User blog:CindyLou95/What R. L. Stine should have done with some of his sequels

Hey guys. Now I have read some of R. L. Stine sequels and I must say that some of them didn't go so well. Now before I go any further, I just want to assure you all that I am not trying to mean or critical to R. L. Stine or anything like that. I'm just saying what is on my mind. Now recently, I did some brainstorming on what R. L. Stine could have done with some of his sequels, which I think is a real shame that he never thought about those. I haven't been able to do all of the sequels, so this is as best as I can go there. I would also like to let you all know that these are my personal opinions and there are also spoilers. So anyway, here is what I think R. L. Stine could have done with some his sequels.

Say Cheese - And Die Screaming!

Of all the books in Goosebumps HorrorLand, this one was the most train wreck for me. It wasn't the Evil Camera that was the problem - it was the way the story went. It had the same problems as Return to Ghost Camp, having nothing to do with the original story of Say Cheese and Die, a different setting that we don't know how the Evil Camera got to and characters that we have been unfamiliar with. And one of the characters, Julie Martin's best friend Reena Jacobs, completely ruined the story for me by blaming Julie for her bad eyes and accusing her of making things only about her and then breaking their friendship by telling her to get lost. If I was her, I would have blamed the girl that gave the camera to Julie when she knew it was dangerous. Also, how did the girl and her mother get a hold of the Evil Camera? That is something that we will never get to find out, not to mention that we will never find out how the Evil Camera got to Twin Forks in the first place. Also, despite Julie being one of the Very Special Guests, the camera never really did anything in the Panic Park arc, mainly because it was an inanimate object and it couldn't move. Adding to that, Greg Banks didn't appear in the story, although there may have been some flaws with that. I mean, Greg probably would have been to wise to use the Evil Camera ever again, remembering his experiences with it. But anyway, this sequel certainly didn't go very well - in my opinion anyway.

I think what R. L. Stine should have done, was have the Evil Camera removed from the Panic Park arc and replace it with another villain, like the Body Squeezers. I mean Jack Archer managed to defeat Mr. Fleshman and was a fine hero to that day and there were still more Body Squeezers. Maybe R. L. Stine could have made Say Cheese - And Die Screaming part of the Chiller House arc. And Jonathan Chiller could have had the Evil Camera in his shop, indicating that he went to Pitts Landing in his travels and discovered the camera in the Coffman House. And Julie would have come to his shop and bought the camera from him. And do you guys remember that Greg was said to have cousins in Say Cheese and Die - Again? Well R. L. Stine could have made Julie one of Greg's cousins and Julie would have gone to Pitts Landing to give Greg a visit. And Greg could have shown Julie everywhere in Pitts Landing, including the spot where the Coffman House stood, which would prompt Greg to tell Julie about Spidey and the Evil Camera. Julie would find Greg crazy, but then she would discover that the camera she bought from Chiller House is the one that Greg was talking about when she takes pictures, which would lead to trouble.

Wanted: The Haunted Mask

I've read this and it wasn't bad, but I wouldn't say it was great either. Once again, it wasn't the Haunted Mask that was the problem, it was the way the story went. There were some extremely severe plot holes in this story, like the flashback story of William and his brother Randolph. The Haunted Mask was a failed experiment created by The Shopkeeper, so how did The Shopkeeper come into this story? And the Haunted Mask acted like it had been in Polly Martin's attic ever since it ended William's life, which is another plot hole because Carly Beth Caldwell had encounters with it way before this book came into existence. And the setting with Lu-Ann Franklin's story was a plot hole as well. It was in Dayton Ohio, whereas Carly Beth lived in a different state. And since it was set forty years after William's death, if my calculations are correct, the story was set in the 2000's. Yes, these plot holes made the story of the Haunted Mask very confusing. And in spite of the title, I kind of forgot about the Haunted Mask in Devin O'Bannon's story at the end.

I think what R. L. Stine should have done there was start the story with Carly Beth and Sabrina bury the Haunted Mask deep into the ground in the prologue, so it could do no more harm. And then he could have made the story go to Carly Beth's brother, Noah, being the main protagonist, having a lot of Lu-Ann's role, being forced to put up with going to a babyish Halloween party hosted by a girl his age and then ruining the party by wearing the Haunted Mask and doing what Lu-Ann did in the actual story. The difference would be that Noah would have been walking along trying to think of his costume when he would notice the earth that his sister had buried the Haunted Mask in and get curious about it and dig it out. And Carly Beth and Sabrina would discover that Noah had dug up the Haunted Mask and go to find him to release him from it. Yes, Noah would have been a better candidate for being a protagonist of this story. Not only that, but it would have also been an interesting change of pace to have an eight-year-old child more flashed out and being the main character in a Goosebumps story.

Planet of the Lawn Gnomes

It was great to see some old favourites return, but unfortunately the Lawn Gnomes' appearance in Goosebumps Most Wanted kind of went with a whimper to me. It was said to be a sequel to Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, but in spite of that, it had nothing to do with the original story. Adding to that, they weren't even the same Lawn Gnomes from said story, just different characters somehow. And the Lawn Gnomes weren't even antagonists in this story, just more of a plot device. The story is mostly focused on Jay Gardener, a humanoid creation by the Lawn Gnomes themselves to do work for them in the day, getting his true memory fixed from a malfunction, with some foreshadows shown at some points. And rather than being antagonistic to Jay, the Lawn Gnomes help him get his memory back by throwing him in a quicksand pit. And it was a happy ending for everyone, although the dog, Mr. Phineas tells Jay that they should go back to Earth, which Jay thought it didn't exist and Mr. Phineas asked Jay if he would rather listen to the planet's inhabitants or his dog, which ended the story.

I think what R. L. Stine should have done there was rather than make that a sequel to Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, he could have made it a sequel to Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns and called it Planet of the Jack-O'-Lanterns. I know that the Pumpkin Heads were only in my honourable mentions list for the Top 10 Monsters that should have appeared in Goosebumps Most Wanted list that I made, but we also learned that they eat humans. With this he could have made some more humans disappear and have Drew Brockman and Walker Parkes beg Shane and Shana to have them freed. Shane and Shana would tell Drew and Walker that it won't be easy as their race can never have any prey freed. So Drew would suggest a rescue mission. to which the twins would warn her that they could get in serious trouble for it. Nevertheless, they would go to the Pumpkin Heads' planet to rescue the missing humans, possibly encountering some obstacles and other creatures on the way. Now that would have been interesting because we would have been able to explore Shane and Shana's home planet and have the Pumpkin Heads flashed out some more. And R. L. Stine could have made the Lawn Gnomes appear in Goosebumps Most Wanted in some other way. Either that, or the Lawn Gnomes could fit in better in Goosebumps SlappyWorld.

And so, these are what I think R. L. Stine could have done with these books. As I said, I am not trying to criticise him, I'm just saying what was on my mind. And these are my personal opinions. Do you guys agree with any of this? If you do or you don't please let me know in the comments below.