Plot summary
Hey there. I've placed the Plot Summary in its own page over here.
Plot Analysis
......
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
*Smashes face into desk over and over again*
This... was easily the dryest time I've ever had with plot stuff. I mean... here. It all boils down to this pattern:
1. Enemy blocks a path/causes the Dark World to appear/uses an evil machine/kidnaps someone (or some combination of the three)
2. Questers deal with it well/okay/poorly/horribly and someone else deals with it for them
3. The end of the mission happens and Sky/Coop/Panzer/Klumsy/all the Questers are punished while the others get some sweet rewards.
There's little else to say. This pattern repeats unendingly, with few differences occurring. The enemy, or enemies as it were, are Dracula, Bowser, and Ganondorf, but these three are like Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic games--repeatedly fighting the Questers and failing, and instead of changing their act, they just get progressively more desperate and pathetic in their attempts.
This just continues over and over and over and over again. All that's left to note is the bizarre amount of 4th-wall breaking, where every website event gets 'logged.' Why, the website being down even becomes a reason for a mission existing! Not to mention the allusions to the IRC +m mode with all the 'muting' early on. On another note, so many Questers join as to drive me insane--and even odder, only about 1/3 of them actually stick around. There's also a handful of missions where Questers vanish/are punished/go nuts to space it out, but those are sadly few in number.
The only other notes are... the beginning and the end. In the beginning, there was some sort of interesting idea that the Stadium itself was under threat, but the enemies apparently didn't get the memo. Besides about four attempts, it took them the ENTIRE SEASON to actually mount a full attack. Even then, only Dr. Wily has the intelligence to bother--before he got involved, Ganondorf, Bowser, and Dracula were more interested in ruining Rapland, flying UFOs over HQ for no reason, selling evil couches, blocking pipes, and kidnapping people for no real reason.
In the end, even then, the enemies only seem to win because of a freak hit causing Dr. Wily's saucer to blow everything up. Since as we saw earlier, Dr. Wily himself wasn't too hot. At least, when pitted against MavHunt AND Questers. Oh, and the Slytock helped. Wait... why didn't the Couch virus finish them off first? ...Ah, don't even bother asking. Weird plot holes like that never get resolved here.
Besides that, I see that this was pretty much an episode of Groundhog day, played over and over again. Without the inter-Quester interaction, it'd have been completely intolerable--while the GMing never once went to insanity-land quite like I would... it was often boring due to the uniform plot expose` style, not to mention the lack of variety in events.
I wish I had more to say, but unfortunately, when it gets this stupefyingly repetitive, I don't really have much to say. I used to put this season on a pillar and claim it as the 'best', but now I see that few chapters really have any texture at all, sans maybe 38 and the one with the Nidoking. It's not... 'bad' as in 'an idiot made this'... ...just really dry, like a piece of bread left out to be turned to dust. But still moist enough that it's really, REALLY chewy... and scrapes the inside of your mouth.
The kind you know that it's time to toast it more or toast it less, and stop creating styrofoam abomination bread. Either it should have went all the way and given up on trying to be 'new' or tried more new things; instead the most exciting event is new devices made by Professor Oak. Yeah... it gets that boring in places.
Oh well. This was years ago, so I'll give it a break... in that I'll say it's worth a glance until you get sick of the middle of my plot summary, then immediately read the end. Yeah. Don't even try reading all of that. I don't know why I bothered continuing to write it after a point... >_<
Oh yeah. Skyhigh gets in trouble a lot. Just in case you didn't notice it in the actual logs. :p
Word Map (Made by Wordle)
Well, this is a new thing I'm doing now, and in this season, it adds a badly needed sense of context. It's a bit bland, but you see here...
This season revolved mostly around Wolfman and Mewtwo running the show. Within this show a number of others repeatedly showed up; Aribar, Swordblade, Panzer, Professor Oak, Bowler, Lemmy, Ness, Abe, Game n' Watch, Phantom, Demon, Simon, and Mario. They fought... the same three guys I just mentioned over and over and over and over again. In this fight, powers, smashing, speed, good, and getting things were the main focus.
That's about it. I almost forgot Mewtwo in the plot analysis; silly me. He served as Wolfman's 'bad cop' personality... so much so that I mistake him for being just a part of Wolfman himself. Blech.
