BRING BACK OLD POPTROPICA ISLAND PETIOTION

@comical-icicle, @mystic-sunni, @thatonerabbit, @lookslikethatsallthetimewehave, @redshamrock56, @emerald194, @kittieshauntedourfantasy, @yumnasfunblog, @sundove88, @xxgalacticambitionsxx ASSEMBLE AND SPREAD

i miss poptropica…it’s not dead but they got rid of all my favorite islands

Maybe if the majority of us email cmg about bringing the old islands back they'll eventually give in

If the entire Poptropica community emailed them and they were to see how many people cared and wanted it, then maybe it would inspire them to at least think about it...

But the problem is that not everyone cares enough about the game to even want to email them XD

Also some might be too shy to do that (although they can just create anonymous emails...)

I'm actually a really shy person in real life, but I'm determined enough to email and message people just for the sake of this franchise.

Just in case you do care...

Their email: <[email protected]>

do you want to hear something really fucked i just found out about. poptropica literally doesn't have like any of the old islands anymore. just logged on to that website and it's fucking bleak, shrek voice they don't even have astro knights or super power island. it's really disgusting actually i feel so bad for the children of this piece of shit day and age. but also they added an island called fairy tale island and um. i will be playing that tomorrow lol... a poor substitute for my beloved old friend astro knights but i am not going through all the extra trouble of downloading flashpoint and all that shit just to play astro knights and not have it saved to my account. i already had my big moment of finally getting through that island when i was 15, thank god, i don't need to go back for any unfinished business nostalgia reasons <3 but it's still a bummer. someone tell the idiots running poptropica that their site would be better if they focused harder on bringing the old islands back and less on making chatrooms and shit. it's not fucking social media it's poptropica... get serious. jeff kinney remedy this issue immediately

Honestly if you really think about it, some of the poptropica villains we’ve encountered would probably be dead today. That’s because they live on islands that are set in different time periods. So I’m gonna go over which villains would be the oldest chronologically.

I’m not going to include Zeus cause while he does live in Ancient Greece, he’s a literal god and doesn’t really quite count.

First is Scheherazade and Samhal surprisingly, you’d think that it would be Bard who is the oldest villain chronologically but he actually isn’t. Arabian Nights is based off of 1001 Arabian nights, and according to the story, it takes place in the Sasanid Dynasty. This means that Arabian nights would have taken place between 224 to 651 CE/AD.

And then next is Binary Bard. Astro knights takes place in the medieval era obviously, but lets pinpoint when exactly. The first known accounts of knights existing are written in the 8th century and knights were considered obsolete by the 15th century. Obviously there weren’t any highly advanced technology in the medieval era but hey it’s fictional.

This one was a little hard to pinpoint because the fairytales used in this have rather broad eras in which they take place, but to simplify things I’ll be going by the Disney/popular versions. There are a total of 5 major characters who are actual fairy tale characters, but lets start with the princesses first. Snow White is from the 16th century and Cinder is from the 19th century. Now let’s talk about the characters who didn’t show up in any Disney movies. The origins of “The little red riding hood” trace back to the 10th century but the most commonly told version takes place in the 17th century. Our fairytale villain(at the moment) Rumpelstiltskin is most commonly associated with the 18th century, however it is believed that his story goes even farther back than that. The earliest known records of Rumpelstiltskin’s story are traced back about 4000 years ago and was traditionally told through generations by oral storytelling. However for simplicity sake, I’m placing Rumpelstiltskin below Scheherazade, Samhal, and Bard.

I didn’t want to bring up sponsored islands at first but I’m gonna do it anyways. Next is the shogun. The premise of Red Dragon island involves samurais and ninjas. Samurais were established in the 10th century and are commonly associated with the Edo period, which took place between 1603 to 1837. Ninjas were also around in the Edo period aswell.

Next is Captain Crawfish. Firstly, piracy has existed for a long time so we need to figure out how to narrow down what year he lived in. It’s safe to assume that he may have lived in the golden age of piracy, which takes place between 1650 to 1730. Now let me bring up something you probably never even thought about. If you go to Dragon Cove, you’ll see a wise woman there, the wise woman is wearing Qing dynasty clothes. The Qing dynasty lasted from 1636 to 1912, and fair enough, the golden age of piracy sits well in between that era.

Next is Count Bram. Since he is based on Dracula, he would be living in the Victorian era, which takes place between 1837 to 1901

Around the same time frame is El Mustachio Grande. Obviously he would be living in the Wild West era, which lasted betwen the 1860s to the 1890s

Next is Mademoiselle Moreau. According to the wiki, Mystery train is based around the 1893 Chicago World’s fair and the train itself is based on the John Bull train that took people to the world fair.

Next is Ringmaster Raven. The island is stated to take place in 1956 and Raven was exiled from the town as a child in 1936. Believe it or not, he would actually still be alive today, albeit he would be very old, he would be roughly in his 90s at minimum.

Not gonna talk a whole lot about monkey wrench island but fun fact, Red Baroness is based on an actual German pilot from World war 1. Y’all can probably guess who I’m talking about.

Lastly is the villains of Ghost story island, Daphne Dreadnaught and the Magistrate. Henry Flatbottom became the Magistrate in 1929 and has been visiting Fiona’s grave for 50 years, meaning that Ghost story takes place in 1979. I’d say that Daphne too would still be alive, but Flatbottom? The man is like 10 minutes away from death, I doubt he would be still around.

