Some Tord-featured frames from the 2026 production video aren't in the Tord-featured video.
I have a feeling this is not going to be the last time we see him.
This is the first short story of a collection for the novel in progress Five Minutes.
Summary: Fin misses the sun and has a plan for escaping site. It does not go as planned.
Word Count: 3.1k
“Drop it.”
Fin’s eyebrow twitched. “What?”
“I appreciate the gesture, Fin,” Miran said, “but drop it.”
Fin scanned the pink rock he had held out to Mire before tossing it past him and onto the latter's desk. It cracked upon the collision with chips sliding across the wood.
It looked right at home amongst the other labeled rocks scattered along Mire’s work station. Fin was especially fond of the yellow fluorite he had held onto for so long. A shard clinked against the container of a coffee-scented candle nearing the end of its wick.
Mire’s office was one of the few places that felt lived-in in the entire lab complex.
“How long were you holding onto this?” Mire half-sprinted towards whatever cabinets he had.
“A day,” Fin said. He flexed his arm. The ache from the toss caught him off-guard. His muscles were still sore from blood work. “Found it in storage. Why?”
“That is cinnabar,” Mire said. “It’s a mercury sulfide.”
“Okay?”
“It’ll soak through your skin to give you mercury poisoning.”
Fin blinked. “Oh.”
OH.
“When was the last loopback you made?” Mire pulled out a thick glove and returned to his desk. He gingerly picked the largest chunk of the pink rock up. “I’ll talk to Pythias about it; don’t worry about her.” He scratched his cheek with his clean hand. “The neurological damage too… she’ll likely forgive you if the alternative is messing with her data set.”
“Right right,” Fin spun around and made his way to the exit. “I get the point.” The door slid open. “Where’s Mana when you need them?”
*****
A blast of white light erupted around Fin before the world faded back into reality.
A battery was placed against his tongue. Purple energy crackled around the point of contact, coiling around his neck and throughout his body. It fizzled out not long after.
Fin removed the block from his mouth and scraped his burnt tongue across his teeth, taking note of his new location. He was in front of storage, nowhere near Mire’s office. He checked his phone. It was yesterday.
Mire had called these moments “loopbacks”, letting everyone else adopt the terminology. Some people remembered them, most people didn’t.
Fin pondered outside storage. The soreness in his arms and back had disappeared. He dipped his head inside to see if anyone was there. His expedition was supposed to be to find anything valuable or fun-looking. Something new amongst the grey.
Or is it supposed to now?
Well, not anymore.
His phone buzzed. It was a text from Mire.
‘Do you feel anything?’
Fin texted back.
‘Didnt feel anything anyway’
‘Just checking.’
Mire quickly followed up again.
‘We still don’t know how your looping works. Poisoning yourself further isn’t going to help.’
Fin hummed to himself. He fidgeted with a military tag around his neck.
‘We’, huh?
‘Do ya have an estimated cutoff for this whole live-on-site thing,’ Fin texted, ‘havent seen the sun in a while’
The three dots indicating Mire’s typing bubbled, then vanished, then reappeared. Fin’s phone dinged right as the screen went to sleep.
‘No.’
Great.
Mire texted some more, ‘Pythias is adamant to learn as much as she can from us and you. I can’t say I blame her. You’re something of a mystery.’ ‘Unless there’s something that requires outside help like a fire, this is what our lives are like until we’re done.’
He pinged again.
‘Do not take this as an invitation to burn the building down.’
Fin snorted. He sent back a rude emoji and slipped the phone back into his pocket along with the battery as he wandered back to his assigned room.
He passed by other offices and rooms. They all appeared the same. Not many personal belongings and not even a name-plate on the door to differentiate them.
The halls were all the same. The people were all the same. The days were all the same. At least that pink rock was something that broke up the silence.
Aside from it costing them a day.
He stopped. He swore.
It cost us a day.
He rubbed his arms as he debated where to go now. The lab work was in the morning. He just did that lab work. Of course his muscles weren't sore anymore. No one’s done anything to them yet.
He was going to have to do it again. Pythias was going to make him do it again. Shivers ran up his spine and out to his limbs at the thought of all the needles.
And the big one for the spinal stuff. The muscles in his back contracted at the memory.
The thought of giving Pythias the ability to remember loops flickered in Fin’s mind. He dismissed it immediately. It’d give her more control than he’d like.
Fin restarted his stroll. He took out his phone again to ask Mire to just say they did the testing already, which was sort of true, he supposed. His finger hovered over the messaging app. The screen went dark from lack of interaction.
Mire didn’t have the power to make Pythias go away. Fin wasn’t even sure if he would have the inclination to do it.
Fin’s shoes squeaked beneath the tiled floor. The echos were the same, the feeling was the same, the scratching of the fluorescent lighting was the same.
The needles were going to be the same. The pain was going to be the same.
“Unless there’s something that requires outside help…”
Fin stopped in his tracks.
Y’know…
*****
“You looped.”
“Uh. Yes,” Fin strolled into Everon’s room. “Observant of ya. Take it you’re Quill?”
Ev did not respond. No rebuttal from Quill usually meant yes, it was indeed Quill.
She did not look up from the journal she was writing in. “Why.”
The smell of coffee floated throughout the room. A mug sat next to Quill’s book and a coffee maker was pushed against the back wall.
The day Fin had lost to the loop had for the most part been reclaimed, with clocks around the building displaying noon. He couldn’t remember if he’s eaten in that time frame at all.
Eating was getting harder to keep track of. The possibility put him off-kilter.
“Can I-?”
