Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

A while back, Skinny Moon posted on the Creators’ Blog (twice, actually) about Popsonas, which is shorthand invented by the Poptropica community to mean Poptropica personas. Such creations have been a longtime tradition among the fandom, and this fun practice continues to this day. In fact, you’re invited to join in.

One’s Popsona tells the story of their Poptropica character, and the details are up to you: you can create a backstory, personality, likes/dislikes, and more! Some of the staff writers here on the PHB wanted to create and share their own Popsonas, so in this post, we’ll be doing just that. Here we go!

Slanted Fish

Slanted Fish hails from Shark Tooth Island, where she has always admired the swimming fish, including the bright blue betta she adopted from the sea. Born as Friendly Fish, she acquired the nickname Slanted Fish in her youth as a wordplay on her Chinese name. This Fishy finds her home in both land and ocean; bustling cities and secluded islands.

She went on to study many of her passions, including art and writing, at Ephraim University on Mocktropica Island. These days, Slanted Fish works as the editor-in-chief of a Poptropica publication known as the Poptropica Help Blog. She is often traveling around various Poptropica islands to promote the PHB, but also travels to relax and catch up with Poptropicans all over the community.

Spotted Dragon

Born on Monster Carnival Island, Spotted Dragon grew up in an apartment off main street with a distant view of the carnival. Not being much of an extrovert, SD admired the carnival from afar and often just stayed within the comfort of her own home, occasionally visiting the Lazy Sundae Ice Cream shop for a sweet treat. She did small jobs for the local newspaper to earn money and gradually found an interest in photography. Sadly, she had lots of insecurities, especially about her hair that seemed to constantly change shades of brown.

As an only child, SD grew bored of her aging parents’ simple lifestyle and as an adolescent decided to leave home in search of her passion. Inheriting her grandmother’s blimp, she started to fly around Poptropica as a loner, eventually learning how to maintain a constant set of odd photography jobs. Today, Spotted Dragon resides on Home Island, in a house she bought herself. After really finding her personality, she managed to become widely known throughout Poptropica for her tendencies to help everyone she meets, snapping pictures along the way.

She briefly attended Ephraim University, expanding her knowledge on subjects like journalism and discovering her non-traditional name translation of Sydney Doragon, but soon dropped out for financial reasons. Thankfully, she met Slanted Fish and much later earned herself a job working for the Poptropica Help Blog as an author and photographer. SD continues to travel for her work and personal adventurers and has acquired lots of confidence in herself. She shows a great interest in the arts, casual soccer, pride advocacy, and of course her trusty hoodie. She is asexual and panromantic, has a varying INTJ-T and INFJ-T personality, funny in the stupidest of ways, became best friends with Silver Wolf, and loves music.

Slippery Raptor

Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale if somebody told you I was just your average ordinary guy, not a care in the world… somebody lied. But let me assure you — this, like any story worth telling, is all about a Poptropican….

I grew up in River City, one of Shrink Ray Island’s cities. I attended River City High, where I was one of the kids on the honor roll. CJ was one of my study buddies back then, and I actually helped her with her shrink ray project. Sadly, I never got to attend the science fair because there was an interstate debate that I had to compete in.

My family later moved to Red Dragon Island, and that’s where I met Jack and Annie, who were my neighbors next door. They showed me the joy of reading books! I instantly fell in love with books, and sometimes you can find me hanging out in the Frog Creek Library past dusk.

Later, I moved to Mocktropica Island to attend the ever-prestigious Ephraim University. The university life was bizarre for me, and I met Slanted Fish, then a college senior who also attended my journalism classes. Upon reading one of my essays, she invited me to take part in the journalism club, which then grew into the renowned Poptropica publication, the Poptropica Help Blog.

Today, I continue to quench my thirst for learning, travel to many Poptropica islands, write poetry, and watch world-famous musicals on Back Lot Island.

Lucky Joker

Lucky Joker was born on Back Lot Island and lived on the overlooking hills of the island for most of his life. He’s an only child and often did things on his own since he didn’t have many friends to play with. He found various ways to entertain himself like coloring and solving puzzles, but what he likes to do most (and still does today) was learning.

Lucky gained an interest for Greek Mythology, in particular, and in the pursuit of his own happiness, packed up his bags and moved to Mythology Island. Currently, he studies Greek history, art, literature, and mythology, while still having the time to enjoy the peaceful environment his new home offers him. He also writes on the widely-known Poptropica Help Blog to practice his writing – another favorite pastime of his.