From here on out, all the other villains are from the modern era, presumably past 24 carrot. I’d say about 9 out of all the villains we currently have would be dead in the present timeline if you don’t count Samhal who could still be a genie and Rumpelstiltskin who can be interpreted as being immortal cause y’know magic man. But it’s interesting that these villains being able to live in the modern era is possible thanks to the whole weird time travel thing that goes on when we visit different islands.

an inspiring comment

not mine!! “Poptropica was the first real pc game that I played and oh BOY am I a old player. I remember in first grade hearing about it and looking it up and started playing it. I remember when it only had a hand full of islands and each new one kept bringing me back even in highschool. I remember going to space as a knight in Astro knight and going on the high seas with my crew on that one island that's name escapes me. However even if names and many many passwords escape my mind this game will never. I will bet that even if I was 1,000 years old seeing man on Mars and makeing advances we can't imagine now I still will remember this game. One of pure innocence and joy may be lost to time with new generations rolling in and out and the inevitability that it will be deleted off of the internet entirely but it shall not be deleted from my memory. I will protect that memory like a knight to his kingdom.” - Aidan Niblock:  Poptropica Main Theme on YouTube

Poptropica Island Ratings

okay I saw a post on here a while ago and someone rated the Poptropica islands. I remember agreeing with a lot of them, but they only went so far so a lot of the newer islands were missed out. I came across it again recently and got hit by a wave of nostalgia so I’m gonna do my own now. Unoriginal content very good. i’ll put a keep reading link to stop it from taking up too much space

Early Poptropica - mega nostalgia but kinda boring. I like the original Poptropicans being pixely and there is a goth gf in the sewers however the giant green spider scared the shit out of me as a kid and the idea of an aircraft graveyard made me sad so 6/10

Shark Tooth Island - also nostalgic but I didn’t complete it for a long time for some reason.. very short. it has a story but its there is nasty shark and people stuck on an island so make a calming potion. the medicine man looks like he is from viva pinata so 6/10

Time Tangled Island - VERY GOOD AND FUN AND HISTORICAL FUCK THAT AZTEC THO DICKHEAD. quite lengthy for an island but this is good because that means more time periods to explore. it’s also educational but i just care about restoring time. very legendary the iconic just jumped out - 10/10

24 Carrot Island - stupid pun point taken off. introduces Dr Hare and people are THIRSTY. you can dye your hair with milkshakes. i thought it was creepy as a kid honestly. i think its mind control or something. but i like it, it still has nostalgia value 8/10

Super Power Island - very legend like. i loooove the antagonists, especially copy cat but i think i had to look up a guide to beat her because i was dumb af. you need a licence to be a superhero but you are a superhero!!! very fun i like this one a lot 10/10

Spy Island - i remember sucking at this one as well as a kid.  i think it fucks with peoples hair and i only remember because my character looks fresh 100% of the time and this island fucked it up i think. i don't really remember it tho. 5/10

Nabooti Island - it’s based on a Choose Your Own Adventure book so good premise. go around the world is also good. you have to get jewels i think. ngl i didn’t finish this one because i sucked at it so i’m just going off the wiki and how far i got into it. fuck the animal puzzle 7/10

Big Nate Island - who the fuck is Big Nate. i only remember the school climbing frame and a stink bomb. fuck you big nate we don’t have your comics in England 1/10

Astro-Knights Island - medieval knights.... IN SPACE?!?! COUNT ME IN. crazy jester bard guy antagonist. people are thirsty for him too. i’m pretty sure you end up in another dimension or something. cyborgs and shit 9/10

Counterfeit Island - bruh i loved this island. pretty sure antagonist is also making people thirsty. you have to go back to Early Poptropica Island to complete it, very cool. investigating crime is cool idea it’s l.a. noire in poptropica. the wiki says there is a glitch called anti-social clown and i have to say relatable 9/10

Reality TV Island - i think i completed this like twice and i remember jackshit. you get to see past characters tho so very good. it’s just doing challenges. 4/10

Mythology Island - VERY GOOD. LEARN ABOUT MYTHOLOGY. you can fight hydra and other creatures, you meet Zeus you meet Hades, Aphrodite is a bitch. 9/10

Skullduggery Island - pirates are always good no matter what. apparently it is one of the hardest islands which explains why i never completed it but you fight other pirates and sea monsters for doubloons or some shit sounds cool to me 8/10

Steamworks Island - steampunk is good. i remember completing this and thinking it was interesting and weird to look at. i think the atmosphere is was lonely tho. there’s a boss battle against a plant i think. otherwise i don’t fuckin remember 7/10

Great Pumpkin Island - it’s Peanuts so it’s nice. very nice and simple. it’s just about the great pumpkin except you’re there. 6/10

Cryptids Island - GOD TIER. CRYPTIDS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA. some of it is scary tho. the jersey devil just fucking staring at you from the window was a shit the bed moment for a kids game. also before the islands got rebooted, it was one of the only islands to have sound effects, i.e. when the chupacabra bursts out the box. honestly because of the balls on this kids game to scare children and also being good island 10/10

Wild West Island - the only thing better than pirates is cowboys. i don’t really remember it but you do go against an outlaw gang. i like cowboys 10/10

Wimpy Wonderland Island - Jeff I know you made doawk and poptropica but did you have to show it. ngl i liked it because i like doawk. but it’s kinda... creatively bankrupt i guess. 3/10 2 points because Rodrick is there

Red Dragon Island - i think more time travel but just to old Japan. you have to save a girl. that’s all i remember. also i think there is a nasty samurai guy. but also evil dragon. i can’t remember because for the longest time this was a premium account only island so i never got to finish it for the longest time. that was a dick move 7/10 for that alone.

