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Dr. Maniac. One of the most divided characters in the Goosebumps franchise. Half of the fandom like him and consider him to be criminally underrated, while the other side loathes him for "replacing" the Masked Mutant. If you couldn't tell from my stories, I lean more towards the former side. I love Maniac to bits, and I don't like how Stine wrote him like a punching bag that he can't wait to get rid of. He wasn't very open with it in "Dr. Maniac VS Robby Schwartz"-which, ending and character twist aside, was pretty okay-, but in "Dr. Maniac Will See You Now" and especially in "They Call Me The Night Howler!", it became a lot more apparent. The former has people saying it's one of the worst books in the franchise (I dislike it because it took away a lot of his original portrayal), while the latter personally infuriates me with how Maniac's character was destroyed and just came off as pathetic in comparison to his performance in the HorrorLand series. Those books are non-canonical to the PlatinumVerse for a reason.
If people are familiar with my stories, you'd know the other notable thing I did with Maniac in the PlatinumVerse, other than that, was not only keep him around, but I also reformed him and his comrades; The Scarlet Starlet-who is very under-utilized, and The Purple Rage, who is atrocious. But no one ever seems to ask why? Why did I take that annoying loser and his friends and reform them? Well, strap yourselves in, people, you're all going to find out in this character analysis of Dr. Maniac.
WHY IS DR. MANIAC HATED BY ALL?
Before I discuss why I want to reform the three of them, let's go over how Maniac earned his bad reputation.
His debut book is notorious for being the worst of the HorrorLand series due to its dumb reveal that not only was Maniac just Robby's brother in disguise, but the whole story was made up by Robby. Even after reading the book, I can safely say that it's not Maniac's fault that the book is bad for two main reasons:
- His book came right after "The Scream of the Haunted Mask," which the fandom praises for the fantastic utilisation of the titular antagonist, bringing back Carly Beth, the most beloved protagonist in the series and not only having her character development stick but also developing her even more.
- He wasn't the first comic villain in Goosebumps. That belongs to the Masked Mutant, who appeared in the 25th book of the Original 62. Because it was a pretty well-received book and the Mutant was fairly recognisable, Maniac had a lot to live up to.
Of course, it's fairly unlikely to write something that has both great writing and can match everyone's expectations and likely, those expectations were very high when the synopsis was announced, and so was the disappointment when the fandom read the book.
It only got worse in Most Wanted and SlappyWorld, where Stine, for some reason, decided to give Maniac a book in both series despite him not being well-received. People already know why "Dr. Maniac Will See You Now." is horrendous, but people praise his performance in "They Call Me the Night Howler!" which had Maniac hand off his powers to a kid he barely knows in the stupidest and most out of character way possible that it made me question if I was looking at the same character.
The fandom did bash the bad writings of the first two books, but what's baffling to me is that they bashed Maniac as well. I understand we all have our opinions on a character, but I feel as though the reasons to hate Maniac are rather stupid. Here are the most common ones:
- "He's so annoying!".
I can see where the fandom would be coming from with this one, but Maniac's whole schtick is that he is meant to be bonkers. His catchphrase is "I'm not crazy, I'm a maniac!" after all. Hating on Maniac for being cuckoo is like hating on Rage for being angry (well, I hate Rage obviously, but it's because he's a narcissistic jerk with no good qualities and no one calls him out on it, not because he's angry). - "His books suck!"
Again, I can see where the fandom is coming from, but they're talking about the books' writing, not Maniac himself. If the books are bad, then that's on Stine. He should know that it's a really bad idea to write sequels to a book that was badly received. Maniac had nothing to do with it. - "He's not like the Mutant!"
- This one generally annoys me because I think it's very unfair to compare the two. The Mutant only had one book, Maniac had three and was spread across his debut series, while the Mutant was never touched on again except for the TV show and an old video game. And even if I were to compare the two, Maniac is easily better due to his personality and is far more unique (I'll get to that later). I likely chalk this one up to the fact that the Mutant came from the Original 62, and that those automatically get a pass because of nostalgia, probably.
And my favourite (sarcasm) reason of all is this one:
- "He's overused!"
This is the WORST excuse to hate Maniac because it's not only not true but also hypocritical.
