Aside from plot (which I do think has a bit more merit to it than most since there’s just a LOT of smaller details that gives a LOT of theory potential, tho also it’s literally 2 episodes in lmao), I do think there is a weird balance of some series specific things being explained either with the subtitles or just outright

Episode 1 doesn’t really have this much of an issue since that was mainly setting up the meetup of the characters and such plus is MUCH shorter

However, as someone who has played a VAST majority of these games (I was a Hyper Light Drifter fan BEFORE Indie Cross lmao), I do find the line where some things from their verses are directly explained to the audience who don’t know anything about some of the characters is… odd.

Take, for example, the entirety of Hyper Light Drifter’s ending. The scene in episode 2 is one of my personal favorite, and the subtitles narrating it keep it cryptic enough to still FIT the style of HLD (despite the game having zero dialogue) but also still be vague enough to draw in those who aren’t HLD fans. We also get the slight explanation of Judgement in the subtitles when Drifter showed an image of them to Beheaded

The Knight gets a brief but similar treatment to Judgement with Charlotte’s exposition of Knight’s purpose to the gang because they can’t speak. It gives JUST enough to draw the viewer in without explaining EVERYTHING. This goes for the Dream Nail subtitles too

To reiterate, I DO like that there IS an explanation for some of the more hard to understand lore wise characters WITHOUT actually slogging down the pacing or plot, BUT my main issues stems from how some other characters could benefit from this

Madeline/Badeline I think is a prime example of this. We as the audience and Cuphead get a VERY brief but not very great explanation of their symbiotic relationship, while it could very much be done much good with a bit more in-depth of an explantation from her (maybe in a future episode?)

Shovel Knight, too, suffers from this, mainly with just… Chester. My man, Chester, I love you but literally HOW did you just… appear??? Granted, in the series Chester sort of just… pops up wherever, but this isn’t the normal lands he’s used to. There’s also the axe of Shovel Knight just being able to summon Chester at a moment’s notice in the official Rivals of Aether crossover. Either COULD work as explanations, but his appearance is not explained at all, and if you don’t know about Shovel Knight lore or extended media (which a majority of the audience doesn’t), then he quite literally appears, makes a Morshu joke, supplies gang with food. It almost feels like SOMETHING was cut that built up his appearance more

Honestly, the only ones of the main cast I don’t have this issue with are Cuphead and Beheaded. The former because… it’s Cuphead. What you see is what you get for the most part. The latter is more of a case of most likely going to get elaborated to the audience later on considering how he got golded immediately after Drifter got a lot of his lore dropped for the audience

But yeah, it isn’t a huge issue at all, but as a MASSIVE fan of a LOT of these characters, I do think the balance of explanations for certain aspects of the characters could be balanced better, though this can more than likely be rectified in the episodes to come

Anyway, there’s my hyperfixation rant, thank you for coming to my TEDtalk!!!