High guardian spice has a large sum of problems, but is it possible to fix those while leaving it at least somewhat recognizable? Only one way to find out
I always felt if you want to make Rosemary have character development, you need to destroy her sword. The weight of her mother's shadow seems to hang over her all the time, but the writers don't even want to address it as being negative. The sword gets a small piece of the pommel broken and she's beside herself in grief. Imagen if it gets destroyed or something and Parsley has to forge her a new one. The show should focus on Rosemary's story that of stepping free from her mother's shadow and becoming her own woman and the new sword will be the final piece of this journey.
Oh! Maybe it turns into bits of shrapnel and its like rosemary needs to mourn her mother all over again. Then theres a whole character thing where they say that holding ur mom in a high regard doesn’t mean to do exactly what she did so they turn them into little throwing knives. Shes a hero like her mom but shes allowed to be different
The idea of the villains being a corporation hiding the negative part of their products and how they are destroying the world is probably the smartest move. And also, a better critique of today's society than anything they tried
I feel like they did it. They just didn't reveal it yet. It is pretty obvious, especially considered the scene after ending credits... Which contains the most majestic moustache men from matrix of all this show.
A moment that occurred to me: Rosemary is insisting to Sage that they simply MUST go to the academy to escape their boring lives, and Sage is resisting, pointing out that it’s super dangerous and her mom went missing and such. After a while of arguing Rosemary says, “Well, if you’re not coming with me, I’ll just go by myself!” and storms out of the room. She goes to pack her things, and leaves for the train station, where she finds Sage (The more coordinated of the two, I imagine she’d take less time to get her stuff ready) already there. And then Rosemary is like, “Sage? I thought you were staying in Pebble? [Possibly insert a direct quote from Sage’s side of the argument here]” Sage just sighs, and says “If you go alone, you’re **going** to die.” And Rosemary gets mad again, and is like, “I told you before, you’re not gonna stop me!” To this, Sage just sighs again, looking at the ground. “I know…that’s why I don’t really have a choice. I’m coming with you.” Rosemary is stunned for a moment, before getting excited, and saying “I knew you’d come around! This is gonna be great!” Or something like that, and pulls Sage into a hug. A hug that Sage takes a while to return, seeing as she’s only really going to prevent Rosemary from doing something stupid and getting herself killed.
@@guardianHQ it makes Sage self sacrificing to a fault, since she gives up whatever else she was doing to indulge a friends selfish request. And Rosemary becomes really manipulative. Could be a cool subversion of tropes, if the sword used (usually coded as the heroic self sacrificing one) turns out to confuse manipulative tactics with friendship. While their best friend really doesn‘t want to be here but is an enabler.
@@guardianHQ I don't know, the rewrite, it still sound pretty lackluster and predictable, but then again this is only the first draft for a real Shitshow. Maybe instead of having Olive saved they could just have her be the main villain of the season first and have her killed off by Mandrake who will take over the role of main villain in the second season. Also can you cut all the Man-Hating, Misandristic Snark, that's one of the main problems with this series!
I think instead of making the potions teacher a villain, make her a veteran with PTSD. She is using illegal teaching methods, because she believes it will save more lives in the long run. Like Moody from Harry Potter. Well, Moody actually did turn out to be a villain, but you know what I mean.
Technically, it wasn't even Moody, but someone who knew how to impersonate him so well, it took a Truth Potion to spill the beans in the end (Barty's son.). But I got what you mean too.
A magical boot camp makes way more sense for training Guardians than a magic school. But if you still want to keep the magic school angle, there is a potential workaround: due to the recent acceleration of Rot growth (caused by propagation of Terra-spheres, which are not yet known to be linked to the Rot), the demand for Guardians has spiked to the point where regular magic academies are being co-opted to train more Guardians. Basically an emergency wartime scenario.
To expand upon this, basic education and Guardianship training should begin in the villages the characters come from. Prospects learn swordplay, magic, language, and whatever else a Guardian needs to protect, say, the villages they live at, which takes years of education and training. Literally no one coming to High Guadian Academy should be unused to combat and working under pressure. While anyone can become a Guardian, only High Guardians bear the certification and recognition from an on-high source, be it the royal family or sovereign god/goddess of the world, which is like giving you a special exemption nobility pass.
It would also explain why some people are taking classes in say healing and blacksmithing to make sure the guardians & probably the villages they are stationed at healthy but able to defend
I have an idea: I think this guardianship shouldn’t be place in a school but an exam. Like hunter x hunter. In hunter x hunter, they don’t have to go school to learn to be a hunter but to become a hunter, that’s what this show needs. It’s makes more sense instead of a generic magical school. They even get their guardian licenses after the exams.
The potions teacher is clearly there to sabotage the guardians. Run with it. Make her one of the major villains. Have her say that she's surprised it took them so long to figure her out... She wasn't trying hard to hide it. She could have even put poison spells into the food to take out most of the academy once it's no longer useful. the spell is in their system. snap her fingers and most if not all of them collapse, weakened and easy pickings for their enemies. And have her keep her evil/happy attitude the whole time. REVELING in her actions. Also have her mock the leaders of the school for being blind morons.
Honestly I think slime boy could still be in the show as an MC but you could make his terrasphere attacks more music based like maybe he plays southing notes and melody’s to put enemy’s to sleep Also thyme having her new magic powers be nature based is pretty hypocritical over what terraspheres do to the earth so maybe she uses quick and spam able but low dealing magic for her attacks
Isn't the whole idea of terrasphre being used by guardians that it's hypocritical because you're using the tools that kill nature to save nature? Wouldn't she be the physical manifestation of this "crisis" that all the guardians will have once the truth comes out
Bardic magic is quite viable. That said... Slime boy has to be the hero of the story. Let him be the underestimated savior of the plot. The soft spoken sweet kid who ends up being the linchpin to their victory
Yeah I was thinking since she uses a bow, id be best to have her magical attacks be more precision and accuracy based, since you kinda need focus and precision to use a bow.
I don't really feel so great about kicking Astor out of the school. I see a lot of potential in his character and the relationship with others. Like Rosemary for example, I see both of them being like friends but also rivals at the same time. They would have like comedic interactions with each other like a brother and sister bothering each other. They both definitely would get along well since they're both seeming to have the same interest or just lacking intelligence. Plus Astor can be a pretty useful asset to the main characters, like coming to help aid them in a situation like being trapped by spiders or something since he does have a confident but absent minded personality to do it. But only so he could show off to Rosemary. With this change I can see Astor being a fan favorite upon many. P.S. I remember seeing this one animatic of fixing Astor's character from being a sexist to not a sexist. I forgot who made it, but I will find and link them if you want to know. But in the animatic Astor is seen trying to help and protect Rosemary from all the obstacles they encounter, to the dismay of Rose. Rosemary asks him to stop, Astor wonders why and tells her that her something like "aren't I supposed to protect you since your a girl". Rosemary explains how she doesn't always needs protection and just wants to be seen as an equal to Astor. Astor acknowledges her request and apologize's, but also explains how he had sisters at home that he tries to keep safe everyday, and that habit kind of spread to Rosemary. They both reconcile in a nice wholesome but funny way.
Yeah, kicking out Aster is so unnecessary, particularly when you consider that he literally only existed for Rosemary to have her "men are ew" moment. I would totally use him in conjunction with the breaking of swords thing and give him a much better role as a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass type once things get serious.
@@radicalpollution4270 Yes, I'm glad you got the link, Jamie deserves more attention for the work they did salvaging such flat, boring characters (and their original content too, of course!)
@@ChaosoneX hahaha yes, Aster would work so well as a CMHB trope. He's constantly trying to show off for Rosemary and comes across as kind of a lovable idiot most of the time, but when the chips are down he shows he's actually pretty competent.
Honestly, I think Slimeboy could stay, just make bards a support class, like strengthening others while cc-ing the enemies. In a similar note, the other recurring character, the chubby child who almost looks like a girl? Keep him the same, but add the fact he's going the assassin track of the school, making his kind demeanor contrasting with his chosen path. It would also explain his use of weapons.
Like it could a complete personality switch. Also, it explains why he 's a second year with Parsley. It even surprises Parsley how good he really is when it comes to combat. But his social skills are what's lacking(cuz of his cutesy personality he comes off as Shy)
Changing the school to be safer could also make a fun arc for Zinnia. She's the coward of the school, but we see that the training is designed to bring out the best in the students, and it makes her more confident and maybe even eventually one of the top students. Which makes it more heartbreaking when she dies, showing that there is no guarantee of safety as a guardian.
Imagine she starts to get confident while training and so maybe when they start doing live exercises in something like the cave she goes into it with her team and she is confident. But later the group finds her again cowering while a monster has just killed her team. AS it attacks like Rosemary and is about to kill her she manages to Hurt it or draw it's attention but dies in the process.
The fun thing in these types of videos is that no two rewrites look the same, everybody has their own version and what they choose to change and what inspiration they draw from is really unique. Personally, I am working on a rewrite too. Not in a fanfiction way, more in the sense that I want to make my own webcomic someday and this pemade basic story will make for excellent practice for growing my skills for that day. Especially since I have no heavy attachment to it and I know anything I write will be better than it was, (I mean, I hope so, lol).
if it's not, look at yourself in the mirror, slap yourself, then proceed to become better than anything you could've ever been! and if you *still* can't, get help.
Actually, I think I have an idea of what the Rot was supposed to be: The consequence of New Magic. In HGS, Sage often comments that you can use New Magic "without a cost" and that old magic comes with some sort of sacrifice, so it would make sense that the Rot set in after New Magic got introduced into the world. The miracles must come from somewhere. It would also explain why Sage's mother was originally a New Magic user, but did a 180 on it when she found out the true price of it, turning to only using Old Magic from then on to not further hasten the Rot.
Yeah it doesn't make sense in a magical world sense, or even in a political sense which i think is what it was supposed to be, but they don't make it make any sense
For a split second, for a brief moment, I read the title as "Irish Guardian Spice", then wept upon the realization that that is not, in fact, the title.
- As you said, I think it's best if each person is adept in specific categories of magic, rather than just focusing on the casting method. *Rosemary:* Attacker: Wind-type; power-boosting and energy absorption (might as well, since she's a fast eater) *Sage:* Supporter: Light-type; healing and defense-based support *Parsley:* Defender: Fire-type; rune enchantment (infuse physical objects with supportive/boosting powers) *Thyme:* Supporter: Earth-type; plant manipulation and stealth-based support *Amaryllis:* Attacker: Electric-type; destruction magic *Snapdragon:* Defender: Water-type; speed-boosting and animal empathy - Subjective take, but I think Snapdragon could've worked as a dragonborn. I mean...if not just for the name pun, then to add irony to Rosemary saying a dragon wouldn't be in Ethics class. Also, DnD dragonborns are typically rough-looking, so being a pretty-looking one would make Snap stand out more. Just saying, if they're gonna pull all these other DnD races into this show, they might as well go all the way with it. - You know one way that Caraway can make his transgender status work? Make him a good source of advice for both the boys and the girls, since he's been on both paths at some points. And I don't mean bringing up transition magic as a Plan A, of course... - I've had a thought on Olive and Mandrake being artificial lifeforms that the Triumvirate created, along with the Rot. Perhaps that could make the two of them wary of judgment and harm from natural lifeforms like the main group. They might've heard nasty stories about Guardians - most likely skewed exaggerations - to make them scared to death of them. Olive could express this through distrust toward them, while Mandrake expresses it through a "kill or be killed" mindset.
this is great but i think parsley shouldn't be removed from smithing.. She should be neck deep in the crafting section. Crafting on sight or building weapons and armor that enhance or allow users to more easily attune the weapons to their elements. Rosemary's sword would be hers still but it would work better for her mom.. So eventually Parsley makes Rose her own sword that truely allows her to use her own ability's to their fullest. Also as a player of open world games with crafting systems... the ability to make something with what's around you would be an extremely useful skill in missions. Just imagine there are areas they cannot use magic due to "magic eating monsters, being detected by foes. etc." even if the items they use are magical in nature, because its native to the area.. it can get them past some big problems. Personally i feel Wind suits rosemary. Wind can have incredible destructive force, Slicing winds are a stereotype in anime (sword) and also goes along with her flighty personality and speed. Also i like to keep "protags" away from the light element. Too... obvious and overdone. And with the way rose swings her sword around.. it's easy to imagine her accidently creating heavy winds and breaking stuff. XD
I think Sage should go for a multi elemental role. Have some wind but also water or fire traits. Be rare in that she combines elements with wind for effects. (earth with wind, sandstorm spells, fire and wind, blazing tornados, water and wind could lead to storm spells or blizzard with ice/cold)
you could also have the mele fighters use magic strictly for self-buffing, increasing speed, strength, agility, resilience, or other traits to the point where they can actually match magic users.
One issue with your point about Caraway is something very common with a lot of transgenders that advocate for transitions, and that is exactly what J.K. Rowling said about trans-women. They very rarely (practically never) actually know what it's like to be either gender. A good example is the book "self-made man" where the author disguised herself as a man to expose the toxicity of masculinity only for every man she met to more or less see through her disguise because she had no idea how to actually act like a man, despite her best efforts. There was also a video of a bunch of FtM transgenders talking about how happy they were to be men now, despite the fact that every man around them pointed out that they don't live like men, they just look like men, to which they essentially responded that "they were men, and they acted like themselves, therefor they were acting like men".
They really missed the opportunity to make parsley an alchemist blacksmith rather than a normal blacksmith in the academy, just saying. That would've been way more interesting plus it could fix the issue of pars not really being connected to the main conflict much. Have you ever written anything before btw?
That would also explain why she’s so adamant on not working at her family’s forge. Maybe her parents- being prideful dwarves- disprove of magic “tainting” their craft, and don’t want Parsley to go to the academy because they think alchemy is a waste of time and don’t want their daughter to have her ambitions crushed into dust.
I feel like making making her like that could help out a lot with the magic system of the world. Make her discover some sort of weapon enhancement magic by combining potions and stuff. Having a major magic breakthrough could set up a B plot point for the series other than the A plot of “save the rot and go through school”
you could also just have her learn more "built in" types of magic, like rune carvings or magic crystal inlays, making her the team expert on magic artifacts.
I think the best solution for the potion teacher is to change the nature of the first lesson. As in, the lesson is presented exactly the same -- she announced all the students have been poisoned and they have an hour to find the antidote or they'll die -- but at the end of the hour, they've failed. Maybe Sage has made a lot of progress but she still times out, and then... everybody's fine. The goofy mutations are in place, but nobody's dead. The teacher produces the antidote, it reverses the mutations, and the real lesson is revealed-- they COULD have all died just then, and not one of them could keep their cool. It's a lesson about the attitudes necessary to be a Guardian. What she was imparting is that this is a dangerous job, that you must be ready at any moment to defend yourself, that death comes in many forms, and that you cannot lose your cool or allow yourself to be caught off-guard. You can either go serious with this and tone down her wackiness, or play it up and have a running gag where every one of her lessons contains another prank that's meant to keep the students on their toes. Either way just establish that she's not actually trying to kill anybody.
As a Jrpg player I can think of a few ways to make the first episode better. Have Rosemary & Sage fight some low-level monsters during the journey to Lyngarth to give them a chance to showcase their skills similar to Octopath Traveler or Bravely Default. This way shows that the two girls are High Guardian material.
I think another good way to fix the potions teacher would be to just have her be one of those teachers that comes down on mistakes excessively hard. I.e. have the plants be something that could hurt the kids, but couldn't actually kill them and while she's explaining whatever lesson a student gets latched onto. Teacher yanks them out and just rips into them for touching things before being told what to do.