“Help yourself,” Quill said. “You also have to repeat your lab assignment in fifteen minutes again.”
Fin was already fishing around in the cupboards for a mug. “Yeah, ‘at’s not gonna be an issue.”
Quill’s eyes narrowed before her stoic expression returned.
“So did Mire tell you about the cinnamon thing?” Fin asked.
“Cinnabar,” Quill corrected. “I was asking ‘why’ about the loop after that; the loop last night.”
“Know, I know,” Fin snickered. He poured himself a serving of coffee from the carafe beneath the maker. “Outta curiosity, how’ve you guys been holdin’ up, livin’ here full-time?”
Quill finally put her pen down. She stared across the table, her back still to Fin. “You are dodging the question.”
“‘S relevant, I swear,” Fin continued. “We might be able to catch a break if it works.”
Quill slowly turned to him. “Elaborate.”
“Since Pythias is head, nothing can happen if she’s not there, right?” Fin took a slurp. “Rock’s pretty soft so I turned it into powder and gave it to the cafeteria workers last night to slip into her morning brew of whatever for today. They said no. So I looped and did it myself.”
Quill gave him a tired look. She turned back to her journal. “So you poisoned her drink.”
“It’ll be fine,” Fin waved his hand in dismissal. “Small amount. Rock’s tiny. S’not like it’ll be lethal or anything. People lived ages with mercury cavities before, right? It’ll just give ’er some indigestion or something. If we're lucky, a hospital visit will get us out an’ about for a bit.”
“Bold to assume she’d let you come with her.”
The PA system beeped. Fin startled at the noise before kicking himself.
“Fin Casovy, you are to report to Lab 201 at ten-thirty. Fin Casovy, your presence is required at Lab 201 at ten-thirty, thank you.”
It was Pythias’ voice. Fin grimaced and clicked his tongue. Quill did not bother hiding their flickering smile.
“Or not, apparently,” Fin stared at the bottom of his mug. He hadn’t realized how fast he’d consumed the beverage. His fingers tapped against the ceramic of the mug. “Guess the tea nullified the effects.”
“Pythias doesn’t drink tea. Miran does.”
Fin hummed.
Then stopped.
Quill’s head jerked up.
“He,” Fin stuttered. “He does?”
The alter leapt from her seat and sprint-walked to the door. Fin’s heart lurched, tossing the mug back on the counter. He heard a crack. He didn’t care. Purple sparks flew around him as he gave chase. He couldn’t help it.
“I thought it was the other way around!” Fin caught up to his friend. “I thought Mire was the one who drank coffee. Doesn’t he have a candle of it or something-?”
Quill stopped and spun around. “That’s mine.”
“Why?”
“That doesn’t matter.” The energy around Fin attracted her attention. “You are dead if you made another loopback today.”
The sparks became full crackles. It seemed like a good idea to make one when he got up in case anything went wrong today.
And Mire gets up at the crack of dawn.
Quill’s stoic face began to twitch. Her brisk walk became a sprint. “You’re an idiot, Fin.”
He swore. “Where’s Mire now?”
Quill did not reply but her pace was direct. She was moving to the back of the building where most of the larger multipurpose rooms were.
Because of course he’d be as far away from them as possible.
Fin fumbled with his phone as he fought to keep up with Quill’s sprint. He called Mire. No answer.
Fin swore. His phone pinged.
‘I’m in a meeting, can you call me later?’
‘Uh mire hve yive eaten breakfast yret’
‘Yes?’
Dammit.
“Hate to break it to ya Quill, but there might not be much we can do. Think we’re just wasting time.”
“Then make more.”
She skidded to a halt, spinning on her heel. She grabbed hold of Fin and wound up for a punch.
With the amount Fin was sparking already, he didn’t need much more of a push.
“I will be taking some amusement out of this,” she said. “I just want you to know.”
“Yeah yeah, just get it over with.”
The blow came across his jaw. His adrenaline flew into overtime. The world faded to white.
*****
Fin was still crackling. He was back in his room. He nearly dropped the battery and started running towards the labs again.
His phone pinged. Its clock read four hours ago.
‘Fin, what is going on?’
‘Messed up. Where you’
‘You text like a child.’
‘Miran’
‘Lab 203. We were going to finish repairs today. Or finish repairs today again?’
Fin scoffed.
Course you’re there.
*****
Quill made it to the lab first, Fin following short after. He gripped the doorframe as his legs began to reduce to mush. Ironically, containment has made him well out of shape.
Mire was in the centre of the room, directing various workers and moving equipment around. His skin was pale. No way was it from the physical work.
Quill’s face was scrunched, like every socket was about to pop out of alignment. She lurched before she stopped, taking a large inhale.
Mire turned around at the sound of their approach. His eyebrows raised. “Guys- Quill,” His voice was grovelly. He coughed and cleared his throat before attempting to stabilize the alter. “Are you alright?”
Quill brushed him off. “Gryff will forgive me.”
“Mire,” The adrenaline was beginning to give out as the energy around Fin faded. “The cinnabar.”
“The what?” Mire raised an eyebrow. “Did you poison yourself again?”
Quill stared into Fin’s soul. Fin did not meet their gaze. He explained what had happened. His peripheral watched Mire’s face twist from confusion to horror.
Mire swallowed hard. “That explains the nausea in a few hours.” A shaky knuckle was pressed to his mouth, “And you already tried to loop too, didn’t you?”
“Uhno I haven’t, maybe that blast of light was just the earth crashing into the sun.” Fin spat. He clenched and unclenched his jaw as he made his way deeper into the room. “So how bad is it gonna be?”