Let me do the math: Maniac has 3 major roles as the main villain and 3 minor roles in HorrorLand as the Keeper and later an anti-villain = Altogether, that's 6 appearances in the entire franchise. That's hardly overused. I'd say that's a pretty generous number for a villain.
And I say hypocritical because by that logic, shouldn't Slappy be hated as well? That dude has 16 books as the main villain, 3 minor appearances in HorrorLand, 2 appearances on the big screen with the movies, is the main villain of the first season of the TV show and has lots of appearances in other media. I went off his character wiki for all his appearances, and the total number he has is 57. Now THAT'S overused. Yet I see a good number of people still liking him.
Speaking of which, what about Carly Beth and Billy D? Both have 3 books as the main characters (or supporting character in the Haunted Mask II's case, but that still counts), and 8 minor appearances in the HorrorLand series, making them both the most recurring protagonists in the series with 11 books. Shouldn't they also be hated? Let's also not forget HorrorLand itself, with 22 appearances. If they can all be given a pass, why is Maniac the exception to this rule?
Again, I chalk it all up to being from the Original 62, so they get a pass. I guess the maximum number a character or most can have varies around 1 (if you're a one-off), 2 or 3 (if you're popular) or 5+ (if you're popular).
Bottom line, Maniac was screwed over from the beginning and was doomed the minute it was revealed that the book didn't happen at all.
Can I see why he is hated? Yes.
Do I think this means he's a bad character? No.
WHAT MAKES DR. MANIAC A FANTASTIC CHARACTER?
Here's something people ought to know about some pieces of media:
"Just because the book/other piece of media is bad doesn't always mean the character is bad." - thatAntiMainstreamFan, 29/3/24.
This is a prime example of that. Maniac is awesome. The reason I liked his first book was how unique of a character he was (also because Robby is a precious cinnamon bun and the closest thing we're getting to an otaku).
Until I read "The Streets of Panic Park", I didn't care much for the franchise as a whole, so Maniac was swept under the rug after I finished his book. But when I did read "The Streets of Panic Park", it not only got me into the fandom but it also provided me a new insight on a lot of characters: Wendy Benson is relatable, Evan Ross isn't exactly the worst, Lindy Powell is the worst, and Dr. Maniac is a villain ahead of his time.
There are many reasons I like him, but I am going to narrow it down to a list of 5:
- He subverts a lot of cliches about villains.
This is more of my personal opinion than the fandom's. Most villains in the series are usually a very serious type, never seem to crack a joke or anything like that. I imagine that this sort of archetype would get rather repetitive and boring. Readers would often want a change of pace. So imagine how they would feel upon reading "Dr. Maniac VS Robby Schwartz" and find out that the main villain is a comedic, goofy one. I think it would be a real breath of fresh air, in my opinion. What also adds to this is that most of the monsters don't do much either. They just sit around, give the occasional scare and then wait until the protagonist discovers and defeats them before springing a twist. Maniac doesn't do that either. Although he's not seen in his book very much, he's shown to be very active and takes his job seriously (I'll get to that in the next point).
However, I imagine this would also dissatisfy the fans as well as they're so used to the regular formula that something else would throw them off completely. Which, again, is fair, but I also wouldn't mind a change of the status quo. - He's a hard worker.
Adding on to the last note of mine, something you might not realize about Dr. Maniac is an active character. The other monsters again don't do much. They mainly rely on sheer luck for the protagonist to notice them. But Maniac does stuff with his page time. He thinks of a plan to cause trouble and have fun at the same time. He creates the arcade game and comic strip to attract Robby's attention. He's the only villain to give the kids an effective scare other than Slappy and the Menace; He leads the other villains against the Menace and helps save the kids, etc. What this does is that it shows what Maniac is capable of achieving his goals. He works hard with what he does and has never really shown to be a quitter. Subverts expectations. - His humour is very clever.
Dr. Maniac is funny. People often dismiss that idea because they're quick to label him as "annoying," but they don't understand the genius behind it. Unlike Rage, who uses the same gag over and over and tries way too hard to be funny, Maniac uses other types of jokes to have a bit of variety in his humour. Sure, sometimes he reuses some gags, but it's only a few times, and it's not as repetitive as Rage's. While some could point out his jokes don't make sense, that's where the genius part comes in.