Just by their design, you'd assume the characters may fall into tried and true archetypes that the writer can draw on for inspiration or subvert: Rosemary and Sage look like they may be your classic "heart" and "brain" pair: Rose the passionate one whose enthusiasm carries the team forward but who can have trouble listening to logic over emotion, especially when it comes to her parental baggage. Sage may be her straight man, cleaning up her messes but also relying on her for the confidence that she herself lacks. Their friendship can complement each other as they annoy but also admire and try to learn from the other. Thyme with the permanent bored face seems like she'd be your classic kuudere big sister type whose selling point is her "cool" badass demeanur, who lacks emotion but warms up to the protags in her own quiet way. Maybe we can follow her on an arc about elves finding it hard to relate to humans or a struggle with isolation and self-acceptance, etc. Idk who Parsley is supposed to be but strikes me as the "guide" type, our Applejack/Ron Weasley, the one who's already integrated into the setting and can show/teach a lot about the rules and traditions of the world just by how she interacts with her family etc. and who can bring in conflicts that revolve around societal obligations and living up to expectations.
I'd have the potions teacher act crazy outside, but if you can see through her trick, there's lessons to be found. Maybe the child murder could be just a transformation potion that makes you feel like garbage but isn't lethal, but the lesson is to stay calm because they might eat something poison in the future or be bitten by a snake or something beyond that and need to think of a cure. If anyone fails that test, she gives them a bottle of cure to fix it, then gives a lecture about how not panicking meant the kids discovered the cure. It's important to have it be the first lesson because it's so important to learn. I'd also maybe change the story a bit so Rosemary's mother's sword was damaged all over everything except the blade. This encourages her to invest in a couple different weapons. Maybe a dagger and a thinner sword. She finds that she works better with the other weapons because her mother's sword is too big and bulky, so she keeps her mother's sword as an heirloom more than anything. In fact, there could be multiple episodes of upgrading the cast instead of the slice of life we got. Maybe Thyme has issues keeping up with the gang and is forced to using a recurve bow made from metal instead of her normal wooden bow, which isn't something she would normally do because she doesn't like metal but it's offered by Parsley, so it shows their companionship. Maybe Sage could be shown studying new spells but she hasn't mastered yet, taking a dangerous step into using an untested spell to beat something that can only be beaten with that spell, Zelda temple style. Maybe Parsley could have an actual issue which requires her to develop instead of whatever the thing was with the parasects. Maybe she could have issues actually being in the fray, which is why she works the smithy instead.
Exactly I always felt her attempting to kill her students on the first day weird. I could buy the situation as a final exam as by then the teacher would’ve taught every thing her students needed to pass. To have her be so causal about killing kids on their first day is irresponsible
@@BlueBlazeKing if written better, she would be somewhat like a method teacher who likes to act scenarios but will grt serious when it's time for the actual lessons, not only so that she could see students' reactions real time, but also so that the students can recall future events with her lessons with them. Call it twisted, but I feel that's the closest way you can point her to being not a villain but maybe a ref herring? (A comment I saw here said she could also work as a veteran guardian with PTSD trying to teach her students about the dangerous world in a twisted way)
As much as everybody hates the potion teacher, I think she never actually killed anybody. I feel like she would stop it last second whenever a student was in actual danger. She could have a pretty cool arc where she actually saves a kid and then explains that none of the kids were ever in real danger. Maybe there would even be some sort of character motivation? I do gotta give the writers credit for the magic wand hairpins. Those were pretty cool imo
I think the martial arts class could still work, teaching one to be able to fight, at least decently, without the use of a terrasphere in case one were to lose it in combat temporarily
I like the idea that Rosemary thinks attending the academy will lead her to clues about her mom. She's an alumni of the school, and I imagine one of the most celebrated ones, so I could see Rosemary wanting to either ask faculty members about her or snoop around in order to find anything that might be helpful in her search. I also had this idea that the planet itself is, to some degree, alive and sentient, and The Rot is the planet's response to things that actually upset and hurt the planet on both a physical and emotional level. The big ones being taking from the planet without communing with nature and/or giving back to the planet in some way (which is exactly what the mass production of terraspheres is a result of), and the people who live on the planet spreading needless hatred for one another. And the irony of that second part is that there are hate groups in both magical and non-magical communities who blame each other despite neither side being purposely responsible, and in trying to solve the problem, they're only making it worse by either spreading more hatred or continuing the mass production of terraspheres.
Honestly, the way to make Caraway better in this rewrite is to make him Rosemary and Sage's guardian (get it?) while they are staying in Lyngarth. He already knew Rose's mom so he would instantly realize that Rose and Sage run from home to become a guardian. Caraway will have more screen time interacting with Rose, and can be a new magic mentor to Sage. He will now have more meaningful appearance then just reading wiki info to Rose, and talk to Snapdragon.
Also maybe make it so that he knows what the rot is doing but chooses to turn a blind eye to it because it's how he maintains his male form. When the main characters tell him about how new magic is causing the rot he gives another side to the story showing how new magic can truly help people, and maybe how it helps level the playing field for those who aren't as magically gifted.
I really like the idea of Sage just being dragged along by Rose, and being hesitant about the whole thing. Instead of it culminating into one big argument later in the season, she could pretend to be supportive at first, but slowly grow more bitter as time goes on, maybe from being homesick, or her fears being proven right through Rose and the crew having too many close calls, or whatever. She grows more passive-aggressive over time, maybe even having little fits or outbursts every now and then. Maybe she’s internalized her mother’s skepticism of the teraspheres, and lashes out at those who wield them, calling old magic “authentic magic” (her first outburst is at the potions teacher who’s probably parading around her terasphere like a divine gift, and it lands her in detention, or some other punitive measure.) and putting others down for relying so heavily on something so convenient. Also have a way for her to express these feelings to the audience to keep her fits from seeming spontaneous. This would put her in the mindset to argue with Rose over something petty, and gives Rose justified reason to ask what’s wrong with her, which she’s too frustrated to respond to, and simply storms off. After a couple more squabbles ending the same way, they could break away from each other to do their own thing for a while. Also don’t make Rose a saint in this, maybe she could be a thick-headed idiot leader that constantly makes bad decisions so Sage’s feelings are justified. But this is for if the show was longer than 12 episodes, which. it’s not.
As someone who actively wants to rewrite the series and make it better, this video really helped me come up with some ideas on how to develop my rewrite better, and reading all the comments were really helpful in coming up with decisions!! Despite how much of a dumpster fire High Guardian Spice is, I feel like it really had a lot of people come up with new and creative ways to tackle story-telling, world building, and characters. I'm also just glad this channel exists to rip into my new fixation and drive me into trying to make a coherent story with decent characters, so truly, thank you :) (sorry for being sappy ^^")
I can see Snap being an inverted Barbarian, where they become a calm, collected, calculating murder machine due to a genetic mutation that doesn't connect the power increase to anger, but the absence of it. Snap would then use this against a massive threat to demolish an opponent that was capitalizing on Amaryllis's all power no finesse fighting style. He would then go home after explaining that this isn't the life he was after, go home, after a confrontation(it would probably be about how his father thinks he needs to protect people with his weapons and drive back the rot, and Snap countering with "there are other ways to serve. Violence is not the avenue of my chosing l. I will not back down on this, not again.") the father and son fight, and Snap is victorious. His dad is surprised at his fighting prowess, but ultimately lets him stay at home, and Snap becomes a civil servant loved by the public.
I disagree with Guardians being there to fight the Rot I would let them be general protectors of the population from everything unknown and dangerous, like some magical beasts, plagues, stuff like that, with the Rot being a new and mostly unknown threat. To that I would probably not let it be on the school grounds or at the very least the Rot should be in a restricted area where Caraway actually experiments on it to get rid of it for good, or something like that Also, I would not ax Slime Boy but I would change him from a bard into a botanist/potion maker, for obvious reasons
Since this show takes some queues from dnd i think it would be cool if parsley is an artificer and she could make these magitek trick arrows thyme could use and other gadgets to make her and the rest of the gang more versatile
You know in my rewrite, I tried to incorporate the rot and the reason HGA exists into a bit of world building; the Triad and the first generation of guardians (basically the army and all its non-fighting roles) were involved in a war with Witch Country also because they wanted the Rot to happen (because they simply grew envious and wanted the power of God at their fingertips like Scarborough). After Scarborough won, the Triad established the school to ensure there would always be a large amount of soldiers and medics and stuff Also non-fighters like pottery and dance and Slime Boy get to stay because you need to keep morale alive and also if you need to present things to the innocents harmed. Ngl besides the war part, I came up with all of that shit in the 3 minutes I’ve written this
Also, reason why there’s melee fighters in the school and a lot of other stuff (a bit convoluted but stick with me): Because Witch Country didn’t have any patron deity to help them like Scarborough, they were always in a struggle had to discover new ways of surviving, mainly by mining and trading with other countries. In one of their expeditions, a group of miners found a vein of pure magic and upon contact realized that only a few people could use that power, but developed old magic to make the most of it. These were the first witches and they followed very strict guidelines that even Sage’s mom followed During the war, some witches fled to Scarborough’s patrons- the Triad. They found that people capable of being witches could use magic anywhere and only knew recently because of the extensive research. Scarborough looked into magic as a material and found a lot of their army could use it, so they decided to utilize it in a less orthodox manner against Witch Country, giving us an earlier form of new magic. However, because of the research, they also found that magic is fragile and can run out, as well as indeed requiring certain procedures to be safe. Think like magic blackouts or a spell overpowering (like a glitch or something). Melee combat, while not as powerful, is consistently useful, so the Triad kept it around. Hundreds of years later, around when Lavender was 10, a dragon corrupted by the Triumpherant kills her parents, as well as much of the population, so she goes to train under the Triad. This leads to a battle in a small village, where she meets a young Caraway and saves his life. He’s really good at magic, so he tries to figure out a way to make it better, until he finds a way to concentrate pure magic into a tiny ball, leading to terraspheres. The dragon is slain, and new magic (what Caraway developed) becomes a marketed product, which the Triumpherant tries to corrupt by over-concentrating its use in terraspheres (malware).
Personally, I'd handle weapons a bit differently. While I do think it would be better for all of them to be casters of some description, I think it'd be better if weapons were like Artifacts in Made in Abyss, as tools with specific in-built functions, for example Parsley's Hammer being able to create like explosions whenever it hits an enemy a-la Blaze Reap. By doing this it gives a much larger versatility in movesets as someone like Hakone who specialises in hand to hand combat could use a tool like the Thousand-Men pins to increase their strength or Third Works in order to increase their combat potential.
Also maybe some weapons could be enchanted with elements like if someone had a flail they could Activate its ability and the spiked ball transforms into a giant ball of magma with lava spikes and they fling it around like a wrecking ball
Its a good idea But i think that would be more viable later down the line Starting with all terraspheres would exacerbate the blind ignorance of the academy and the weapon switch vould happen after the girls figure out that new magic is the problem This creates an even stronger dichotomy as their fighting styles grow MORE diverse once they stop using new magic
Yes, and then the Smith part of Guardians has much more sense. If the weapons have to be specifically enchanted, a branch of warriors who make their own weapons sounds cool. It even could be like there are four types of using magic in combat: pure terraspheres (learnt by Sage), channeling magic through ordinary weapons (learnt by Thyme), mastering ancient weapons (really limited, because there is not many of them, rosethorn being one of them, which would make breaking it even a bit more impactful even if it still works Rosemary could be worried about her competence to care for this unique artifact) and creating own magical weapons (learnt by Parsley, the show should develop her plot about forgery and Master-student relation with the faun more IMO)
Everything you said about the rot was brilliant. It ties everything together without making it convoluted. It’s got the creative gears in my head all turning, trying to imagine the new story you could build with the rot at its center.
Having Sage's mom say; "Magic always has a price, it always has, and always will. Never use a spell if you don't know what it will cost you." And also giving her the line; "Magic has a direction of its own, if you cast a spell with magic going in the same direction you'll find it much easier." And then when Sage learns where Teraspheres come from she reverse engineers its makeup to cast from a Terasphere way more efficiently. Also keep the Triad as immortal entities of immense power, but also make them fundementally parasitic to the world, with exactly one of them trying to become a symbiote instead of just lounging about with her absurd powers. Give just them teleportation as a sign of just how stupidly broken powerful they are. Or maybe make ordinary teleportation be something that takes a really precise 3D magic-circle around the diamater of a basketball court.
Personally I'd make Mandrake Rose's brother. Dedicated to destroying the guardian institution. Why? Because while Rose and her Mother was a tale of love and inspiration, her brother's was a tale of ABUSE and intimidation. Basically Rosemary was destined to be a guardian, and her Mother is proud of her for it, but her brother was beaten for even wanting to be a guardian because his mother's a misandri- I mean she claims men taking up violence. cause the source of history's problems. However the villain group WAS interested in him. He joined them because they promised him a dream his parents emotionally and physically abused him for even having: the dream to become a great warrior. It could also lead to an interesting redemption arc where he realizes he's not the hero he dreamed of being and turns on the villains.
Personally, I'd go with mindwiping and manipulation path. Mandrake being the first born but the villain noticing his potential AMBUSHED a weakened just given birth Lavender(that's her mother's name) and they taunt her and her family before erasing any memory of Mandrake ever existing from their minds. Then Rosemary is born. All whole the villains make Mandrake watch from afar how loved Rosemary is and plant the seeds of hate in Mandrake's heart.
Hmmm the only thing i could think to add is optional stuff sages cousins get a letter to ask if they saw her and they lie causing more family conflict. maybe the potions teacher will attack the students in their rooms randomly as they sleep as a way to train vigilance at all times but uses it to maybe put in mini terraspheres that spy on them to help decide who to get rid of, but well major violations that the other teachers don't know about. and maybe if they need alternate filler classes they could have seasonal classes like weapon maintenance, identifying edible plants, butchering animals/monsters. things like that. as for aster id say make him capable, but cocky and solo and maybe one of the first lessons is a basic survival trip where you can group up with whoever you want and camp out/survive the weekend and have to protect an academic mcguffin. aster goes solo because "you'll just slow me down" but he fails and is kicked out because well everyone needs to sleep so easy to steal it then. Maybe a whole big team fails because one student is actually a teacher who did transmutation on him/herself to teach them that while numbers can be a great weapon a single weak link in a chain can ruin all your plans.
Regarding the blacksmith teacher, if you're going to change things so that everyone has a magic weapon, maybe he could teach a class about creating or at least maintaining their weapons. There was already that one bit about characters trying out each other's weapons, maybe he challenges the students to create and spar with a type of weapon different from what they're used to, and various characters can respond to that in different ways as a kind of lighthearted microcosm of the "new changes vs. old familiarity" conflict the show wants you to think it's pushing.
Thought about this a bit more: what if you framed it such that Rosemary takes very adeptly to the task, forging a variety of different weapons and trouncing her sparring opponents, while Sage is basically doing her best to follow the letter of the assignment while ignoring the spirit of it, making a variety of weapons but only using them as differently shaped magic focuses. Maybe Rosemary tries to give some advice, coming off as arrogant over having found a subject she's actually better than Sage at, and it turns into an argument with Sage accusing Rosemary of throwing her mother's sword away just because this teacher told her to. Rosemary feels hurt, we get an example of Sage's bubbling frustrations with her, and whether the argument itself gets resolved or just put on hold from something else distracting them, it sets the stage for them having a larger blowout later on.
It already had the right people back in the early 90s, back when it was called Akazukin ChaCha. Sorry, I just can't get over how Min Ayahana hasn't sued Raye yet for plagiarism.
