March 15th is what I call "the day Showdown Bandit was first announced".Trailer anniversary in other words. Good times bro. I remember that day like it was 4 years ago (oh my god). I thought for this occasion that only I think is special,I should post something about SB today. Because at some point or another I would have to. Unfortunately I don't have anything recent to post,so here's something I did a long time ago.
My designs for Carl Handler and Buddy Bublik (because apparently the text on the drawing doesn't give enough of a hint (look,this was done over a year ago, give me a break). Kind of crazy to think that,apart from their names,we never saw anything from them in Episode 1. The (in-universe) creators of Bandit,and not once did we get any info from these guys. Imagine BATIM but Joey is never mentioned once.
What was their relationship? Why and how did they bring the puppets to life? What happened to them after the show ended? Which one is the puppeteer,and if one is the puppeteer, what happened to the other one? So many questions,and we will probably never have answers.
Not that it will stop me from making designs and headcanons for them,but,still..
As I said,this drawing was already done a long time ago,so there are some details here and there that could have been improved (like the proportions) (and also there are maybe 1 or 2 details in these designs that I might change the next time I draw them again) but I still think it's a good drawing that still holds up. Not bad for something made more than a year ago.
Despite the fact that my pfp is the cowboy himself,I've only really talked about this game once. Maybe it's hard to be interested in talking about something that,well,is kind of dead these days. And let it remain clear,I'm still pretty sad about what happened to this project. Very sad.
For a while now I've kind of wanted to continue this "AU" I had at the time just... I don't know,for fun?
I just think it would be interesting to do a story with these characters who didn't get time to shine thanks for certain people.
I wouldn't say this would be a case of "I stole these characters and the story is mine now" or "what would I do if I directed Showdown Bandit" (that second one is worse than the first one,ngl). But more a case of "I'm still sad and I still want to draw/write stuff with these characters from a game that was wronged". Basically I'm still going to treat this as an AU/fanfic based on a game that went nowhere.
But again,dead game,inspiration to do something related to it is low at the moment. So nothing related to this "AU" is coming out anytime soon.
But when the inspiration strikes? Then yeah, I think I can try to do something. It's only a matter of time.
Broken Strings is a story meant to complete the Showdown Bandit narrative and give it a proper ending.
Previous chapters: 1 2 3
The door was a massive rectangular halo of light, taller than any box that Bandit had ever seen. There was plenty of space between the door and the floor for him to crawl under. Once he was through, Bandit felt as though he was being consumed with light- light more intense than he’d ever felt in his life. Before his eyes could adjust, he heard a voice.
“How did this get out here?”
Then, he felt a giant, pudgy hand tightening around him. Eyes finally adjusting, he found that a giant woman, hands as large as his entire body, had picked him up and opened the door. Bandit screamed and pushed against the fleshy woman’s hand. The woman panicked in response and dropped him on the floor before heading off down the hallway. She disappeared through another door whose sign read “recording studio.”
Finally able to get his bearings, Bandit took a look around. He was in a hallway- linoleum floors and metal doors. Thankfully it was a rather short one, for its scale at least. This was beginning to feel like a mistake, but there was nothing to do but press on. The recording studio seemed like his best bet- it was guaranteed that some of those giant creatures were behind the door, at any rate.
What were those creatures? They were quite like puppets in shape, just... squishier. Bandit had never seen anything like it. He wondered if they also had rules to follow, and if they were the same rules. They must have. The only creatures he’d met that didn’t follow rules were the wood hornets. Slipping under the recording studio door, Bandit immediately came up with a name for them.
Unpretenders.
He saw a fleshy creature working a camera as others moved tiger and elephant puppets around on a stage, oblivious to their little eyes moving around. Nothing the unpretenders did was for show. None of their tools were fake. The puppets on stage used fake props and pretended they were real, but the unpretenders never would. Did the unpretenders even know that he was alive? Bandit didn’t know, but he felt it was safest to sit limp against the wall as he watched all of this. He needed to make a plan if he was going to get help from any of them. Then, he saw a smaller giant- she was still enormous compared to him, but maybe half the height of the others. She was laying a few feet away from one of the walls, colouring a picture of the elephant character. A child. Children were open-minded- maybe she was his best bet at getting help.
