Remove the Main Character

An extremely hungover Gordon Freeman fails to show up for an experiment scheduled to take place at the Black Mesa Research Facility one morning. The experiment is cancelled and Freeman is fired. Luckily, when scientists go over the parameters of the experiment they uncover an alarming number of discrepancies in their data and safety procedures, and discover that the experiment was in fact a catastrophe-in-waiting - almost as though someone wanted it to go horribly wrong... Anyway, disaster averted.

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

The song "Star Trekkin'" would really need to strain for a rhyme?

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Lol!

But truthfully, a Captain Spock-led Enterprise with Scotty and his first officer Commander Mc Coy sounds like a nifty idea.

It was an honor

This is actually really interesting...

I don't think "The villain wins!" is as inevitable an outcome as people seem to think. There's always another. Mario not around? Toad's time to shine. And usually the leaning tower is going to fall whether you're there or not. If Gordon Freeman wasn't around to start the resonance cascade experiment, Gina Cross and Collette Green would've done so... And then finished it.

Final Fantasy VII: If Cloud wasn't hanging around with AVALANCHE, Barret would've remained the leader and would still have gone after Sephiroth at Tifa's urging. Without a romantic interest Aeris doesn't feel the need to protect everyone else overwhelm her common sense and never takes off from the main group. She eventually goes through a similar lifestream-induced madness as Cloud, but in doing so unlocks the secrets of the Cetra. She still needs to go to the crater to deflect Meteor so Safer Sephiroth still gets his face pounded in.

Dragon Ball: Piccolo takes over the world, but eventually is forced into fighting off alien threats to defend his turf. He becomes partially reformed after travelling to his homeworld and protecting its' people from Freeza, with Dende becoming his replacement Morality Pet.

Spider Man Movies: Green Goblin absolutely terrorizes manhatten. Eventually this crazy terrorist bringing an entire city to its knees causes the US military to get help from the one company that was developing similar weaponry... Oscorp. Using the influx of funds Norman Osborn develops his own private army and practically starts his own coup of the whole country. Harry Osborn discovers his father's mad plans, and rides out to stop him on the company's Super Prototype glider. After an epic high-speed chase battle throughout the skyscrapers of the entire city Green Goblin takes his son's girlfriend, Mary Jane, hostage on top of the brooklyn bridge and ends up getting impaled by his own vehicle.

edited 17th Oct '12 1:43:24 PM by ShirowShirow

RE: "Toad's time to shine": But the Toads always get captured too. The only two games I can think of where they weren't helpless are the All Just a Dream Super Mario Bros 2 and New Super Mario Bros Wii (though you got me on that one).

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They weren't captured in Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Bros.,but in the latter he could've done something instead of "sorry" Your Princess Is in Another Castle! and in the former they just stood around like idiots,some of them even hoarded stars.

Really? Out of my entire post that's what you comment on?

How about Yoshi? Will Yoshi do it for you? What about Goombella? Goombella is awesome.

Yoshi lives in a terrarium in my sister's house and eats grasshoppers.

You needed to know this.

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

Super Mario Bros: Luigi does it instead, gets all the fame, and soon has to face Waluigi instead of Wario in Super Luigi Land. Peach is in Daisy's position, that is, barely used. Wario becomes Luigi's partner and turns more heroic. Bowser turns good eventually outside of the rpg's, and marries Peach simply because there is no Mario. And everybody lives happily ever after. And Luigi kills Dimentio too.

Quest 64 thread

I assume in the original the ones who said she's in another castle were captured Toads that you were rescuing along the way.

In 64, they were just selfish lazy bastards, so still useless

I actually haven't played any of the Paper Mario games, so I know little of this Goombella. And the Yoshis would still be trapped in eggs in Dinosaur Land by Bowser, duh

edited 17th Oct '12 7:44:47 PM by 0dd1

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Ok then, Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door

Goombella is captured by the X-Nauts, and she spills the beans on where Frankley is. They steal the map from Frankley. TEC-XX falls in love with Goombella instead of Peach, and he forces them to open the door without Groudus knowing. Unfortunatly, Grodus finds out anyway and Shadow Queen reigns again.

As for the other partners: Koops lives in fear of his girlfriend until he finally gets the courage to break up with her. Flurrie stays in the woods, and the Punies are all in cages since the X-Nauts won. The X-Nauts hire Grubba to work for them and turn Yoshi is a hot dog. Vivian is still living a misirable life as a Shadow siren, Doopliss is run out of his church and is turned into a pig by his own prank. The Admiral is still missirable and alone. Ms. Mowz is still herself.

Also, Lumpy (side character) never strikes oil in Dry Dry Desert, rendering him poor and in debt for the rest of his life. The Don eventually kills Ishnal the Robo and his Mob take over the town, making it a little better, but there's still no hope.

Luigi goes on his adventure though, and he turns out just fine.

Well my point still stands with 64 at least.

Waita second aren't we forgetting Peach herself? Outside the main games she is usually very competent and even got her own spin-off where she rescues Mario and Luigi. Hell her getting kidnapped could even be used as a way to get inside

Now if you remove Aragorn,Gondor falls to pieces (sooner? If Tolkien wrote stuff that took place later where Gondor does fall let me know),Frodo and Co. become ringwraiths or destroyed,and Arwen just goes to the Elven Lands in the west

Well, probably with no Mario to rescue her, she'd probably figure that she's got to save herself sooner and thus...well, do...that.