Shrink Ray Island - cool premise but this island expects me to learn morse code 3/10

Mystery Train Island - detectives? on a train? very nice. basically murder on the orient express except no murder and thomas edison is there and also various other 1700/1800 nerds

Game Show Island - basically Reality TV except it’s to save the world from robots. 5/10

Ghost Story Island - wow iconic. this is the only island with voice acting and it’s to fucking jumpscare you i shat myself.  ghost hunting, very cool 10/10

S.O.S Island - it’s basically Titanic mixed with Moby Dick. it’s ok 6/10

Vampire’s Curse Island - i reaaaally like this one. i like vampires. it has a vampire daddy in it so. he kidnaps a teenage girl tho because he thinks its the love of his life who is dead. kinda weird. he does stop being insane at the end tho and says sorry and dies. the girls bf is a dickhead tho. 9/10

Twisted Thicket Island - i think you’re saving a forest from becoming housing. i really like it because it introduces various folkloric creatures like the nokken. i only remember the nokken because i went on akinator to see if he knew what it was and i don’t think he did so i added it and it’s photo to his database. or maybe it was just his photo but i remember uploading something to akinator. 8/10

Poptropolis Games Island - i don’t think i liked this one 3/10

Wimpy Boardwalk Island - Jeff. 2/10 1 point added because Rodrick is also there

Lunar Colony Island - space is good. do i remember this island tho? no. i think theres aliens tho. 5/10 because i like space and aliens.

Super Villain Island - it brings back the most memorable villains like binary bard and black widow. you find out why they are evil. pretty chill 8/10

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory Island - what do you expect 5/10

Zomberry Island - the last of us except i think people are just eating nasty berries really. i like it it’s spooky 7/10

Night Watch Island - Paul Blart Mall Cop 6/10

Back Lot Island - you make a film. i can’t remeber it like at all. 6/10 because it sounds ok

Poptropolis Games Island Part 2 - fuck off 2/10

Virus Hunter Island - i don’t think i completed this one either. however it is one of those inside the human body things which is always cool if cliche. 8/10

Mocktropica Island - very satirical what if about if poptropica was run by assholes. ironic since a bunch of islands were made premium only for a while. pretty sure the bonus missions still are too which is why i’m not mentioning them. funny tho 7/10

Monster Carnival Island - spooky yes. people thirst over the ringmaster raven guy too. theres a spooky clown on the ferris wheel. i don’t remember much other than i liked it because it was about monsters in a theme park. 9/10 i remember it was surprisingly short tho

Survival Island - castaway except it’s you. i don’t remember it either lmao. i got out of touch with old poptropica real bad by this time so my next ratings might be unfair sorry. pretty sure it also becomes the most dangerous game tho and some guy wants to actually fucking kill you. ballsy. 7/10 because it sounds ok i should maybe play it.

Mission Atlantis Island - i like atlantis but i didn’t play this one either. you see deepsea creatures which are spooky so extra points 8/10

PoptropiCon Island - poptropica’s answer to comicon. now i did play this one for some reason but i don’t remember it too well either. i was 14 when it came out so. sounds like yu-gi-oh so good. 7/10

Arabian Nights Island - didn’t play it i think it’s just telling the story. it’s a cool story so 7/10

Galactic Hotdogs Island - what the fuck 1/10

Mystery of The Map Island - vikings are cool. island seems very short tho. 5/10

Timmy Failure Island - who the fuck. this would be more impactful if i read these fucking things but i don’t. who the fuck are you timmy. i guess it’s called failure for a reason. (that was mean sorry) 1/10

Escape from Pelican Rock Island - prison break, nice idea. you have like a twin in this one. seems a bit repetitive sometimes tho. theres like 7 days of doing similar things. 6/10

Monkey Wrench Island - it was created to be the new tutorial, i.e. an actual tutorial rather than Early Poptropica. very fast and boring, especially if you already know everything. 2/10

Crisis Caverns Island - i know nothing about this. even the wiki is incomplete. maybe that means its shit then. 1/10 the wiki doesn’t even care too much about this one.

Greek Sea Odyssey - more ancient greece is always good. you get to beat the shit out of zeus this time 8/10

Snagglemast Island - all you do is collect coins. another tutorial one. 1/10.

bonus: home island. legit just a hub. points added because you can do a lot of customisation here and pick up a pet that doesn’t cost credits. 4/10

DOUBLE BONUS: the little haunted house mini thing. very good because spooky costumes, spooky house fun little monster party. 10/10

The Gems Of Erewhon (Prologue)

(Oh my God I made a Poptropica Gem AU as an apology? Ok then... So I decided to make a gem au fanfiction series for Poptropica since my phase is still going strong. I know I have another blog to run and more stuff to do but I just felt the urge to make this a series. Keep in mind that the story focuses mainly on the villains cause Erewhon. However, here it focuses on the origins of Poptropica. Also keep in mind that I also took some inspiration from @cutiewintersnow2 and @bunnies-n-bowties for when it came to the gem AU. Check them out because they are amazing people! Anyway! Hope you enjoy this series!)