Bandit got up up and ran to her. She looked up and saw him, eyes full of awe, and stretched out a hand to catch him. The tiger character took notice, and froze in place, unable to make sense of what he was seeing. A puppet, strings dragging, running unassisted across what couldn’t be puppet territory? The elephant brushed against him, trying to get him to focus, but he was stuck even as the puppeteer yanked harder at his strings.
“Cut!” the director said, and a variety of workers attempted to figure out what was wrong with the puppet.
Meanwhile, the little girl had brought Bandit up to her cheek. “Kid, ah need your help!” Bandit said. He wasn’t exactly enjoying this treatment, but it could have been worse. The girl flinched with shock. “That’s right. Help. Please.”
“Just a second,” the little girl said. The adults were still working trying to figure out what was going on, or otherwise were standing around doing nothing. No one was watching her. She escaped into the hallway. “What do you need? This needs to be quick- I need to stay where I belong or I’ll get in trouble.”
“Ah need to find the one who works on puppets- Showdown Bandit puppets. Do you know who that is?”
“I know someone who works on some puppets. What’s Showdown Valley?” The girl looked down to her colouring book. On its front were the words, “Jungle King, a Sillytoons production, created by Buddy Bublik.”
“That’ll do,” Bandit decided.
The little girl went to the building’s lobby. The front-desk woman’s eyes went wide. “Julia. You’re supposed to stay in the recording studio with your mom!”
“Yes,” the girl replied tearfully, “I was told to give this to Buddy Bublik, but I got lost.” She gave the woman her very best puppy-dog eyes.
“I’ll take care of that. And first, I’m walking you to the studio.”
“No, first we have to give this to him! I’m not doing it until then.” There was obvious distress in her voice. Julia was surprisingly good at acting.
“Alright. You run a hard bargain, but sure. We’ll go to him, first.”
So, the two walked to Buddy Bublik’s office. Buddy Bublik himself was a rather tall and stocky man, compared to some of the others Bandit had seen. He had a short beard and mustache and was wearing a cowboy hat. His desk was currently covered in newspapers, and he was painting a puppet- an ape wearing a crown. The shelf above his desk was lined with other animal puppets- mostly jungle animals, but also a horse wearing a rustic-looking saddle. Bandit could trust this man.
“Mr. Bublik? Um, this little girl really wanted you to have this puppet. Would you mind looking after it for a while?”
He turned from his work. He seemed concerned upon seeing the puppet. “I’ll look after it. But, uh, tell her mother that she can’t bring her to work anymore. She must have fished it out of the supply closet.”
“Oh, okay,” the woman replied, sounding disappointed. “Julie, you shouldn’t have done that.”
Julia didn’t listen. She just put Bandit onto his creator’s desk and gave him a wink. Bandit winked back. With that, they left. Bandit turned to the man.
“You don’ have ta punish her. Ah got out on my own.
“What?!” A look of absolute horror had plastered itself over Buddy’s face. “Y-you- you-”
“That’s it, get it out of your system. Yes, ah’m alive. And I need help.”
“Okay... um, what help do you need, lil’ guy?”
“The people of Showdown Valley have been invaded and displaced by an army of stringless. We need your help gettin’ our home back. Do you think you can do that?”
“I. I think so. The stringless. So... the backup puppets?”
“Backup?”
“Yeah. You’re actors. The, uh, stringless, as you call them, are for if any of you get damaged. The dumb nuts that are running this new show didn’t make any back-ups. That’s why I’m set on repairing this one.”
A wave of relief washed over Bandit. “You can repair us?”
