User:EmpressTilly
Hello! I am Tilly, local Turkish heretic. I'm an aspiring webcomic creator! I am currently working on a webcomic called The Gemhunters with my lovely partner. We hope you enjoy it :) I'm still a minor, pls no bulli. And that's it basically.
Original review author: | EmpressTilly |
Webcomic name: | The Splat Crew |
Author: | Brett "DarkMario2" Frenyea |
Start Date: | July 22nd, 2015 (original ask series), August 8th, 2015 (story comics) |
End Date: | Ongoing |
Genre: | Fantasy, Sci-fi, Drama, Romance, Borderline Pornography, Splatoon Fanfiction |
Defining Flaw: | Probably either the borderline pornographic content, the messy storyline that's all over the place or the overabundance of characters. |
Rating Summary
Background
Back when the Splatoon fandom was very young, a guy on Deviantart decided to make an ask series with his inkling fancharacters. It was made with the exported Splatoon models on GMOD because he could not draw. It was simple and innocent enough, with plenty of fun shenanigans and fun if not bland characters.
Then he and one of his (now former) friends decided to give it a storyline and everything went downhill.
Meet The Splat Crew, a series of splatoon fancomics by Darkmario2.
I actually used to be a huge fan of this comic when i was 13. All my friends were into it and some of them even got cameos in it. However as time went on i started realising all the flaws in it, aaaaand now we're here.
Downfall
While it was never good, the point where it started getting REALLY uncomfortable was when the character Labrys went from a simple cameo to a key character, and a very horny one at that. (so basically around the Radio Silence chapter.)
Story and Plot
The story is divided into chapters, and each chapter tells a different story. Let's dissect them one by one like frogs shall we?
Ask The Splat Crew and Ask The Next Gen: An interactive ask series where you could ask DM's ocs about just about anything. It used to be a lot more fun, with other's fancharacters occasionally appearing to either pester or befriend the squad and magic anons screwing with The Splat Crew and their friends. Now it's mostly just characters explaining stuff about the lore in the same pose over and over. Ask the Next Gen is the same thing but with all the soul and fun taken out of it.
Wrath of Lucky: This comic was the one that started it all. An evil jester (named Lucky) is tired of the game Splatoon being so popular, so he decides to send in his two newfound minions, Merasmus and the Bombinomicon (yes you read that right), into the game so he can destroy it from within. He builds two android versions of the Squid Sisters called the Squiddroids and makes them sing a song that will drive everyone insane via a concert. While it wasn't the best thing ever and was quite stupid, it was a fun kind of stupid and even had some meta-criticism at the fandom. None of DM's other comics (except maybe Hijinks) have this tone, which makes sense because this was a collaboration.
Origin: The ask panels that spawned the whole Lucky thing adapted into a full comic.
Rise of Darkness: DarkMario's first non-collaboration comic. Compared to WoL it's a lot darker and edgier. While this was made before he fell out with the original collaborator, it was clear that he wanted the story to go in a different direction already. The chapter was about an Inkling girl who lost her memory after getting shot by Octolings, and then getting revenge on them by slaughtering them in their sleep. Pretty self explanatory. This story was originally seperate from Wrath Of Lucky (although it did have some shared characters), but then DM decided to fuse the two stories together, and made it really hard for newcomers to follow the story. Currently getting a remake called Rebirth.
Sky Light: A spinoff of RoD about an octoling girl Darkness (the protagonist of the last chapter) almost killed getting fired from the Octarian Army for being a failure and then getting attacked by thugs, but being saved by another Inkling girl and realising that Inklings aren't all that bad. This chapter is actually pretty sweet, if not basic. And the writing is still less than desirable.
Dark Skys (yes that's how it's spelled): A chapter that only serves the purpose of tying the other 3 chapters together. Moving on.
Chaos in Inkopolis: Takes off where "Wrath of Lucky" left from, the androids begin their concert and the whole city is brainwashed. It's up to the Splat Crew and their newfound friends to stop them. I'll be real; this is just Wrath Of Lucky minus the charm (and the TF2 characters) that made it so fun. This was the first comic DM made after he fell out with the co creator of WoL, and while it did have some stupidly charming moments (like the concert that broke everyone free of brainwashing), it was far from the sheer dumb fun WoL was.
Chaos Aftermath: A comic after the events of "Chaos in Inkopolis". Doesn't have a lot going for it except the Squiddroids turn good.
Radio Silence: In this chapter, DM's version of Agent 3 is in a mission under the sewers investigating for trouble, when he meets a familiar face. This is the chapter in which the character Labrys stops being a cameo that occasionally appeared in asks and side comics and becomes a main character. It's also revealed in this chapter that she is actually her ex- GF's aunt, which while is an... interesting plot twist, the two characters are seen having sex even after this fact is revealed in future chapters. YYYYikes!
Demon Tales: Originally a filler chapter about demons not relating to the previous chapters; DM made it so that this story was canon in the general storyline too and added demons into the story of Splatoon of all things.
Lumia Chronicles: A flashback chapter about a central character in the previous chapter's backstory. Not much to say about it either.
Civil War: Basically the story of Splatoon 2 but darker and edgier. There is too much going on and it's hard to keep track of all the plotlines and characters. One character gets character development and it's entirely offscreen.
Eight Below: The story of the Octo Expansion DLC; retold by Darkmario.
