YMMV / Pico

• Adaptation Displacement: Piconjo's most well-known design (with a purple and black color scheme) is actually from Newgrounds Rumble and was drawn and written by MindChamber. Many people were introduced to Piconjo through Newgrounds Rumble and were unaware of Piconjo's existence prior or his history of being a Trolling Creator. This led to Piconjo's disownment of MindChamber's design of him when he returned to Newgrounds, calling this depiction closer to an original character with his name than his initial self and mocking it with a Virgin vs. Chad-style comparison.^note Though Piconjo has also said any depiction of Piconjo that was embraced by his fans is a valid one.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: The characters themselves are examples of the Interpretative Character trope. Tom Fulp provides their basic foundations while still giving options to the audience/players on how they are as characters. A lot of their backstories/upbringing, moral standards, and motives vary from headcanon to headcanon.
  • It varies from playthrough to playthrough on what Pico's morals are. Most of the kills are optional. Some players opted for an all-kill play while others shoot only the shooters and spare Nene (an anxious suicidal girl) and the crapper in the stall. With that being said, Pico can range from mostly pacifistic, to generally nice to those who mean no harm, and to outright excessively violent even to non-attackers.
  • The friendship between Pico, Darnell, and Nene. It varies from creator-to-creator and animation-to-animation. They're often friends that get along, sometimes enemies that even physically fight each other, and other times have romance (often between Pico & Nene or Darnell & Nene, and in a few cases Pico & Darnell).
  • Some people in the fandom portray Nene as varying degrees of homophobic, thanks to her rather infamous portrayal in Friday Night Funkin' HD, in spite of Tom Fulp confirming this isn't the case for her character.
  • As of user Piconjo's return to Newgrounds, his character (also named Piconjo) has been subject to a great variety of interpretations. Before his creator left the site, Piconjo was often depicted as a villainous figure seeking to cause mayhem and chaos in Newgrounds, with only a few redeeming qualities such as his friendship with Fancy Pants in Newgrounds Rumble. After the return of user Piconjo and his generally friendly and encouraging posts since his return, there has been a change in interpretations of the character Piconjo, with him sometimes being depicted as a friendly (albeit still extremely bloodthirsty) rival or even friend to Pico.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Pico's School has the door locked. It wasn't unheard of until about midway through the 2000s for schools to literally lock exits so students can't possibly walk out.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Nene's appearance in Pico's School. Whether you shoot or spare her doesn't reflect on her future appearances, and there's no "Medal" relating to her, unlike other characters Pico can interact with.
  • Likewise, her appearance in other fan works replicate this. For example, in Pico's Time Tank, while Pico is in the middle of shooting a pack of werewolves, he stops to grab her, shares a Big Damn Kiss, tosses her away and continues fighting, with her being completely forgotten for the rest of the short.
• Common Knowledge:
  • Perhaps as a way of making the game seem even edgier than it already is, it is commonly claimed that Pico is a school shooter, with this claim especially increasing in frequency when a section of the Friday Night Funkin' fanbase started portraying Pico in an increasingly romanticized way, with the original Pico fanbase wanting to distance him from this portrayal. Except that his debut is all about him stopping the school shooters; he has the option to shoot innocent people in-game, but that option is fully up to the player, and the fact that one of his potential victims (Nene) shows up in later games indicates that he doesn't canonically kill the innocents.
  • Connected to the above, it's also often assumed (also often by newcomers) that Pico is either grumpy, anti-social, or just outright rude. He's best known for impulsive badassery and having a traumatic past, but he's also described by his classmates in-game as popular. He's also rather cheerfully attentive in class. His social life and general personality outside of fights get brought up a lot less often by fans: both new and old.
  • For a while, the cast was assumed to be 18-19 during the events of Pico's School due to Tom Fulp saying the game's setting was loosely based off his time in high school. But in later posts he specified he had no specific age in mind for the cast, and Word of Saint Paul from Mindchamber instead puts the cast at 13.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Gun violence, wrist-slitting, pyromania... in Real Life, all horrific problems. In the world of Pico, all kinds of insanity.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Thanks to Friday Night Funkin' giving Pico and Boyfriend a romantic "past" between them, it's become fanon that they used to be a couple in the main universe as well. This is flat out made canon in the Love Conquers All universe.
  • To a minor degree, fans of the game also have shipped Pico with Lila from Spooky Month.
  • Possibly as an answer to Pico/Boyfriend, some people depict either Nene or Cassandra having a similar history/past romance with Girlfriend.
