Being the Darker and Edgier Fan Sequel of Captain N: The Game Master, Captain SNES:The Game Masta introduces us to a Jerkass with a Heart of Gold who gets sucked into Videoland and is not sure if he's really the Chosen One versus a mysterious personification of despair who can control and manipulate fate, as well as other unscrupulous characters. What started out as a typical Damsel in Distress quest soon turns into a fight against Fate herself in the backdrop of a Crapsack World.
- Introducing the star of this Nightmare Fuel-filled show: the Sovereign of Sorrow. An Eldritch Abomination is defined as an incomprehensible and powerful entity that is known for its disregard for the established laws of the setting and the Sovereign certainly fits the bill. No one knows where she comes from as she suddenly shows up during a war between the N-Forcers led by Captain N and villains led by the enigmatic Shadow King and takes center stage as the new Big Bad. Her capabilities are shown throughout the webcomic to exceed even the strongest characters and those influenced by her are never the same again. The clues leading up to her introduction soon inform Alex that the Drab Lord is the least of his worries...
- Appearing as a female acquaintance of those she approaches with the exception of the Sinistrial, in which she appears as a person stuck in the deepest despair, obscured by a purple light and wearing Tragedy's Mask, the Sovereign of Sorrow influences those who experienced despair by making them aware of the true nature of the universe: they are characters in a video game and ''all'' their personal experiences, suffering and pain have been inflicted on them for the purpose of ''entertaining'' the players. Imagine that everything you'd ever lived for were a big lie and the pain and torment you went through happened because entities from another world wanted a story. Naturally, no one takes it very well, well except for Kefka who feels that his nihilistic worldview has been vindicated
- Not only can the Sovereign reveal the true nature of game worlds but she can also predict the future and warp reality. Not only does she know what will happen but she possesses the ability to manipulate events in order to make it come to pass. This capability also allows her to detect possible threats to her plan to wipe out Videoland and the Real World and turn them against each other. Alex wasn't joking when he said that she 'IS' fate.
- Related to the above, the Sovereign can also alter the past, mainly by filling in the blanks in previous events in the affected sprites' lives. This means that she can essentially alter the backstory for a sprite, usually with the intention of creating enough despair to push them into becoming her unwitting pawn. So far the Sovereign had already done exactly that to Lucca and Celes.
- The Sovereign of Sorrow is capable of doing all of the above while being broken up into three fragments: the Shard of Tears, Tragedy's Mask, and her physical body due to Princess Hope's sacrifice. That's right, the Sovereign is not even at her full potential and she is still capable of being the biggest threat to Videoland. Not even Giygas and Lavos can approach her level of power!
- Expanding on the above, the Sovereign is so powerful that a fragment of herself outright IGNORED the combined attack of no less than three sinistrials, godlike personifications of terror, destruction, and chaos who could singlehandedly bring Nexus the capital of Videoland to its knees. However, it would be more accurate to say that she didn't even realize that she was under attack. Even they in all their pride were forced to doubt their ability to fight her, at least directly.
- The Sovereign operating at her partial capacity is nothing compared to how she fared near the end of the Shadow War. Here, she was at her full potential and terrifying majesty. The Sovereign of Sorrow was capable of destroying entire game worlds... in seconds. SECONDS! She subjected an unknown number of worlds to dissolution and she did it by literally singing them into nothingness, stopping only when she got to the Mushroom Kingdom. The song in question is the nursery rhyme Row, Row, Row Your Boat which if examined through the context of the webcomic's themes will be given a whole new meaning. In-universe, singing the song is treated as a taboo. Even the mere mention of someone looking for the Shard of Tears was more than enough to cause the jaded Megaman to completely lose his shit.
- A bombshell is dropped on page [[url=http://www.captainsnes.com/2005/10/08/496-daos-tale-part-5/
496]] when it is revealed that the Gamemaster is the Sovereign of Sorrow's champion! What exactly this would mean for Alex is barely explained but one could easily assume that this means that he would, if inadvertently, help her destroy Videoland! - The Sovereign of Sorrow is so powerful that the best thing Captain N, the rest of the N-Forcers except Protoman, and other heroes and villains could do is engage in a Hopeless Boss Fight against her at the Palace of Power in order to leave behind a legacy of what being a hero is all about... and they started getting killed by the handfuls as soon as the Sovereign arrived. In fact, the battle was implied to have lasted only a few seconds, with even Captain N himself being named among the casualties. Princess Hope had to make a Heroic Sacrifice with a powerful spell in order to break the Sovereign into three fragments and seal them in order to end the war and bring about the Great Change. Given that the Sovereign awoke around the time Alex entered Videoland, one could say that she was inconvenienced at worse.