This is my opinion, but I feel like the entire show might be salvaged with some semblance of it’s former self, if it is changed from a school to a prison. That’s not me making a joke(although it is funny): being a guardian can basically mean rehabilitation of prisoners(students) to become a better person in society that can serve to pay retribution for their crimes(Rosemary would be in for wreck-less behavior and assault, Sage for being an accomplice which can establisha toxic relationship with her because she didn’t do anything, but she doesn’t say anything to stay close to Rosemary to protect her and others that come her way, Thyme would have committed terrorism(like the abridged Thyme) who is faking rehabilitation to get out, gain trust from powerful people, and complete her task of taking down the economy to save her home, and Parsley kept on stealing for her very large family that can’t make a lot of money because her brothers are too young, but she does work as a blacksmith or something that has to do with building, but it doesn’t pay her much: this can also establish her and Thyme’s mutual friendship because they both got f*cked by capitalism), the teachers can be officers who train them to become citizens by any means necessary, that means they can take a safe or dangerous route of rehabilitation so that potion teacher can still poison her students and it would make sense why no one reports her or why no one stops her from doing that, because prisoners would still be looked down upon even through training, some of the officers could be nicer but need to be strict to see how far the prisoners are willing to become guardians and leave prison, and Guardians can refer to different kinds of people who contribute to society: Rosemary can be a soldier who can fight against invading armies, but she needs to learn how to judge whether a situation can truly be solved with violence or diplomacy which can actually utilize the ethics class, Sage can become a medic to heal people(mostly Rosemary) from battle, Thyme can become a guard(not guardian) to serve and protect a person or people from danger, and Parsley can start a business of teaching regular citizens and her brothers(cause gaining guardianship might take a couple of years so they will definitely age up) on how to build stuff and use tools correctly and potentially gain a team of people to build stuff or create new weapons to protect their land and provide better reinforcement. I just came up with all of this on the top of my head, obviously it’s not perfect, but I already like some of the ideas I put down more than I liked the rules in the HGS universe. It may need some reformatting because it was kinda made on a tangent. I also picked a prison and not a juvenile detention center because the characters need to be aged up and it’s more original than to have them in a school as most real anime do; after all, they said that HGS was supposed to be something never done before, so I think having the setting be primarily a prison is pretty original.
I think a martial arts teacher still fits with your ideas for the school. You could have an episode where the girls think martial arts are useless because magic, only to see its value when they encounter a monster who grapples and/or is resistant to magic. Plus he could teach them how to use their summoned weapons.
We could try to held some warriors, as Inquisitors, capable of weakening magic or creating magic nullyfying traps ect. Otherwise, no just use mages, heavy mages, sword-mages, magi bersekers, summoners and maybe specialised portal pioneers building expensive gates, linking them and if needed suppressing/breaking them.
An idea I had, in revision to your VR training you mention around the 4:00 mark; A scene in which the enrolling students gather, and are subjected to a horrifying illusion spell where they think they're under attack, and then the illusion dispels, and the teachers inform the students, say something along the lines of, "You're not ready for this as you are, let us help you so you can be!" and then direct students who are most certainly not ready for the training ahead of them to take preparation classes. This allows the students a chance to rethink their life choices, but also establishes the teachers care enough about the students' well-being and state of mind to support them.
Okay the whole video was spot on but I especially love the idea behind why Rosemary and Sage entered the academy. It would not only be in character but it'd really define the dynamic of their relationship, and it would be a very real reason for Sage to finally break down (after it is hinted that she was never fully convinced it was a good idea to come here). The plot would have to show her doubts rising with every new fuckery that happens, before at one point she snaps, which is a great reason for a drama that would last more than just one episode. A dilemma of whether to stay with the person closest to you when they need you or to take care of yourself first, do what you feel is right for you and go your own path. Maybe she'd finally realise that her life can't revolve around Rosemary and maybe even quit the academy eventually. However she'd come back unexpectedly during a battle because she realised she's actually always been in love with Rosemary and they share an epic ki- nah lmao just kidding, but this does sound like something the creators would do, since it sounds like a fanfic written by a 14 y.o. But for real, maybe in the end she'd really quit but stay somewhere nearby her friends doing whatever the hell, I don't even know what she wants to do in life, I haven't seen the show 💀
2:55 Well there are ways to have barding in the academy. Bards have been buffers in many things especially games. Slime Boy or someone else can play music to give someone a buff or use magic sound damage to hurt the enemy.
I think starting as school and then advancing further based on their abilities. Some are amazing fighters, others are progressing researching counter-measures to rot, while there could be a buch that specialised in magical medicine to the point they progress for military doctors helping cure rot related aflictions and restoring wounded back to health. You know, like actual military studies?
18:04 you could also make her a victim of being corrupted by the rot, it would also explain how randomly she becomes sympathetic for that one scene where they kill the dragon (she was freed)
I am kind of doing a rewrite, it's more me shoving in Final Fantasy and steampunk to make the world it actually good and then changing the scenes around. Anyway, I am totally for those people who do rewrite the show. Hell, your abridged series is already 5000 times more fun in the first 30 seconds than the every ep combined. There are people who have written scenes and recreated the first ep. It is possible with more effort, and quite honestly, HGS has such a low bar, it's maybe too easy to rewrite.
I would fix the potions teacher a little differently, and with one simple phrase: "She's a liar." She does 'poison' her class... with the shapeshifting brew, which will wear off in a day if nobody can find the clues hidden around the classroom. The lesson of this class is to take careful note of your surroundings under threat of death. (Side note: Sage would NOT be allowed to make antidote for everyone else. She WOULD be allowed to give them hints to get the puzzle solved themselves; teamwork is acceptable but doing things FOR others is not. Anyone who fails this lesson is expelled.) She psyches students out all the time because students with weak hearts and trembling knees will not last very long as guardians. If she's so bad that a student decides to leave, then that's one child's life saved who couldn't have handled the pressure. This stuff would be written out in conversations she and Caraway have behind closed doors, where he asks her to let up on the students and she gives him all the reasons she won't. She'd be shown in brief glimpses, protecting the students from _real_ threats while they're still in training. Finally, the compassionate 180 she does in the dragon episode... is her *true self.* Behind all the lies, all the manipulation, she doesn't want to see kids getting hurt. Someone the girls had seen as a villain had always been looking out for them. Now that they're strong enough to go on real missions, they can start to see her true self, and now the girls only have to face the _real_ villains from now on. ALSO. I believe Caraway is fixable. He could be the compassionate teacher, the student advocate. Anything but the _lazy After School Special_ he _really_ is. High Guardian Spice's target audience is adults. We don't need him to explain the trans experience, especially not in ways that read like they were written by cisgender people who learned what "trans" meant yesterday. Just show him drinking his potions now and then. If the story needs to reveal his transness... Separate him from the potions. Have him get captured or something. Show the usually calm and put together student advocate starting to _freak the fuck out_ when he realizes he doesn't know how long he's going to be trapped in some place. Then the girls could rescue a beloved teacher, and it'd be awesome. He wouldn't threaten Snapdragon with expulsion. Snap doesn't want to be here, and it's starting to culminate in violent outbursts toward other students. Maybe Kal doesn't say anything near as inflammatory, but Snap takes it that way because of his conditioning at home. Leading to Caraway asking what's wrong, why did you lash out... and then thinking that maybe being a guardian is not what's best for Snapdragon. He can be the catalyst for Snap to realize, "Hey, I should leave, actually. I don't need to be hyper-manly and stay in the prestigious magic school. I can go work at a bakery or something, and probably not die in the field in three years."
I think I'm starting to understand why I'm so obsessed with this show on some days. It's around the level of quality of some things I made as a teenager, but completed (minus the contemporary themes, because to ruin my story I instead relied on 2000s kids' shows clichés and anime tropes). I had an inkling that it wasn't good, but it didn't matter because it was just larp with my best friends. Our goal was to include all our favorite tropes and then work with that. When I wrote something alone I always tried to learn more, but there were pet tropes I didn't wanna drop, even though they really hurt the overall story etc. But now, when I think back at it I laugh because it was so bad, and then I think of the fragments that I might still find interesting. If I had somehow been given full authority over a series, it would have sucked more than HGS, but many mistakes might have been be comparable. I think it's really interesting to see a case study in something that has roughly the quality of something that was made by a teenager, since I was a teenager who loved writing unoriginal story prompts. It's also really fun to think about how the own story ideas could be improved, or what could instead be done with the ideas that hold up. Thanks for coming to my TED-Talk.
I think it would make more sense if their school trained them cooperative fighting, instead teaching them invidually let's teach them their own role and how impoertant it is and strategies they will use since most likely they will work in a group instead on their own. Teach mages how to buff allies, how to use destructive or harmful spells around them to not accidentally kill them and timing The dwarf girl could be learning how to enchant weapons and what kind of enchantmenst each type of guardian needs, like fire damage would be useless underwater. There could even be some logistics class learning about monsters and threats so half of the guardians in whole city don't end up fighting one medium crab
I think you could keep the martial arts teacher AND the blacksmith if you wanted to look into augmented equipment. This could be a combination of designing equipment for combat and equip things like terraspheres to anything from gloves to magic staffs. Maybe equipment with passive abilities like able to act as scuba gear. Caraway should be like a leading rot researcher. As for his identity and the entire thing with Snapdragon, I don't think I could give a really good solution to that which would satisfy everyone. That said, you could keep Amaryllis and Snapdragon pretty much the same as people actually liked them.
I think a really cool way to give close range weapon a purpose is to have magic that's exclusive to that type of weapon. Like imagine a shield, there would be magic like some sort of reflect skill that deflects any magical projectile. Or maybe for a sword, you can have a magic that basically turns the sword humongous, but due to how physics work, the magic would have limitations based on how strong the sword is. Like if you turn the sword too big, it'll break
Something that could be interesting is, keep the weapons but use them as a conduit for magic, to help them focus their magic in a certain area as opposed to just "use magic". Traditional melee weapons like swords, maces, and spears could be for destruction magic, especially since a lot of destruction magic in close quarters is like using a rocket laincher in close quarters. Supportive magic could be staves and shields because defense, but also potentially rings and bracelets since you'll have to act fast to defend others. Transmutation magic could be projectile weapons like slings, bows, and crossbows, imbuing the projectiles with magic to turn the projectile or what it hits into something else. Summoning/conjuration magic could use weapons that started as tools such as hammers, quarterstaves, and scythes, kinda like the forgemasters in Netflix's Castlevania. There could also be enhancement magic that used more specialized weapons like whips, daggers, and rapiers, focusing on enhancing the body with magic to provide a power CQC fighter. Potions could also be a type of magic, imbuing your own magic ahead of time to store for later use, not used by everyone due to the time and difficulty of making potions, while it'd be easier to make potions corresponding to your area of magic, you could make potions with effects from other areas if you're skilled enough. Rosemary could be destruction, blast and slice everything to bits. Sage support, shields, debuffs, potentially even status effects. Thyme transmutation arrows (either with her own magic or maybe potion dipped arrows) to set traps and manipulate terrain to her advantage. Parsley could be a summoner, creating golems and such to assist in battle. Snapdragon could be an enhancer, would fit well with his proposed arc and backstory. Amaryllis could potentially be another destruction magic user but playing to Rosemary's weaknesses, showcasing a different side of destruction magic while not narratively stepping on Rosemary's toes. Basically if Rosemary is an assault rifle, constantly launching attacks focusing on as many attacks out as possible, Amaryllis could be like a rocket launcher, large scale destruction hitting hard but not often. The other option would be she's the sniper rifle to Rosemary's shotgun, long range precision meant to take out a single foe vs short range "everything in this general direction is about to have a very bad day" I should also note, people can belong to/cast spells from multiple schools of magic but A: it's difficult to do so since people have natural affinities towards a certain school and B: these are students in training, give them a spot to start out, then once theyre more experienced they can branch out from there. While it's theoretically possible to have one mage that can do everything, it's indescribably difficult to do so. Thank you for coming to my TED talk
Jamie De Jonge does a fabulous job with rewrites as well as art, if ANYONE were to attempt to remake this dumpster fire I think you two would do it the best
Tbh I would made this story about simply adentures in the fantasy world , where the tame doing quests to get money. I would kick out the whole Guardian school nonsense. Like Rosemary's mother and father loved adventure when they were younger , but when they became adults and got married , so they build a bakery and lived a peacfull life. Sages family would be very stric so she would feel refreshd when she live in a bar run by Anise and Aloe
Overpower magic for everyone! If everyone is overpower - noone trully is! (Looks at Warhammer 40k) Still, I think that rot could strongly nullify magic. If we keep the new/old magic system - it could potentialy absorb new magic making costs of that conflict harsher. Rot thing poisoned a person. We can't use new magic to quickly heal them as it would just make poison burn them from incide like a acid or worse. With it we force them to slower natural alchemy and old magic treatment.
One thing i thought about was a magic system based on the weapons you choose. There are such things as a swordmage, so Rosemary could still have a sword as a weapon. Parsley could also keep her mace. That could also add to the magic system rules and regulations while also keeping in mind the track system. I kinda thought about different RPG systems, along with SAO and some DnD. Each person has a specific item or weapon that channels their magic that also suits their fighting styles, or better suits their magic pools. People with less magic pools use more melee based/physical weapons for example. The terra-sphere would be nerfed slightly. While it still takes the majority of magic energy from nature (rot), it would also require some magic from the user as a catalyst (meaning very draining for those with low affinity for magic, or low magic pools) In exchange, terra-spheres make casting easier as it does not require runes or rituals. Offensive and warrior type people that prefer being up close and personal have the option to channel their magic with close range weapons, such as swords or maces. They also have the option of summoning more corporeal weapons, but it drains their magic supply a lot faster as these types of people tend to have either a low affinity for magic, or smaller magic reserves. (Parsley, Rosemary) These students would be in the combat class. Then we have people like Sage, who have a high affinity for magic, with a large magic reserve that use mostly runes and staffs to channel their magic. These people tend to hold the rear, offering support with either long-range magic, healing, or buffs/debuffs, and are classified as the combat class. Mage classes are also further divided by the type of support you want to be, such as heal-support, and damage-support. Thyme is my only outlier since she’s of an elven race. I don’t remember if they ever explained what kind of race elves are in the HGS universe, but elves that live in forests are typically depicted as hunters skilled in archery and magic. However, in terms of attending the academy, she would most likely register as a mage, since that would give her more freedom to experiment with more advanced healing spells and potions. No matter what, all students must know some basic form of a healing spell for emergencies. More advanced healing spells are reserved for mage students who are interested in a position as a heal-support. The reason for these splits in classes is because it requires time that the students do not have to learn and master all forms of magic, nor do the professors have the patience to force students into subjects they have no interest in. With the threat of rot increasing, it is better to use whatever time they have teaching their students what they want and need to know before eventually having to let them fight on the front lines. Potion making is also considered a must in terms of basics, but for anything more advanced is considered as an elective. Portals I’ll categorize as maybe an S-class magic that not anyone can use, nor is it teachable. First, it requires a large amount of magic, so regular people like Anise can’t use one (or at least, not without the use of a spark-spell). Humans generally do not have the necessary magic reserves to create portals. Very rarely will a human be born with a reserve large enough to create a portal. If humans wanted to create portals they would need a lot of people to cast the spell, making it inconvenient. However, those of the demon realm, and elves, have a naturally large magic pool, and are able to create portals more easily. On the other hand, in terms of way of life, portals can get in the way of a hunt, making it part of daily life impractical. However, they do have a form of transportation requiring portals like gates to travel easily between tribes, or in and out of the woods. Demons are the only race that can summon portals as they please because their entire being is magic (or that’s what i’m assuming). Might add or tweak some more. If I ever come back to this. There may or may not be some new plot holes that came up with this, though so beware. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts though!
I think you could combine the characters of Aster and Slime Boy into an attractive but dopey character, instead of Aster just being a toxic masculinity caricature and Slime Boy just being a meme. I actually found Rosemary’s crush on Aster pretty endearing all things considered, and I think it would blend in well with existing scenes.
I'll put my little help into this.What I'll try to fix is how Rosemary starts from being clumsy and irresponsible with her mom's sword to a warrior who can at least stand her ground against Mandrake at the end of the season is to give her a master, maybe a goblin, a propper goblin, no those four little turds from the cave. A head shorter than Rose, with green and wrinkled skin, flappy ears, beaky nose, the whole goblin package. But with the strenght and toughness of a titan... And with manly attitude and disgusting manners just to piss off the staff of HGS.
