Pontaff Retrospective: What's Up with all the Hate?

[Vertekins]

2 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

That's never been the case. Humor is perfectly cool. It's just the humor that we've had for the past 6 years is something I don't really consider acceptable. I want humor that logically stems from the characters and their personalities. Character-based humor. Not just lol-random for the sake of lolz.

Can't help but agree with this actually.

A lot of humor in the games pre-2010 felt far more natural, far more humorous than the irrelevant, random nonsense masquerading as humor that we've been getting since 2010.

Sorry. But examples such as Tails stating the obvious about the Egg Carrier transforming and Sonic's reaction to that being a deadpan "Thank you captain obvious" expression (Adventure), Knuckles' eyes spinning in his head when Tails starts uttering technobabble (Riders) or Sonic and Caliburn continually ripping strips off of each other because their mannerisms clash so much will always be a hell of a lot funnier than the likes of "He was using burps to do it", "Flowers water them with dances" and "Something about public transportation and a loony nurse" ever was or ever will ever be.

And why is that?

Because not only is it genuinely amusing, it all stems from the characters bouncing off of each other believably.

A lot of the "humor" since 2010 relies on you switching off your brain and just swallowing it for what it is and it still isn't funny even if you do that. This is it's fatal mistake - It fails to acknowledge the innate traits of the characters and factor those into the humor, nor is it funny unless you have an obscure taste in humor i.e If you like randomness.

 

[shdowhunt60]

9 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Some of the lol random humor I don't mind. I like that kind of humor when done well( Regular Show, Gumball, even South Park at times). It just shouldn't be all there is, especially when most of it is mediocre.

Right, right. If it's an every once in a while thing, that's fine. But humor isn't something that works in a void. It works with context.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

24 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Is Sonic relating to everyone really a good thing...?
Seems to be at the cost of his individuality, his character... Which doesn't seem to be doing much for the franchise.

Well he's not really relating to everyone which is OK. Sonic is Sonic, he's his own character. The point is that the interactions and writing, made some of us feel that Sonic and friends are written as more full and complete characters. 

[Dr. Crusher]

The most I ever found previous cutscenes that funny were usually through the unintentionally amusing or dumb things. For a long time, I didn't even realise that there was even a joke in Sonic's reaction to Tails talking about the Egg Carrier changing shape, I had thought for a long time that Sonic's drooping eyes were just Adventure 1's graphics... being Adventure 1's graphics. Which is funny in a different way, but I digress.

Like when people mention things in past games that are considered funny, I just look at most of the examples and go "Well, that's kind of amusing I guess", but I can't think of many examples that provided particularly strong reactions out of me. With Sonic and Caliburn's relationship in particular, their interactions never did anything for me in the humor department, partly because neither of them are characters that I have any strong interest or fondness towards, so all it is on my end is just two characters that irritate me a little sassing to each other.

EDIT: Not saying that more recent games are that much better in this department by the way. I'm just saying that I never saw much that was especially hilarious about previous game cutscenes (that were intentional examples) either.

[Chris Knopps]

5 minutes ago, Mikyeong said:

Well he's not really relating to everyone which is OK. Sonic is Sonic, he's his own character. The point is that the interactions and writing, made some of us feel that Sonic and friends are written as more full and complete characters. 

It seems the current goal IS to make him as relatable as possible to as many as possible, this case being all the more apparent with the BOOM franchise. But when you try to make a character that has formed set expectations of his attitude/behavior throughout 20 years of existence, you can't just magically wave a wand and twist his character and behaviors all over the place and expect people to just as magically eat it up.

It's as I said, people have expectations, ones SEGA themselves developed throughout his existence, and the past few games since Colors likely aren't working out because they don't stick to what's expected out of Sonic and co. by the consumers. You can't really blame people for being against the current changes.

[TwinkleCharm]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Crusher said:

 For a long time, I didn't even realise that there was even a joke in Sonic's reaction to Tails talking about the Egg Carrier changing shape, I had thought for a long time that Sonic's drooping eyes were just Adventure 1's graphics... being Adventure 1's graphics. Which is funny in a different way, but I digress.

Me too, haha!