Maniac is all about not making sense, and it would be stupid if he did. So ironically enough, it would make sense if his humour didn't make sense because that would go against what he does! Even if they don't make sense, what makes them funny is that they just sound so absurd that you can't help but crack a smile at them, and they're absolute gold when you say them out loud. The best example of this narratively genius humour is his catchphrase. It would look a bit stupid at first as it sounds like he's trying to annoy you, but then you step back and realise:
He is correcting you.
No, I'm serious. Maniac's catchphrase is that he's correcting you. And in context, it makes sense.
First of all, it's extremely rude to call someone crazy. It's not nice for someone out of the blue to just point a finger at you and say you're crazy. What makes it worse is that Maniac is being called this by literal strangers. You don't just look at a person and automatically think they're crazy. It's not like Dr. Maniac's walking around with a neon sign over his head that says 'Hello, I'm a crazy person. Please stay 15 feet away from me." (Side note, did you not SEE what he's wearing? Or here's something else to consider: HIS NAME IS DR. MANIAC. Are either of those factors not enough to prove to you that he's not normal?)
If Maniac were like other people, he would either have been quite offended, told them off or just ignored them. But instead, he decides to be a decent human being because to him, they're using the wrong term and corrects them... while screaming in their face to do so. I suppose he screams it to make sure that they don't forget.
Here's the translation:
What Dr. Maniac says: "I'm not crazy, I'm a MANIAC!"
What Dr. Maniac means: "Kiddo, that's not the correct term. I'm Dr. Maniac. Get it right!"
That is what makes it funny. Combined with how absurd it sounds (especially in the audiobook) and the context behind it, Maniac's catchphrase is laughable. In a good way.
- He has a complex personality.
This aspect in particular makes me happy. Goosebumps' weakest point was making memorable characters. A huge majority of them in the first two series were either boring, annoying or jerks. Sure, there are some exceptions (Carly Beth, Billy D, Lizzy, Wendy, Kris and Lindy, Amanda, Margaret, Billy H, Hannah, Jillian Z, etc), but even so, they're a very small section and often get lost in the sea of forgetfulness. The villains were done a far lot worse, many were serious with no sense of humour, like I pointed out before. The thing is, if the protagonist is unlikable, you could often find yourself rooting for the villains since they're more enjoyable. But when both sides fall flat, you can't tell who to root for since they're so boring.
That's why HorrorLand is my favorite series. Along with Carly Beth, Sabrina, the Morris siblings and the Deep siblings, the other characters were fleshed out and weren't just blank canvases, they had their interests (Britney and Molly painted but the later was more into sports, Matt was an athlete as well as a science nerd, Abby plays water games with her brother, all the while maintaining a serious sisterly role, Michael was a hotheaded mechanic along with a bit of a jokester, Boone was knowledgeable about animals and Jillian and Jackson are superhero fans) that helped shape up their character. Two of the kids' talents even played into their respective stories exceptionally well. (Julie's photography and Robby's writing, and illustrating comic strips)
That wasn't to say, of course, that the villains were boring. The HorrorLand Five (my nickname for the five main villains) are my favourite villains in the franchise because of how unique their personalities were. I could go talk about all of them and how they got wasted by the narrative, but for the relevance of this character study, I'm only going to talk about Maniac's.
I've mentioned that he's a hard worker, but there are other aspects that you don't notice unless you take a closer look;
To start, he's smart and almost always has a plan. In the main story, the first thing he does after realising he's alive (that is, to assume that's what he did. The book unfortunately does not have any chapters from his perspective, so everything he did is up to imagination) is brainstorming a little scheme that goes like this:
Step 1: Kidnap a bunch of kids.
Step 2: Force them to ice skate 24/7.
Step 3: Get super rich on TV.
It may not look like much (and even I changed it to corrupt the town with a virus in my version), but compared to the other villains, who again rely mainly on luck to get the protagonist to notice them, it goes a long way for Maniac. He also adds that it benefits the kids as well ("It's good exercise!" he says). And later on, when Robby manages to persuade the kids to escape the rink, Maniac melts the ice to block their escape, showing that he's quick-witted.
