YMMV / Epithet Erased

Other YMMV

• Prison of Plastic

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General

• Adorkable:
  • Molly can be quite cutely awkward and geeky at times, such as stumbling over her words or pointing out her love of bears. She especially takes a shine to playing as a "bad guy" working for Giovanni, with her adorably acting criminal or putting on some Bad "Bad Acting" against cops in order to avoid consequences for being an accomplice to criminals.
  • Giovanni is a sweetheart for similar reasons as Molly: his deliciously hammy attempts at villainy combined with his earnest, kind demeanour result in him being a treat to watch. It helps that he has a very heartwarming bond with Molly and his boys, too.
  • Whether it be his Undying Loyalty to Mera, his respect of the bodyguard code, or willingly joining a pose off with the Banzai Blasters, it's probably easier naming times Indus wasn't being adorably stupid.
  • Despite being a sleazy forgery artist who has swindled half a dozen companies out of their savings, Ramsey has shades of this. He is frequently drawn with a cute Playful Cat Smile, carries a pack of crayons in his pocket, does art commissions on the side, orders a Shirley Temple at a bar, and engages in petty mischief and puns constantly.
    Ramsey: Drop the cop, it's time for crime...inal thinking! It was better in my head!
  • Sylvie, whenever he drops his The Comically Serious shtick. Then it's clear that he's just an insecure, scrawny teen who simply wants people to take him seriously.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Molly and Lorelai's parents, Martin and Calliope Blyndeff, were they good people in the past, or were they always selfish, and it wasn't apparent until one of them was gone.
  • Martin Blyndeff has been shown to be nothing but a despicable, irresponsible man-child who put off working on his shop to his youngest daughter Molly who is still a preteen, and despite appearing to be closer to his oldest daughter Lorelai is uncaring towards her as well. Almost everyone that knows Martin dislikes him for his irresponsibility and selfish attitude; however, his daughters have nothing but positive things to say about his deceased wife, Calliope, who was a responsible adult who had planned her daughter's futures. However, Word of God, and later Molly herself in Prison of Plastic, note that neither would be good parents by themselves, instead perfectly balancing each other out; Blaber would go on to state that if Calliope had lived while Martin had died, it would have resulted in Lorelai being miserable rather than Molly.
    • This calls into question how bad of a person Martin Blyndeff was both in the past and present. There's no question that he's an uncaring and neglectful parent presently, but how bad was he in the past, and is there a deeper reason for his bad behavior now? According to the series creator, while Martin was never a good dad, he was a better parent in the past when he and his wife could balance out their worst traits, this also implies that he wasn't that bad as a person in the past, and if he was immature, maybe it was in an endearing way, and he knows when to be mature because of his wife. And while Martin was always immature, is his behavior partly a coping mechanism to deal with his wife's death. Martin's youngest daughter Molly pointed out that after her mother died, her father and sister just kind of "ignored the situation." His childishness today may result from being deep in denial about his wife's death because he does not want to deal with the fact that she is gone and he has to raise their daughters. That would give an understandable but not justifiable reason for Martin's behavior.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: While Howie's blue-grey skin tone may seem like a case of Amazing Technicolor Population, it's actually a natural skin tone, as pointed out by Jello in this tweet.
• Awesome Ego:
  • Giovanni is constantly gloating about his villainy and sporting a smug smirk, and he's very powerful despite his Epithet just being Soup thanks to his ingeniosity and various skillsets. Thanks to these, he's got a pretty good track record against more powerful, better trained or more numerous Epithet users, like Sylvie, Percy, and Bugsy and Arnold.
  • Zora thinks the world of herself, and thus acts pretty flippantly about her targets, but she is very clever, a skilled marksman, the first character ever introduced to have all her stats at level 3 and the owner of the most powerful Epithet so far that is apparently more powerful than we know.
• Awesome Music:
  • The opening theme of the web series, "Deadline", is a toe-tappingly catchy jazz piece about losing all your progress on an important project and cramming to meet the deadline.
  • "Great at Crime", the ending theme of the Museum Break-In Arc, is incredibly catchy, and a perfect theme for the Banzai Blasters. The extended version amplifies the high-energy jazz of the original, with the new lyrics further emphasizing just how much the Blasters buy into their own hype despite how truly pathetic they are.
  • "Great at Cowboy", the ending theme of the Western Arc, is a chilling Villain Song from Zora's perspective that beautifully showcases Dawn M. Bennett's singing voice.
  • The background music, composed by Plasterbrain, is nothing to sneeze at either. Some standouts include "Underwhelming Battle", "Glass Rabbit ~ Molly's Theme", and "Ride the Glass Skyrail".
  • Prison of Plastic's theme song, "Say No", is a heavy contrast to "Deadline", being a more fast-paced jazz piece seemingly from the point of view of Calliope Blyndeff, discussing the flaws and traumas of both of the Blyndeff sisters and urging them both to reconcile.
  • "Countdown", another catchy Villain Song for Zora, is a song about her asserting her power over the criminals she hunts down, using the theme of counting down from 10 through the lyrics ("baring my canines" as 9, etc), to show how she always wins and anyone on her list is doomed from the start. Dawn's singing voice is powerful, and Zora becomes even more threatening throughout the song's runtime.
