Celestial Guardians AU Plot (Season 1)
(Link to OG Concept Post)
The general plot and characters and stuff shall remain mostly the same as the original show, but I may also change a lot of things in some ways. The second season will be the most different, some character details will be changed, the lore will be tampered with drastically, and there will be so many new characters, your head will spin. I might also cut out some stuff. I shall also be adding a bit more well deserved justice (such as yelling at Frederic and certain OCs wanting at least a little bit of punishment for Cassandra’s actions). I might just go completely off the rails and change the plot drastically while barely managing to remain faithful to the OG story of the show. Who knows. I’m just trying to focus on the lore stuff
So first off, the first season of the show will remain pretty much the same plotwise, but with some new changes and an additional episode or two. Might even change parts of the main plot or replace B plots with lore related stuff and buildup.
Any time the black rocks are nearby, Rapunzel hears hush voices saying things like ‘come home’ and ‘help, help’ and ‘Sundrop’ and ‘heal what has been hurt’ and ‘it’s me.’ Rapunzel might sometimes even go into a bit of a trance in, which will cause her to start reaching out towards the black rocks, but someone will snap her out of it before she can.
Raps will also have a lot more dreams and visions related to
Now to break things down episode by episode.
Because Varian’s family and village is made up of Lunarian refugees, they were greatly affected by the Moonstone’s psychic attack all those years ago, and it kinda shows. It even manifests in Varian, despite him having not even been born yet. The signs of this will show in little ways throughout What the Hair?!, with Varian and his dad being a bit spacy and confused a lot, and forgetting things really easily. It’s like me when I haven’t had my ADHD meds in a few days. I have no idea where tf I am. It will also be shown that while Varian is smart, he and the other villagers will come to extremely incorrect conclusions about a lot of things. They are slightly paranoid and suspicious of strangers, but relatively friendly.
I would also like to make it so that the people of Old Corona care about Varian, as he is one of them, but still get annoyed with how often his inventions explode. They have a tight knit community and see each other as family, Varian is just kinda the oddball of said family who keeps getting into trouble. I just want him to be cared about.
Another small detail will be the clear difference in culture between the capital and Old Corona. They are practically different kingdoms, but when asked about it, Varian insists that the village is a Coronan one.
At the end of the episode, after Rapunzel and Co. leave, while they are eating dinner, Quirin asks Varian what the princess was even doing. Varian casually explains that she was trying to figure out what was up with her magic hair, but halfway through his explaination, he pauses, excuses himself, and runs off to his study. He then takes out some old looking texts and begins reading a book with the letters C.G. on it, and written by Atlas, and starts at the chapter titled ‘The Sundrop’. Varian skims through it a bit, before putting it aside. He moves onto another book about the Sundrop, but the shot lingers on a section of the C.G. book. A section titled ‘Solaria’. The episode ends.
For Rapunzel’s Enemy, we shall introduce a theme of Rapunzel having an intense need to be liked, and a bit of a temper that not many know about. This is tied to how she is connected to the Sundrop, who was known for being a bit of an attention seeker and could have a dangerous temper when angry (which would come in short, slightly violent bursts). This is also were a running gag will start; every time Raps starts to get really angry, something nearby sets on fire. It will always seem like a coincidence, while still being a gag, but it is actually also foreshadowing.
Monty’s reasons for disliking Raps will also be less dumb. He doesn’t completely hate her at first, he just mildly dislikes her because he remembers the days when the king was more paranoid, and so Monty dislikes her through association. He knows this is slightly unfair, but he just can’t bring himself to get over it at first. She also will not stop tripping over the basket in front of his store and knocking it over. So he just kinda dislikes her overtime.
But the more she tries to make him like her, the more he dislikes her since he dislikes people like that. It’s just a bunch of little things like small incidents and disagreements that cause him to dislike her, but she pushes it until he hates her.
Anyways, Fizherbert P.I and Challenge of the Brave are basically the same as they are in canon, but Challenge of the Brave focuses more on Rapunzel’s mild competitive and fiery side and how it can get in the way of her relationships. She’s presented as the one who messed up, and Cass calls her out on this. Raps apologizes and the end of the episode makes it up to her.
Cassandra v. Eugene will be skipped and at most be a B plot. The main plot of the episode, renamed A Series of Unfortunate Events (he he, I’m hilarious), centers around the introduction of my first OC, who shall be known as North for the first season. North is a fortune teller and a bit eccentric, which is why a lot of people tend to avoid him. He is always seen wearing a big scarf around his neck and collarbone, almost as though he is hiding something.
