In hindsight, I think now the main reason why I thought the costumes were a stupid idea is because they robbed us of what could have been new characters for new stories.
One example, Friar Tuck’s costume turns him into a Victorian age nature explorer and collector.
Since season 4 obviously takes place in the Victorian age, for some unknown and possibly dumb reason, then Tuck’s costumed version could easily have been one of the new characters.
Another example, two classic fire heroes, who reflect Zulu culture, have costumes that turn them into Mesoamericans.
I think that represents a wasted opportunity to have a new land discover across the sea, just as Atlantis was in season 2, and that will drop our heroes off on a land run by mesoamericans.
I know that it is way too late now, but if I could, I would advocate that the costumes be deleted, and instead be turned into new characters, and the classic heroes be adopted by certain existing families or if no family exists a new family be created.
The classic heroes have at least one pirate among them, Mariana, who should belong to the pirate family.
On that note, one of the members of the pirate family the monster with the trident, should be among one of the Atlantis families instead, and Misandra also be adopted by the pirates.
How about a new event that explains the background of the costumes, maybe combined with heroes from other events. In this event you win costume keys or even costumes.
Costumes need to be vastly different from their originals. Round 1 costumes are the most pointless costumes because they’re technically buffs locked behind a paywall. even a change of colour would make a difference, for example a red Wu Kong. That would fulfil the role of red having titan killers
In some cases, the costume makes the character guilty of so-called, “cultural appropriation”.
But I don’t raise a fuss over such trivial nonsense. Instead I see an example of, “what could have been.”
A number of the plant heroes look like they belong to Robin Hood’s gang. All that is missing is Robin Hood himself.
That right there could be a new quest; a Robin Hood quest that turns the Merry Men gang into, well a family. You could turn maiden Marion into a secondary healer, in addition to Friar Tuck.
Certain ice heroes have a steampunk look to them, meaning that they should have been in season 4. I admit this despite absolutely abhoring steampunk.
There need to be new troop variations added. Like why can’t we have oni warriors? You know the bad guys who worked for the Japanese family on the Atlantean Islands? And were scouting out season 1’s land?
Empire family?