Not Good at Titles, Sorry

[somerandomdudelmao]

Cass apocalyptic series Masterpost

So...one day I thought "hmmm, what if we had another season about the bad timeline" and then I went to draw it.

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Fanart Edits Fanfics Little interesting details

Do NOT repost/translate without my permission

НЕ распространять/переводить без моего разрешения

_________________ Cover___________________

Ep 1. Master Leonardo becomes Baby Blue once again

Ep 2. Can you carry your uncles?

Ep 3. Raph is dead. The good news is it's fixable

Ep 4. Your brain may be human, but your soul speaks in turtle

Ep 5. Mikey looks sixty, but he's not even forty. Donnie can do something about that

Ep 6. Krangified

Ep 7. How many cool points does your dad have?

Ep 8. You may not be human. You might actually be a turtle

Ep 9. Commander O'Neil

Ep 10. Tiny Tello

Ep 11. The little things

Ep 12. Everything is falling apart

Ep 13. You are in the past, your thoughts are in the future

Ep 14. Donatello

Ep 15. Raphael

Ep 16. And the two they left behind

Ep 17. You've got cuddles and hot water. Both are limitless

Ep 18. So many turtles

Ep 19. Find the Krang, stop the...wait..

Ep 20. The winter is long

————

C.A.S. Animated project - Part 1 Part 2

Quick q&a:

Drawn in Procreate (mostly). Commissions are closed. Tcest dni. This whole comic is about family and platonic relationships. My youtube. Basic round brush. Page size: 1620×2160.

If you use my comic pages in your art (such as voiceovers, edits, etc) please credit me as their author and attach a link to this blog.

Otherwise, I can and will report you for copyright infringement. Thanks:)

[modmad]

hey so I love A Hat in Time, thanks for introducing me to it! but can you further that 'DJ Grooves was/should have been the only boss for Battle of the Birds' theory? I'm sure I'm missing some obvious clues

heck why not- parts are things that fans have found by digging into the structure of the game (such as the hitbox for DJ Grooves having been applied to the Conductor’s model, which is actually too big as a consequence- and apparently the original file for that fight/music is labelled something like DJGroovesbossfight rather than a neutral name), but some things are just straight up in the game and don’t ‘fit’ with a double pathway game level.

This one’s a little debatable but here we see DJ Grooves coveting the award, despite having already won one- so why isn’t that one on the shelf in his living room already? This also doesn’t tally with what DJ Grooves says about being on a ‘terrible losing streak’- which should have been broken if he did previously win an Award. There is a newspaper on a wall saying as such, but the voice acted line implies that he’s still losing, which makes no sense.

This one on the other hand just straight up feels like a mistake as a result of hurrying to add in a motive for the Conductor; the entire level (and music for the fight) is called the Battle for Award 42… but here the Conductor says that he lost that number award, which would mean that it had been held on a previous year and that this one (which he just won) was… not Award 42? Hm. Okay.

On top of that there’s the simple fact that the Conductor gets more screentime and positive light in the cutscenes, especially in the finale where he marches in to back up Hat Kid and DJ Grooves is nowhere to be seen. Another damning fact is the fact that he’s a part of the logo and DJ Grooves isn’t. Perhaps that was a silhouette design choice, but to me it strongly implies that he was supposed to be a more dominant figure in the story than DJ Grooves, and that idea fits with the turn-around ‘surprise he’s actually a softy’ character development. The story arc with the Conductor saving Hat Kid has more pathos and emotional payout than the other option, and equally it gives DJ Grooves more depth and intrigue as a personality. As a narrative it is simply a better written story. Meeting the Conductor’s grandkids later on all but cements the fact that he’s good with kids, and it therefore jars a little to have him throwing hands with a child over one award… and although I do love the hilariously petty nature of that, I really would have preferred a deeper motive. 

Finally in the DLC we get a new storybook about DJ Grooves constantly being the underdog which shows how audiences react very negatively to his movies. There is no equivalent storybook for the Conductor, however, and that would fit with him having had the lion’s share of sympathy in the main game.

It also strikes me that the Conductor, from this information and the movies made with Hat Kid, is genuinely a better movie director and wouldn’t need to cheat to win an award. In fact, I strongly suspect he would take any implication that he had as a gross insult- DJ Grooves makes that accusation against him in a fraught, desperate tone and, when he’s lost so many times, you can understand why he’d cling to that idea rather than accept his movies are bad. However, never having that accusation revoked in the flip side situation (made over the phone this time by DJ Grooves after the Award ceremony) feels very off. The Conductor comes across as a fiercely proud perfectionist, and winning by cheating wouldn’t satisfy his kind of ego. It plays better if the Conductor had a really bad year one time (maybe his temper and drinking got in the way) and he just straight up lost, and started to work like crazy to a health-and-safety-violating level, driving his crew much harder and making his actors do stunts that are more dangerous than ever before so as to never lose again. Covering up his long list of unpaid bills, his ideas drying up after making two or more films a year for 42 years, or even giving him a more dark, emotional reason for winning the award every year might have given his motive the punch it needed- but we don’t get any exposition or emphasis on any of these things, and thus there is no ‘ah, okay, that makes sense’ point as there is with DJ Grooves.

At the end of the day who you prefer as the ‘bad guy’ for that level is up to you, and fighting the Conductor is undeniably fun as a bonus! But the combined effect of all these tiny pieces makes it hard for me to understand quite why they decided to change it, as it removes a great deal of compassion and redemption from the Conductor which he sorely needs to balance his (adorably) aggressive, grouchy old man act.

[lavadog]

Luca (2021) AU where Luca and Alberto meet each other and become friends in their human forms, neither realizing the other is a sea monster. Hijinks ensue with them both tying to keep their secret from the other.

[lavadog]

Little Nightmares AU where Six didn’t betray Mono, but soon after they escape the tower he goes all staticky and disappears from overusing his TV powers, leaving a devastated Six behind. And we find out the real reason she went to the Maw and got the Lady’s powers was so she could get Mono back.

[mickedy]

So, wondering, for your Failed Thinner Run AU, what is the exact moment Mickey decides to call it quits on the whole murder thing?

"the whole murder thing" vkck

i posted a few drawings abt it before, but ideally oswald would confront mickey just before the mad doctor fight, right in the lonesome manor, to tell him to knock it off.

and mickey, not falling for oswald's saccharine lego movie "you can do better" speech, attacks him

oswald does not fight back, and instead tries to push mickey back and calm him down with his level 100 speech bc honestly, oswald knows thinner would literally destroy him, and talking it out is really all he can do

and sooner or later, mickey gets tired. and mickey gets unnerved. and mickey just wants to stop all the fighting and chasing and running and razing, because for once, he's not being attacked. oswald isnt trying to destroy him or trick him or steal his heart, and that's...well

that's enough for mickey to drop his brush and fall to his knees.

and that's enough for him to listen to oswald for a moment

[mickedy]

OH good question uhhmhmhmhmhm....mickey and oswald would definitely have a more strained relationship, but os would be forced to be tag along bc he's the only one who can use the remote

so it's just long silence, no comfort, no talking......oswald is just here to get a job done

at first, probably, ortensia suggests the two of them work together, and oswald (unwillingly) agrees under one condition

(follow up to this post)

[lavadog]

Ok, but would Mickey actually want to come back?

For Mickey to even attempt a thinner run in the first place, he would have to be under the influence of the Blot via the piece of Blot inside of him. Mickey may have his flaws, but he's a good toon at heart, and this is something I can't see him doing while he's in his right mind. This isn't to say Mickey is blameless. He still caused the Thinner Disaster in the first place, and he would have had to have used enough thinner for the Blot's influence to grow strong enough to push him in the wrong direction. But he's not solely responsible.

It would take everything Mickey has in him to manage to break free of the Blot's influence and fail the thinner run, and when he does, he's horrified by what he's done. He still helps defeat the Blot, but he knows it won't make up for what he's done.

Once he gets home, there's no way that Mickey's friends wouldn't realize that there's something wrong with him (the dripping alone would give him away). With a little prodding, he'd confess what happened to him and what he did, and they'd get him (1) the therapy he needs, and (2) the medical attention he needs to get rid of the piece of Blot inside of him.

Yen Sid tells us in the opening narration of EM2 that the events of EM1 happened "not that long ago". Estimating that at ~6-8 months or so later (or even 2 years later if we're going by the real life time that passed between the release of EM1 and EM2), Mickey would be doing much better mentally and physically, but not all the way recovered mentally.

Gus's message comes in, and Mickey would have a lot of reasons to be conflicted about going back. Part of Mickey would want to go back and try to make up for what he did. But going back would also mean facing the toons he wronged, and beyond Gus, it's doubtful that any of them would actually want his help. Oswald in particular. Not to mention that he is still in therapy for all the traumatizing things that happened to him last time he was there.

Maybe, in another world, he finds the courage to come anyway. But I think it's interesting to consider the case where he doesn't. Maybe he decides that it's for the best if he just stays away. Or maybe he takes too long to find the resolve to go, and just as he's ready to leap through, Gus loses the connection. Whatever the reason, he doesn't come.

On the Wasteland side of things, I imagine that Gus tried to summon Mickey without Oswald's knowledge. When Oswald finds out about it, he expressly forbids Gus from trying again.

Oswald does not trust the Mad Doctor's so called "change of heart" but he'll play along for now. And he'll do it on his own. He doesn't need Mickey's help, and Gus is wrong for saying he does. Gus seems to have forgotten what happened the last time Mickey was here and what he did to everyone.

Only, he does need Mickey's help. To say that Oswald could do EM2 without Mickey completely discounts Mickey's help the same way it would to say Mickey could do EM2 without Oswald. Without Mickey, there's no one to (1) distract the enemies while Oswald reprograms them, (2) paint in the things that need painting (Ex. the gears in the fight with Prescott), and (3) no one to pull those simultaneous switches with. Ortensia or Gus could arguably do 1 and 3, but Oswald wouldn't want Ortensia in danger again so soon after getting her back, and Gus can only do so much.

Oswald would probably be able to manage by himself for a while, but eventually, I imagine he'd get captured by either Prescott, the Mad Doctor, or both. The reason the Mad Doctor and Prescott do not kill Oswald then and there is because they need him as a hostage. Part of the Mad Doctor's whole plan was to get Mickey to come. So if Mickey's not going to come to start with, then what better way to change his mind than needing to come save his brother? If Gus is with Oswald, they let Gus go so he can go summon Mickey. If Gus isn't, they make sure word reaches him.

So Gus attempts to summon Mickey again, and now, Mickey has another choice to make. He can either ignore the call again, or come help. And with his brother's life on the line, Mickey chooses to come.

[lavadog]

So one one hand, the Mad Doctor and Prescott could throw Oswald into a dungeon or something. But. Consider. Oswald has been shown to be able to remove his ears, head, arms, and legs with no ill effects. So what if the Mad Doctor scatters his parts around Wasteland similarly to how he scattered Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald's parts?

Just imagine how that conversation would have gone.

Mad Doctor: I scatted Oswald's parts all across Wasteland! Now he's no longer a problem.

Prescott: ...Has that worked out for you in the past?

Mad Doctor: Sure! Nobody ever put Animatronic Goofy, Daisy, or Donald back together once I scattered them. Not until Mickey arrived, anyway.

Prescott:

Prescott: You mean the same Mickey that is here right now?

Mad Doctor:

Prescott:

Mad Doctor: Is this a bad time to mention that I told Mickey were Oswald's head is?

I imagine that the Mad Doctor left Oswald's head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, with the rest of his parts scattered across Wasteland instead of just one area. And in all seriousness, the Mad Doctor would have told Mickey where the head was on purpose in order to distract him/lead him into a trap.

Mickey finds Oswald's head, and from there, he carries Oswald around with him searching for the rest of Oswald's parts. Oswald allows this because he is unwilling to let Mickey go around unsupervised, let alone unsupervised and in possession of any of Oswald's body parts. Mickey does this because he is unwilling to just (1) leave his brother in a place he hates, and (2) leave his brother without protection considering the Mad Doctor and Prescott are still at large and did this to him to begin with.

Using the ear logic from Mickey's "Bad Ear Day" short, Oswald starts off being unable to hear because his ears are gone, so Mickey quite literally lends Oswald one of his. They find Oswald's arm next, which Mickey attaches to the spot Oswald's other ear is supposed to go so Oswald can at least use his remote. From there, they find his other parts in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last.

In the mean time, it's a lot harder for Oswald to ignore Mickey and focus on getting the job done when Mickey's literally carrying him around. And because Oswald can't try to snap  the paintbrush right away, Mickey gets a chance to redeem himself by using it for good, and Oswald gets a chance to see him do this. I'd like to think that over the course of this, Mickey and Oswald's relationship slowly improves towards reconciliation.

And while the Mad Doctor and Prescott do make attempts to stop Mickey and Oswald, they certainly aren't wasting time while Mickey and Oswald are distracted...

[mickedy]

KFCKCJVJ THATS SO GOOD ASAAAAA

orb oswald tells you off

[lavadog]

THATS IT EXACTLY AAAAA I LOVE IT

So I've thought of some more headcanons to go along with this. I'll put it below a read more this time to avoid clogging your dashboards too much.

First, I want to answer a few questions I feel like I raised in the previous posts.

1) How does Oswald still have his remote? If he was captured, wouldn't the Mad Doctor and Prescott have either broken it or confiscated it so they could try to use it themselves?

I imagine that either A) Oswald managed to stash it in his hammerspace but is unable to retrieve it until he has one of his arms back, or B) Gus was with Oswald when he got captured, and Oswald quickly handed it over to Gus to prevent the Mad Doctor and Prescott from getting their hands on it. Gus gives it to Mickey to give back to Oswald, and Mickey gives it back once Oswald has a hand to hold it with again.

2) Isn't the Mad Doctor supposed to be pretending to be good in EM2?

He was! But looking back on it, why exactly was he pretending to be good to begin with? According to his pop up book that detailed his evil plan: He fooled Prescott into turning on his friends and building him a TV that allows him to broadcast his show to the cartoon world so that he can be remembered and leave Wasteland. He also wants to be a toon again after having made himself an animatronic in EM1 to be immune to the Blot, and knows the Guardians can make that happen. His plan will destroy Wasteland because he plans on pulling the Guardians out of Wasteland, which will render Wasteland and everyone in it inert. But what part of that really necessitates pretending to be good so that he can play Mickey and Oswald for fools? To throw suspicion off of himself after his attempts to suck up the Guardians caused those earthquakes so that Mickey and Oswald won't be able to stop him in time? If that's all, then he has no reason to pretend anymore once Oswald is taken care of.

3) How do Mickey and Oswald manage to find the rest of Oswald's parts if the Mad Doctor scattered them all throughout Wasteland?

A lot of searching, mostly. But I feel like once they get close enough, Oswald is able to tell that a part of him is close by. This helps a lot. Also, the Mad Doctor likely didn't leave any of Oswald's parts unguarded (including Oswald's head, which Mickey did have to fight to reach), which is ironically a pretty good indicator that they've found one.

4) When does Oswald get captured?

There's room for debate on this one. But if I had to give a specific moment, I'd say the Blotworx Dragon boss fight. It's the first real boss fight of the game, and far too much for Oswald to handle on his own. As an added bonus, once defeated, Oswald is already in the Mad Doctor's lair.

Anyway.

So to start with, I imagine that Oswald is not in high spirits. He tried handling things on his own and failed, which ended in his capture. Instead of being killed like he'd initially feared, the Mad Doctor does something arguably worse by scattering his parts across Wasteland and leaving his head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, which he hates. And now his only hope of becoming whole again is Mickey. The same Mickey who nearly destroyed Wasteland the last time he was here and who Oswald does not trust and also hates.

Starting out, despite the brave face he puts on, Oswald is probably low key terrified to be alone with Mickey like this. He's essentially helpless, and if Mickey changes his mind about finishing Oswald off, all he'd have to do is turn the brush on Oswald and spray. Despite his protests, Mickey lending Oswald an ear would actually go a long way towards mitigating this fear, since Oswald is pretty sure that Mickey wouldn't want to melt his own ear (So Oswald would at least get a little warning if it was coming via Mickey taking his ear back without finding one of Oswald's). But as time wears on, Oswald becomes increasingly sure/comes to realize that Mickey won't do that.

But even without that worry, Oswald's helplessness grates on him in other ways. Oswald claims to be letting Mickey carry him around, but he really doesn't have any choice in the matter either way. He wants to stick close to Mickey if only to keep an eye on him, but if Mickey decides at any point to put Oswald down and walk away, then what's Oswald going to do about it? Yell at his retreating figure? On a similar note, if Mickey starts thinning out Wasteland and other toons again, Oswald is equally as helpless to prevent that. Even after getting his remote back, Mickey wouldn't be too hard-pressed to smack it out of Oswald's hand.

Unrelated to Mickey, Oswald is also incapable of helping the other toons in Wasteland, who are being terrorized by the Mad Doctor and to a lesser extent Prescott.

Except. Mickey doesn't leave Oswald behind, and he doesn't hurt anyone or destroy anything. And to Oswald's surprise, instead of passing by other toons in trouble, Mickey stops to help them.

In fact, he goes out of his way to protect Oswald and make sure that no harm comes to him. If a Blotling gets too close to them and tries to rake Oswald in the face with their thinner claws, Mickey turns so that the claws rake across his back instead. Once the fight is over, Oswald can't do anything else but watch as Mickey sprays the area with paint to mostly heal it, wincing as he does so. And rinse and repeat.

Mickey stays mostly silent. He might have tried to make small talk with Oswald at first, but after being shut down a few times, he stops trying. He only speaks to answer any question directed at him or to tell Oswald something he thinks Oswald needs to know. Whether that be pointing out something Oswald can reprogram, or quietly assuring Oswald that Mickey won't hurt him or anyone else. Oswald immediately refutes the latter, of course, and is quick to remind Mickey of his past failings or to say something mean. And Mickey just takes it. He doesn't say anything to defend himself, because what is there to defend? He feels like he deserves everything that Oswald throws at him.