  • Piconjo is sometimes shipped with Fancy Pants Man due to Piconjo being Fancy Pants' only ally in Newgrounds Rumble.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Likely due to their designs and unique boss fights, the Goth Punks get treated like this to an extent in the fandom. Even in spite of the fact that Cassandra didn't care about them in Pico's School and only used them as pawns for her goal, they're often depicted as friends (or even Love Interests) with her in fanart. Cassandra is also often paired up with Pico (due to Cyclops claiming that she has a crush on him), Darnell, or Nene, despite them being canonically enemies (with Pico) or never having even met each other (with Darnell and Nene). Then again, given how Love Conquers All revealed some of them having troubled pasts (Alucard) or difficult relationships with others (Cyclops and Hanzou), it at least gives a reason for their behavior, whereas Cassandra's plan was selfish, which she even points out herself in the same timeline. However, there are still a number of fans who don't condone the actions of the characters themselves and just simply like them while not downplaying their actions like in most cases of this trope.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: In fanworks, Pico is often depicted as suffering from PTSD following the events of Pico's School, sometimes extended to include his other troubling childhood misadventures. The only disorder he "canonically" has is schizophrenia, though even that is up in the air due to coming from a long-defunct site and Pico's own status as an Interpretative Character.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The female teacher from the intro to Pico's School has received a bit of popularity, mainly due to being the Token Wholesome and actually being nice to her students, with fans of her even calling her better than Mr. Flacit.
  • Convict from Pico vs. Convict (as well as a playable character in Newgrounds Rumble) also has a bit of a cult following, given how he's one of the only Pico antagonists to not be killed outright, and how he successfully tricked Pico into shooting Nene instead of him at the end of his debut flash. Some even think he's a better antagonist than Cassandra because of this.
• Escapist Character: Tom Fulp said in an interview that Pico was this to him; Tom Fulp himself was shy in his youth while Pico is popular among his classmates, cheerfully attentive in class, and gets to be the hero by kicking ass and, if you spare them, saves people along the way.
• Ethnic Scrappy: Many fans don't like Nene because of her slanted eyes and Asian Buck Teeth, as seen in Pico Roulette. Some fan flashes even change her design to make her look less stereotypical.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Do not claim that Pico originated in Friday Night Funkin'. And do not subscribe to the portrayal of Pico by a certain section of the FNF fanbase.
• Fandom Rivalry: With several fans from Friday Night Funkin' flocking in to the Pico series, there have been conflicts between certain groups of old and new fans ranging from Pico's fan depictions, different headcanons & opinions, all the way to whether FNF lore is canon to the main Pico series. Just mentioning whether Pico is bi, gay, or straight (or simply Ambiguously Bi) is enough to spark a debate on whether this is a case of good writing or doing another J.K. Rowling on an old character. Drawing Pico enjoying wearing a maid outfit, being a "softboi uwu character", or a ruthless murderer who isn't picky with his targets are also points of contention between different fandoms. The creators themselves don't mind it, however, as it means spurring fans in discussing Newgrounds again (that and them being the Trolling Creator kind). It helps that Pico is also an Interpretative Character. There are fans who prefer to just let everyone do their thing and mind their own business, though.
• Fanon: Given the Pico characters are all examples of the Interpretative Character trope, there are bound to be some shared ideas for them in the fandom.
  • Nene is often depicted as Pico's Love Interest. If Boyfriend is assumed to be Pico's ex in stories other than Friday Night Funkin', chances are that Nene's likely to be depicted as Pico's current date.
  • Some like to depict Pico having severe trauma because of the events of Pico's School.
  • While in they were mere pawns that Cassandra manipulated to kill others in their initial appearance, the Goth Punks are often depicted as friends with Cassandra in fanon. It may or may not lead to them getting the Draco in Leather Pants treatment when it comes to fanart or fanfiction about them.
  • Because of the Neo Goth Punks in Pico's Cousin 2 being the cousins of the Goth Punks from Pico's School, Damien from the former game is often depicted as Cassandra's cousin or even her brother. And while he has no "canon" Human Disguise, fanart usually depicts Damien's possible Human Disguise as similar to Cassandra, but with blue hair to contrast Cassandra's red hair.
  • Piconjo is often depicted as being Pico's rival, rather than his enemy. Some fanart tends to depict him, Pico, and Otis as a trio of sorts.
  • Darnell and Nene are shown in fanon to be just as capable in fighting as Pico. This seems to be the case for the recent teaser trailer for Friday Night Funkin', where they're shown to be capable of combat... except they're fighting against Pico.
  • While not very common, a few fans have agreed that Cassandra and Convict would be on friendly terms with each other if they were to ever meet, mainly thanks to the fact that they're both Pico's enemies.