Happy Lobster

Happy Lobster was born and grew up in Ghost Story Island. There weren’t many children who lived on the island, but he made friends with a boy who held a perhaps unhealthy interest in tinfoil hats, and another boy with a red bolt across his face who had come from Astro-Knights Island with his parents. But Happy Lobster was intrigued by all the Poptropicans who came by on yellow blimp to try and solve some enigmatic problem the island harbored.

When he reached 18, he visited the Trading Post at Wild West Island, where he discovered an old yellow blimp – just like the ones he had seen arrive multiple times on his home island! He received it in turn for giving up one of his modern ghost comics, which the owner was more than happy to read about, seeing as he was from a totally different time. At once, with his new blimp, Happy Lobster decided to roam around the world of Poptropica, and stop off at islands where there were unusual rumors, such as dangerous forest creatures and vampires kidnapping seemingly random girls – who knew Poptropica was such a mess nearly everywhere these days?

Happy Lobster eventually came to Monster Carnival Island, where he prevented the sinister aims of the mysterious Ringmaster Raven. After Raven decided to become The Incredible Chicken Man with a lot less villain aspirations, Happy Lobster moved from Ghost Story to Monster Carnival Island, where he had made friends with (nearly) all the carnies from The Monster Carnival – and hey, the Lazy Sundae Ice Cream Shop was pretty sweet, too!

Soon afterwards, Happy Lobster attended Ephraim University, and met Slanted Fish, Spotted Dragon, Slippery Raptor and Purple Claw… the last of which looked very similar to one of his childhood friends. Towards the end of his time at the university, Slanted Fish decided to make a blog about all the wonders of Poptropica – and invited some of her university friends, including Happy Lobster, to join her in writing it!

Silver Wolf

Silver Wolf was born on Mystery Train Island and lived there until she saved the Chicago World Fair from peril in 1893. At the time, she was defined by her iconic purple hair and inspector-like clothing. The event sparked a desire in her to solve more mysteries, so she traveled all across Poptropica to help others, gaining small amounts of money along the way. Once she saved enough, she bought her own private island to live with her many pets: cats, dogs, parrots, hamsters, you name it!

She settled down on her island until the 21st century, when she decided she wanted to do more with her (very long) life. That’s when she started to blog about the world. She also changed her 19th-century outfit to a more modern one, including a joystick t-shirt and headphones.

Since she hasn’t seemed to age, no one knows when exactly when she is going to fulfill her dreams of being a veterinarian, as she seems content as she is. However, what is known about her is that she mainly keeps to herself, enjoys reading fantasy and adventure books, and plays a multitude of video games; it seems as if she keeps interests of the old and modern.

Purple Claw

Purple Claw was born in the great land of Arturus of Astro-Knights Island, and lived there with his mother until he became seven. They moved to Ghost Story Island after PC’s 7th birthday to take care of his grandparents. Over there, he only had two friends, one of them being Happy Lobster.

When Purple Claw turned 18, he got an email from the PND (The Poptropica Nature Defenders) to go on a trip to Nabooti Island to find the missing jewels. PC was absolutely stunned by their proposal, and joined the adventure. Besides the jewels, Nabooti Island had so many beautiful places to visit, that he even made a blog post about his adventure! And ’til this day, he still documents all of Poptropica’s wonders whenever he goes on adventures on his blog!

A year later, Purple Claw attended Ephraim University, and met Slanted Fish, Slippery Raptor, Happy Lobster and Spotted Dragon. The best part was that he met one of his childhood friends there, him being Happy Lobster! He also became an author on a Poptropica publication: the Poptropica Help Blog, run by those friends, a couple of months later.

During his free time, PC likes reading, drawing, writing, playing video games, or taking long walks with his owl, Silver Acorn. Or, if he’s not doing any of this stuff, he’s probably sleeping. 😛

Thanks for reading our Popsona stories!

Now tell us, what’s your Poptropican’s Popsona like? Feel free to share down in the comments, or post on social media with the hashtag #MyPopsona so even the Creators can see it and possibly re-post it! We’d love to hear your story!

– the PHB team –

Join our Poptropica Pride Party!

June 24, 2017June 29, 2017 Slanted Fish

pop pride party

Hey Pridetropicans!

Perhaps you’ve heard that June is Pride Month, a celebration of the world’s LGBT population. In many places IRL, pride parades are taking place, and here at the PHB, we thought we’d bring the high spirits to Poptropica as well. So, we’re throwing a Poptropica Pride Party, and you’re invited!

