All Things End: Volume I Cover Picture
All Things End: Volume II Cover Picture
All Things End
is a Courage the Cowardly Dog Fanfic written by Couragefan09. Having started in 2010, it became a bit of a long-runner, and due to how long it was getting, it was decided to spit the story into two parts. Volume I ended in 2014, clocking in at a massive 144 chapters, and Volume II started shortly after. All Things End: Volume II can be found here and is still being updated.
When Courage finds out that he is going to be put down due to an incurable illness, he looks to his snide, ever witty computer for help. This sparks an unusual journey to a mountain that just might hold the key to curing him of his illness. Computer has no choice but to tag along as he is the only one with the knowledge to help Courage reach his goal, and he does so by taking command over the body of another dog using the ability he gained from the episode, 'Mega Muriel The Magnificent'.
Despite being at odds with each another, friendship slowly grows between the two of them over the course of their journey as they overcome one obstacle after another. They begin to learn more about each other and Computer's own history in particular starts to come to light.
There's plenty of heartwarming, tearjerking, humorous moments to be had. Though the story largely deals with darker themes and has a more realistic tone compared to the show, it's not devoid of humor. Everyone has some Hidden Depths and there's quite a bit of Character Development to be found.
This Fan Fic contains examples of:
- Accidental Hug: Courage does this to Computer in chapter 20. Needless to say, he is not very amused by this.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Completely averted with Computer. He even goes on a small rant about how much he hates this trope in Volume II.
- It's looking like his supposed brothers and sisters are going to play it straight though...
- And I Must Scream: Being a completely immobile yet still sentient computer is about as hellish as it might seem. Computer spent most of his life being neglected if not outright tortured by many of his owners before he came to reside in the attic.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The spider legs that sprout out of Computer's real body let him walk around when he's charged up with enough power.
- Animal Talk: While Courage does speak English, he has a habit of falling back into his gibbering dog-speak at times. Computer is able to understand him just fine because he's had more than enough time to pick up on his speech patterns, but for everyone else it fluctuates if they can understand him or not.
- And as of Volume II, both Courage and Computer get turned into a frog and squirrel respectively. Both of them lose their ability to speak English and can only make the sounds that their animals normally make.
- Ascended Extra: Computer, who is just a side character in the show, is one of the main characters, if not THE main character here.
- Berserk Button: Don't EVER hurt Muriel in front of Courage, as Rick the Axe-Crazy janitor found out.
- Computer falling for the Fear Eater's illusion of Courage being shot sends him completely over the edge, especially since that was how his old owner died.
- Big "NO!": Computer does one when he falls for an illusion of Courage being shot.
- Break the Haughty: The story in general is pretty much hellbent on breaking Computer. Though one could say he was broken long before the story even began... It is on some occasions played for laughs though. Chapters 87 through 89 are the biggest cases of it being on the more humorous side.
- British Stuffiness: Computer naturally starts out as abrasive but becomes less and less so as the story goes on. Getting a verbal beat down from his worst fear and believing that he almost caused Courage die finally knocks him down a couple of pegs. He is still very much a Deadpan Snarker though.
- Brought Down to Normal: Computer may appear to know everything, but it's less that he's omniscient and more that he has an instant, light-speed connection to the internet. While in the dog body he is completely cut off from the internet. He notably is not nearly as knowledgeable as he likes to boast, to the point of where he understands surprisingly little about the human world, and his memory is not nearly as good while he's in the dog.
- Butt-Monkey: If anything bad can happen to Computer it usually does. He's often on the receiving end of much of the slapstick humor.
- Call-Back: The story is absolutely loaded with references to other episodes such as Wrath Of The Librarian, Windmill Vandals, Remembrance Of Courage's Past, and of course the story wouldn't have been able to happen without the ability Computer gained from the episode Mega Muriel The Magnificent.
- Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them: As much as Eustace dislikes Courage, he knows how unhappy Muriel would be without him and thus doesn't want him to die from his illness. Computer and Courage practically breathe this trope as well.