Trying to edit a story like HGS in such a way that it still retains its original spirit, while a lot more admirable than a lot of other reworks I've heard of, might not be possible. You're hitting what I like to call the "Editor of Fire" problem, so called because the only way to edit the script is to throw it into a big fire and start over, usually because there are critical problems baked into the work's very foundation. The initial priorities of HGS's "original spirit" are so skewed that there's a reason it has such fanatic love from weirdos in spite of being terminally inoperable as a story: because _their_ priorities are equally skewed. Lesbians do everything. Men suck (unless they transition, which is easy and awesome and can be reversed by accident and is highly recommended for teenagers). Dunk on chuds by embezzling their money to fund this crap in an official capacity. They don't ask for much as an audience, and they got what little they asked for, even if that's barely anything more than existence. To its audience, High Guardian Spice isn't broken at all. It's not a story. It's a monument to conquest. I see no value in taking an intellectual property (or perhaps "emotional property" might be more fitting) born to hate and increasing its narrative cohesion. That would suggest that HGS had noble efforts thwarted by hilariously botched execution. The original spirit _is_ the problem. "Some things are bad because they fail in what they set out to do. Other things are bad because they succeed, but what they set out to do was gross and dumb." -Yahtzee Crosshaw
5:07 that's pretty similar to the tension in Little Witch Academia! And it's good too, you don't wanna get kicked out of a school you tried really hard to get into!
I remember seeing someone say that those who obsess (well, it was more like the ones who hate it) over this show is lame. They hate that people still make content of it, even though people are just making fun of it. But like, why should it matter to them? They could obviously just look away if they don’t like it.
@@guardianHQ Exactly! I even mentioned that people still talk about shows that have already ended, but they said those who hate this particular show borders on obsession. Where the hell did they get obsession over wanting to expose the show for what it really is?
When it comes to media, if you don't like it for genuine grounded reasons; why not talk about them? In the case of High Guardian Spice, there's a lot of things that seem illogical and it's good to mention them. Obviously, vapid hate trains and videos are bad, yes, but when they're questioning the flaws of a show or providing solutions; why not have them?
@@TrashNomad That’s what I was thinking. But I guess the person is either a fan or is just tired of seeing HGS content. If they hate seeing it, then why bother others for talking about it?
Some of the changes I would've made are: *Make the plot be about magical cooking & fighting classes battling against The Rot, that's cause all of the food resources to go bad. *Rename the characters to actual spice names: Rosemary = Paprika Sage = Mint Parsley = Cinnamon Thyme = Ginger Snapdragon = Pepper Amaryllis = Saffron Aloe & Anise = Himala & Seasa (like Himalayan salt & sea salt) *Fix the characters' relations, reasons, and interactions. *Make the twist that Aster (who is renamed into Dijon, as in Dijon mustard) is actually the prince of the kingdom of Culinarie (Lingarth), and Sage/Mint didn't like him at first because she sees the monarchy as lazy good-for-nothing rulers that only care about themselves. In the end, Aster/Dijon/Dean becomes aware of what The Rot is doing & actually wants to help fight it for the sake of Culinarie, not just for the royal family.
i like the fact that the magic system is different now, according with the personalities of the protagonists. I also like the fact that the terraspheres always have the same weakness: you need to charge them in order to use them. That makes the script better.
I would probably make changes along these lines: 1: the show is fully for younger teens-ish, so tone problems are resolved accordingly. 2: the school is meant to be insane. It's known for being kind of a death trap. 3: Redbud is a more major character, to fit with 2. She's a secondary antagonist. 4: Mandrake replaces Caraway an episode or two earlier to have more time with Fake Caraway. 5: Rosemary is more self-aware of how clumsy and incompetent she can be, but always wants to do her best anyway, because she wants to live up to Lavender. Sage is worried about things changing, because she is paranoid a lot. That's why they're friends. 6: Sage is controlling and unwilling to let things change, and that's her major flaw, along with black/white tunnel vision. She is reliable, loyal, and determined however. Sage/Rosemary mirror each other, because both are determined to be what everyone expects them to be at first, before Rosemary decides to forge her own path and Sage decides she wants to learn both Old and New Magic, seeing the merit in both. -The Triad are sinister; they're in league with the Triumvirate or they're morally questionable but opposed to them. They have an ancient past that actually matters. -Amaryllis and Snapdragon are themselves. -Slime Boy actually has a name and a better mic.
If I had to change or pick a different stance on something that was said on this video it wouldve have to be magic for sure. I feel like giving everyone magical powers is a way of overcoming the obstacle of it being broken but I am more inclined in just nerfing it and let variety set in honestly. Like imagine there were "artillarists" dedicated to create machines that shoot high bolts of magic because no student can do it and only very few professors know? Like this would not only serve as world building because well machines, but we would also have variety and cool fight moments. AND THEN we would also solve the problem with warriors and archers and such. keeping them. This time not just cuz "plot", but actually because they can be usefull and do things magic users can not.
I feel like the guardians don't have to be specifically about the rot, they can be a general peace keeping force with the rot just being the big threat. Plus that way you can keep the track system though if that is a thing it needs more explaining. For example, the smithing class doesn't seem to have any magic involved, it is just smithing. They could have made that interesting if they just explained, it more. Here are a few ideas. The smithing track could infuse magic into items like armor and weapons with runes. Smithing is the perfect embodiment of old magic because it is all about ritual and putting some of yourself into the material as you work. Throughout history, the act of smithing has been considered magic and this is a perfect example of why. I have no idea why in the show they are just learning normal workmanship. They could have added magic but just choose not to. The healing track could involve a lot of buff spells so Sage and Rosemary can work together that way. If there is going to be blood anyway let's focus on the character that was said to be training as a healer. Hell, healing magic could modify someone's body making them bigger, stronger, more animalistic in a fight. Alternatively, as a disguise, it could change someone's physical features. So we would see a practical version of transformation magic before it comes back up naturally with Snapdragon's gender dysphoria. I don't know what Thyme was. Was she a ranger? Whatever she is, she should know plant magic, possibly summoning walking plants to her side. Ok, so after a quick google search, I found out what power she should have. In the European Middle Ages, the Thyme was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. That fact makes me want her to have a knockout plant spell. She could attach the knockout pants to her arrows to weaken them.
Dude. For real. Lay the hell off Slimeboy. You can count the number of positive aspects of this show on your hands, we are not getting rid of any of them. Slimeboy, Parnell, Amaryllis, and Snapdragon must remain.
Little DND player here, have instead of trying to change the blacks missing class, we upgrade it to basically teaching people how to be artificers. Artificers are basically magic users that combine magic and blacksmithing. It’s really interesting in dungeons and dragons to
You know, I think the portals can be balanced to at least have an excuse other than being stupid. The range, size, and how long it can retain itself would take a lot of energy to use to the point where it could only work so well in the heat of battle. Portals could also be involved with pre made spells for that guy to escape instead of running through students. I forgot his name. Just thought I’d give an idea for portals to be in hgs but not make portals unused from pure stupidity.
13:56 This kind of thing would be pretty simple to set up as well. A scene in episode one of Rosemary asking Sage to come with her because she needs her, and doesn’t think she could be a guardian without Sage’s friendship and support. That would be all you need for Sage to snap about how Rosemary ran off to spend time with Aster. “You clearly don’t need me as much as you claim too, so why did you say that! Why would you make me risk my life with some stupid lie?!” Something like that, followed by a heartfelt conversation.
I have my own ideas for the magic system. During your magic review video, I thought what if Caraway has an Old Magic Rune that makes New Magic act like Old Magic, where it works in harmony with the Earth the way Old Magic does. He has a longer casting time, because he needs to make the OM Rune for each NM rune. Sage notices the OM Rune, and asks for help with OM, which she feels she needs to try because it's what her mother uses, but NM has been around long enough only NM is taught at the Academy because of the ease of use. I axed premade spells, that's just a disaster waiting to happen. I added another caveat that NM can't go down in power, say for example making a fireball go from 5 kilo explosion to 10 kilo explosion keeps it at 10 kilo explosion, you can't lower it. OM is much more manipulative, and Caraway's Rune allows him to modulate his power. However, since the school only teaches NM, they can have way too many powerful wizards out and about, so everyone learns magic and sword fighting. They still specialize in magic or swords, but Rosemary would have her swords with Mandrake's powers as well.
Thank you for cracking the code. I didn't think any good solution to fixing High Guardian Spice existed, but I stand corrected. The show would have felt like a generic adventures guild of a Hogwarts, but at least there would have been enough to have a different take on the tropes. That would have been alot more watchable than the final product.
I was able able to stretch out my rewrite to last about 4 seasons. A lot of it came from the fact that this show doesn't really have any interesting characterizations. Best example for this is Parsley. She's a dwarf with typical dwarf traits - lots of siblings, forges weapons, etc. - but she's going to study to be a guardian.....that's it. In the entire first season that's all we get from her and she's supposed to be a main character! The character designs are boring and why does some of their outfit changes look more modern when they are an old world fantasy setting? To list everything wrong would take a video longer than the entire season of HGS.
One episode idea is the magic for transition and shapeshifting is tied to rings and Caraway loses his ring, somehow, and he has to find it while stuck in his old form. That would add some drama.
I mean, one interesting idea would be to ban the first years from going on field trips to do stuff. This would provide the main characters with a desire to want to go on an adventure, and maybe they sneak off on one only to realise they’re out of their depth. Then they learn to be patient and continue training. Y’know. Character development.
When I first saw some scenes of the show, I thought that Rosemary and Sage were SISTERS (because of the hair colors), and honestly that would have been so much cooler/interesting cause they could have gone all Full Metal Alchemist to a T. But oh well.
You could also tie back the villains making sure people don't realize new magic is causing the rot to sage's mom as well. Since Sage's mom used to use new magic, she figured out a long time ago that it was causing the rot and was going to try and spread the word on it, but the villains were keeping watch and threatened to kill her family/her village if she spilled the beans on it, and thats part of why shes so insistent the girls stay in the village and sage continues to learn old magic.
Portals taking 5 minutes to startup would fix a lot of the problems, while opening new opportunities if we get competent writers. Especially if larger portals require more time, and maybe simply making two person rather than one use portal could double it to 10.
I think some non-magic courses can stay, like i actually think the martial arts should stay? just as a safeguard incase you get separated from your terasphere or end up in a situation where magic gets disabled. Even if there's no record of it happening, it's good to know just in case. I also think things like surivival classes cover all the basics and even some more advanced stuff should be there. You never know what could happen on a mission. The ethics class I actually think should be swapped to a healing class, where you're taught ways to dress wounds in battle, and what afflictions different magic can cause and how to deal with them. I dont expect it to be in-depth, just something in case they have to deal with it on the field. Afterall, it's not uncommon in college and whatnot for there to be a class that a lot of students find pointless (regardless of how important it really is) (shout out to my photography class in film school) (we basically learnt all the same stuff that we did in our cinematography class)
I think Astor would work better if he was competent as a Knight and was experienced but just at citiguard level or something he's cool-headed and rational but also rigid and militant maybe they meet him after he takes out a bunch of mercenaries or something on his way to the Academy I think it would raise the stakes showing the girls that just being good isn't good enough who cares how good you are against Bandits or Mercenaries because here you'll be fighting demons and monsters And as for how each of them would use Magic I think adjusted around a four-man Squad structure Like you said Sage could be support she doesn't deal the most damage but her job is to keep her party fighting and provide cover when they need it maybe even giving them Buffs As for Rosemary I think swords and physicality are an important aspect of her character so keep them maybe Guardian Warriors use magic to give themselves superhuman strength, speed, reflexes and endurance and they can resist status effects like poison or brainwashing With Thyme I feel making Vines or moving trees would be too big a spectacle for her disposition so I figured she's a warrior in the same sense and rosemary is that use magic to enhance themselves rather than to cast spells but since she's an elf and elves have a connection to nature especially in this show I thought it would be cool if her enhancements specifically made her borrow or take on animal traits maybe she could even share sight with any Woodland creatures that are nearby it would make her really effective Scout doing reconnaissance for the rest of her party Parsley's role in the show seems the most superfluous since she doesn't really use any of the skills she has in a practical sense so what if she was more like an artificer she can make and set up their camp quick Brew health and Magic recovery potions she could even be the one in charge of creating their transportation and maintaining their weapons she could even serve as a on-the-go medic if Sage is down for the count since she doesn't need magic to make or medicine and she'd probably be the one to know first Aid I think all the utility she provides would more than make up for her lack of potency in actual battle she could probably still keep her hammer and be decent with it for self-defense purposes so her team doesn't have to just protect her You can even round out snapdragons party like making Parnel fit the same role as Parsley since I can't recall what exactly he actually does anyway Make Slime boys Bard magic act more like actual Magic like granting Buffs and debuffs so he can fit Sages niche on the team You can even make Kal a fairly accomplished senior student who's actually talented and intimidating when he undermines them because his party regularly goes on real missions it would give him more concrete reasons to clash with and belittle snapdragons party so much since he already bullies his cousin who's a part of it And he'd have a reason for his arrogance since he actually is a very talented Guardian
here’s an addition that will make using actual weapons more useful: anti-magical effects. think about it, if magic is already so dominant in this world wouldn’t someone have found a way to block its use? and if the rot is being created by terrasphere use, wouldn’t it make sense for it to be resistant to magic? thus, some of the monsters it generates would also have various levels of magic immunity, necessitating classes for weapons use and maintenance - though perhaps those two could be rolled into one. maybe the villains selling the terraspheres also start creating anti-magic armour, giving them an edge where they might need it? make mandrake less of a joke by giving him some warding or shielding charms, that they have to either get in close to deal with or somehow overload? monsters with magic-repellent armour? in the same vein, for if healing magic is blocked, maybe there’s required aid classes for support mages. say sage gets roped into one of these classes, and doesn’t understand the point of learning it because she’s already good at healing magic. cut forward to rosemary getting hurt in a magic-blocked area (maybe the crab fight scene?) and sage is panicking because she doesn’t know what to do. thankfully, someone else was paying attention (maybe thyme? she seems the type to already know this stuff) and walks her through it. by episode end, she’s leaning into it way more… maybe too much. maybe she’s forsaking rosemary to get further into studies, and this could add into the eventual conflict with them blowing up at each other. or in a situation where sage gets cornered by mandrake, with all her more useful spells taking more time to prepare or just not being accurate or strong enough (again, anti-magic armour?), he taunts her and gives her an opportunity to smack him upside the head, giving enough time to get the hell outta dodge. it’s a small addition, but it can go a long way.
In the sacred languages class, it looks like what’s written on the board is Hiragana? I can’t see very well in the show or the screenshots since he’s standing in front of it, and it doesn’t look exact, but it looks really close with some? Probably a coincidence but still kinda interesting.
I always felt if you want to make Rosemary have character development, you need to destroy her sword. The weight of her mother's shadow seems to hang over her all the time, but the writers don't even want to address it as being negative. The sword gets a small piece of the pommel broken and she's beside herself in grief. Imagen if it gets destroyed or something and Parsley has to forge her a new one. The show should focus on Rosemary's story that of stepping free from her mother's shadow and becoming her own woman and the new sword will be the final piece of this journey.
:0 what if it gets broken EXCEPT THE GEM. and then she builds a sword!
WITH THE GEM
That... actually sounds good
Yeah, the gem would be a small part of the sword, just as a her mother's influence will always be a part of her but just a small part.
Oh! Maybe it turns into bits of shrapnel and its like rosemary needs to mourn her mother all over again. Then theres a whole character thing where they say that holding ur mom in a high regard doesn’t mean to do exactly what she did so they turn them into little throwing knives. Shes a hero like her mom but shes allowed to be different
The idea of the villains being a corporation hiding the negative part of their products and how they are destroying the world is probably the smartest move.
And also, a better critique of today's society than anything they tried
awesome!
I feel like they did it. They just didn't reveal it yet. It is pretty obvious, especially considered the scene after ending credits... Which contains the most majestic moustache men from matrix of all this show.
Like GI Joe renegade?