  • Because of her starting the shooting due to a lesson from her teacher about apples and bananas, Cassandra hating apples has become a common running gag within the fandom.
  • Pico is often depicted as friends or even rivals with other Newgrounds icons/mascots, such as John Captain, Alien Hominid, Hank, and so on. One prominent headcanon is that he's related to either John or the site's portrayal of Tom Fulp in some way, usually by making them Pico's unseen father.
  • Samurai Asshole being Nene’s ancestor. While this isn’t common, it’s thought of mainly due to the fact that his game is connected to the Pico series thanks to the Penilians appearing near the end of it, along with Nene being of Asian descent, as well as both characters using blades.
  • The two additional Goth Punks seen at the end of Pico's School are a couple of Red Shirts, but fans typically give them names ("Spike" for the mohawk kid, "Pierre" for the Beatnik) and portray them as friends of the other Goth Punks.
  • Despite Otis not having a preferred weapon, some fans like to portray him with the mace Convict wielded as him in Pico Vs. Convict.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Pico and Cassandra, the protagonist and antagonist of Pico's School respectively, are often shipped together. It helps that Cassandra canonically had a crush on Pico during the events of Pico's School (or so Cyclops claims, at least) and it's implied that he survived her massacre of the rest of their class because she deliberately spared him.
  • Thanks to various interpretations of their friendship, some flash animations can depict Pico, Nene, and Darnell as antagonistic towards each other without stopping people from shipping some combination of the three.
  • Otis and Damien from the Pico's Cousin games are often paired up with each other in a similar vein to Pico and Cassandra, though unlike Cassandra, Damien in canon displayed no romantic interest in Otis whatsoever.
• Genius Bonus: When Pico calls Cyclops a poser, Cyclops retorts that Pico listens to techno. There was a sizable overlap in the early techno scene and the goth music scene, with many fans of one being fans of the other. This pays off decades later in the game Love Conquers All, where Pico shows he likes the same goth music that Cassandra calls "the best in all time and space" and the two bond over it.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The original opening to the Pico sub-site featured a plane crashing into a skyscraper. The modern Pico sub-site (Before it was redesigned) lampshaded that awkward imagery.
  • The franchise itself being born out of Columbine. Back when school shootings were a rare event, the concept of one kid grabbing another rifle and fighting back might have made for some sort of Catharsis Factor, in much the same way Godzilla helped the Japanese recover from the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fast forward almost two decades later, and school shootings have become a frighteningly common occurrence, making the Black Comedy escapism Pico offered a lot harder to enjoy.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The M-rated mockery of Bear in the Big Blue House that is Pico vs. Bear becomes very ironic with the reveal of this highly-profane outtake from the real deal. Even crazier, Tutter calls Ojo "hoe-bag", and her counterpart's parody name happens to be "Hoe-Joe"!
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Pico himself. He's shipped with Darnell, Nene, Cassandra, Piconjo, Boyfriend, and Girlfriend to name a few.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Pico. It all started with Pico's School and just went uphill from there. Fan flashes and games have him effortlessly mow down hundreds of aliens, super soldiers, and other opponents with ease.
  • Nene showed no combat prowess in either Nene's Interactive Suicide or Pico's School. Most fan works make her just as badass as Pico, or even stronger than him. Pico vs. Convict has her easily stomping Convict before Pico shoots her accidentally.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Boku no Pico ^ExplanationBoku no Pico is a shotacon hentai, which is about a boy named Pico, infamous online due to its pedophilic content. Due to the titular character of Pico sharing his name with that Pico, it is common in-fandom to make jokes about the two.
  • "Damn it Fulp, when was the last time you cut your nails?"^ExplanationA line from a very NSFW animation known as "Pico's Career Day", where Pico talks about Tom Fulp's alleged... "career".
  • I Do Not Care^ExplanationA short clip of Pico dancing from the 4th Annual Newgrounds Tank Awards video with the titular caption, set to "EEEAAAOOO", can be used to inform someone that the user is not interested in the topic. The music can be also replaced by any other track.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • While most Pico-related games and flashes aren't really meant to be taken seriously (what with Black Comedy being rampant throughout the series), they still use heavy amounts of gore that can be shocking to see. Some people who played Pico's School even pointed out that they thought the game was going to be light-hearted due to the intro, only for the game's intro to go from 1 to 100 real fast.