- While discussing the nature of Omega energy with Alex, Protoman showed a scene of Captain N dying to the Sovereign. He was exposed to a high dose Omega energy while decapitated and set on fire and was still alive enough to verbalize his pain. Naturally Alex didn't take it well.
- Imagine facing the Sovereign as one of the N-Forcers. You'd freed Videoland from Mother Brain though it cost you a friend and are currently holding the line against the Shadow King and his minions when suddenly this unknown and incomprehensibley powerful entity shows up and starts decimating each side, gaining willing converts after each battle from those who'd lost loved ones. You are then forced to watch the Sovereign destroy countless worlds, each likely containing thousands if not millions of sprites, utterly helpless to do anything. Because Captain N is no longer able to do his job, you're forced to call in another gamemaster in hopes of ending this nightmare, only to receive a cat instead. In the end, the Sovereign is only stopped not by an epic Last Stand by your era's greatest heroes and villains but by your beloved princess and the only heir to the throne sacrificing herself and bring about a new age of hardship and uncertainty. No wonder Megaman and Samus were jaded by the time they're introduced.
- Perhaps worst of all, the Sovereign of Sorrow isn't out to destroy Videoland or the Real World out of a twisted sense of amusement, neither is she motivated by revenge. She genuinely feels for the despair of everyone currently living and only wants to put them out of their misery. Given that both worlds are full of suffering and despair, her actions could be seen less like extermination and more like euthanasia.
- Though obviously not as powerful as their mistress, those Touched by the Sovereign are unpredictable and some can even be dangerous. In addition to knowing of their respective universes' true nature, those Touched by the Sovereign gain access to powers that they normally wouldn't have. Sure these new abilities typically would make sense to them or belong to their game worlds but that's not always true. From exploiting game mechanics to breaking the damage formula, these sprites are as dangerous as they come, which is best shown during Protoman's flashback. At one point, Alex encountered a sprite who can pause time.
- The Touched also gain an insight about their worlds that the unaffected are ignorant of, allowing them to bend the rules. They also become more self-aware and are no longer constrained by the roles imposed on them, possessing the ability to think laterally even when the odds are stacked against them. In other words, if what Lisa said about the purple text the Touched use is true, then they have transcended from video game characters to Videoland's version of real people!
- Since the Great Change, the number of Touched have risen, with the highest concentration being found in Nexus, the capital of Videoland, and the other sprites view then with a mixture of fear, pity, and hatred. They are thrown into prison until they are eventually sent into the aptly named Desert of Shattered Dreams to die a cold and lonely death amid spirits wishing to steal their bodies! Imagine falling into enough despair that you become a threat not only to your family and friends but to your world and having to be imprisoned before you are sentenced to die a slow and bitter death. Anything can gain the Sovereign more victims and minions, including wars and loneliness just to name a few, and given Amon's rampage through Nexus and the Earthbound War, the number of Touched is about to take a steep climb...
- Anyone can become Touched and not just faceless characters. Even major characters are vulnerable. The notable Touched introduced are:
- Squaresly's Wife: The very first Touched that is shown pre-Great Change, she unmade the world of Tetris after her husband, its mayor, was killed by the Shadow King. Though she'd only managed to kill herself, she provided a taste of the horrible conflict that will soon happen between the N-Forcers and the Sovereign.
- Roy Koopa: The first character introduced to be Touched, he shows us the capabilities of a Touched in his battle with Mario and Magus and a taste of what to come, showing an unusual sense of Genre Savvy and cunning that a normal video game character wouldn't. Though he was eventually defeated by Magus, Roy introduces what would be known as the main antagonist of the webcomic.
- Lucca: A Gadgeteer Genius who feels abandoned and unloved by her friends and Love Interest and feels a lot of stress due to a change in her parents' personalities after she went back in time to save her mother from a crippling accident through a portal that was heavily implied to be sent by the Sovereign. Now she's a ticking time bomb who once broke the damage formula in her fight with Milon and put Gato out of commission to keep her condition hidden.
- Roll: Barely getting over the self-termination of Advance, Gameboy's latest iteration, and continuously sidelined by Megaman, Roll flooded Nexus in a wave of despair after Megaman got killed by Amon. A Hope Spot occurs when Megaman resurrects as Green Megaman and manages to calm her down and neutralize the despair with a second wave of hope. However, when faced with the major problem of rebuilding Nexus' gate that Alex destroyed and preventing the Desert of Shattered Dreams from spilling in and destroying the city, Roll performs a Heroic Sacrifice to help Green Megaman to complete the task. Though Roll's ordeal is more of a Tearjerker, it illustrated for the first time a terrifying aspect of the Sovereign's capabilities: she can even corrupt robots!
