#quest slander

Og image

OG image:

Alright, I'm gonna get this out of the way, this part in the original story genuinely pisses me off. One bc of Cuphead's horrid portrayal of suic*dal characters, and also bc... IT WAS SO FUCKING SHORT.

Alright, let's legit make a quick analysis of this moment in the comic.

It's starts off AS SOON as Cuphead walks into the restaurant(?) (He thought he aura farming here lol-)

When Boris mentions Mugman, Cuphead immediately goes for the kill and starts blasting and chasing them.

Literally the next few panels are just him being crazy and then breaks down-

And then we have the YAAAAY TEAMWORK panels, but we also see (from an outside perspective) that he's hallucinating Mugman being there with him.

Bendy keeps Boris away from Cuphead, bc obviously Cuphead is danger (duh) and he doesn't want his little brother near him in this state, so Bendy deals with it.

And then we have my live reaction to trying to analyze this scene thoroughly /j

Bendy stops Cuphead from shooting himself. Cuphead believes that it's all his fault that Mugman is gone (AND HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW THAT HE'S GONE YET, BC HE LITERALLY JUST UP AND LEFT MUGS IN THE HOSPITAL AT THIS POINT, BUT WE DON'T KNOW THAT UNTIL LATER ON IN THE COMIC) and that he's the one who needs to die. (I'll save my opinions for this part for later)

Here, for how short it is, we get to see Cuphead's views if Mugs really was gone. He finds no reason to be alive if Mugs isn't. Bendy, even after everything Cuphead and Mugman have put him and Boris through, feels bad for him.

And then Cuphead passes out. (Bendy thinking he was dead for a second for some reason-)

Ahem...

As you can see, from when Cuphead arrives to when he passes out, this part of the story is short and very poor representation.

And this sucks bc... it could've genuinely been a good part of the storyyyyy!!!!

This part would've really benefited from flashbacks or seeing things from Cuphead's perspective, but we only focus on the outsiders perspective.

We don't know why Cuphead breaks down RIGHT NOW at this moment, we don't know what Cuphead is seeing besides implications of seeing Mugman, AND we don't see what happens while we focus and Boris and Bendy before he aims his finger gun at himself. He's just crying and then boom he has his finger to his head.

It all just... Comes out of nowhere...

The pacing is awful, especially in this part.

Mind these are ALL the panels for when Cuphead arrives to when he passes out. We never get to see him spiral overtime, he only spirals when he has to for the story (like when he breaks down).

Now speaking of Cuphead's breakdown. Look, I'll make fun of how moist Cuphead looks in this panels all the time, but I genuinely like the idea of that breakdown scene.

Like, okay, he shot his brother and now he's going after the two guys they were supposed to be going after anyways, he promised to make them suffer after all. And then when he finally has the chance, he processes everything all at once and breaks down. He can't help but see his own brother that he presumes is dead. The two having a supposedly tight bond, he sees no reason to live without him, especially if it's HIS fault his brothers gone...

NOW THAT IS GOOD IMO

But, pacing is EVERYTHING, especially with scenes like this.

Like, let's take Mugman's crash out from MOTM.

His breakdown isn't done in just 25 panels, start to finish, there's build up, there tension between him and Boris, there's hallucinations of BROTHER we see from his POV, there's a damn flashback to show that this kind of thing didn't happen and come out of nowhere. Basically, we feel and see his mental state til the end of chapter 1.

And even then, we still see him going through it, like in Dyle's train, with his intrusive thoughts about killing Bendy.

There are lasting effects to events in chapter 1.

But I will say, this wouldn't have been so effective if it wasn't for Mugman's crashout being as long as it is.

Again, pacing is EVERYTHING. Time is EVERYTHING.

If Cuphead's crashout and breakdown in Quest was longer and we got see stuff from his POV, it would've been more effective on getting you to feel something instead of just being shock value.