The real villain was capitalism
@@crashoflogic human greed*
A moment that occurred to me: Rosemary is insisting to Sage that they simply MUST go to the academy to escape their boring lives, and Sage is resisting, pointing out that it’s super dangerous and her mom went missing and such. After a while of arguing Rosemary says, “Well, if you’re not coming with me, I’ll just go by myself!” and storms out of the room. She goes to pack her things, and leaves for the train station, where she finds Sage (The more coordinated of the two, I imagine she’d take less time to get her stuff ready) already there. And then Rosemary is like, “Sage? I thought you were staying in Pebble? [Possibly insert a direct quote from Sage’s side of the argument here]” Sage just sighs, and says “If you go alone, you’re **going** to die.” And Rosemary gets mad again, and is like, “I told you before, you’re not gonna stop me!” To this, Sage just sighs again, looking at the ground. “I know…that’s why I don’t really have a choice. I’m coming with you.” Rosemary is stunned for a moment, before getting excited, and saying “I knew you’d come around! This is gonna be great!” Or something like that, and pulls Sage into a hug. A hug that Sage takes a while to return, seeing as she’s only really going to prevent Rosemary from doing something stupid and getting herself killed.
This makes sage sound like a decent friend rather then the jerk she is in the original. I like this
@@guardianHQ it makes Sage self sacrificing to a fault, since she gives up whatever else she was doing to indulge a friends selfish request. And Rosemary becomes really manipulative.
Could be a cool subversion of tropes, if the sword used (usually coded as the heroic self sacrificing one) turns out to confuse manipulative tactics with friendship. While their best friend really doesn‘t want to be here but is an enabler.
@@guardianHQ I don't know, the rewrite, it still sound pretty lackluster and predictable, but then again this is only the first draft for a real Shitshow. Maybe instead of having Olive saved they could just have her be the main villain of the season first and have her killed off by Mandrake who will take over the role of main villain in the second season.
Also can you cut all the Man-Hating, Misandristic Snark, that's one of the main problems with this series!
@@guardianHQHere's a suggestion by another UA-camr, perhaps you can get some points from him.
Link: ua-cam.com/video/NdHGDdMbOQU/v-deo.html
@@ChroniclerV I mean the misandry CAN work and can still be kept in the rewerite, but holy FUCK not to the extent of what the show does
I think instead of making the potions teacher a villain, make her a veteran with PTSD. She is using illegal teaching methods, because she believes it will save more lives in the long run. Like Moody from Harry Potter.
Well, Moody actually did turn out to be a villain, but you know what I mean.
Geez, spoilers
Technically, it wasn't even Moody, but someone who knew how to impersonate him so well, it took a Truth Potion to spill the beans in the end (Barty's son.). But I got what you mean too.
@@wil.d_sage If you haven't watch a film series that had ended 11 years ago, that's all on you woman
@@juancena6909 just because it's out for X years, it doesn't mean everybody must know all the twists and details and shit.
@@bigsmoky3985 cry about it
A magical boot camp makes way more sense for training Guardians than a magic school. But if you still want to keep the magic school angle, there is a potential workaround: due to the recent acceleration of Rot growth (caused by propagation of Terra-spheres, which are not yet known to be linked to the Rot), the demand for Guardians has spiked to the point where regular magic academies are being co-opted to train more Guardians. Basically an emergency wartime scenario.
To expand upon this, basic education and Guardianship training should begin in the villages the characters come from. Prospects learn swordplay, magic, language, and whatever else a Guardian needs to protect, say, the villages they live at, which takes years of education and training. Literally no one coming to High Guadian Academy should be unused to combat and working under pressure. While anyone can become a Guardian, only High Guardians bear the certification and recognition from an on-high source, be it the royal family or sovereign god/goddess of the world, which is like giving you a special exemption nobility pass.
nice
It would also explain why some people are taking classes in say healing and blacksmithing to make sure the guardians & probably the villages they are stationed at healthy but able to defend
What about magical academy or something like that
I have an idea: I think this guardianship shouldn’t be place in a school but an exam. Like hunter x hunter. In hunter x hunter, they don’t have to go school to learn to be a hunter but to become a hunter, that’s what this show needs. It’s makes more sense instead of a generic magical school. They even get their guardian licenses after the exams.
The potions teacher is clearly there to sabotage the guardians. Run with it. Make her one of the major villains. Have her say that she's surprised it took them so long to figure her out... She wasn't trying hard to hide it. She could have even put poison spells into the food to take out most of the academy once it's no longer useful. the spell is in their system. snap her fingers and most if not all of them collapse, weakened and easy pickings for their enemies.
And have her keep her evil/happy attitude the whole time. REVELING in her actions. Also have her mock the leaders of the school for being blind morons.
hell, ashe said this easily makes her a good chocie for the first season villain/early villain.
it would actually be very fitting considering that in the original she basically gave a big sales pitch for new magic, aka the main conflict.
And the real potion teacher is a rotting fertilizer in her garden
She makes for a great season villain
Honestly I think slime boy could still be in the show as an MC but you could make his terrasphere attacks more music based like maybe he plays southing notes and melody’s to put enemy’s to sleep
Also thyme having her new magic powers be nature based is pretty hypocritical over what terraspheres do to the earth so maybe she uses quick and spam able but low dealing magic for her attacks
acoustic based magic. not as strong but it can penetrate defenses
Isn't the whole idea of terrasphre being used by guardians that it's hypocritical because you're using the tools that kill nature to save nature? Wouldn't she be the physical manifestation of this "crisis" that all the guardians will have once the truth comes out
Bardic magic is quite viable. That said... Slime boy has to be the hero of the story. Let him be the underestimated savior of the plot. The soft spoken sweet kid who ends up being the linchpin to their victory
Yeah I was thinking since she uses a bow, id be best to have her magical attacks be more precision and accuracy based, since you kinda need focus and precision to use a bow.
Maybe Thyme's arrows can have magical properties! Like poison arrows or arrows that create barriers where they land.
I don't really feel so great about kicking Astor out of the school. I see a lot of potential in his character and the relationship with others. Like Rosemary for example, I see both of them being like friends but also rivals at the same time. They would have like comedic interactions with each other like a brother and sister bothering each other. They both definitely would get along well since they're both seeming to have the same interest or just lacking intelligence. Plus Astor can be a pretty useful asset to the main characters, like coming to help aid them in a situation like being trapped by spiders or something since he does have a confident but absent minded personality to do it. But only so he could show off to Rosemary. With this change I can see Astor being a fan favorite upon many.
P.S. I remember seeing this one animatic of fixing Astor's character from being a sexist to not a sexist. I forgot who made it, but I will find and link them if you want to know. But in the animatic Astor is seen trying to help and protect Rosemary from all the obstacles they encounter, to the dismay of Rose. Rosemary asks him to stop, Astor wonders why and tells her that her something like "aren't I supposed to protect you since your a girl". Rosemary explains how she doesn't always needs protection and just wants to be seen as an equal to Astor. Astor acknowledges her request and apologize's, but also explains how he had sisters at home that he tries to keep safe everyday, and that habit kind of spread to Rosemary. They both reconcile in a nice wholesome but funny way.
I think the video you are referring to is this:
ua-cam.com/video/Oo9KcGpF2tU/v-deo.html
@@radicalpollution4270 yes it is that one, thanks
Yeah, kicking out Aster is so unnecessary, particularly when you consider that he literally only existed for Rosemary to have her "men are ew" moment. I would totally use him in conjunction with the breaking of swords thing and give him a much better role as a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass type once things get serious.
@@radicalpollution4270 Yes, I'm glad you got the link, Jamie deserves more attention for the work they did salvaging such flat, boring characters (and their original content too, of course!)
@@ChaosoneX hahaha yes, Aster would work so well as a CMHB trope. He's constantly trying to show off for Rosemary and comes across as kind of a lovable idiot most of the time, but when the chips are down he shows he's actually pretty competent.
Honestly, I think Slimeboy could stay, just make bards a support class, like strengthening others while cc-ing the enemies.
In a similar note, the other recurring character, the chubby child who almost looks like a girl?
Keep him the same, but add the fact he's going the assassin track of the school, making his kind demeanor contrasting with his chosen path.
It would also explain his use of weapons.
ngl parnelle being an assassin would be cool
Like it could a complete personality switch. Also, it explains why he 's a second year with Parsley. It even surprises Parsley how good he really is when it comes to combat. But his social skills are what's lacking(cuz of his cutesy personality he comes off as Shy)
Changing the school to be safer could also make a fun arc for Zinnia. She's the coward of the school, but we see that the training is designed to bring out the best in the students, and it makes her more confident and maybe even eventually one of the top students.
Which makes it more heartbreaking when she dies, showing that there is no guarantee of safety as a guardian.
Imagine she starts to get confident while training and so maybe when they start doing live exercises in something like the cave she goes into it with her team and she is confident.
But later the group finds her again cowering while a monster has just killed her team.
AS it attacks like Rosemary and is about to kill her she manages to Hurt it or draw it's attention but dies in the process.
The fun thing in these types of videos is that no two rewrites look the same, everybody has their own version and what they choose to change and what inspiration they draw from is really unique.
Personally, I am working on a rewrite too. Not in a fanfiction way, more in the sense that I want to make my own webcomic someday and this pemade basic story will make for excellent practice for growing my skills for that day. Especially since I have no heavy attachment to it and I know anything I write will be better than it was, (I mean, I hope so, lol).
if it's not, look at yourself in the mirror, slap yourself, then proceed to become better than anything you could've ever been!
and if you *still* can't, get help.
So you are making a story about a story... That's called fanfiction
Actually, I think I have an idea of what the Rot was supposed to be: The consequence of New Magic. In HGS, Sage often comments that you can use New Magic "without a cost" and that old magic comes with some sort of sacrifice, so it would make sense that the Rot set in after New Magic got introduced into the world. The miracles must come from somewhere. It would also explain why Sage's mother was originally a New Magic user, but did a 180 on it when she found out the true price of it, turning to only using Old Magic from then on to not further hasten the Rot.
Yeah it doesn't make sense in a magical world sense, or even in a political sense which i think is what it was supposed to be, but they don't make it make any sense
For a split second, for a brief moment, I read the title as "Irish Guardian Spice", then wept upon the realization that that is not, in fact, the title.
- As you said, I think it's best if each person is adept in specific categories of magic, rather than just focusing on the casting method.
*Rosemary:* Attacker: Wind-type; power-boosting and energy absorption (might as well, since she's a fast eater)
*Sage:* Supporter: Light-type; healing and defense-based support
*Parsley:* Defender: Fire-type; rune enchantment (infuse physical objects with supportive/boosting powers)
*Thyme:* Supporter: Earth-type; plant manipulation and stealth-based support
*Amaryllis:* Attacker: Electric-type; destruction magic
*Snapdragon:* Defender: Water-type; speed-boosting and animal empathy
- Subjective take, but I think Snapdragon could've worked as a dragonborn. I mean...if not just for the name pun, then to add irony to Rosemary saying a dragon wouldn't be in Ethics class. Also, DnD dragonborns are typically rough-looking, so being a pretty-looking one would make Snap stand out more. Just saying, if they're gonna pull all these other DnD races into this show, they might as well go all the way with it.
- You know one way that Caraway can make his transgender status work? Make him a good source of advice for both the boys and the girls, since he's been on both paths at some points. And I don't mean bringing up transition magic as a Plan A, of course...
- I've had a thought on Olive and Mandrake being artificial lifeforms that the Triumvirate created, along with the Rot. Perhaps that could make the two of them wary of judgment and harm from natural lifeforms like the main group. They might've heard nasty stories about Guardians - most likely skewed exaggerations - to make them scared to death of them. Olive could express this through distrust toward them, while Mandrake expresses it through a "kill or be killed" mindset.
this is great but i think parsley shouldn't be removed from smithing.. She should be neck deep in the crafting section. Crafting on sight or building weapons and armor that enhance or allow users to more easily attune the weapons to their elements. Rosemary's sword would be hers still but it would work better for her mom.. So eventually Parsley makes Rose her own sword that truely allows her to use her own ability's to their fullest. Also as a player of open world games with crafting systems... the ability to make something with what's around you would be an extremely useful skill in missions. Just imagine there are areas they cannot use magic due to "magic eating monsters, being detected by foes. etc." even if the items they use are magical in nature, because its native to the area.. it can get them past some big problems.
Personally i feel Wind suits rosemary. Wind can have incredible destructive force, Slicing winds are a stereotype in anime (sword) and also goes along with her flighty personality and speed. Also i like to keep "protags" away from the light element. Too... obvious and overdone. And with the way rose swings her sword around.. it's easy to imagine her accidently creating heavy winds and breaking stuff. XD
I think Sage should go for a multi elemental role. Have some wind but also water or fire traits. Be rare in that she combines elements with wind for effects. (earth with wind, sandstorm spells, fire and wind, blazing tornados, water and wind could lead to storm spells or blizzard with ice/cold)
you could also have the mele fighters use magic strictly for self-buffing, increasing speed, strength, agility, resilience, or other traits to the point where they can actually match magic users.
One issue with your point about Caraway is something very common with a lot of transgenders that advocate for transitions, and that is exactly what J.K. Rowling said about trans-women. They very rarely (practically never) actually know what it's like to be either gender. A good example is the book "self-made man" where the author disguised herself as a man to expose the toxicity of masculinity only for every man she met to more or less see through her disguise because she had no idea how to actually act like a man, despite her best efforts. There was also a video of a bunch of FtM transgenders talking about how happy they were to be men now, despite the fact that every man around them pointed out that they don't live like men, they just look like men, to which they essentially responded that "they were men, and they acted like themselves, therefor they were acting like men".
They really missed the opportunity to make parsley an alchemist blacksmith rather than a normal blacksmith in the academy, just saying. That would've been way more interesting plus it could fix the issue of pars not really being connected to the main conflict much.
Have you ever written anything before btw?
That would also explain why she’s so adamant on not working at her family’s forge. Maybe her parents- being prideful dwarves- disprove of magic “tainting” their craft, and don’t want Parsley to go to the academy because they think alchemy is a waste of time and don’t want their daughter to have her ambitions crushed into dust.
I feel like making making her like that could help out a lot with the magic system of the world. Make her discover some sort of weapon enhancement magic by combining potions and stuff. Having a major magic breakthrough could set up a B plot point for the series other than the A plot of “save the rot and go through school”
you could also just have her learn more "built in" types of magic, like rune carvings or magic crystal inlays, making her the team expert on magic artifacts.
I think the best solution for the potion teacher is to change the nature of the first lesson. As in, the lesson is presented exactly the same -- she announced all the students have been poisoned and they have an hour to find the antidote or they'll die -- but at the end of the hour, they've failed. Maybe Sage has made a lot of progress but she still times out, and then... everybody's fine. The goofy mutations are in place, but nobody's dead. The teacher produces the antidote, it reverses the mutations, and the real lesson is revealed-- they COULD have all died just then, and not one of them could keep their cool.
It's a lesson about the attitudes necessary to be a Guardian. What she was imparting is that this is a dangerous job, that you must be ready at any moment to defend yourself, that death comes in many forms, and that you cannot lose your cool or allow yourself to be caught off-guard. You can either go serious with this and tone down her wackiness, or play it up and have a running gag where every one of her lessons contains another prank that's meant to keep the students on their toes. Either way just establish that she's not actually trying to kill anybody.
As a Jrpg player I can think of a few ways to make the first episode better. Have Rosemary & Sage fight some low-level monsters during the journey to Lyngarth to give them a chance to showcase their skills similar to Octopath Traveler or Bravely Default. This way shows that the two girls are High Guardian material.
I think another good way to fix the potions teacher would be to just have her be one of those teachers that comes down on mistakes excessively hard.
I.e. have the plants be something that could hurt the kids, but couldn't actually kill them and while she's explaining whatever lesson a student gets latched onto.
Teacher yanks them out and just rips into them for touching things before being told what to do.
Just by their design, you'd assume the characters may fall into tried and true archetypes that the writer can draw on for inspiration or subvert:
Rosemary and Sage look like they may be your classic "heart" and "brain" pair: Rose the passionate one whose enthusiasm carries the team forward but who can have trouble listening to logic over emotion, especially when it comes to her parental baggage. Sage may be her straight man, cleaning up her messes but also relying on her for the confidence that she herself lacks. Their friendship can complement each other as they annoy but also admire and try to learn from the other.