Come to think of it, the Mario series doesn't even really need Mario for the most part. Maybe just when it hits the fan really hard, but everyday life? Nah.

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This should go under the games section.

It's not game specifics actually. Unless you mean Forum Games.

Quest 64 thread

Death Note: Without Light, either no one picks up the Death Note and life goes on unchanged, or someone with less exceptional intelligence picks it up; they either never use it, or do use it and get caught relatively quickly. The world doesn't really change either way.

Without L, Kira reigns mostly unopposed. Near and Mello probably don't really do anything, having not grown up with him.

Without Ryuk, the Death Note probably doesn't get dropped on Earth, and Light goes on to work alongside L as a detective (confirmed by Word of God).

Monster: Without Tenma, Johan dies at the hospital. Nina goes to live life happily with her foster parents, who are never killed.

Without Johan, Tenma just goes along with Dr. Heinemann and marries Eva. Nina turns out the same.

No Tony Stark, so Rhodes and Pepper split time as....Iron Person!

It was an honor

Haibane Renmei: Rakka's cocoon never shows up. Life continues as normal. Reki remains sinbound and either never has her day of flight, or at least takes a lot longer.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji doesn't come to Tokyo-3. Gendo has no choice but to send Rei out against Sachiel. Rei is too badly injured to defeat Sachiel, so she only stops the Angel by self-destructing in a suicide attack. NERV covers it up as her being badly injured while Gendo brings out Rei-III. Asuka is immediately called in from Germany since NERV is temporarily without a pilot. Toji is recruited early on, and Hikari might be as well. Unit-01 remains without a pilot, until, perhaps, Rei-III manages to connect with Yui-sama and pilot it, albeit with a far lower sync ratio than Shinji. Instrumentality is probably screwed, if they even get that far, since without Shinji, Kaworu probably chooses to destroy humanity.

Now And Then Here And There: -shudder-

Ano Hana: Menma never dies. Everyone is happier. It's all your fault for existing, Jintan. Except probably not really — it's too much of a change to have any idea what would happen.

Fate Stay Night: I'm just going to spoiler the whole thing, because holy crap spoilers for all routes. Shirou dies in Kiritsugu's arms. Kiritsugu dies of despair after finding no one alive in the fire and being unable to return to Ilya. Sakura either kills herself or completely gives up hope years before the Fifth Grail War. Someone else summons Saber, and a different Archer is summoned. Gilgamesh and Kirei have somewhat improved chances of victory in some circumstances. If Sakura is still alive and Zouken decides to get involved, the Shadow is less likely to be defeated, but there are too many variables to be sure. Arturia doesn't find peace in this war — she probably isn't even summoned — but she might, eventually. Ilya probably dies alone one way or another. Rin probably blames herself if Sakura dies (either during the War or by suicide beforehand), and that might give her something to wish for; of course, her hopes will be crushed if she counts on a wish from the Grail.

Serial Experiments Lain: ...

Without Tony Stark, the Iron Man armor doesn't get invented, Pepper is somebody else's secretary, and let's say that Rhodey ended up working for SHIELD because why not?

Fresh-eyed movie blog

Schindlers List: The film is just called The List and plays out basically like The Great Escape but with Jews rather than British soldiers. Spielberg is criticised for historical inaccuracy and the film tanks, despite how awesome the concept is. Quentin Tarentino later remakes it, only much more violent and with more rolling camera footage of women's feet.

Gimme yer lunch money, dweeb.

Firefly: Without Mal, Jayne whips everyone with his chain of command, and kicks River and Simon out, who are promptly captured by the Alliance.

Kamen Rider Decade: The nine Rider worlds continue along as if nothing happens.

Kamen Rider Fourze: Life at Amanogawa High School continues along until Chairman Gamou enacts his contact with the Presenters and Japan is obliterated.

edited 18th Oct '12 12:42:41 AM by Kinkajou

INT is knowing a tomato is a fruit. WIS is knowing it doesn't belong in a fruit salad. CHA is convincing people that it does.

Quest 64: Without Brian... Leo D'nardo or Flora would actually take his place. Except they'd fail cause they're far weaker and only of one or two elements max.

edited 18th Oct '12 12:54:58 AM by Hydronix

Quest 64 thread

If Captain America was never found, The Avengers would probably still be led by Iron Man. The Red Skull's plots would probably be very different as well, and I doubt Civil War would've happened.

And we never would've gotten that really cool scene in Infinity Gauntlet where Cap stands up to Thanos.

Weird in a Can (updated M-F)

Or they'd team up.

Dragon Crisis: Eriko becomes The Hero, and rescues Rose who immediately falls in love with her. The show suddenly becomes a Yuri Genre romp through Crazy Awesome dragon slaying. The aversion of Designated Protagonist Syndrome vastly improves the series.

Final Fantasy XII: Absolutely nothing changes.

Bleach: Without Ichigo, Rukia never gets injured and never gives her powers away but then discovers she's trapped in the human realm. She tries to blend in while formulating a plan and ends up befriending Chad, Ishida and Orihime as they discover their burgeoning spiritual powers. When her brother comes after her to arrest her the friends she's made are defeated one after another trying to protect her. At the limit of despair the Hougokyou inside her activates and grants her immeasurable but barely contained power. She fights off her brother, but then decides to get to the bottom of her accusation and organizes an expedition into the soul society where she is now a wanted criminal. Of course her friends decide to tag along...

edited 18th Oct '12 7:57:36 AM by ShirowShirow