“Fin.” Mire’s hands were on his shoulders. “Mercury targets the brain. It destroys your breathing. Your liver. It can make you go insane.” He shook him back and forth. “Do you have any idea what you've done!?”
“Mean, you always were at least a little insane-”
“Fin, I’m serious.”
“Poison control is in Edmonton,” Quill said. “That is a five hour drive.”
“You don’t go to poison control,” the geologist replied. “You call them for advice.”
“Then you need the location of an ER.”
Fin pinched his lips. “Calgary, right?”
“It’s,” Mire pointed in an arbitrary direction before faltering. “We can’t leave, they have us under quarantine.”
“And you’d rather lose your mind?” Fin raised his eyebrows.
With that, Mire sighed and started typing on his phone, presumably searching for the number of poison control. “Quill, start the car.”
Energy was beginning to surround Fin again. “How long’ve you got?”
“Please don’t word it like that,” Mire said, tapping his fingers against his side, waiting for the number to pick up. “It depends on how much you put in. A small dose shouldn’t do anything major for at least a few hours.”
“...Y’wanna know how much I put in?”
“Yes?”
“The rock.”
Mire blinked. “What?”
“I grinded the whole rock.”
Mire gaped. “Fin, that would kill a horse,” he paused. “That’s going to kill me! And you were going to give that to-? Jesus Christ. Loop again, I’ll meet you at the door.”
Fin blinked. “I’m coming with you?”
“Of course you are. We’re in the middle of nowhere; the drive is hours.”
Something ballooned in Fin’s chest. Only for his ribs to pop it.
“...Right.”
Quill wound up for a punch. “I hope you’re satisfied with your taste of freedom.”
*****
It didn’t take much explaining for the ER to take Mire in as a priority.
Thankfully.
Mire was silent the whole ride. He didn’t complain, which only made Fin’s guilt swell. It was tough to keep his energy in check. The others had to ground him multiple times to keep him from looping.
The sun had set. A blanket of navy was set across the sky. Fin had managed to finagle himself onto the clinic’s flat roof, legs dangling off the side. He was facing away from the road to keep from attracting attention.
Ev- probably still Quill? It didn’t really matter- texted him from inside that Mire was going to be fine. No doubt the concentration raised some eyebrows, but he’d live. Being a liver donor was definitely out of the question, though.
Whatever. Mire was fine. Fin was outside. Everything worked out in the end.
He took a deep inhale. The air was pungent in fumes and exhaust. White city noise of honking horns and tires crunching on pavement polluted the city. Street lights flickered on one by one.
…No one would notice someone like him disappearing into the heart of Calgary.
A piercing whistle made Fin jump. He looked around and along the grass. Ev waved at him.
“What’re you doing up there?” they called.
It wasn’t Quill anymore.
Fin shrugged. “Thinkin’.”
Ev hummed. Their eyes scanned his perch and then around the building.
“Y’can climb the drain pipe,” Fin pointed to one of the corners of the building. “Got some sturdier bolts than most.”
It was a bit of a struggle for them to make their way up. Fin hauled them to the roof once they were in reach.
Ev’s eyes danced over the darkened horizon. “Not the best view in the world,” they turned their head to Fin. “Why go through the trouble to come up here?”
“Height’s nice,” Fin replied. “Cool, isolating.” He grinned, “away from people like you.”
“You don’t mean that,” Ev grinned back.
Fin scanned his friend. The response didn’t help. “Sorry,” he shook his head. “Who-?”
“Vine,” Ev nodded. “So what exactly did you do to make Quill so furious with you?”
“‘S not important.”
They said nothing for a while. Crickets were beginning to sing. Another car drove by. Fin hunched over the side to appear smaller. He fiddled with the battery in his pocket before taking it out. It was a black box in the darkened light.
“It’s been awhile since we've seen out here,” Vine mused. “Or been.”
Fin didn’t say anything. He tentatively touched the tip of the battery to his tongue. The energy shed purple light around them, wrapping around his core and dangling legs.
Was this the first time he’d ever felt safe to be rooted in time?
“They’re not gonna let you keep that loopback, you know,” Vine said.
The energy faltered. Fin didn’t care. He scraped his tongue against his teeth as though it would remove the burn. He thought back to Mire. He never considered a shock tasting sour, before.
He eyed the environment for obscurities or buildings. Cameras or pitfalls.
He could run. There wasn’t anything that stopped him. Go back to the life he missed. Back to the world where no one cared.
His loopback was free from the labs. He could disappear. Everything could go back to how it was. He got a sick new superpower out of the deal and maybe some life skills, so overall a net positive, right?
No time like the present to cash it in.
Because he really needed to.
Wanted to.
Had to.
The sound of wind chimes on a door sang behind and below them. Fin stood up to check the front of the building. He put on a grin.
“Hey, Mire.”
Mire glanced around before his attention landed on the roof. He seemed unfazed.
“How ya feeling?”
“Better,” Mire said, though even in the night’s light, he still looked discoloured. Maybe even a little embarrassed. “We should be heading back now. Xancorr is going to flip when they realize you left.”
Like hell I’m going back Just glad you’re alright.
“Now?”
Mire gestured for him to return to the ground. “Yes, now.”
Vine wasn’t paying attention. She stared unblinkingly into the abyss of the night.
Fin’s attention was split between the two of them. He looked out into the streets.
The loopback would trap Mire back in the building. Vine might not realize he had left until it was too late.
This was his chance, so why wasn’t he taking it?
“Fin?”
You’re gonna drag me back anyway, aren’t you? It didn’t count this time.