Thyme with the permanent bored face seems like she'd be your classic kuudere big sister type whose selling point is her "cool" badass demeanur, who lacks emotion but warms up to the protags in her own quiet way. Maybe we can follow her on an arc about elves finding it hard to relate to humans or a struggle with isolation and self-acceptance, etc.
Idk who Parsley is supposed to be but strikes me as the "guide" type, our Applejack/Ron Weasley, the one who's already integrated into the setting and can show/teach a lot about the rules and traditions of the world just by how she interacts with her family etc. and who can bring in conflicts that revolve around societal obligations and living up to expectations.
Parsley is meant to be the team mom, just done.. So, so badly
I'd have the potions teacher act crazy outside, but if you can see through her trick, there's lessons to be found. Maybe the child murder could be just a transformation potion that makes you feel like garbage but isn't lethal, but the lesson is to stay calm because they might eat something poison in the future or be bitten by a snake or something beyond that and need to think of a cure. If anyone fails that test, she gives them a bottle of cure to fix it, then gives a lecture about how not panicking meant the kids discovered the cure. It's important to have it be the first lesson because it's so important to learn.
I'd also maybe change the story a bit so Rosemary's mother's sword was damaged all over everything except the blade. This encourages her to invest in a couple different weapons. Maybe a dagger and a thinner sword. She finds that she works better with the other weapons because her mother's sword is too big and bulky, so she keeps her mother's sword as an heirloom more than anything.
In fact, there could be multiple episodes of upgrading the cast instead of the slice of life we got. Maybe Thyme has issues keeping up with the gang and is forced to using a recurve bow made from metal instead of her normal wooden bow, which isn't something she would normally do because she doesn't like metal but it's offered by Parsley, so it shows their companionship. Maybe Sage could be shown studying new spells but she hasn't mastered yet, taking a dangerous step into using an untested spell to beat something that can only be beaten with that spell, Zelda temple style. Maybe Parsley could have an actual issue which requires her to develop instead of whatever the thing was with the parasects. Maybe she could have issues actually being in the fray, which is why she works the smithy instead.
Exactly I always felt her attempting to kill her students on the first day weird. I could buy the situation as a final exam as by then the teacher would’ve taught every thing her students needed to pass. To have her be so causal about killing kids on their first day is irresponsible
@@BlueBlazeKing if written better, she would be somewhat like a method teacher who likes to act scenarios but will grt serious when it's time for the actual lessons, not only so that she could see students' reactions real time, but also so that the students can recall future events with her lessons with them.
Call it twisted, but I feel that's the closest way you can point her to being not a villain but maybe a ref herring? (A comment I saw here said she could also work as a veteran guardian with PTSD trying to teach her students about the dangerous world in a twisted way)
As much as everybody hates the potion teacher, I think she never actually killed anybody. I feel like she would stop it last second whenever a student was in actual danger. She could have a pretty cool arc where she actually saves a kid and then explains that none of the kids were ever in real danger. Maybe there would even be some sort of character motivation? I do gotta give the writers credit for the magic wand hairpins. Those were pretty cool imo
I think the martial arts class could still work, teaching one to be able to fight, at least decently, without the use of a terrasphere in case one were to lose it in combat temporarily
I like the idea that Rosemary thinks attending the academy will lead her to clues about her mom. She's an alumni of the school, and I imagine one of the most celebrated ones, so I could see Rosemary wanting to either ask faculty members about her or snoop around in order to find anything that might be helpful in her search.
I also had this idea that the planet itself is, to some degree, alive and sentient, and The Rot is the planet's response to things that actually upset and hurt the planet on both a physical and emotional level. The big ones being taking from the planet without communing with nature and/or giving back to the planet in some way (which is exactly what the mass production of terraspheres is a result of), and the people who live on the planet spreading needless hatred for one another. And the irony of that second part is that there are hate groups in both magical and non-magical communities who blame each other despite neither side being purposely responsible, and in trying to solve the problem, they're only making it worse by either spreading more hatred or continuing the mass production of terraspheres.
Honestly, the way to make Caraway better in this rewrite is to make him Rosemary and Sage's guardian (get it?) while they are staying in Lyngarth. He already knew Rose's mom so he would instantly realize that Rose and Sage run from home to become a guardian.
Caraway will have more screen time interacting with Rose, and can be a new magic mentor to Sage. He will now have more meaningful appearance then just reading wiki info to Rose, and talk to Snapdragon.
Also maybe make it so that he knows what the rot is doing but chooses to turn a blind eye to it because it's how he maintains his male form. When the main characters tell him about how new magic is causing the rot he gives another side to the story showing how new magic can truly help people, and maybe how it helps level the playing field for those who aren't as magically gifted.
I really like the idea of Sage just being dragged along by Rose, and being hesitant about the whole thing. Instead of it culminating into one big argument later in the season, she could pretend to be supportive at first, but slowly grow more bitter as time goes on, maybe from being homesick, or her fears being proven right through Rose and the crew having too many close calls, or whatever. She grows more passive-aggressive over time, maybe even having little fits or outbursts every now and then. Maybe she’s internalized her mother’s skepticism of the teraspheres, and lashes out at those who wield them, calling old magic “authentic magic” (her first outburst is at the potions teacher who’s probably parading around her terasphere like a divine gift, and it lands her in detention, or some other punitive measure.) and putting others down for relying so heavily on something so convenient. Also have a way for her to express these feelings to the audience to keep her fits from seeming spontaneous. This would put her in the mindset to argue with Rose over something petty, and gives Rose justified reason to ask what’s wrong with her, which she’s too frustrated to respond to, and simply storms off. After a couple more squabbles ending the same way, they could break away from each other to do their own thing for a while. Also don’t make Rose a saint in this, maybe she could be a thick-headed idiot leader that constantly makes bad decisions so Sage’s feelings are justified.
But this is for if the show was longer than 12 episodes, which. it’s not.
As a member of your discord who’s also working on my own rewrite, I legit want to take some of these ideas and implement them into my story.
As someone who actively wants to rewrite the series and make it better, this video really helped me come up with some ideas on how to develop my rewrite better, and reading all the comments were really helpful in coming up with decisions!! Despite how much of a dumpster fire High Guardian Spice is, I feel like it really had a lot of people come up with new and creative ways to tackle story-telling, world building, and characters.
I'm also just glad this channel exists to rip into my new fixation and drive me into trying to make a coherent story with decent characters, so truly, thank you :)
(sorry for being sappy ^^")
I can see Snap being an inverted Barbarian, where they become a calm, collected, calculating murder machine due to a genetic mutation that doesn't connect the power increase to anger, but the absence of it. Snap would then use this against a massive threat to demolish an opponent that was capitalizing on Amaryllis's all power no finesse fighting style. He would then go home after explaining that this isn't the life he was after, go home, after a confrontation(it would probably be about how his father thinks he needs to protect people with his weapons and drive back the rot, and Snap countering with "there are other ways to serve. Violence is not the avenue of my chosing l. I will not back down on this, not again.") the father and son fight, and Snap is victorious. His dad is surprised at his fighting prowess, but ultimately lets him stay at home, and Snap becomes a civil servant loved by the public.
I disagree with Guardians being there to fight the Rot
I would let them be general protectors of the population from everything unknown and dangerous, like some magical beasts, plagues, stuff like that, with the Rot being a new and mostly unknown threat. To that I would probably not let it be on the school grounds or at the very least the Rot should be in a restricted area where Caraway actually experiments on it to get rid of it for good, or something like that
Also, I would not ax Slime Boy but I would change him from a bard into a botanist/potion maker, for obvious reasons
Since this show takes some queues from dnd i think it would be cool if parsley is an artificer and she could make these magitek trick arrows thyme could use and other gadgets to make her and the rest of the gang more versatile
Is High Guardian Spice fixable? Of course it is - that’s what you’re proving with your abridged series!
You know in my rewrite, I tried to incorporate the rot and the reason HGA exists into a bit of world building; the Triad and the first generation of guardians (basically the army and all its non-fighting roles) were involved in a war with Witch Country also because they wanted the Rot to happen (because they simply grew envious and wanted the power of God at their fingertips like Scarborough). After Scarborough won, the Triad established the school to ensure there would always be a large amount of soldiers and medics and stuff
Also non-fighters like pottery and dance and Slime Boy get to stay because you need to keep morale alive and also if you need to present things to the innocents harmed.
Ngl besides the war part, I came up with all of that shit in the 3 minutes I’ve written this
Also, reason why there’s melee fighters in the school and a lot of other stuff (a bit convoluted but stick with me):
Because Witch Country didn’t have any patron deity to help them like Scarborough, they were always in a struggle had to discover new ways of surviving, mainly by mining and trading with other countries. In one of their expeditions, a group of miners found a vein of pure magic and upon contact realized that only a few people could use that power, but developed old magic to make the most of it. These were the first witches and they followed very strict guidelines that even Sage’s mom followed
During the war, some witches fled to Scarborough’s patrons- the Triad. They found that people capable of being witches could use magic anywhere and only knew recently because of the extensive research. Scarborough looked into magic as a material and found a lot of their army could use it, so they decided to utilize it in a less orthodox manner against Witch Country, giving us an earlier form of new magic.
However, because of the research, they also found that magic is fragile and can run out, as well as indeed requiring certain procedures to be safe. Think like magic blackouts or a spell overpowering (like a glitch or something). Melee combat, while not as powerful, is consistently useful, so the Triad kept it around.
Hundreds of years later, around when Lavender was 10, a dragon corrupted by the Triumpherant kills her parents, as well as much of the population, so she goes to train under the Triad. This leads to a battle in a small village, where she meets a young Caraway and saves his life. He’s really good at magic, so he tries to figure out a way to make it better, until he finds a way to concentrate pure magic into a tiny ball, leading to terraspheres. The dragon is slain, and new magic (what Caraway developed) becomes a marketed product, which the Triumpherant tries to corrupt by over-concentrating its use in terraspheres (malware).
Personally, I'd handle weapons a bit differently. While I do think it would be better for all of them to be casters of some description, I think it'd be better if weapons were like Artifacts in Made in Abyss, as tools with specific in-built functions, for example Parsley's Hammer being able to create like explosions whenever it hits an enemy a-la Blaze Reap. By doing this it gives a much larger versatility in movesets as someone like Hakone who specialises in hand to hand combat could use a tool like the Thousand-Men pins to increase their strength or Third Works in order to increase their combat potential.
Also maybe some weapons could be enchanted with elements like if someone had a flail they could Activate its ability and the spiked ball transforms into a giant ball of magma with lava spikes and they fling it around like a wrecking ball
Its a good idea
But i think that would be more viable later down the line
Starting with all terraspheres would exacerbate the blind ignorance of the academy and the weapon switch vould happen after the girls figure out that new magic is the problem
This creates an even stronger dichotomy as their fighting styles grow MORE diverse once they stop using new magic
Yes, and then the Smith part of Guardians has much more sense. If the weapons have to be specifically enchanted, a branch of warriors who make their own weapons sounds cool. It even could be like there are four types of using magic in combat: pure terraspheres (learnt by Sage), channeling magic through ordinary weapons (learnt by Thyme), mastering ancient weapons (really limited, because there is not many of them, rosethorn being one of them, which would make breaking it even a bit more impactful even if it still works Rosemary could be worried about her competence to care for this unique artifact) and creating own magical weapons (learnt by Parsley, the show should develop her plot about forgery and Master-student relation with the faun more IMO)
Everything you said about the rot was brilliant. It ties everything together without making it convoluted. It’s got the creative gears in my head all turning, trying to imagine the new story you could build with the rot at its center.
Having Sage's mom say; "Magic always has a price, it always has, and always will. Never use a spell if you don't know what it will cost you." And also giving her the line; "Magic has a direction of its own, if you cast a spell with magic going in the same direction you'll find it much easier."
And then when Sage learns where Teraspheres come from she reverse engineers its makeup to cast from a Terasphere way more efficiently.
Also keep the Triad as immortal entities of immense power, but also make them fundementally parasitic to the world, with exactly one of them trying to become a symbiote instead of just lounging about with her absurd powers. Give just them teleportation as a sign of just how stupidly broken powerful they are. Or maybe make ordinary teleportation be something that takes a really precise 3D magic-circle around the diamater of a basketball court.
Love how the list says “mostly Sage” when fixing the characters
Personally I'd make Mandrake Rose's brother. Dedicated to destroying the guardian institution. Why? Because while Rose and her Mother was a tale of love and inspiration, her brother's was a tale of ABUSE and intimidation. Basically Rosemary was destined to be a guardian, and her Mother is proud of her for it, but her brother was beaten for even wanting to be a guardian because his mother's a misandri- I mean she claims men taking up violence. cause the source of history's problems. However the villain group WAS interested in him. He joined them because they promised him a dream his parents emotionally and physically abused him for even having: the dream to become a great warrior. It could also lead to an interesting redemption arc where he realizes he's not the hero he dreamed of being and turns on the villains.
Personally, I'd go with mindwiping and manipulation path. Mandrake being the first born but the villain noticing his potential AMBUSHED a weakened just given birth Lavender(that's her mother's name) and they taunt her and her family before erasing any memory of Mandrake ever existing from their minds.
Then Rosemary is born. All whole the villains make Mandrake watch from afar how loved Rosemary is and plant the seeds of hate in Mandrake's heart.
I like how you addressed that most rewrites are basically nothing like the original
Hmmm the only thing i could think to add is optional stuff
sages cousins get a letter to ask if they saw her and they lie causing more family conflict.
maybe the potions teacher will attack the students in their rooms randomly as they sleep as a way to train vigilance at all times but uses it to maybe put in mini terraspheres that spy on them to help decide who to get rid of, but well major violations that the other teachers don't know about.
and maybe if they need alternate filler classes they could have seasonal classes like weapon maintenance, identifying edible plants, butchering animals/monsters. things like that.
as for aster id say make him capable, but cocky and solo and maybe one of the first lessons is a basic survival trip where you can group up with whoever you want and camp out/survive the weekend and have to protect an academic mcguffin. aster goes solo because "you'll just slow me down" but he fails and is kicked out because well everyone needs to sleep so easy to steal it then. Maybe a whole big team fails because one student is actually a teacher who did transmutation on him/herself to teach them that while numbers can be a great weapon a single weak link in a chain can ruin all your plans.
Regarding the blacksmith teacher, if you're going to change things so that everyone has a magic weapon, maybe he could teach a class about creating or at least maintaining their weapons. There was already that one bit about characters trying out each other's weapons, maybe he challenges the students to create and spar with a type of weapon different from what they're used to, and various characters can respond to that in different ways as a kind of lighthearted microcosm of the "new changes vs. old familiarity" conflict the show wants you to think it's pushing.
Thought about this a bit more: what if you framed it such that Rosemary takes very adeptly to the task, forging a variety of different weapons and trouncing her sparring opponents, while Sage is basically doing her best to follow the letter of the assignment while ignoring the spirit of it, making a variety of weapons but only using them as differently shaped magic focuses. Maybe Rosemary tries to give some advice, coming off as arrogant over having found a subject she's actually better than Sage at, and it turns into an argument with Sage accusing Rosemary of throwing her mother's sword away just because this teacher told her to. Rosemary feels hurt, we get an example of Sage's bubbling frustrations with her, and whether the argument itself gets resolved or just put on hold from something else distracting them, it sets the stage for them having a larger blowout later on.
This show just needs the right people to be good
It already had the right people back in the early 90s, back when it was called Akazukin ChaCha.
Sorry, I just can't get over how Min Ayahana hasn't sued Raye yet for plagiarism.