🤓️ WHO: Everyone – you don’t have to identify as LGBT! PHB staff will be there too!
🎉 WHAT: Multiverse parties on Poptropica and lively chat on the PHC. Though there’s an emphasis on LGBT pride, the conversation can wander. Like a real-life pride parade, we recommend you dress your character up in rainbow colors and outlandish fun gear!
🕒 WHEN: June 29, 2017 (Thursday) @ 3 p.m. Eastern / 2 p.m. Central / 1 p.m. Mountain / 12 p.m. Pacific (If you do not live in any of these time zones, use a time converter to find out what time it will be in your area! In some places, it may be Friday morning.) As with all PHB parties, feel free to pop in and out whenever. Parties tend to go on for a few hours, so it’s okay to be “fashionably late”!
🎈 WHERE: The Poptropica Help Chat hangout, a Discord chat server better known as the PHC – link is discord.me/thePHC. The chat is moderated and safe for kids.
🏳️‍🌈 WHY: To promote human dignity – more on that below.

LGBT stands for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, and because such identities are not always accepted in society, LGBTs often face struggles such as discrimination. Fortunately, the Poptropica community is generally kind to those who identify as LGBT.

We also recognize that the topics involved are controversial and multifaceted. It is not our purpose in organizing this event to push any agenda, save for one which we hope all can agree with: that every human being, regardless of any area of their identity, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

If you agree, we hope to see you at Poptropica’s first ever Pride Party! 🏳️‍🌈

– the PHB

Web Development

Write for the PHB or Become a VIP!

June 23, 2017June 23, 2017 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

Have you ever thought about writing for the PHB, the biggest Poptropica fansite? Well guess what: you can! Many have done it, and we’re always looking for more voices from this community to showcase the diversity of thoughtful Pop players out there – like YOU!

Under our About tab, you’ll find a new page titled Write for the PHB. From guest posting to aspiring to join our staff team, right on this new guide, we’ll go over how you can get involved in producing content for the biggest Poptropica fansite there is. You have things to say, and we have readers who will hear you out. So learn how you can write for us!

In other blogging developments, we recently contacted Skinny Moon to ask about the recent VIP program, which the PHB team was invited to join, making the PHB one of Poptropica’s official fansites. There hasn’t been a lot of detail to the whole program yet, so we reached out for some comments and here’s what she had to say:

vip

So, while being VIP is currently just a title with nice graphics to display, it will expand in the future to include some interesting possibilities, such as VIP sites being linked from the official Poptropica website and maybe even an in-game costume.

Also, if you are a fan who actively blogs or posts about Pop on social media, you should contact Skinny Moon on social media about becoming a VIP! For a list of current VIPs, check out our Poptropica Fandom Community Directory.

Don’t forget to check out our other posts for what’s been going on lately! In particular, we recently wrote some in-depth reviews on various topics, which we hope you’ll check out – plus, we’d love to hear what you think down in the comments:

Book Review: Poptropica’s “The Secret Society” (see author Mitch Krpata’s response in the comments section!)
PHB Review: Crisis Caverns Island
PHB Review: Poptropica Worlds vs Original (see the Poptropica Creators’ response in the comments section!)

Keep on popping on, Poptropicans!

– slantedfish 🐠

Reviews

Book Review: Poptropica’s “The Secret Society”

June 21, 2017June 21, 2017 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans – get ready for some secrets to be spilled to society!

In this post, the PHB takes on the latest Poptropica graphic novel release, The Secret Society, which came out this April. You can get this book – the third in the series – on Amazon and some bookstores. This review will discuss the storyline, presentation, characters, and more – so be prepared for some (but not all) spoilers if you read on.

If you aren’t quite caught up with the plot, be sure to check out Mystery of the Map (the first in the series) both as an island you can play on Poptropica right now or read in graphic novel format (either on our Comics page or in the print version as a book). Following that is The Lost Expedition (the second book), for which we recently published a review here (and of course, you should check out the book as well).

And now, let’s get into the review!

Storyline

The story picks up where The Lost Expedition left off, with the kids trapped on board the mysterious Secret Society’s hovercraft. They finally reach their destination, the headquarters of the Secret Society, where they meet the leader Spencer Albright, who explains just enough of what’s going on for the kids to catch up. Here’s where we get the interesting knowledge of how exactly the Poptropica timeline works. Ready?