Fin tapped Vine on the shoulder, tearing them from their trance. He nodded to the drainpipe. “C’mon. Mire’s waiting for us.”
________________________________________________________________
First story done!
Character profiles will be uploaded in the future probably. We're looking forward to embarking on this journey with you.
Asks are also open
Has anyone else noticed the continuity oddities with Eddsworld?
A lot of the goofy hi-jinks the gang go on can easily be explained by cartoon logic, but there are some things that don't quite... line up. Mostly in regards to character death.
This is another long one, apologies.
I get that technically the only major irreversible character death is Jon in the finale, but think about it. People die in Eddsworld all the time, especially during the Goulden Era. Some examples right off the top of my head are the Zombeh trilogy, WTFuture, and Matt Sucks.
You could argue that the Zombeh trilogy is its own isolated canon, at the end, everyone dies including Tom and Edd who realize they were bit at the end of the third episode, but in WTFuture, Future Edd goes back in time of the current timeline and lands literally seconds after Matt had his arm ripped off. This outright confirms that not only were these characters zombified and then killed, but they somehow came back as they were previously as though nothing happened.
Matt Sucks -where Matt gets turned into a vampire- has this as well, with Edd and Tom being nailed to the wall and killed in an attempt to kill Matt, who then burned alive anyway. The very next episode, everyone is alive and well, making no allusions to what had happened in the episode prior. Eddsworld: Beyond actually references this, that Matt and the sun are old enemies. He even hisses at the sun, showing fangs, as though he was a vampire. Is Matt still a vampire? But he died, didn't he? It could just be a silly "if you know you know" reference for those still going back to the older episodes and doesn't really matter all that much in the long run, which is fair. That being said...
Also in WTFuture, Matt goes back in time and becomes the ruler of everything, taking the place of every single important historical figure, basically becoming the dictator of the world and its history, (and you thought Tord was bad). Even Matt's own friends are affected by this change, praising Matt and his glorious endeavors as apposed to being mildly annoyed with him as they typically are. The next episode, everything goes back to normal. Cartoon logic. But later, in part one of Hammer and Fail, Matt mumbles this to himself:
If... if every episode is its own contained world, which is how a lot of cartoons typically allow timey-wimey plotlines like WTFuture, how would Matt remember him being ruler? Heck, even the painting of Matt as king is in Tord's room after it's established that Matt's time travel had been reversed.
Does this mean other characters can remember this kind of stuff too? Do Tom and Edd also remember every single time they've died?
There is in-canon proof that each contained episode link the each other in a variety of ways, but the beginning of every episode starts the same: the house being in one piece, and Tom, Matt, and Edd, (and Tord, I guess) being perfectly alive and well. In fact, after several episodes of the gang's house being blown up and destroyed (Zanta 2, Space Face part 2, etc.), the only time the house remains irreparable is The End part 2. So what gives?
It makes me wonder if there's someone or something that is pulling time-manipulating strings in the background to ensure these characters -and their house- remain alive, even repairing their time-travel based wrong-doings. Something along the lines of a Reset, perhaps?
It's important to remember that physical objects and sensations, like the house or damage to the characters bodies, are removed and set back to how they were, but the memories of the characters affected have stayed. Physical changes, mental stays.
At first, I thought that if this Reset thing is the responsibility of an actual person, that it'd be Tom. Considering the whole implied-possession character trait and the fact he gets beaten up the most out of the three, (Spares he gets thrown in the trash in favour of a Matt clone only for the clone to never be seen again, he gets electrocuted in Space Face 2, he gets shot in the face with a laser twice (Space Face 1 and Zanta 2), gets a full body cast in Zanta 3, etc.), the Resets would give him a better stand against everything thrown at him as well as lean into his supernatural origins. Plus, he cares about his friends, and has shown displeasure in the idea of losing them, specifically Edd, meaning the Resets might also not be exclusively selfish. But there's another character that fits the bill even more.
Take another look at the examples of continuity oddities above. Notice the character in common?
Matt.
Matt is the one (to my knowledge) most likely to make multiple references to events in previous, seemingly unrelated episodes. He is the only one shown to have kept his memory of WTFuture. Matt is still shown to be a vampire, after having died from burning and having then been seen in daylight several times later with no consequence.
Is this a coincidence? Yes, absolutely. You can even tell that Legacy makes strides to avoid this kind of confusion with the noticable lack of character "death" until The End.
Is this a fascinating coincidence nonetheless? Oh, yes, absolutely.
So turns out with the drop of Tales of Terror, this theory holds more ground than I had expected. I'd dare say timey-wimey shenanigans are apparently a common staple of Eddsworld. Not only with Tales of Terror, I've also found more evidence (smaller, a little more fuzzy evidence) proving something timeline or reality bending is occurring, as well I've possibly an explanation why the house finally remains destroyed in The End.
I'll touch more on ToT later, but I first wanted to point out other instances of this repair or loop of physicality but the consistency of mentality.
Hammer and Fail part 2. The demon possessing Matt destroys the wall and shoots Tom and Edd out of it, before dropping Matt off and retreating. The demon literally rewinds the house's "time" to repair it. You can see the explosion go back in on itself, not just the pieces of the wall returning to their proper places. The demon's power level is also consistent, as he can apparently also turn people into bowling pins in Pinheads.
So demonic entities can bend time and space. Maybe Tom is behind the resets after all.
Space Face part 2 and PowerEdd. This one is more of a stretch, but something consistent with animation in general is that when someone dies, they get "x"s over their eyes. This is different than if someone gets knocked out, whereas in that case, spirals appear over their eyes. Eddsworld has never used the spirals, but it has used the "x"s when someone dies (e.g., Matt Sucks). You could technically make the argument that to remain consistent the "x"s are only used when a character dies, including when Tom gets electrocuted and when Edd gets slapped by the monster. Meaning they legit did die and were then brought back by a reset immediately after. Again, more of a stretch.