  • Where to begin with Pico vs. Convict? It starts off with Pico waking up to see his dead teacher and finding a note from Nene, which claims that Convict killed everyone in the school except her and Pico. In the next scene, Convict is shown to overpower Pico effortlessly with his shapeshifting powers, and once he has Pico cornered, Pico isn't ready to fight him, but is scared shitless, in contrast to the badass demeanor most games and flashes have him. During the end of the flash, Convict transforms into Nene (who had distracted him from killing Pico earlier), and Pico has to shoot one of the Nenes... only for it to be revealed that he shot the real Nene, as the flash ends with Convict menacingly revealing his face to the audience. And that's not even mentioning the Slasher Smile Nene pulled off as she was about to murder Convict before Pico accidentally shot her. Sweet dreams.
• Recurring Fanon Character:
  • Piconjo, originally created as an Author Avatar for the Newgrounds user of the same name, who is Pico's tall and pale Evil Counterpart. Despite the varying quality of the flashes he originally starred in, many liked him for his Evil Is Cool personality and a being a huge source of Fanfic Fuel in the form of his relationship to Pico. While neither Piconjo the user or Tom Fulp think of him as a canon to main Pico series, the latter considers him to be an interesting part of the Newgrounds history, which was the reason why the character was included in Newgrounds Rumble. In that game, Piconjo was given a redesign by Jose "MindChamber" Ortiz, without the involvement of his creator, and while the user Piconjo disowned said design in favour of his classic depictions^note With the later explanation that said disowning was a form of Kayfabe and to draw attention to the fact that Piconjo himself did not design it, it was well-recieved by the fans. If this character shows up in a fan work, he is likely going to be based on his Newgrounds Rumble appearance.
  • While not to the same degree as Piconjo, Pico's cousin Otis from the flash games Pico's Cousin and Pico's Cousin 2 has been widely accepted as family to Pico, and has also appeared in fan art and flashes, including a cameo in Pico vs. Convict (an animation by Luis, one of the Newgrounds staff members) as a form Convict takes on to throw Pico off his game, elevating him close to Ascended Fanon.
• Ship Mates: If one of the main three isn't paired up with the others, chances are the other two will be drawn as a couple. Works that use Pico/Cassandra or Pico/Boyfriend, for example, will usually have Darnell/Nene on the side.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Cassandra's most common sapphic pairing is with Nene. They never interacted directly in the main games, with the closest interaction being Nene walking by her while greeting Pico during Love Conquers All.
• That One Boss: Hanzo in Pico's School. Unlike the other bosses, Hanzo's attacks can't be avoided; you have to kill him before he takes off all your health. Given the finicky hitboxes in the game and how he moves around a lot, this makes for a rather frustrating fight. Prior to the game's overhaul in 2006, Hanzo could be made Unintentionally Unwinnable as he would simply move around the screen too fast to actually kill on fast computers before he killed Pico, making the fight even worse.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: While her replacement, Mr. Flacit, isn't exactly hated, there are some who think the female teacher from the opening to Pico's School should've gotten more screentime or at the very least appeared in more than one game before being killed.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The depiction of Cassandra and the goths, punks, etc. as the school shooters originated from a belief back in 1999, when there was a moral panic that the Columbine killers, which the game took inspiration from, were goths. Nowadays, this belief is discredited by the media, after many studies disproved the correlation. It was also a time when videogames were frequently used as scapegoats for violence, similar as to some reception of Pico's School and other similar games blamed after/for the Columbine shootings, most notably the Doom series. The game, however, does have An Aesop that any form of extremism is bad when Cassandra exclaims not to really care about society aside from her own selfish reason to kill, while the rest of her goth friends are simply duped into following her thinking that she empathizes with them being outsiders. Even discriminated subgroups have their own bad apples every once in a while.
  • Pico vs. Bear parodies Bear in the Big Blue House, making it clear that it was made in 1999.
• Values Dissonance: The original trilogy of Flash games were made in 1999, and therefore treated macabre subject matter such as school shootings, suicide and outright terrorism for laughs. Fat chance getting away with it 20 years later, as all of these issues have become far more sensitive and contentious.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Cassandra is female, despite some thinking that she's male due to the masculine appearance of her final form, and the lack of gendered pronouns used for her in her original appearance. Her Penilian form is hermaphroditic, so they have some justification. Later redesigns made it clearer that Cassandra is female.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The cartoony artstyle might trick some, and Pico's School starts off as seemingly child-friendly, but after the opening cutscene it becomes clear that the game is about a school shooting, featuring copious violence and murder, gore, drug references, and sexual references. The same can be said of its many fan spinoffs, which are also not very child-friendly. However, that didn't stop several people from playing the game or watching the several fan flashes associated with it as children when Newgrounds was in its heyday.

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