I actually have a ton of pretty neat "oubliette" moments for Alter Chaos.
I'll share some now (spoilers through the Avalon Saga if you care):
In the OG draft of the series, Chris was NOT a good brother and straight up just ABANDONED Eve on Mobius at the end of Metarex. I just hated the idea of bolstering my oc at his expense and rewrote his whole character once I decided to actually write/publish the series in 2023.
The OG Moonbeast ending was NOT subtle about its overarching metaphor. I had to cut at least 15 lines from the drafts because after the Adabat scene Sonic's character veered so hard he drove off a cliff and ended up in another dimension (not literally). "The Greatest Gift" was by FAR the worst offender of this.
The whole Seven Rings finale with Eve and the sword originally happened in Avalon. Originally, she just never got powers and only had them in Moonbeast in a fun, slice of life kind of way. I actually never knew how to rearrange this plot line to make sense until I finished playing P5R and (very passionately) thought up Time Keeper in 2021.
When deciding to make this series in 2023, I actually considered cutting Eve from the plot entirely because I didn't want to make it all about me. My mind changed though when I saw the opportunity to write her in a way anyone could insert themselves into. Plus it was a fun challenge to make her feel like an organic part of the world from the get-go.
Sneak preview: I recently was writing up late-series stuff (Metal Virus and Tower I believe) and it hit like a truck just how little I developed any characters outside of the main duo. Now I'm going back and having to flesh out everyone else (ESPECIALLY Silver). It's kind of fun to be back in the imagining/thinking phase of development again.
The Time Keeper Saga is fully written. I could post it right now actually. I just don't feel like I did what I feel is the best (and one of the most important) sagas justice. That's why I'm making the game duology.
In an original draft of Metarex, Chris dies. The rocket was built by Eggman like in the show and he just...blows it up. In one variation, nobody even knows until the remains of the crash are found years later. I ended up scrapping this whole plot line for a couple of reasons: it was too dark without any real purpose, it ruined the tone of the saga/series that I was going for, and really funny/wholesome post-series ideas that would be impossible without him (there's your spoiler snippet for the day lol).
There was a plot line in Seven Rings that still gets mentioned in the final version that explored the true dangers of holding on to each ring for too long. The idea is that eventually one is consumed by that one emotion to the degree of becoming that emotion. Once they are too far gone, the ring will just absorb them for energy. Each glowing marking was going to be revealed as representing a soul lost to the ring's effects. A scene was cut in which Eve nearly fell to the ring of sadness's effects just by holding it for a couple of seconds. It was meant to visualize how powerful the darkest depths of her mind truly are and why she's so scared of being alone. Honestly, I think I might still write this one out because it's actually pretty awesome and I'm a little bummed I didn't follow through on it originally. I think I was trying to keep the saga from being any more dark and death-centric than it was (plus Sharah having her moment to acknowledge that emotions are okay and saving these deeper things for...later...) but missed opportunity in my book.
Moonbeast was called "The Unleashed Saga" when I first started writing in 2023. It featured the wholesome Chip plot line like in the game and was more slice-of-life just with the ending bit of Eve falling into Gaia's core (but this time so Sonic could pull himself to safety). There was a Christmas episode where Eve (back when she could fly with her powers) did air ballet and the group enjoyed celebrations across the world (it was cute). Eventually, I came up with a more concrete plot and Chip played a more serious role once regaining his memories (apart from being the one to blurt out Sonic's secret, but that's for another Alt. Scenario).
It wasn't until October 2023 (around making Darkest Terror) when randomly saying "Huh? Why does Mephiles kind of look like a beta werehog?" that I added him to the plot. I'm still surprised to this day that no one else from what I've seen has made the same connection and I stand by it being the greatest addition I could have ever added to the plot.
The Chip plot line was cut in early 2024 when I finally asked the question "What else could I change?" I've seen nearly every other Unleashed fic do the same story (based on the game) and wanted to be unique.
Lia and Sonic's rivalry was based on that one cutscene from Unleashed after the phoenix fight. I just thought it would be funny and maybe add a bit of spice to the plot. Plus, expecting "Chip" to be the bad guy in an "epic twist" was the PERFECT red herring to distract from all of the Mephiles teasing happening on the side (hehehe...).
I'll reblog if I come up with any more. Maybe I'll sit down later and draw/write some stuff out.