I did touch upon the comic strip and the arcade machine in the second point, but I didn't fully explain what that means. It illustrates that Maniac is quite intelligent, using his cyberspace ability to his advantage. He made the comic strip because he knew that Robby would take notice, what with all the appearances he seems to have heard of, and the arcade game to get Robby's attention as if to say "Tee hee. I found you!"
In the Enter HorrorLand segment, he's the only one to give the kids an effective scare using the radiator and turning it up and down, causing Robby to 'suffocate', leading to a very powerful moment in the series, but I'll get to that later.
It either means that it is a hard worker, or the other villains are slackers. Maniac also doesn't seem very bothered if people call him crazy, illustrating that he likely has a lot of self-confidence in himself. He knows he's cuckoo and that people will likely look at him weirdly, but that doesn't bother him, and he just shrugs it off, but not before correcting them.
Another aspect of Maniac is that he seems to be some sort of leader among the villains, which again, shows a lot about him. In the movies and most crossover fanfictions, Slappy is shown to be the leader due to being the evilest and most powerful (which is rubbish). But in The Streets of Panic Park, when the villains bump into the kids, Slappy is among them, but not only is he in the background of the six, it's not even he that's leading the villains; it's Maniac, and to a lesser extent, Cranium. It's fairly amusing how people would write Slappy as the boss in fics (and even more so when Maniac would be written to follow his orders) when here, Maniac has the authority, and what adds to that is that Slappy or the other villains ever objected to him being in charge, showing that Maniac is somewhat respected. Not to mention, Slappy said it was Maniac's idea to help the kids defeat the Menace. So Slappy is not all-powerful, and he's not a leader. Go cry about it.
For a villain, Dr. Maniac has a very complex personality, no?
- He's got some standout moments.
Even though he is supposed to be someone who enjoys being evil, Maniac has a total of 3 moments that highlight him as a character. The first is when he and the other villains team up the kids like before, showing that he is taken seriously, but-and this applies to the other HorrorLand Five villains- it also illustrates that he has a limit over what he does and he knows when to stop, as opposed to the other villains who seem to act without thinking twice. While yes, he and the other villains left the kids to do the work, the fact that they came back to help them is super cool.
The second moment is rather a small but sweet exchange. It's the scene where The Scarlet Starlet appears. She demands to know where her fans are, to which Maniac says that he's keeping it low until they can get more kids. Then Scarlet says:
"But I need a lot of attention as well. Don't forget-I'm the Scarlet Starlet!"
You know if Scarlet said this to any other villain, she would have been laughed out of that ice rink. As it's common for villains to work alone, they likely wouldn't care if they had someone else to work with. If she hadn't laughed at, Scarlet, either would have been told to leave or stay out of it. But instead of doing any of the above, what does Maniac say?
"Don't worry, when our 24-hour ice show begins, you'll get LOTS of attention! More attention than a hamster in an encyclopaedia factory!"
That's surprisingly nice of Maniac. Clearly, it shows that he is very supportive of his sister's goals and wants to make her happy. Now I know that it's not confirmed what their status is, but I think that they're a brother-sister duo (with Maniac being older), and it would be so sweet if they were!
As everyone knows, the Goosebumps siblings are a pain in the neck, notorious for making life a living hell for their siblings. If I had to estimate, 95% of them are horrible to each other, and the other 5% are on mutual terms or they work together to escape the scare (e.g, Billy and Sheena, Lizzy and Luke, Sara and Amy). It would be really funny if "Dr. Maniac VS Robby Schwartz" not only had a pair of siblings as the main villains but siblings who get along better than the main protagonists! How ironic would that be?
Not just that, but look at how Maniac worded that line. He doesn't say "MY 24-hour ice show"; he says "OUR 24-hour ice show", illustrating that he isn't a selfish glory hound and is happy to share his spotlight. On a side note, when I looked back on this scene, I recently realised something interesting: Maniac saved himself from looking sexist. You know how when men are mistreated in media and no one bats an eye, but when it's women, it causes an uproar? And I think that it would look really bad if Maniac (the main villain who is a male) would mistreat the Scarlet Starlet (his partner in crime who is a female) by laughing/telling her to leave the ice rink/stay out of his plans when she says she needs lots of attention. If he'd done any one of those things, it would imply that male villains always treat their female accomplices disrespectfully. But instead, he tells her that she'll have lots of attention when the ice show starts. He’s not only happy to share his spotlight but isn’t sexist. Plus, it's killing two birds with one stone: he gets to be rich, she gets to be famous, and the kids get exercise as a bonus. What an absolute legend!