Cast (In order of Appearance)
Here's hoping I don't go insane compiling THIS list...Mario - Smasher - Defeated Bowser Many Times
Bowser - Smasher/Villain - Defeated Many Times
Parakarry - Mail Carrier - From the Paper Mario Days
Master Hand - Melee Stadium Overlord - HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Klumsy Koopa - Original 5 Quester - Reformed Koopa
Luigi - Smasher - Stayed in his Brother's Shadow
Link - Smasher - Occasionally Helpful
Donkey Kong - Smasher - Usually fought in Matches
Samus - Smasher - Doesn't do much
Captain Falcon - Smasher - Gets his friends kidnapped
Ness - Smasher - Surrounded by problems
Yoshi - Smasher - Cares only for food
Kirby - Smasher - Doesn't do much either
Fox - Smasher - Helps with the CACs
Pikachu - Smasher - Need a translator here
Jigglypuff - Smasher - Ditto, also food
Wolfman - Melee Stadium Leader - The TRUE Main Character, Seemingly
Peach - Smasher - Surprisingly, is not captured
Zelda/Sheik - Smasher - Likes to kill Alys
Ice Climbers - Smasher - Why in the world was Mr. Patch lost in THEIR world?
Lakitu - Melee Stadium Staff - Presenter, Announcer, General Talking Guy
Ganondorf - Smasher - Chops Arms off, Impersonates Zio, Generally Annoying
Dr. Mario - Smasher - Hypocritical Oath
Young Link - Smasher - Doesn't Do Anything
Pichu - Smasher - Exists to be Kidnapped
Falco - Smasher - Gets revenge on Fox early on
Marth - Smasher - "Foreigner"
Roy - Smasher - "Foreigner" + Fire Sword
Mewtwo - Melee Stadium Founder - The Alpha Punisher
Mr. Game and Watch - Smasher - Item Salesman
Professor Oak - Melee Stadium Staff - Item Inventor
Canadian Yosheh - Original 5 Quester - Weird, Short-lived Quester
Panzer - Original 5 Quester - Patch Punching F-Zero Racer Reploid
Demon - Original 5 Quester - That Gargoyle Guy
Coop/Whatever - Original 5 Quester - Spends so much time breaking rules/transforming I don't know what to call him anymore
Swordblade - Quester - Adept at... many skills?
Fritz - Mushroom Guard - Thanked them
Positron - Quester - Positively Infrequent
Kiddy Kong - SSS Denizen - Unity-supporting argumentative person
Bahamut - Quester - Famous otherworldly Hunter
Game Guru - Quester - Wallpaper Man
Xath - Quester - Has a mission from a non-existent "Boss"
Kevin - Quester - Is supposedly "Big"
Lord Reid - SSS Denizen - Left out of Disgust
Shauvat - Quester - Nice Stats, Never Missions
Aribar - Quester - Superball Quester/Arm Losing Elf
Sky High - Very Dumb Quester - Why does he keep getting let back in???
Jay Resop - Quester/Lord of NC - Good at Irony Lessons
Sour Surfer - Quester - The 19th one... ...apparently 3 of them haven't been mentioned yet
Mystery Quester - Quester - Thinks Dr. Mario is a quack
Dracula - Villain - Chews Scenery By Night, Raps By Day
Bowler Dude - Quester - Just sort of mentioned out of nowhere
Simon Belmont - Melee Stadium Staff - The Uncool Captain N one
Kevin/Captain N - Stadium Ally - Not the Start Button!
Ludwig von Koopa - Koopa Kid - Sinister Jewelry Slinger
Devo - Quester - Generous and Short-lived
Nodal Whisk - Quester - Bum Who Owed Metal 100 Coins For Years
Mr. T - Quester - Pities Da foo' that left a hole between dimensions
Smasher - Quester - Most confusing name ever
Trek - Quester - Rarely Appeared
Zenno - Quester - Considers Ridley his brother
Star Wolf - Enemy - One-Time Wonder
Ridley - Enemy - Plays with Dolls
Digifanatic - Quester - Master Hand Defeater
Darken - Quester - AWOL Vampire, Useless
Shane - Quester - Who?
