Piya the Elephant (Oggy and the Cockroaches: Next Generation)

	"FAIRY GODPARENTS!'" — Denzel Crocker This is a good article.

Piya (Oggy and the Cockroaches: Next Generation) Xilam, if you want to create a deuteragonist for one of your shows, please make sure their character is well-written. Gender: Female Type: Incredibly Obnoxious, Troublemaking and Detestable Nitwit Age: 7 Species: Indian Elephant Portrayed by: Kaycie Chase Status: Alive Media of origin: Oggy and the Cockroaches: Next Generation First appearance: Out of Order

Piya is the anti-heroic deuteragonist and comic relief of the French animated comedy series Oggy and the Cockroaches: Next Generation. She's a cheerful, optimistic and unintentionally bumbling 7-year-old elephant depicted as Oggy's new roommate and the new playmate of the roaches. She is voiced by Kaycie Chase.

Background

As the intro sequence to Oggy and the Cockroaches: Next Generation showcases, Piya is the daughter of Oggy's Indian elephant friends, who dropped her off at his doorstep one them. Oggy, being the big-hearted, enthusiastic person he is, welcomes this newcomer with open paws, and has now taken on the role of her surrogate uncle, while the Roach brothers (Joey, Marky and Dee Dee) now scheme to use Piya to make Oggy's life even more miserable than it already is by using her to cause destruction and mischief to make Oggy suffer. Some episodes (such as "One More Picture?", which is built around this) warn of the impending day where Piya has to leave back to India, though the lack of continuity ensures that her staying with Oggy is a permanent arrangement.

