Hello everyone! Durand here with another round of facts about the wonderful world of Ask or Dare: Cartoon & Anime All-Stars! Now without further ado, LET'S A GO!
1. The Original Cast
Anyone who's been with the series long enough knows the original 9 shows. SpongeBob SquarePants, The Loud House, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Glitter Force, The Casagrandes, Kim Possible, Glitter Force Doki Doki, Pokémon and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. I'm sure you're all wondering why the original collection of shows is uneven. Well, what if I told you there were gonna be an even 10 shows for the OG set of shows? There were 2 shows I was gonna have join the series in the beginning alongside the original 9, those being The Proud Family and Hugtto Precure. I was thinking of the former since it was the very first animated Disney Channel show, but knowing Mickey, he'd be a lot angrier if he knew 2 of his properties were being used for something without the mouse's consent, so I settled with just Kim Possible. For Hugtto, as you all know, I hadn't seen Hana since I first came to Authoria until the 1 Year Anniversary, so I couldn't get ahold of her or her friends. That didn't stop those 6 from eventually joining in this season though, thanks to my cast!
2. The Character Ages
If you guys pay attention to some of the shows, you'll realize that the characters hardly ever age, or at all. To fix this pet peeve, I decided to age up some of the characters either to make some of the fanon relationships work, or just to show some continuity for some of the shows.
3. Season 1 & Season 2
Ah, the 2 seasons that started it all. But I'm gonna be honest, I don't like either of these seasons. Season 1 was just too cringe for my taste. I can't be too harsh on it since this was my introduction to making a long-running story, but looking back at it now, I can't help but cringe. Season 2 was a bit less cringe, but I was BANKRUPT on ideas for new shows that I didn't plan on introducing later on, so I pretty much just threw in nearly 30 Precures in that season and called it a day. Easily the worst season in terms of new show diversity.
4. Team Dark
Julie, Reina, Mandy, Quico & Ryoko. The team of terror. The most despised characters in the cast. By crewmates and fans alike. I'm sure at least one of you guys were confused as to why they bother helping the Heroes when they seem more likely and more believable to join the villains of every primary & mini arc. It's because of a code they apparently follow. Remember what Ryoko said back in the FSW arc about how only she can be the one to kill Haruhi, and she'll side against anyone who tries to kill her rivals? That's something they all follow. They believe they're the only antagonists that are allowed in the series, which is why they'll fight alongside us.
5. Haruhi Time
Oh boy... Haruhi Time. The segment introduced last season that isn't well liked amongst the other users... I'm sure many of you question why I had introduced this segment into the series, so I suppose I could provide an answer. To be frank, I was thinking about having a new segment be hosted by one of the characters in the series since the 2nd Saga began to spruce things up. The biggest problem with that is WHO would be the host for such a crazy and chaotic segment in a crazy and chaotic show. The character had to both be someone who could keep the show's chaotic spirit alive, and be a character everyone knows about. Then I remembered, "Oh Yeah! Haruhi IS chaos!" That's why Haruhi was the character to get the segment. That, and since Haruhi finished her true redemption arc during the 1st half of Season 5, and was becoming true MC material, I figured that I might as well give her more screentime.
6. Random New Characters
Everyone who's been reading this series long enough is familiar with the process of introducing new characters to the series. Every 10 episodes, a new batch of characters join the series, most of which are characters from shows that haven't already been part of the series, along with additional reps for shows that ARE in the series. But something people tend to gloss over is when characters join before the 10th episode. Most of these stem from the random characters being mentioned by the cast in the episode they make their debut in, while some just randomly appear without any past mention. I thought it would be cool to have some new faces join in while people wait for the next batch of characters. Now with the massive cast we have, I decided to put that on a mild hiatus. Well, what do you guys think? Do you miss the random unexpected new characters?