Mickey is also absolutely terrified of using thinner again. Which is a problem because some problems actually require the use of thinner to solve. The most prominent of these that comes to mind being the Beetleworx, which need to have their protective paint coating thinned away in order to destroy their more vulnerable insides. The first time Mickey and Oswald encounter Beetleworx, Mickey is barely able to produce even a trickle of thinner. After a lot of shouting on Oswald's part and almost dying a few times, Mickey finally manages to produce a steady stream of it and the Beetleworx is destroyed. Oswald is subsequently treated to a front row seat of Mickey's breakdown afterwards, wherein Mickey finds a small place to crawl into, curls up into a fetal position, and starts shaking and crying.

As the search wears on, I imagine that Oswald will try to actually talk to Mickey instead of just throwing insults or orders his way. Starting with asking why he decided to come back. Especially considering that he didn't the first time Gus contacted him. Mickey's answer is simple: "Gus told me you were in trouble." Oswald scoffs at this, because since when did Mickey actually care about him? But even he can't deny that Mickey is here with him now helping Oswald put himself back together even though it's not Mickey's problem.

They slowly find Oswald piece by piece, and as previously stated, this is in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last. If I was pressed to give the order in which they find them, I'd say something like arm, ear, ear, leg, arm, leg, torso. But there's some wiggle room there.

This means that at one point, they find one of Oswald's legs and go a while before finding the other one. With his mobility partially restored, Oswald insists on hopping around on his one leg and refuses to let Mickey continue to carry him. This doesn't work very well. It's extremely tiring to have to hop everywhere he goes, and he also can't go that fast while doing it. He refuses to admit to any of this, of course, and a part of him hates that he appreciates how considerate Mickey is being about the whole thing. How he slows down so that Oswald doesn't have to struggle to keep up, and pretends to buy Oswald's excuses to stop when he gets tired. Despite this slowing them down significantly, Mickey never once picks Oswald up again unless he needs to because they are being chased by a Blotling or Beetleworx and Oswald can't out hop them.

That's all I got for now.

[lavadog]

Through all of this, there's also the question of if the Mad Doctor's evil plot should remain the same. Obviously there has to be some changes now that Prescott wasn't defeated on schedule, but should anything else have changed?

Let's start by examining the Mad Doctor's motivations in EM1 and EM2. His motivations are similar, but also pretty different between the two games when you think about it.

In EM1, his main motivation is wanting to rule Wasteland. If we look at all of his actions through this lens, it puts a lot of them in a more sinister light:

When the Mad Doctor first arrived in Wasteland, he wouldn't have had any resources whatsoever to try to conquer it with. And there's no way that Oswald would have sat idly by while the Mad Doctor tried to build up those resources. Unless Oswald didn't realize what they were for, that is. So the Mad Doctor bides his time. He befriends Oswald instead of making an enemy out of him straight away and slowly but surely gains his trust. He does nice things for Oswald like helping him build Animatronic Goofy, Donald, and Daisy for seemingly no other reason than to make Oswald happy, and he pitches the Beetleworx as cheerful little helpers that are meant to make life easier for everyone. With how much the Mad Doctor was able to take over after he switched sides, I imagine that Oswald trusted the Mad Doctor enough to let him do what he wanted with very little oversight. Had the Blot not happened, the Mad Doctor would have tried to take over on his own once he felt like he had everything he needed to overthrow Oswald.

But the Blot does happen, and suddenly, the Mad Doctor has another option. He doesn't have to play nice with Oswald anymore. So he switches sides. That doesn't mean he trusts the Blot to deliver on the power it promises him, though. He outright expects the Blot to betray him in the end when it sucks all the paint out of Wasteland, which is why he turns himself into an animatronic. He reasons that once the Blot wins, animatronics will be the only survivors, and he'll rule over Wasteland as its Mechanical King.

With that said, one has to wonder if this is really how he wanted to rule Wasteland. Who would he even be ruling over? The only animatronics we see are the Beetleworx, the Pirates, and Animatronic Goofy, Daisy, and Donald. But this might just be him making the best of a less than ideal situation. Being the mechanical genius that he is, he could always build animatronic versions of Oswald and the other toons if he wanted to.

The ironic thing about this is that if the Mad Doctor hadn't switched sides and had worked with Oswald instead, they likely could have defeated the Blot together. But the Mad Doctor is nothing if not a coward, and rather than risk himself, he wanted to be on what he saw as the winning side.

Except, after the Mad Doctor switches sides, Oswald still manages to bottle up the Blot. And fast-forwarding to years later when the events of EM1 start, Oswald and the other toons are still putting up enough of a fight that the Mad Doctor and the Blot haven't completely taken over.

So then we have the events of EM1. The Mad Doctor does try to steal Mickey's heart after he arrives in Wasteland, but I got the impression that the Mad Doctor did this for the Blot, not so that he could use it to escape Wasteland like he wants to in EM2. After Mickey escapes, we don't see the Mad Doctor again until his boss battle in the attic of the Lonesome Manor. Mickey and Gus send him flying, and unknown to us, he eventually crash lands in Autotopia where he immediately sets up shop.

This brings us to EM2, wherein the Mad Doctor's motivations have shifted from wanting to rule Wasteland, to wanting to leave Wasteland and become the greatest villain the Cartoon World has ever known. And right away, I have to ask why. Assuming that his motivation since arriving in Wasteland was to take it over, why give up on that now? Why does he suddenly want to be remembered? If being remembered is so important to him, then why didn't he try something like this earlier? If he can't even best Oswald and Mickey, then what makes him think he can make it as a villain in the Cartoon World? Wasteland is a much safer bet. Especially with the Blot gone. He does state that he plans on using the brush to make himself this great villain, but he seems to have forgotten that the brush actually belongs to Yin Sid, and Yin Sid certainly isn't going to let him keep it once he leaves Wasteland.

I'd also like to question if the Mad Doctor's plot to be remembered was really going to work or not. His final boss fight seems to imply that it did. He has his ride set to pull the Guardians out of Wasteland and he's ready to steal the brush from Mickey to become the greatest villain of all time when he enters the Cartoon World. But it's never explicitly confirmed that he successfully regained his heart. Could it be that he was bluffing? Can he even be properly remembered while he's still an animatronic and no longer a toon?

I can understand why the Mad Doctor doesn't want to be an animatronic anymore now that he's starting to break down and no longer needs to be one to protect himself from the Blot, but I can't help but wonder if wanting to leave Wasteland is really what his motivation should be right now.

Of course, just because his plan won't work out, that doesn't mean the Mad Doctor can't be confident that it will. Maybe he's tired of Wasteland. Maybe he wants to move on to bigger and better things.

But. Consider. Maybe instead of leaving, his real goal is more along the lines of getting rid of Oswald and Mickey. With his two biggest threats gone, then there will be no one that can stop him. And if anyone tries, the brush that he plans on stealing from Mickey will make him unstoppable. The only one that might be able to stop him is Yin Sid, but if the Blot and Mickey's Blot-induced rampage have proven anything, it's that Yin Sid isn't inclined to take action to help Wasteland no matter how badly it needs it.

With no one around to stop him, he has all the time he needs to bring any evil plan he can think of to fruition. He doesn't have to hide or scheme or do things in one fell swoop to avoid being stopped by the heroes. Instead of rushing off to the Cartoon World with the brush, he can find a way to replicate its powers and make it so Yen Sid can't take it from him if he ever gets bored ruling Wasteland and wants to move on.

That's where the whole "getting remembered" plot comes in. He may not plan on acting on it now, but it provides a distraction from his real goals and is an easy way to help sway Prescott to his side. Why Prescott? Because he's an easy target.

Prescott considers himself to be a misunderstood genius who isn't getting the attention he deserves and is having his talents wasted. So what would be easier for the Mad Doctor than promising Prescott that he has a way to get them both remembered? Even if that doesn't end up working, the Mad Doctor can also promise that Prescott's talents will never go to waste and he'll get the recognition he deserves if the Mad Doctor is made the ruler of Wasteland.

The Mad Doctor needs Prescott because he can't build the TV that broadcasts the show on his own. Or at least, I assume that's the case since he didn't build it himself. The same could possibly be said of inventing something that will force the Guardians to make the Mad Doctor a toon again. Prescott is also just a good pawn to have. It the Blotworx Dragon hadn't done Oswald in, then Prescott's boss fight likely would have.

And while Mickey and Oswald are busy, the Mad Doctor and Prescott prepare for one final, deadly confrontation.

Why would the Mad Doctor's plan have changed like this? He was inspired by watching Mickey's Blot-induced rampage. Mickey certainly took care of a lot of his problems by thinning them out. And while I'm not so sure Mickey actually permanently killed anyone since paint can restore a thinned out toon, it gave the Mad Doctor the idea of permanently taking care of his problems, namely Mickey and Oswald. This isn't to say he's never tried to kill them before, but it was always in a "because you're getting in my way and trying to stop me" kind of way, not the main goal. Once he takes care of them, he'll be free to do just about anything he wants at his leisure. Which I'm sure is a relief after having to play nice with Oswald for years and then having to worry about the Blot for years after that. He just needs that brush first.

But if the Mad Doctor's whole plan centers on getting rid of Oswald and Mickey, then why not kill Oswald after managing to take him down? That would have been the next step, but Mickey didn't show up with the brush when he was supposed to. If he's not going to show up just because Wasteland is in trouble, then maybe he'll show up because his brother is in trouble.

Or at least, that's what the Mad Doctor tells himself. He could have just went ahead and killed Oswald anyway and pretended to be holding him prisoner to the same effect. But if Mickey does show up and finds out that the Mad Doctor killed his brother, the Mad Doctor's going to have an angry mouse with the powers of creation/destruction coming after him. And more than that, it's personal with Oswald.

The Mad Doctor is someone who revels in his villainy and embraces the melodrama of it all. He's been trying to defeat Oswald for decades, and now that he finally has Oswald in his clutches, there's no way he can resist the opportunity to torment him. Why simply kill him when he can do something far, far worse? Because when you pretend to be somebody's friend for years and they grow to trust you, you learn all kinds of things about them. Like what they're afraid of.

What is Oswald afraid of? Being helpless is a given. Not being able to help the people he loves is another. But more than anything else, Oswald fears being left alone. Reduced to nothing more than a head, the rest of his body scattered across Wasteland, Oswald hasn't been this alone and helpless since he lost Ortensia.

Can we just stop for a moment to imagine the situation Oswald is in? He is completely alone and unable to move. He can't do anything, least of all help himself. Without his ears, the only thing he's capable of hearing is the sound of his own voice. He's back at the place he spent decades isolating himself at to make sure that the Blot didn't escape its bottle, but now Mickeyjunk Mountain has become his prison instead. The Mad Doctor hasn't left him unguarded, and until Mickey gets there, is there really any toon in Wasteland that is both capable of helping him and would care to do so? The Gremlins and Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald would get themselves caught, the Petes and Lonesome Ghosts wouldn't care, and the Pirates are, well, pirates. There's Ortensia, but between EM1 and EM2 we never get to see her in action so we have no idea how well she could handle herself. And that's assuming they even know that his body has been scattered around Wasteland and his head is at Mickeyjunk Mountain. The Mad Doctor is only going to tell Mickey that because he's trying to lure Mickey into a trap.

The Mad Doctor might have let it slip that Oswald is being used as bait to lure Mickey here, but isn't that a laugh? Oswald is certain that Mickey doesn't care about him and would sooner use the opportunity to finish him off. As far as Oswald is aware, he's never getting out of here. And to top it all off, I imagine that Oswald would have been here for at least a day or two since it would take time for Gus to contact Mickey, Mickey to arrive and find out where Oswald is being held, and for Mickey to find him.

And that's not even getting into how the Mad Doctor left him there to begin with. Because you just know that the Mad Doctor waited for Oswald to regain consciousness after having been knocked out during his capture before taking him apart. Being the melodramatic guy that he is, I'm sure the Mad Doctor had an entire victory speech planned, and to finish it all off, he probably left Oswald's head on his throne at Mickeyjunk Mountain himself.

Speaking of Oswald and the Mad Doctor's relationship, can you just imagine how much the Mad Doctor's betrayal must have hurt? Oswald was only a year old when he was abandoned by both of his dads, and with the alternate history this game seems to be running on, Oswald was forgotten not long afterwards. Not only that, but some two seconds after abandoning him, they made Mickey to replace him with. Oswald starts to make a life for himself in Wasteland, only for the Blot to happen. And then the Mad Doctor, someone Oswald considered to be one of his closest friends and one of his most valuable assets in winning the war against the Blot, suddenly reveals that "Oh by the way I never cared about you, I was never really your friend, and I was just plotting to overthrow you this whole time. What an idiot you turned out to be, huh? Excuse me while I go ruin everything we worked so hard to achieve."

On top of being abandoned by his dads, I can't imagine how much that must have shaken Oswald's confidence in forming relationships. Not to mention his ability to not just trust others, but trust that they actually care about him. And while I'm sure that Oswald knows that Ortensia, Gus, Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald, and his children can't reach him, I think it says something that the person who does end up coming for him is Mickey.

[lavadog]

Okay, this last part is super self-indulgent, so be warned. But here's the climax/ending I imagined:

As the search for Oswald's body parts wears on, I imagine that Oswald would grow increasingly unsure about what to think of Mickey.

Before meeting Mickey, Oswald spent years hating and spiting and rejecting him. It wasn't Mickey's fault that he replaced Oswald, but resentment isn't always a rational thing, and it was easier to push all that frustration onto Mickey than acknowledge that it was Walt and Ub that did the replacing after they abandoned him.

Upon meeting Mickey, those thoughts felt justified. Mickey nearly destroyed Wasteland, and despite repenting at the last second and helping to defeat the Blot, that didn't change what he'd done.

Except now, Mickey is like a totally different person. And to be perfectly honest, he is. This is the real Mickey. Not the image Oswald built up in his head before meeting Mickey, and not the Mickey that the Blot twisted into someone he wasn't.

Oswald isn't prepared to meet the real Mickey.

Oswald isn't prepared for just how nice Mickey is. No matter what insult or accusation Oswald throws a Mickey, deserved or not, Oswald can't get a rise out of him like he could while Mickey was under the influence of the Blot. Mickey just accepts it. And even though Oswald is effectively helpless, Mickey is very careful to not take advantage of it. Not even in the little ways, like "accidentally" poking Oswald in the eye or holding Oswald's head in a way that would make him uncomfortable in retaliation for a particularly hurtful comment. When Oswald does regain some of his mobility, Mickey does his best to accommodate him.

Oswald isn't prepared for how Mickey listens to him. The first time they come across other toons in trouble and Oswald shouts at Mickey to help them, Oswald is sure that Mickey is going to ignore him. But Mickey rushes to their aid. More than that, Mickey works with Oswald. If Oswald needs to get close to a control panel to reprogram it, Mickey takes him to it instead of discounting Oswald's help and doing things on his own. If Oswald comes up with a plan, Mickey follows it, improvising as necessary. Despite Oswald being handicapped, the two of them actually make a great team.

Oswald soon comes to realize that he doesn't have to order Mickey to help anyone, because Mickey will do so without being prompted. With the two of them helping out so many toons, Oswald is actually probably the last one to forgive Mickey for what he did. Because if the Wasteland toons in EM2 can forgive the Mad Doctor after years of tormenting them because he sings a little song and helps with some repairs, then I think they'd be willing to give Mickey a second chance after he helps them and proves to them that he's sorry. Horace and Clarabelle are probably the first in line, because they knew Mickey before all of this and knew that what he did in EM1 wasn't like him. They're just relieved to see him acting like the toon they know him to be. Oswald, of course, witnesses all of this.

Oswald isn't prepared to find out just how traumatized Mickey is about the events of EM1. He probably knew, at least a little bit, that the Blot had a role in how far off the deep end Mickey went. But he didn't truly understand the breadth of it, not really. Mickey can barely use thinner now without having a breakdown, and even then, Oswald can feel him shaking afterwards. Some time into their search, Oswald gets Mickey to sit down and explain it to him, and Mickey does so haltingly. Mickey explains how it started off innocently at first. He only used thinner on the Blotlings or if he had to get past some obstacle like stopping the spinning gear platforms so he didn't slide off. But things got more dangerous, and he started using it more and more. And in the process, he began to feel less and less like himself until he wasn't anymore. He isn't sure how he managed to snap out of it in the end, but a big part of what let him do it was Oswald, and Mickey's eternally grateful for that. Oswald isn't sure how to feel about learning any of this. But if he is sure about anything, it's that Mickey deeply regrets his actions and isn't going to hurt anyone again.

Oswald absolutely isn't prepared when he starts to genuinely care about Mickey.

The search for Oswald's parts finally ends when they find his torso, and Oswald is whole once more. At this point, Oswald trusts Mickey enough that he doesn't try to take the brush from him. Or if Oswald isn't quite ready to admit to himself that he trusts Mickey yet, he can at least admit that it's laughable that Mickey would try to use thinner to hurt someone when he practically starts crying every time he uses it. Together, they skip over Prescott's boss fight to find the Guardian siphons and shut them down, their teamwork better than ever before now that Oswald is fully capable again.

Then it comes time for the final boss, except this time, they have both the Mad Doctor and Prescott to deal with at once. They fight, and even working together, Oswald and Mickey struggle. The Mad Doctor and Prescott are aiming to kill, and both of them at once is not only difficult to handle, but also very dangerous. And naturally, the fight takes place near a body of thinner, which adds to the danger. But the Mad Doctor and Prescott can't beat Oswald and Mickey now that they're working together as a team. At some point during the fight, they mange to take out Prescott, leaving them with just the Mad Doctor to deal with. The rest of the details of this fight aren't too important until we get to the end.