[Diogenes]

36 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

They don't really act like people that are in the scenarios they are in. People don't sit there and make selfie jokes when their friends are kidnapped. Nobody stands around and cracks jokes to a death robot that doesn't give any reaction to them.Nobody flips out and gets angry for no apparent reason other than sheer whim.

Most people are not basically superheroes. Most people will never run into a single death robot in their lives, compared to Sonic who does it on a weekly basis. Y'know what the average person would do when confronted by a death robot? Cower and piss themselves. I'm pretty sure that's not something any of us want to see Sonic doing.

19 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Isn't Deadpool kind of in a WAY higher league than Sonic?

I mean... i'd compare the current Sonic and co. more akin to Barney and friends... That's a realistic comparison...

That's a disingenuous and inflammatory comparison and you know it.

11 minutes ago, ChaosSupremeSonic said:

That's kinda missing his point tho.

"Realism" probably isn't the right term, but there should be a greater connection to the causes and effects of the character's actions, comedic, dramatic, or what have you. Devil May Cry and Deadpool have characters that act so cocky and flippantly - far more so than Sonic, I should add - because they're nigh-immortal and can get away with near-suicidal acts that even Sonic can get away with. Yet, at least in DMC's case, if you put something at risk that Dante cares about or has a greater attachment to (his mother's amulet, his brother Vergil trying to bring a litteral hell on Earth, hell his brother even being in the same room as him as he tries to kill him over this), that attitude changes real fast. DMC at the very least portrays a lot of viceral feeling in the characters that even Sonic doesn't do.

Well you've got a half-demon demon slayer and a cancer-scarred assassin on one side, and on the other, a bright blue Mickey Mouse-esque hedgehog. There are obviously going to be differences in how they handle tone.

9 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Tails goes in on Eggman unprompted in the fight cut scene and then turns his self righteous anger towards Sonic who did nothing wrong.

I will agree that the scene should've had more buildup and I can understand the position that Sonic wasn't in the wrong, but feeling hurt and lashing out because of it, even if you aren't entirely justified, is about as human as it gets, so I don't see that as a flaw of the writing.

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The game tries to present the heroes and Eggman working together under mutual circumstances as something that has no precedent whatsoever which does a disservice the depth of the characters.

I...don't see that as being the case. It's portrayed as something the heroes don't want to do because Eggman is an evil dick who regularly tries to kill them, which is a pretty reasonable concern. Tangential thought, it's a little weird to have this complaint and complaints about Eggman not being taken seriously enough both floating around; are there people who think he should be portrayed/seen as more seriously evil, but also that Sonic and Tails should've been more willing to team up with him again here?

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Sonic- as attitudinal as he is- is always on the defensive and never calls Tails or Eggman out on their dumb shit, particularly Eggman since he enslaved the Six in the first place.

Sonic teaming up with Eggman is part of his trying to make up for the impulsive conch-kick; he's trying to take the safe route and not follow his instincts of "Eggman's a dick", so naturally he's going to try to mediate things and not do straight up callouts. Still, he's hardly kind to Eggman before they team up, he immediately shoots down Eggman's plan to sacrifice Lost Hex, and he admonishes Tails for acting without thinking when he made Cubot-crab.

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Eggman has that outburst against the Six that doesn't go anywhere which undermines the foreshadowing abilities of the game.

True that it doesn't go anywhere, but you sure as hell can't say he wasn't emoting.

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Tails is basically condoned by the narrative because every action is either the right one or morally justified.

The game would've benefited by slipping in an apology by him but I don't think we're meant to see Tails as being entirely in the right. This is pretty far off course from the discussion over whether they're acting human or not though.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

4 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

I will agree that the scene should've had more buildup and I can understand the position that Sonic wasn't in the wrong, but feeling hurt and lashing out because of it, even if you aren't entirely justified, is about as human as it gets, so I don't see that as a flaw of the writing.

You know I am one who thinks that Tails was acting like a dick, but at the same time that is pretty much what I was saying in my original post. In Lost World, the relationship seemed more human if you know what I mean, I mean they have conflicts but they fix them. Every relationship has them. It's not just that scene either, also where Sonic solds Tails for the robot scene, I could really tell that he was upset but he was upset because he cared about him and I want to see that dynamic more.  

