Episode 738 - Ensemble casts
May 4, 2025
Ensemble casts is the topic for today! But what do we mean by that? The way I'm defining it for THIS Quackcast is that you have a group of main characters where any of them can function in a chief protagonist role for part of the story, they're all on the same side and they can work together in smaller groups or in one big group. This is a common structure for modern sitcoms and a lot other things like The Avengers, Star Trek the Next Generation, or Lord of the Rings for example. They're not just a group, but a group made up of “main characters”.
Topics and Show Notes
One of the advantages of an ensemble cast as opposed to just a group or a one or two main characters is that they can share the load story-wise and make it much easier to develop new storylines and work your way out of holes and blocks. This is because they all have advanced character development and so create stories and pathways just in how they interact with each other, their differing world views and how they approach situations very differently. It's harder to develop multiple main characters but it's easier to maintain a story in the long run, especially if it's a long running story.
Banes and I have an ensemble cast in Bottomless Waitress consisting of the three waitresses, Polly, Jane, and Francis. There are other characters like Nicky the truck driver, Wilfred the scientist, or Craig the bus-boy but they're not as important or developed. Each of the three ladies can independently drive a storyline on their own, they can work in tandem confronting each other or together against other characters of situations, or all three can work as one. There are a lot of combinations and possibilities.
Do you have an ensemble cast? Do you like it when stories use one as opposed to more of a group with a leader or just one or two main characters?
This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by Plague Rat - a very dark, heavy, and serious intro leads up and into a beat heavy, 80s inspired, cool dance number that just drags you along and up out of the doldrums of the post-apocalyptic disaster of a plague-ridden, sad world, into the coloured lights and cool vibes of the dance floor!
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
The Starry Ladders - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/apr/29/featured-comic-the-starry-ladders/
Featured music:
Plague Rat - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Plague_Rat/ - by Rabbit_Dance_, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/
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Episode 737 - Why take over the world?
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Episode 735 - Anime
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Episode 734 - When love turns to hate
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Episode 733 - Watch again: Rediscovering
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Episode 732 - Meet the Parodians
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Episode 731 - Contrariancast
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I love those characters who bitch and moan and want to do things differently, although they don't usually take up the leadership role themselves, they just THINK they should be leader instead, but they don't really want to be one. They become a sort of fake antagonist… they're not the REAL antagonist, they just like to spice things up and add tension because they don't want to go with what the leader or the rest of the gang says.