Whatever machine the Mad Doctor built to fight them with is just about destroyed thanks to Oswald and Mickey's teamwork, but before they can land the final blow, a second earthquake hits. It sends the machine over the edge and into the thinner with the Mad Doctor inside. This should be a good thing, but Oswald and Mickey aren't faring much better. Mickey gets the brush knocked out of his hand, but he manages to stay on solid ground and away from the thinner. Oswald isn't so lucky. He nearly falls into the thinner with the Mad Doctor, but just barely manages to hold on with one hand. Oswald dangles over the thinner, his grip slipping, and he calls out for Mickey to come help him. And Mickey? Mickey has a choice to make. Because the brush also got knocked towards the ledge and is now teetering back and forth precariously on it. Mickey doesn't have time to save both. He's depended on that brush for so long that it feels like a part of him, and losing it would mean losing that part of himself, but he doesn't hesitate to rush to Oswald's side and help him up. They stare at each other, breathless, as the brush falls into the thinner and is lost to them.

They've won. They tentatively simile at each other, but before they can celebrate, the Mad Doctor rises back out of the thinner in his Machine, holding the brush in his hand. Oswald and Mickey stare at the Mad Doctor in horror as he points the brush at them with an evil grin, the brush growing wet with thinner as he prepares to erase the both of them from existence.

The Mad Doctor fires the thinner, and Mickey has just enough presence of mind to shove Oswald out of the way, saving Oswald but dooming himself. Mickey melts into a puddle, and Oswald watches numbly as the red of what was once Mickey's shorts mixes with his black and white paint. Mickey's ears are the last to go, holding form for a moment longer before they're gone too.

The Mad Doctor laughs maniacally, stepping out of his machine and letting it tumble back into the thinner behind him. It's useless to him now anyway. He taunts Oswald, giving what is left of Mickey a vicious kick as he advances on Oswald menacingly, intent on dragging out Oswald's final moments.

And Oswald? Oswald snaps. "That's. My. Brother." It's just the Mad Doctor and him now, and unluckily for the Mad Doctor, Oswald has experience fighting against the power of the brush. He taunts the Mad Doctor, letting him know that Mickey was better at using it than the Mad Doctor will ever be, but Mickey still hasn't managed to best him with it. And now? Now, Oswald needs that brush if he has any hope of bringing Mickey back, and nothing is going to stop him from getting it.

The two of them clash, the Mad Doctor spraying thinner every chance he gets. Oswald dodges the thinner, fighting back with his remote. As the fight wears on, Oswald slowly gains ground, forcing the Mad Doctor back towards the ledge. When he finally gets close enough, Oswald makes a grab for the brush and they struggle against one another. The Mad Doctor tries to point the brush towards Oswald, and Oswald tries to rip it out of the Mad Doctor's hands while also avoiding getting a face full of thinner. Just when it seems like the Mad Doctor might actually succeed, Oswald's luck wins out and the Mad Doctor trips, allowing Oswald to deliver a final kick that sends the Mad Doctor tumbling into the body of thinner as he rips the brush out of the Mad Doctor's hands.

Oswald turns to find Mickey so that he can restore him, but when he does, he freezes, horror slowly dawning on his face. Because it wasn't just luck that the Mad Doctor tripped at that crucial moment. Their fight had unknowingly brought them back to Mickey's puddle, and the Mad Doctor had tripped when he'd stepped into it, losing his footing and skidding straight through it.

And here's the thing. A thinned out toon can be restored by paint, but they kind of still need to be there to get restored. At this point, Mickey's puddle has been scattered by being kicked and a part of it is now gone, having been sent over the edge with the Mad Doctor into the thinner. Most of Mickey is still there, but it might not be enough. Oswald falls to his knees, doing his best to push what's left of Mickey's puddle back together with shaking hands before using the brush to spray it with paint. Nothing happens. Oswald sprays the puddle again, and again, nothing happens. He sprays a third time, but now, there's more blue in the puddle than black, white, and red, and it's still not working.

Oswald demands that Mickey pull himself back together. He threatens. He begs. But nothing happens, and Oswald falls into despair, his head bowed. Maybe as an afterthought, he gives Mickey a little shock with his remote, as if that'll somehow jolt him back to life. It feels suddenly like Oswald wasted these past decades. Wasted them hating Mickey when Mickey never would have wanted to steal anything from him. Wasted what little time they had together being angry and unwilling to give Mickey a second chance when he'd come back to try to right the wrongs he'd committed and help Oswald become whole again. And now there's never going to be another opportunity for them to get to know each other because Mickey is gone.

Something moves in front of him, and Oswald looks back up. Mickey's ears have reformed in their puddle, and a moment later, Mickey belatedly pulls himself back together, dazed and disoriented and a little worse for wear but alive. He doesn't have time to gather his wits before Oswald pulls him into a fierce hug, and ever so slowly, Mickey returns it.

They've won for real this time, and Oswald is finally ready to forgive Mickey and give being brothers a try. Mickey never expected Oswald to forgive him, but now that Oswald has, Mickey is never going to do anything to damage that trust again.

[mickedy]

TGIS IS SO GODO IM LOVEKVJVKV NCM. SNIFF. I LVOED READING YHIS CMCNCN

[mickedy]

OH good question uhhmhmhmhmhm....mickey and oswald would definitely have a more strained relationship, but os would be forced to be tag along bc he's the only one who can use the remote

so it's just long silence, no comfort, no talking......oswald is just here to get a job done

at first, probably, ortensia suggests the two of them work together, and oswald (unwillingly) agrees under one condition

(follow up to this post)

[lavadog]

Ok, but would Mickey actually want to come back?

For Mickey to even attempt a thinner run in the first place, he would have to be under the influence of the Blot via the piece of Blot inside of him. Mickey may have his flaws, but he's a good toon at heart, and this is something I can't see him doing while he's in his right mind. This isn't to say Mickey is blameless. He still caused the Thinner Disaster in the first place, and he would have had to have used enough thinner for the Blot's influence to grow strong enough to push him in the wrong direction. But he's not solely responsible.

It would take everything Mickey has in him to manage to break free of the Blot's influence and fail the thinner run, and when he does, he's horrified by what he's done. He still helps defeat the Blot, but he knows it won't make up for what he's done.

Once he gets home, there's no way that Mickey's friends wouldn't realize that there's something wrong with him (the dripping alone would give him away). With a little prodding, he'd confess what happened to him and what he did, and they'd get him (1) the therapy he needs, and (2) the medical attention he needs to get rid of the piece of Blot inside of him.

Yen Sid tells us in the opening narration of EM2 that the events of EM1 happened "not that long ago". Estimating that at ~6-8 months or so later (or even 2 years later if we're going by the real life time that passed between the release of EM1 and EM2), Mickey would be doing much better mentally and physically, but not all the way recovered mentally.

Gus's message comes in, and Mickey would have a lot of reasons to be conflicted about going back. Part of Mickey would want to go back and try to make up for what he did. But going back would also mean facing the toons he wronged, and beyond Gus, it's doubtful that any of them would actually want his help. Oswald in particular. Not to mention that he is still in therapy for all the traumatizing things that happened to him last time he was there.

Maybe, in another world, he finds the courage to come anyway. But I think it's interesting to consider the case where he doesn't. Maybe he decides that it's for the best if he just stays away. Or maybe he takes too long to find the resolve to go, and just as he's ready to leap through, Gus loses the connection. Whatever the reason, he doesn't come.

On the Wasteland side of things, I imagine that Gus tried to summon Mickey without Oswald's knowledge. When Oswald finds out about it, he expressly forbids Gus from trying again.

Oswald does not trust the Mad Doctor's so called "change of heart" but he'll play along for now. And he'll do it on his own. He doesn't need Mickey's help, and Gus is wrong for saying he does. Gus seems to have forgotten what happened the last time Mickey was here and what he did to everyone.

Only, he does need Mickey's help. To say that Oswald could do EM2 without Mickey completely discounts Mickey's help the same way it would to say Mickey could do EM2 without Oswald. Without Mickey, there's no one to (1) distract the enemies while Oswald reprograms them, (2) paint in the things that need painting (Ex. the gears in the fight with Prescott), and (3) no one to pull those simultaneous switches with. Ortensia or Gus could arguably do 1 and 3, but Oswald wouldn't want Ortensia in danger again so soon after getting her back, and Gus can only do so much.

Oswald would probably be able to manage by himself for a while, but eventually, I imagine he'd get captured by either Prescott, the Mad Doctor, or both. The reason the Mad Doctor and Prescott do not kill Oswald then and there is because they need him as a hostage. Part of the Mad Doctor's whole plan was to get Mickey to come. So if Mickey's not going to come to start with, then what better way to change his mind than needing to come save his brother? If Gus is with Oswald, they let Gus go so he can go summon Mickey. If Gus isn't, they make sure word reaches him.

So Gus attempts to summon Mickey again, and now, Mickey has another choice to make. He can either ignore the call again, or come help. And with his brother's life on the line, Mickey chooses to come.

[lavadog]

So one one hand, the Mad Doctor and Prescott could throw Oswald into a dungeon or something. But. Consider. Oswald has been shown to be able to remove his ears, head, arms, and legs with no ill effects. So what if the Mad Doctor scatters his parts around Wasteland similarly to how he scattered Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald's parts?

Just imagine how that conversation would have gone.

Mad Doctor: I scatted Oswald's parts all across Wasteland! Now he's no longer a problem.

Prescott: ...Has that worked out for you in the past?

Mad Doctor: Sure! Nobody ever put Animatronic Goofy, Daisy, or Donald back together once I scattered them. Not until Mickey arrived, anyway.

Prescott:

Prescott: You mean the same Mickey that is here right now?

Mad Doctor:

Prescott:

Mad Doctor: Is this a bad time to mention that I told Mickey were Oswald's head is?

I imagine that the Mad Doctor left Oswald's head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, with the rest of his parts scattered across Wasteland instead of just one area. And in all seriousness, the Mad Doctor would have told Mickey where the head was on purpose in order to distract him/lead him into a trap.

Mickey finds Oswald's head, and from there, he carries Oswald around with him searching for the rest of Oswald's parts. Oswald allows this because he is unwilling to let Mickey go around unsupervised, let alone unsupervised and in possession of any of Oswald's body parts. Mickey does this because he is unwilling to just (1) leave his brother in a place he hates, and (2) leave his brother without protection considering the Mad Doctor and Prescott are still at large and did this to him to begin with.

Using the ear logic from Mickey's "Bad Ear Day" short, Oswald starts off being unable to hear because his ears are gone, so Mickey quite literally lends Oswald one of his. They find Oswald's arm next, which Mickey attaches to the spot Oswald's other ear is supposed to go so Oswald can at least use his remote. From there, they find his other parts in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last.

In the mean time, it's a lot harder for Oswald to ignore Mickey and focus on getting the job done when Mickey's literally carrying him around. And because Oswald can't try to snap  the paintbrush right away, Mickey gets a chance to redeem himself by using it for good, and Oswald gets a chance to see him do this. I'd like to think that over the course of this, Mickey and Oswald's relationship slowly improves towards reconciliation.

And while the Mad Doctor and Prescott do make attempts to stop Mickey and Oswald, they certainly aren't wasting time while Mickey and Oswald are distracted...

[mickedy]

KFCKCJVJ THATS SO GOOD ASAAAAA

orb oswald tells you off

[lavadog]

THATS IT EXACTLY AAAAA I LOVE IT

So I've thought of some more headcanons to go along with this. I'll put it below a read more this time to avoid clogging your dashboards too much.

First, I want to answer a few questions I feel like I raised in the previous posts.

1) How does Oswald still have his remote? If he was captured, wouldn't the Mad Doctor and Prescott have either broken it or confiscated it so they could try to use it themselves?

I imagine that either A) Oswald managed to stash it in his hammerspace but is unable to retrieve it until he has one of his arms back, or B) Gus was with Oswald when he got captured, and Oswald quickly handed it over to Gus to prevent the Mad Doctor and Prescott from getting their hands on it. Gus gives it to Mickey to give back to Oswald, and Mickey gives it back once Oswald has a hand to hold it with again.

2) Isn't the Mad Doctor supposed to be pretending to be good in EM2?

He was! But looking back on it, why exactly was he pretending to be good to begin with? According to his pop up book that detailed his evil plan: He fooled Prescott into turning on his friends and building him a TV that allows him to broadcast his show to the cartoon world so that he can be remembered and leave Wasteland. He also wants to be a toon again after having made himself an animatronic in EM1 to be immune to the Blot, and knows the Guardians can make that happen. His plan will destroy Wasteland because he plans on pulling the Guardians out of Wasteland, which will render Wasteland and everyone in it inert. But what part of that really necessitates pretending to be good so that he can play Mickey and Oswald for fools? To throw suspicion off of himself after his attempts to suck up the Guardians caused those earthquakes so that Mickey and Oswald won't be able to stop him in time? If that's all, then he has no reason to pretend anymore once Oswald is taken care of.

3) How do Mickey and Oswald manage to find the rest of Oswald's parts if the Mad Doctor scattered them all throughout Wasteland?

A lot of searching, mostly. But I feel like once they get close enough, Oswald is able to tell that a part of him is close by. This helps a lot. Also, the Mad Doctor likely didn't leave any of Oswald's parts unguarded (including Oswald's head, which Mickey did have to fight to reach), which is ironically a pretty good indicator that they've found one.

4) When does Oswald get captured?

There's room for debate on this one. But if I had to give a specific moment, I'd say the Blotworx Dragon boss fight. It's the first real boss fight of the game, and far too much for Oswald to handle on his own. As an added bonus, once defeated, Oswald is already in the Mad Doctor's lair.

Anyway.

So to start with, I imagine that Oswald is not in high spirits. He tried handling things on his own and failed, which ended in his capture. Instead of being killed like he'd initially feared, the Mad Doctor does something arguably worse by scattering his parts across Wasteland and leaving his head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, which he hates. And now his only hope of becoming whole again is Mickey. The same Mickey who nearly destroyed Wasteland the last time he was here and who Oswald does not trust and also hates.

Starting out, despite the brave face he puts on, Oswald is probably low key terrified to be alone with Mickey like this. He's essentially helpless, and if Mickey changes his mind about finishing Oswald off, all he'd have to do is turn the brush on Oswald and spray. Despite his protests, Mickey lending Oswald an ear would actually go a long way towards mitigating this fear, since Oswald is pretty sure that Mickey wouldn't want to melt his own ear (So Oswald would at least get a little warning if it was coming via Mickey taking his ear back without finding one of Oswald's). But as time wears on, Oswald becomes increasingly sure/comes to realize that Mickey won't do that.

But even without that worry, Oswald's helplessness grates on him in other ways. Oswald claims to be letting Mickey carry him around, but he really doesn't have any choice in the matter either way. He wants to stick close to Mickey if only to keep an eye on him, but if Mickey decides at any point to put Oswald down and walk away, then what's Oswald going to do about it? Yell at his retreating figure? On a similar note, if Mickey starts thinning out Wasteland and other toons again, Oswald is equally as helpless to prevent that. Even after getting his remote back, Mickey wouldn't be too hard-pressed to smack it out of Oswald's hand.

Unrelated to Mickey, Oswald is also incapable of helping the other toons in Wasteland, who are being terrorized by the Mad Doctor and to a lesser extent Prescott.

Except. Mickey doesn't leave Oswald behind, and he doesn't hurt anyone or destroy anything. And to Oswald's surprise, instead of passing by other toons in trouble, Mickey stops to help them.

In fact, he goes out of his way to protect Oswald and make sure that no harm comes to him. If a Blotling gets too close to them and tries to rake Oswald in the face with their thinner claws, Mickey turns so that the claws rake across his back instead. Once the fight is over, Oswald can't do anything else but watch as Mickey sprays the area with paint to mostly heal it, wincing as he does so. And rinse and repeat.

Mickey stays mostly silent. He might have tried to make small talk with Oswald at first, but after being shut down a few times, he stops trying. He only speaks to answer any question directed at him or to tell Oswald something he thinks Oswald needs to know. Whether that be pointing out something Oswald can reprogram, or quietly assuring Oswald that Mickey won't hurt him or anyone else. Oswald immediately refutes the latter, of course, and is quick to remind Mickey of his past failings or to say something mean. And Mickey just takes it. He doesn't say anything to defend himself, because what is there to defend? He feels like he deserves everything that Oswald throws at him.

Mickey is also absolutely terrified of using thinner again. Which is a problem because some problems actually require the use of thinner to solve. The most prominent of these that comes to mind being the Beetleworx, which need to have their protective paint coating thinned away in order to destroy their more vulnerable insides. The first time Mickey and Oswald encounter Beetleworx, Mickey is barely able to produce even a trickle of thinner. After a lot of shouting on Oswald's part and almost dying a few times, Mickey finally manages to produce a steady stream of it and the Beetleworx is destroyed. Oswald is subsequently treated to a front row seat of Mickey's breakdown afterwards, wherein Mickey finds a small place to crawl into, curls up into a fetal position, and starts shaking and crying.

As the search wears on, I imagine that Oswald will try to actually talk to Mickey instead of just throwing insults or orders his way. Starting with asking why he decided to come back. Especially considering that he didn't the first time Gus contacted him. Mickey's answer is simple: "Gus told me you were in trouble." Oswald scoffs at this, because since when did Mickey actually care about him? But even he can't deny that Mickey is here with him now helping Oswald put himself back together even though it's not Mickey's problem.

They slowly find Oswald piece by piece, and as previously stated, this is in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last. If I was pressed to give the order in which they find them, I'd say something like arm, ear, ear, leg, arm, leg, torso. But there's some wiggle room there.

This means that at one point, they find one of Oswald's legs and go a while before finding the other one. With his mobility partially restored, Oswald insists on hopping around on his one leg and refuses to let Mickey continue to carry him. This doesn't work very well. It's extremely tiring to have to hop everywhere he goes, and he also can't go that fast while doing it. He refuses to admit to any of this, of course, and a part of him hates that he appreciates how considerate Mickey is being about the whole thing. How he slows down so that Oswald doesn't have to struggle to keep up, and pretends to buy Oswald's excuses to stop when he gets tired. Despite this slowing them down significantly, Mickey never once picks Oswald up again unless he needs to because they are being chased by a Blotling or Beetleworx and Oswald can't out hop them.