Also something minor in PowerEdd is Edd gets his bones fused back together after he falls from his roof in the opening, though you can argue that was the radiation's doing.
A bunch of the shorts in Beyond. You know how I said the house didn't get rebuilt after The End? I lied. It's the setting for the chores trilogy (Mail, Lightbulb, Trash). No one bats an eye. What's even weirder is they still live in the apartment they bought in The End in Surf and Turf Wars and New Year New You? Whatever, maybe the house did get reset and they kept both places. As to why the house isn't immediately reset after The End even though it has arguably sustained worse damage, though, I think I have an explanation.
Just like the other three, Tord has died and been brought back to life multiple times, which also probably means he is able to remember the resets as well. Theoretically, if you were to reset the house, you probably would have to reset the robot that was under the house as well. The main three now know that Tord is evil and wants his robot back, so resetting their house would not be in the best interest of, y'know, the world.
But then the chores trilogy exist, so I guess they fixed that problem anyway. Maybe the Beyond shorts just aren't canon. I dunno.
Tales of Terror. Two of the three shorts revolve around the manipulation of time. Tom's camera sees the future (I don't think it's bending reality, before Tom gets hit by the train, the camera shows the end card "No Footage Found" which is then displayed when the train makes contact -this also brings up another string of questions), and Edd gets trapped in a time loop.
That time loop, however, is literally just the animation software, so Eddsworld I guess is canonically a world that is dominated by a cosmic eldritch being beyond comprehension- an animator. This is also something that has come up before as well. In Hello Hellhole, Tom finds himself in a white void where a stylist, probably being controlled by an animator, draws a slide for him and shoves him down it.
Makes me wonder if there is a link between animators and demons and hell, but that's a theory for another day.
Finally, while the comics have gone on record to say they aren't canon, one of them shows this:
Not loop-related, but them all getting killed and spontaneously returning to life has been commented on at least. Guess Beyond is willing to keep this kind of stuff in mind going forward hopefully. I wonder if this comic also confirms that ToT is indeed an episode canon to the Beyond overarching narrative? Granted, I always assumed it was, anyway.
Resets are something undeniably canon in Eddsworld now, I think. This means absolutely nothing in the long run, but I think this is something I want to see explored more.
How exactly does the Overwrite work?
I mean I get that we'll be able to see eventually what it can do at its full strength in later episodes of Underverse, but I'm more concerned about its relationship with the multiverse as a whole.
Think about it. Through context clues, we can infer that what's happening when someone is Overwritten is that their code is being temporarily hijacked and -in more severe cases- being entirely rewritten. This also go for timelines that are also made of code. Makes sense.
But for the Overwrite to be as dangerous as it's shown to be, everything has to be made out of code. So what happens when someone tries to Overwrite something that's not made of code?
There are some universes that are more organic than others. Without a doubt Something New is a code-based timeline, it even has a player modifying the code in a pseudo-Overwrite to make Killer (which is also an interesting point within itself), but what about Dreamtale? Dreamtale is just a world that was moved into the UTMV by chance because Nim was looking for a place to hide the Tree of Feelings. Is Dreamtale made of code, or are its inhabitants made of DNA and a true Soul?
If we consider Dreamtale is also told through the perspective of a fairy tale book, could you argue that Dreamtale's world is made out of text as apposed to code?
Does this mean that Dream or Nightmare are immune to the Overwrite? Or does the Overwrite work regardless? Could Dreamtale be immune to corruption or by extent destruction from other code-manipulating outcodes like Error or Fatal?
You could make the argument that an AU is not inherently made out of code unless stated or a player is showcased. Would the Overwrite work on them too?
Am I thinking too hard about this? Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Strings are overrated.
According to the original Ask Error comic as well as a couple of asks, strings are actually a very powerful version of Blue magic, able to manipulate not only the Soul, but the Soul's user. This also explains why Error is able to crush Souls with his strings so easily.
However, in that same comic, we're shown that there is an Error Papyrus (who gets like a total of two panels to himself but he does exist). CQ has said that they no longer remember what they had planned for Paps, but his Error magic was going to be bubbles, not strings.
Building off of this, Blueberror was originally going to have an Error ability based off of stars, not strings.
So this means that being an Error doesn't automatically mean you get the ability to use strings. Perhaps if a monster or a human that becomes an Error that doesn't have blue magic gets a different boost to another form of magic, like Yellow or Green.
What I'm saying is that while the ability to control Souls with strings is cool and all, I think there's a case to be made that the Anti-Void is -ironically- a source for a lot of creativity with magic. Like imagine the design of a character that has a power set based around broken glass or leech-healing, while still holding true to the relative design of an Error.
I think new Errors would different Errored abilities would be a welcome change.
Just finished playing chapters 3 and 4, and boy was that a ride. I feel like Toby Fox had really done his work, giving answers we've been craving and now we have a much better understanding of the world.
Something funny does crop up at the beginning of chapter 3, so spoilers ahead for that.
When chapter 1 first released, everyone had theorized that the Dark Worlds were imaginary. They were entirely fictional, created from Kris and Susie's imagination. And then chapter 2 dropped where Berdly and Noelle enter the Cyber World. If the Dark Worlds were imaginary, then Berdly and Noelle would be playing unwillingly, and Berdly's implied death in Snowgrave would just be a work of fiction. Not to mention Noelle was unaware the entire ordeal in the Dark World had happened at all, so the imaginary theory and everything attached to it was thrown out the window.