Bad Qualities

1. The way Piya is written comes off as inconsistent and downright insulting at times. She's supposed to be a cheerful and sympathetic foil to Oggy and the cockroaches, yet comes off as a dimwitted, somewhat bratty and troublemaking jerk with extremely poor impulse control.
2. Piya seldom doesn't create so much destruction, unintentional accidents and craziness in the suburban house she, Oggy and the roaches share with her clumsiness in several episodes, with a notable example being "Out of Order", where she debuts. In that instance, she spends much of the first half trashing Oggy's domicile.
   • She is always being far too mischievous towards Oggy and plays several dangerous pranks on him daily, often without realizing their impact.
3. On various occasions, she acts in a generally obnoxious fashion, makes Oggy's predicaments even more unbearable than if she just didn't get involved, causes chaos in the household (which Oggy tends to deal with or take blame for), sobs and wails constantly, and generally acts in an unintentionally bumbling, havoc-wreaking way.
   • The absolute worst case of this is in the episode "Pyjama Party", where she, being the immature idiot she is, continuously and intentionally disturbs Oggy's slumber with help from the roaches, opportunistically doing so just for her irritating pleasure, and gets away with torturing him on a nonsensical whim.
4. Going back to BQ#1, while Piya is the deuteragonist of the series, her irritating nature makes her come off less as a lovable mischievous hero and more of that of a sadistic and obnoxious jerk with antagonistic tendencies. Especially when she is paired up opposite straight-man Oggy, who often tries to put up with her with a faux-enthusiastic personality with rare moments of clarity and assertiveness, letting the idiot walk all over him.
5. Piya can be something of a hypocrite many times when it comes to being strongly irritated by the antics of Kevin, Bob's spoiled nephew, who is just as, if not more reckless/mischievous than her, though in her defense, his brutishly troublemaking maniacal personality gives her some sympathy, given she is often a target of his trouble.
   • This is also the case with the cockroaches, which brings up her hypocrisy. Despite being against their more serious pranks, she is occasionally shown participating-in and even encouraging them, such as in "Pyjama Party" and "Ding-Dong".
6. Piya is voiced by Kaycie Chase and, unfortunately, her convincing childlike performance occasionally comes off as extremely painful to the ears. In these cases, it is so intentionally screwy, grating and obnoxious, especially whenever she screams, cries, throws a tantrum and yells.
7. Whenever she isn't taking charge with causing mayhem herself, this being a sadist show (albeit a considerably lighter one), she is real prone to being a relentlessly abused punching bag Animville likes to beat down on. Especially since it almost always happens when Piya is being mildly irritating or rebellious and not when she's at her absolute worst. "A Swell Outing" is probably the worst example.
8. Whenever she causes large-scale havoc or intentional pain to Oggy and the cockroaches, she tends to get away with torturing them or deliberately screwing with the household, making her somewhat of a karma houdini (and an Idiot Houdini due to her stupidity).
   • A particularly bad example of this is in "A Restless Night", where Piya faces no onscreen consequence for brutishly destroying Oggy's house multiple times and has the cockroaches take the blame each time. She doesn't even attempt to apologize when proof is shown that she is the culprit, making her the main antagonist of said episode.
9. There are several episodes (particularly during the first half) where Piya commits several obliviously insensitive, gross, rebellious, destructive acts that further her bad qualities and shield her good ones. These include (but are not limited to):
   • "Pyjama Party": Causing havoc throughout the house at night and hindering Oggy's desperate attempts to get some shuteye.
   • "Ding-Dong": Being manipulated into torturing Oggy outside by the cockroaches.
   • "Timber!": Totaling Oggy's favorite oakwood tree and attempting to pathetically cover it up.
   • "Mischief Mishaps": Screwing with Oggy and thoroughly crushing his car.
   • "A Restless Night": Destroying and wrecking the house several times and inadvertently framing the cockroaches for it.
   • "Venting Frustration": Deciding to become a hermit and bunking with the cockroaches.
   • "Ice Cream!": Continously devising increasingly zany ways to sneak out of the house to get some ice cream instead of eating the meal Oggy provided for her.
   • In these cases, she acts more like an antagonist than a hero, which makes it incredibly hard to root for her.
10. Getting the literal elephant out of the room, she is unfathomably moronic, supremely unintelligent and completely ditzy to the point where it works better as a way of getting frustrated rather than amused.
    • "Ding-Dong" is Piya at her worst in terms of just how stupid she can get. It has the cockroaches take advantage of her ludicrously idiotic nature by having her continously torture Oggy, who's just trying to get inside and is covered in trash. Logically, Piya should know that this is her surrogate uncle, but doesn't. Piya may be extremely dumb and a comically barbaric imbecile, but this is bad even for her.
    • In general, she is extremely impulsive, and her plans failing (aside from their ridiculousness, her stupidity or how she thinks it out) are mainly due to her incapibility to plan ahead, which can get stale. In fact, most of the in-universe and out-universe problems in episodes are spawned by her making astoundingly naïve, impressionable decisions without realizing the consequences.
    • She sometimes acts like an immature toddler who perpetually is selfish, hapless and is constantly scheming and causing trouble at the expense of others, unruly to the biggest degree, and always acting like an effeminate tyrant.
11. She is absolutely egotistical and self-interested and always wants whatever stupid objective she's setting out on no matter the cost, even if she has to be manipulative, unfair, condescending and even cruel to get what she desires. For example, snubbing Oggy's meal to go get ice cream? Check. Being portrayed as a villain protagonist who will gladly commit collateral damage to his car? Check.
12. She is incredibly toxic, demanding and ungrateful towards Oggy when the cat is supposed to be her best friend and support her, constantly making his life miserable through either incompetence or actual intentional mischief (this is discussed further in her list of bad deeds).
13. Despite being the co-protagonist, she gets way too much screentime, as she appears in every single episode of the entire series & has a major role in all of them, so we have to put up with her antics ad nauseam.
    • Depending on your opinion, she even overshadows Oggy despite him still being the protagonist. There are many more episodes devoted to her wacky exploits and shenanigans than his, and even in his own-centered episodes, she's a major plot device.
    • On that note, her actions make her come off as the main antagonist of the series instead of one of the main heroes, considering the cockroaches have been reduced to mainly mischievous comic reliefs.
14. She has a critically-foul temper and can act grouchy as well as even abusive when in a comically bad mood. "Mammoth Problem" in particular has her literally chase Oggy with the intention of physically harming him (though it's worth noting that he at least deserved her wrath somewhat).
15. She doesn't really have anything we should enjoy about defeating Oggy daily and defying the rules without a care in the world, nor does she provide any meaningful lessons in a saccharine downfall from the parent "OatC" series such as this. Much to the point where that she usually comes off as an insufferable, detestable antagonist rather than the anti-heroic protagonist she is supposedly written as.
    • If one were to take her as the series' main antagonist (or at least an unsympathetic anti-hero), she comes across-the-board as a really incompetent, klutzy one at that. Whenever taking a villainous role, she is a wimpy, cowardice-filled, somehow effectual punk that is simply way too goofy, infantile, and hammy to be taken seriously as the show's main antagonist. Continuing, due to her being a relentlessly abused, constantly pathetic joke for the show to ridicule, she is practically more useless when serving this purpose than other villain wannabes, taking the term "ineffectual sympathetic villain" (which other characters like Zig the Hyena and Tom Cat from the Tom and Jerry have succeeded in) to pitifully p***-poor extents. How this works is that she'll do some mischief, Oggy suffers the consequences, and so on, and it doesn't help how destructive she is, with "Pyjama Party" being the biggest offender.
16. She is comically cowardly and pusillanimous, even being frightened by the freaking cockroaches of all people (who are inches tall and about the size of her foot) in the series premiere.
17. Her sympathy garnered by the audience is reduced to festering carcasses of defecation whenever we're supposed to pity her for slapstick that she deserves, in addition to being the sneaky, selfish and toxic "hero" she is. If this happens, like in "A Swell Outing", we're supposed to feel bad for and sense illuminent threats, yet any sane person will consider this karma exacting painful retribution.
18. It is also worth noting that Piya was gradually flanderized over the single season of the show. As of "Pyjama Party", she is now a selfish, obnoxious, troublemaking moron who barely learns from her mistakes.

