Hello hello ! I'm happy to unveil the Gorillaz Dynamic Swap Au Archive !
For months now I have been tracking down everything that Can be found about the dynaswap au (from digging through dozens of old blogs, to scraping archive dot org, to tracking down people who were around at the time of the au!)
and from there I have spent weeks making this archive !
This intent of this is project has been to take everything that I've found and put it Back Together into a cohesive digestible story !
to that end, I've decided to split this guild into multiple eras !
what Is dynaswap? I have a guide going over just that here [Link]
I also have a full guide to The Gorillaz, the original band dynaswap is an au of ! [Link]
If you would prefer, I also have All of the links organized in one google doc here [Link]
Likewise, I have a google drive for the au, where I have organized everything Roughly into phases [Link]
And another drive that presents everything in the order that it was released (which is a bit harder to navigate, as many things were posted out of order) [Link]
I also have tags specifically for fanart ! sometimes these tags may overlap with official content (art that wasn't created by the main creators for dynaswap, but are nevertheless an official part of the au), but there's a ton of art that's very much worth seeing !
[Link]
Disclaimer: Please do not bother anyone who was involved with creating the au. They have asked not to be associated with it anymore and we should all respect that.
DO YOU KNOW THE TAG USED FOR DYNASWAP FICS ON A03 LIKE SURELY THERE MUST BE SOME BUT I CANT FIND THEM AAAAAAAAAAA
YOU AND ME BOTH
I've been looking myself, I'm SURE they must exist but I just haven't a consistent tag.
if anyone sees this, try tagging your ao3 fics as "dynaswap" and any fics you post on tumblr as "dynaswap fic" !! we can be the change we want to see in the world
I don't think even the Best tarot reader could've predicted a gorillaz x fortnite collab bringing more eyes to the dynaswap archive in 2025, but hello everyone <333
alright ! there's a bit of an elephant in the room when it comes to preserving dynaswap content that I've been putting off for a little while ! I didn't even find it on purpose, as I had no idea it existed when I started this project.
considering the nature of it I'd almost decided not to acknowledge it at all, but ! if the goal of this project is preserving Everything dynaswap related then this would be included.
that said ! I've decided to do a compromise. there will be discussions of (and links too) not safe for work content below the cut
so This blog [Link], schlongkongaton, is an official dynaswap not-sfw blog. judging from the artstyle and several interactions that happened in the tags my guess is that it Specifically belonged to parvamine, instead of paleimitatorz.
it wasn't active for very long, and really only had a handful of posts, but it Does have official dynaswap not-sfw on it. as well as interacted with a few blogs that created not-sfw fanart for it.
from what I've gathered, this blog was supposed to be a secret to some extent. they never talked about it publicly and never mentioned it on the official dynaswap blog. but it Also wasn't particularly hidden.
I personally found it Through the official dynaswap blog, just indirectly. they frequently reblogged fanart and accepted submissions for it, which is part of what I've been trying to document! and something I'd noticed is that they would reblog (sfw) art from blogs that were otherwise not-sfw. they were even specifically asked about it
I was curious so I did a bit of digging and found that these blogs not only interacted with the dynaswap creators' personal blogs fairly frequently, but also seemed to be in their discords. and then, of course, I found these blogs interacting with schlongkongaton and referring to the owner of it as "Al" in the tags. al, of course, being parvamine's name (or at least it was at the time, who's to say now).
which is when my brain broke a little and I started digging through that blog with a fine toothed comb jklfsadkjlfasd
I Did start collecting evidence that lead to this conclusion (such as the things schlongkongaton said in their Own tags), but since then I've spoken to someone who was around while dynaswap was still going who confirmed that this blog was official fkajlsdkjlsfad
so ! that leaves me with this conundrum. because the dynaswap creators didn't speak about this blog openly, but they Also weren't particularly being secretive about it either.
in the end, I figured if it was parvamine's blog I wouldn't exactly be able to ask them permission to mention it, as they've been Inactive for years now. but I also figured they wouldn't mind, since they vanished from the internet a long time ago. nobody would be able to bother them about it.
so ! I'm giving you all the link to this blog to do what you will with it. I've also gone ahead and given it it's own isolated folder in my dynaswap google drive, though only featuring it's own art and not any of the fan art it interacted with [Link]
though there Is one thing I'd like to discuss specifically, not because it's necessary but because I've been thinking about it for months
there is a particular image that appeared on the official dynaswap blog [Link] that Also appeared on the schlongkongaton blog [Link] (be mindful of the not-sfw)
Except Well. Different
and what gets me the most about it, is that when you study them side-by-side it's clear To Me that the not-sfw version came First.
the Pants Area was obviously edited, but when you look at it both of them share lines on the pants, but the version that was posted to the official blog is filled in More, overlapping with those lines they both share. you can even see a spot on his sleeve where it's missing line art because they erased a text bubble that overlapped with it a little bit. you can See some of that text bubble still there.
and I don't know why I'm so obsessed with that. that they had to edit his pants so they could post it to the official dynaswap blog. it's beautiful really.