Fast forward to chapter 3, where Ralsei admits that Darkners really are just objects brought to life in darkness. He states that the brain can't see anything, so it creates a world of its own to make sense of a world plunged in the dark. Ralsei admits he's imaginary, an illusion.
So we actually predicted chapter 3's big reveal, thought it was wrong and completely discredited it, only to be proven right the first time.
All the while I'm sitting in the corner with my fingers pressed to my lips in thought, thinking "So MatPat WAS right".
I don't usually talk about headcanons, but a smaller idea for Killer I had a while ago is that Killer can manually adjust the phase his Soul is in in a similar manner to how Nightmare can: just crush his Soul in his hand. This would be exclusive to him going from Stage One to Stage Two, though, or continuing to reinforce Stage Two in him.
That being said, its not him manipulating his Soul that is causing him to change phases, its the pain that comes from it.
It's commonly headcanoned that Killer's Soul is extremely volatile. It stores 999999 LOVE and is the container for the majority of his Determination. One way this can be interpreted is that when something touches it, it lashes out (surges with energy, becomes sharp to the touch enough to cut something open, something like that).
So if Killer is beginning to feel trickles of emotion, like anxiety or sadness, he can grab a hold of his Soul and have it almost destroy his hand or arm before letting go. The pain would be enough to restabilize himself and continue in Stage Two.
I could see a story where Killer observes that Nightmare can manipulate his emotions by molding his Soul. When he's aware he's about to slip into Stage One, he attempts to try it on himself. It goes poorly and winds up with a wounded hand, but it does the job in forcing him back into Stage Two. It becomes a habit, whenever he feels his emotions returning to him, resulting in his hand or arm getting worse worse, to the point that the people he's with (Nightmare, Colour, whatever) try to get him to stop before the damage is permanent.
I don't usually talk about headcanons, but a smaller idea for Killer I had a while ago is that Killer can manually adjust the phase his Soul is in in a similar manner to how Nightmare can: just crush his Soul in his hand. This would be exclusive to him going from Stage One to Stage Two, though, or continuing to reinforce Stage Two in him.
That being said, its not him manipulating his Soul that is causing him to change phases, its the pain that comes from it.
It's commonly headcanoned that Killer's Soul is extremely volatile. It stores 999999 LOVE and is the container for the majority of his Determination. One way this can be interpreted is that when something touches it, it lashes out (surges with energy, becomes sharp to the touch enough to cut something open, something like that).
So if Killer is beginning to feel trickles of emotion, like anxiety or sadness, he can grab a hold of his Soul and have it almost destroy his hand or arm before letting go. The pain would be enough to restabilize himself and continue in Stage Two.
I could see a story where Killer observes that Nightmare can manipulate his emotions by molding his Soul. When he's aware he's about to slip into Stage One, he attempts to try it on himself. It goes poorly and winds up with a wounded hand, but it does the job in forcing him back into Stage Two. It becomes a habit, whenever he feels his emotions returning to him, resulting in his hand or arm getting worse worse, to the point that the people he's with (Nightmare, Colour, whatever) try to get him to stop before the damage is permanent.
I know you're all looking at me weird, but hear me out.
For a moment, let's take our understanding of timelines and alternate universes out of the UTMV fandom and look at them though the lens of our world. What is the reason we do the things we do?
Hypothetically, let's say someone adopts a dog. Why do they choose to do that? Well, let's say they always liked animals and wished for company. Why? Maybe they don't have a lot of friends outside of family. Why? Perhaps the influential figures in their life socialize them to prioritize results over relationships. Why? Could be those figures were influenced in a similar way, or even harmed from lack of results due to relationships. Why? The idea goes on.
Everything this person knows: their experiences, memories, habits, genetics, etc. influences the way they work, and those factors are also swayed by other people, as humanity is a social species. Those other people are also influenced the same way, with different experiences and genetics. Nowhere in your "code" leaves room for an alternative outcome, no matter how much thought goes into making decisions. There's one pathway, whether you like it or not. There's only one timeline.
But there is a way to change that. Two ways, technically.
Since decisions and actions are built off of decisions and actions made by you or the trillions of people before, the only way a "branching timeline" would exist is if there was a difference in timelines at the very beginning of time itself. But at that point, fast-forwarding to today, that world would have to be completely different. New choices were made. New people existed. Perhaps even new changes in the earth you walk on has occurred. It's an alternate universe.
The other way is if something from outside a timeline is influencing it in some way. Whether someone inside the timeline has the power to change it internally -like through loads or resets, though you could argue that since that person is influenced by the same factors above, their choices have a predetermined outcome as well- or if someone from the outside creates branches themselves, like outcodes. These branches are small changes. They're alternate timelines.
I suppose one way to think about timelines is that while your actions are certain in every way from socialization and personal imaginations, those actions do still have an effect on those in the future. Yes, there is only one timeline -you are railroaded to one story- but that doesn't take away the legitimacy and genuinity of your choices. There's only one outcome, but it hasn't been written in the stars.
Has anyone else noticed the continuity oddities with Eddsworld?
A lot of the goofy hi-jinks the gang go on can easily be explained by cartoon logic, but there are some things that don't quite... line up. Mostly in regards to character death.
This is another long one, apologies.
I get that technically the only major irreversible character death is Jon in the finale, but think about it. People die in Eddsworld all the time, especially during the Goulden Era. Some examples right off the top of my head are the Zombeh trilogy, WTFuture, and Matt Sucks.