Of course, any person reading this would argue that these don't say that Maniac is good at heart. He could have good moments and still be an evil villain, right?
Well, not exactly...
A FORGOTTEN YET POWERFUL MOMENT
All the previous claims I made could be discarded if Maniac were fine with being evil and not caring about his actions, which, to be fair, he is. However, there's still one more scene I've yet to analyze, and that is the Keeper's Lair scene in the Enter HorrorLand segment of "Help! We have Strange Powers".
In that scene, Jillian and Jackson stumble into the lair to be greeted by the sight of the other Very Special Guests, along with Maniac and Rage. Jackson quickly neutralises Rage with a chandelier while Maniac scares with the radiator trick I mentioned before. Robby, in an attempt to distract his creation, pretends to suffocate. Naturally, all the kids are horrified by this and thought he died, Jillian even calling Maniac a murderer. On its own, this scene itself is very impactful, what with the story making you believe that Robby is dead. But what makes it powerful is not the kids' reaction, but rather Maniac's reaction.
If Maniac was happy just being evil and not caring about his actions, he either would have laughed insanely or joked about how "That's one less kid to worry about!" But instead...he's horrified. He thought he killed Robby-his own creator, and he's horrified. He frets that The Menace will have his head and leaves in terror.
Now, any person would pass off this scene without a second glance, but it stood out to me the more I looked into it.
This scene just showcases how complex a character Dr. Maniac is. All through the series, he's pictured as a man with no sanity and is just evil cause it's fun. However, here, he regrets what he did. He regrets turning up the radiator because now someone is dead. He shows remorse for his actions. And he's panicking, because he'd never been in a situation like this before. He even says:
"No! No one can die here! I'm the Keeper! My job is to keep you here! No one can die!"
Sure, the wiki page says that it was his job to keep not killing, but I see it more as a crack in his character, like he's 99% evil. While he would scare people and likely get people hurt, he wouldn't KILL anyone. That is where I think he would draw the line. To add to that, he's panicking because he never saw someone dead and that he was the cause of it would shock him. No wonder the poor man was so frightened. Then he says:
"No! I can't end this way! I always promised myself a HAPPY ENDING! No! No way! I can't handle this!"
The implications are rather depressing; Even though he knows he's the villain, Dr. Maniac just wants to be happy. He always promised himself that one day he would be, but that will never happen because villains don't get happy endings. Put that in mind, and the fact that he's panicking makes the part about him not wanting end this way imply that he doesn't want to die before he finds happiness. It also adds a lot of pain to the other two books, knowing that Maniac will go out without getting a chance to get what he wants. Yikes.
Yet that is what makes this scene all the more powerful. Maniac is a human being in this lens, not just a madman. He's a real person with real emotions. That under that crazy supervillain is someone who wants to be happy despite the circumstances and role he's pushed into. This scene alone makes him surprisingly sympathetic. It's up there with Carly Beth using the sculpture head as the symbol of love and Sara admitting to Amy that she was jealous of her as the most powerful moments in the franchise. It adds so much to his already great character, which brings me to something else that Maniac is:
GOOSEBUMPS MOST AND POTENTIALLY ONLY FLESHED-OUT VILLAIN
Think about it, has any villain in the franchise been as complex and as much depth as Dr. Maniac?
The answer is none. Most of the villains were either:
- Very forgettable/one-dimensional (the book versions of the Mud Monsters and Clarissa the Crystal Lady, and a majority of the other monsters),
Overshadowed by the other players in their books and/or sequels (Sarabeth, Mr. Wood, Ahemd and Princess Khala, Alexander Dubrow),
Forgotten because their books are unpopular (The Creeps, Mr. Toggle, Mr. Chameleon, King Jellyjam),
Given a pass because of nostalgia (can apply to any villain in the Original 62),
Unnecessary to the plot (Shadow Danny),
Put into a book where the sibling is worse ("The Cuckoo Clock of Doom", "Revenge R Us", "Don't Go to Sleep!")- Or some just didn't have a villain at all ("Why I'm Afraid of Bees" and "How I Learned to Fly," though I like this one).