- Gato: Though portrayed as a comedic sociopathic robot eager to take over the world and enslave humanity, the battle with Milon revealed a particularly devious side. Though the reason by which he got Touched is all but stated outright, Gato manages to sow seeds of doubt into Lucca about Alex's trustworthiness and his potential level of threat. Though his efforts resulted in him getting powered off and decommissioned, Gato could very well be the one who manages to turn Lucca against Alex.
- Dr. Light: Touched after Advance self-terminates, Light sets Wily up to be the vice-president of Haggar, a move that seems on the outside to be an attempt to reform the Mad Scientist. In reality, Light wanted to test him to make sure that he's still the conniving, evil genius he knows him to be, all because he can no longer trust his own judgment and knows that Wily will do whatever it takes to keep Videoland safe. Imagine wanting to make sure that your archnemesis still has a desire to do what needs to be done to safeguard Videoland because you know that you've been corrupted by an Eldritch Abomination and can no longer trust yourself. This is later proven true when Light after being pushed over the edge by Roll's Heroic Sacrifice, commissions the aid of Max Force to take down Alex, with the addendum that the Omega Energy dampeners on his weapons be disabled so that the Gamemaster can be killed off for good.
- Max Force: Provides one of if not the most tragic examples on this list. Once an All-Loving Hero with an open mind, Max often stands up for his morals yet believes that people who have made bad decisions can still be redeemed. However, a rescue mission that went wrong that was implied to have resulted in the death of his best friend, combined with being told that Captain N, the hero he looked up to, will not fight again, have turned Max into a crazed, sociopathic crusader waging a one-man war on drugs, while judging people based on a narrow-minded set of morals and unleashing an excessive amount of punishment on whoever falls short of his high standards. His fellow comrade of the Power Team, Qwirk the Tomato had been implied to had been Touched by guilt in the aforementioned tragedy.
- Rydia: A powerful summoner and heroine who was in a romantic relationship with Edge, Rydia was inadvertently exposed to the Shard of Tears by Bob. Now she has been corrupted by the Sovereign's influence yet is still lucid enough to work against her, even going far as breaking up with Edge in order to save him. Naturally she is at odds with the Drab Lord, who wants to aid the Sovereign by killing Alex. One wonders how far she'd been pushed to the breaking point after Valvalis' death at the hands of Crono, however...
- Milon: One of the perfect examples of how the Sovereign can turn anyone into a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. One of Rydia's summons, Milon is a Butt-Monkey who is unwanted by the rest of his team and is considered worthless by his enemies. Before revealing that he's been Touched, he managed to knock out nearly the entire band of heroes who tried to banish him all at once, though he had trouble with Frog and his Masamune before the latter was taken out by a Touched Lucca. Afterwards, a battle ensured where Milon demonstrated his ability to manipulate the game mechanics to his advantage before be was eventually defeated by Palom and a now conscious Frog.
- Celes: Forced to protect a little girl who has the Shard of Tears from a revitalized Kekfa, she was caught in a wave of despair when the object activated and became Touched upon remembering a past misdeed she committed or at least it only happened due to the Sovereign filling in the blanks of her past. Forced to save the girl from Kefka as well as Locke, who she'd just married hours ago by teleporting them to a different world, Celes was forced to leave for the Omega Zone, knowing that she will never experience happiness again. Talk about a Tearjerker!
- On a side note, Cyan, Edgar, and Sabin were also caught in the blast of the Shard of Tears. Based on what they said after the event, one gets the feeling that they too would soon succumb to the taint with no way to stop it...
- After this event, which was implied to have happened as soon as the Sovereign awoke, making it her first act of despair since the destruction of the Palace of Power, Dr. Light classified it as a Category 7 Event. What does this means? Oh, just the fact that Every single inhabitant of Ruin is Touched! Best case scenario: they end up destroying their one world, ridding all of Videoland of this threat. Worst case: the Sovereign of Sorrow now has a veritable horde of followers ready to spill out of portals Dr. Light couldn't locate and shut down to spread despair to the rest of Videoland...
- Lisa: Originally the lover of one of Alex's characters, Lisa becomes aware of her world's true nature when the Sovereign in the guise of her mother asks her about her past. Forced to confront not only the shallowness of her own existence and the fact that her lover is nothing more that a poor imitation of the Alex she loved, a Touched Lisa murders him as well as Alex's other characters before ending up in Nexus' prison. There, she encounters Alex himself and proceeds to pause time, trapping them both within the eternity of a second in order to be with him forever. When he realized that it was a trap set up by the Sovereign and rebuts her advances, Lisa concludes that she is just as insignificant as the imitations she'd killed and tries to commit suicide! Thankfully, Alex saved her in the nick of time.
