Below are three characters who are no longer part of the Bittersweet Candy Bowl canon following the release of the Bittersweet Candy Bowl Omnibus. These characters were part of the old-canon and served as secondary and tertitary characters. They originated as fan-characters, and were introduced early in the web-comic's life when it first began serialization on Veronica's Deviantart gallery. For various reasons, these characters would be retired and removed from the story, with none making an appearance past Volume Two.
In the very early years, Veronica was open to friends and readers including fan-characters made by them into the BCB setting to be used as background extras or colleagues to the main four protagonists, and resulting in a small handful of fan-characters becoming intergral to the story, whether through deeper interactions to the main protagonists, as was the case with Kizuna and Tess, or having interactions and/or a relationship to a secondary or tertitary character, such as McCain.
After a falling-out between Veronica and Kizuna's creator toward the completion of New Beginings which forbade further use of the character, Veronica would reasses her use of fan-characters in the story, electing to no longer accept them from fans as either a recurring character or cameo, and limiting cameo appearances of the ones which had been used previously. Some exceptions were still made for closer friends and their characters (whether fan-character or original) for a period into Volume 3. However, over time and progressively, Veronica would concentrate on introducing more original characters to serve as regulars and extras which served as their replacements and would reappear in the story more consecutively. Veronica would also secure Tess and McCain with those characters being donated by their creators.
Although Kizuna could not be used further in the story, she was still included in the published copy of Volume One along with many other fan-character cameos due to the extensive amount of work that would be needed in order to remove them, which was not an option by the time. During the kickstarter for Volume Two, Veronica would again reassess fan-characters and resolved to remove them from the story, starting with unneeded characters, resulting in the retirement of Carson and Carter. Upon the announcement of Volume Two's kickstarter going Live, it was decided they would not appear in the published version either, resulting in one chapter and three pages of Mischief Night being removed and placed into the website's comic "graveyard". Despite this, these characters still continued to exist in canon.
The removal of these characters from canon was realized with the publication of the Bittersweet Candy Bowl Omnibus, which sought to rework the canon in such a way to meet the audience expectations of later chapters, resulting in a revised story and retconing various chapters the first three Volumes. Along with these changes to the story and chapters; fan-characters and cameos were replaced with original characters from later chapters, whether secondary, tertiary or characters designed as extras, save for McCain and Tess who were now official characters. Fan-Characters had their chapters removed or roles replaced through other characters where it seemed appropriate, uplifting characters such as Sue and Katie to having more of a presence in the story than they did in the past. Chapters such as Out of the Frame which had served to be a chapter dedicated to fan-characters seeking the spotlight were instead rewritten to focus on tertitary characters who had been neglected.
Similarly with the Volume Two Kickstarter, the announcement of the Omnibus Kickstarter saw the new chapter format taking immediate effect on the Bittersweet Candy Bowl website with a replacement of the chapter order up to Volume 4 in the archive. Retrospective updates were made with the digitized and reworked Omnibus versions as part of scheduled updates in line with the debut of Bittersweet Candy Bowl on Webtoons.com. These updates were finally concluded on August 24th, 2022 when Adult Supervision premiered on Webtoons.
Following the removal of the comic "graveyard", these characters are no longer advertised or present in any material on the front-facing aspect of the website, with all old-canon material either archived to the depths of Candybooru or made available through members of Bittersweet Club International, who have the ability to do comparisons between the old and new pages so long as the option is toggled in their BCI preferences. The option is not available for removed chapters however, which are no longer available.
eBook downloads of Volume One, Two and Three were made available for free in the Store following the Omnibus' release. With the remaining softcover copies of Volume One still available, these are the only materials which still contain these characters.
Kizuna[]
Kizuna was an airheaded, accident prone student of Roseville high who had a one-sided crush on David. She's a Golden Retriever, as identified in the original version of Show and Tell. She has short yellow colored fur and two dark marks on her head. She had two fluffy 'pom-pom'-like objects connected to each ear by pieces of string. She wore headphones around her neck, a red sash around her hips, a wrist-ban on her right arm, a bead lace around her right leg and a string with a red feather on the other. She was a fan-character originally designed by sunshinenoka.
(We would kindly ask you not to bother sunshinenoka regarding Kizuna or BCB, she has long since moved on.)
Before her sudden removal, Kizuna would be the longest running prominent fan-character to feature during Volume One, debuting in Field Day and appearing in many chapters through to Return. Field Day serves as Kizuna's introduction, introducing her as a ditzy and accident-prone girl who is also infatuated with David, of whom she tries to have acknowledge her interest on numerous occassions. She is never successful due to a combination of her ineptitude and David's oblivious nature, which is fine to Kizuna — as she's just as oblivious to not notice the rejection. Much of Kizuna's interactions are through Mike and Lucy, rarely through anyone else, with the exception of David when the situation calls for comedy.
Due to differences relating to the character's vision and complications surrounding the conditions for her continued use, Kizuna was written out of the story, making no further appearances — with the exception of a one page Intermission chapter to jokingly announce her rather unceremonious removal when curious readers requested her return, mimicking the removal of Poochi from an episode of The Simpsons. This chapter was not included in the published volumes. Following a website refresh in 2013, the page was removed from the chapter list and retired to Candybooru.