You could argue that the Zombeh trilogy is its own isolated canon, at the end, everyone dies including Tom and Edd who realize they were bit at the end of the third episode, but in WTFuture, Future Edd goes back in time of the current timeline and lands literally seconds after Matt had his arm ripped off. This outright confirms that not only were these characters zombified and then killed, but they somehow came back as they were previously as though nothing happened.
Matt Sucks -where Matt gets turned into a vampire- has this as well, with Edd and Tom being nailed to the wall and killed in an attempt to kill Matt, who then burned alive anyway. The very next episode, everyone is alive and well, making no allusions to what had happened in the episode prior. Eddsworld: Beyond actually references this, that Matt and the sun are old enemies. He even hisses at the sun, showing fangs, as though he was a vampire. Is Matt still a vampire? But he died, didn't he? It could just be a silly "if you know you know" reference for those still going back to the older episodes and doesn't really matter all that much in the long run, which is fair. That being said...
Also in WTFuture, Matt goes back in time and becomes the ruler of everything, taking the place of every single important historical figure, basically becoming the dictator of the world and its history, (and you thought Tord was bad). Even Matt's own friends are affected by this change, praising Matt and his glorious endeavors as apposed to being mildly annoyed with him as they typically are. The next episode, everything goes back to normal. Cartoon logic. But later, in part one of Hammer and Fail, Matt mumbles this to himself:
If... if every episode is its own contained world, which is how a lot of cartoons typically allow timey-wimey plotlines like WTFuture, how would Matt remember him being ruler? Heck, even the painting of Matt as king is in Tord's room after it's established that Matt's time travel had been reversed.
Does this mean other characters can remember this kind of stuff too? Do Tom and Edd also remember every single time they've died?
There is in-canon proof that each contained episode link the each other in a variety of ways, but the beginning of every episode starts the same: the house being in one piece, and Tom, Matt, and Edd, (and Tord, I guess) being perfectly alive and well. In fact, after several episodes of the gang's house being blown up and destroyed (Zanta 2, Space Face part 2, etc.), the only time the house remains irreparable is The End part 2. So what gives?
It makes me wonder if there's someone or something that is pulling time-manipulating strings in the background to ensure these characters -and their house- remain alive, even repairing their time-travel based wrong-doings. Something along the lines of a Reset, perhaps?
It's important to remember that physical objects and sensations, like the house or damage to the characters bodies, are removed and set back to how they were, but the memories of the characters affected have stayed. Physical changes, mental stays.
At first, I thought that if this Reset thing is the responsibility of an actual person, that it'd be Tom. Considering the whole implied-possession character trait and the fact he gets beaten up the most out of the three, (Spares he gets thrown in the trash in favour of a Matt clone only for the clone to never be seen again, he gets electrocuted in Space Face 2, he gets shot in the face with a laser twice (Space Face 1 and Zanta 2), gets a full body cast in Zanta 3, etc.), the Resets would give him a better stand against everything thrown at him as well as lean into his supernatural origins. Plus, he cares about his friends, and has shown displeasure in the idea of losing them, specifically Edd, meaning the Resets might also not be exclusively selfish. But there's another character that fits the bill even more.
Take another look at the examples of continuity oddities above. Notice the character in common?
Matt.
Matt is the one (to my knowledge) most likely to make multiple references to events in previous, seemingly unrelated episodes. He is the only one shown to have kept his memory of WTFuture. Matt is still shown to be a vampire, after having died from burning and having then been seen in daylight several times later with no consequence.
Is this a coincidence? Yes, absolutely. You can even tell that Legacy makes strides to avoid this kind of confusion with the noticable lack of character "death" until The End.
Is this a fascinating coincidence nonetheless? Oh, yes, absolutely.
In other fandoms, typically you've got your die-hard canon lovers, your fan-content creators and enjoyers, and your creepypasta fanatics.
Undertale's lines for those blur substantially. What counts as a creepypasta?
This may sound like a stupid question, but think about it. Let's take Killer as an example. The plot of his story is he was hacked by a player and forced to kill everyone he loves, and eventually (possibly) turns on the player and kills them. He even has the "bleeding eye" effect to seal the deal. In almost every other fandom, they would look at that and say it would qualify as a pasta, but with Undertale's original subject matter and fourth-wall breakage, we all look at him and go "Ah, Tuesday".
I really don't think Something New qualifies as a creepypasta. But if not Something New, what about VHS? A Sans hacked by a player so they could get the Hacker's Ending, who has become angry, glitchy, vengeful, and has the ability (and desire) to trap the player in Undertale forever. Kinda similar idea -hacked character attempts revenge and probably succeed- but does VHS count as a pasta and Something New doesn't?
What about Horrortale in comparison to The Mount Ebbott Tapes? I probably don't need to explain Horrortale, when the Human leaves the Underground, the CORE fails and everyone begins to starve, but the Tapes is a similar concept: The CORE suddenly explodes from failed experiment to break the barrier, causing people to starve and lose their magic, well before Frisk falls. It's told in the format of Analog Horror, whereas Horrortale is told through a comic.
You could make a case that both Horrortale and the Tapes are pastas, but their stories are expressed very differently with varying tones. If anything, I'd even argue that Horrortale is just really dark, and not made to intentionally scare people, only build suspense.
This is just something rolling around in the back of my mind for a while now and really have no succinct answer, but I figured I'd just pitch this out to the world to see if anyone else had an answer.
I've been watching Eddsworld recently. Good show, highly recommend. I'm totally new to it, having binged it in a few days and rewatching some episodes I liked, so I don't know much about the theorist side of its fandom.