Dedede - Enemy - Undefeatable without Help
Raichu - Pokemon - One of the "Big Guns" in Move Trading
Mewtwo Clone - Evil Clone - Gives me a Headache
Meta Knight - Stadium Ally - Quester Saver
Maple - Witch - From Holodrum comes Temporary Help
Mr. Patch - Item 'Fixer' - Disliked by Panzer and SkyHigh
Lynk - Quester - Meh
Ely/Phantom - Quester - The Psychotic Gunreploid
Spikey - Quester - Not Another Useless One!
Ark - Quester - Meh 2
Dr. Stewart, Pico, Samurai Goroh - Falcon's 'Friends' - More Kidnapping fodder
Green - Quester - Sort of a Greenhorn
Sally - Quester - Wanted a Dragon for a Pet
Roybert - Quester - Roy wannabe
Markus - Quester - Do we really need all these Questers???
Locos Docos - Quester - Crazy Dude
Crazy Hand - Melee Stadium Underlord - Unknown Relation to Master Hand
Arcalis - Quester - Yet more Questers? Why?
Metal Man - Quester - Bone Biter
Pat VanDusen - Quester/SSS Denizen - Loses his Michael Jackson CD Collection
Croco - Enemy - Eats CDs, Steals Stuff
Nightwing - Quester - Welcome to The Quest
Zio - Quest--PSYCHE! - Short-Lived Transformer Traitor
Tornado Man - Quester Helper - Wall Jumps are Great!
Poo - Quester Ally - Skeptical of Quester Power
Kola Hawk - Quester - Hawk Eye Owner
Kazerb - Quester - Just In Time for Stealth
Name Guy - Quester Ally - Spooks people
Orange Kid - Quester Ally - HIS Suporma Machine!
Lemmy/Iggy/Idon'tcareanymorey - Quester... Doubler... Transformer... Things - Wolfman Shouldn't Have Allowed These Guys In
EvilKing - Possessed Nidoking - Almost Unstoppable
Max - Pokemon Trainer - Sort of a Bystander
Mega Boy - Quester - It's Miller Time
Bowyer - Enemy - Evil Bow of Speech Impediments
Geno - Stadium Ally - That Doll Everyone Fights Over
Megaman X, Alia, Dragoon, Lifesaver - MavHunt People - Just some Megaman X people, one time only
Setzer - Quester - Also an alcoholic MavHunt Guy
Megaman, Breakman - MavHunt/SSQ People - Don't Do Much
Dr. Wily - Alpha Villain - The REAL Brains of the Outfit
Sigma - MavHunt Villain - Lame By Comparison
Apple Kid - Stadium Ally - Shield Killer
Dr. Light - Stadium Helper - Mysteriously Missing Man
Alys Brangwin - Quester - Escaped Hologram
Mack the Repairman - Stadium Staff - Gets Beaten Up for Repairing Stuff
Adremelech - Dracula's Summoned Monster - Hard To Spell Annoyance
Gorath - Quester - Got Banned at Some Point, Nobody Wrote It Down
Munich Man - Quester - Sour's Weird Alter-Ego
Nathan Graves - Stadium Ally - Plays with Pseudo-Pokemon Cards
SSTrihan - Quester - Super Duper Few-Log-Wonder
"Link" The Goron - Quester Helper - Darunia's Son
Darunia - Sage of Hyrule - Victimized by Team Rocket???
Jessie and James - Team Rocket - Power-down Ray users
Meowth - Team Rocket - Mega-robot summoner
Ed Glukkon - Glukkon - UFO Seller
Abe - Mudokon - Anti-Factory Guy
Munch - Gabbit - Super Anti-Factory Frog Person
Scottish Koopa/Gargoyle Things - Traps - Right or Lrong, Laddie?
Wendy o'Koopa - Koopa Kid - Never Really Logged
Gibby - Quester - Shows up in time to be Blown Up
Final Notes
...Too many Questers. Seriously. I'm beginning to see the early popularity as a curse. None of them can really stand out, because there's so many of them. Also... ugh. Glad I won't have to go over this many old logs like this again. Season 2... is head and shoulders above this. This season got the game started......But it was also a repetitive borefest a lot of the time.