- The Drab Lord/Edward/Spoony: Despised by Alex in the game to the point of being killed first so that the other characters can get his share of XP, Edward would've had enough reason to hate him already had he been aware of his existence sooner. However, after suffering the death of his lover, he became Touched by the Sovereign who revealed that he is just a video game character and all of his suffering and pain happened as entertainment for players in the Real World. Naturally, he doesn't take it well. Perhaps the only Touched character who is completely invested in the destruction of the Real World, Edward has self-proclaimed himself the Sovereign's knight and proven willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, including among other things attempting to kill Alex with a crap-ton of bombs that wiped out Castle Baron and the surrounding town! Is it any wonder he is Alex's second most dangerous enemy in the webcomic to date?
- Rosa: Touched when she entered Edward's mind after his own revelation at the Sovereign's hand and led astray by the Drab Lord's deception, she became convinced that Cecil was Touched and wanted to kill him in order to save him from the Sovereign's influence. Fortunately, she got knocked out by a treasure chest.
- Kefka: The most terrifying subversion to ever exist in this webcomic. Imagine a killer clown with a nihilistic outlook whose views had just been proven right by the Sovereign's influence and wishes to use this newfound revelation to destroy other worlds. This isn't a powerful Touched whose mind is so clouded with despair that they want to end Videoland's existence as well as their own, this is a powerful psychopath who wants to destroy entire worlds just for giggles, working on his own volition to make it happen. Had Celes not intervened, he would've done so by using a little girl who holds the Shard of Tears as the means.
- The aptly-named Desert of Shattered Dreams is one for the denizens of Videoland as well as Alex himself. A barren Eldritch Location that rejects any reality Videoland tries to impose on it and replace it with its own, the Desert is actually said to not be a part of Videoland, making it basically a self-contained universe. It skews Videoland's normal 2D perspective into 2.5D, renders 1-ups and hit points unusable, and can subject even gods to a cold and lonely death as Amon, Sinistrial of Chaos found out the hard way. It is inhabited not only by giant worms but restless spirits who seek to end their own suffering by taking the souls and bodies of those who get lost in the Desert. So mine-screwy is its geography that in order to even leave, one had to focus on whatever goal they wish to reach. Given that not many people know that, the Desert continues to claim more victims, especially the thousands of Touched the city of Nexus sends in to die. In fact, even Alex almost fell victim to the Desert when he first entered. Even worse, the Desert of Shattered Dreams is capable of spreading to Videoland, having been held at bay by Nexus' gate until Alex foolishly destroyed it when he tried to enter the city, which eventually led to Roll sacrificing her own life to reseal.
- In Protoman's flashback, the city of Tetris was disintegrating into the Desert after its mayor's wife unmade it while under the Sovereign's influence. Given that Alex found the Palace of Power's sign in the Desert, which was also destroyed when the Sovereign of Sorrow faced off against Captain N's Last Stand, it could easily be concluded that the Desert of Shattered Dreams is actually the detritus of thousands if not millions of destroyed game worlds!
- The Puzzle Wizard, despite behaving like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, proves that just because a villain is silly doesn't mean they're not dangerous. You know those Tetris blocks that comprise of the floor, walls, and ceiling of his lair? They’re actually presumably thousands of people who were turned into these blocks, fully conscious of their surroundings and unable to even scream. The very first ones could; however, and Puzzle Wizard simply buried them underneath the others so that he won't have to hear them! No wonder Alex really wanted to kill him!
- Shortly after Alex defeats the Puzzle Wizard and frees Marle, he wanted to rescue the other victims as well. However, Bob reasoned that, given that they have been in such a state for a long time, they may be too far gone to function normally ever again. Had Alex had not defeated the Puzzle Wizard and freed Marle, they both would've ended up as the latest of his victims and never be seen again.
- While Eggplant Wizard is even more silly than the Puzzle Wizard, his method of immortality is quite grim. Trapping the crew of the Argos in some sort of stasis inside huge eggplants, each time he dies Eggplant Wizard takes over one of those bodies and ''remakes it into his own image.''. Meanwhile, the previous body as well as its inhabitant dies in his place. Like a Videoland version of Lucius the Eternal, Eggplant Wizard happily goes about his way while the owner of his current body is forced to be a prisoner in a body that's no longer theirs while listening to his lame puns. Is it any wonder the current victim forcibly reasserts control of their own body?
- The aforementioned victim gets a mention here. Not only do they manage to take back their body but prove to be much more competent and dangerous, wanting nothing more than to kill Golbez for the destruction of Mount Olympus. It is heavily implied that whoever this is has a history with Samus and Megaman, two members of the N-Forcers. Oh yeah, they're Touched.
- Monkeyspank is a powerful and competent, sentient computer virus who wants nothing more than to destroy all of reality and slay the Gamemaster. His origin remains unknown but he is no doubt very dangerous. Based on Alex's remark on wishing that Eggplant Wizard has been in control of the defense of the Lunarian moon, it is implied that Monkeyspank gave one hell of a resistance.