The Jupiter Colonisation Facility. Location: Jupiter. Year: 2007 BCE.

ART: JelloFangy

“Finally... For over 2000 years I have dreamt of this colony for far too long. WE, have dreamt of this colony for far too long, and now we finally receive it! This is a wonderful accomplishment for gem kind!” Sunset Diamond’s voice echoes through out the palace room, where three Diamonds sit and wait for the start of the plan. On the left side of the palace, there was Emerald Diamond. A Diamond who had once made a main colony at the core of Pluto, and used it as a purgatory for the crimes of gems. He also has five other colonies. On the right side of the palace was Turquoise Diamond. A Diamond and the owner of a main colony on Neptune, which is also used as an aquarium type refuge for aquatic related corrupted gems after they were found floating across outer space, he also has fourteen other colonies.

And of course, we have Sunset Diamond. The most powerful of all as gems say, but of course not many know for sure. Of course the Jupiter Colonisation Facility was his main colony, but he didn’t really use it just to colonise many parts of the star maps, Sunset was full of pride and made the colony a place of loyalty as well. It was all right there in the hall; The beautiful walls of Quartz, the precious glimmering thrones, the polished floor of Calcite, you name it the item was there. Sunset Diamond is also known for having the most colonies out of all of the Diamonds, with 79 colonies. Only one can wonder how he can keep up with all of them. This would technically be his 80th however, because this was going to be the first ever colony the three Diamonds would collaborate on. It wasn’t going to be a piece of cake though, it would mean they would need to be equal on what they do with the colony and would have to value both the colony AND each other. “I hope you realise the cost of what this will all bring us.” Sunset Diamond looked baffled at Emerald Diamond’s comment and just rolled his eyes at him. Emerald wasn’t really the most confident with this plan since he knew the affects. “You know should be happy! Think about it! This plan had been thought out for thousands of years! And now, we can finally commence it! And it’s the first time we have ever collaborated together to make this happen! Besides, wouldn’t it be also a relief to finally have another colony after years and years of inactivity from that duty?” “I have my reasons for my inactivity. I’m just saying-”

Before Emerald Diamond could say another word to support his claim, of course Sunset Diamond just brushes it off like it was nothing and ignores him. Suddenly, Peacock Diamond walks in on the scene and announces news about the colony. “The colony is now ready. You should be embarking now.” “Thank you my darling Peacock.” Peacock Diamond and Sunset Diamond have had a relationship for quite some time. But it isn’t the first time Sunset has had a relationship though, causing Peacock to make sure they are both going to always be on good terms and not go back to the way it was before. They are improving, but Peacock isn’t really satisfied with Sunset’s attempts at making her forget about it all. “Don’t suck up now...” See what I mean? Peacock eventually follows them to the three Diamonds ship. 

The ship’s appearance is a fusion of all of them combined, but since they are technically the same species of gem, they don’t really have an increased number of limbs. But each Diamond controls one part of the ship. The White and Yellow head was Sunset’s, the green torso and arms were Emerald’s, and the aqua blue legs were Turquoise’s. The three Diamonds are teleported to the head of the ship. Sunset Diamond steps on the marked platform as his head is illuminated with a white light. He soon clicks his finger as his mind starts moving the ship. This is because since his head is linked with his ship, he is able to use his thoughts to control how the ship moves. Peacock Diamond watches from afar as the ship prepares for take off. All she says is “Let’s see how long it takes for them to start a quarrel this time...” Finally, the ship reaches the outside of Jupiter’s atmosphere. You guessed it, space. Stars, asteroids, planets and moons cover the universe around them. Some of them are even their own colonies. Finally, they reach the planet which will soon be their new colony.

It’s not big. But it has something unique. Around the blue waters are islands. Many islands that await many adventures from newcomers. It’s beautiful. The three Diamonds all look down on the planet knowing what’s ahead of them. “It’s so gorgeous!” It seems like Turquoise Diamond is already adoring the planet. “Now all we need to do is name the planet, and we can start our invasion.” Emerald Diamond eventually gets shoved by Sunset Diamond as he chimes in. Seems like Sunset has a name. “I’ve got the perfect name!” “Ugh... Fine. But if it’s a ridiculous name then it’s either me or Turquoise choosing the name!” Sunset Diamond stops and closes his eyes to think for a moment. The other two Diamonds only look at him with confusion. “So... What’s the name?” Sunset Diamond stops thinking and puts a grin on his face. Soon he finally says the one word that will soon start the many adventures, events and experiences of new and old gems from across the galaxy.

“Poptropica...”

An In-Depth Interpretation & Analysis of the Binary Bard’s Dream on Super Villain Island

(Spoiler warning for Poptropica’s Astro Knights Island and Super Villain Island)

Also, warning... there’s a lot under the cut.

To start off, you might want to read these screenshots. We’ll use them later. However, I’m going to summarize and explain them when we get there, so you don’t have to read them. It could be helpful, is all. Screenshots taken from Dreammoods.com.

Several important symbols are present in Binary Bard’s (Mordred’s) dream, which your player is entering to obtain his “totem of evil,” in hopes that its removal will remove the evil from him. When you enter his dream, he is sitting on a tall chair beside a door that opens and shuts rapidly, blocking any access. He wails to you (something along the lines of), “I’m trapped in this room. This door seems to have a mind of its own!” When you freeze time, he exclaims that you are brilliant and yeets through the door. You then make your way through more of those doors and some floating platforms (the background is spacey here) until you reach him for the boss battle. You see him complete his transformation into the Binary Bard in the center of a large clock, and you must freeze time when the clock hands are at certain positions in order to electrocute and defeat him. He fades away and drops his astrolabe totem. 

