MitD XII: This Space Intentionally Left Dark

[Mightymosy]

My problem with this argument is that it assumes that Rich would only ever choose a monster because its very identity as a monster of X species would be tied thematically into its overall character arc. It might be a bonus on top of otherwise meeting the conditions he needs to meet, but I don't think it is by itself enough to overcome "doesn't actually fit the extremely minimal restrictions he has to work with." when it comes to picking a monster.

"Extremely minimal restrictions" to me equals basically to "Well, I have to pick something that has two yellow eyes and it needs to have roughly the size that I painted the shadows till now".

Of course, picking a monster that specifically does NOT always have two yellow eyes would be a nice irony, and a cool "Gotcha!" moment if played right. It's the "played right" I am missing right now, because if MitD came out tomorrow and said "I always showed to eyes because I wanted to fit in so badly", I personally would consider it a hard sell. A couple of times he is lazy, a couple of times he is a little defiant, another time he soo wants to impress his "friends" to be scary, and NONE of those times he changes his eyes' appearance??
Not even when sleeping??

Coming to think of it, in his very first appearance he HAD different eyes. The first two panels he appeared in #23 he had evil-looking eyes. So maybe we should take that as a hint? I am still not convinced, but maybe we need to wait for more hints.

ETA:

One more thought on the two eyes thing, re the circus scene:

MitD is pretty nervous about appearing on stage in that scene (see p.83 of Start of Darkness). He has to talk himself up into it, describes a feeling in the pit of his stomach, and says afterward "Sometimes, it's hard being looked at by so many."

Given that, it would make sense for a Protean MitD to try to hold a shape even inside the darkness, not just to look the same as his friends, but also because he's actually uncomfortable with his default appearance and how people respond to it. (Even though he's constantly in darkness and people can't see him anyway-- look, he's new at this whole thinking thing.)

As an aside, I think the Protean also best explains the reactions of the goblin children in the circus scene. "You did the same thing you did every show-- stand out on the stage and get gawked at" is generally not the sort of thing that inspires cheering unless something is actually happening during that process. (It would also explain why the kids like going back every day-- you never know what you're going to get just watching a Protean.)

1. How many pictures with MitD in the circus do we get? Because if he DOES get the reactions due to changing his appearance, then this is where we should see him changing appearances, right?

2. In your last paragraph you say the goblin children like him because he changes so much.
That makes sense.
But in your first paragraph you say he does NOT change because he doesn't like how people respond to his default appearance.
Which doesn't match up - if he was happy finally finding someone who liked him - the kids - then he should now KEEP CHANGING, because that WORKED.