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It's no revelation that Don Karnage is a fan favorite of most TaleSpin fans.
I have sometimes noticed that some people prefer Karnage to Baloo and the other characters.
Do you think Karnage would have been a better character as the main character of TaleSpin?

Obviously, I would have to say no, for the sole fact that he's a "bad guy". Though that could have work if they made a spin-off of the series.

That said, Baloo clearly isn't the typical "hero" either, and has a lot of faults. I probably don't have to name how many times he has been a jerk to others, careless or acting badly for egoistical reasons (is forcing the door to her boss appartment only to get his salary earlier a good action from a main character AND a good example to children? ) - but in the end, he always make up to this. That's why I like him, he's more a "realistic" kind of hero.

In the other way, Karnage has been shown doing good things (such as saving Baloo in "Stuck on you"), though very rarely.

So, IMO, I wouldn't change the cast, but maybe a spin-off with Karnage and the air pirates would have been interesting to see.

I would say that it could have worked, as a spinoff or even in some episodes. Stuck on you has always been my favorite episode... and Don Karnage does host an episode of 'Raw Toonage'.

For all of Talespin? The fanboy in me says Yessss, but the slightly more logical me agrees that it couldn't have worked without giving up his bad-guy-ness.

Now you made me long for a never-coming Sky Pirates spinoff. Why are you so cruel, Steet ; ;

(Merely kidding! And if anything sounds odd... I'm incredibly tired but felt inclined to reply to this)

Hm, it's tough.
Obviously, I'd like to say "Yes." as well. For one thing, I've always thought that the Air Pirates come too short in the series. They don't air in that many episodes (19, if you count P&L as 4 parts). However, the spin-off idea would work very well for me. Most of the time, the story is centered around Baloo and his friends. The Pirates would need another concept to be the main characters, and most importantly, more screen time. I'd love if there was an Air Pirate spin-off though. =)

Heh, people like William would disagree, seeing like a bajillion comments of how much he doesn't like him on the character page. As for me - I think it could have worked the same way that something like Looney Tunes episodes have when involving the villain's constant attempt to do something bad, but failing miserably (Wile E Coyote trying to catch Road Runner, Sylvester trying to catch Tweety, etc). Though it could also be interesting if there were other such circumstances like instead of trying to take over Cape Suzette maybe they could have found a map for treasure that would ultimately end up with them empty-handed, much like it does for Baloo; save for the adventure involved.

While having a villain as the main character may have been an interesting concept, I think it was better with the heroes as the main focus. 'Villain Protagonist' shows usually have a much more lop sided treatment of the cast, with the heroes usually being rather bland and unsympathetic (eg. The Dreamstone, later Looney Tunes episodes, one could argue Pokemon ended up this way with Team Rocket as well). At least with the heroes as main focus we got both well developed heroes AND villains. I admit some more focus on the villains' perspective might have worked once in a while though, like Jumping the Guns and It Came From Beneath the Sea Duck. Karnage's Raw Toonage special also gave an idea of his potential.

Then again one of Talespin's specialties was villains, not just Karnage, Spigot, Shere Khan and many others.

Yes, I think one of the problems of the villains protagonist" series you mention are their extreme repetitiveness, ie repeating the same schemes for all episodes. TaleSpin is the whole opposite of that, each episode being constructed differently.

I think that originates from two different points:

1. Talespin has numerous villains, and from different scenarios and setups to add to variety. A villain protagonist show always focuses on one as the main star and their continuous concept.

2. Part of what makes Talespin fun and diverse is the hero characters' chemistry and how they create new and exciting dynamics or problems for each other. In most of the aforementioned shows, the heroes are kept rather tame and underdeveloped, so their isn't much focus on them making their own excitable scenarios (or when they try they are too bland to make it entertaining).

Well, this idea sounds extremely good for me! And I was thinking about the series about the funny adventures of Talespin's Sky Pirates and their routine at the Iron Vulture (that'd be good, if there'd be the one and only female pirate and the rival pirate crew... XD I hope my planned fanfic would at least satisfy partly the "villain protagonist" likers).