That's all I got for now.

[lavadog]

Through all of this, there's also the question of if the Mad Doctor's evil plot should remain the same. Obviously there has to be some changes now that Prescott wasn't defeated on schedule, but should anything else have changed?

Let's start by examining the Mad Doctor's motivations in EM1 and EM2. His motivations are similar, but also pretty different between the two games when you think about it.

In EM1, his main motivation is wanting to rule Wasteland. If we look at all of his actions through this lens, it puts a lot of them in a more sinister light:

When the Mad Doctor first arrived in Wasteland, he wouldn't have had any resources whatsoever to try to conquer it with. And there's no way that Oswald would have sat idly by while the Mad Doctor tried to build up those resources. Unless Oswald didn't realize what they were for, that is. So the Mad Doctor bides his time. He befriends Oswald instead of making an enemy out of him straight away and slowly but surely gains his trust. He does nice things for Oswald like helping him build Animatronic Goofy, Donald, and Daisy for seemingly no other reason than to make Oswald happy, and he pitches the Beetleworx as cheerful little helpers that are meant to make life easier for everyone. With how much the Mad Doctor was able to take over after he switched sides, I imagine that Oswald trusted the Mad Doctor enough to let him do what he wanted with very little oversight. Had the Blot not happened, the Mad Doctor would have tried to take over on his own once he felt like he had everything he needed to overthrow Oswald.

But the Blot does happen, and suddenly, the Mad Doctor has another option. He doesn't have to play nice with Oswald anymore. So he switches sides. That doesn't mean he trusts the Blot to deliver on the power it promises him, though. He outright expects the Blot to betray him in the end when it sucks all the paint out of Wasteland, which is why he turns himself into an animatronic. He reasons that once the Blot wins, animatronics will be the only survivors, and he'll rule over Wasteland as its Mechanical King.

With that said, one has to wonder if this is really how he wanted to rule Wasteland. Who would he even be ruling over? The only animatronics we see are the Beetleworx, the Pirates, and Animatronic Goofy, Daisy, and Donald. But this might just be him making the best of a less than ideal situation. Being the mechanical genius that he is, he could always build animatronic versions of Oswald and the other toons if he wanted to.

The ironic thing about this is that if the Mad Doctor hadn't switched sides and had worked with Oswald instead, they likely could have defeated the Blot together. But the Mad Doctor is nothing if not a coward, and rather than risk himself, he wanted to be on what he saw as the winning side.

Except, after the Mad Doctor switches sides, Oswald still manages to bottle up the Blot. And fast-forwarding to years later when the events of EM1 start, Oswald and the other toons are still putting up enough of a fight that the Mad Doctor and the Blot haven't completely taken over.

So then we have the events of EM1. The Mad Doctor does try to steal Mickey's heart after he arrives in Wasteland, but I got the impression that the Mad Doctor did this for the Blot, not so that he could use it to escape Wasteland like he wants to in EM2. After Mickey escapes, we don't see the Mad Doctor again until his boss battle in the attic of the Lonesome Manor. Mickey and Gus send him flying, and unknown to us, he eventually crash lands in Autotopia where he immediately sets up shop.

This brings us to EM2, wherein the Mad Doctor's motivations have shifted from wanting to rule Wasteland, to wanting to leave Wasteland and become the greatest villain the Cartoon World has ever known. And right away, I have to ask why. Assuming that his motivation since arriving in Wasteland was to take it over, why give up on that now? Why does he suddenly want to be remembered? If being remembered is so important to him, then why didn't he try something like this earlier? If he can't even best Oswald and Mickey, then what makes him think he can make it as a villain in the Cartoon World? Wasteland is a much safer bet. Especially with the Blot gone. He does state that he plans on using the brush to make himself this great villain, but he seems to have forgotten that the brush actually belongs to Yin Sid, and Yin Sid certainly isn't going to let him keep it once he leaves Wasteland.

I'd also like to question if the Mad Doctor's plot to be remembered was really going to work or not. His final boss fight seems to imply that it did. He has his ride set to pull the Guardians out of Wasteland and he's ready to steal the brush from Mickey to become the greatest villain of all time when he enters the Cartoon World. But it's never explicitly confirmed that he successfully regained his heart. Could it be that he was bluffing? Can he even be properly remembered while he's still an animatronic and no longer a toon?

I can understand why the Mad Doctor doesn't want to be an animatronic anymore now that he's starting to break down and no longer needs to be one to protect himself from the Blot, but I can't help but wonder if wanting to leave Wasteland is really what his motivation should be right now.

Of course, just because his plan won't work out, that doesn't mean the Mad Doctor can't be confident that it will. Maybe he's tired of Wasteland. Maybe he wants to move on to bigger and better things.

But. Consider. Maybe instead of leaving, his real goal is more along the lines of getting rid of Oswald and Mickey. With his two biggest threats gone, then there will be no one that can stop him. And if anyone tries, the brush that he plans on stealing from Mickey will make him unstoppable. The only one that might be able to stop him is Yin Sid, but if the Blot and Mickey's Blot-induced rampage have proven anything, it's that Yin Sid isn't inclined to take action to help Wasteland no matter how badly it needs it.

With no one around to stop him, he has all the time he needs to bring any evil plan he can think of to fruition. He doesn't have to hide or scheme or do things in one fell swoop to avoid being stopped by the heroes. Instead of rushing off to the Cartoon World with the brush, he can find a way to replicate its powers and make it so Yen Sid can't take it from him if he ever gets bored ruling Wasteland and wants to move on.

That's where the whole "getting remembered" plot comes in. He may not plan on acting on it now, but it provides a distraction from his real goals and is an easy way to help sway Prescott to his side. Why Prescott? Because he's an easy target.

Prescott considers himself to be a misunderstood genius who isn't getting the attention he deserves and is having his talents wasted. So what would be easier for the Mad Doctor than promising Prescott that he has a way to get them both remembered? Even if that doesn't end up working, the Mad Doctor can also promise that Prescott's talents will never go to waste and he'll get the recognition he deserves if the Mad Doctor is made the ruler of Wasteland.

The Mad Doctor needs Prescott because he can't build the TV that broadcasts the show on his own. Or at least, I assume that's the case since he didn't build it himself. The same could possibly be said of inventing something that will force the Guardians to make the Mad Doctor a toon again. Prescott is also just a good pawn to have. It the Blotworx Dragon hadn't done Oswald in, then Prescott's boss fight likely would have.

And while Mickey and Oswald are busy, the Mad Doctor and Prescott prepare for one final, deadly confrontation.

Why would the Mad Doctor's plan have changed like this? He was inspired by watching Mickey's Blot-induced rampage. Mickey certainly took care of a lot of his problems by thinning them out. And while I'm not so sure Mickey actually permanently killed anyone since paint can restore a thinned out toon, it gave the Mad Doctor the idea of permanently taking care of his problems, namely Mickey and Oswald. This isn't to say he's never tried to kill them before, but it was always in a "because you're getting in my way and trying to stop me" kind of way, not the main goal. Once he takes care of them, he'll be free to do just about anything he wants at his leisure. Which I'm sure is a relief after having to play nice with Oswald for years and then having to worry about the Blot for years after that. He just needs that brush first.

But if the Mad Doctor's whole plan centers on getting rid of Oswald and Mickey, then why not kill Oswald after managing to take him down? That would have been the next step, but Mickey didn't show up with the brush when he was supposed to. If he's not going to show up just because Wasteland is in trouble, then maybe he'll show up because his brother is in trouble.

Or at least, that's what the Mad Doctor tells himself. He could have just went ahead and killed Oswald anyway and pretended to be holding him prisoner to the same effect. But if Mickey does show up and finds out that the Mad Doctor killed his brother, the Mad Doctor's going to have an angry mouse with the powers of creation/destruction coming after him. And more than that, it's personal with Oswald.

The Mad Doctor is someone who revels in his villainy and embraces the melodrama of it all. He's been trying to defeat Oswald for decades, and now that he finally has Oswald in his clutches, there's no way he can resist the opportunity to torment him. Why simply kill him when he can do something far, far worse? Because when you pretend to be somebody's friend for years and they grow to trust you, you learn all kinds of things about them. Like what they're afraid of.

What is Oswald afraid of? Being helpless is a given. Not being able to help the people he loves is another. But more than anything else, Oswald fears being left alone. Reduced to nothing more than a head, the rest of his body scattered across Wasteland, Oswald hasn't been this alone and helpless since he lost Ortensia.

Can we just stop for a moment to imagine the situation Oswald is in? He is completely alone and unable to move. He can't do anything, least of all help himself. Without his ears, the only thing he's capable of hearing is the sound of his own voice. He's back at the place he spent decades isolating himself at to make sure that the Blot didn't escape its bottle, but now Mickeyjunk Mountain has become his prison instead. The Mad Doctor hasn't left him unguarded, and until Mickey gets there, is there really any toon in Wasteland that is both capable of helping him and would care to do so? The Gremlins and Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald would get themselves caught, the Petes and Lonesome Ghosts wouldn't care, and the Pirates are, well, pirates. There's Ortensia, but between EM1 and EM2 we never get to see her in action so we have no idea how well she could handle herself. And that's assuming they even know that his body has been scattered around Wasteland and his head is at Mickeyjunk Mountain. The Mad Doctor is only going to tell Mickey that because he's trying to lure Mickey into a trap.

The Mad Doctor might have let it slip that Oswald is being used as bait to lure Mickey here, but isn't that a laugh? Oswald is certain that Mickey doesn't care about him and would sooner use the opportunity to finish him off. As far as Oswald is aware, he's never getting out of here. And to top it all off, I imagine that Oswald would have been here for at least a day or two since it would take time for Gus to contact Mickey, Mickey to arrive and find out where Oswald is being held, and for Mickey to find him.

And that's not even getting into how the Mad Doctor left him there to begin with. Because you just know that the Mad Doctor waited for Oswald to regain consciousness after having been knocked out during his capture before taking him apart. Being the melodramatic guy that he is, I'm sure the Mad Doctor had an entire victory speech planned, and to finish it all off, he probably left Oswald's head on his throne at Mickeyjunk Mountain himself.

Speaking of Oswald and the Mad Doctor's relationship, can you just imagine how much the Mad Doctor's betrayal must have hurt? Oswald was only a year old when he was abandoned by both of his dads, and with the alternate history this game seems to be running on, Oswald was forgotten not long afterwards. Not only that, but some two seconds after abandoning him, they made Mickey to replace him with. Oswald starts to make a life for himself in Wasteland, only for the Blot to happen. And then the Mad Doctor, someone Oswald considered to be one of his closest friends and one of his most valuable assets in winning the war against the Blot, suddenly reveals that "Oh by the way I never cared about you, I was never really your friend, and I was just plotting to overthrow you this whole time. What an idiot you turned out to be, huh? Excuse me while I go ruin everything we worked so hard to achieve."

On top of being abandoned by his dads, I can't imagine how much that must have shaken Oswald's confidence in forming relationships. Not to mention his ability to not just trust others, but trust that they actually care about him. And while I'm sure that Oswald knows that Ortensia, Gus, Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald, and his children can't reach him, I think it says something that the person who does end up coming for him is Mickey.

[lavadog]

Okay, this last part is super self-indulgent, so be warned. But here's the climax/ending I imagined:

As the search for Oswald's body parts wears on, I imagine that Oswald would grow increasingly unsure about what to think of Mickey.

Before meeting Mickey, Oswald spent years hating and spiting and rejecting him. It wasn't Mickey's fault that he replaced Oswald, but resentment isn't always a rational thing, and it was easier to push all that frustration onto Mickey than acknowledge that it was Walt and Ub that did the replacing after they abandoned him.

Upon meeting Mickey, those thoughts felt justified. Mickey nearly destroyed Wasteland, and despite repenting at the last second and helping to defeat the Blot, that didn't change what he'd done.

Except now, Mickey is like a totally different person. And to be perfectly honest, he is. This is the real Mickey. Not the image Oswald built up in his head before meeting Mickey, and not the Mickey that the Blot twisted into someone he wasn't.

Oswald isn't prepared to meet the real Mickey.

Oswald isn't prepared for just how nice Mickey is. No matter what insult or accusation Oswald throws a Mickey, deserved or not, Oswald can't get a rise out of him like he could while Mickey was under the influence of the Blot. Mickey just accepts it. And even though Oswald is effectively helpless, Mickey is very careful to not take advantage of it. Not even in the little ways, like "accidentally" poking Oswald in the eye or holding Oswald's head in a way that would make him uncomfortable in retaliation for a particularly hurtful comment. When Oswald does regain some of his mobility, Mickey does his best to accommodate him.

Oswald isn't prepared for how Mickey listens to him. The first time they come across other toons in trouble and Oswald shouts at Mickey to help them, Oswald is sure that Mickey is going to ignore him. But Mickey rushes to their aid. More than that, Mickey works with Oswald. If Oswald needs to get close to a control panel to reprogram it, Mickey takes him to it instead of discounting Oswald's help and doing things on his own. If Oswald comes up with a plan, Mickey follows it, improvising as necessary. Despite Oswald being handicapped, the two of them actually make a great team.

Oswald soon comes to realize that he doesn't have to order Mickey to help anyone, because Mickey will do so without being prompted. With the two of them helping out so many toons, Oswald is actually probably the last one to forgive Mickey for what he did. Because if the Wasteland toons in EM2 can forgive the Mad Doctor after years of tormenting them because he sings a little song and helps with some repairs, then I think they'd be willing to give Mickey a second chance after he helps them and proves to them that he's sorry. Horace and Clarabelle are probably the first in line, because they knew Mickey before all of this and knew that what he did in EM1 wasn't like him. They're just relieved to see him acting like the toon they know him to be. Oswald, of course, witnesses all of this.

Oswald isn't prepared to find out just how traumatized Mickey is about the events of EM1. He probably knew, at least a little bit, that the Blot had a role in how far off the deep end Mickey went. But he didn't truly understand the breadth of it, not really. Mickey can barely use thinner now without having a breakdown, and even then, Oswald can feel him shaking afterwards. Some time into their search, Oswald gets Mickey to sit down and explain it to him, and Mickey does so haltingly. Mickey explains how it started off innocently at first. He only used thinner on the Blotlings or if he had to get past some obstacle like stopping the spinning gear platforms so he didn't slide off. But things got more dangerous, and he started using it more and more. And in the process, he began to feel less and less like himself until he wasn't anymore. He isn't sure how he managed to snap out of it in the end, but a big part of what let him do it was Oswald, and Mickey's eternally grateful for that. Oswald isn't sure how to feel about learning any of this. But if he is sure about anything, it's that Mickey deeply regrets his actions and isn't going to hurt anyone again.

Oswald absolutely isn't prepared when he starts to genuinely care about Mickey.

The search for Oswald's parts finally ends when they find his torso, and Oswald is whole once more. At this point, Oswald trusts Mickey enough that he doesn't try to take the brush from him. Or if Oswald isn't quite ready to admit to himself that he trusts Mickey yet, he can at least admit that it's laughable that Mickey would try to use thinner to hurt someone when he practically starts crying every time he uses it. Together, they skip over Prescott's boss fight to find the Guardian siphons and shut them down, their teamwork better than ever before now that Oswald is fully capable again.

Then it comes time for the final boss, except this time, they have both the Mad Doctor and Prescott to deal with at once. They fight, and even working together, Oswald and Mickey struggle. The Mad Doctor and Prescott are aiming to kill, and both of them at once is not only difficult to handle, but also very dangerous. And naturally, the fight takes place near a body of thinner, which adds to the danger. But the Mad Doctor and Prescott can't beat Oswald and Mickey now that they're working together as a team. At some point during the fight, they mange to take out Prescott, leaving them with just the Mad Doctor to deal with. The rest of the details of this fight aren't too important until we get to the end.

Whatever machine the Mad Doctor built to fight them with is just about destroyed thanks to Oswald and Mickey's teamwork, but before they can land the final blow, a second earthquake hits. It sends the machine over the edge and into the thinner with the Mad Doctor inside. This should be a good thing, but Oswald and Mickey aren't faring much better. Mickey gets the brush knocked out of his hand, but he manages to stay on solid ground and away from the thinner. Oswald isn't so lucky. He nearly falls into the thinner with the Mad Doctor, but just barely manages to hold on with one hand. Oswald dangles over the thinner, his grip slipping, and he calls out for Mickey to come help him. And Mickey? Mickey has a choice to make. Because the brush also got knocked towards the ledge and is now teetering back and forth precariously on it. Mickey doesn't have time to save both. He's depended on that brush for so long that it feels like a part of him, and losing it would mean losing that part of himself, but he doesn't hesitate to rush to Oswald's side and help him up. They stare at each other, breathless, as the brush falls into the thinner and is lost to them.

They've won. They tentatively simile at each other, but before they can celebrate, the Mad Doctor rises back out of the thinner in his Machine, holding the brush in his hand. Oswald and Mickey stare at the Mad Doctor in horror as he points the brush at them with an evil grin, the brush growing wet with thinner as he prepares to erase the both of them from existence.

The Mad Doctor fires the thinner, and Mickey has just enough presence of mind to shove Oswald out of the way, saving Oswald but dooming himself. Mickey melts into a puddle, and Oswald watches numbly as the red of what was once Mickey's shorts mixes with his black and white paint. Mickey's ears are the last to go, holding form for a moment longer before they're gone too.

The Mad Doctor laughs maniacally, stepping out of his machine and letting it tumble back into the thinner behind him. It's useless to him now anyway. He taunts Oswald, giving what is left of Mickey a vicious kick as he advances on Oswald menacingly, intent on dragging out Oswald's final moments.