Yes, you could point to the core four monsters: Slappy, Monster Blood, Horrorland and The Haunted Mask, but I would say only half of them deserved their popularity.
Monster Blood is likely known for its sequels due to how repetitively awful they were, while Slappy's popularity is rather strange since his books have the universe bend over backwards to have the plot work. I'm also not a fan of how the movies try to paint him as sympathetic (and people thought he was misunderstood. Frankly Stine had every right to lock Slappy up again.), and how other pieces of media paint him as the darkest and evilest character in the series. Yeah right.
HorrorLand and The Haunted Mask both deserved how popular they were due to how well the books were written, but if you asked which one was better, the answer would be The Haunted Mask. That's because its book had a good story, an interesting antagonist, great character development, a lovable protagonist in the form of Carly Beth and just everything about it was so fantastic. Everyone in the fandom (me included) has included this book as one of their favourites, including Stine himself. Nothing against HorrorLand and the Horrors, obviously, but The Haunted Mask is just so iconic and very difficult to top. Horrorland is good, but I love it because of its book and mainly the spinoff series. Plus, the lore is unfortunately very inconsistent.
However, they are both villains, and I like them. Other than the HorrorLand Five, I would say my favourites are The Haunted Mask, Horrorland, Mr. Mortman (because I strongly pity him), Mary Ellen (because she's so similar and different to Slappy), The Lord High Executioner (because he sounds terrifying) and the Mud Monsters (while I will say they were rather forgettable because the only appeared in the last page of their book, I liked them because I thought they were rather tragic with their backstory).
But none of them hold a candle to Dr. Maniac. He manages to be more interesting than any other villain I've seen in the series. He's a real blink-and-you ll-miss-it kind of guy; you don't tend to take notice of him because of his books, but when you look closer, you'd see he's great. From his complex personality, to his hard-working nature, to his clever humour, to being oddly sympathetic, I just can't find myself hating him. He's so fleshed out compared to most other monsters and is the closest thing Goosebumps is going to get to a 3-dimensional villain. Maybe I'm pushing it a little, but as far as Maniac goes, he's premium. (And I strongly believe that if he were given better writing and was handled properly, he would have been a fan favourite, perhaps even on Carly Beth's level.) Because unlike others, he has heart.
That is why I love Dr. Maniac. That is why he is my favourite HorrorLand character and my second favourite character overall. And that is why I feel that he deserved better from the narrative and the fandom. Of course, the big question still stands:
Why did I reform Dr. Maniac?
A PUPPET ON STRINGS (AND COMPARISONS)
Any person who got up to this part might as well be wondering, "Well, okay, you've defended him and said why you like him, but why do you reform Maniac? He seems perfectly fine with being an evil villain cause it's fun."
Wrong again!
It wasn't hard to see why Maniac would reform, and this will also apply to Scarlet and Rage. Let me explain how.
When you think about it, Maniac isn't doing anything wrong. Bold statement, I know, but just bear with me. He isn't committing the most heinous crimes like other villains are doing. The worst thing he did was just being a crazy madman, and even then, it's not bad because it's what he's supposed to do. This ties into a major part of himself. Although he is a real human with real emotions and thoughts, there is, in fact, something he lacks that pulls him back. Something personal.
Freedom.
Maniac does have actions, but he has no control over them or himself, for that matter. He's stuck in an unknown world and, of course, starts behaving like a villain because that's what he's used to doing. Like he's evil, not because he wants to, but because he has to in a way. Metaphorically, he's a puppet on strings doing everything his story tells him to, and he can't do anything about it. This also makes his hope of living happily all the more impossible because, like I said, villains don't get happy endings. So Maniac is doomed to never be happy by the narrative, and there is nothing he can do or say about it. His situation is similar to that of two other minor villains: Dark Dream and the Ladybug Sentimonster (whom I will be referring to as Sentibug).