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

18 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Well you've got a half-demon demon slayer and a cancer-scarred assassin on one side, and on the other, a bright blue Mickey Mouse-esque hedgehog. There are obviously going to be differences in how they handle tone.

That doesn't really mean anything. Mario is just a cartoony plumber saving a princess from a turtle-dragon, yet he's been in rather dark plots involving demonic resurrection and possession, and an impending apocalypse. Mega Man X and Zero is about cartoony robots trying to prevent genocidal wars against humans and robots, and the latter ends up with a fascist government that brands him as a terrorist as he tries to take them down (nevermind the even darker backstory bridging the two franchises). And the Kung Fu Panda franchise's backstory involves the main character's race also being subject to a genocide, and that's a very comedic franchise in itself to be having such a dark element and portray it with no humor whatsoever. I could go on with even more examples.

And even with DMC and Deadpool, those franchises try to make you laugh as they're doling out bloody headshots on their enemies. So what exactly is the difference in tone you're trying to explain here? Because you might be confusing "tone" with "style" - they're two different things.

[Diogenes]

27 minutes ago, Vertekins said:

... the likes of "He was using burps to do it", "Flowers water them with dances" and "Something about public transportation and a loony nurse" ever was or ever will ever be.

Okay, really now. No one is defending Colors' translator jokes. As one of the few people defending P&G's writing for the series I will without hesitation agree that they were fucking awful. But they were in one game, the only thing that got carried forward was a single reference to the McNosehair one (which is not actually "lolrandom" anyway, even if it's kind of lame). And if there's anything in Lost World that's this sort of "waaacky random nonsense!!!!1" I sincerely can't remember it, and I would appreciate if it was pointed out.

[Chris Knopps]

2 minutes ago, Mikyeong said:

You know I am one who thinks that Tails was acting like a dick, but at the same time that is pretty much what I was saying in my original post. In Lost World, the relationship seemed more human if you know what I mean, I mean they have conflicts but they fix them. Every relationship has them. It's not just that scene either, also where Sonic solds Tails for the robot scene, I could really tell that he was upset but he was upset because he cared about him and I want to see that dynamic more.  

It's the poor execution of it all, not the fact that it happened.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

All I will say about Colors is that the Japanese version was way funnier in my opinion. Lost World didn't really have alot of "waaacky random nonsense!!!!1", if you want to count McNosehair and "that was cool" which am I the only one who found Tails and Eggman's reactions to that.... funny?  

[Azzy]

8 minutes ago, Mikyeong said:

"that was cool" which am I the only one who found Tails and Eggman's reactions to that.... funny?

That scene makes a good juxtaposition of Pontaffs writing and and the general reaction to it.
 

[Nepenthe]

39 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

I will agree that the scene should've had more buildup and I can understand the position that Sonic wasn't in the wrong, but feeling hurt and lashing out because of it, even if you aren't entirely justified, is about as human as it gets, so I don't see that as a flaw of the writing.

"A character merely having feelings doesn't mean a piece of writing is automatically believable or a character automatically human-esque. Everything Tails did in that scene had no catalyst for the behavior. Therefore it comes off as melodrama for the sake of conflict versus an understandable display of emotion predicated on prior circumstances."

I...don't see that as being the case. It's portrayed as something the heroes don't want to do because Eggman is an evil dick who regularly tries to kill them, which is a pretty reasonable concern. Tangential thought, it's a little weird to have this complaint and complaints about Eggman not being taken seriously enough both floating around; are there people who think he should be portrayed/seen as more seriously evil, but also that Sonic and Tails should've been more willing to team up with him again here?

"Eggman being a homicidal dickhead hasn't been a concern when the world is in danger because the characters are able to put aside their differences and work for their mutual survival. So the fact that they are as untrustworthy for as long as they were is tiresome in light of past games. There's no actual conflict of interest here."

Sonic teaming up with Eggman is part of his trying to make up for the impulsive conch-kick; he's trying to take the safe route and not follow his instincts of "Eggman's a dick", so naturally he's going to try to mediate things and not do straight up callouts. Still, he's hardly kind to Eggman before they team up, he immediately shoots down Eggman's plan to sacrifice Lost Hex, and he admonishes Tails for acting without thinking when he made Cubot-crab.

