Been a while since one of these, eh? Well, I actually have a re-write idea included in my recent review of Revenge R Us ( https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2019/07/19/goosebumps-series-2000-revenge-r-us/ ) so you did get one.
I'm generally not sure on keeping these up but with this one I figured why not because this is a tad different. There's a thread that was made recently discussing headcanons and this is actually something I wanted to share there but I feel like it's something I could discuss here.
Anyway, the book doesn't really explain about where the creeps come from, nor do we know why the commander never showed up. I mean, the bullies/creeps have been there about long enough that it raises questions.
So here's my idea to explain that, which will also go into things that enhance the "themes" of the story. Hence why it can be part of my re-write series, although I'm not quite sure how you could explain it in the story itself. Feels like something a sequel could explain. This is the only book that really warrants a sequel anyway, with how it ends.
Anyway, the real Creep Commander hasn't shown up yet because ...they never intended to at all. See, on the creeps planet, those bullies we know are basically the Ricky's of their society, always being picked up and not being taken seriously. The commander is always giving them silly tasks that don't really help since they just want them off their back.
So one day they sent them to Earth, telling them that the Commander will show up and contact them for further instructions, when really this is their way of just getting rid of them, not really caring what they do since they consider Earth so low on the chain that to them it doesn't matter what happens to humans.
Soon after landing on Earth, they peeked around the school to see what kind of humans they wanted to be and they picked bullies so they could have a taste of what it's like to be the ones picking on others, with Ricky being their main target which to them was embarrassing when it seemingly turned out Ricky was their commander in disguise.
In addition, Ricky wasn't too much of an outcast being they showed up, or when he signed up for the newspaper but between Tasha looking down on him and the bullies, that turned around. He was mostly just ignored at worst but once the bullies picked him, the other kids either followed suit or did nothing due to mob mentality and all that.
This would somewhat explain why no one else picked on him on that one day, although I feel at least one kid would have gotten into it without the bullies but whatever. So yeah, a lot of Ricky's revenge stuff happens because of picked on people who became bullies, that happen to be alien lizards.
And in the end, he becomes the bully as well when he decides to give everyone the cookies. As I said, all this really pushes the "themes" going on here and makes the ending especially strong and strangely tragic as well as satisfying.
Perhaps one way to convey this in the text is have a part where the creeps thank Commander Ricky for giving them a chance for and have them say things that make Ricky realize they are indeed the Ricky of their planet and he starts to take pity on them somewhat, making him unsure if he should try to stop them.
He still does try to stop them because he thinks this is no reason to, you know, enslave humanity. But of course in the end, all that mocking from Tasha and the others sends him over the edge, as well as the whole slave thing.
Side note, I feel like at some point they figured that Ricky wasn't their commander but decided not to do anything since they have him helping them anyway. I mean, why would they need to remind him that the humans will be their slaves if their Commander should already know this? Ricky flat out telling people not the eat the cookies should been a bit of a tip off too.
Either way, just some ideas to fix up the logic issues with alien lizards in a kids book. Eh, this has more interesting themes than usual for the series and these would add to it rather than just fix nitpicks.
This is one entry I think about a lot so that's how this came about. Hopefully ya'll found this interesting and hopefully this was interesting enough.
I will be including re-writes/improvements when I review certain books in the future so there will be some there. Otherwise, not when I'll do more like this, since I'm more focused on other things that are more useful but we'll see.
Either way, goodbye.