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As Spencer Albright explains, Poptropica is a unique holding place for islands throughout the timeline of history to just chill, but interfering with their events could have major consequences, which is why the Protectors are there to stop such meddling. As we know from the previous books, Octavian has a time device and is doing some unlawful meddling – and it’s starting to have some negative side effects on history.

So, as Albright and the Protectors scramble to undo the damage – which isn’t going very well – the kids take it upon themselves to help. As worse comes to worse, tensions rise, and each character finds themselves struggling to work together, with personal reasons getting in the way.

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Eventually, we get to face Octavian up close, who is seen ferrying the people he cares about, including a lover – the ones he is willing to destroy history to save. And with some explosive encounters, the kids – in particular, Oliver – finally figures out what he must do to put a stop to Octavian’s out-of-control attempts at control. But even still, they’re not out in the clear just yet… and that’s where we wait for book 4 to wrap up the tale.

Presentation

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As with the other books, illustrator Kory Merritt brings a very distinct style to the pages, characterized by thin lines, gradient coloring, and comical details.

Although the art style is different from what we see in the Poptropica game, it fits into the comics. Often, facial expressions are exaggerated, sometimes to a point where they look a little odd, but that’s the way it goes. Personally, I find the textures and simple lines to be a bit hit-or-miss: while they can work quite well in some scenes (such as the depictions of the Aegis and volcanic lava), at other times they feel incomplete, with shapes merely given a little color.

Something that the illustrations do well in are the sweeping larger-scale panels, which depict whole scenes but also include little details, such as in the spread above of the hovercraft and its whimsical path and frightened seabirds. We also get to visit a couple of exciting places from history: ancient Egypt and Mount Vesuvius.

In addition, this book’s illustrations has some interesting little details embedded within! For example, there is a reference to the meme of Joseph Ducruex (Archaic Rap) hanging on one of Albright’s walls. Later, you can also catch Jorge reading a magazine with Dr. Hare’s portrait on it. What other tidbits did you catch?

Even the inside covers are cleverly done with maps, like the previous two books. This one is especially interesting, because unlike the other two books, they start and end with the same magical map – except with changes reflecting the beginning and end! In both, you can see that we’ve started and ended similarly – flying just above a certain island in the hovercraft.

Characters & Conflicts

In our review of book 2, The Lost Expedition, author Mitch Krpata left a comment about one of the main characters in book 3: “The Secret Society focuses a little more on Oliver, and his conflict about what leadership to follow.”

And indeed, Oliver is often faced with challenges with others. But he’s very determined about his convictions, even in the face of disagreements. There are a few times in the story when he’s conflicted with his sister Mya about the right thing to do. But the bigger question for him is, are his decisions any better than the villainous Octavian’s?

Mya, for her part, is unafraid of diving headfirst into places where she sees a possibility of saving people, sometimes ignoring the dangers that come with those options. Oliver adamantly opposes, but as things heat up (quite literally), he begins to realize that interference can be in his hands (again, quite literally).

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Meanwhile, Jorge continues to be the self-concerned comic relief of the series, his mind often thinking more of food than the mission at hand. Still, as he continues to see his friends so invested in the issues surrounding them, he starts to care a little more as the story progresses. Perhaps we’ll see even more development from Jorge in the final book.

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Early in this installment, we’re introduced to a new character, Spencer Albright, the leader of the Secret Society. Despite kidnapping our favorite trio, the Secret Society of Protectors turn out to be the good guys – at least as far as we can tell. As Spencer explains, their goal is to prevent people from meddling with history, protecting the strange timeline of islands of various time periods that randomly stop by in the realm of Poptropica. Nobody is allowed to intervene with the course of history.

The Secret Society headquarters houses an impressive collection of ancient artifacts from history, some of which later get erased. As dangers rise, Spencer – who we learn is descended from Egyptian nobility – finds his very existence a point of conflict as well.

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We also meet Jonas, Spencer’s trusty right-hand man. He seems at first to be an easy-going fellow, happy to play his part in helping the Secret Society. However, as worse comes to worse, things get very personal for the protégé – and his actions become fraught with emotion, making his character’s development also an interesting one.

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Finally, of course, there is Octavian, who brought the kids into this mess back in book 1. And now we see the reason he’s causing all this madness in the first place: he has a lover, and he’ll stop at nothing to get her back. We don’t know their story just yet, but we do know Octavian won’t stop bending history until they’re reunited.

mylove

Octavian also seems to have some history with Spencer Albright, and it’s clear the two don’t agree on the right approach for handling the power they have for controlling the timeline of history. So far, things have only turned into a real hot mess, leaving us to wonder how things will play out in the end.