"This contradicts the fact that Sonic was indeed immediately untrusting of Eggman in the scenes following the coup. You'd think if he was as broken up over the decision as the fight scenes tell us he is he would've been more receptive to Eggman's claims from the outset. You also think Tails would've taken this time to develop his grudge. But they're both on the same side until they get to Eggman's base, unconvinced of his trustworthiness, and they even make jokes at his expense. And then Tails flips his shit. This isn't good writing.

"Furthermore, while Sonic does admonish Tails for the Cubot incident (and really, what was he even doing that for???), the narrative goes the route of making us feel sorry for Tails because he has the whole "I just wanted to help" bit. This has the effect of making us empathize with Tails and be less willing to hammer him on his mistakes, whereas Sonic doesn't get that benefit of the doubt in the way the narrative frames his bad decisions, from the fact that Tails talks smart after the coup, his mutual team-up with Eggman being called out out of nowhere, to the fact that he doesn't get an apology.

"Basically, Tails can never be fully wrong in LW's universe. He can't be thrown in the deep end or put in an entirely negative light. He's the cute kid who wants to help and is effectively right and/or justified about everything."

True that it doesn't go anywhere, but you sure as hell can't say he wasn't emoting.

"Emoting =/= empathy. These fucking characters have always emoted but ever since P&G came along people act like they were never empathetic."

The game would've benefited by slipping in an apology by him but I don't think we're meant to see Tails as being entirely in the right. This is pretty far off course from the discussion over whether they're acting human or not though.

"We are meant to see him in the right because the narrative either logically or emotionally condones his actions. Subsequently, the morality of a character's actions does have an effect on framing how empathetic they are to an audience. This is why people don't relate to straight Mary Sues."

Replies quotation marks because I don't have access to mark-up in mobile.

[E-122-Psi]

As said before, I feel like what Pontaff wanted to do with Sonic and Tails in Lost World was what Boom ended up doing at a more competent level. Tails is similarly a bit more egocentric and defensive in the show, but there's a lot more substance there to make him loveable. He doesn't lash out of nowhere, he wants to be noticed but we see a lot more time with him trying and failing to get his inventions right (his interactions with other characters there helps). The show even added onto the whole 'invention fumbles' used in Colours and made it a more developed part of his character, along with his 'too fixated on his tech' flaw in the rampaging Cubot scene. It's almost like Pontaff's Tails was the proto version of their character before they quite hit the mark on what to do with him.

I'm kinda hoping Pontac and Griff do actually take enough research from what they did with the show's material, as it could probably be beneficial in how they do things next time (so long as they know what is the show and what is the games, that is).

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

All Tails wanted was to show Sonic he was competent because though it did come out of know where, there was a slight implication that Sonic trusted Eggman over Tails because it WAS Eggman's machine and Sonic also said in the end that "I will never doubt you again". 

Like I said, I am not the biggest fan of LW's writing but even I will admit that I loved how they wrote these two characters. 

[FriendBot]

2 minutes ago, E-122-Psi said:

I'm kinda hoping Pontac and Griff do actually take enough research from what they did with the show's material, as it could probably be beneficial in how they do things next time (so long as they know what is the show and what is the games, that is).

Well I hope they did watch the show for what to write for Fire & ice since some of the characters in the show do appear in the game, if I recall? Can anyone confirm this?

[E-122-Psi]

I did watch the cutscenes and definitely think it was a step up from previous titles, where I usually thought Tails was incredibly bland, but the execution was indeed hap hazardous. I could owe it to the short time the game could piece it together in cutscenes, but I feel something could have made right in that short length if it was structured the right way.

As said, Lost World (and to lesser degree Colours and Generations) almost felt like the stepping stone for Boom's Tails, which was all the bits of personality Pontaff made for him properly pieced together.

[Bowbowis]

18 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

I...don't see that as being the case. It's portrayed as something the heroes don't want to do because Eggman is an evil dick who regularly tries to kill them, which is a pretty reasonable concern. Tangential thought, it's a little weird to have this complaint and complaints about Eggman not being taken seriously enough both floating around; are there people who think he should be portrayed/seen as more seriously evil, but also that Sonic and Tails should've been more willing to team up with him again here?