Though I probably should, since I can't help but wonder if someone has commented on this yet.
Will have more under Keep Reading cuz the images will make this a little long. Don't take this seriously, it's just for fun.
In part 2 of "The End", the last episode of the Legacy Era, I noticed this in Tord's armoury. (Apologies for low quality)
Excuse me.
For those who don't know or have never seen Eddsworld, Tord left the series years ago and came back for the finale, and he and Tom always had an ongoing rivalry.
The picture on the wall that's scratched out looks suspiciously like a Tom with eyes and shorter hair. In a uniform that looks suspiciously like Tord's comrades.
You know what's even more suspicious? The fact that Tord has the blueprints for a serum that turns people into monsters.
In PowerEdd, Tom turns into a big monster* and becomes the thing Eduardo and Edd team up to fight.
*Or at least it's implied since Tom states he never saw the monster despite screaming in agony in a cutaway, plus you can also here a distorted "Lame" just before the monster appears in the next scene. It's not in the captions, much to my annoyance, so take my word for it.
Golly gee whiz doesn't that look familiar.
Even if the photograph isn't Tom (especially since we know Tom was born without eyes), it's interesting that Tord possibly has an involvement with Tom's transformation.
Were Tord and Tom initially comrades in some government program where Tom was given the serum (and eyes)? If that's the case, is Tom leaving said program why they dislike each other? Why has the serum only triggered now, during the PowerEdd fight?
Another thing to keep in mind that just before Tom turns into the monster, he's looking up at someone or something, and says "Oh no".
Did the exposure from all the nuclear power from both Eduardo and Edd trigger the serum inside him? (Considering he gets reverted to human form when he's struck by Eduardo's nuclear beam, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case). Or did a super-villain-esque character (Tord) hide in the shadows and make Tom down the monster Grimace Shake?
And why are all the supernatural/mysterious topics always about Tom? Can't Matt have some unexplained fun every so often?
Edit: I've gone back and watched some theories, explanations, and deep dives. Tord is the Red Leader of not a government program, but a group of terrorists, and he joined it once he left the group. So while that part of the theory is a bust, glad I know for future reference. Could make a cool alternate story. Besides, I think Tom not already having the serum in his system to begin with is cooler anyway.
Yknow, there's something I've noticed in several fanworks that I have never seen brought up, explained, or in canon, and its that monsters that Nightmare has restrained with his tendrils can't use magic.
This is likely just a chain of coincidences, likely for a) exposition purposes, Nightmare has the podium and is able to lecture someone to his content, or b) rule of cool. Its really anticlimatic in a fight scene or animation where he's slamming someone against a wall over and over only for that person to just teleport away. That being said, it is something prevalent enough in the community for me to notice, so let me pitch an explanation.
Nightmare exudes an aura of negativity affecting literally the whole multiverse. If someone were to get closer to him, or, say, have their guts about to be squeezed out because of him, it would make sense for the negative aura to amplify. The closer you are, the worse it gets.
Monster magic is derived from intent and emotion, according to one of the books in Snowdin's Librarby. If a monster doesn't want to fight, their defense drops, which is why betrayal kills in Undertale are so lethal.
So if Nightmare can manipulate emotions and monster magic strength comes from the emotions their Soul feels, it would stand to reason that whatever Nightmare makes a monster feel can possibly have the effect of just shutting their magic off, or at least severely weaken it.
Technically, the same would go for Dream, too, as the whole point of betrayal kills is to befriend the monster first, though I really don't see him pulling that kind of stunt.
Shattered on the other hand...
Dust canonically has zero changes to Classic!Sans, aside from determination and the Dusttale plotline. Technically speaking, he's identical in every way, including appearance-wise.
So what happens if he exploits this fact?
This is absolutely against Dust and his character, but imagine if he was forced into it in some way. Dust has to take the place in a timeline as the Classic!Sans there to scout out for information. Bonus points if its a timeline they're on the surface just to give his misery a little zing.
On the flip side of this, what happens if a Classic has to pose as a Dust for a similar reason? Maybe to lay low or escape trouble by pretending to be a more powerful version of himself, of also to gather info on Dust's side of the multiverse, like the Nightmare Gang or something.
I could absolutely see Classic running into some trouble and then sneaking through the NG base as Dust while the latter is busy or stuck somewhere. Perhaps Dust has to steal something from a TP timeline or gain leverage on something and needs to act like Classic to do it, or even better pretend to be Classic to gain more betrayal-flavoured negativity for Nightmare.
Terrible worldbuilding concept:
A dystopian world ruled by an iron fisted human where there is this massive fear and defense against the minority but existence of(werewolf, vampire, magic user, real world minority, whatever). Anyone who is this minority hides it for the sake of survival. There are some resistances or help groups for this minority, though they've been either busted over time or have gone into hiding. The powerful human in charge enlists armies and militias to capture and kill any and all members of this race.
The plot twist is that they aren't a minority, and humans in fact do not exist. Everyone has been hiding their true lineage from each other that no one realized they were all the same race, and even the "human" leader is just this massive hypocrite who hates their own species.
Sans-centric UTMV stuff like Underverse is so funny to me cuz like. Imagine you’ve been exposed to the wonders of the multiverse, only to find out nearly every being of multiversal importance is a variant of the same guy. And it’s just some random dude. Like obviously sans has a lot more going on than he lets on but that’s the persona he presents to most people. So if you were from a normal timeline you’d most likely know sans as just “the guy who hangs around grillby’s” or “the guy who works the hot dog stand” or something along those lines. And then you see 2 copies of hot dog guy duking it out for the fate of reality. Could you imagine.
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