18378831_1407685325955771_1359671511_o — Consumed by his intentions, Octavian forgets he erases others’ good in history for the sake of his own desires.

Closing Thoughts: 4.5/5

On the whole, The Secret Society is an excellent continuation of the trio’s adventures from the earlier Poptropica graphic novels. While we had some questions answered, such as what exactly Octavian and the Secret Society was up to, we were opened up to new questions, like how Octavian and Spencer came to such drastically different views for operating the timeline. Because of the deeper insights into how Poptropica islands worked, I thought that this book contained more meat than the others so far.

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I also was intrigued by the whole history-alteration plot, and the book raised interesting questions about how we might act towards things we could control, as well as things we couldn’t control. It brings up conflicts about systems put in place for protection, and about following our own gut versus listening to others. Though the story is fiction, it depicts a reality in our own world: we don’t get to choose the way everything is, but we do get to decide how we respond. And how we respond, of course, has ripples.

Oliver asks the very thought-provoking question, “Do we stop every bad thing that’s ever happened? Why do we get to decide?” Unless we have a time device like these characters do – and even for them, it is limited – we don’t get to undo everything we don’t like. We see these characters realizing that some things are within their control while recognizing that other things are not. And that’s something every one of us has to deal with, too.

The story contains both comedic moments and serious ones, and overall, it’s a fun book for any Poptropica fan. It’ll leave you hanging on for what comes next as we await the final book, The End of Time, coming out this fall of 2017…

Have you read The Secret Society yet? What do you think of the story, particularly with regard to what it says about the structure of the Poptropica universe? And would you change the course of history for any ulterior motive?

Share your thoughts, concerns, and criticisms in the comments below!

Keep popping,
–slantedfish 🐠

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Cassandra

June 10, 2017June 6, 2017 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Cassandra, who enjoys making fanart for her fandoms, including Poptropica. See below for how to send in your own MPIP!

2007 | Starting Out

I was in third or fourth grade when Poptropica came out in 2007. I was on the computer, supposed to be playing some math game on FunBrain, but instead I found Poptropica. As you can guess, I created my avatar, beat islands… and then, I found out about glitching.

I wasn’t a glitcher or anything, but I was a kid who didn’t realize there was hacking of accounts going on. When I did realize, I stopped. Soon after, I found the PHB – yes, I was reading the blog even then. That brings us to my middle school years…

2011–2012 | Middle School

Middle school began with me as my normal fifth-grade self, with a huge grin on my face because I was now in middle school. Well, I took a long leave of absence from playing Poptropica, but I still read the PHB.

At that time, I started liking the Percy Jackson books. Also, I started making art. I didn’t really create Poptropica fan art, but I learned about the Poptropica art style from the Percy Jackson fandom. I still liked Poptropica, but not enough to create fan art for it.

Then came high school…

2013–2016 | High School, part one

In the first two years of high school, I didn’t have many interests, not even Poptropica. I don’t remember much about how much I was involved with the Poptropica fandom.

However, in 2016, I started getting back into Poptropica – and this is where the interesting stuff happens! I saw that Poptropica Worlds was introduced, and to me, it was a new beginning. So, that’s why I wanted to wait until Pop Worlds came out to do my own MPIP story on the PHB.

I also wanted to build my art portfolio on DeviantArt. After a few months of thinking about it, I thought, well, why not just do it? So, at nearly 11 p.m. on a Sunday night, I decided to do it. And, that brings us into June 2017…

2017 & beyond | Decisions, Decisions…

First, now, I’m getting back into Poptropica. I was waiting until Pop Worlds came out before I actually started playing again. I wanted to see what it would be like, and I do have some theories and questions.

I also am doing Percy Jackson stuff, but that’s for a different place than the PHB. I still think Poptropica is awesome. Pop Worlds is out, so I’m slowly starting to play Poptropica more. I really liked Pop Worlds (customization is awesome!) but I wish they had more islands to play and stuff to do other than just admire Home Island. I really like the running animation. I hope to draw more fan art and do cool things in this fandom.

In the future, I’d like to be an active fanartist and fanfic writer, and also have a DeviantArt page set up so I can post my original art as well as fanart. I hope to be a professional artist one day, and even still, continue to make fanart for both Percy Jackson and Poptropica.

~Cassandra

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

If you haven’t already, we invite you to send in your own (please include a minimum of 550 words, type with good spelling and grammar, divide it into labeled sections, and include your username). If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

~the Poptropica Help Blog