And Oswald? Oswald snaps. "That's. My. Brother." It's just the Mad Doctor and him now, and unluckily for the Mad Doctor, Oswald has experience fighting against the power of the brush. He taunts the Mad Doctor, letting him know that Mickey was better at using it than the Mad Doctor will ever be, but Mickey still hasn't managed to best him with it. And now? Now, Oswald needs that brush if he has any hope of bringing Mickey back, and nothing is going to stop him from getting it.

The two of them clash, the Mad Doctor spraying thinner every chance he gets. Oswald dodges the thinner, fighting back with his remote. As the fight wears on, Oswald slowly gains ground, forcing the Mad Doctor back towards the ledge. When he finally gets close enough, Oswald makes a grab for the brush and they struggle against one another. The Mad Doctor tries to point the brush towards Oswald, and Oswald tries to rip it out of the Mad Doctor's hands while also avoiding getting a face full of thinner. Just when it seems like the Mad Doctor might actually succeed, Oswald's luck wins out and the Mad Doctor trips, allowing Oswald to deliver a final kick that sends the Mad Doctor tumbling into the body of thinner as he rips the brush out of the Mad Doctor's hands.

Oswald turns to find Mickey so that he can restore him, but when he does, he freezes, horror slowly dawning on his face. Because it wasn't just luck that the Mad Doctor tripped at that crucial moment. Their fight had unknowingly brought them back to Mickey's puddle, and the Mad Doctor had tripped when he'd stepped into it, losing his footing and skidding straight through it.

And here's the thing. A thinned out toon can be restored by paint, but they kind of still need to be there to get restored. At this point, Mickey's puddle has been scattered by being kicked and a part of it is now gone, having been sent over the edge with the Mad Doctor into the thinner. Most of Mickey is still there, but it might not be enough. Oswald falls to his knees, doing his best to push what's left of Mickey's puddle back together with shaking hands before using the brush to spray it with paint. Nothing happens. Oswald sprays the puddle again, and again, nothing happens. He sprays a third time, but now, there's more blue in the puddle than black, white, and red, and it's still not working.

Oswald demands that Mickey pull himself back together. He threatens. He begs. But nothing happens, and Oswald falls into despair, his head bowed. Maybe as an afterthought, he gives Mickey a little shock with his remote, as if that'll somehow jolt him back to life. It feels suddenly like Oswald wasted these past decades. Wasted them hating Mickey when Mickey never would have wanted to steal anything from him. Wasted what little time they had together being angry and unwilling to give Mickey a second chance when he'd come back to try to right the wrongs he'd committed and help Oswald become whole again. And now there's never going to be another opportunity for them to get to know each other because Mickey is gone.

Something moves in front of him, and Oswald looks back up. Mickey's ears have reformed in their puddle, and a moment later, Mickey belatedly pulls himself back together, dazed and disoriented and a little worse for wear but alive. He doesn't have time to gather his wits before Oswald pulls him into a fierce hug, and ever so slowly, Mickey returns it.

They've won for real this time, and Oswald is finally ready to forgive Mickey and give being brothers a try. Mickey never expected Oswald to forgive him, but now that Oswald has, Mickey is never going to do anything to damage that trust again.

[mickedy]

OH good question uhhmhmhmhmhm....mickey and oswald would definitely have a more strained relationship, but os would be forced to be tag along bc he's the only one who can use the remote

so it's just long silence, no comfort, no talking......oswald is just here to get a job done

at first, probably, ortensia suggests the two of them work together, and oswald (unwillingly) agrees under one condition

(follow up to this post)

[lavadog]

Ok, but would Mickey actually want to come back?

For Mickey to even attempt a thinner run in the first place, he would have to be under the influence of the Blot via the piece of Blot inside of him. Mickey may have his flaws, but he's a good toon at heart, and this is something I can't see him doing while he's in his right mind. This isn't to say Mickey is blameless. He still caused the Thinner Disaster in the first place, and he would have had to have used enough thinner for the Blot's influence to grow strong enough to push him in the wrong direction. But he's not solely responsible.

It would take everything Mickey has in him to manage to break free of the Blot's influence and fail the thinner run, and when he does, he's horrified by what he's done. He still helps defeat the Blot, but he knows it won't make up for what he's done.

Once he gets home, there's no way that Mickey's friends wouldn't realize that there's something wrong with him (the dripping alone would give him away). With a little prodding, he'd confess what happened to him and what he did, and they'd get him (1) the therapy he needs, and (2) the medical attention he needs to get rid of the piece of Blot inside of him.

Yen Sid tells us in the opening narration of EM2 that the events of EM1 happened "not that long ago". Estimating that at ~6-8 months or so later (or even 2 years later if we're going by the real life time that passed between the release of EM1 and EM2), Mickey would be doing much better mentally and physically, but not all the way recovered mentally.

Gus's message comes in, and Mickey would have a lot of reasons to be conflicted about going back. Part of Mickey would want to go back and try to make up for what he did. But going back would also mean facing the toons he wronged, and beyond Gus, it's doubtful that any of them would actually want his help. Oswald in particular. Not to mention that he is still in therapy for all the traumatizing things that happened to him last time he was there.

Maybe, in another world, he finds the courage to come anyway. But I think it's interesting to consider the case where he doesn't. Maybe he decides that it's for the best if he just stays away. Or maybe he takes too long to find the resolve to go, and just as he's ready to leap through, Gus loses the connection. Whatever the reason, he doesn't come.

On the Wasteland side of things, I imagine that Gus tried to summon Mickey without Oswald's knowledge. When Oswald finds out about it, he expressly forbids Gus from trying again.

Oswald does not trust the Mad Doctor's so called "change of heart" but he'll play along for now. And he'll do it on his own. He doesn't need Mickey's help, and Gus is wrong for saying he does. Gus seems to have forgotten what happened the last time Mickey was here and what he did to everyone.

Only, he does need Mickey's help. To say that Oswald could do EM2 without Mickey completely discounts Mickey's help the same way it would to say Mickey could do EM2 without Oswald. Without Mickey, there's no one to (1) distract the enemies while Oswald reprograms them, (2) paint in the things that need painting (Ex. the gears in the fight with Prescott), and (3) no one to pull those simultaneous switches with. Ortensia or Gus could arguably do 1 and 3, but Oswald wouldn't want Ortensia in danger again so soon after getting her back, and Gus can only do so much.

Oswald would probably be able to manage by himself for a while, but eventually, I imagine he'd get captured by either Prescott, the Mad Doctor, or both. The reason the Mad Doctor and Prescott do not kill Oswald then and there is because they need him as a hostage. Part of the Mad Doctor's whole plan was to get Mickey to come. So if Mickey's not going to come to start with, then what better way to change his mind than needing to come save his brother? If Gus is with Oswald, they let Gus go so he can go summon Mickey. If Gus isn't, they make sure word reaches him.

So Gus attempts to summon Mickey again, and now, Mickey has another choice to make. He can either ignore the call again, or come help. And with his brother's life on the line, Mickey chooses to come.

[lavadog]

So one one hand, the Mad Doctor and Prescott could throw Oswald into a dungeon or something. But. Consider. Oswald has been shown to be able to remove his ears, head, arms, and legs with no ill effects. So what if the Mad Doctor scatters his parts around Wasteland similarly to how he scattered Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald's parts?

Just imagine how that conversation would have gone.

Mad Doctor: I scatted Oswald's parts all across Wasteland! Now he's no longer a problem.

Prescott: ...Has that worked out for you in the past?

Mad Doctor: Sure! Nobody ever put Animatronic Goofy, Daisy, or Donald back together once I scattered them. Not until Mickey arrived, anyway.

Prescott:

Prescott: You mean the same Mickey that is here right now?

Mad Doctor:

Prescott:

Mad Doctor: Is this a bad time to mention that I told Mickey were Oswald's head is?

I imagine that the Mad Doctor left Oswald's head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, with the rest of his parts scattered across Wasteland instead of just one area. And in all seriousness, the Mad Doctor would have told Mickey where the head was on purpose in order to distract him/lead him into a trap.

Mickey finds Oswald's head, and from there, he carries Oswald around with him searching for the rest of Oswald's parts. Oswald allows this because he is unwilling to let Mickey go around unsupervised, let alone unsupervised and in possession of any of Oswald's body parts. Mickey does this because he is unwilling to just (1) leave his brother in a place he hates, and (2) leave his brother without protection considering the Mad Doctor and Prescott are still at large and did this to him to begin with.

Using the ear logic from Mickey's "Bad Ear Day" short, Oswald starts off being unable to hear because his ears are gone, so Mickey quite literally lends Oswald one of his. They find Oswald's arm next, which Mickey attaches to the spot Oswald's other ear is supposed to go so Oswald can at least use his remote. From there, they find his other parts in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last.

In the mean time, it's a lot harder for Oswald to ignore Mickey and focus on getting the job done when Mickey's literally carrying him around. And because Oswald can't try to snap  the paintbrush right away, Mickey gets a chance to redeem himself by using it for good, and Oswald gets a chance to see him do this. I'd like to think that over the course of this, Mickey and Oswald's relationship slowly improves towards reconciliation.

And while the Mad Doctor and Prescott do make attempts to stop Mickey and Oswald, they certainly aren't wasting time while Mickey and Oswald are distracted...

[mickedy]

KFCKCJVJ THATS SO GOOD ASAAAAA

orb oswald tells you off

[lavadog]

THATS IT EXACTLY AAAAA I LOVE IT

So I've thought of some more headcanons to go along with this. I'll put it below a read more this time to avoid clogging your dashboards too much.

First, I want to answer a few questions I feel like I raised in the previous posts.

1) How does Oswald still have his remote? If he was captured, wouldn't the Mad Doctor and Prescott have either broken it or confiscated it so they could try to use it themselves?

I imagine that either A) Oswald managed to stash it in his hammerspace but is unable to retrieve it until he has one of his arms back, or B) Gus was with Oswald when he got captured, and Oswald quickly handed it over to Gus to prevent the Mad Doctor and Prescott from getting their hands on it. Gus gives it to Mickey to give back to Oswald, and Mickey gives it back once Oswald has a hand to hold it with again.

2) Isn't the Mad Doctor supposed to be pretending to be good in EM2?

He was! But looking back on it, why exactly was he pretending to be good to begin with? According to his pop up book that detailed his evil plan: He fooled Prescott into turning on his friends and building him a TV that allows him to broadcast his show to the cartoon world so that he can be remembered and leave Wasteland. He also wants to be a toon again after having made himself an animatronic in EM1 to be immune to the Blot, and knows the Guardians can make that happen. His plan will destroy Wasteland because he plans on pulling the Guardians out of Wasteland, which will render Wasteland and everyone in it inert. But what part of that really necessitates pretending to be good so that he can play Mickey and Oswald for fools? To throw suspicion off of himself after his attempts to suck up the Guardians caused those earthquakes so that Mickey and Oswald won't be able to stop him in time? If that's all, then he has no reason to pretend anymore once Oswald is taken care of.

3) How do Mickey and Oswald manage to find the rest of Oswald's parts if the Mad Doctor scattered them all throughout Wasteland?

A lot of searching, mostly. But I feel like once they get close enough, Oswald is able to tell that a part of him is close by. This helps a lot. Also, the Mad Doctor likely didn't leave any of Oswald's parts unguarded (including Oswald's head, which Mickey did have to fight to reach), which is ironically a pretty good indicator that they've found one.

4) When does Oswald get captured?

There's room for debate on this one. But if I had to give a specific moment, I'd say the Blotworx Dragon boss fight. It's the first real boss fight of the game, and far too much for Oswald to handle on his own. As an added bonus, once defeated, Oswald is already in the Mad Doctor's lair.

Anyway.

So to start with, I imagine that Oswald is not in high spirits. He tried handling things on his own and failed, which ended in his capture. Instead of being killed like he'd initially feared, the Mad Doctor does something arguably worse by scattering his parts across Wasteland and leaving his head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, which he hates. And now his only hope of becoming whole again is Mickey. The same Mickey who nearly destroyed Wasteland the last time he was here and who Oswald does not trust and also hates.

Starting out, despite the brave face he puts on, Oswald is probably low key terrified to be alone with Mickey like this. He's essentially helpless, and if Mickey changes his mind about finishing Oswald off, all he'd have to do is turn the brush on Oswald and spray. Despite his protests, Mickey lending Oswald an ear would actually go a long way towards mitigating this fear, since Oswald is pretty sure that Mickey wouldn't want to melt his own ear (So Oswald would at least get a little warning if it was coming via Mickey taking his ear back without finding one of Oswald's). But as time wears on, Oswald becomes increasingly sure/comes to realize that Mickey won't do that.

But even without that worry, Oswald's helplessness grates on him in other ways. Oswald claims to be letting Mickey carry him around, but he really doesn't have any choice in the matter either way. He wants to stick close to Mickey if only to keep an eye on him, but if Mickey decides at any point to put Oswald down and walk away, then what's Oswald going to do about it? Yell at his retreating figure? On a similar note, if Mickey starts thinning out Wasteland and other toons again, Oswald is equally as helpless to prevent that. Even after getting his remote back, Mickey wouldn't be too hard-pressed to smack it out of Oswald's hand.

Unrelated to Mickey, Oswald is also incapable of helping the other toons in Wasteland, who are being terrorized by the Mad Doctor and to a lesser extent Prescott.

Except. Mickey doesn't leave Oswald behind, and he doesn't hurt anyone or destroy anything. And to Oswald's surprise, instead of passing by other toons in trouble, Mickey stops to help them.

In fact, he goes out of his way to protect Oswald and make sure that no harm comes to him. If a Blotling gets too close to them and tries to rake Oswald in the face with their thinner claws, Mickey turns so that the claws rake across his back instead. Once the fight is over, Oswald can't do anything else but watch as Mickey sprays the area with paint to mostly heal it, wincing as he does so. And rinse and repeat.

Mickey stays mostly silent. He might have tried to make small talk with Oswald at first, but after being shut down a few times, he stops trying. He only speaks to answer any question directed at him or to tell Oswald something he thinks Oswald needs to know. Whether that be pointing out something Oswald can reprogram, or quietly assuring Oswald that Mickey won't hurt him or anyone else. Oswald immediately refutes the latter, of course, and is quick to remind Mickey of his past failings or to say something mean. And Mickey just takes it. He doesn't say anything to defend himself, because what is there to defend? He feels like he deserves everything that Oswald throws at him.

Mickey is also absolutely terrified of using thinner again. Which is a problem because some problems actually require the use of thinner to solve. The most prominent of these that comes to mind being the Beetleworx, which need to have their protective paint coating thinned away in order to destroy their more vulnerable insides. The first time Mickey and Oswald encounter Beetleworx, Mickey is barely able to produce even a trickle of thinner. After a lot of shouting on Oswald's part and almost dying a few times, Mickey finally manages to produce a steady stream of it and the Beetleworx is destroyed. Oswald is subsequently treated to a front row seat of Mickey's breakdown afterwards, wherein Mickey finds a small place to crawl into, curls up into a fetal position, and starts shaking and crying.

As the search wears on, I imagine that Oswald will try to actually talk to Mickey instead of just throwing insults or orders his way. Starting with asking why he decided to come back. Especially considering that he didn't the first time Gus contacted him. Mickey's answer is simple: "Gus told me you were in trouble." Oswald scoffs at this, because since when did Mickey actually care about him? But even he can't deny that Mickey is here with him now helping Oswald put himself back together even though it's not Mickey's problem.

They slowly find Oswald piece by piece, and as previously stated, this is in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last. If I was pressed to give the order in which they find them, I'd say something like arm, ear, ear, leg, arm, leg, torso. But there's some wiggle room there.

This means that at one point, they find one of Oswald's legs and go a while before finding the other one. With his mobility partially restored, Oswald insists on hopping around on his one leg and refuses to let Mickey continue to carry him. This doesn't work very well. It's extremely tiring to have to hop everywhere he goes, and he also can't go that fast while doing it. He refuses to admit to any of this, of course, and a part of him hates that he appreciates how considerate Mickey is being about the whole thing. How he slows down so that Oswald doesn't have to struggle to keep up, and pretends to buy Oswald's excuses to stop when he gets tired. Despite this slowing them down significantly, Mickey never once picks Oswald up again unless he needs to because they are being chased by a Blotling or Beetleworx and Oswald can't out hop them.

That's all I got for now.

[lavadog]

Through all of this, there's also the question of if the Mad Doctor's evil plot should remain the same. Obviously there has to be some changes now that Prescott wasn't defeated on schedule, but should anything else have changed?

Let's start by examining the Mad Doctor's motivations in EM1 and EM2. His motivations are similar, but also pretty different between the two games when you think about it.

In EM1, his main motivation is wanting to rule Wasteland. If we look at all of his actions through this lens, it puts a lot of them in a more sinister light:

When the Mad Doctor first arrived in Wasteland, he wouldn't have had any resources whatsoever to try to conquer it with. And there's no way that Oswald would have sat idly by while the Mad Doctor tried to build up those resources. Unless Oswald didn't realize what they were for, that is. So the Mad Doctor bides his time. He befriends Oswald instead of making an enemy out of him straight away and slowly but surely gains his trust. He does nice things for Oswald like helping him build Animatronic Goofy, Donald, and Daisy for seemingly no other reason than to make Oswald happy, and he pitches the Beetleworx as cheerful little helpers that are meant to make life easier for everyone. With how much the Mad Doctor was able to take over after he switched sides, I imagine that Oswald trusted the Mad Doctor enough to let him do what he wanted with very little oversight. Had the Blot not happened, the Mad Doctor would have tried to take over on his own once he felt like he had everything he needed to overthrow Oswald.

But the Blot does happen, and suddenly, the Mad Doctor has another option. He doesn't have to play nice with Oswald anymore. So he switches sides. That doesn't mean he trusts the Blot to deliver on the power it promises him, though. He outright expects the Blot to betray him in the end when it sucks all the paint out of Wasteland, which is why he turns himself into an animatronic. He reasons that once the Blot wins, animatronics will be the only survivors, and he'll rule over Wasteland as its Mechanical King.