What does this mean? Well, if you don’t know the lore and backstory behind Mordred/the Binary Bard, or need a refresher, go check it out on the Poptropica Wiki. I’ll still summarize it for you below.

♠ Mordred was a brilliant scientist and inventor in the Kingdom of Arturus. One day, he began experimenting with combining animal DNA with robotics, creating animal-robot hybrids. Most notably, he created Merlin the owl, his closest companion. The king and queen of Arturus found his work obscene and blasphemous and banned such practices, and then jailed him. Mordred escaped, however, and continued his work in secret until the royal forces discovered him. He then fled to space, leaving everything behind, and was thought dead. ♠ Flash forward several years. At some point, Mordred had attached robotic parts to himself and took on the name Binary Bard, and was universally known for attacking planets. The princess of Arturus joined a secret society of Mordred followers/worshipers who believed Mordred was still alive and had been right in his experiments. She began exchanging letters with Mordred, now known as the Binary Bard. The Binary Bard sent five space crafts to attack the kingdom and kidnap the princess, and was successful, leaving Arturus princessless, distraught, and in ruins. The king and queen sent out three knights to seek out the princess, but they never returned. ♠ Shortly after this, your player (who I will call Bronze, after my own character, Bronze Hamburger) arrived in Arturus and was tasked with bringing the princess and the knights home. Bronze found and befriended Merlin and managed to get into space. There, he met aliens who warned him of the Binary Bard and equipped him with a ship that would carry him to three particular planets. After visiting each and rescuing the knights there, Bronze discovered an asteroid that housed the key to Mordred's Fortress, a temple in another dimension. He traveled there, and the Binary Bard pretended to be the princess to steal Bronze’s weapons. Fortunately, Merlin betrayed the Bard and helped Bronze save the princess. Bronze, Merlin, the Princess, and the three knights departed from that place, locking the Binary Bard alone in his extra-dimensional prison forever.

So, using the context of Mordred’s past, we can extrapolate a meaning to his Super Villain Island dream. As a refresher: When you enter Mordred’s dream, he is sitting on a tall chair beside a door that opens and shuts rapidly, blocking any access. He wails to you (something along the lines of), “I’m trapped in this room. This door seems to have a mind of its own!” When you freeze time, he exclaims that you are brilliant and yeets through the door. You then make your way through more doors and some floating platforms (the background is spacey here) until you reach him for the boss battle. You see him complete his transformation into the Binary Bard in the center of a large clock, and you must freeze time when the clock hands are at certain positions in order to electrocute and defeat him. He fades away and drops his astrolabe totem.

► The presence of the door (I’m using the third paragraph of the door section here) very clearly symbolizes Mordred’s anger when the monarchy of Arturus banned his innovation and jailed him for carrying it out. This is the simplest of the symbols to analyze, so we started here. Get ready to dive in. ► To interpret the aspect of freezing time, I had to extract elements from the section on time and the section on “frozen” and combine them. A frozen something represents either a coldness/bitterness toward that something or the repression/denial of that something. Time represents fear of not being able to cope, aging, or anxiety [about time running out]. Everything I could think of in this regards related to him having a refusal to move forward. I have a few takes on what this could mean specifically. [1] It reflects his refusal to move on from his blasphemous experimentation in spite of the monarchy’s laws; perhaps out of some fear (fear of the unknown? Fear of letting go? I wonder where that developed, if anywhere at all...), but perhaps not. He held onto his experiments and even applied them to his own body. [2] It reflects a fear of growing old. We do not know precisely when or why the Binary Bard made himself half-cybernetic, so it’s possible that he did this to extend his lifespan. This may have been so that he could have more time enact his revenge on Arturus. [3] It reflects his grudge-holding. After being jailed, his intentions turned dark. Even after fleeing Arturus, he continued to take out his rage and terrorize other planets; the residents of Pewter Moon attribute their state of ruin to an attack from him that was made prior to the one on Arturus, and cite that he is a well-known space terrorist. All of these ultimately fall under a “refusal to move forward” umbrella. ► Okay, the clock ties in somewhat with the frozen time. It signifies anxiety about time progressing/running out, deadlines, rut, lack of progression, or -- most interestingly -- the human heart/emotional side of life. There are a lot of facets to this, so I’m gonna try to keep each one short. I already covered the anxiety about time passing in the paragraph above, and deadlines ties into that closely. The rut part is something to dive into, but I will come back to it. The human heart/emotions part is particularly noteworthy because the scene featuring the clock is the scene in which the Bard completes his transformation from human to half-human. Dreammoods.com specifically states that “clocks symbolize the ticking of the human heart and thus is indicative of the emotional side of your life.” I am lead to believe that this clock -- taking into account the fact that he transforms inside the clock and that the clock is his demise -- reflects that Mordred is repressing his true emotions (possibly hurt, betrayal, etc) and replacing them with feelings of rage and lashing out at the world.  Now, back to the rut. According to Dreammoods.com, a backwards-moving clock “parallels the way that your life is going. Instead of moving forward and progressing toward your goals, you feel that you have not made any significant accomplishments. You feel you are stuck in a rut.” Allow me to first point out that the “moving forward and progressing” aspect ties right back into my analyses of frozen time and of the clock, affirming the hypotheses. In the 10/10 segue of the century, I’m going to analyze this along with the electrocution. ► It’s when you electrocute the Bard that the clock hands reverse their direction. Electrocution represents impending disaster, fear of consequences for one’s actions, and a lack of awareness of one’s surroundings. When electrocution, reversed clock, and the circumstances are put together, this is what you’re left with: Binary Bard’s own fears, self-importance, and narrow-sightedness are getting in the way of his progression as a person (of his moving on) and will lead to his demise in the end. ► I ended up going a bit out of order, because I started to debate whether space was really relevant; it could just be a reflection of his lore in a literal sense. However, it’s worth noting that space represents independent thinking, which could tie into the narrow-sightedness/lack of awareness of his surroundings from the electrocution symbol.