- Comfort Food: Coffee more or less becomes this for Computer. It's also his Trademark Favorite Food.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Hoo boy, Computer. After making it through a troubled night hiding out in Nowhere Forest, he finally opens up to Courage. He's been through a lot and dealt with a lot of terrible people. It almost justifies his cynical attitude.
- Deadpan Snarker: Computer, of course, and Courage has his moments as well. They tend to bounce off each other a lot.
- Nina can be pretty snarky herself so all three of them are prone to snarking at each other.
- Decoy Protagonist: While Courage technically IS the main character, the story largely begins to focus on Computer the farther it goes in.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Computer says it word for word after Courage finds out about his unpleasant past.
- The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Courage's condition.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The hacking that Computer endured can be compared to rape to an uncomfortable degree.
- Doorstopper: The first volume alone is over 430,000 words long and there's no telling how big Volume II will end up being.
- The Dog Bites Back: Both of the dogs, at least at some point. Those moments usually take immense bravery and/or rage from either of them, since Courage is well, Courage, and it becomes pretty sure that Computer has a lot of traumatizing issues left unsolved.
- In fact, this is exactly why and how Computer has developed his cynical, mocking attitude almost all the time.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Courage gives Computer the nickname 'Compute' and he absolutely loathes it. As the story goes on, it pretty much becomes his unofficial name. He ends up warming up to it quite a bit too, at least to the point of where he doesn't complain about it anymore.
- Face Your Fears: Computer decides to face his worst fear in chapter 40 to overcome the Fear Eater. It ends badly.
- Fire-Forged Friends: It takes going through a LOT of deadly situations before Courage and Computer are willing to admit they're friends.
- First-Name Basis: Computer slowly but surely stops calling Courage a 'twit', to the point of where he hasn't even said it once in Volume II. It outright shocks Courage the first time he actually calls him by his name.
- Fish out of Water: For all of his smarts, Computer only has basic knowledge of how the 'flesh creature' world works. This often causes a lot of problems for him while he's in the dog body. Aside from that, all of his social abilities were self taught as a computer and so he is often left stumped by social cues that he doesn't understand. He doesn't even know how to do something as simple as eat and he immediately assumes that he's choking to death the first time he tries it.
- Friendship Moment: The story is filled with these.
- Grudging "Thank You": While Courage is always sincere when thanking Computer, this trope is the one that Computer usually invokes when thanking Courage. Well, at least before his Character Development.
- Hidden Depths: Everyone
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Computer developed his British Stuffiness-related tendencies as a means to cope with his various owners cruelty. Towards the end of Volume I, he's shown to be consciously attempting to be a nicer person but he often has a hard time breaking out of older habits. He's genuinely nice deep down but he's been a Jerkass for so long that he doesn't really know how to act any different anymore. He also has a very difficult time trusting people and isn't inclined to treat them any better than how he perceives them to treat him.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Courage suffers from a fictional illness that runs on Rule of Drama.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Computer shows this plenty throughout the story as he becomes more empathetic towards Courage. Eustace is also shown to be one to a lesser extent.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: In volume I, chapter 65's title is exactly this, fittingly.
- I Know What You Fear: Courage and Computer encounter a monster that takes on the appearance of your worst fear. Courage sees Muriel telling him she doesn't want him anymore Computer sees 'Him', a man who hacked into his system and tortured him for months on end. The illusion of 'Him' picks apart all of his perceived flaws and ultimately mocks him in a fashion similar to how he himself mocks other people. It pretends to kill Courage to take advantage of his guilt and it almost manages to beat him because of it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A lot of bad things that happen to Computer are usually this, due to his arrogance and cynicism. He often believes that the cruel torture from 'him' that ruined his system and mental state is this as well, for treating his past owners badly. It helps a lot that 'he' had convinced it to the machine, as a part of his mind games.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: In chapter 80 it was reveled that Muriel original wanted to have children but Eustace was unable to give her any.
- Lethal Chef: It becomes a running gag with Computer. He has next to no idea how food works and doesn't find something like swapping out ketchup for hot sauce to be a big deal...
- Love Redeems: Eustace to Muriel, Computer to Courage.