This is my opinion, but I feel like the entire show might be salvaged with some semblance of it’s former self, if it is changed from a school to a prison. That’s not me making a joke(although it is funny): being a guardian can basically mean rehabilitation of prisoners(students) to become a better person in society that can serve to pay retribution for their crimes(Rosemary would be in for wreck-less behavior and assault, Sage for being an accomplice which can establisha toxic relationship with her because she didn’t do anything, but she doesn’t say anything to stay close to Rosemary to protect her and others that come her way, Thyme would have committed terrorism(like the abridged Thyme) who is faking rehabilitation to get out, gain trust from powerful people, and complete her task of taking down the economy to save her home, and Parsley kept on stealing for her very large family that can’t make a lot of money because her brothers are too young, but she does work as a blacksmith or something that has to do with building, but it doesn’t pay her much: this can also establish her and Thyme’s mutual friendship because they both got f*cked by capitalism), the teachers can be officers who train them to become citizens by any means necessary, that means they can take a safe or dangerous route of rehabilitation so that potion teacher can still poison her students and it would make sense why no one reports her or why no one stops her from doing that, because prisoners would still be looked down upon even through training, some of the officers could be nicer but need to be strict to see how far the prisoners are willing to become guardians and leave prison, and Guardians can refer to different kinds of people who contribute to society: Rosemary can be a soldier who can fight against invading armies, but she needs to learn how to judge whether a situation can truly be solved with violence or diplomacy which can actually utilize the ethics class, Sage can become a medic to heal people(mostly Rosemary) from battle, Thyme can become a guard(not guardian) to serve and protect a person or people from danger, and Parsley can start a business of teaching regular citizens and her brothers(cause gaining guardianship might take a couple of years so they will definitely age up) on how to build stuff and use tools correctly and potentially gain a team of people to build stuff or create new weapons to protect their land and provide better reinforcement.
I just came up with all of this on the top of my head, obviously it’s not perfect, but I already like some of the ideas I put down more than I liked the rules in the HGS universe. It may need some reformatting because it was kinda made on a tangent. I also picked a prison and not a juvenile detention center because the characters need to be aged up and it’s more original than to have them in a school as most real anime do; after all, they said that HGS was supposed to be something never done before, so I think having the setting be primarily a prison is pretty original.
I think a martial arts teacher still fits with your ideas for the school. You could have an episode where the girls think martial arts are useless because magic, only to see its value when they encounter a monster who grapples and/or is resistant to magic. Plus he could teach them how to use their summoned weapons.
We could try to held some warriors, as Inquisitors, capable of weakening magic or creating magic nullyfying traps ect.
Otherwise, no just use mages, heavy mages, sword-mages, magi bersekers, summoners and maybe specialised portal pioneers building expensive gates, linking them and if needed suppressing/breaking them.
An idea I had, in revision to your VR training you mention around the 4:00 mark; A scene in which the enrolling students gather, and are subjected to a horrifying illusion spell where they think they're under attack, and then the illusion dispels, and the teachers inform the students, say something along the lines of, "You're not ready for this as you are, let us help you so you can be!" and then direct students who are most certainly not ready for the training ahead of them to take preparation classes. This allows the students a chance to rethink their life choices, but also establishes the teachers care enough about the students' well-being and state of mind to support them.
Okay the whole video was spot on but I especially love the idea behind why Rosemary and Sage entered the academy. It would not only be in character but it'd really define the dynamic of their relationship, and it would be a very real reason for Sage to finally break down (after it is hinted that she was never fully convinced it was a good idea to come here). The plot would have to show her doubts rising with every new fuckery that happens, before at one point she snaps, which is a great reason for a drama that would last more than just one episode. A dilemma of whether to stay with the person closest to you when they need you or to take care of yourself first, do what you feel is right for you and go your own path. Maybe she'd finally realise that her life can't revolve around Rosemary and maybe even quit the academy eventually. However she'd come back unexpectedly during a battle because she realised she's actually always been in love with Rosemary and they share an epic ki- nah lmao just kidding, but this does sound like something the creators would do, since it sounds like a fanfic written by a 14 y.o. But for real, maybe in the end she'd really quit but stay somewhere nearby her friends doing whatever the hell, I don't even know what she wants to do in life, I haven't seen the show 💀
2:55 Well there are ways to have barding in the academy. Bards have been buffers in many things especially games. Slime Boy or someone else can play music to give someone a buff or use magic sound damage to hurt the enemy.
you should recreate this cartoon, but in a serious way, making it really good, like the Devil of Literature
I think starting as school and then advancing further based on their abilities. Some are amazing fighters, others are progressing researching counter-measures to rot, while there could be a buch that specialised in magical medicine to the point they progress for military doctors helping cure rot related aflictions and restoring wounded back to health.
You know, like actual military studies?
18:04 you could also make her a victim of being corrupted by the rot, it would also explain how randomly she becomes sympathetic for that one scene where they kill the dragon (she was freed)
I am kind of doing a rewrite, it's more me shoving in Final Fantasy and steampunk to make the world it actually good and then changing the scenes around. Anyway, I am totally for those people who do rewrite the show. Hell, your abridged series is already 5000 times more fun in the first 30 seconds than the every ep combined.
There are people who have written scenes and recreated the first ep. It is possible with more effort, and quite honestly, HGS has such a low bar, it's maybe too easy to rewrite.
I would fix the potions teacher a little differently, and with one simple phrase:
"She's a liar."
She does 'poison' her class... with the shapeshifting brew, which will wear off in a day if nobody can find the clues hidden around the classroom. The lesson of this class is to take careful note of your surroundings under threat of death. (Side note: Sage would NOT be allowed to make antidote for everyone else. She WOULD be allowed to give them hints to get the puzzle solved themselves; teamwork is acceptable but doing things FOR others is not. Anyone who fails this lesson is expelled.)
She psyches students out all the time because students with weak hearts and trembling knees will not last very long as guardians. If she's so bad that a student decides to leave, then that's one child's life saved who couldn't have handled the pressure.
This stuff would be written out in conversations she and Caraway have behind closed doors, where he asks her to let up on the students and she gives him all the reasons she won't. She'd be shown in brief glimpses, protecting the students from _real_ threats while they're still in training.
Finally, the compassionate 180 she does in the dragon episode... is her *true self.* Behind all the lies, all the manipulation, she doesn't want to see kids getting hurt. Someone the girls had seen as a villain had always been looking out for them. Now that they're strong enough to go on real missions, they can start to see her true self, and now the girls only have to face the _real_ villains from now on.
ALSO. I believe Caraway is fixable.
He could be the compassionate teacher, the student advocate. Anything but the _lazy After School Special_ he _really_ is. High Guardian Spice's target audience is adults. We don't need him to explain the trans experience, especially not in ways that read like they were written by cisgender people who learned what "trans" meant yesterday. Just show him drinking his potions now and then.
If the story needs to reveal his transness... Separate him from the potions. Have him get captured or something. Show the usually calm and put together student advocate starting to _freak the fuck out_ when he realizes he doesn't know how long he's going to be trapped in some place.
Then the girls could rescue a beloved teacher, and it'd be awesome.
He wouldn't threaten Snapdragon with expulsion. Snap doesn't want to be here, and it's starting to culminate in violent outbursts toward other students. Maybe Kal doesn't say anything near as inflammatory, but Snap takes it that way because of his conditioning at home. Leading to Caraway asking what's wrong, why did you lash out... and then thinking that maybe being a guardian is not what's best for Snapdragon. He can be the catalyst for Snap to realize, "Hey, I should leave, actually. I don't need to be hyper-manly and stay in the prestigious magic school. I can go work at a bakery or something, and probably not die in the field in three years."
I think I'm starting to understand why I'm so obsessed with this show on some days.
It's around the level of quality of some things I made as a teenager, but completed (minus the contemporary themes, because to ruin my story I instead relied on 2000s kids' shows clichés and anime tropes).
I had an inkling that it wasn't good, but it didn't matter because it was just larp with my best friends. Our goal was to include all our favorite tropes and then work with that. When I wrote something alone I always tried to learn more, but there were pet tropes I didn't wanna drop, even though they really hurt the overall story etc.
But now, when I think back at it I laugh because it was so bad, and then I think of the fragments that I might still find interesting. If I had somehow been given full authority over a series, it would have sucked more than HGS, but many mistakes might have been be comparable.
I think it's really interesting to see a case study in something that has roughly the quality of something that was made by a teenager, since I was a teenager who loved writing unoriginal story prompts. It's also really fun to think about how the own story ideas could be improved, or what could instead be done with the ideas that hold up.
Thanks for coming to my TED-Talk.
I think it would make more sense if their school trained them cooperative fighting, instead teaching them invidually let's teach them their own role and how impoertant it is and strategies they will use since most likely they will work in a group instead on their own. Teach mages how to buff allies, how to use destructive or harmful spells around them to not accidentally kill them and timing
The dwarf girl could be learning how to enchant weapons and what kind of enchantmenst each type of guardian needs, like fire damage would be useless underwater. There could even be some logistics class learning about monsters and threats so half of the guardians in whole city don't end up fighting one medium crab
I think you could keep the martial arts teacher AND the blacksmith if you wanted to look into augmented equipment. This could be a combination of designing equipment for combat and equip things like terraspheres to anything from gloves to magic staffs. Maybe equipment with passive abilities like able to act as scuba gear. Caraway should be like a leading rot researcher. As for his identity and the entire thing with Snapdragon, I don't think I could give a really good solution to that which would satisfy everyone.
That said, you could keep Amaryllis and Snapdragon pretty much the same as people actually liked them.
I think a really cool way to give close range weapon a purpose is to have magic that's exclusive to that type of weapon.
Like imagine a shield, there would be magic like some sort of reflect skill that deflects any magical projectile. Or maybe for a sword, you can have a magic that basically turns the sword humongous, but due to how physics work, the magic would have limitations based on how strong the sword is. Like if you turn the sword too big, it'll break
Something that could be interesting is, keep the weapons but use them as a conduit for magic, to help them focus their magic in a certain area as opposed to just "use magic". Traditional melee weapons like swords, maces, and spears could be for destruction magic, especially since a lot of destruction magic in close quarters is like using a rocket laincher in close quarters. Supportive magic could be staves and shields because defense, but also potentially rings and bracelets since you'll have to act fast to defend others. Transmutation magic could be projectile weapons like slings, bows, and crossbows, imbuing the projectiles with magic to turn the projectile or what it hits into something else. Summoning/conjuration magic could use weapons that started as tools such as hammers, quarterstaves, and scythes, kinda like the forgemasters in Netflix's Castlevania. There could also be enhancement magic that used more specialized weapons like whips, daggers, and rapiers, focusing on enhancing the body with magic to provide a power CQC fighter. Potions could also be a type of magic, imbuing your own magic ahead of time to store for later use, not used by everyone due to the time and difficulty of making potions, while it'd be easier to make potions corresponding to your area of magic, you could make potions with effects from other areas if you're skilled enough.
Rosemary could be destruction, blast and slice everything to bits. Sage support, shields, debuffs, potentially even status effects. Thyme transmutation arrows (either with her own magic or maybe potion dipped arrows) to set traps and manipulate terrain to her advantage. Parsley could be a summoner, creating golems and such to assist in battle. Snapdragon could be an enhancer, would fit well with his proposed arc and backstory. Amaryllis could potentially be another destruction magic user but playing to Rosemary's weaknesses, showcasing a different side of destruction magic while not narratively stepping on Rosemary's toes. Basically if Rosemary is an assault rifle, constantly launching attacks focusing on as many attacks out as possible, Amaryllis could be like a rocket launcher, large scale destruction hitting hard but not often. The other option would be she's the sniper rifle to Rosemary's shotgun, long range precision meant to take out a single foe vs short range "everything in this general direction is about to have a very bad day"
I should also note, people can belong to/cast spells from multiple schools of magic but A: it's difficult to do so since people have natural affinities towards a certain school and B: these are students in training, give them a spot to start out, then once theyre more experienced they can branch out from there. While it's theoretically possible to have one mage that can do everything, it's indescribably difficult to do so.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk
Jamie De Jonge does a fabulous job with rewrites as well as art, if ANYONE were to attempt to remake this dumpster fire I think you two would do it the best
Friendship and brutal violence the two best ways to make anything work
Tbh I would made this story about simply adentures in the fantasy world , where the tame doing quests to get money. I would kick out the whole Guardian school nonsense.
Like Rosemary's mother and father loved adventure when they were younger , but when they became adults and got married , so they build a bakery and lived a peacfull life. Sages family would be very stric so she would feel refreshd when she live in a bar run by Anise and Aloe
Overpower magic for everyone!
If everyone is overpower - noone trully is!
(Looks at Warhammer 40k)
Still, I think that rot could strongly nullify magic. If we keep the new/old magic system - it could potentialy absorb new magic making costs of that conflict harsher.
Rot thing poisoned a person. We can't use new magic to quickly heal them as it would just make poison burn them from incide like a acid or worse. With it we force them to slower natural alchemy and old magic treatment.
One thing i thought about was a magic system based on the weapons you choose. There are such things as a swordmage, so Rosemary could still have a sword as a weapon. Parsley could also keep her mace. That could also add to the magic system rules and regulations while also keeping in mind the track system. I kinda thought about different RPG systems, along with SAO and some DnD. Each person has a specific item or weapon that channels their magic that also suits their fighting styles, or better suits their magic pools. People with less magic pools use more melee based/physical weapons for example.
The terra-sphere would be nerfed slightly. While it still takes the majority of magic energy from nature (rot), it would also require some magic from the user as a catalyst (meaning very draining for those with low affinity for magic, or low magic pools) In exchange, terra-spheres make casting easier as it does not require runes or rituals.
Offensive and warrior type people that prefer being up close and personal have the option to channel their magic with close range weapons, such as swords or maces. They also have the option of summoning more corporeal weapons, but it drains their magic supply a lot faster as these types of people tend to have either a low affinity for magic, or smaller magic reserves. (Parsley, Rosemary) These students would be in the combat class.
Then we have people like Sage, who have a high affinity for magic, with a large magic reserve that use mostly runes and staffs to channel their magic. These people tend to hold the rear, offering support with either long-range magic, healing, or buffs/debuffs, and are classified as the combat class. Mage classes are also further divided by the type of support you want to be, such as heal-support, and damage-support.
Thyme is my only outlier since she’s of an elven race. I don’t remember if they ever explained what kind of race elves are in the HGS universe, but elves that live in forests are typically depicted as hunters skilled in archery and magic. However, in terms of attending the academy, she would most likely register as a mage, since that would give her more freedom to experiment with more advanced healing spells and potions.
No matter what, all students must know some basic form of a healing spell for emergencies. More advanced healing spells are reserved for mage students who are interested in a position as a heal-support.
The reason for these splits in classes is because it requires time that the students do not have to learn and master all forms of magic, nor do the professors have the patience to force students into subjects they have no interest in. With the threat of rot increasing, it is better to use whatever time they have teaching their students what they want and need to know before eventually having to let them fight on the front lines.
Potion making is also considered a must in terms of basics, but for anything more advanced is considered as an elective.
Portals I’ll categorize as maybe an S-class magic that not anyone can use, nor is it teachable. First, it requires a large amount of magic, so regular people like Anise can’t use one (or at least, not without the use of a spark-spell). Humans generally do not have the necessary magic reserves to create portals. Very rarely will a human be born with a reserve large enough to create a portal. If humans wanted to create portals they would need a lot of people to cast the spell, making it inconvenient. However, those of the demon realm, and elves, have a naturally large magic pool, and are able to create portals more easily. On the other hand, in terms of way of life, portals can get in the way of a hunt, making it part of daily life impractical. However, they do have a form of transportation requiring portals like gates to travel easily between tribes, or in and out of the woods. Demons are the only race that can summon portals as they please because their entire being is magic (or that’s what i’m assuming).
Might add or tweak some more. If I ever come back to this. There may or may not be some new plot holes that came up with this, though so beware. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts though!
This feels like someone looking at Palpatine and being like, "Yeah, I could fix him."
I think you could combine the characters of Aster and Slime Boy into an attractive but dopey character, instead of Aster just being a toxic masculinity caricature and Slime Boy just being a meme. I actually found Rosemary’s crush on Aster pretty endearing all things considered, and I think it would blend in well with existing scenes.
I'll put my little help into this.What I'll try to fix is how Rosemary starts from being clumsy and irresponsible with her mom's sword to a warrior who can at least stand her ground against Mandrake at the end of the season is to give her a master, maybe a goblin, a propper goblin, no those four little turds from the cave. A head shorter than Rose, with green and wrinkled skin, flappy ears, beaky nose, the whole goblin package. But with the strenght and toughness of a titan... And with manly attitude and disgusting manners just to piss off the staff of HGS.