  • Giovanni and Molly covering "That Beautiful Sound" from the Beetlejuice musical. Not only is it just as catchy as the original, it's also made extra-hilarious by rewriting the spoken word segments to include cameos from other Epithet Erased characters. Plus, the premise of these two having fun together is just plain adorable.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Molly shows many signs of autism, such as social awkwardness, sensitivity to noise, and an intense interest in specific topics (bears, in her case). Word of God says that she wasn't intentionally written as such, but despite this, many fans treat it as next-to-canon that Molly is autistic.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Giovanni's boys as a whole, despite their minimal focus, quickly became beloved for their quirky personalities, being undyingly loyal to their admittedly goofy boss, and overall being pretty funny. Of particular note are Flamethrower and Crusher, the former for taking male cheerleading, and the latter for being a Cold Ham in love with Giovanni.
  • The Banzai Jennifers are well-liked despite being minor characters with little dialogue, mainly due to their cute designs and being a reference to the Heathers Musical.
  • Arnold Markdown has a decent amount of fans, thanks to Oliver Tull's performance and his Laughably Evil personality. Even Jello himself considers him Creator's Favorite, alongside Molly.
• Evil Is Cool: Zora Salazar, a no-nonsense bounty hunter Well-Intentioned Extremist, quickly became one of the most popular characters of the show. Having a really cool image and impressive powerset helps.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: Molly Calling the Old Man Out for Martin's constant incompetence and getting Happily Adopted by either Giovanni or Percy are very common in fanfic. Later become canon by the former by the end of Prison of Plastic, abet by "kidnapping" her.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Mera is often called "Mirror Salami", since her name is "Mera Salamin".
  • "The Museum Trio" for Molly, Giovanni and Sylvie.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Zora/Percy and Zora/Ramsey are very popular, even though she tried to kill both of them in canon.
• Idiosyncratic Shipnaming:
  • Ramsey/Percival is occasionally known as "Goldbricker Parapet", combining their Epithets.
  • While one could use the same for Molly/Sylvie, "Dumb Drowsy", some got a bit more creative, calling it "Earmuffs".
  • Similarly Mera/Indus is known as "Fragile Barrier".
  • Giovanni/Rick is gaining some popularity as "Soupmates".
• I Knew It!: Following Percy's Epithet being changed from Feudal to Parapet, several fans correctly guessed that Zora's Epithet would be renamed from Crepuscule to Sundial.
• Jerkass Woobie: Mera may be abrasive, but it's hard not to feel sorry for her since her epithet keeps her in constant pain.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: The series has a colorful cast of various villains and antagonists who are beloved by the audience for being funny, friendly, sympathetic, understandable, or just plan cool. However the same cannot be said for Molly’s dad Martin whose irresponsible and idiotic nature is not played for laughs and causes untold strife for his youngest daughter. Many fans would even go so far to say that the villains would be better parents than Martin.
• Magnificent Bastard: Zora Salazar is a Bounty Hunter who works for Bliss Ocean, assisting them in their goal of ridding the world of epithets because she believes her own powerful epithet makes her job too easy. Looking to capture Ramsey Murdoch while completing her mission to retrieve the Arsène Amulet, Zora corners Ramsey in his cell, giving him a one-hour head start to make things more challenging for herself, then effortlessly defeats Bugsy and retrieves the amulet from him. She then resumes pursuing Ramsey, showing off a wide variety of creative applications for her epithet in the process. When Percival King, a police officer who Ramsey allied himself with for protection, proposes an epithet-free duel where the winner takes both the amulet and Ramsey, Zora agrees to those terms, only breaking the rule when Ramsey destroys her gun. Ramsey and Percy push themselves to the limit in an attempt at defeating Zora, and even then they only barely manage to briefly knock her out. When Zora recovers, she recognizes that the way she used her epithet was dishonorable and agrees to call the duel a draw, sparing Ramsey for the time being. Zora's playful, charismatic, yet intimidating demeanor makes her one of Epithet Erased's most threatening, yet entertaining and likeable antagonists.
• Memetic Mutation: Giovanni tends to get compared to Papyrus a lot.
• Moe: Molly. With her fuzzy bear hoodie, soft voice, and general kindness towards others, it's hard not to love her.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Epithet Erased has easily a bigger following and presence than Anime Campaign, thanks to its tighter plot-structure and better accessibility.
• No Yay: Giovanni and Molly have one of the closest friendships in the entire series, with Giovanni acting as a surrogate big brother to Molly and helping to bolster her confidence. Where this takes a turn into Squick territory is with the few people who ship Molly and Giovanni romantically despite the massive age-gap. Director Brendan Blaber and the majority of the fanbase are ardently against anything depicting these two romantically, and have spoken out against any art or fanwork supporting this ship.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Technically, there's only one: "Ramsival", for Ramsey/Percy (real name "Percival"). Though occasionally others can be found, like "Mindus" for Mera/Indus and "Sylvolly" for Molly/Sylvie.
• Rooting for the Empire: By no means are the morally good characters like Molly and Percy unlikable; it's simply that criminals like the Banzai Blasters, Mera and Indus, and Zora are just too entertaining to not root for to some degree.
• Sailor Earth: Pick a word that isn't confirmed to be an Epithet yet and design a character based on the powers their Epithet might give them. Jello is also quite supportive of fan characters, occasionally reblogging concepts that he likes on Tumblr.
• Toy Ship: Molly/Sylvie, both being the only minors in Season 1's main cast, is fairly popular, due to them forming an adorable friendship over the course of the series. Plus it's one of the few acceptable ships involving Molly.
• The Woobie: Molly. Ever since her mother's death, her sister and father have placed the burden of running the family business on her, meaning she's been overworked and sleep-deprived since she was 10 years old!