War Aftermath: Probably the most egregious chapter by far. To set up for the next chapter that takes place AFTER War Aftermath, Agent 3 has sex with 4 girls and impregnates them all because they all had baby fever. There is lots of sex and fanservice in this one. Also demons and mortals form a truce or something.
Next Gen: Basically Splatoon but CYBERPUNK! The story is a former shell of what Splatoon is all about. There are synths and robots and demons and gangs and Inkopolis is a wasteland. Not charming at all.
Underlings: Pointless filler chapter about a newly born banshee girl. Meant to serve as a lore story for the demon realm.
Eve Chronicles: Backstory about Labrys's sister. Not much to say like the previous backstory chapter.
Hijinks: Basically one off comics and arcs that are too small to fit in a chapter. Highlights include:
-Genderbending shenanigans featuring the most perverted character in the series other than Labrys.
-Labrys gets raped by a tentacle monster and she becomes the sex obsessed fiend we all know and love today. Never in the comic is her trauma induced hypersexuality addressed, and is often encouraged by her peers. Even her boyfriend reacts to her behavior with what is basically "oh classic Labrys".
-Merasmus and Bombinomicon make a cameo.
-One character spying on another character in the bathroom.
-Sex, masturbation and more sex.
School Days: A specific type of Hijinks that takes place in school.
BONUS: Squids With Hats: A collab comic that never ended up going anywhere. It was basically Llamas with hats but with The Squid Sisters.
Art review
While the comic itself is made in Garry's Mod, we should remember that people HAVE made good content in Garry's Mod, and when used by someone who knows what they're doing it can create pretty impressive stuff. Problem is, DM isn't doing a good job at it. And while there is a good reason why he uses GMOD to make his comics (he can't draw), he is not very good at utilising GMOD to its full potential either. The posing is stiff and the lighting is bland. He sometimes switches to Source Filmmaker; though that only improves the lighting. The posing is still stiffer than my shoulder after writing nonstop for a few hours.
Writing review
The writing is clunky as all hell. The pacing is really weird, sometimes the story grinds to a halt and sometimes events go by super fast. The dialogue is either super awkward or plagirized word by word from other media/songs. The story is full of typos; though DM does acknowledge them and fix them when pointed out so that's something.
The characters are usually very bland because since there are so much of them, DM can't focus on most of them. The ones he DOES tend to focus on are either blatant fapbait, or are just cliche character archetypes with nothing else going for them.
We COULD dissect them all one by one, but since there are so many of them (around 90 the last time i checked) i shall only focus on the main characters of the original series.
Viriti: The mom friend and the lead singer of the band. Doesn't have much going for her other than the fact that she turns into a kraken when she gets pissy.
Cobalt: Gamer boy. While technically the leader of the Splat Crew, he is painfully devoid of any personality and barely gets any story focus.
Citcho: Unlikable pervert hacker who gets away with anything. While most characters like him develop and turn into slightly more likable assholes, Citcho remains the same asshole he's always been.
Lavanna: The granddaughter of DJ Octavio who defected from the octarian army because her brainwashing goggles were defective. Also painfully devoid of any personality, though she does show signs of being a mischevious punk girl. Too bad we rarely get to see it.
Marinea: A character as stupid as her name. She is one of those "innocent fanservice girls" that rance around the house with no clothes or boundaries and has no sense of personal space, frequently harassing her object of attractions.
Ivory: Used to be the most unlikable character. She is a tsundere, and by that i mean she gets pissy at everyone who even slightly shows affection to her and then gets all upset and shit when they do quit. Punched a 11 year old once.
Ebon: Unlike Cobalt and Lavanna who have at least something going for them; Ebon is completely devoid of any traits that make him memorable. He is constantly overshadowed by his sister Ivory, and doesn't have any plot purpose until Next Gen. He also is the least frustrating character due to completely lacking any visible flaws, and therefore he's my favorite.
Solaris: Agent 3. Boring. Has a harem and that's the only memorable thing about him.
Kat: A character so unmemorable, DM usually forgets she exists. Which makes sense considering she wasn't originally DM's, she belonged to his former collaborator until he gave her to him. She's a shy girl who is bullied mercilessly by her older brother Citcho and frequently harassed by her childhood friend Marinea.
Labrys: Horny.
Lilith: The main bad guy and Lavanna's sister. Cuckoo in the head.
Author biography
DarkMario2 is one of those edgelords that calls themselves a "sadist" and think being unashamedly horny and shut off from everyone is endearing and quirky. He usually does not get into drama though; the two largest pissfests that happened were when his former collaborator made foot fetish GMOD art without his permission (which is weird because later on he started lewding his characters in arguably worse ways); and when he and a former friend of his who supplied him with exported Splatoon models fell out because Darkmario refused to take sides when another one of his OTHER model suppliers began acting like a fucking tool.
Darkmario actually used to be a lot more social; he was more open with his fanbase and the story had a lot more characters belonging to others appear in his comic like Nate or Markus. However as time went on he closed off more and more as he got increasingly tired of his fanbase and most of his old friends dissappeared from Deviantart. Honestly, i don't blame him, his fanbase is annoying as hell.
Conclusion
(will come back to this later!)
Links
Place links pertaining to the webcomic here.
- Tv Tropes Page Fun fact; i was the one who made this page when i was still a fan of it. Make of that what you will.
- Patreon In case ya wanna financially support this guy.