With that said, one has to wonder if this is really how he wanted to rule Wasteland. Who would he even be ruling over? The only animatronics we see are the Beetleworx, the Pirates, and Animatronic Goofy, Daisy, and Donald. But this might just be him making the best of a less than ideal situation. Being the mechanical genius that he is, he could always build animatronic versions of Oswald and the other toons if he wanted to.

The ironic thing about this is that if the Mad Doctor hadn't switched sides and had worked with Oswald instead, they likely could have defeated the Blot together. But the Mad Doctor is nothing if not a coward, and rather than risk himself, he wanted to be on what he saw as the winning side.

Except, after the Mad Doctor switches sides, Oswald still manages to bottle up the Blot. And fast-forwarding to years later when the events of EM1 start, Oswald and the other toons are still putting up enough of a fight that the Mad Doctor and the Blot haven't completely taken over.

So then we have the events of EM1. The Mad Doctor does try to steal Mickey's heart after he arrives in Wasteland, but I got the impression that the Mad Doctor did this for the Blot, not so that he could use it to escape Wasteland like he wants to in EM2. After Mickey escapes, we don't see the Mad Doctor again until his boss battle in the attic of the Lonesome Manor. Mickey and Gus send him flying, and unknown to us, he eventually crash lands in Autotopia where he immediately sets up shop.

This brings us to EM2, wherein the Mad Doctor's motivations have shifted from wanting to rule Wasteland, to wanting to leave Wasteland and become the greatest villain the Cartoon World has ever known. And right away, I have to ask why. Assuming that his motivation since arriving in Wasteland was to take it over, why give up on that now? Why does he suddenly want to be remembered? If being remembered is so important to him, then why didn't he try something like this earlier? If he can't even best Oswald and Mickey, then what makes him think he can make it as a villain in the Cartoon World? Wasteland is a much safer bet. Especially with the Blot gone. He does state that he plans on using the brush to make himself this great villain, but he seems to have forgotten that the brush actually belongs to Yin Sid, and Yin Sid certainly isn't going to let him keep it once he leaves Wasteland.

I'd also like to question if the Mad Doctor's plot to be remembered was really going to work or not. His final boss fight seems to imply that it did. He has his ride set to pull the Guardians out of Wasteland and he's ready to steal the brush from Mickey to become the greatest villain of all time when he enters the Cartoon World. But it's never explicitly confirmed that he successfully regained his heart. Could it be that he was bluffing? Can he even be properly remembered while he's still an animatronic and no longer a toon?

I can understand why the Mad Doctor doesn't want to be an animatronic anymore now that he's starting to break down and no longer needs to be one to protect himself from the Blot, but I can't help but wonder if wanting to leave Wasteland is really what his motivation should be right now.

Of course, just because his plan won't work out, that doesn't mean the Mad Doctor can't be confident that it will. Maybe he's tired of Wasteland. Maybe he wants to move on to bigger and better things.

But. Consider. Maybe instead of leaving, his real goal is more along the lines of getting rid of Oswald and Mickey. With his two biggest threats gone, then there will be no one that can stop him. And if anyone tries, the brush that he plans on stealing from Mickey will make him unstoppable. The only one that might be able to stop him is Yin Sid, but if the Blot and Mickey's Blot-induced rampage have proven anything, it's that Yin Sid isn't inclined to take action to help Wasteland no matter how badly it needs it.

With no one around to stop him, he has all the time he needs to bring any evil plan he can think of to fruition. He doesn't have to hide or scheme or do things in one fell swoop to avoid being stopped by the heroes. Instead of rushing off to the Cartoon World with the brush, he can find a way to replicate its powers and make it so Yen Sid can't take it from him if he ever gets bored ruling Wasteland and wants to move on.

That's where the whole "getting remembered" plot comes in. He may not plan on acting on it now, but it provides a distraction from his real goals and is an easy way to help sway Prescott to his side. Why Prescott? Because he's an easy target.

Prescott considers himself to be a misunderstood genius who isn't getting the attention he deserves and is having his talents wasted. So what would be easier for the Mad Doctor than promising Prescott that he has a way to get them both remembered? Even if that doesn't end up working, the Mad Doctor can also promise that Prescott's talents will never go to waste and he'll get the recognition he deserves if the Mad Doctor is made the ruler of Wasteland.

The Mad Doctor needs Prescott because he can't build the TV that broadcasts the show on his own. Or at least, I assume that's the case since he didn't build it himself. The same could possibly be said of inventing something that will force the Guardians to make the Mad Doctor a toon again. Prescott is also just a good pawn to have. It the Blotworx Dragon hadn't done Oswald in, then Prescott's boss fight likely would have.

And while Mickey and Oswald are busy, the Mad Doctor and Prescott prepare for one final, deadly confrontation.

Why would the Mad Doctor's plan have changed like this? He was inspired by watching Mickey's Blot-induced rampage. Mickey certainly took care of a lot of his problems by thinning them out. And while I'm not so sure Mickey actually permanently killed anyone since paint can restore a thinned out toon, it gave the Mad Doctor the idea of permanently taking care of his problems, namely Mickey and Oswald. This isn't to say he's never tried to kill them before, but it was always in a "because you're getting in my way and trying to stop me" kind of way, not the main goal. Once he takes care of them, he'll be free to do just about anything he wants at his leisure. Which I'm sure is a relief after having to play nice with Oswald for years and then having to worry about the Blot for years after that. He just needs that brush first.

But if the Mad Doctor's whole plan centers on getting rid of Oswald and Mickey, then why not kill Oswald after managing to take him down? That would have been the next step, but Mickey didn't show up with the brush when he was supposed to. If he's not going to show up just because Wasteland is in trouble, then maybe he'll show up because his brother is in trouble.

Or at least, that's what the Mad Doctor tells himself. He could have just went ahead and killed Oswald anyway and pretended to be holding him prisoner to the same effect. But if Mickey does show up and finds out that the Mad Doctor killed his brother, the Mad Doctor's going to have an angry mouse with the powers of creation/destruction coming after him. And more than that, it's personal with Oswald.

The Mad Doctor is someone who revels in his villainy and embraces the melodrama of it all. He's been trying to defeat Oswald for decades, and now that he finally has Oswald in his clutches, there's no way he can resist the opportunity to torment him. Why simply kill him when he can do something far, far worse? Because when you pretend to be somebody's friend for years and they grow to trust you, you learn all kinds of things about them. Like what they're afraid of.

What is Oswald afraid of? Being helpless is a given. Not being able to help the people he loves is another. But more than anything else, Oswald fears being left alone. Reduced to nothing more than a head, the rest of his body scattered across Wasteland, Oswald hasn't been this alone and helpless since he lost Ortensia.

Can we just stop for a moment to imagine the situation Oswald is in? He is completely alone and unable to move. He can't do anything, least of all help himself. Without his ears, the only thing he's capable of hearing is the sound of his own voice. He's back at the place he spent decades isolating himself at to make sure that the Blot didn't escape its bottle, but now Mickeyjunk Mountain has become his prison instead. The Mad Doctor hasn't left him unguarded, and until Mickey gets there, is there really any toon in Wasteland that is both capable of helping him and would care to do so? The Gremlins and Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald would get themselves caught, the Petes and Lonesome Ghosts wouldn't care, and the Pirates are, well, pirates. There's Ortensia, but between EM1 and EM2 we never get to see her in action so we have no idea how well she could handle herself. And that's assuming they even know that his body has been scattered around Wasteland and his head is at Mickeyjunk Mountain. The Mad Doctor is only going to tell Mickey that because he's trying to lure Mickey into a trap.

The Mad Doctor might have let it slip that Oswald is being used as bait to lure Mickey here, but isn't that a laugh? Oswald is certain that Mickey doesn't care about him and would sooner use the opportunity to finish him off. As far as Oswald is aware, he's never getting out of here. And to top it all off, I imagine that Oswald would have been here for at least a day or two since it would take time for Gus to contact Mickey, Mickey to arrive and find out where Oswald is being held, and for Mickey to find him.

And that's not even getting into how the Mad Doctor left him there to begin with. Because you just know that the Mad Doctor waited for Oswald to regain consciousness after having been knocked out during his capture before taking him apart. Being the melodramatic guy that he is, I'm sure the Mad Doctor had an entire victory speech planned, and to finish it all off, he probably left Oswald's head on his throne at Mickeyjunk Mountain himself.

Speaking of Oswald and the Mad Doctor's relationship, can you just imagine how much the Mad Doctor's betrayal must have hurt? Oswald was only a year old when he was abandoned by both of his dads, and with the alternate history this game seems to be running on, Oswald was forgotten not long afterwards. Not only that, but some two seconds after abandoning him, they made Mickey to replace him with. Oswald starts to make a life for himself in Wasteland, only for the Blot to happen. And then the Mad Doctor, someone Oswald considered to be one of his closest friends and one of his most valuable assets in winning the war against the Blot, suddenly reveals that "Oh by the way I never cared about you, I was never really your friend, and I was just plotting to overthrow you this whole time. What an idiot you turned out to be, huh? Excuse me while I go ruin everything we worked so hard to achieve."

On top of being abandoned by his dads, I can't imagine how much that must have shaken Oswald's confidence in forming relationships. Not to mention his ability to not just trust others, but trust that they actually care about him. And while I'm sure that Oswald knows that Ortensia, Gus, Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald, and his children can't reach him, I think it says something that the person who does end up coming for him is Mickey.

[mickedy]

OH good question uhhmhmhmhmhm....mickey and oswald would definitely have a more strained relationship, but os would be forced to be tag along bc he's the only one who can use the remote

so it's just long silence, no comfort, no talking......oswald is just here to get a job done

at first, probably, ortensia suggests the two of them work together, and oswald (unwillingly) agrees under one condition

(follow up to this post)

[lavadog]

Ok, but would Mickey actually want to come back?

For Mickey to even attempt a thinner run in the first place, he would have to be under the influence of the Blot via the piece of Blot inside of him. Mickey may have his flaws, but he's a good toon at heart, and this is something I can't see him doing while he's in his right mind. This isn't to say Mickey is blameless. He still caused the Thinner Disaster in the first place, and he would have had to have used enough thinner for the Blot's influence to grow strong enough to push him in the wrong direction. But he's not solely responsible.

It would take everything Mickey has in him to manage to break free of the Blot's influence and fail the thinner run, and when he does, he's horrified by what he's done. He still helps defeat the Blot, but he knows it won't make up for what he's done.

Once he gets home, there's no way that Mickey's friends wouldn't realize that there's something wrong with him (the dripping alone would give him away). With a little prodding, he'd confess what happened to him and what he did, and they'd get him (1) the therapy he needs, and (2) the medical attention he needs to get rid of the piece of Blot inside of him.

Yen Sid tells us in the opening narration of EM2 that the events of EM1 happened "not that long ago". Estimating that at ~6-8 months or so later (or even 2 years later if we're going by the real life time that passed between the release of EM1 and EM2), Mickey would be doing much better mentally and physically, but not all the way recovered mentally.

Gus's message comes in, and Mickey would have a lot of reasons to be conflicted about going back. Part of Mickey would want to go back and try to make up for what he did. But going back would also mean facing the toons he wronged, and beyond Gus, it's doubtful that any of them would actually want his help. Oswald in particular. Not to mention that he is still in therapy for all the traumatizing things that happened to him last time he was there.

Maybe, in another world, he finds the courage to come anyway. But I think it's interesting to consider the case where he doesn't. Maybe he decides that it's for the best if he just stays away. Or maybe he takes too long to find the resolve to go, and just as he's ready to leap through, Gus loses the connection. Whatever the reason, he doesn't come.

On the Wasteland side of things, I imagine that Gus tried to summon Mickey without Oswald's knowledge. When Oswald finds out about it, he expressly forbids Gus from trying again.

Oswald does not trust the Mad Doctor's so called "change of heart" but he'll play along for now. And he'll do it on his own. He doesn't need Mickey's help, and Gus is wrong for saying he does. Gus seems to have forgotten what happened the last time Mickey was here and what he did to everyone.

Only, he does need Mickey's help. To say that Oswald could do EM2 without Mickey completely discounts Mickey's help the same way it would to say Mickey could do EM2 without Oswald. Without Mickey, there's no one to (1) distract the enemies while Oswald reprograms them, (2) paint in the things that need painting (Ex. the gears in the fight with Prescott), and (3) no one to pull those simultaneous switches with. Ortensia or Gus could arguably do 1 and 3, but Oswald wouldn't want Ortensia in danger again so soon after getting her back, and Gus can only do so much.

Oswald would probably be able to manage by himself for a while, but eventually, I imagine he'd get captured by either Prescott, the Mad Doctor, or both. The reason the Mad Doctor and Prescott do not kill Oswald then and there is because they need him as a hostage. Part of the Mad Doctor's whole plan was to get Mickey to come. So if Mickey's not going to come to start with, then what better way to change his mind than needing to come save his brother? If Gus is with Oswald, they let Gus go so he can go summon Mickey. If Gus isn't, they make sure word reaches him.

So Gus attempts to summon Mickey again, and now, Mickey has another choice to make. He can either ignore the call again, or come help. And with his brother's life on the line, Mickey chooses to come.

[lavadog]

So one one hand, the Mad Doctor and Prescott could throw Oswald into a dungeon or something. But. Consider. Oswald has been shown to be able to remove his ears, head, arms, and legs with no ill effects. So what if the Mad Doctor scatters his parts around Wasteland similarly to how he scattered Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald's parts?

Just imagine how that conversation would have gone.

Mad Doctor: I scatted Oswald's parts all across Wasteland! Now he's no longer a problem.

Prescott: ...Has that worked out for you in the past?

Mad Doctor: Sure! Nobody ever put Animatronic Goofy, Daisy, or Donald back together once I scattered them. Not until Mickey arrived, anyway.

Prescott:

Prescott: You mean the same Mickey that is here right now?

Mad Doctor:

Prescott:

Mad Doctor: Is this a bad time to mention that I told Mickey were Oswald's head is?

I imagine that the Mad Doctor left Oswald's head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, with the rest of his parts scattered across Wasteland instead of just one area. And in all seriousness, the Mad Doctor would have told Mickey where the head was on purpose in order to distract him/lead him into a trap.

Mickey finds Oswald's head, and from there, he carries Oswald around with him searching for the rest of Oswald's parts. Oswald allows this because he is unwilling to let Mickey go around unsupervised, let alone unsupervised and in possession of any of Oswald's body parts. Mickey does this because he is unwilling to just (1) leave his brother in a place he hates, and (2) leave his brother without protection considering the Mad Doctor and Prescott are still at large and did this to him to begin with.

Using the ear logic from Mickey's "Bad Ear Day" short, Oswald starts off being unable to hear because his ears are gone, so Mickey quite literally lends Oswald one of his. They find Oswald's arm next, which Mickey attaches to the spot Oswald's other ear is supposed to go so Oswald can at least use his remote. From there, they find his other parts in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last.

In the mean time, it's a lot harder for Oswald to ignore Mickey and focus on getting the job done when Mickey's literally carrying him around. And because Oswald can't try to snap  the paintbrush right away, Mickey gets a chance to redeem himself by using it for good, and Oswald gets a chance to see him do this. I'd like to think that over the course of this, Mickey and Oswald's relationship slowly improves towards reconciliation.

And while the Mad Doctor and Prescott do make attempts to stop Mickey and Oswald, they certainly aren't wasting time while Mickey and Oswald are distracted...

[mickedy]

KFCKCJVJ THATS SO GOOD ASAAAAA

orb oswald tells you off

[lavadog]

THATS IT EXACTLY AAAAA I LOVE IT

So I've thought of some more headcanons to go along with this. I'll put it below a read more this time to avoid clogging your dashboards too much.

First, I want to answer a few questions I feel like I raised in the previous posts.

1) How does Oswald still have his remote? If he was captured, wouldn't the Mad Doctor and Prescott have either broken it or confiscated it so they could try to use it themselves?

I imagine that either A) Oswald managed to stash it in his hammerspace but is unable to retrieve it until he has one of his arms back, or B) Gus was with Oswald when he got captured, and Oswald quickly handed it over to Gus to prevent the Mad Doctor and Prescott from getting their hands on it. Gus gives it to Mickey to give back to Oswald, and Mickey gives it back once Oswald has a hand to hold it with again.

2) Isn't the Mad Doctor supposed to be pretending to be good in EM2?

He was! But looking back on it, why exactly was he pretending to be good to begin with? According to his pop up book that detailed his evil plan: He fooled Prescott into turning on his friends and building him a TV that allows him to broadcast his show to the cartoon world so that he can be remembered and leave Wasteland. He also wants to be a toon again after having made himself an animatronic in EM1 to be immune to the Blot, and knows the Guardians can make that happen. His plan will destroy Wasteland because he plans on pulling the Guardians out of Wasteland, which will render Wasteland and everyone in it inert. But what part of that really necessitates pretending to be good so that he can play Mickey and Oswald for fools? To throw suspicion off of himself after his attempts to suck up the Guardians caused those earthquakes so that Mickey and Oswald won't be able to stop him in time? If that's all, then he has no reason to pretend anymore once Oswald is taken care of.

3) How do Mickey and Oswald manage to find the rest of Oswald's parts if the Mad Doctor scattered them all throughout Wasteland?

A lot of searching, mostly. But I feel like once they get close enough, Oswald is able to tell that a part of him is close by. This helps a lot. Also, the Mad Doctor likely didn't leave any of Oswald's parts unguarded (including Oswald's head, which Mickey did have to fight to reach), which is ironically a pretty good indicator that they've found one.

4) When does Oswald get captured?

There's room for debate on this one. But if I had to give a specific moment, I'd say the Blotworx Dragon boss fight. It's the first real boss fight of the game, and far too much for Oswald to handle on his own. As an added bonus, once defeated, Oswald is already in the Mad Doctor's lair.

Anyway.