Put in the context of his lore/backstory, everything within Mordred’s dream makes sense from a character standpoint. The symbols align with his position, internal conflict, and emotions. 

And this is just my take. You don’t have to believe that dreams mean any of this stuff; you don’t have to have interpreted it the same way I did (I’d love to hear y’all’s interpretations of things!). I love this character a lot. On many levels, I relate to him-- high intelligence, being repressed by others, trouble letting go of grudges, covering up own emotions, and being nonbinary (that’s canon to me. Let me have this in peace without quarreling about it). My love for both this character and psychology (the analysis of dreams especially) are what prompted me to dig deep into this topic. I’d be happy to know what you think, how you interpret it, and whatever else you have to say!

Poptropica has gotten a handful of features the last several months between member gifts, a friend/profile page revamp, housing, Realms returning, additional things to Home Island, and even a new island (currently in Early release).

And as much as I adore the sticker wall and how colorful it is/can be (I think if I had one complaint about the old page, it’d be how blue it was), I’m also really disappointed as two of the things I liked most are gone: 

The personality picks. I loved those. I always hoped they’d add more. And now they’re just gone. I wish I screencapped them or something. Maybe I recorded them somewhere? Either way I’m super disappointed as I love personality things like that.

The photo board being blank. As far as I can tell, I’m guessing it’s for Photo booth stuff since the add-on (also I... can’t seem to find the photo booth at the moment thus no photos, but we’ll deal with that later), but it also seems to have replaced the photo system that had been added in the past that I really liked. I really can’t stress enough how much I kind of hate replaying things and I worked really hard on replaying the islands to get all the photos (as they sadly weren’t added retroactively using however your Poptropica currently looks). Only for the photos to be gone now. I love souvenir photos so much and it being gone breaks my heart.

I know the Colorizer was brought up in a blog post, but it still doesn’t effect everything which is also frustrating:

Just let me have my wavy ponytail, game T___T

I’ve been pretty much MIA with most Poptropica updates since Membership started having monthly items. I hate missing out on things and I get membership rather sporadically. While I get that this is likely a thing to keep people subscribed, I feel a lot of games forget, especially with a collecting/customizing element, people are also less likely to sign up if they’ve already missed out. And Poptropica has unfortunately had a handful of limited time things, not even counting the recent membership item addition (and don’t even get me started on how I missed the Puppy buddy item by a few hours-- at least I have a pet puppy...). I also just genuinely can’t afford to stay long-term on most subscription services. SO MANY things have subscriptions lately and it’s actually kind of exhausting as my finances vary so much per month right now.

On a different note, I wish there were more ways to earn credits. As mentioned, I don’t really replay things and you only get about 100-200 credits (depending on your Membership status) upon an island replay. That’s genuinely just not enough for me to find it worth it. The arcade games don’t give much. I’m surprised there isn’t an option to just buy credits, but while I understand why membership items have prices now, I do miss when I could just buy things for free while having membership. My savings are dead and my house is still empty. I also attempted watching Ads, but they... just wouldn’t end? Like they never came to a stop, I actually had to refresh the game to even exit them. 

Finally, Poptropica Worlds seems just... completely MIA now. There’s no link to it anymore, though you can still access it, and no updates or mentions of such for ages with focus seeming back on the original Poptropica. 

I really enjoyed the updated customization of Poptropica Worlds, but I’m not really surprised if it was less popular and thus may not be receiving any more updates. Essentially, like Club Penguin Island, it was a soft reboot. And nobody wants a reboot. People either want something new or an expansion to what they already had. And starting over and doing the same things/stories and not have any of their stuff isn’t a great way to go about it. While some of the islands were big revamps or even sequel-ish, it still didn’t feel like a sequel when we essentially had nothing.

I’d love if they found a way to bring that updated customization to normal Poptropica, but I don’t know if that’s possible. 

Anyway, tl;dr version: I miss my personality modules and photos and credit earning sucks </3

Old Habits Die Hard

Keith and Lance’s New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Eat less sweets

2. Work out every morning

3. Go to bed early

4. Organize the basement

5. Spend more time with each other

One

Lance was very weak when it came to sugar. And of course, Keith had put ‘cut back on sugar’ at the top of their resolutions list, like some kind of monster. Maybe it would be better at the bottom of the list? Or in the middle? It was kind of insulting that he had put it at the top! And that knowing little look he’d given Lance? Ugh.

Keith’s unreasonable request was the exact reason why Lance was in the kitchen at 2:43am, sitting on the floor and halfway through a carton of rocky road ice cream. He was eating it out of spite. His boyfriend was being ridiculous, and Lance was not going to stand for it.