Kizuna would be present in the physical and ebook versions of Volume One given the momentus task of replacing her character. Following the rewrite of the canon and digitising the original chapters, Veronica would replace her with other minor characters where the role was seen to be appropriate. Of these characters, Sue and Katie would benefit the most. Katie, a yellow furred dog with very similar characteristics to Kizuna replaced her in Field Day, introducing her character instead and keeping similar aspects of her character, including developing an (albiet, temporary) interest in David and being a ditz. The accident prone shananigans of the story would be retained through Katie finding ineptitude in sports and coming to resent them. Katie would also replace her when the kids were seen swimming in P.E class. Meanwhile, Sue would replace Kizuna's many appearances at the lunch table to keep in line with her apperances in the later chapters. Lastly, as Sue also featured in the trip to the Silvershore Islands, she is replaced with Amaya.
Carter[]
Carter was a crudely designed fan-character with a one-sided interest in Lucy. He was a tan/brown-furred cat with greenish-blue overalls and yellow arms. His most notable feature was his face — which featured a very 'mask' like appearance that was always smiling, but could change in certain bouts of emotion and taken to irrational-extremes. In one example; shouting in a fit of rage at Daisy for being a "vile temptress" when he is told he had possibly and mistakenly thought she was Lucy. He exhibits other strange behaviour that is not much better and tends to put many of the other kids on edge. He was the only character to own a catchphrase — simply, "I love Lucy". Carter is a gag character never intended to fit in with his environment. This design is intentional as it was made to poke fun at other similarly flat unsuccessful fan-characters, many of whom had authors whom begged to be included in the story, but whose character served little purpose other than as love interests to one of the main or secondary characters.
Carter debuted in a chapter entitled 'Box of Tricks', where Mike and Lucy are paired with Carter and given the impossible task of making a time-machine, something middle-school students would struggle to achieve, but is a feat that Carter somehow accomplishes when the two go to his Mushroom-like house to pick up the project — but not before being introduced to his entire family — who are in every way every bit of bizarre as Carter is. The time-machine is revealed to be a box with 'Time-Machine' written on it. While Mike and Lucy scrutinize the project, it teleports Mike and Lucy to both the dinosaurs and then early 1920's America, featuring a cameo of the two protagonists of the webcomic Lackadaisy. The chapter ends with the box not performing its task with the teacher revealing it's just an empty box filled with dinosaurs. This somehow earning them an A+ with 'super extra credit'. The chapter ends with Lucy keeping the time machine, but which also serves as a two-way portal for Carter to inappropriately use it to creep on Lucy while she sleeps.
Following this chapter, Carter would make rare single-panel cameo appearances in some chapters similar to other fan-characters, with the exception of another gag-chapter and joke-ending to Pick me up called 'In the end'. Reminiscing about Mike and her needs, Lucy suddenly remembers something, donning a coat and umbrella and leaves home for the park as it starts to rain. Lucy finds a figure on a bench in the park whom is revealed to be Carter. He says his catch phrase, which, Lucy reciprocates with a smile, telling him — 'I know, Carter.'
Carter's final appearance in the story is during a small cameo in Mischief Night where Lucy kicks him, supposedly also killing him.
Following the completion of the Omnibus kickstarter, bonus material regarding deleted chapters was made available with corresponding memos by Veronica and Oliver relating to why they chose not to include them in the Omnibus. Veronica attributed the decisions that lead to Carter's removal to be associated to the removal of fan-characters (save for Tess and McCain) and the difficulties in catering to both Drama and Slapstick comedy fans, resulting in flow-breaking chapters to be removed. Carter's cameo-appearances were replaced by other characters. On the BCB Discord, Veronica noted that, in retrospect — he was a terribly childish "I'm above you" joke, referencing the success of that character to spite resentful authors who didn't have theirs included.
The Bonus chapter wasn't included in the Omnibus and any other page involving Carter were removed or had his character replaced. His final appearance in Mischief Night saw him replaced with David.
Carson[]
Carson was a "manifestation of a heartfelt objection to the pervasiveness of the “token”-gay stereotype in modern pop-culture", according to his entry on the about page. He was a flamboyant and eccentric brown-furred cat with purple and yellow hair. He wore a magenta shirt and had a blue and yellow polka dot scarf. He was introduced into the story in a chapter entitled, 'Do ask, Do tell', a title referencing and making fun of the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy regarding homosexuality in the United States Military, in-which Mike introduces him to Lucy, and jokes are made poking fun at his hypersexual and flamboyant nature. It ends with an inappropriate proposition to Mike, adding to his many worries given his status. He would make infrequent single-frame cameo appearances afterwards.
His final appearance and subsequent removal from the story was dedicated in three pages in Mischief Night where, after meeting up with the other kids, enters an abandoned house and falls into a hole in the floor. Carson begs for help, but the other kids look at each other and leave the house, abandoning him. With Taeshi noting in the final page comment "That's one way to get rid of a character", surprising readers from the somewhat unexpected nature, but ringing similar to Kizuna's sudden and unceremonious removal.
The three pages dedicated to Carson's removal were not included in the published version of Volume 2. Following the announcement of Volume 2 on Kickstarter, the pages were retired to the Graveyard on the Extras page where they could still be viewed for a time. Mischief Night could still be read despite the removal of the pages without any sign it had occurred. Chapters involving Carson would be removed retrospectively starting in early 2018 when 'Do Ask, Do tell' was also delisted as an available chapter and is no longer advertised on the website. The entirity of the graveyard and the three removed pages from mischief night were consequently removed as well. Following this, Carson had no further representation outside of Candybooru as a fan-character. Carson's rare cameos in Volume One were replaced by other minor characters in the Omnibus.
Veronica attributed Carson's removal to hindsight of him as a character; he was a bad-joke, and his existence in the story and as a character only helped further perpetuate the same inappropriate and offensive stereotype he was originally intended to make fun of. His total removal is from Veronica's desire to distance herself from the character.
Bittersweet Candy Bowl has better and improved representation of LGBT characters through those including Matt and Jessica, to name a few.