Dark Dream and the rest of Dark Precure 5 were created by the movie's main antagonist, Shadow, to defeat the Yes! Precure 5 heroines, while they try to steal the Dream Collet to rule all the worlds. The Dark Precure 5 were made with the powers of the Cures, as well as representing what they were like in the past. While Cures Rouge, Lemonade, Mint and Aqua were able to defeat theirs, Cure Dream has a hard time killing hers. During their battle, Dark Dream is rather annoyed that Cure Dream is always so upbeat and enthusiastic, to which the latter replies that it's because she fights for her friends and that she does her best when she does so. This rather hurts Dark Dream, for she has no loved ones, and that's all she knows is that Shadow ordered her to defeat her (sound familiar?). She was never taught about feelings and friendships, and was shocked when Cure Dream told her that she indeed had a heart as well. Instead of defeating her, Cure Dream decided to spare her and bring both of them back to the others. Later on, however, when Shadow attempts to kill Cure Dream, Dark Dream sacrifices herself and dies with a smile on her face, something she previously stated she could never do.
Sentibug is pretty similar to Dark Dream. She was created by the Peacock villainess Mayura to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous. While Dark Dream is the dark side of Cure Dream, Sentibug was created to be an exact copy of the real Ladybug and Cat Noir's dream partner. She was very close to getting Cat's ring, but then the real Ladybug showed up and stopped her. After using her Lucky Charm to grab the Eiffel Tower keychain the Amok was in, Ladybug was about to break it, but upon realizing that Sentibug wasn't actually evil and was just following orders, she gave it to Sentibug instead. This granted her freedom, though this didn't last long, as when they tried to take Mayura's Miraculous, the former released Sentibug from existence. In other words, she killed her and not even Miraculous Ladybug brought her back.
Can you see why I would compare Maniac to them? Their situations aren't that different: They were all created to be the villains and take down the heroes, and at one point wanted to be happy, but couldn't because of their situations, and had a moment of rebelling against the real big bad. What sets them apart are two key differences:
- Unlike Dark Dream and Sentibug, who were made to be copies of their respective heroes, Maniac was made by Robby just for his comics and came to life with no explanation and
- More importantly, Dark Dream and Sentibug were shown kindness by their respective heroes, and that was what led to their heel-face turns. Cure Dream offered to help Dark Dream with feelings and friendships after they got out, and Sentibug was deemed free by Ladybug. (Actually, rereading 'The Streets of Panic Park', there was a scene with a similar theme. In the Shake Shack, Robby tried to offer Maniac a deal, saying he'd let him go if he helped them, to which Maniac turned him down and turned him invisible. In all honesty, I can understand why Maniac wouldn't agree. Robby pretended to die and gave him a mini panic attack, and Maniac fretted that the Menace would kill him. Then suddenly, Robby was shown to be alive and then dared to try and offer a truce. Even if it could lead to a heel-face turn, Maniac had every right to decline. I would do the same if someone pulled that on me.)
No one ever showed Maniac that there was another way, or that he was a human being as well. The writing merely brushes off that possibility and simply had that at the end, Maniac and the other villains heard off-page that Karloff will enslave them all when Panic Park's back, and that's why they helped the kids. As much as I love HorrorLand, I wish they took the opportunity to flesh out the villains a bit. It'd be so interesting! (but I'll take what I can get. Oh, and another difference is that Maniac lived after the Panic Park saga, while Dark Dream and SentiBug were offed by their creators.
That's why I reformed Maniac, Scarlet and Rage. They're just doing what the narrative tells them to do and they can't object to it. They're just puppets on strings. But what if someone were to (figuratively) cut those strings? If they were able to realise that being evil wasn't going to make them happy, warm up to the kids and become their people, then they likely would reform. I know all villains aren't supposed to always be redeemed, but with the context above in mind, I think it would be okay. Plus, up until now, there's never been a reformed villain in Goosebumps before, and I'm disappointed that they never tried something like this before.
I would go ahead and write about how I would reform them, but this is already pretty long and I want to wrap it up, so all I will say is that's a story for another day...
CONCLUSION
Dr. Maniac is hands down one of the most fleshed-out and interesting antagonists I have seen in a kids' series. I hate that he gets passed off as annoying without really looking deep into his character. He's one of my favourites because of how different he is from other villains in the series. He's complex, and I actually ended up caring a lot about him because of how poorly he was treated by the narrative. There is so much potential for him, and no one has ever bothered to try and use it, except me. If you ever get a chance, go back and read 'Dr Maniac VS Robby Schwartz' and the rest of the HorrorLand series, and maybe you'll see that Dr. Maniac isn't annoying, he's amazing!