The Megaplot That Wasn't

This is no mere plot retrospective. This is... a plot retrospective of some cutting room floor! I've got a megaplot in the works, as you all know, with Cardholders slated for Season 12. And that's all well and good! But before Cardholders was in my mind, I had a different concept for a megaplot. One that would have been all the way off in Season 14!

This is the story.. of the Anti-House League.

GENERAL CONCEPT

Back when the Season 11/12 setting discussion was ongoing, Sheep made a setting proposal for a concept known as The House, a strange interdimensional nexus where things and pieces were pulled in by an unknown force. This didn't get picked, and thus it sat in the pile of things that didn't happen.

Until in September 2020, I was listening to a Touhou lyric cover video while rereading old RP threads. A spark of inspiration hit - what about an evil organization that's not really evil? A large group, megaplot tier, that's actually pursuing the same general goal as the Kobbers, but also using methods they didn't approve of. And what would be a good excuse to have anyone I wanted, while also having an overarching goal that the Kobbers would support?

Why, an interdimensional trap that everyone wanted to get the hell out of! The general concept would have been that after Season 13 didn't break the House's hold on everyone (tough sell, I know), the Anti-House League would have been formed and started taking extreme methods to break free of the strange world. They would have conflicted with the Kobbers, most of them would have been good, over the course of the season a few of them would have turned out to be major villains, and we would have finished by finding the thing that held onto the House and breaking it! 

 Speaking of, it would have absolutely been collaborative - anyone could add to it if they wanted! It was very much me taking JRM's suggestion of "do a megaplot with complete freedom to add what you want". I still wanna do that someday, I'm excited for Cardholders but it'd be fun to just hurl in anything and everything I want.

I even had a few characters that I was sure I was going to use! Some of them aren't here, because I then went off and used them in Cardholders, and I'm not gonna talk about those! But let's cover the ones who I don't have a place for.

This handsome hunk is Carlos from Zero Time Dilemma. He would have been the leader of the group, genuinely wanting to work with the Kobbers but finding their methods not effective, and desperation driving him and his group to punch out of the House by any means necessary. There would have been some definite manipulation by people who wanted to keep the status quo, but I'm not sure if the entire League would have been an idea planted by the real villain, or if the League was started by him in earnest and then co-opted. Either way, definitely face turn material.

Also I picked him as the leader because I think he's hot. I didn't realize that was why at the time but. Yeah it's 'cause he's hot.

Seiran and Ringo! The duo of rabbit Touhous were what sparked this plot, right? So they would have absolutely needed to be part of it! Not much to say, but I feel like they would have been gofers who kept running all the major stuff. Stuck around a long time.

One concept I had was that a couple House "natives" would have been with the Kobbers in Season 13, then, dissatisfied, they would have joined the Anti-House League to see if that was a better way out. In mind, I had The Detective from Disco Elysium, and Jill from Strange Telephone. Both people who had been incidentally pulled into the House and were just trying to get back to their own lives and their own dimensions. Sums up the main concept behind the AHL in general.

One concept I had is that The House pulled from different dimensions, not just ZF Earth. As a result, we would have seen Game-Version Zoda in a previous context as the ZF Earth Zoda, and then The House would have dumped Anime-Version Zoda from an alternate universe into the League. Definitely one of the more malicious members, he would have stuck around a long time and been full evil the whole way through. I even had ideas for him in the final boss fight!

Shango from Final Fantasy Dimensions. He had good vibes. I liked the idea of him as a general commander who would have stuck with the bad guys - one idea I had was that in a late-game spot, the remaining evil members of the League would have backstabbed Carlos, thrown him out, and then taken over to maintain the House's dominance forever because they benefited in various ways. But mostly I just thought he had a cool design.

Twitch and Vinegar! By the time 2021 was starting, I was already wavering on the Anti-House League due to the people I mentioned The House to not really vibing with it. These two would have been explosive experts, likely faceturnable, and might even have Brawled - JRM's right when he says representing a megaplot in the Brawl is a fun concept! Regardless, I repurposed them for Mr. Hippo's Garbage Curse Event, and here they are in RP anyway.

Maki from Fire Force. Literally only because of this Chatzy joke:

MobileDraco: Then I'm not getting the pin. BI

MobileDraco: Get her in RP and I'll buy the pin.

And I would have put her in RP and Draco would have to go back and buy the pin.

The Heart of the House, a massive, self-sustaining machine that was the entire heart of the House, both bringing things in and keeping them sealed there. Hidden in a tiny, utterly empty pocket dimension, it would have taken a long time to both find a way into said dimension, and make a way in - one idea I had was that the only entrance was hidden in the endless, unchanging, and very, very durable ceiling of The House. That's why it would have taken so long to find it! Anyhow, I had a very heavy mental image of fighting it in an expanse of absolutely nothing. No gravity, no air - but also no need for air - no objects, no anything. Just the Kobbers and the Heart. Half of the fight would have been about just dealing with the strange pocket dimension, the other half dealing with the machine summoning whatever it could to stop them. 

But eventually, it would have been broken, falling out of the sky and into the land of the House. Which would have led to my concept for a final boss - like five different characters colliding over the Heart with different goals (I know Zoda and Jester Chao were among them), all falling in and merging with it to become a monstrous godbeast fusion that would have tried to declare itself The God of the House. Naturally, it would have been exploded regardless! Suck iiiit.

Anyhow! I've written off The House, since if I do propose a setting for 13/14, it'll be something different, and I think there's a point where it's too impractical to sit on something. So, I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes pick!