Anyways, Raps sees his little tent one day and decides to try it out, even though she is warned by both Eugene and Cass that it’s probably bad news. She goes in anyways, and meets North. He is friendly and welcoming towards her, and invites her to have her fortune told. Unfortunately, she gets bad news that something bad is going to happen, and she ends up worrying about it all day. Cass and Eugene tell her to not worry about it, as it’s probably baloney, but then something bad happens and her fortune comes true!
Determined not to have that kind of thing happen again, she basically becomes addicted to the fortune booth. This gets slightly concerning over time, and even North gets pretty concerned, so one day, when she comes back for another, he decides to switch things up a bit.
They go through the whole card ritual (I made up my own fortune telling method that is kinda like tarot cards but not). Instead of immediately telling her fortune, North decides to give Raps some advice. He tells Rapunzel that the best time is the present, and that while having a heads up or preparing for things is good, you can’t spend all your time worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet. You need to focus on now. He then asks if she still wants to see her cards. Raps, who is moved by his words, says no, and decides she is going to continue living her life in the present.
However, after Rapunzel leaves the tent and North is alone again, he picks up the cards Raps drew and ominously (but not maliciously) says to himself, “enjoy the present while it lasts, Rapunzel, because the future is gonna be pretty rocky.” It then lingers on the cards, one of which is the reunion card, and the other of which is the moon card.
The next two episodes remain basically the same as they are in canon.
Great Expotations will remain mostly the same aside from continuing to establish Varian’s less stable mental health, but it will also end with Varian going to his study and taking some more notes on things he noticed about Rapunzel. He’ll start wondering aloud “are the two connected somehow? it just doesn’t make sense! There has to be a missing puzzle piece!” as he stares at what is basically a bulletin board with all the artist renditions and writings and threads of yarn connecting everything. There are sketches of hair and chemical equations, as well as notes on different Sundrop related legends and the potential scientifically accurate explainations for each. Quirin eventually tells him to go to bed, and Varian does, but outside, unbeknownst to him and his village, a small black rock pops right outside his house, followed by three more, each bigger than the last.
In Under Raps, when Raps goes to Xavier for help with the crest, North just so happens to be there. When Xavier mentions the Separatists, North pipes up, saying that they suck and are an embarrassment to all Saporians. He then proceeds to rant about them, slipping back and forth between Coronan and a completely different language before storming out while still muttering angrily to himself.
The rest of the episode plays out how it did in canon.
I don’t know what to do with One Angry Princess, but I did end up adding a B plot about Varian’s investigations on the Sundrop and Rapunzel’s hair. Basically, Varian goes around asking fellow villagers about legends and stories related to the Sundrop so he can cobble together some scientifically accurate version of the story and solve the mysteries of Rapunzel’s hair. While each story has its own unique ideas, they all provide a little bit of information to the audience about some of the lore surrounding the Sundrop. It also explores the idea of conflicting perspectives and accounts of events.
Meanwhile, every time Varian talks with someone about the Sundrop, a few small black rocks pop up around the corner, but they gradually grow bigger and bigger, as though stalking him. And the end of the episode, Varian will start mumbling allowed about all the stuff he has learned while he’s walking home, with the rocks still following him. He mentions that it’s good that the princess is so close by, since she is connected to the Sundrop in some way. And that’s when a black rock pops out right in front of his face.
Varian yelps, looks around to see the black rocks all over the place, and runs inside to tell his dad. There is a lingering shot of the black rocks with hushed voices whispering in the background and getting louder and louder as they overlap each other to being almost incomprehensible. But then one voice, louder and clearer than the rest, says “FIND SOLARIA.” Then cut to black.
Pascal’s Story shall stay the same as it was in canon.
Big Brothers of Corona shall remain mostly the same, but at the end, there will be a short scene with Varian and his dad arriving home after a big village meeting about the rocks, which have gotten really out of hand and appeared about 2 weeks ago. Varian asks his dad what they are going to do, but Quirin says that that is not something Varian needs to worry about. Varian takes a break in his room, but looks back at the C.G. book, has a spark of inspiration, skims through it a bit, and stops at a picture with the Brotherhood Symbol on it. He looks up at the scroll on his wall which also has the symbol on it. Varian says “how do you fit into all this?” right before the episode ends.
And that’s Part One of Season One! I had to split this post into two parts because it was long and also I want to get this part out ASAP. Part 2 of Season One will be coming out soon! Hope you enjoy this AU so far since I worked really hard writing all this out. I did not work as hard actually thinking it all up since I revamped it just yesterday. But I worked hard to put content for it out there! If you like it, please at least give it a heart since knowing even just one or two people enjoy this will make it all worth it!