Good Qualities

1. As the series progresses, in a rare example of character development in a show of a slapstick nature, Piya gradually becomes a better character. While she doesn't always show it, she's noticeably a lot smarter, mature and rational, with a few exceptions, and has the will to help Oggy when he needs it most, occasionally even outsmarting him a few times. It's especially apparent when you compare Piya's incompetent, buffoonish, downright antagonistic persona in the earlier episodes to her smarter, more well-meaning, sympathetic, better-written personality in the later episodes.
2. She, for the most part, isn't as bad or obnoxious as you might think. She's just deeply flawed, which again makes her more relatable and tolerable as the series progressed. At her core, she's a well-intentioned, easygoing and loyal person who cares a lot about her friends Oggy and the roaches and is quick to help if they need her most.
   • Despite her flaws, she can be viewed as somewhat likable for being a well-meaning friend to Oggy and the cockroaches, and most fans find her likable and root for her.
   • Despite her blatant idiocy & immaturity, Piya is fairly compassionate, learns from her mistakes, and has a mature, even intelligent side. "A Dreadful Date" is probably the best display of this.
   • Despite her abysmal treatment of Oggy and the cockroaches, Piya does actually care about them and their happiness, often crafting ways to assist or make them feel better about themselves.
   • One could classify Piya as a surprisingly wise girl for her age who displays common sense on rare occasions, to the point of being knowledgeable about certain aspects that even Oggy is oblivious to. She has a far better understanding of things like peace, tranquility and optimism with enough intelligence inside her brain to perform stuff like sports, puppetry and cooking as well as ways to prevent violence/torture, something which Oggy of all people is depicted in this series (a stark contrast to the original 1997-2019 series & even "Oggy Oggy") is astoundingly naïve towards. It's also implied that the chessmaster abilities displayed are beneficial from keeping Oggy and the cockroaches from killing each other, as in the series premiere where her debut/first overall appearance is enough to give Oggy time to dissipate his anger issues.
   • At times she can be quite sympathetic. Stuff like her butt-monkey status, Oggy's sometimes-lethal ways of discipline, the cockroaches manipulating her & etc. can push her into jerkass woobie/woobie territory.
3. Her distinctly pudgy character design is rather cute, appealing and makes a good contrast to the much lighter, more agile roaches and Oggy.
   • Depending on your opinion, she was a tolerable and decent character until "Pyjama Party", which set her characterization into motion.
4. Whenever she isn't screeching her lines, Kaycie Chase does an admittedly good, convincing performance as her.
5. She is admittedly humorous and has provided plenty of moments proving she can be genuinely whimsical, entertaining and hilarious to extensive degrees, especially in the later episodes.
   • On occasion, the well-deserved slapstick she receives on occasion has comic potential. "A Swell Outing" is the best example, as sunscreen causes her to inflate like a balloon and float away comedically.
6. For the most part, her butt-monkey status insures that karma will give her what she deserves, so she's not fully a Karma Houdini. On occasion, the second half of the series will take snipes at her mediocre characterization in the earlier episodes and even sometimes let her take insight into her sheer moronitude. On that note, the series at least acknowledges her flaws rather than claim that she's perfect.
7. Poor judgment and impulsivity aside, Piya is rather cunning and sometimes shows flashes of intelligence. Give her something to do or something to hide and she'll likely deliver, with "Find the Top!" being the most notable example (despite being a bad episode).
8. There are some episodes (especially in the second half) where Piya is tolerable, sympathetic and even likable:
   • "Out of Order" (depending on your view, a good way to debut her)
   • "A Day Out"
   • "The Canary's Song" (depending on your view)
   • "Wool Ball Madness"
   • "Dear Diary"
   • "Little Spoiled Neighbor"
   • "Aliens Welcome"
   • "Unhappy Campers"
   • "The Cone"
   • "The Hat of Shame"
   • "Roller Skates"
   • "Birthday Truce" (depending on your view)
   • "Ach-Who?" (depending on your view)
   • "The Lost Doll" (depending on your view)
   • "Piya Takes to the Moon"
   • "The Hiking Guide"
   • "One More Picture?"
   • "Elephant Nanny"
   • "The Arrival"
   • "The Best Uncle"
   • "A Treasured Secret"
   • "Dog Day Afternoon"
   • "A Dreadful Date"
   • "Teeny-Tiny Oggy"
   • "Scout's Honor"
   • "Super Oggy" (depending on your view)
   • "The Mooncat" (depending on your view)
   • "Copycat" (depending on your view)
   • "Package Deal" (depending on your view)
   • "Princess Piya"
   • "Wrestling the Past"
   • "A Swell Outing"
   • "Oggy Gets Jacked"
   • "Mammoth Problem" (which ended both Next Generation and Piya's appearances on high notes)
9. Oggy and the Cockroaches: Next Generation wouldn't be the same without her, as she is one of the main heroes and has a positive major role in many episodes.

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