So to start with, I imagine that Oswald is not in high spirits. He tried handling things on his own and failed, which ended in his capture. Instead of being killed like he'd initially feared, the Mad Doctor does something arguably worse by scattering his parts across Wasteland and leaving his head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, which he hates. And now his only hope of becoming whole again is Mickey. The same Mickey who nearly destroyed Wasteland the last time he was here and who Oswald does not trust and also hates.

Starting out, despite the brave face he puts on, Oswald is probably low key terrified to be alone with Mickey like this. He's essentially helpless, and if Mickey changes his mind about finishing Oswald off, all he'd have to do is turn the brush on Oswald and spray. Despite his protests, Mickey lending Oswald an ear would actually go a long way towards mitigating this fear, since Oswald is pretty sure that Mickey wouldn't want to melt his own ear (So Oswald would at least get a little warning if it was coming via Mickey taking his ear back without finding one of Oswald's). But as time wears on, Oswald becomes increasingly sure/comes to realize that Mickey won't do that.

But even without that worry, Oswald's helplessness grates on him in other ways. Oswald claims to be letting Mickey carry him around, but he really doesn't have any choice in the matter either way. He wants to stick close to Mickey if only to keep an eye on him, but if Mickey decides at any point to put Oswald down and walk away, then what's Oswald going to do about it? Yell at his retreating figure? On a similar note, if Mickey starts thinning out Wasteland and other toons again, Oswald is equally as helpless to prevent that. Even after getting his remote back, Mickey wouldn't be too hard-pressed to smack it out of Oswald's hand.

Unrelated to Mickey, Oswald is also incapable of helping the other toons in Wasteland, who are being terrorized by the Mad Doctor and to a lesser extent Prescott.

Except. Mickey doesn't leave Oswald behind, and he doesn't hurt anyone or destroy anything. And to Oswald's surprise, instead of passing by other toons in trouble, Mickey stops to help them.

In fact, he goes out of his way to protect Oswald and make sure that no harm comes to him. If a Blotling gets too close to them and tries to rake Oswald in the face with their thinner claws, Mickey turns so that the claws rake across his back instead. Once the fight is over, Oswald can't do anything else but watch as Mickey sprays the area with paint to mostly heal it, wincing as he does so. And rinse and repeat.

Mickey stays mostly silent. He might have tried to make small talk with Oswald at first, but after being shut down a few times, he stops trying. He only speaks to answer any question directed at him or to tell Oswald something he thinks Oswald needs to know. Whether that be pointing out something Oswald can reprogram, or quietly assuring Oswald that Mickey won't hurt him or anyone else. Oswald immediately refutes the latter, of course, and is quick to remind Mickey of his past failings or to say something mean. And Mickey just takes it. He doesn't say anything to defend himself, because what is there to defend? He feels like he deserves everything that Oswald throws at him.

Mickey is also absolutely terrified of using thinner again. Which is a problem because some problems actually require the use of thinner to solve. The most prominent of these that comes to mind being the Beetleworx, which need to have their protective paint coating thinned away in order to destroy their more vulnerable insides. The first time Mickey and Oswald encounter Beetleworx, Mickey is barely able to produce even a trickle of thinner. After a lot of shouting on Oswald's part and almost dying a few times, Mickey finally manages to produce a steady stream of it and the Beetleworx is destroyed. Oswald is subsequently treated to a front row seat of Mickey's breakdown afterwards, wherein Mickey finds a small place to crawl into, curls up into a fetal position, and starts shaking and crying.

As the search wears on, I imagine that Oswald will try to actually talk to Mickey instead of just throwing insults or orders his way. Starting with asking why he decided to come back. Especially considering that he didn't the first time Gus contacted him. Mickey's answer is simple: "Gus told me you were in trouble." Oswald scoffs at this, because since when did Mickey actually care about him? But even he can't deny that Mickey is here with him now helping Oswald put himself back together even though it's not Mickey's problem.

They slowly find Oswald piece by piece, and as previously stated, this is in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last. If I was pressed to give the order in which they find them, I'd say something like arm, ear, ear, leg, arm, leg, torso. But there's some wiggle room there.

This means that at one point, they find one of Oswald's legs and go a while before finding the other one. With his mobility partially restored, Oswald insists on hopping around on his one leg and refuses to let Mickey continue to carry him. This doesn't work very well. It's extremely tiring to have to hop everywhere he goes, and he also can't go that fast while doing it. He refuses to admit to any of this, of course, and a part of him hates that he appreciates how considerate Mickey is being about the whole thing. How he slows down so that Oswald doesn't have to struggle to keep up, and pretends to buy Oswald's excuses to stop when he gets tired. Despite this slowing them down significantly, Mickey never once picks Oswald up again unless he needs to because they are being chased by a Blotling or Beetleworx and Oswald can't out hop them.

That's all I got for now.

[mickedy]

OH good question uhhmhmhmhmhm....mickey and oswald would definitely have a more strained relationship, but os would be forced to be tag along bc he's the only one who can use the remote

so it's just long silence, no comfort, no talking......oswald is just here to get a job done

at first, probably, ortensia suggests the two of them work together, and oswald (unwillingly) agrees under one condition

(follow up to this post)

[lavadog]

Ok, but would Mickey actually want to come back?

For Mickey to even attempt a thinner run in the first place, he would have to be under the influence of the Blot via the piece of Blot inside of him. Mickey may have his flaws, but he's a good toon at heart, and this is something I can't see him doing while he's in his right mind. This isn't to say Mickey is blameless. He still caused the Thinner Disaster in the first place, and he would have had to have used enough thinner for the Blot's influence to grow strong enough to push him in the wrong direction. But he's not solely responsible.

It would take everything Mickey has in him to manage to break free of the Blot's influence and fail the thinner run, and when he does, he's horrified by what he's done. He still helps defeat the Blot, but he knows it won't make up for what he's done.

Once he gets home, there's no way that Mickey's friends wouldn't realize that there's something wrong with him (the dripping alone would give him away). With a little prodding, he'd confess what happened to him and what he did, and they'd get him (1) the therapy he needs, and (2) the medical attention he needs to get rid of the piece of Blot inside of him.

Yen Sid tells us in the opening narration of EM2 that the events of EM1 happened "not that long ago". Estimating that at ~6-8 months or so later (or even 2 years later if we're going by the real life time that passed between the release of EM1 and EM2), Mickey would be doing much better mentally and physically, but not all the way recovered mentally.

Gus's message comes in, and Mickey would have a lot of reasons to be conflicted about going back. Part of Mickey would want to go back and try to make up for what he did. But going back would also mean facing the toons he wronged, and beyond Gus, it's doubtful that any of them would actually want his help. Oswald in particular. Not to mention that he is still in therapy for all the traumatizing things that happened to him last time he was there.

Maybe, in another world, he finds the courage to come anyway. But I think it's interesting to consider the case where he doesn't. Maybe he decides that it's for the best if he just stays away. Or maybe he takes too long to find the resolve to go, and just as he's ready to leap through, Gus loses the connection. Whatever the reason, he doesn't come.

On the Wasteland side of things, I imagine that Gus tried to summon Mickey without Oswald's knowledge. When Oswald finds out about it, he expressly forbids Gus from trying again.

Oswald does not trust the Mad Doctor's so called "change of heart" but he'll play along for now. And he'll do it on his own. He doesn't need Mickey's help, and Gus is wrong for saying he does. Gus seems to have forgotten what happened the last time Mickey was here and what he did to everyone.

Only, he does need Mickey's help. To say that Oswald could do EM2 without Mickey completely discounts Mickey's help the same way it would to say Mickey could do EM2 without Oswald. Without Mickey, there's no one to (1) distract the enemies while Oswald reprograms them, (2) paint in the things that need painting (Ex. the gears in the fight with Prescott), and (3) no one to pull those simultaneous switches with. Ortensia or Gus could arguably do 1 and 3, but Oswald wouldn't want Ortensia in danger again so soon after getting her back, and Gus can only do so much.

Oswald would probably be able to manage by himself for a while, but eventually, I imagine he'd get captured by either Prescott, the Mad Doctor, or both. The reason the Mad Doctor and Prescott do not kill Oswald then and there is because they need him as a hostage. Part of the Mad Doctor's whole plan was to get Mickey to come. So if Mickey's not going to come to start with, then what better way to change his mind than needing to come save his brother? If Gus is with Oswald, they let Gus go so he can go summon Mickey. If Gus isn't, they make sure word reaches him.

So Gus attempts to summon Mickey again, and now, Mickey has another choice to make. He can either ignore the call again, or come help. And with his brother's life on the line, Mickey chooses to come.

[lavadog]

So one one hand, the Mad Doctor and Prescott could throw Oswald into a dungeon or something. But. Consider. Oswald has been shown to be able to remove his ears, head, arms, and legs with no ill effects. So what if the Mad Doctor scatters his parts around Wasteland similarly to how he scattered Animatronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald's parts?

Just imagine how that conversation would have gone.

Mad Doctor: I scatted Oswald's parts all across Wasteland! Now he's no longer a problem.

Prescott: ...Has that worked out for you in the past?

Mad Doctor: Sure! Nobody ever put Animatronic Goofy, Daisy, or Donald back together once I scattered them. Not until Mickey arrived, anyway.

Prescott:

Prescott: You mean the same Mickey that is here right now?

Mad Doctor:

Prescott:

Mad Doctor: Is this a bad time to mention that I told Mickey were Oswald's head is?

I imagine that the Mad Doctor left Oswald's head at Mickeyjunk Mountain, with the rest of his parts scattered across Wasteland instead of just one area. And in all seriousness, the Mad Doctor would have told Mickey where the head was on purpose in order to distract him/lead him into a trap.

Mickey finds Oswald's head, and from there, he carries Oswald around with him searching for the rest of Oswald's parts. Oswald allows this because he is unwilling to let Mickey go around unsupervised, let alone unsupervised and in possession of any of Oswald's body parts. Mickey does this because he is unwilling to just (1) leave his brother in a place he hates, and (2) leave his brother without protection considering the Mad Doctor and Prescott are still at large and did this to him to begin with.

Using the ear logic from Mickey's "Bad Ear Day" short, Oswald starts off being unable to hear because his ears are gone, so Mickey quite literally lends Oswald one of his. They find Oswald's arm next, which Mickey attaches to the spot Oswald's other ear is supposed to go so Oswald can at least use his remote. From there, they find his other parts in the least convenient order possible, with the torso being found last.

In the mean time, it's a lot harder for Oswald to ignore Mickey and focus on getting the job done when Mickey's literally carrying him around. And because Oswald can't try to snap  the paintbrush right away, Mickey gets a chance to redeem himself by using it for good, and Oswald gets a chance to see him do this. I'd like to think that over the course of this, Mickey and Oswald's relationship slowly improves towards reconciliation.

And while the Mad Doctor and Prescott do make attempts to stop Mickey and Oswald, they certainly aren't wasting time while Mickey and Oswald are distracted...

[mickedy]

OH good question uhhmhmhmhmhm....mickey and oswald would definitely have a more strained relationship, but os would be forced to be tag along bc he's the only one who can use the remote

so it's just long silence, no comfort, no talking......oswald is just here to get a job done

at first, probably, ortensia suggests the two of them work together, and oswald (unwillingly) agrees under one condition

(follow up to this post)

[lavadog]

Ok, but would Mickey actually want to come back?

For Mickey to even attempt a thinner run in the first place, he would have to be under the influence of the Blot via the piece of Blot inside of him. Mickey may have his flaws, but he's a good toon at heart, and this is something I can't see him doing while he's in his right mind. This isn't to say Mickey is blameless. He still caused the Thinner Disaster in the first place, and he would have had to have used enough thinner for the Blot's influence to grow strong enough to push him in the wrong direction. But he's not solely responsible.

It would take everything Mickey has in him to manage to break free of the Blot's influence and fail the thinner run, and when he does, he's horrified by what he's done. He still helps defeat the Blot, but he knows it won't make up for what he's done.

Once he gets home, there's no way that Mickey's friends wouldn't realize that there's something wrong with him (the dripping alone would give him away). With a little prodding, he'd confess what happened to him and what he did, and they'd get him (1) the therapy he needs, and (2) the medical attention he needs to get rid of the piece of Blot inside of him.

Yen Sid tells us in the opening narration of EM2 that the events of EM1 happened "not that long ago". Estimating that at ~6-8 months or so later (or even 2 years later if we're going by the real life time that passed between the release of EM1 and EM2), Mickey would be doing much better mentally and physically, but not all the way recovered mentally.

Gus's message comes in, and Mickey would have a lot of reasons to be conflicted about going back. Part of Mickey would want to go back and try to make up for what he did. But going back would also mean facing the toons he wronged, and beyond Gus, it's doubtful that any of them would actually want his help. Oswald in particular. Not to mention that he is still in therapy for all the traumatizing things that happened to him last time he was there.

Maybe, in another world, he finds the courage to come anyway. But I think it's interesting to consider the case where he doesn't. Maybe he decides that it's for the best if he just stays away. Or maybe he takes too long to find the resolve to go, and just as he's ready to leap through, Gus loses the connection. Whatever the reason, he doesn't come.

On the Wasteland side of things, I imagine that Gus tried to summon Mickey without Oswald's knowledge. When Oswald finds out about it, he expressly forbids Gus from trying again.

Oswald does not trust the Mad Doctor's so called "change of heart" but he'll play along for now. And he'll do it on his own. He doesn't need Mickey's help, and Gus is wrong for saying he does. Gus seems to have forgotten what happened the last time Mickey was here and what he did to everyone.

Only, he does need Mickey's help. To say that Oswald could do EM2 without Mickey completely discounts Mickey's help the same way it would to say Mickey could do EM2 without Oswald. Without Mickey, there's no one to (1) distract the enemies while Oswald reprograms them, (2) paint in the things that need painting (Ex. the gears in the fight with Prescott), and (3) no one to pull those simultaneous switches with. Ortensia or Gus could arguably do 1 and 3, but Oswald wouldn't want Ortensia in danger again so soon after getting her back, and Gus can only do so much.

Oswald would probably be able to manage by himself for a while, but eventually, I imagine he'd get captured by either Prescott, the Mad Doctor, or both. The reason the Mad Doctor and Prescott do not kill Oswald then and there is because they need him as a hostage. Part of the Mad Doctor's whole plan was to get Mickey to come. So if Mickey's not going to come to start with, then what better way to change his mind than needing to come save his brother? If Gus is with Oswald, they let Gus go so he can go summon Mickey. If Gus isn't, they make sure word reaches him.

So Gus attempts to summon Mickey again, and now, Mickey has another choice to make. He can either ignore the call again, or come help. And with his brother's life on the line, Mickey chooses to come.

[star-going-supernova]

Transcription

As a fic writer for BatIM, I constantly found myself digging through playthroughs to find lines of dialogue or the writing on the walls. I’ve transcribed some stuff from the previous chapters, but this is the first time I’ve transcribed everything (i think. probably. hopefully) from a chapter. 

I figured I’d share it in case anyone else suffers like me and wishes they didn’t have to click through an hour long video to find two lines of dialogue. Or maybe that’s just me, who knows. 

Anyway, spoilers beneath the cut. Feel free to let me know if I left something out or messed something up, or add your own!

Keep reading

[lavadog]

@star-going-supernova

Reblogging with some additional hidden lines I found in my own play through:

Inside the cell (Trust her is underlined):

Trust her

On the Bendy poster right outside of Alice and Tom’s place:

Follow me

On the solid ground next to the dock in the area before you get onto the boat: 

There’s something in the river. 

In the Lost One Village (The o in You is a skull): 

You bring death. 

On the wall in the room you fall down into:

It’s inside the vault!

On the wall in Joey Drew’s office above the door:

Who is the man behind the monster? 

On the back wall inside the vault (The o in demon has horns on it): 

The demon has taken it.

The writing on the floor in the giant gird room with the arrows:

Open this door!

Bonus:

If you use it on Alice, you will see a halo floating above her head.

If you use it on Tom, you will see the bone in his mouth provided you gave the bone to your Boris. 

[lavadog]

SRMTHFG 20 Day Challenge: Day 15: Favorite Season

I'd have to say Season 1.

My enjoyment of each season can be broken down into the following:

1) Overall enjoyment of the episodes. 2) Overarching plot of the season. 3) The season finale.

Based on those three categories, let's take a look at how each season measures up:

1) Overall enjoyment of the episodes.

First Place: Season 1. It has a few subpar episodes, but there's no episode I truly dislike from it. It also contains quite a few episodes I really enjoy.

Second Place: Season 2. With the exception of The Skeleton King Threat, there's no episode I dislike from this season. I've mentioned before how I'd fix Versus Chiro, but I don't outright hate the episode. I just feel like it's wasted potential.

Third Place: Season 3. There are several episodes I don't particularly like from this season, including Girl Trouble, Monster Battle Club Now!, Meet the Wigglenog, and Big Lug. However, the season more than makes up for it with the remaining episodes.

Fourth Place: Season 4. Like Season 3, there are several episodes I don't particularly like from this season, including Ghosts of Shuggazoom, The Hills Have Five, Secret Society, Object/Fire of Hate, and Soul of Evil. Unlike Season 3, the remaining episodes don't quite make up for the lows.

(If you want my opinion of every episode, see Day 4.)

2) Overarching plot of the season.

First Place: Season 3. This season has the clearest goal of any of the four seasons. The Hyper Force needs to destroy the Dark One worm before it can gain the strength to end all life as we know it in the universe. In catching up to the worm, they discover the devastation that it has left in its wake.

Second Place: Season 2. This was honestly a bit of a toss up between Season 1 and 2 considering that they both essentially have the same plot of defending Shuggazoom from Skeleton King. But unlike Season 1, Season 2 gives us the backstory of the monkeys and Skeleton King, and how they're connected. There's also the big reveal that Skeleton King is actually what amounts to the dragon of the Dark Ones, who are a far more threatening evil.