“Yeah. People of this world would consider it a rather mundane talent. Now, here’s what’s gonna happen: I’m gonna get through the workday, pretend I’m working late, and sneak into the back to get you. I’ll get you all repaired over the weekend, and I’ll put your box somewhere nice and safe away from the back-ups, okay? I hope it’s not too many puppets that are broken.”
Bandit stifled a laugh. If he sold this as too big a job, Buddy might back out. “Thanks. Ah don’ know how I can repay ya, but thanks.”
“I’ll think’a somethin’,” Buddy drawled. “Anyhow, in the meantime, I have questions for you and you must have questions for me. Why don’t you ask’em while I work on the puppets?”
“Well, first and foremost- the rules. They real?”
“What rules?”
“The rules you go crazy for not followin’! Don’t look up, guard your strings, play your part! We all come into this world with an instinctive knowin’ of them!”
“You do? Fascinating. Well, I don’t know. I don’t think that would make you go insane, but there’s obviously a lot I don’t know about puppets. But you know what it sounds like to me?”
“What?”
“It sounds like you people started out with an understanding that the stringless were different from you, and a desire to think that your way of feelin’ and actin’ was right, and that’s how you decided there were rules. The stringless had no strings, no role, and no reason not to break the fourth wall. And all you understood is that you didn’t want to be like them.”
Bandit sat with that for a while. It felt wrong. He wished the idea were were something physical so he could shoot it. “So everythin’s arbitrary, then? We kept the stringless from joining our village peacefully for nothin’? Banker became a shut-in for nothin’? Penny plucked out her eyes and gave up her shop for nothin’? And that’s the other thing!” Bandit got up and pointed an accusing finger at Buddy, who remained unintimidated by the hand-sized puppet. “You’re... God, right?”
“I- suppose?”
“Why did you kick Penny out of her shop?”
“The answer is right beside you,” Buddy said, pointing to the horse puppet. “I was tinkering with her role. Thought that instead of a general store, she could run a stable. But before I could finish making her stable, the network changed their mind about the Showdown Bandit franchise. They decided to put it on hold so they could pour all their workers into Jungle King. So, I guess I got her stuck between roles to an extent. Sorry, I didn’t know you were alive.”
“So we’re not even actors. Is it all pointless, then?”
Buddy sighed. “If yours is, mine is. But look, were those rules you guys made really making you happy, or fulfilled? Isn’t it better to make rules that will benefit people, and decide for yourself what has meaning? And anyhow, when yoour show resumes production, you all are going to enter the stage as the first puppets who know that you’re puppets. The first ones that spoke to humans. And I think that’s magical.”
At the end of the day, Bandit rode on Buddy’s shoulder as they went back to the storage area. Even as Buddy’s shadow darkened their box, the Showdown Valley citizens didn’t look up. But as their box was lifted, there was commotion.
“It’s okay, everyone!” Bandit called to his brethren as he slid down into the box. “He’s with me. And hoo boy do I have a lot to tell ya!”
Carl (upon seeing the puppets eating): Buddy, are these living creatures!? Buddy: They're just wooden puppets. Please calm down. Carl: THEN WHY IS LOOKOUT EATING MY CHICKEN POT PIE!? Buddy (unfazed): The real question is is why are you letting him eat your chicken pot pie?
Carl: LOOKOUT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A GODDAMN JAW
Buddy: well then you should probably give him one so he can eat that pot pie easier
Carl mostly takes care of the business, he can also be creative but less. American. Oriented on money and a bit cold. Doesn’t care that much about cowboys but likes fine art.
Buddy is the creative drive behind the show but if you tried to talk business to him, he’d probably flee. Bad at math. Ukrainian. Very cheerful and passionate. Western stuff? His favourite. Loves exploring that culture.
They are (have been?) dating. Probably met at a cowboy themed gay bar asDnksdnaskl
I’m gonna go ahead and make Carl very much the puppeteer. He has a skin almost of a dead person, doesn’t like the sun (yeah, took it straight from that pale hand at the end dfnfkjdf). Buddy probably tried living that cowboy life for fun, gets lots of tan.