In retrospect, maybe eating a carton of ice cream just a few hours before he had to wake up and get ready for work had been a really bad idea. Lance groans, burying his face in his pillow and clutching his stomach.

“Should I stay home?” Keith frets, checking his forehead for the millionth time. “You seemed fine last night…”

“No!” Lance says quickly. Keith did not need to see him drown himself in pepto bismol and Sprite. Also, there might be a couple empty ice cream cartons he needed to dispose of. Just a couple. “No, go to work… I’ll be fine. It’s probably just a 24 hour thing.”

His boyfriend gives him an odd look, then rolls his eyes. “Does this have anything to do with the empty ice cream carton in the freezer?”

His blood freezes in his veins and he swallows very loudly. “No?” He says, very convincingly. Keith was going to be so convinced.

There’s a soft scoff and then a hand ruffling his hair fondly. “I knew it. I’ll call your work and let them know you caught a bug. Want me to have Hunk bring you some crackers and Sprite?”

“Please…” He moans, clutching his stomach as another wave of nausea hits.

“Will do,” Keith chuckles, leaning down and pressing a kiss to his forehead. “And tonight when I get home, I’m getting rid of anything sugary we still own. I’ll find that secret stash of yours, McClain.”

There’s a sense of finality in his tone that both makes him nervous and turns him on a little. “Okay.” He mumbles guiltily, settling in to deal with his horrible mistake.

Two

“I don’t want to.” Keith groans, pulling the blankets up over his head.

Lance puts his hands on his hips, huffing. “Keith Kogane, you were the one who decided it would be a good idea to get up at the ass crack of dawn and go to the gym.”

“We did that yesterday.” The Korean whines petulantly.

“The list says every morning, so we’re going.”

The covers are pushed back slowly, revealing a mop of messy black hair and amethyst eyes narrowed to evil little slits. Surprisingly, Lance was the early bird in this relationship. It drove Keith absolutely nuts, which was why he had decided that if he was going to be disturbed by his boyfriend in ungodly hours of the morning, he might as well make the most of it.

But this morning, he was not having it.

Lance is unprepared for the sudden attack, squawking as his boyfriend launches himself at him, yanking him gracelessly back into the bed and aggressively koala hugging him.

“No.” Comes the verdict.

Lance almost wants to struggle, but then Keith presses a line of kisses over the exposed skin of his neck and tucks the warm blanket around them, and he’s weak. Leave it to Keith to play dirty.

“Okay.” He sighs.

And there went their second resolution.

Three

“We should go to bed.” Lance yawns, rubbing his eyes and looking at the clock. It read 10:38pm.

Keith glances up from his computer, where he’d been playing Poptropica for the past three hours, hoping lance hadn’t noticed (He had). “Can’t we stay up for another half hour? I’m almost done with this isla- uh… thing.”

Lane throws him an amused look, picking up the book on the coffee stable he’d been meaning to read. “Yes, finish playing Zomberry Island. We can stay up another half hour.”

His boyfriend gives him a sheepish, grateful little smile before turning back to his screen. The two settle into comfortable silenced, the sounds of clicking coming from Keith’s computer and the rasp of pages against fingertips filling the room between them.

Time flies past, neither of them really keeping tabs. Keith finishes Zomberry Island and starts on another one, completely engrossed in the screen. Lance loses himself to the plot of his book. Neither of them notice the time.

Well, not until Lance’s phone buzzes angrily, letting him know that it was well past the time for it to be plugged in for the night. He passes a hand over his face and marks the page, sitting up to see what it was fussing about. He freezes when he reads the time.

3:07am.

“Keith,” Lance says, staring in silent horror. “Babe, I think we should go to bed.”

“But I’m almost…” He trails off, falling back into his hyperfixation.

“No, Kogane, it’s bedtime.” Lance walks over, gently pulling his hands from the keyboard and stealing a kiss.

Keith gives him a dazed look, then glowers. “Hey, I was focusing.”

“I know.” He says, amused. He turns his phone on, then shows him the time. Keith’s eyes widen. “But it’s seriously time for us to go to sleep.”

Keith’s mouth twists into a wry smile as he lets Lance pull him from the chair and towards their bedroom. “We’re really bad at this whole resolutions thing, aren’t we?”

“The worst.” Lance laughs.

Four

“No.” Lance says stubbornly, standing at the top of the basement stairs. “Absolutely not.”

Keith kicks a box out of his way, wading into the piles of random and useless crap and the sea of boxes. “But we said that we’d do this.”

“The Lance that said we’d clean this monstrosity was also drunk and considering dying his hair bright pink. I am not that Lance anymore, Keith.”

The Korean lets out a snort of amusement, looking up at a stack of boxes that was taller than him. “Well… somebody’s gotta do it.”

Lance crosses his arms, leaning against the banister. “That somebody is not going to be me. And knowing you, you’re going to get through half of this and I’ll find you at four in the morning sitting in a pile of old clothes and covered in dust because you found an old toy and you’re playing with it.”

Keith gives the boxes a reproachful look, but even he can’t deny that. “Yeah…”

“We can bribe the Holts and Hunk to do it with pizza and beer.” Lance shrugs.

“Yeah.” His boyfriend nods, hardly taking a second to agree. “Yep. Okay. Let’s do that.”

“C’mon, mullet.” Lance chuckles. “Get outta there before I lose your short ass to dust and spiders.”