Phase 5 theory: Murdoc goes to jail for a crime he was actually framed of doing unlike Canon. So Noodle goes around looking for Bassists to replace him and finds a certain fan named Ace who gave her a tour around Townsville where she meets the Powerpuff Girls after a fight who gleefully volunteer to temporarily replace Murdoc (Buttercup being the Bassist because she's the green one and can play Bass, and the other 2 help around since they didn't want to be left out)
Stu looks back and starts feeling intense guilt for how he treated Murdoc back in the day and somehow gets possessed by a demon. Noodle notices this and gets suspicious including Russel due to Stu's strange behavior. So they contact Murdoc about it since he has a history of being possessed by demons and can help, so they hatch a plan to help him escape. After Murdoc returns he gets the demon to leave before it does anything drastic. Stu gets the chance to apologize to Murdoc who is reluctant at first but luckily accepts.
Some months go by and the both of them start catching feelings for each other but it took a year for them to confess since they were scared of how the other would react. Murdoc, Stu, and the demons inside Murdoc start dating. with Murdoc gifting Stu the Souk Eye plastic eye. their relationship is revealed to the internet a month later, the feedback was mostly positive but there were some hate and homophobic reactions. Noodle and Russel were happy for them and were especially happy that they finally started to get along. And that's where Phase 5 ends.
If you disagree with some parts, please tell me why and what you personally think might have happened! 💗
@the-delighted-landfill
that's as good of a theory as any !! it certainly works with what little information we have to go off of :3 (buttercup being the bassist would be really cool !! and it'd explain why they have fingers kjlfadsjklfadslkjfads)
I wouldn't necessarily Change anything, but some additions I'd personally make:
1: the "demon" in question being HIM, it'd finally make good on "SAVE US FROM HIM" and it'd be cunty <3
stu's fashion is already pretty camp, but adding HIM's influence would absolutely kick it up a notch
2: they SPECIFICALLY need the help of murdoc's demons to save stu! that way part of murdoc and stu's reconciliation would involve reconciling with the demons possessing murdoc as well :>
3: while noodle and russel are trying to break murdoc out the powerpuff girls are trying to just beat the snot out of HIM the old fashioned way. this isn't necessary to the plot it's just fun
this but dynaswap stu would be so incredibly cunty
This image seems to be of an older Stu which makes me think that despite mellowing out like Murdoc did in the original universe, he still has trouble with his temper. Or he's in a heated argument. Idk. We don't even know what was going to happen during Phase 4-5 other than Stu and Murdoc forgive each other and start dating and The Powerpuff Girls are there for some reason.
it's really hard to say without more context !
personally I'd put it more around phase 2 or 3, just based on how the hair is drawn and what we know about stu's mental state then (phase 4 and 5 stu's hair is a lot closer to canon 2d's !)
the set up for phase 2 Really seemed to be leading to a major blow out between murdoc and stu (their biggest ever) with both of them being more volatile and full of themselves than ever.
though I've also noticed that what little art we Do have of stu phase 3 tends to draw him visibly older ! most likely in line with how much older murdoc looked in canon phase 3 art, which would explain all of face crinkles here (though that could easily just be to highlight the emotion, rather than intentionally making him look Old)
though considering he looks like he's naked that's another point towards phase 2 fjkdlasjklsfdajklsdf
I admit that I could be wrong, but that round line stroke at the top corner could be a chat bubble or another doodle, or just a random stroke cause the doodle is a bit messy. It's just the photo looks zoomed in to me which is why I thought of this.
@the-delighted-landfill
context: [Link]
that's a Really good catch !!
it's Pretty Likely actually, since we've gotten a ton of sneak peeks into comics (both ones that were posted later and ones that weren't)
Hi, just popping in to say while I'd also not like to be bothered or associated with this AU anymore, I did make some soundscapes years ago for each of the members on ambientmixer.com based on the old Kong Studios' room- you can just look up dynaswap on there and find them, if that's worth anything
I'll be honest, I think this means Everything to me. this is such a fun and creative idea !! I'd have never thought to look there in my life :>
I'd like to download the samples myself to make sure they don't go down, but it's gonna have to wait a second because at minimum each download would have to be 5 dollars each fadjsklfajsdlk. so for now ! have a link for where to listen to each one ^^
Dynaswap Noodle's Room: [Link]
Dynaswap Russel's Room: [Link]
Dynaswap Stu's Room: [Link]
Dynaswap Murdoc's Winnebago: [Link]
At The Club With Stu: [Link]
thank you So Much for getting in touch ! this is absolutely Delightful @danielpowell