The problem people have regarding the precedent for teaming up with Eggman isn't that the heroes are portrayed as not liking it but rather that it's happened enough times before (Adventure 2, Heroes, and ShtH) without any problems that the fact that it's suddenly treated as a major friendship destroying issue is a little hard to swallow, as well as the implication that it's something that never happened before just being irritating for more continuity minded fans.

As for your tangent the reconciliation of those points is pretty simple. Eggman can be trusted to work in his own self interest and while he may be a duplicitously evil son of a bitch, he is a duplicitously evil son of a bitch with a clear goal in mind, conquer the world. Because global empire requires a globe to be built upon the destruction of the world is against Eggman's self interest just as much as it is Sonic's. Therefor Eggman can be relied upon to do everything in his power to stop the destruction of the world and, being the pragmatic sort, not to interfere with anyone working towards the same end, no matter how evil he may be. It feels relevant to bring up Adventure 2 here, since it has both Eggman at his most evil and the first instance of him teaming up with Sonic.

As a tangent of my own am I the only one who was weirded out by Tails' derision of Eggman's skills after Chronicles showed him developing a strong respect for the Doctor's abilities after working with him? Like, I know it's been said that Chronicles is non-canon (though it's also been said that Sonic has no canon sooo...) and Pontac and Graff have almost certainly never heard of it but still going from "I'm impressed by Eggman, he really knows his stuff" to "Eggman's technology looks like it was built by a two year old," is still really jarring.

[The Deleter]

Between the writing with Colors, the issue I have with it isn't that it's trying to be "relatable". If a character is acting like you, a human being, would in that certain situation, with all the given powers and ego that comes along, that's fine by me. Nor do I mind commentary as if the character isn't taking it half as seriously as everybody else. (although in most cases there actually is an "everybody else" to bounce it off of)

The issue I have with it is that it's essentially spectator commentary, and not actual dialog that would occur in such a situation. And it's incredibly bland, at that; nothing a 4th-wall master like Deadpool would say. Almost every line Sonic and Tails say in the game sounds like it could and would come from the Game Grumps if they were just playing the game. Not actually inside it's story, just... watching and commenting on it. And as a result, the believability of all the characters being their own characters starts fading away when they keep acting this way as the story progresses, and yes, it does eventually look like a self-insert character of all things.

 

That and how the rest of the games are written I feel fall into basically the same reason why Ultimate Spiderman's writing is received so poorly compared to Spectacular Spiderman's writing, even thought they both act like "Spiderman": Above most threats, likes to joke about a lot of stuff that seems serious, and is generally casual. People don't care if there are jabs at villains and jokes at the sake of tension, so long as it's written as an actual person with that character would react in certain situations. Random commentary and tangents that have no realistic value or natural flow for the character, and feel like they're coming from a spectator rather than an active participant, though? That's Ultimate Spiderman's thing. Similar character concepts, but different in execution, and entirely different when it comes to end results. 

And it doesn't matter how many times the character does become more involved in the world for plot threads that are used in the story as if to give it something deeper to work with; as long as the characters keep switching back and forth between their spectator mode during the rest of the story, it just makes it all the more apparent, and can even hurt the story even more, as shown with Lost World.

[Diogenes]

13 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

A character merely having feelings doesn't mean a piece of writing is automatically believable or a character automatically human-esque. Everything Tails did in that scene had no catalyst for the behavior. Therefore it comes off as melodrama for the sake of conflict versus an understandable display of emotion predicated on prior circumstances.

There may not have been a clear on-screen trigger, but it's not hard to figure out what he's feeling and why he feels it. It could have been better written, but I can't see it as Tails not being written to be human.

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Eggman being a homicidal dickhead hasn't been a concern when the world is in danger because the characters are able to put aside their differences and work for their mutual survival. So the fact that they are as untrustworthy for as long as they were is tiresome in light of past games. There's no actual conflict of interest here.

There's two cutscenes with them between Zeti rebellion and teaming up, and Eggman doesn't explain why he's needed until the second one. That's not exactly an excessive amount of hesitation.

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This contradicts the fact that Sonic was indeed immediately untrusting of Eggman in the scenes following the coup. You'd think if he was as broken up over the decision as the fight scenes tell us he is he would've been more receptive to Eggman's claims from the outset.