The triad: I know he may come off as...pushy...but he's one of our best swordsman.
Cue the Goblin having a rivalry/mentoring Rose's mom
Trying to edit a story like HGS in such a way that it still retains its original spirit, while a lot more admirable than a lot of other reworks I've heard of, might not be possible. You're hitting what I like to call the "Editor of Fire" problem, so called because the only way to edit the script is to throw it into a big fire and start over, usually because there are critical problems baked into the work's very foundation.
The initial priorities of HGS's "original spirit" are so skewed that there's a reason it has such fanatic love from weirdos in spite of being terminally inoperable as a story: because _their_ priorities are equally skewed. Lesbians do everything. Men suck (unless they transition, which is easy and awesome and can be reversed by accident and is highly recommended for teenagers). Dunk on chuds by embezzling their money to fund this crap in an official capacity. They don't ask for much as an audience, and they got what little they asked for, even if that's barely anything more than existence. To its audience, High Guardian Spice isn't broken at all. It's not a story. It's a monument to conquest. I see no value in taking an intellectual property (or perhaps "emotional property" might be more fitting) born to hate and increasing its narrative cohesion. That would suggest that HGS had noble efforts thwarted by hilariously botched execution. The original spirit _is_ the problem.
"Some things are bad because they fail in what they set out to do. Other things are bad because they succeed, but what they set out to do was gross and dumb." -Yahtzee Crosshaw
5:07 that's pretty similar to the tension in Little Witch Academia! And it's good too, you don't wanna get kicked out of a school you tried really hard to get into!
I remember seeing someone say that those who obsess (well, it was more like the ones who hate it) over this show is lame. They hate that people still make content of it, even though people are just making fun of it. But like, why should it matter to them? They could obviously just look away if they don’t like it.
Because if we all ignore it and stop pointing out flaws in the industry companies will keep producing this half baked garbage
@@guardianHQ Exactly! I even mentioned that people still talk about shows that have already ended, but they said those who hate this particular show borders on obsession. Where the hell did they get obsession over wanting to expose the show for what it really is?
When it comes to media, if you don't like it for genuine grounded reasons; why not talk about them? In the case of High Guardian Spice, there's a lot of things that seem illogical and it's good to mention them. Obviously, vapid hate trains and videos are bad, yes, but when they're questioning the flaws of a show or providing solutions; why not have them?
@@TrashNomad That’s what I was thinking. But I guess the person is either a fan or is just tired of seeing HGS content. If they hate seeing it, then why bother others for talking about it?
Some of the changes I would've made are:
*Make the plot be about magical cooking & fighting classes battling against The Rot, that's cause all of the food resources to go bad.
*Rename the characters to actual spice names:
Rosemary = Paprika
Sage = Mint
Parsley = Cinnamon
Thyme = Ginger
Snapdragon = Pepper
Amaryllis = Saffron
Aloe & Anise = Himala & Seasa (like Himalayan salt & sea salt)
*Fix the characters' relations, reasons, and interactions.
*Make the twist that Aster (who is renamed into Dijon, as in Dijon mustard) is actually the prince of the kingdom of Culinarie (Lingarth), and Sage/Mint didn't like him at first because she sees the monarchy as lazy good-for-nothing rulers that only care about themselves.
In the end, Aster/Dijon/Dean becomes aware of what The Rot is doing & actually wants to help fight it for the sake of Culinarie, not just for the royal family.
Slime ball was technically already a side character but I feel like he was just there just so they could have a fan favorite character
Thank you so much for doing this. I really enjoyed your way of making the show Interesting. Thanks again.
i like the fact that the magic system is different now, according with the personalities of the protagonists. I also like the fact that the terraspheres always have the same weakness: you need to charge them in order to use them. That makes the script better.
I thought I was tripping when I started hearing the Sims music in the background
I would probably make changes along these lines:
1: the show is fully for younger teens-ish, so tone problems are resolved accordingly.
2: the school is meant to be insane. It's known for being kind of a death trap.
3: Redbud is a more major character, to fit with 2. She's a secondary antagonist.
4: Mandrake replaces Caraway an episode or two earlier to have more time with Fake Caraway.
5: Rosemary is more self-aware of how clumsy and incompetent she can be, but always wants to do her best anyway, because she wants to live up to Lavender. Sage is worried about things changing, because she is paranoid a lot. That's why they're friends.
6: Sage is controlling and unwilling to let things change, and that's her major flaw, along with black/white tunnel vision. She is reliable, loyal, and determined however. Sage/Rosemary mirror each other, because both are determined to be what everyone expects them to be at first, before Rosemary decides to forge her own path and Sage decides she wants to learn both Old and New Magic, seeing the merit in both.
-The Triad are sinister; they're in league with the Triumvirate or they're morally questionable but opposed to them. They have an ancient past that actually matters.
-Amaryllis and Snapdragon are themselves.
-Slime Boy actually has a name and a better mic.
If I had to change or pick a different stance on something that was said on this video it wouldve have to be magic for sure. I feel like giving everyone magical powers is a way of overcoming the obstacle of it being broken but I am more inclined in just nerfing it and let variety set in honestly. Like imagine there were "artillarists" dedicated to create machines that shoot high bolts of magic because no student can do it and only very few professors know? Like this would not only serve as world building because well machines, but we would also have variety and cool fight moments. AND THEN we would also solve the problem with warriors and archers and such. keeping them. This time not just cuz "plot", but actually because they can be usefull and do things magic users can not.
You did a good job explaining and condensing all this. :) Nice ideas too, no headaches lol
I feel like the guardians don't have to be specifically about the rot, they can be a general peace keeping force with the rot just being the big threat. Plus that way you can keep the track system though if that is a thing it needs more explaining. For example, the smithing class doesn't seem to have any magic involved, it is just smithing. They could have made that interesting if they just explained, it more.
Here are a few ideas.
The smithing track could infuse magic into items like armor and weapons with runes. Smithing is the perfect embodiment of old magic because it is all about ritual and putting some of yourself into the material as you work. Throughout history, the act of smithing has been considered magic and this is a perfect example of why. I have no idea why in the show they are just learning normal workmanship. They could have added magic but just choose not to.
The healing track could involve a lot of buff spells so Sage and Rosemary can work together that way. If there is going to be blood anyway let's focus on the character that was said to be training as a healer. Hell, healing magic could modify someone's body making them bigger, stronger, more animalistic in a fight. Alternatively, as a disguise, it could change someone's physical features. So we would see a practical version of transformation magic before it comes back up naturally with Snapdragon's gender dysphoria.
I don't know what Thyme was. Was she a ranger? Whatever she is, she should know plant magic, possibly summoning walking plants to her side. Ok, so after a quick google search, I found out what power she should have. In the European Middle Ages, the Thyme was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. That fact makes me want her to have a knockout plant spell. She could attach the knockout pants to her arrows to weaken them.
You can’t fix PERFECTION
Dude. For real. Lay the hell off Slimeboy. You can count the number of positive aspects of this show on your hands, we are not getting rid of any of them. Slimeboy, Parnell, Amaryllis, and Snapdragon must remain.
im glad this show exists bc its a perfect example for writers to look at on mistakes to not make
Little DND player here, have instead of trying to change the blacks missing class, we upgrade it to basically teaching people how to be artificers. Artificers are basically magic users that combine magic and blacksmithing. It’s really interesting in dungeons and dragons to
You know, I think the portals can be balanced to at least have an excuse other than being stupid. The range, size, and how long it can retain itself would take a lot of energy to use to the point where it could only work so well in the heat of battle. Portals could also be involved with pre made spells for that guy to escape instead of running through students. I forgot his name. Just thought I’d give an idea for portals to be in hgs but not make portals unused from pure stupidity.
"Hey everyone. It's me, Dave!"
Why was that so funny to me just opening up this video???
"Dave is not here, man!"
13:56
This kind of thing would be pretty simple to set up as well. A scene in episode one of Rosemary asking Sage to come with her because she needs her, and doesn’t think she could be a guardian without Sage’s friendship and support. That would be all you need for Sage to snap about how Rosemary ran off to spend time with Aster.
“You clearly don’t need me as much as you claim too, so why did you say that! Why would you make me risk my life with some stupid lie?!”
Something like that, followed by a heartfelt conversation.
I have my own ideas for the magic system. During your magic review video, I thought what if Caraway has an Old Magic Rune that makes New Magic act like Old Magic, where it works in harmony with the Earth the way Old Magic does. He has a longer casting time, because he needs to make the OM Rune for each NM rune. Sage notices the OM Rune, and asks for help with OM, which she feels she needs to try because it's what her mother uses, but NM has been around long enough only NM is taught at the Academy because of the ease of use.
I axed premade spells, that's just a disaster waiting to happen. I added another caveat that NM can't go down in power, say for example making a fireball go from 5 kilo explosion to 10 kilo explosion keeps it at 10 kilo explosion, you can't lower it. OM is much more manipulative, and Caraway's Rune allows him to modulate his power. However, since the school only teaches NM, they can have way too many powerful wizards out and about, so everyone learns magic and sword fighting. They still specialize in magic or swords, but Rosemary would have her swords with Mandrake's powers as well.
Thank you for cracking the code. I didn't think any good solution to fixing High Guardian Spice existed, but I stand corrected. The show would have felt like a generic adventures guild of a Hogwarts, but at least there would have been enough to have a different take on the tropes. That would have been alot more watchable than the final product.
I was able able to stretch out my rewrite to last about 4 seasons. A lot of it came from the fact that this show doesn't really have any interesting characterizations. Best example for this is Parsley. She's a dwarf with typical dwarf traits - lots of siblings, forges weapons, etc. - but she's going to study to be a guardian.....that's it. In the entire first season that's all we get from her and she's supposed to be a main character! The character designs are boring and why does some of their outfit changes look more modern when they are an old world fantasy setting? To list everything wrong would take a video longer than the entire season of HGS.
Making it goes from no villian with a specific goal to the villian is the magic oil industry on its own makes the show make a lot more sense
A year later but i really do like the survivor style elimination idea
One episode idea is the magic for transition and shapeshifting is tied to rings and Caraway loses his ring, somehow, and he has to find it while stuck in his old form. That would add some drama.
Ngl a demon teaching ethics is borderline amusing
I mean, one interesting idea would be to ban the first years from going on field trips to do stuff. This would provide the main characters with a desire to want to go on an adventure, and maybe they sneak off on one only to realise they’re out of their depth.
Then they learn to be patient and continue training. Y’know. Character development.
When I first saw some scenes of the show, I thought that Rosemary and Sage were SISTERS (because of the hair colors), and honestly that would have been so much cooler/interesting cause they could have gone all Full Metal Alchemist to a T. But oh well.
You could also tie back the villains making sure people don't realize new magic is causing the rot to sage's mom as well.
Since Sage's mom used to use new magic, she figured out a long time ago that it was causing the rot and was going to try and spread the word on it, but the villains were keeping watch and threatened to kill her family/her village if she spilled the beans on it, and thats part of why shes so insistent the girls stay in the village and sage continues to learn old magic.
Portals taking 5 minutes to startup would fix a lot of the problems, while opening new opportunities if we get competent writers. Especially if larger portals require more time, and maybe simply making two person rather than one use portal could double it to 10.
I think some non-magic courses can stay, like i actually think the martial arts should stay? just as a safeguard incase you get separated from your terasphere or end up in a situation where magic gets disabled. Even if there's no record of it happening, it's good to know just in case. I also think things like surivival classes cover all the basics and even some more advanced stuff should be there. You never know what could happen on a mission. The ethics class I actually think should be swapped to a healing class, where you're taught ways to dress wounds in battle, and what afflictions different magic can cause and how to deal with them. I dont expect it to be in-depth, just something in case they have to deal with it on the field. Afterall, it's not uncommon in college and whatnot for there to be a class that a lot of students find pointless (regardless of how important it really is) (shout out to my photography class in film school) (we basically learnt all the same stuff that we did in our cinematography class)
For how little time you gave yourself, these ideas are great
I think Astor would work better if he was competent as a Knight and was experienced but just at citiguard level or something he's cool-headed and rational but also rigid and militant maybe they meet him after he takes out a bunch of mercenaries or something on his way to the Academy
I think it would raise the stakes showing the girls that just being good isn't good enough who cares how good you are against Bandits or Mercenaries because here you'll be fighting demons and monsters
And as for how each of them would use Magic I think adjusted around a four-man Squad structure
Like you said Sage could be support she doesn't deal the most damage but her job is to keep her party fighting and provide cover when they need it maybe even giving them Buffs
As for Rosemary I think swords and physicality are an important aspect of her character so keep them maybe Guardian Warriors use magic to give themselves superhuman strength, speed, reflexes and endurance and they can resist status effects like poison or brainwashing
With Thyme I feel making Vines or moving trees would be too big a spectacle for her disposition so I figured she's a warrior in the same sense and rosemary is that use magic to enhance themselves rather than to cast spells but since she's an elf and elves have a connection to nature especially in this show I thought it would be cool if her enhancements specifically made her borrow or take on animal traits maybe she could even share sight with any Woodland creatures that are nearby it would make her really effective Scout doing reconnaissance for the rest of her party
Parsley's role in the show seems the most superfluous since she doesn't really use any of the skills she has in a practical sense so what if she was more like an artificer she can make and set up their camp quick Brew health and Magic recovery potions she could even be the one in charge of creating their transportation and maintaining their weapons she could even serve as a on-the-go medic if Sage is down for the count since she doesn't need magic to make or medicine and she'd probably be the one to know first Aid
I think all the utility she provides would more than make up for her lack of potency in actual battle she could probably still keep her hammer and be decent with it for self-defense purposes so her team doesn't have to just protect her
You can even round out snapdragons party like making Parnel fit the same role as Parsley since I can't recall what exactly he actually does anyway
Make Slime boys Bard magic act more like actual Magic like granting Buffs and debuffs so he can fit Sages niche on the team
You can even make Kal a fairly accomplished senior student who's actually talented and intimidating when he undermines them because his party regularly goes on real missions it would give him more concrete reasons to clash with and belittle snapdragons party so much since he already bullies his cousin who's a part of it
And he'd have a reason for his arrogance since he actually is a very talented Guardian
here’s an addition that will make using actual weapons more useful: anti-magical effects. think about it, if magic is already so dominant in this world wouldn’t someone have found a way to block its use? and if the rot is being created by terrasphere use, wouldn’t it make sense for it to be resistant to magic? thus, some of the monsters it generates would also have various levels of magic immunity, necessitating classes for weapons use and maintenance - though perhaps those two could be rolled into one. maybe the villains selling the terraspheres also start creating anti-magic armour, giving them an edge where they might need it? make mandrake less of a joke by giving him some warding or shielding charms, that they have to either get in close to deal with or somehow overload? monsters with magic-repellent armour?
in the same vein, for if healing magic is blocked, maybe there’s required aid classes for support mages. say sage gets roped into one of these classes, and doesn’t understand the point of learning it because she’s already good at healing magic. cut forward to rosemary getting hurt in a magic-blocked area (maybe the crab fight scene?) and sage is panicking because she doesn’t know what to do. thankfully, someone else was paying attention (maybe thyme? she seems the type to already know this stuff) and walks her through it. by episode end, she’s leaning into it way more… maybe too much. maybe she’s forsaking rosemary to get further into studies, and this could add into the eventual conflict with them blowing up at each other.
or in a situation where sage gets cornered by mandrake, with all her more useful spells taking more time to prepare or just not being accurate or strong enough (again, anti-magic armour?), he taunts her and gives her an opportunity to smack him upside the head, giving enough time to get the hell outta dodge. it’s a small addition, but it can go a long way.
In the sacred languages class, it looks like what’s written on the board is Hiragana? I can’t see very well in the show or the screenshots since he’s standing in front of it, and it doesn’t look exact, but it looks really close with some? Probably a coincidence but still kinda interesting.