Third Place: Season 1. As mentioned, the overall plot of Season 1 is defending Shuggazoom from Skeleton King. But unlike Season 2, Season 1 focuses more on Chiro growing into his role as a hero, cumulating in the reveal of him being the Chosen One. It also contains the most development of Chiro's relationship with his monkey family.

Fourth Place: Season 4. This season lacks a cohesive overall plot. Sure, we have the whole 'Trying to resurrect Skeleton King' thing going on, but this only outright comes into play in 4/13 episodes, and Valina makes for a weak main villain, as I've previously mentioned. Honestly speaking, I'm not sure that I like that they brought back Skeleton King. I get that he's the show's main villain and he has a history with the monkeys, but it feels like they're taking a step backwards considering the whole plot of Season 3 and end of Season 2 was that the Dark Ones are the worst evil in the universe and Skeleton King's only their pawn. If they were going to continue the series after Season 3 at all, I feel like they should have upped the stakes by having a portal to the Dark One dimension open, thus making Season 3's problem a million times worse. Skeleton King's skull could have even been the key to doing this instead of resurrecting him. Though I guess you could argue that the monkeys deserved to defeat Skeleton King properly in some climatic battle.

3) The season finale:

(For the purposes of this  review, I'm counting Skeleton King as part of the Season 1 finale instead of the beginning of Season 2, since its a direct continuation of Hidden Fortress and every other season has a two part finale.)

First Place: It's a tie between Season 1 and 2. Season 2's finale is arguably better, what with how I've awarded it the best and saddest moment of the show, but it's also difficult to casually enjoy because it's just so sad and heavy. Season 1's finale has a much better balance of serious and humorous moments, and it ends considerably happier in that they win (Consequences of separating Skeleton King from the Citadel of Bone aside).  

Second Place; Season 3. We're given an extremely satisfying defeat of the Dark One worm. The plan to blow it up is mundane, but genius, and even though it seems like a cop out given how much of a threat the worm has been built up to be, it's by no means easy to pull off. Heck, they almost DON'T pull it off. They end up stuck in the macrocosm after getting out of the microcosm, and it's only thanks to The Being that they make it back to their cosm. On top of that, they get swallowed by the worm and almost get caught up in their own explosion. There's also some nice drama between Nova being lost in the wormhole and Chiro being separated from the team in the worm (And not able to be sensed by Antauri).

Third Place: Season 4. I've mentioned before how much I loathe this finale. It's one giant ass pull in the form of turning Sprx evil just long enough to accomplish the villains goal for them when they wouldn't have otherwise succeeded, and a step backwards as mentioned above. Which is made all the worse by this being a cliffhanger that is never resolved due to the series being canceled.

Season 1 comes in first in 2 of the 3 categories, and there's no real shame in it coming in 3rd in the remaining category, making it my overall favorite season.

As you've probably guessed considering that it came dead last in every category, Season 4 is my least favorite.

[lavadog]

SRMTHFG 20 Day Challenge: Day 14: Saddest Moment

Do I even need to say anything? We all know that it's the second half of the episode I, Chiro.

With the monkeys out of commission, Chiro has to face Skeleton King alone. This isn't the first time that Chiro has done so, but the last time he did he had the Power Primate on his side and only had to hold out until the monkeys could come and back him up. This time, Chiro is powerless to do much of anything and the stakes are a whole hell of a lot higher than just him dying if he fails.

Antauri manages to show up to help him, which seems like it should be a good thing, but Antauri doesn't do much better than Chiro did. Antauri's best effort ends in Skeleton King force choking Chiro to lure Antauri out, and Chiro gasping for air as he begs Antauri to stay hidden. Things seem to get better when Skeleton King is knocked into the egg by Antauri, but then Antauri is seemingly fatally wounded when Mandarin stabs him through the back of his head, the unadulterated horror on Chiro's face as he witnesses this matching our own. It also turns out that Skeleton King merged with the worm instead of being eaten, which effectively makes the worm 100x worse.

The rest of the monkeys show up, but they are also powerless to do anything, and it's left to Antauri to sacrifice himself to keep the Dark One from hatching. The way this is handled is absolutely heartbreaking from beginning to end, with Chiro crying out in horror but being too late to stop him, Antauri bursting out of his mechanical parts to reveal the monkey underneath before being reduced to a glowing orb, his soul going through both Chiro and the robot, the robot coming to life to seal the egg, and Chiro rapidly turning into a monkey as he does his best to fight what is left of Skeleton King. It ends in a bittersweet victory, with the Dark One being weakened but not stopped, and the monkeys finding out what has become of Chiro moments before he shrieks at them and runs away to parts unknown.

Honestly speaking, I never thought that Antauri had died for good, not even little eleven year old me back when the episode first aired. After seeing Antauri's soul go through Chiro and Chiro transform into a monkey, I was sure that this was going to be used to revive Antauri somehow, and I was later proven right by The Savage Lands. But knowing this didn't make it any less heartbreaking to see.

The only real complaint I have about this episode is that I don't think that the follow up was nearly as good. They gave us monkey Chiro, but they didn't end up doing a lot with him. He doesn't even stick around for the entire first part of The Savage Lands before they replace him with a caveman form that can talk. It's outright stated in the show that Antauri and Chiro's soul were inhabiting the same body and that's why Chiro turned into a monkey, but they don't really play with this at all or give it any far reaching consequences after Antauri is given a new body. As a whole, Antauri's revival feels rushed and like they outright pushed it aside for the thing with Valina, which came completely out of nowhere (Granted, we've seen Skeleton King give people powers before with The Sun Riders. But since when does he kidnap random Shuggazoom citizens, give them powers, and then stick them somewhere that nobody had any plans of visiting instead of using them? I guess you could argue that Valina was guarding his old lab from when he was good, but why would he even care or think that someone had a reason to go there? Just destroy it if you don't want anyone to use it!).

(I realize that Valina isn't just a "random Shuggazoom citizen", but we didn't know this in The Savage Lands so she sure seemed like it. And we all know that the idea that there is a cult in Shuggazoom worshiping the guy who constantly tries to destroy Shuggazoom is stupid.)

(There's also the fridge logic that is the silver monkey having what is basically an upgraded version of Antauri's original powers. The rest of the monkeys have completely unique powers that differ significantly from one another's. Awfully convenient that the silver monkey just so happened to be Antauri but better.)

[lavadog]

SRMTHFG 20 Day Challenge: Day 13: Funniest Moment

It depends on what you mean by funny. There's laugh out loud funny, and there's things that you find hilarious but you don't laugh at. Speaking for myself, there's not a lot of stuff that I actually laughed at in SRMTHFG, but there are plenty of moments that I think are hilarious.

One of these moments has to be the monkeys trying to throw Chiro a birthday party, but utterly failing to understand human children in A Man Called Krinkle. The gifts they get him are obviously not things that a teenage boy like Chiro would like, but you can also see the effort they put into his presents because its stuff that they either find cool, or think Chiro would like. Nova gets him a rock that changes size with your mood because she thinks it makes for a cool present. Antauri gets Chiro a ridiculously long book that Antauri would've liked if someone had gotten it for him, thinking that because he'd like it, maybe Chiro will as well. Gibson gets him an alien slug that secretes a candy like substance because humans like candy, right? Never mind that no sane person would want to eat some slug's poop no matter how good it supposedly tastes. Otto gets him a weird food chewing thing because Otto thinks its cool and he has no idea that a human would find it gross. Sprx ends up forgetting to get Chiro something, so we can only imagine to what degree he would have succeeded or failed. The fact that all the monkeys honestly tried and still failed is what makes this work so well. Add on Chiro being obviously disappointed but doing his best to smile and appreciate the monkeys effort, and you have something absolutely hilarious.

The two moments I remember actually laughing at off the top of my head have to be the monkeys trying to get through the hidden fortress ("Oh yeah, I added some saws!" "You add saws to everything. There's no way through this.") in Hidden Fortress, and the team fighting their museum miniatures (With bonus points for the later medieval scene where Gibson asks the Curator if anyone has actually survived the fall over the castle wall, and he responds that a couple of the studier townsfolk have) in Evil Ages.

I'm not sure if I can really pick a funniest moment, but these are definitely among the top ones in my book.

[lavadog]

SRMTHFG 20 Day Challenge: Day 12: Best Moment

There's a lot of good moments from this show to pick from. But I have to go with Chiro going to confront Skeleton King in I, Chiro.

I, Chiro is the final episode in Season 2, and it directly follows the events of the previous episode Antauri's Masters. The Power Primate has been corrupted by Skeleton King in order to release the Dark One that is sealed deep within Shuggazoom. If the team doesn't stop him, the  released Dark One will go on to destroy the universe.

The team arrives  back on Shuggazoom not long before Skeleton King does, but before they can go stop him, they have to take care of the formless overrunning the city. They manage to take out several formless, including three giant formless that formed from countless smaller ones, but they are eventually hit with a flying projectile that knocks out everyone but Chiro. Several bulky formless breach the robot, and with the Power Primate being corrupted beyond the team's ability to use it, Chiro is forced to use his wits to defend himself via overloading the neutron generator and trapping the formless in with it.

The scene that follows this is somber with little to no dialogue. Chiro lays his unconscious teammates into their tubes like he's lowering them into their graves. He stands there for a moment, watching them with a shadowed expression. Above him, the sky turns from its normal color to a horrifying mix of green and purple, signaling the awakening of the Dark One. Chiro sheds a few tears before an expression of resolve settles over him. Armed with only a rocket pack and Otto's saw weapon, he goes off to confront Skeleton King, sparing only just enough time to tell the monkeys goodbye.  

The entire scene is only around a minute long, but there's a lot to unpack from it. First and foremost is what must be running through Chiro's head. He's alone and powerless. He knows that if he didn't stand a chance against the formless he blew up with the generator, then there's no way that he'll stand a chance against Skeleton King. But he has to try, because doing nothing is unacceptable. We didn't get an origin episode, but I imagine that these tubes are the same ones that Chiro first saw the monkeys in however many months ago, and to him, it must seem like things have come full circle. He didn't know then how much they'd mean to him and what they'd go through together. Now, there's a very real possibility that they won't see each other again, but if him doing something can let them and all of Shuggazoom live on, then that's all he can hope for. Knowing that he might die or fail to make a difference, he goes anyway. He tells his family goodbye, and he doesn't look back.

This is a powerful scene, and although it's Antauri that ends up making the ultimate sacrifice, I can't help but wonder what would have happened if it had been Chiro. In Antauri's Masters, Master Zan predicted that Chiro would fall before the might of the Dark Ones. A popular head-canon is that Master Zan meant that Chiro was the one that was supposed to sacrifice himself in order to keep the Dark One worm from hatching, but Antauri did it instead to spare Chiro from this fate.

I imagine that because it was Chiro's destiny and not Antauri's, Antauri only managed to do the job partway. He sealed the egg, but the Dark One worm's head managed to get out, allowing it to regenerate the rest of its body. This severely weakened it and kept it from destroying Shuggazoom right away, but it was still alive and thus had the opportunity to travel the universe, regain its strength, and eventually come back to destroy Shuggazoom anyway. If it had been Chiro, I imagine that his raw strength as the Chosen One would have allowed him to use the corrupted Power Primate within the egg to vaporize the worm and himself, purifying the Power Primate in the process. The resulting explosion of Power Primate energy would have been powerful enough to continue upwards as a column into space, shining like a beacon and causing the sky to return to normal. I like to imagine that Skeleton King would have got caught up in this as well, but I find that too unrealistically convenient, so he'd probably survive to still be a threat. But with no Mystic Order, there's no convenient spot to corrupt the Power Primate again, which he debatably needs if he wants to try to release another Dark One (Though honestly speaking, one has to wonder why he didn't just make another portal like in Golden Age and if he planned on releasing any other Dark Ones in Season 5).

The only scenario where I can see Chiro being the one to sacrifice himself is one where Antauri doesn't wake up so quickly, and thus doesn't make it in time to stop Skeleton King from throwing Chiro into the egg to feed him to the Dark One worm. Chiro would fall into despair for a moment, convinced that he failed Shuggazoom and the monkeys. But then it would occur to him that he's surrounded by the Power Primate, and he'd find the resolve to use it to vaporize the Dark One worm, vaporizing himself in the process. It's debatable how Skeleton King would react to this. If he'd flee or try to destroy what is left of Shuggazoom. My guess would be that he'd flee considering that what was left of the Citadel of Bone would have been vaporized with the Dark One worm, but Skeleton King could have another trick up his sleeve. Assuming he flees, Antauri would still be the first of the monkeys to wake up. When he does so is also debatable. Antauri could either awaken during the resulting explosion of Power Primate from Chiro's sacrifice, or afterwards to a still standing city and clear sky. Both are heartbreaking in their own way, but considering how tuned in Antauri is to the Power Primate, he'd probably wake up during the resulting explosion, and he'd immediately realize what Chiro had done. The rest of the team would later wake up to clear skies, and find Antauri staring numbly at the empty egg in shock and grief. It would slowly dawn on them what must have happened when they realize that Chiro isn't with Antauri, and they'd quietly join Antauri to face an uncertain future.  

Of course, as interesting as this is to imagine, I don't want Chiro to die or anything. Not for good. If Antauri can get a new body and Skeleton King can be resurrected, there has to be some way to bring Chiro back too. I'm not quite sure how. Maybe his soul became one with the Power Primate or something, and there's a way to get his soul back from it because there's no way that the universe doesn't owe him at this point. The possibilities are endless.

[lavadog]

Is Chiro the Chosen One?

This is something that I've been thinking about for a while now.

Some of you might immediately scoff at this. "Of course Chiro is the Chosen One! It's been stated multiple times in the show!" you might say. And you're right. It has.

Chiro's status as the Chosen One was first revealed to us in Hidden Fortress during the following conversation directly after Chiro locked the monkeys in the fortress to keep them safe:

Sprx: *Forced laugh* “Hey kid.” *More forced laughter* “Okay. Real funny. Now let us out.”

Chiro: “The Supreme Destructor is only after me. I won’t let any of you get hurt. If I fail, you’ll still be here to protect the city.”

Antauri: “Chiro, you are more important than you realize. I was attempting to tell you this before. Our first encounter. It was no accident that you found us.”

Chiro: “Of course it was. I wandered into the robot, woke you guys up, the rest is history.”

Antauri: “No, Chiro. You were destined to find us. You are the Chosen One.”

Chiro: “Chosen One?” *Incredulous laughter* “What do you mean?” *Alarm sounds* “We’ll finish this later.”

This is later confirmed by Mandarin in the same episode:

Mandarin: "You disappoint me, boy. You are the Chosen One." *Chiro glares at him* "Ah. Antauri has at last revealed your destiny."

Chiro: "So I'm some sort of Chosen One. So what?"

Mandarin: "Your insolence is precisely why you will never realize your true potential."

Chiro: "We'll see about that."

Chiro's status as the Chosen One was also hinted at by Mandarin back in Secret of the Sixth Monkey:

Mandarin: "One day, you will find out how much more you are."

Skeleton King himself calls Chiro the Chosen One in Skeleton King:

Skeleton King: "Ah! Chosen One. At last, the fates have brought us together."

And this is all well and good. But then we get to Antauri's Masters, and one line in particular from Master Zan:

Master Zan: "I'm impressed with your diligence, young Chiro. But you are not the Chosen One."

The two times that Master Zan refers to Chiro as any kind of Chosen One, he refers to Chiro as Antauri's Chosen One:

Antauri: “There is still hope Master Zan.”

Master Zan: “No, dear Antauri. I have seen the beginning and end of all created things. I’ve even seen your precious Chosen One fall before the might of the Dark Ones.”

Antauri: “That will never happen!”

Master Zan: “You know nothing.”

and

Antauri: "How could you betray us?"

Master Zan: "It has all been preordained. Skeleton King will rule the universe under the might of the Dark Ones. Your Chosen One will be destroyed.

Antauri: "Never!"

Chiro is never the Chosen One when Master Zan refers to him. It's always your Chosen One.

You could argue that Master Zan has been driven insane by the corruption of the Power Primate, and thus anything he says cannot be trusted. But if that's true, it also discredits his prophecy that Chiro will fall before the might of the Dark Ones, and I'm not the only one that loves the head-canon that Chiro was the one that was supposed to sacrifice himself to stop the Dark One worm from hatching, but Antauri did it instead because he wanted to save Chiro. I would also like to argue that calling Master Zan a liar is the easy way out, and isn't a very interesting rebuff.

Assuming that Master Zan wasn't lying, what does this mean? Is Chiro not the real Chosen One like Antauri assumed he was? Is the real Chosen One still out there somewhere? Or is it someone else we know?

If you look a little closer at what Skeleton King says in Skeleton King, you could argue that his dialogue suggests that Chiro isn't actually the Chosen One:

Skeleton King: "There are forces in the universe beyond your imagination, Chiro. We are but pawns in a universal game of good versus evil."

Chiro: "I'm ending this game, Skeleton King."

Skeleton King: "You are the one chosen to end it?" *He laughs* "Believe what you will to ease your fears, boy. In coming here you have given me control of your destiny."

But that said, one also has to wonder if there even is a real Chosen One, and if the concept of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy exists in SRMTHFG. Was Chiro actually right earlier when he said that he found the monkeys by accident in Hidden Fortress? Could the Chosen One have been anyone? Did Chiro become the Chosen One because Antauri thought he was and helped lead Chiro down that path?

After all, doubts aside, Chiro has done some pretty amazing things. He's gone toe to toe with Skeleton King. He brought Antauri back to life. He played a role in defeating the Dark One worm. He has an amazing affinity with the Power Primate. We can only imagine what he would have done in Season 5 had it been allowed to exist.

A counterpoint to all this could be that Master Zan, having gone insane by the corruption of the Power Primate, meant that Skeleton King is the Chosen One. Which would make this whole argument entirely pointless.  

Ultimately, we don't have the answers to these questions. But it's interesting to think about. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I’d love to hear them.