7. The Tekken 7 Crossover
The Tekken 7 Crossover. The 1st big arc and event I've ever done for Ask or Dare, and was what introduced guest characters to the series. While I have no regrets following through with this arc, there are some things about it that I wish I had thought more about. The most important being how the story was supposed to go. I couldn't decide whether to make the story a continuation from where the actual Canon Tekken 7 story left off, or to simply tell the story, but with some enhancements beyond the Ask or Dare cast getting involved in the war. Due to my laziness, I just decided to make the arc have both elements, which I admit came out pretty sloppy.
8. Why Team Dark is the way they are.
Back to Team Dark. I'm sure some of you are wondering why most of them are considered main antagonists. Well, here's the thing. Only Julie & Ryoko were characters I had intended on making actual antagonists when introducing him. Quico (The most tame of the antagonists) was only made one in Season 3 because I needed to think of a way for him to some kind of importance in the series (Even if he really doesn't...). The other 2, Reina & Mandy were only made antagonists because that's how everyone else saw them, and by everyone, I really only mean Logan & Ani. Mandy was originally just supposed to be a secondary character, but when Logan made those dares (Which Canonically aren't dares) where Patrick, Billy & Mandy torture Regina in Season 2, I decided I might as well make her an antagonist. As for Reina, when she first arrived, she was only meant to be a neutral character. A true rival to Ronnie Anne. But in her 1st few episodes, she was REALLY hated by Logan & Ani. So I figured that if they saw them as antagonists, she'll be an antagonist. The recurring Poptart joke also came from Ani as well, and is one of the few recurring elements from the older seasons that I actually like. I was also pretty indecisive as to if I wanted them to be comedic or actual threats. Which is why Julie & Reina threatened to kill Logan in the last few episodes of Season 2, and why Ryoko nearly killed Lily's mother. After some thinking, I decided to make them mostly comedic. Or at least tone down the evilness. Since we now have actual villains for our Heroes to face.
9. FSW
Next we get into FSW (Fantasy Sketch Writer), who's been a series staple in the series since Season 2, and is the 2nd most disliked user in the series by both the cast, and is canonically the most divisive user in Authoria. For those who aren't aware, FSW was the 1st user in the series to go over the standard PG-13 rating when he dared Haruhi to kick Lincoln onto Mikuru while she took pictures of them all the way in Season 2... Looking back, it was probably the most cringiest dare I ever accepted. A few episodes later, he then dared for the anime characters to dogpile Sakura, which then (inadvertently) led to Sakura and Shade's relationship to be on the brink of collapse. Recently, FSW has been nagging about how the cast still doesn't like him, which is pretty exaggerating as the cast has grown to tolerate him. There are only a few characters that genuinely hate still his guts. Those being the Loud House characters, Sakura, Weiss, Esdeath. The former 2 still bear a grudge against him because of his past crude dares and just choose to not forgive him nor Haruhi (Only Sakura still hates Haruhi), Weiss is just grumpy, and Esdeath just plainly hates everyone. As to why he was seen as suspicious in Video Game All-Stars, the Cartoon & Anime characters are afraid he would try pulling the some tricks as he did long ago. Hope this is a good enough response, FSW.
10. Authoria
Ah, Authoria. The State of Dreams, and the home to many of Ask or Dare's inhabitants. But how did such place even exist in this story. Well, when going into Season 4, I wanted to flesh out my OCs character, show everyone how he even got to such a place. Here in the real world, we could only DREAM of meeting our favorite characters. I had everything down. The past, the introduction to the place, and how this series got its start. All I was missing was a name for the state. That's when a thought crossed my mind! One of my closest friends, V4 had made a story (Which is sadly gone) about MY story and had come up with a name for the place! And that was how Authoria was born! And it's for this reason that made me like V4 more than I did initially! Also, for those who are wondering, Authoria is a fictional state in Canada that exists in an alternate dimension beyond where my OC originally came from.
And those are 10 more Facts About Ask or Dare: Cartoon & Anime All-Stars! If you were ever wondering about knowing more about any of these topics, this should hopefully answer any questions you may have! As always, thanks for reading and the Ask or Dare Cast will see you all next time!