businessman cringing at all the new skateboard stuff from Trudy's.
*martini shake-a-shake-a-shake*
and I give you:
Some runner-ups from the last years-
Bananas!!!! Last year's runner-up, initially suggested by Snaw.
I fully support bringing it back. This is a theme of fun lolrandomness, good old vintage internet humour that's been making a comeback. It's simple. Just add bananas lol!!
This theme could be done with any random food like corn or cheese, however, I support keeping it to bananas, for the reason that the word banana is inherently funny due to its banana consonance, and that it stays banana funny banana no matter how many banana times you say it banana!
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Kiko Lake Uprising Combines the Kiko Lake Yooyuball team's infamous shenanigans with Kiko Lake having enough of being the boring land and needing a plot already. Neopian Times now sponsored by Kiko Lake.
Concerns: avoiding parallels with politics.
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ChiapocalypseRuh-roh, clouds of Chia Flour are rampaging over Neopia and your precious Ice Draiks are in danger of getting random-evented into Yellow Chias! the horror! And/or Chias take advantage of this to assert dominance.
Advantage: this works as a prank for fictional pieces and also as a "watch out, this is happening on the site!" prank.
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Corporate and/or Clickbait Neopian TimesBuzzfeed headlines, many Top 10s and You Won't Believe Number 17 on the List, ad breaks in comics...
It looks plain because we all know what it's like so there isn't much to say, but if enough people are inspired, it could make a memorable prank-themed issue.
Very tentative re-pitching:
New Obelisk Factions / Obelisk War Part Deux / Return of the Obelisk, the Collapse
This was talked about a couple times without getting picked. I think it's too big of an undertaking to really coordinate unless we have several enthusiastic volunteers for sure! This prank would need us to make the Obelisk seem exciting again, so it would take a *good deal* of brainstorming!
It's a good premise for a Fake New Plot type of prank that could involve new factions to join a la Faerie Wars, and dramatic happenings over Neopia like new Obelisks or more lands being affected and whatnot. I believe a potential Gamers faction was on the table.
On Leader Swap:
This is one that I would not seriously pitch again for this year. It's been in the running at least twice, and did not make it, so I'd give up on it.
My concerns with this theme are that it focuses too much on a specific subset of Neopian characters who already get the Noil's share of attention anyway, and then it would force participants to figure out fun shenanigans from Political Business. It doesn't work for people who don't focus on specific Neopian lands, or not on those with set leaders. I haven't yet heard any ideas to make the swap affect regular Neopian-next-door characters.
Good for some fun crackfics from fans of those characters, but not enough to fuel an entire collab issue in my opinion.