When Eggman's at first just following them, Sonic tells him to piss off, he's not needed, which is reasonable because Eggman is an evil dick. When Eggman explains why he's needed, Sonic goes along with it reluctantly, because he now has a reason that Eggman might be needed in spite of him being an evil dick.

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You also think Tails would've taken this time to develop his grudge.

Tails doesn't have reason to develop a grudge until they've teamed up, which doesn't happen until the very tail end of the scene, and next time we see them it's the flipout scene. What the story needs is another scene between them, or extensions of those two or something. If you're saying there's some time within these scenes for him to start his grudge...I don't see it.

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But they're both on the same side until they get to Eggman's base, unconvinced of his trustworthiness, and they even make jokes at his expense. And then Tails flips his shit. This isn't good writing.

Again, they should've built up to it, I'm not denying that. But the only way I can see Tails' actions as not being understandably human is if you ignore the characters existing offscreen, and that Tails went from uncomfortable acceptance to rage when he was teleported into Eggman's base and the scene started.

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the narrative

Okay look, since this argument is only going to go in circles anyway, I don't want it sprawling out trying to cover every grievance with the game's writing. Right now I'm focused on whether or not the characters are written like people, and I don't think how "the narrative" judges them is really a part of that, so I'm dropping out of those parts of the discussion.

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Emoting =/= empathy. These fucking characters have always emoted but ever since P&G came along people act like they were never empathetic.

I said emoting because that's something you claimed they didn't do.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

18 minutes ago, Bowbowis said:

As a tangent of my own am I the only one who was weirded out by Tails' derision of Eggman's skills after Chronicles showed him developing a strong respect for the Doctor's abilities after working with him? Like, I know it's been said that Chronicles is non-canon (though it's also been said that Sonic has no canon sooo...) and Pontac and Graff have almost certainly never heard of it but still going from "I'm impressed by Eggman, he really knows his stuff" to "Eggman's technology looks like it was built by a two year old," is still really jarring.

Yeah I have to agree, that was one part I didn't really like and that I had questions about. Tails has always respected Eggman's skills and now he's saying builds like a 2 year old and that his robots were a reflection of his "genius". That was the only problem I had.

[E-122-Psi]

I'm half and half. Chronicles Tails took the admiration of Eggman's skills to the point of almost sucking up to him, it felt a bit weird by the end of it. Other sources have tended to find a better mix of Tails wanting to bust Eggman while still having some keen interest as a fellow tech guy. Heck, even Pontaff's following game had a little bit of banter that displayed that pretty well, suggesting that they may indeed be finding a happy medium for the character.

[Chris Knopps]

57 minutes ago, Mikyeong said:

All Tails wanted was to show Sonic he was competent because though it did come out of know where, there was a slight implication that Sonic trusted Eggman over Tails because it WAS Eggman's machine and Sonic also said in the end that "I will never doubt you again". 

Like I said, I am not the biggest fan of LW's writing but even I will admit that I loved how they wrote these two characters. 

They did this far better in SA1 in my opinion... If you wanna make Tails great, I vote following that path.

And I agree with Mikyeong, Tails needs to maintain his core respect for Eggman, that's another thing I don't like, how they've completely cast out the build-up throughout the years just for everything to be a joke and Eggman to be as incompetent/laughable as possible.

[E-122-Psi]

8 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

They did this far better in SA1 in my opinion... If you wanna make Tails great, I vote following that path.

As much as I loved SA1's story, I thought it suffered due to dialogue and lack of expressions/acting, Tails' probably the most. It's probably something that could have worked with proper cinematics (X's adaptation acts as some form of proof, especially given how boring Tails usually was for the rest of the anime) but as it stands he didn't really become that interesting until the final climax of his story.

To tell you the truth, I always thought Tails was really dull in execution in the 3D games before Pontaff. He was just perpetually nice and calm and mature, and nearly all of his dialogue consisted of exposition. Like mentioned before with Sonic, he was nice enough, but couldn't really hold the story by himself. Both Pontaff and Boom have revived the idea of him being more quirky and childish, he's not infallibly polite and at times harks back to old interpretations of being a bit of a hyperactive brat.