''The Silver Coin Saloon''
is a Little House on the Prairie fanfiction by theplaywrite, set in an alternate set of events caused by the existence of the title saloon in the town of Walnut Grove.
When the dry town of Walnut Grove gets its very own saloon, the residents are outraged and fear what trouble the Silver Coin might bring. And they are right to worry, when the boys in town get comfortable with the saloon's amenities and soon find themselves in a firestorm of gambling, drugs and debt.
Tropes:
- Becoming the Mask: Sarah,a saloon girl who often interacts with the boys when they sneak into the saloon, admits to being nice to them to encourage them to frequent the saloon, especially Andy, when she sees that he likes her, but winds up developing feelings for him too.
- Bittersweet Ending: The saloon is destroyed in a fire started by Charles in a fit of rage, and nobody gets hurt, and Willie and Andy manage to see the errors of their visits to the place before it's too late for them. But Charles spent three years in prison, the family is in debt for the saloon fire, and while Albert saw the errors of his actions, he's still addicted to morphine by the end, though he decides to stay in town instead of running away and make efforts to go clean and restart his life.
- Functional Addict: Despite being addicted to morphine, Albert still keeps up with good enough grades and manages to pass the exam for a medical scholarship, which will make him closer to his dreams of becoming a doctor. Unfortunately, his addiction makes him indebted with the morphine guy and leads him to pawn the books for the scholarship, and by the end, he's still been taking morphine after spending three years helping provide for the family while Charles was in prison.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Charles expresses no remorse for setting the saloon on fire, given what its presence had caused to his son and family.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite never moving to Burr Oak, where he was introduced to morphine and got addicted, Albert still becomes involved with the drug thanks to one of the patrons introducing it to the boys, and Albert taking a liking to it.
- Adam still recovers his sight, despite the circumstances that led to the freak accident never happening (getting braille books for the new blind school in Sleepy Eye, only to stumble into a crate of bllasting oil, and the resulting explosion undoing the compression that caused his blidness). It's never explained, but presumably a similar accident happened offscreen.
- Irony: The saloon is seen as a source of doom for the town, implied to attract gamblers, drunkards and other sources of trouble. As described below, its presence prevented one of the worst tragedies ever to happen in Walnut Grove. For extra irony, the same fate it prevented the blind school is how it finds its end, as it burns to the ground when an enraged Charles starts a fire in the place after learning that Albert not only frequented the place for a year and got involved with gambling, but got additcted to morphine thanks to one of the patrons introducing him to the drug.
- Knight Templar Parent: Charles is justifiably furious at the saloon for getting his son involved with gambling and drinking and introducing him to morphine to the point of making him addicted, but starting a fire to destroy the place while there are people inside is a bit much!
- Point of Divergence: The presence of the saloon makes signficant changes in the course of the events all the way from Season 6 to 9:
- Because of Albert's involvement with the saloon, he never sneaks into the blind school to smoke a pipe with another kid, so the school is never burned. As a result, Alice Garvey (and presumably Adam Jr, though he's never mentioned) are still alive by the end, and instead of marrying in Sleepy Eye, Laura and Almanzo have their ceremony in Walnut Grove, right in front of the blind school, with more family members present, including Laura's uncles and aunts and Almanzo's brother Royal as best man.
- Jonathan and Andy never move to Sleepy Eye, though they occasionally do business there.
- James and Cassandra are unmentioned throughout the story, implying that they were never adopted by the Ingallses, assuming they weren't Adapted Out.
- Thanks to the saloon getting fire and Charles getting arrested for it, the Ingalls never move to Burr Oak, Iowa.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Thanks to the school fire never happening, Alice Garvey is still alive at the time Laura's daughter is born.