“Spiders?!” Keith shrieks, immediately jumping away from the boxes and bounding up the stairs.

“You fought intergalactic space monsters and you’re afraid of spiders?” Lance laughs, switching off the light and closing the basement door.

“It’s different, Lance! They have too many eyes and legs!”

“Whatever you say.” Comes the amused reply as they leave the messy basement to debate arachnids.

Five

“So I bought all of the movies you texted me because I couldn’t pick. Also I got Mike and Ikes, licorice, Reese’s, Twix, and a shit ton of other stuff. And Chinese.”

Lance looks up as Keith dumps the haul down on the counter, smiling fondly and nursing his cup of tea. His boyfriend looks up, then walks over and tips his chin up, giving him a soft kiss.

“How’re you feeling?” He asks quietly, his amethyst eyes searching Lance’s.

The Cuban gives him a wobbly, wet smile, shrugging. He’d forgotten a dose of his anti-anxiety meds and had called Keith at work in the middle of a panic attack. Keith had immediately packed his things, talking to Lance as he headed to the store to pick up things for a relaxing evening.

“C’mon.” Keith says, his tone soothing, leading Lance to the couch. “You relax and I’ll put a movie in.”

Lance settles himself on the couch while Keith slots a disney movie into the DVD player, bustling about to get their food and snacks ready for the night. It was going to be a long one. Keith was determined to calm his boyfriend down so he could sleep easily tonight.

The two settle into a cocoon of food and drinks and blankets, ready for their night.

“Thank you.” Lance says quietly as the opening credits of their movie start rolling.

“Of course.” Keith gives a soft look and an even softer kiss. “We’ll make Friday nights movie nights, okay?”

“Okay.” Lance whispers, pillowing his head against Keith’s shoulder, smiling to himself.

Maybe they were bad at keeping trivial resolutions, but they excelled at the ones that meant the most. And, really, that was all that mattered.

Sandbox Group hasn't done one good thing for Poptropica >:/ everything they've done made it cringy and worse! And now the game is dead cause of them

I had to struggle to think of one good thing they've done for Poptropica, and that's allowing it to be played on Coolmath Games and getting rid of membership.

But they only did that after the Shutdown Hoax...

I'll give you a list of every bad thing they've done to Poptropica since they came around:

Push Pop Original aside to create and focus on Pop Worlds, which most people hated as it wasn't as good as the Original.

Unceremoniously fire a good chunk of the original Poptropica creators.

Throw away the original creators hard work, such as a larger franchise with more content.

Make the design of the game more bland and uninspired.

Promise to bring the older islands back after Flash died 4 years ago, yet in all that time they only brought back less than half of them.

The As3 islands in their full forms can't be played unless you buy it for $20 on Steam.

Dumbing down older islands.

Create those Roblox games, which no one liked... or wanted. Or asked for.

Completely give up on the game that they ruined, and won't even do the simple thing as bringing the old islands and mini-games back.

Anything else?

On your point about the way Red Baroness is portrayed nowadays as opposed to on Monkey Wrench Island, any idea why she changed her name and outfit?

I imagine she changed her name from "Baroness" to "Baron" because she's referred to by she/her and they/them pronouns now (the Creators refer to her by both on the blog, as well as Amelia that one time), so I guess "Baron" sounds more neutral…

Now, as for the outfit… she got some more coin XD So she upgraded.

Although, there's an inconsistency there:

In the Fairy Tale Island side-quest, you see her statue in the treasury with Mom, Dad, and brother. But she's in her new outfit, not old:

These statues could be new, but the Baron has been "disowned" from the royal family for a while now… no reason why they would make a statue for her.

Now, as for the eyepatch, that could be a new injury she got from her adventures. Notice how she doesn't have it in her statue. 

Or she's faking it XD

Now, as for her not looking like Mom and Dad, she could be adopted. Duh! But then I thought about this:

How come before she was portrayed as a parody of the Red Baron? With a German accent, plane, and all? If she's from Germany, how did the royal family get her? Did she run away or something…

I guess she could've been so inspired by the Red Baron that she… copied him or something.

But that sounds so crazy (even for me). 

So… I have no idea why they changed her character up so much. The only thing I don't really have a problem with is the name change/pronoun thing. And her monkey Ack. I love how she has that monkey :)

You could say that they made all these changes and added this out-of-nowhere backstory to make her more interesting, since before she was just a parody of the Red Baron.

But, like… they didn't have to completely change her pre-established character in order to do that XD

Also, Fairy Tale Island was the winner of a Create Your Own Dream Island. The island came out in 2021.

Monkey Wrench Island came out in 2016. The only reason why all of this Fairy Tale Island lore exists is because someone got lucky and won a contest…

This is the reason why the way Red Baroness is portrayed nowadays doesn't at all line up with how she was portrayed before. Because it's completely random, and not at all planned from the beginning. It was probably just a completely random idea that they came up with to bring a fan favorite character back into the spotlight, without thinking about how the character was portrayed before and if it lines up at all…

I guess the same thing holds true with Xavier, and the Adventurer's League, and all that. If they had just replaced the "Adventurer's League" with the "Protectors of Poptropica", and "Xavier" with maybe, I don't know, "Jonas" then that would make so much more sense. And it would've been a smart way to connect the graphic novels to the game and remind everyone that they actually exist…

Alright, alright, I'm done. You've heard this narrative from me a thousand times before, you're over it XD