- Magical Computer: Computer is obviously supernatural to some extent. Aside from being sentient, he can hijack organic bodies, hack into anything with so little effort that it probably couldn't even be called hacking, and apparently isn't even tied to his components as all of them were replaced at one point and yet he still exists within the machine.
- Misery Builds Character: Shirley claims this in chapter 90.
- Mood Whiplash: The story often jumps between being depressing, heartwarming, and even humorous. Volume II is notable for the fact that it is largely a lot more upbeat than Volume I was.
- Must Have Caffeine: Computer becomes all but addicted to coffee after trying it for the first time. His addiction becomes a Running Gag throughout most of the story.
- Mysterious Past: Computer doesn't know what he is or why he came to be. He has a couple of guesses but aside from that he has no idea. As Volume I comes to an end, it seems that some things are unwittingly coming to light....
- Nightmare Sequence: Dreams are a big theme in Volume I and thus this comes into play a lot. The entire time spent in the Dream Land could even count as one.
- No Accounting for Taste: Averted, Eustace really does try to prove that he loves Muriel after she thinks that he's happy that Courage is dying.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Computer becomes the receiving end of it in the forest. From Courage, of all characters. It becomes one of the most traumatizing moments for him, and the nightmares and guilt from it torment him even further, in the future.
- No Name Given: Computer is just called Computer and Courage never thinks to question it. He does eventually ask him what his name is but he doesn't actually have one. After a bit of Character Development, Computer decides that he does want a name but neither he nor Courage can figure out a suitable one for him.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Computer says it almost word for word after finally overcoming his worst fear.
- Odd Friendship: For all of his Jerkass and Deadpan Snarker tendencies, Computer really does want to help Courage and the two do inadvertently become friends.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Courage is often shocked whenever Computer treats him nicer then usual. And Computer's complete mental breakdown in both the forest and Dreamworld ends up stunning him as well.
- Pet the Dog: Eustace gets this when he realizes Muriel's sadness over Courage's illness.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Computer teases Courage about a dog he met in which he responds with this. He gets his revenge on Computer later when Nina comes into the picture, playing up the same thing.
- Shipper on Deck: Courage and even Nina herself when it comes to Computer's 'relationship' with her. They mostly do it because of how horrified he is at 'flesh creature mating rituals', as he calls it. Nina doesn't actually like him though and he wants nothing to do with love.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Computer.
- Talking Appliance Sidekick: Computer, of course.
- Trauma Conga Line: Computer's Butt-Monkey status is all fun and games until you realize he's gone from being attacked by Eustace, nearly euthanized by apathetic veterinarians, almost killed by a crazy janitor, gets into a massive fight with Courage and loses, ends up being mind raped by a monster that takes on both his and Courage's worst fear, causes Courage to get so sick that he almost dies from it, gets into ANOTHER fight with Courage, starts having issues with his past, and finally goes through a crazy dream sequence that was hellbent on both humiliating him and hurting him just so he would get over his past pains. And that's not even counting Volume II...
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Exhaustion and frustration causes Courage to take a few levels very briefly. He gives Computer a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and outright attacks him. He quickly snaps out of it after a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
- Took a Level in Kindness: On the opposite side of the spectrum is Computer. As the story progresses it becomes obvious that he cares about Courage in his own roundabout way.
- Title Drop: During Chapter 130, Volume I.Computer: Oh, Courage. All things end. Nothing will ever last forever.
- Undying Loyalty: Courage's loyalty to Muriel knows no bounds. It gets to a point where he's less afraid of his own impending doom and is more angry with himself for making Muriel worry about him.
- As they become closer and closer, Computer's loyalty to Courage really begins to shine through. He's more than willing to make sacrifices for his sake and wants nothing more than for him to be happy.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Things eventually evolve into this between Courage and Computer.
- Wham Episode: The entire fan fic could be seen as a wham episode to the show. Story wise, there's usually a wham episode every ten to twenty chapters or so.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: Several chapters deal with a Fear Eater, a creature that takes on your deepest, darkest fear. Both Courage and Computer temporarily fall for it's illusion.
- Worth Living For: As the story goes on, Computer slowly but surely comes to realize that he has something worth living for in Courage and Nina.