The web series

• Accidental Innuendo: The following line from episode four. Keep in mind, this was one of the audition lines for Mera, so Jello ended up making around one hundred and fifty women say this.
  Mera: [Mera sighs and squeaks in behind him. She grimaces as her broken bones press up against Indus's girth. She's used to it.]
• Awesome Art: No matter how debated the animation is, it can't really be argued that the art featured, namely the character designs, isn't pretty spectacular.
• Broken Base: The series' Limited Animation is a big point of contention. Fans don't mind the limited style, finding it charming and unique, while detractors feel as though the style is lazy and unremarkable.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Mera's Eye Catch reads that "80% of her diet is headache medicine". It's funny until we learn that Mera is in constant pain because of her epithet. So the painkillers are more than likely not for headaches... Similarly, the gag in episode 2 about her breaking "so many nails", as well as her toe, searching for the Arsene Amulet becomes a lot less funny when you learn just how likely that is to happen to her.
• Squick: Bugsy's appetite and the way it responds to his Epithet can be quite gross to watch.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Howie Honeyglow is very cool in design, personality, and strength, which makes it slightly disappointing that he only shows up for a few scenes in the last two episodes of season one, and then gets worfed before he can have a real battle. Many fans are hoping that he'll get a chance to shine in future stories.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • When she first appeared in the intro, many initially confused Percy for a guy, due to her short hair and "Percival" typically being a man's name. This was actually intentional, as Jello deliberately designed her with an Ambiguous Gender Identity.
  • Zora was similarly mistaken to be a man by some when she first appeared in the intro, though that died down quickly after she made her proper debut.

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